Inside

Inside is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer with a deliberately restrained visual style, yet the benchmark data for the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 reveals a surprisingly wide performance envelope. The measured results show a system that is perfectly capable at standard high-definition resolutions but begins to strain as pixel counts climb, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data to explain exactly where this combo excels, where it struggles, and which settings provide the optimal experience.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable decline as resolution increases, moving from 1920x1080 up to 3840x2160. At the High preset, the average frame rate drops from 68 FPS at 1080p to 49 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 19 frames. The scaling continues aggressively to 4K, where the average falls to just 31 FPS. This trajectory indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 570 is the limiting component at higher resolutions, as the demand on the GPU's pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth increases disproportionately with the number of pixels.

The pattern is consistent across all settings presets. With the Low preset, the system achieves 135 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 97 FPS at 1440p and further to 61 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset shows a similar curve, going from 108 FPS at 1080p to 78 FPS at 1440p and 49 FPS at 4K. The fact that even the Lightweight Low preset cannot maintain 60 FPS at 4K, averaging 61 FPS, strongly suggests that the RX 570's 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated, rather than the CPU being unable to feed the frames.

The gap between 1080p and 1440p is proportionally larger than the gap between 1440p and 4K in some instances. For example, at High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 19 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 18 FPS. This relatively even scaling indicates a smooth performance curve without any sudden cliff, which points to a steady increase in GPU load rather than a specific resource exhaustion event. The data shows that 1080p is the only resolution where this combo can deliver a consistently high refresh rate experience, while 1440p is the practical ceiling for playable frame rates with the High preset.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual fidelity and performance for this specific hardware combination. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 108 FPS, which is 40 frames higher than the High preset's 68 FPS and 44 frames higher than the Ultra preset's 64 FPS. The Medium preset also provides measured minimum and maximum frame rates of 92 and 124 FPS respectively, indicating a stable frame pacing with no significant stuttering. This makes it the ideal choice for players who want a smooth experience without sacrificing too much in visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset remains the most viable option, producing an average of 78 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a playable experience, whereas the High preset drops to 49 FPS and the Ultra preset falls to 46 FPS)Skip. While 4K gaming is technically possible with the Low preset at 61 FPS, the visual downgrade is substantial, and the Medium preset at 49 FPS is a more balanced compromise, though it falls short of smooth gameplay standards.

The Ultra preset is consistently the worst performer, with the lowest frame rates at every resolution, including 29 FPS at 4K. The performance delta between Ultra and High is relatively small, with only a 4 FPS difference at 1080p (64 vs 68) and a 3 FPS difference at 1440p (46 vs 49), but a 2 FPS difference at 4K (29 vs 31). This suggests that the Ultra preset adds minimal visual benefit for a measurable performance cost, making it an inefficient choice. The data clearly indicates that Medium is the sweet spot, offering a significant performance boost over High and Ultra while maintaining a more demanding visual presentation than Low.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the dominant factor in this system's gaming performance. With a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz, the GPU operates at a modest frequency, but its 2048 shading units and 32 ROPs are the key architectural components that determine its output. The 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical resource for a game like Inside that features a high-contrast, monochromatic art style with dynamic lighting effects.

This memory configuration appears to be the limiting factor at 4K resolution. The data shows that the High preset achieves 31 FPS and the Ultra preset achieves 29 FPS at 3840x2160, both indicating that the GPU is struggling to keep up with the pixel throughput requirements. The Low preset at 4K, which likely reduces texture detail and shadow quality, recovers to 61 FPS, suggesting that the texture memory footprint is a primary bottleneck. The GPU's pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s are the theoretical limits that the measured results approach at higher resolutions.

The RX 570's performance percentile of 74.0 indicates it sits above the median of all tested GPUs, but it is closely matched by its nearest rivals. The RX 570 averages 28,766 in benchmark scores, which is only 0.4 percent behind the AMD Radeon RX 6800M and 0.8 percent behind the AMD Radeon RX 470. This close grouping suggests that the RX 570 is a mid-tier performer that can handle lighter titles like Inside at lower resolutions but will not excel at demanding 4K scenarios. The GPU's 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is sufficient for this game's rendering needs, but the memory bus and capacity are what ultimately cap high-resolution performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark results put this combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and AMD Radeon RX 570 at rank 3,523 out of 3,716 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the bottom 5 percent of all configurations, which is a surprising outcome given the CPU's high-end specifications. The low rank is almost entirely attributable to the GPU, as the RX 570 is an end-of-life product from 2017, while the CPU is a current-generation part from 2026. This mismatch creates a significant bottleneck that limits the overall system's gaming capability.

The CPU itself is a top-tier performer, ranking in the 96th percentile against all other CPUs with an average benchmark score of 93,785. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon 6520P, has a nearly identical score of 93,786, with a 0 percent delta, indicating that the Ultra 7 270K Plus is at the very top of the performance heap. In contrast, the GPU's 74th percentile ranking is respectable but not exceptional. The combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-tier GPU results in a system that is heavily skewed toward CPU-bound tasks, which is suboptimal for a GPU-intensive game like Inside.

The rank of 3,523 indicates that the vast majority of other tested combos, even those with older or weaker CPUs, outperform this setup because they are paired with more capable graphics cards. This is a clear case where the GPU is the limiting factor, and the data suggests that upgrading the graphics card would yield a massive improvement in the combo's rank. The CPU has ample headroom to support a much faster GPU, as evidenced by its high single-threaded and multi-threaded benchmark scores, but the current pairing leaves significant performance on the table.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. With a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, it has an extremely high single-threaded capability, which is reflected in its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,439 points. This is crucial for a game like Inside, which is a side-scroller that likely has a primary game thread that cannot be fully parallelized.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is equally impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44,253 points and a Passmark multithread score of 68,574. This places it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 93,785. However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this gaming scenario)Skip. For instance, at 1080p with the Low preset, the system achieves 135 FPS, which is a high frame rate that would stress most CPUs, yet the Ultra 7 270K Plus handles it without issue. The fact that the frame rate drops significantly at higher resolutions, regardless of settings, confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor.

The CPU's 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample fast memory for game data, and its support for DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s ensures that the CPU can feed data to the GPU without starvation. The 24 cores and 24 threads are more than sufficient for this game, which is unlikely to utilize more than a few cores effectively. The CPU's performance in Passmark physics, with a score of 4,064, indicates strong computational throughput, but the game's physics and logic are simple enough that this power is largely untapped. The data shows that the CPU is not a limiting factor at any resolution or settings preset, as the frame rates are consistently constrained by the GPU's capabilities.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for smooth gameplay?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 delivers an average of 108 FPS with minimums of 92 FPS, making it the best choice for a smooth experience. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset still provides a playable 78 FPS average.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming?

A: Yes, but only with the Low preset, which achieves an average of 61 FPS. The High and Ultra presets at 3840x2160 drop to 31 and 29 FPS respectively, which are not ideal for gameplay.

Q: Which component is the bottleneck for this game?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the clear bottleneck. The CPU is a top-tier performer, but the GPU's 4 GB of memory and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K, as shown by the significant FPS drops at that resolution.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus has an average benchmark score of 93,785, which is 0 percent different from the Intel Xeon 6520P and 1.5 percent higher than the AMD EPYC 4564P. It ranks in the 96th percentile of all CPUs.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 28,766, which is 0.4 percent lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6800M and 0.8 percent lower than the AMD Radeon RX 470. It ranks in the 74th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average of 97 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 46 FPS. This is a 51 FPS difference, indicating that the Ultra preset is significantly more demanding on the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact measured average frame rates for each resolution and settings combination.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|---|---|---|---|---|

| 3840x2160 | High | 31 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 61 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 49 | 42 | 56 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 29 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | High | 49 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 97 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 78 | 66 | 89 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 46 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | High | 68 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 135 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 108 | 92 | 124 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 64 | - | - |

The data shows that the Medium preset consistently provides the highest frame rates that include a measured minimum, indicating stable performance. At 1080p, the Medium preset's 108 FPS average is closer to the Low preset's 135 FPS than it is to the High preset's 68 FPS, demonstrating that it is a relatively efficient settings level. The Ultra preset offers only marginal gains over High in terms of visual quality, but the performance cost is significant, with a 10 FPS drop at 1080p (68 to 64) and a 3 FPS drop at 4K (31 to 29). This suggests that players should avoid the Ultra preset. The Low preset at 1440p is the only way to achieve a triple-digit frame rate at that resolution, but the visual compromise is substantial. Overall, the Medium preset at 1080p is the recommended configuration for this hardware.