Inside

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti secures the 522nd position out of 3,716 tested combos in Inside. This places the configuration comfortably within the top 14% of all systems benchmarked for this title, a strong showing for a puzzle-platformer that does not heavily tax modern hardware. The ranking reflects a combination that is well above average, though not at the extreme top end, which is occupied by newer, higher-tier GPUs.

The CPU itself is a formidable component in the broader context. Its average benchmark score of 70,879 places it in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, indicating that the processor is not a bottleneck in this pairing. The nearest rivals in CPU performance are the Intel Xeon 6511P (avg score 71,051, a -0.2% difference) and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (avg score 71,370, a -0.7% difference), showing that the 265K sits in a tightly contested performance tier. It is also 1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and 1.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F in average score.

The GPU, while not at the top of its class, is also a capable performer. The RTX 3080 Ti's average benchmark score of 41,187 puts it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. Its closest competitors are the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (avg score 40,870, a 0.8% difference) and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB (avg score 41,707, a -1.2% difference), which shows the 3080 Ti is surrounded by a mix of professional and older datacenter cards. The data confirms that this combo’s rank is driven by a balanced partnership where both the CPU and GPU contribute significant, but not maximal, performance headroom.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the primary driver of frame generation in Inside. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 912.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth, which is ample for this game's art style and moderate texture sizes. The memory clock runs at 19 Gbps effective, and the GPU has a base clock of 1365 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz. These clocks, combined with the 10,240 shading units, allow the card to process the game's 2D silhouetted environments with ease.

The GPU's performance metrics are strong. It delivers 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a texture rate of 532.8 GTexel/s, with a pixel rate of 186.5 GPixel/s. These figures explain why the card can push very high frame rates even at 4K. The architecture is Ampere, built on Samsung's 8 nm process with 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die. While the GPU is marked as end-of-life, its benchmark data shows it remains relevant. In the Passmark G3D test, it scores 26,896, and in Geekbench Vulkan it achieves 192,697, indicating robust DirectX 12 and Vulkan performance, which are the key APIs for Inside (DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4).

The role of the GPU in this combo is to provide the raw throughput necessary for high-refresh-rate gaming. The data shows that the GPU is never the limiting factor in this pairing; instead, it consistently delivers frame rates that are far above the 60 FPS threshold, even at maximum settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a classic scaling pattern as resolution increases, but with an interesting twist: the GPU is so powerful that it maintains playable frame rates even at 4K. Moving from 1080p to 1440p to 2160p shows a predictable decline in average FPS, but the magnitude of the drop is heavily influenced by the settings preset.

At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 451 FPS at 1080p to 329 FPS at 1440p, a 27% reduction, and then to 206 FPS at 4K, a further 37% reduction from the 1440p figure. This scaling suggests that at lower settings, the workload is becoming more GPU-bound as resolution increases, but the absolute numbers remain exceptionally high. At Medium settings, the drop is from 366 FPS at 1080p to 263 FPS at 1440p and 165 FPS at 4K. The pattern is consistent.

At High settings, the frame rates scale from 228 FPS (1080p) to 164 FPS (1440p) and 103 FPS (4K). The 4K result is still well above 60 FPS, showing that the GPU has significant headroom. The Ultra preset shows a similar trend: 218 FPS at 1080p, 156 FPS at 1440p, and 98 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Ultra shows a 37% drop, which is the largest relative decrease, indicating that the game is becoming more dependent on the GPU's raw fill rate and memory bandwidth at higher resolutions and settings.

The limiting component shifts as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU's strong single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,020) is sufficient to feed the GPU, allowing it to hit very high frame rates. At 4K, the GPU's pixel throughput is the primary constraint, as evidenced by the significant FPS drops. This combo is balanced, but at 4K Ultra, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, while at 1080p Low, the CPU's performance is more critical to achieving those extreme frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark results provide a comprehensive look at performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. All data is measured, and the average FPS figures are as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: Average 451 FPS. This is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo, indicating a scenario where the GPU is almost idle and the CPU's single-core performance is the primary driver.
• Medium: Average 366 FPS, with a minimum of 311 and a maximum of 420 FPS. The tight range suggests consistent frame pacing.
• High: Average 228 FPS. This is a substantial drop from Medium, showing that the High preset introduces a significant increase in shader complexity.
• Ultra: Average 218 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal (only 10 FPS), suggesting that the Ultra preset in Inside does not add a large amount of additional GPU load at this resolution.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average 329 FPS. This is still an extremely high frame rate, well beyond the refresh rate of most monitors.
• Medium: Average 263 FPS, with a minimum of 223 and a maximum of 302 FPS. The frame time variance is slightly higher than at 1080p.
• High: Average 164 FPS. This is a 28% drop from the 1080p High result, showing the increased resolution's impact.
• Ultra: Average 156 FPS. This is only 8 FPS lower than High, maintaining the pattern seen at 1080p.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: Average 206 FPS. This is the first result that drops below the 300 FPS mark, but it is still exceptionally smooth.
• Medium: Average 165 FPS, with a minimum of 140 and a maximum of 190 FPS. The minimum FPS here is still above the 144Hz refresh rate for many displays.
• High: Average 103 FPS. This is the first result that approaches the 100 FPS threshold, but it remains comfortably playable.
• Ultra: Average 98 FPS. This is the most demanding scenario, and the average FPS just misses the 100 FPS mark. The data shows that even at 4K Ultra, the combo achieves nearly 100 FPS, which reflects the RTX 3080 Ti's capabilities.

The data shows a clear hierarchy: at any given resolution, Low is the fastest, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra being the slowest. The gap between Low and Medium is large (e.g., 85 FPS at 1080p), while the gap between High and Ultra is small (e.g., 10 FPS at 1080p and 5 FPS at 4K). This suggests that the High preset is the sweet spot for this game, offering most of the visual fidelity with a minimal performance penalty compared to Ultra.

FAQ

*Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU and GPU combo in Inside?*

A: The combo ranks 522nd out of 3,716 tested combinations, placing it in the top 14% of all systems benchmarked for this game.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 41,187. It is 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 and 2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070. It trails the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB by -1.2% and the NVIDIA Tesla M40 by -1.7%.

Q: What is the best performance result for this combo at 1080p?

A: The best result at 1080p is achieved with the Low settings preset, where the average frame rate is 451 FPS. The Medium preset delivers 366 FPS, High delivers 228 FPS, and Ultra delivers 218 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: No. At 4K, the GPU is the limiting component. For example, at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 98, while at 1080p Ultra it is 218 FPS. The CPU's performance (94th percentile) is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking, even at lower resolutions.

Q: How much of a performance drop is there from 1440p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 164 FPS at 1440p to 103 FPS at 4K. This represents a 37% reduction in frame rate.

Q: What is the CPU's single-core performance relative to its multi-core performance?

A: The CPU scores 2,020 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 35,850 in multi-core. This indicates a strong single-thread capability that is beneficial for games, while the multi-core score shows it can also handle heavy productivity workloads.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K plays a supporting, but critical, role in this combo. With 20 cores and 20 threads, it provides ample parallel processing power, but for Inside, the single-thread performance is more relevant. The CPU's base clock is 3.90 GHz, and it can boost up to 5.50 GHz, which is a significant advantage for the game's physics and logic updates. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,020 and the Geekbench single-core score of 2,713 confirm that this processor is excellent at handling the primary game thread.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are also robust, as shown by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35,850 and a Passmark multithread score of 58,594. This means that even if Inside were to utilize more threads, the 265K would not struggle. The processor's large 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for game performance. The memory bandwidth is 102.4 GB/s, which is sufficient for feeding the GPU with data.

In the context of this game, the CPU is never the bottleneck. The measured FPS data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the CPU has the most influence, the frame rate is 451 FPS. This suggests that the CPU's high boost clock and strong IPC are more than enough to keep up with the GPU's demands. The CPU's average benchmark score places it in the 94th percentile, and its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon 6511P, is only -0.2% different, indicating that the 265K is at the upper echelon of desktop processors. The CPU's role is to provide a stable, high-frequency foundation that allows the RTX 3080 Ti to operate at its full potential, which it does admirably.