Inside

Inside is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer that is far more demanding on frame rate headroom than its minimalist art style might suggest. The benchmark data for the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 reveals a system that obliterates standard refresh rate targets at nearly every setting, with the primary challenge being how to leverage the excess performance for a smoother experience rather than struggling to hit playable thresholds. The measured frames per second (FPS) across all resolutions indicate that this combination is heavily GPU-bound at higher settings, while the CPU's substantial single-thread performance ensures that even at lower presets, the system never becomes a bottleneck in a way that would cap the frame rate.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for this specific combo. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset yields an average of 201 FPS, while the High preset delivers 211 FPS. The difference is a mere 10 FPS, which is a negligible 4.7% performance penalty for the jump to maximum visual fidelity. Given that both are well above the 144 Hz threshold, the Ultra preset is the optimal choice at this resolution, as it provides the best image quality without sacrificing the fluidity that competitive or precision platformers benefit from. The Medium preset at 337 FPS and Low at 422 FPS are far beyond what any current display can showcase, making them less practical for everyday play despite their higher numbers.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. The Ultra preset achieves 144 FPS, which exactly matches the refresh rate of many high-end monitors. The High preset improves upon this to 152 FPS, an 8 FPS increase that provides a small buffer against frame time spikes. The data shows that High is the superior choice here, as it offers a more stable experience relative to the refresh rate ceiling while remaining visually rich. The Medium preset at 243 FPS is excessive, and Low at 303 FPS is only useful for theoretical maximum frame rate analysis.

At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset drops to 91 FPS, which is below the 100 FPS mark that many users consider the baseline for high refresh rate 4K gaming. The High preset, however, maintains a comfortable 95 FPS average. While the difference is only 4 FPS, it is the difference between being under and over the 90 FPS threshold. For a game like Inside, where motion clarity is paramount to the atmospheric experience, the High preset is the recommended setting at 4K. The Medium preset at 152 FPS is an excellent alternative for those who prioritize high refresh rates over the marginal visual improvements of High and Ultra, offering a 57 FPS advantage over High while still retaining a substantial level of detail. Low at 191 FPS is overkill.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this pairing for Inside. The data shows a clear scaling pattern where the average FPS nearly doubles when moving from the Ultra preset to the Low preset at every resolution, which is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario. At 1080p, the Ultra preset's 201 FPS versus Low's 422 FPS represents a 110% increase in frame rate, directly attributable to the reduction in pixel shading and texture work demanded of the GPU. The RTX 4080's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus with 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth is more than sufficient for this game's art assets, as evidenced by the lack of any memory-related stutter indicators within the measured FPS ranges.

The GPU's clock behavior, with a base of 2205 MHz and a boost of 2505 MHz, allows it to sustain high throughput across all tested configurations. The 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is the engine driving the high frame rates at 4K, where the pixel fill rate becomes the primary constraint. The architecture's efficiency is clear when comparing the 4K High preset's 95 FPS to the 1080p High preset's 211 FPS; the 122% increase in pixel count at 4K results in a 55% decrease in frame rate, which is a typical scaling curve for a GPU that is not yet completely overwhelmed. The RTX 4080's performance is also validated by its position relative to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, sitting just 0.1% below the RTX 4080 SUPER and 1.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, confirming that it is operating at the expected level within its class.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the specific context of Inside, this hardware combination achieves a combo rank of 631 out of 2887 total tested combinations. This places it in the top 21.9% of all systems that have been benchmarked for this game. The rank is notable because it is not in the top decile, which indicates that while the performance is exceptional for a mobile platform CPU, the desktop-class GPUs and higher-end desktop CPUs that have been tested for this game can still achieve higher frame rates, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU's influence is more pronounced.

The ranking is influenced by the fact that the RTX 4080, while powerful, is not the absolute top-tier GPU in the database. Its percentile rank of 86 versus all GPUs means that roughly 14% of GPUs tested are faster, and those faster GPUs, when paired with a high-frequency desktop CPU, will naturally secure higher combo ranks. However, the data shows that this combo is far from a slouch; the 631st rank out of 2887 means that it outperforms the majority of systems tested. The CPU's contribution to this rank is significant, as the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX sits in the 94th percentile against all CPUs, ensuring that the GPU is fed with data as fast as it can process it, even at the lower resolution settings where frame rates exceed 400 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's capabilities. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 422 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 337 FPS, with a minimum of 287 FPS and a maximum of 388 FPS. The High preset averages 211 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 201 FPS. The consistency across the Medium preset's min-max range shows a variance of 101 FPS, which is the largest spread in the dataset, suggesting that while the average is high, there are occasional frame dips that could be perceptible on a 360 Hz monitor.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 303 FPS. The Medium preset averages 243 FPS, with a minimum of 206 FPS and a maximum of 279 FPS. The High preset averages 152 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 144 FPS. The Medium preset's min-max variance of 73 FPS is smaller than at 1080p, which indicates that the GPU is becoming more consistently loaded. The step from High to Ultra at this resolution is a 5.3% performance drop, which is visually imperceptible in a game like Inside, making the Ultra preset a viable option for users with G-Sync displays who want the absolute best image fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 191 FPS. The Medium preset averages 152 FPS, with a minimum of 130 FPS and a maximum of 175 FPS. The High preset averages 95 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 91 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K is the sweet spot for high refresh rate 4K displays, as its 152 FPS average is well above the 120 Hz threshold, while the High and Ultra presets are more suited for 60 Hz to 90 Hz displays. The scaling from 1080p Low to 4K Low shows a 54.7% reduction in frame rate (422 to 191 FPS), which is a direct consequence of the 4x pixel count increase.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use at 2560x1440 for a balance of visual quality and high refresh rate?

A: The High preset is the optimal choice at this resolution, averaging 152 FPS. It provides a moderate improvement in visual fidelity over the Medium preset and is 8 FPS faster than the Ultra preset, which averages 144 FPS.

Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K with a 120 Hz monitor?

A: Yes, but only with the Medium preset, which achieves an average of 152 FPS at 3840x2160. The High and Ultra presets fall below the 120 FPS threshold, averaging 95 FPS and 91 FPS, respectively.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its direct successor in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080's average benchmark score is 54247, which is 0.1% lower than the RTX 4080 SUPER's score of 54209. This indicates that the two cards are essentially performance equivalents in general workloads.

Q: Is the CPU a limiting factor at lower resolutions?

A: The data suggests that it is not a significant bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 422 FPS, which is a very high frame rate. The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX's single-thread performance, as indicated by its Cinebench R23 score of 2204, is sufficient to drive the GPU to its limits.

Q: What is the frame rate consistency like for the Medium preset at 1920x1080?

A: The Medium preset shows a minimum of 287 FPS and a maximum of 388 FPS, with an average of 337 FPS. The 101 FPS spread between the minimum and maximum is the largest in the dataset, which could lead to minor frame pacing inconsistencies.

Q: How does this combo's ranking in Inside compare to its overall components' performance?

A: The combo ranks 631st out of 2887 tested combinations, placing it in the top 21.9%. This is lower than the CPU's 94th percentile and GPU's 86th percentile individually, which indicates that other tested combos with more powerful desktop CPUs and GPUs achieve higher frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX plays a supportive but crucial role in the performance of this combo for Inside. While the game is visually simple, it requires a high level of draw call processing and physics calculations, which are CPU-bound tasks. The CPU's 24 cores and 24 threads, based on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture, provide the raw throughput necessary to avoid bottlenecking the GPU. Its boost clock of 5.40 GHz is the key metric for this game, as it ensures that the main game thread can be processed with minimal latency. The single-thread performance is validated by a Geekbench single-core score of 2458 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2204, both of which are in the upper echelon of mobile processors.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this game. The evidence is the scaling of frame rates with resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the system hits 422 FPS, but this drops to 303 FPS at 1440p Low and 191 FPS at 4K Low. This 55% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K is almost exactly proportional to the increase in pixel count, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates at lower resolutions would be capped at a similar level, regardless of the GPU load reduction. The CPU's high multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35589 and a Passmark multi-thread score of 55759, also ensures that any background processes or system overhead do not interfere with game performance.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data provides clear insight into the system's balance. At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 211 at 1080p to 152 at 1440p and finally to 95 at 4K. This represents a 28% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 37.5% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not perfectly linear due to the nature of the rendering pipeline, but the consistent drop indicates that the GPU is the primary driver of performance. The transition from 1080p to 1440p increases the pixel count by 78%, while the frame rate drops by only 28%, which suggests that the GPU has enough headroom to absorb the extra load without a proportional frame rate penalty.

However, the transition from 1440p to 4K increases the pixel count by 125%, and the frame rate drops by 37.5%. This is a more significant penalty, indicating that the GPU is starting to approach its limits at 4K with the High preset. At the Low preset, the scaling is more aggressive: 422 FPS at 1080p, 303 FPS at 1440p, and 191 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 28.2%, and the 1440p to 4K drop is 37%, which mirrors the High preset's pattern. This consistency across settings confirms that the limiting component is the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity, not the CPU's ability to feed it data. The frame rate at 4K Ultra of 91 FPS is the lowest recorded, and it is still above 90 FPS, which confirms the RTX 4080's raw power for a game of this visual complexity.