Inside

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is a high-end mobile combination that delivers exceptional performance in Inside, a game that is far more demanding than its minimalist art style suggests. The data places this combo at rank 1943 out of 3716 tested combinations, positioning it in the upper half of all systems but not at the absolute modern, which is a notable result given the strong specifications of both components. This ranking indicates that while the hardware is formidable, other factors such as thermal limits or driver overhead may prevent it from dominating the leaderboard entirely.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame of 1943 out of 3716 places this system in the 48th percentile of all tested combinations for this specific title. This is a middling result for a flagship-class CPU and a current-generation mid-range GPU, suggesting that Inside is not particularly sensitive to the raw compute power these components offer. The game’s puzzle-platformer nature typically relies on single-threaded CPU performance and moderate GPU load, which means the massive multi-core capabilities of the 275HX are largely underutilized here.

When examining the CPU’s synthetic benchmarks, the picture becomes clearer. The Core Ultra 9 275HX achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35589 and a single-core score of 2204, with a Geekbench single-core score of 2458. These numbers are impressive, landing the CPU in the 94th percentile of all processors tested. However, the nearest rivals list shows a tight grouping: the Intel Xeon w5-3525 is only 0.3% ahead, while the AMD EPYC 4484PX is 0.5% ahead, and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX is 0.6% ahead. The Intel Xeon 6515P trails by 0.7%. This suggests that the 275HX is competitive with workstation-class silicon, but in a game like Inside, this headroom rarely translates into higher frame rates.

Similarly, the RTX 5070 Mobile’s Passmark G3D score of 20355 places it in the 75th percentile of all GPUs, with its average benchmark score of 29928 landing close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, which is only 0.1% ahead. The RTX 2080 Ti trails by 0.5%, while the AMD Radeon RX 6800 is 0.6% ahead and the RX 6700 is 1.7% ahead. The GPU’s performance tier is solid but not exceptional, and the ranking reflects that this combo is capable but not elite in the context of all tested systems.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB206 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process. It features 4608 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units, along with 36 ray tracing cores and 144 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 907 MHz and a boost clock of 1425 MHz, which are relatively modest frequencies for a modern part, but the architecture’s efficiency compensates.

Memory configuration is where the RTX 5070 Mobile shows its mid-range positioning. It comes with 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s. This is a critical specification for Inside, as the game’s atmospheric lighting and particle effects can consume memory bandwidth, but the data shows that even at 4K, the GPU handles the load effectively. The FP32 performance of 13.13 TFLOPS and a pixel rate of 68.40 GPixel/s provide a baseline for understanding its throughput.

The GPU’s benchmark results show a DirectX 12 score of 93, a Vulkan score of 116960 in Geekbench, and a DirectX 11 score of 192 in Passmark. These numbers indicate strong API support, but the Passmark DirectX 12 score is notably low compared to other metrics. This could explain why the combo’s ranking is not higher, as Inside may utilize DirectX 12 features that expose inefficiencies in the driver or architecture. The GPU’s texture rate of 205.2 GTexel/s is a solid figure, and the 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for this game at all tested settings, with no memory-related stutters indicated by the FPS data.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 2.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a TDP of 55 W. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 36 MB of L3 cache. This is a massive amount of compute resources, but Inside is unlikely to leverage more than a few cores.

The CPU’s synthetic performance is exceptional, with a Passmark multi-thread score of 55759 and a single-thread score of 4713. The Cinebench R20 multi-core score of 19899 and single-core score of 2809 further confirm its capabilities. However, the game’s FPS data suggests that CPU performance is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 328 FPS, which is a high number but not indicative of CPU limitation, as the GPU is still capable of pushing those frames.

The integrated graphics, Arc Xe-LPG with 64 execution units, is irrelevant for gaming when the discrete GPU is active, but it does provide a fallback for power saving. The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR5 interface is adequate, though not a differentiator in this title. The 24 threads are largely idle during gameplay, as Inside is not a multi-threaded workload. Instead, the single-core performance, as measured by the 2204 Cinebench R23 single-core score, is what matters, and it is sufficient to feed the GPU at all resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 328 FPS on Low, 262 FPS on Medium, 164 FPS on High, and 156 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 223 FPS and a maximum of 302 FPS, indicating a stable frame time distribution. The gap between Low and Medium is 66 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 8 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns at the highest settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the FPS drops to 236 on Low, 189 on Medium, 118 on High, and 112 on Ultra. The Medium preset here has a minimum of 160 and a maximum of 217, showing a consistent scaling pattern. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is 92 FPS, which is a 28% reduction, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a factor. At High settings, the drop is 46 FPS, a 28% reduction as well, showing a proportional scaling.

At 3840x2160, the performance is 148 FPS on Low, 118 on Medium, 74 on High, and 71 on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 101 and a maximum of 136. The most striking observation is the large gap between Low and Medium at 4K, which is 30 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 3 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset is not significantly more demanding than High, but the jump from Low to Medium is substantial, likely due to increased texture quality and shadow resolution.

The data shows that at 4K High, the combo still maintains 74 FPS, which is playable, and at 4K Ultra, it drops to 71 FPS. These are excellent results for a mobile GPU, especially considering the 50 W TDP of the RTX 5070 Mobile. The minimum FPS values are only provided for the Medium presets, with 223 at 1080p, 160 at 1440p, and 101 at 4K, which are all above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the bottleneck characteristics of this combo. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 328 at 1080p to 148 at 4K, a 55% reduction. This is a significant drop that indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the CPU’s single-thread performance remains constant. At Medium settings, the drop is from 262 to 118, a 55% reduction as well, showing a consistent pattern.

At High settings, the drop is from 164 to 74, a 55% reduction, and at Ultra, it is from 156 to 71, a 54% reduction. The consistency of this ~55% scaling across all settings suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, and the CPU has ample headroom. The fact that the 4K Low performance of 148 FPS is still higher than the 1080p Ultra performance of 156 FPS is telling, as it shows that the settings preset has a larger impact on performance than the resolution itself.

This scaling behavior indicates that the combo is balanced for 1440p gaming, where it delivers over 112 FPS on all settings. At 4K, the performance is still playable but requires dropping to Medium settings to maintain a comfortable 118 FPS. The data suggests that the RTX 5070 Mobile’s 8 GB VRAM and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for this game, as there are no signs of memory-related frame drops at 4K. The GPU’s 13.13 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the limiting factor at high resolutions, and the CPU’s 5.40 GHz boost clock is more than capable of keeping up.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1080p gaming, the Ultra preset delivers 156 FPS, which is well above any refresh rate, so there is no reason to compromise on visuals. The High preset at 164 FPS offers a negligible improvement, making Ultra the clear choice for the best visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness.

At 1440p, the Ultra preset provides 112 FPS, which is still excellent for high-refresh-rate displays. The High preset at 118 FPS is nearly identical, so the choice between High and Ultra comes down to personal preference for visual details. The Medium preset at 189 FPS is overkill for most displays, but it could be useful for esports-style competitive play where higher frame rates are prioritized. The data shows that the jump from High to Ultra at 1440p costs only 6 FPS, making Ultra the recommended setting for the best experience.

For 4K gaming, the Ultra preset drops to 71 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay on a 60 Hz display but might cause judder on higher refresh rate monitors. The High preset at 74 FPS is slightly better, but the Medium preset at 118 FPS is the sweet spot for 4K. The jump from Medium to High costs 44 FPS, which is a substantial reduction, while the jump from High to Ultra only costs 3 FPS. This indicates that the High preset is not worth the performance hit over Medium, as the visual difference is likely minimal in a game like Inside with its dark, atmospheric visuals.

The Medium preset at 4K provides a minimum of 101 FPS, ensuring that there are no significant dips below the refresh rate of most displays. Therefore, for 4K gaming, the Medium preset is recommended, as it balances performance and visual quality, delivering 118 FPS average with a minimum above 100 FPS. For 1440p and 1080p, the Ultra preset is the best choice, as it maintains high frame rates while maximizing the game’s visual effects, which are a core part of the Inside experience. The data shows that this combo is versatile, capable of handling the game at maximum settings on all but 4K, where a slight reduction to Medium is advised for the most consistent performance.