Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer that is remarkably forgiving on modern hardware, and the measured data for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 confirms this. The combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, placing it in the 502nd position out of 2,887 tested combos. The data indicates that this system is heavily overqualified for the game's demands, with performance scaling that reveals a clear shift in bottleneck from the CPU at lower resolutions to the GPU as pixel count increases.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Inside provides a clear picture of how the game responds to different graphics presets. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset produces an average of 210 FPS, while the High preset yields 220 FPS. The difference between these two is minimal, but opting for Ultra at this resolution costs only 10 FPS compared to High and provides the maximum visual fidelity the game offers. Given that the 1080p Ultra result of 210 FPS is still far above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors, there is no practical reason to sacrifice visual quality at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 151 FPS, while High produces 158 FPS. Again, the delta is a mere 7 FPS, making the Ultra preset the sensible choice for users with 1440p displays. The frame rates remain high enough that even the most demanding scenes will stay comfortably within the range of high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 253 FPS and Low at 317 FPS are technically available, but they offer no meaningful advantage in playability while visibly reducing the game's atmospheric lighting and shadow quality.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more nuanced. The Ultra preset averages 95 FPS, which is still fully playable, but the High preset at 99 FPS narrows the gap to just 4 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K remains the best experience for players with displays that support it, as the frame rate is still above 90 FPS. However, for users who prioritize a rock-solid 100+ FPS experience, dropping from Ultra to High at 4K is a negligible visual compromise that yields a 4 FPS improvement. The Medium preset at 159 FPS and Low at 199 FPS are substantial jumps, but they represent a significant downgrade in visual quality that is unnecessary given the already high performance. The data suggests that the Ultra preset is the recommended setting for all resolutions, with High as a fallback only for those who demand a strict 100 FPS floor at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz with a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, and it carries a substantial 36 MB of shared L3 cache. In the context of Inside, a game that is not known for heavy multi-threaded workloads, this CPU is massively overprovisioned. The benchmark data supports this: the processor achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 and a single-core score of 7,303, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs.

The role of the CPU in Inside becomes evident when examining the frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system produces 440 FPS. This is an extreme frame rate that is almost certainly limited by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls, rather than by the GPU's rendering capabilities. As the resolution increases to 2560x1440, the Low setting frame rate drops to 317 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it falls to 199 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is the primary bottleneck, but the system is so powerful that even this "bottleneck" results in performance far beyond what any display can show. The 24-core configuration provides no tangible benefit in Inside over a processor with fewer cores, but the high single-thread performance, evidenced by the 7,303 Cinebench R23 single-core score, ensures that the game's logic and physics calculations are handled with minimal latency. The processor's PassMark single-thread score of 4,823 further underscores its capability in lightly threaded scenarios. For this game, the CPU is effectively a non-factor in limiting performance, as even the most demanding preset at 4K only requires a fraction of the processor's theoretical throughput.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip, fabricated on an 8 nm process. It features 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. The GPU has 8,704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units, with base and boost clocks of 1440 MHz and 1710 MHz respectively. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, and its FP32 compute performance is rated at 29.77 TFLOPS. The GPU's PassMark G3D score is 25,086, placing it in the 68th percentile of all GPUs.

In Inside, the GPU's role becomes the dominant factor as resolution increases. The data shows a clear progression: at 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 210; at 1440p Ultra, it drops to 151; and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 95. This is a 45% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and another 37% reduction from 1440p to 4K. This scaling is characteristic of a game where the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become increasingly important at higher resolutions. The RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor here, as Inside is not a VRAM-intensive title. The GPU's high texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s are more than sufficient for the game's art style, which relies on 2D silhouettes and simple lighting. The measured results indicate that the RTX 3080 is the primary performance limiter at 4K, but it is still powerful enough to maintain an average of 95 FPS at Ultra settings. The GPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA P106-100 and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16, is within a 0.4% margin, which is irrelevant given the absolute performance levels achieved in this game. For Inside, the RTX 3080 provides a flawless experience, with the GPU never becoming a source of frustration even at the highest resolution and preset.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate for this combo at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings is 210 FPS.

Q: How does the frame rate scale from 1080p to 4K on the High preset?

A: The average FPS drops from 220 at 1080p to 158 at 1440p, and further to 99 at 4K, indicating a significant reliance on the GPU as resolution increases.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck in Inside for this system?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is the primary limiter, as evidenced by the 440 FPS Low setting result. However, by 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting component, with the Ultra preset falling to 95 FPS.

Q: What is the best setting to use for a 1440p display?

A: The Ultra preset is recommended at 2560x1440, as it delivers an average of 151 FPS, only 7 FPS lower than the High preset, while providing maximum visual quality.

Q: Does the RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM cause any issues in Inside?

A: No, the measured data shows no VRAM-related performance degradation. The game runs at 95 FPS average at 4K Ultra, indicating that the 10 GB capacity is more than sufficient.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all other tested combinations?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and RTX 3080 combo ranks 502nd out of 2,887 tested combos, placing it in the top 17.4% of all systems tested in this game.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior of Inside with this hardware reveals a classic performance profile. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS across all settings drops by a factor of approximately 0.72. For instance, the Ultra preset goes from 210 FPS to 151 FPS, a 28% reduction. From 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, the drop is more pronounced, with the Ultra preset falling from 151 FPS to 95 FPS, a 37% reduction. This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and pixel fill rate are becoming saturated at 4K.

The Low preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 440 FPS at 1080p, 317 FPS at 1440p, and 199 FPS at 4K. The large absolute numbers at 1080p indicate that the CPU is the primary limiter at that resolution, as the GPU is not being fully utilized. As resolution increases, the GPU takes over as the bottleneck, which explains why the percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is similar across all presets (around 55-57%). The Medium preset, which has min/max data available, shows a 1080p average of 352 FPS with a minimum of 299 FPS and maximum of 405 FPS. At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 253 FPS with a minimum of 215 FPS, and at 4K it averages 159 FPS with a minimum of 135 FPS. This data indicates that even the minimum frame rates at 4K Medium are well above the 60 FPS threshold, confirming that the game is exceptionally well-optimized for this hardware. The resolution scaling analysis points to a system where the RTX 3080 is the deciding factor at 4K, but its performance is so high that the game remains highly playable at all settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured FPS data for this combo is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 440 FPS, the Medium preset averages 352 FPS with a minimum of 299 FPS and maximum of 405 FPS, the High preset averages 220 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 210 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 317 FPS, the Medium preset averages 253 FPS with a minimum of 215 FPS and maximum of 291 FPS, the High preset averages 158 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 151 FPS. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 199 FPS, the Medium preset averages 159 FPS with a minimum of 135 FPS and maximum of 183 FPS, the High preset averages 99 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 95 FPS.

These numbers reveal a consistent pattern: the step from Low to Medium costs roughly 20% of performance, while the step from High to Ultra costs only about 5%. The gap between Medium and High is more significant, at approximately 37% at 1080p, 38% at 1440p, and 38% at 4K. This suggests that the High preset introduces a substantial increase in rendering complexity, likely related to advanced lighting or shadow effects, which disproportionately impacts the GPU. The min FPS values, which are only provided for the Medium preset, show that frame pacing is stable, with the minimum never falling more than 15% below the average. The maximum FPS values for the Medium preset are also consistent, showing a tight distribution. Overall, the measured FPS breakdown confirms that the system delivers an outstanding experience at every resolution and setting combination, with no configuration dropping below 95 FPS average.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination holds a rank of 502 out of 2,887 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the top 17.4% of all systems tested, which is a strong result given the game's age and the hardware's specifications. The rank reflects the system's ability to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra, which is the most demanding scenario tested. The combo's performance is driven by the RTX 3080's strong showing in the game, as the GPU's 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs is offset by the CPU's 96th percentile ranking, resulting in a combined performance that exceeds the sum of its parts for this particular title.

Compared to other potential combinations, this pairing is well-balanced for Inside. The CPU's high single-thread performance ensures that the game's logic is never a bottleneck, while the GPU's ample bandwidth and compute power handle the rendering load effectively. The rank of 502 indicates that while there are many systems that can play Inside well, this combo is among the elite in terms of delivering a high-refresh-rate experience at any resolution. The data shows that the system is not overkill for the game, but rather that it provides a future-proof level of performance that will handle any potential mods or DLC without issue. The combo's position in the rankings reflects the synergy between the 24-core processor and the 10 GB Ampere GPU, which together produce a smooth and exceptionally smooth gaming experience.