Inside

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER delivers a wide spread of frame rates in Inside, a 2D Puzzle Platformer that is far more demanding than its minimalist art style suggests. The data shows this combo sits in the 85th percentile of all tested configurations for this game, with a combo rank of 2464 out of 2887. That percentile placement is respectable, but the measured FPS numbers reveal a system that is heavily influenced by both resolution and graphics preset, with the GPU acting as the primary limiter in most scenarios. This analysis breaks down exactly what those numbers mean, how the components interact, and which settings provide the best experience.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is the key story. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces an average of 216 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 156 FPS, a reduction of 60 FPS or roughly 28 percent. At 4K Low, the average falls to 98 FPS, which is another 58 FPS drop from 1440p, or about 37 percent. This scaling is steep, indicating that the GTX 1660 SUPER is working progressively harder as pixel count rises, even on Low settings.

The High preset tells a similar story but from a lower starting point. At 1080p High, the average is 108 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 78 FPS, a 30 FPS decrease. At 4K High, the average falls to 49 FPS, which is a 29 FPS drop from 1440p. The percentage losses here are larger than on Low, with the 4K High result being only 45 percent of the 1080p High figure. This suggests that the High preset introduces additional GPU workload that compounds with the resolution increase, pushing the card closer to its limits.

Medium settings show the most balanced scaling. At 1080p Medium, the average is 173 FPS with a minimum of 147 FPS and a maximum of 199 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 125 FPS, with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 78 FPS, with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS. The frame time consistency, as evidenced by the min and max values, remains tight at each resolution, which is typical for a game with this level of geometric simplicity. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 48 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is 47 FPS, showing a nearly linear degradation.

Ultra settings produce the lowest overall results. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 103 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 74 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 47 FPS. The Ultra preset appears to add effects that are particularly taxing at higher resolutions, as the 4K Ultra result is less than half of the 1080p Ultra figure. The data suggests that the limiting component at 1080p is likely the CPU, given the high frame rates, but by 1440p and especially 4K, the GTX 1660 SUPER becomes the clear bottleneck. For example, the jump from 1080p Low to 1080p High costs 108 FPS, while the same preset change at 4K costs only 49 FPS, indicating that the GPU is already saturated at lower resolutions with higher settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a TU116 chip, fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It features 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units. The card has a base clock of 1530 MHz and a boost clock of 1785 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz effective 14 Gbps. The 6 GB of GDDR6 memory sits on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications place the card at the 53rd percentile of all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 12986. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, which scores 12940 (0.4 percent higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 580, which scores 12928 (0.4 percent higher). The AMD Radeon 740M trails at 12870, a 0.9 percent deficit.

The GPU’s role in Inside is evident from the resolution scaling. At 1080p Low, the card produces 216 FPS, which is near the top end of what most displays can show. At 4K Low, it still manages 98 FPS, showing that the card has headroom for this game at lower settings. However, the High and Ultra presets at 4K reveal the card’s limitations, with averages of 49 FPS and 47 FPS respectively. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 51 FPS, meaning the Ultra preset nearly halves the frame rate compared to Low. This indicates that the GPU’s shading units and memory bandwidth are stretched by the higher-quality effects.

The 6 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor in Inside, as the game is not texture-heavy, but the bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s does correlate with the performance drops seen at higher resolutions. The card’s boost clock of 1785 MHz is modest by modern standards, and the data suggests that it cannot maintain the same level of throughput when pixel count increases. The measured FPS at 4K Medium, which has a minimum of 66 FPS, shows that the card can still hold playable frame rates, but the Ultra preset pushes it below 50 FPS. The GPU’s percentile rank of 53 means it sits in the middle of the pack, which is consistent with its behavior in this game—capable at lower resolutions but struggling at 4K with high settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and GTX 1660 SUPER combination ranks 2464 out of 2887 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the bottom 15 percent of all configurations, which might seem surprising given the CPU’s strength, but it is a direct consequence of the GPU’s mid-range position. The CPU itself is a top-tier part, ranking in the 96th percentile of all processors with an average benchmark score of 93785. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon 6520P, which scores 93786 (0 percent difference), the AMD EPYC 4564P at 95183 (1.5 percent higher), the AMD EPYC 9175F at 95615 (1.9 percent higher), and the AMD EPYC 4565P at 95764 (2.1 percent higher). The GPU, however, ranks in the 53rd percentile, and the combo’s overall rank reflects this imbalance.

The rank of 2464 out of 2887 means that most other tested combos outperform this pairing in Inside. This is primarily because the game is not CPU-bound in most scenarios, so the Ultra 7 270K’s massive core count and high clocks do not translate into FPS advantages. Instead, the GTX 1660 SUPER becomes the deciding factor, and there are many GPUs in the database that are faster. The delta between the CPU and GPU percentile ranks is 43 points, which is a significant mismatch. For a game like Inside, which relies on simple 2D rendering with limited draw calls, the CPU is rarely the bottleneck, and the data confirms this. The combo’s rank is driven almost entirely by the GPU’s performance tier.

Comparatively, a system with a weaker CPU but a stronger GPU would likely rank higher in this game, as the GPU’s fill rate and shading power are what determine FPS at high settings and resolutions. The Ultra 7 270K’s 24 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost of 5.50 GHz, are overkill for this workload. The data shows that the combo rank is not a reflection of the CPU’s capability, but rather a gauge of how the GPU handles the game’s demands. Users with this combo should understand that upgrading the GPU would yield far larger FPS gains in Inside than any CPU change.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings. Starting at 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 216 FPS. The Medium preset produces 173 FPS, with a minimum of 147 FPS and a maximum of 199 FPS. High settings yield 108 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 103 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 113 FPS, which is substantial, but even the lowest result of 103 FPS is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At this resolution, the CPU is likely the limiting factor at Low and Medium settings, as the frame rates exceed what the GPU can consistently sustain, but the Ultra preset begins to shift the load toward the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 156 FPS. Medium settings drop to 125 FPS, with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS. High settings produce 78 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 74 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 82 FPS, which is smaller than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a bottleneck. The Medium preset’s minimum of 106 FPS shows that the system can maintain a comfortable frame rate even during demanding scenes, but the High and Ultra presets are closer to the edge, with averages below 80 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 98 FPS. Medium settings produce 78 FPS, with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS. High settings drop to 49 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 47 FPS. The Ultra preset’s average of 47 FPS is below the 60 FPS target for many users, and the High preset is not much better at 49 FPS. The Medium preset, with its minimum of 66 FPS, is the only 4K setting that consistently stays above 60 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 51 FPS, which is the smallest absolute gap across all resolutions, confirming that the GPU is heavily loaded even at Low settings in 4K.

The Medium preset stands out as the most consistent option across all resolutions. At 1080p, it offers a minimum of 147 FPS; at 1440p, a minimum of 106 FPS; and at 4K, a minimum of 66 FPS. The max FPS values also scale predictably, from 199 FPS at 1080p to 143 FPS at 1440p and 90 FPS at 4K. This consistency suggests that the Medium preset balances GPU load well, avoiding the steep penalties seen with High and Ultra. The Low preset, while faster, does not provide the same visual quality, and the High and Ultra presets at 4K are not viable for smooth gameplay.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The CPU features a 36 MB shared L3 cache, 3 MB per core L2 cache, and 192 KB per core L1 cache. It supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s and includes ECC memory support. The processor is built on a 3 nm process at TSMC with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. Its integrated graphics are Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 64 execution units, but in this combo, the GTX 1660 SUPER handles all rendering.

In Inside, the CPU’s role is minimal due to the game’s simple geometry and limited physics. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 216 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s limit for this game, but the 24 cores are largely idle. The CPU’s single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2439, is strong, but Inside does not require high single-thread throughput. The multi-core score of 44253 in Cinebench R23 is exceptional, but it has no bearing on FPS in this title. The PassMark multithread score of 68574 and single-thread score of 5068 further illustrate the CPU’s capability, yet the game does not leverage it.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s is more than sufficient for Inside, and the dual-channel DDR5 support ensures no memory bottlenecks. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 lanes provides ample bandwidth for the GTX 1660 SUPER, which uses PCIe 3.0 x16, so there is no interface limitation. The CPU’s boost clock of 5.50 GHz helps maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions, but as the resolution increases, the GPU takes over as the limiting component. The data indicates that the CPU is never the bottleneck at 1440p or 4K, as the FPS drops are consistent with GPU-bound behavior. In fact, the difference between 1080p and 1440p on Low settings is 60 FPS, which is a GPU-driven drop, not a CPU one.

The CPU’s percentile rank of 96 places it among the top processors, but this does not translate to a high combo rank in Inside. The game’s low CPU demand means that the Ultra 7 270K’s advantages—such as its 24 cores and 5.50 GHz boost—are irrelevant. Users would see the same FPS with a much cheaper processor, as long as the GPU remains the same. The data suggests that the CPU is not a factor in this game’s performance, and the combo’s 2464 rank out of 2887 is entirely attributable to the GPU’s mid-range standing.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for this combo. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 173 FPS with a minimum of 147 FPS, which is far above any display’s refresh rate and provides a smooth experience. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 125 FPS, with a minimum of 106 FPS, still comfortably above 100 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 78 FPS, with a minimum of 66 FPS, which is playable on most monitors and only occasionally dips below 60 FPS. The Medium preset appears to avoid the performance cliffs seen with High and Ultra, making it the most reliable choice across all resolutions.

The Low preset is the best option for users who prioritize maximum frame rates, especially at 1440p and 4K. At 1440p Low, the system produces 156 FPS, and at 4K Low, it maintains 98 FPS. This preset is ideal for competitive play or for users with high-refresh-rate monitors at 1440p, as the 156 FPS average exceeds 144 Hz. However, the visual downgrade from Medium to Low is noticeable in Inside, which uses a specific atmospheric lighting and shadow style. For most users, the Medium preset provides a better experience, as the frame rates are still high and the visual quality is significantly improved.

The High preset is a viable option for 1080p, where it averages 108 FPS, but it becomes less attractive at higher resolutions. At 1440p High, the average is 78 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced sections. At 4K High, the average drops to 49 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and will result in noticeable stuttering. The Ultra preset is not recommended for this combo, as it produces 103 FPS at 1080p, 74 FPS at 1440p, and 47 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset’s visual gains over High are minimal in a game like Inside, but the performance cost is significant, especially at 4K where it is nearly unplayable.

For users with a 1080p display, the Medium preset is the clear winner, offering 173 FPS with a minimum of 147 FPS, ensuring that even the most demanding scenes stay above 144 FPS. For 1440p displays, Medium is also the best choice, with a 125 FPS average and a 106 FPS minimum, which is smooth on 120 Hz and 144 Hz monitors. For 4K displays, Medium is the only preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS, with 78 FPS and a 66 FPS minimum. The Low preset is a fallback for 4K users who want to ensure no drops below 90 FPS, but the visual sacrifice is steep. In summary, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point for this combo, with Low as a backup for higher resolutions, and High and Ultra should be avoided at 1440p and above.