Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer from 2016, and its visual style is deceptively demanding. Benchmark results for the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 show a title that is exceptionally responsive at standard resolutions, but the performance curve reveals a classic shift in bottleneck behavior as pixel count rises. The data set provides a clear picture of how this specific hardware combination handles the game, with average framerates ranging from just over 100 FPS at the most demanding settings to well over 400 FPS at the lightest load. This analysis breaks down the measured results to explain what the numbers indicate about the CPU, GPU, and overall system balance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a significant and predictable drop in performance as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At the "Low" settings preset, the system produces 451 FPS at 1920x1080, which falls to 355.8 FPS at 2560x1440, and then to 225.4 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 50% reduction in framerate from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is slightly less aggressive on the "High" preset, where the system drops from 247.6 FPS at 1080p to 178.1 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 110.2 FPS at 4K.

The pattern indicates that at 1080p, the game is heavily CPU-bound. The jump from 451 FPS at 1080p to 355.8 FPS at 1440p is a 95.2 FPS loss, but the subsequent drop from 1440p to 4K is a much larger 130.4 FPS loss. This suggests that the GPU begins to take on a more significant role as the pixel count increases, but the CPU is still able to feed it frames efficiently. The 4K results, particularly at the "High" and "Ultra" presets, show the GPU starting to hit its limits, with framerates settling into the 105–110 FPS range. The data implies that for high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p displays, the system has ample headroom, while 4K gaming still delivers a very smooth experience but with less margin for extreme refresh rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost clock of 2512 MHz. In the context of Inside, the VRAM is not a limiting factor, as the game's art style and geometry are not memory-intensive. The GPU's role becomes evident primarily in the resolution scaling, where the shading and pixel fill rates are stressed.

The GPU's raw compute, measured at 30.87 TFLOPS for FP32 operations, is more than sufficient for this title. The benchmark data shows that the "Ultra" preset at 4K produces 105.4 FPS, while the "Low" preset at the same resolution produces 225.4 FPS. This substantial difference of 120 FPS between presets highlights how the GPU's workload is directly tied to the quality settings. The GPU's performance percentile of 83 places it above the majority of other GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 41687 is within 0.6% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, a notable comparison point. This indicates that the 5070 is a high-end part, and its performance in this game aligns with that positioning, delivering high framerates even at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for settings presets, with the primary trade-off being between visual fidelity and framerate headroom. At 4K, the "High" preset yields 110.2 FPS, which is a very playable framerate. Moving to "Ultra" drops the average to 105.4 FPS, a marginal 4.8 FPS difference that may not be visually significant in a game like this. However, the "Medium" preset at 177 FPS offers a much larger performance buffer.

At 1440p, the "High" preset achieves 178.1 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The "Ultra" preset at 169.5 FPS is also excellent. The "Low" preset at this resolution produces 355.8 FPS, which is far beyond the refresh rate of most displays. The data suggests that the "High" preset offers the best balance of image quality and performance across all resolutions. The difference between "High" and "Ultra" is consistently small, ranging from a 4.8 FPS drop at 4K to a 8.6 FPS drop at 1080p, while the jump from "Medium" to "High" often provides a more noticeable visual uplift for a relatively small performance cost.

FAQ

Q: What is the average framerate at 4K with the Ultra preset?

A: The measured average framerate at 3840x2160 with the Ultra settings preset is 105.4 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 451 FPS, which is 212 FPS higher than the Ultra preset's 239 FPS.

Q: Is the game CPU-bound or GPU-bound at 1440p?

A: The data shows a significant drop of 177.7 FPS between the Low preset (355.8 FPS) and the Ultra preset (169.5 FPS) at 2560x1440, indicating that the GPU is a primary factor in the performance difference at this resolution.

Q: What is the performance difference between the High and Medium presets at 4K?

A: The High preset at 3840x2160 produces 110.2 FPS, while the Medium preset produces 177 FPS, making the Medium preset 66.8 FPS faster.

Q: Where does this system rank among all tested hardware combos for this game?

A: This CPU and GPU combination is ranked 122 out of 1671 total combinations in the benchmark database.

Q: Can this system achieve over 200 FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes, the measured data shows the Low preset at 2560x1440 produces an average of 355.8 FPS, and the Medium preset achieves 282.6 FPS, both exceeding 200 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. It features 30 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus. In this game, the CPU's role is mostly about maintaining high minimum framerates and ensuring the GPU is never starved of data. The benchmark results at 1080p, where the CPU is typically the limiting factor, show exceptional performance.

The "Low" preset at 1080p yields 451 FPS, which is a strong indicator of the CPU's ability to process game logic and draw calls quickly. The processor's PassMark single-thread score of 4904 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7060 suggest strong per-core performance, which is critical for game engines that rely on a few primary threads. The CPU's performance percentile of 97 places it in the top 3% of all processors. Its average benchmark score of 79102 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i9-14900K, which has a score of 79824, representing a 0.9% difference. This similarity in compute power explains why the system can push such high framerates at lower resolutions, as the CPU's capabilities are not a bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured average framerates for the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is as follows.

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 451 FPS on Low, 398 FPS on Medium, 247.6 FPS on High, and 239 FPS on Ultra. The difference between Low and Medium is 53 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is only 8.6 FPS, showing a plateau in GPU load at the highest presets.

At 2560x1440, the framerates are 355.8 FPS on Low, 282.6 FPS on Medium, 178.1 FPS on High, and 169.5 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p results in a performance loss of 95.2 FPS on Low, 115.4 FPS on Medium, 69.5 FPS on High, and 69.5 FPS on Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the system produces 225.4 FPS on Low, 177 FPS on Medium, 110.2 FPS on High, and 105.4 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a loss of 130.4 FPS on Low, 105.6 FPS on Medium, 67.9 FPS on High, and 64.1 FPS on Ultra. This data confirms that the "High" preset is the most scalable option, offering a consistent 110-248 FPS range from 4K down to 1080p.