Inside

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 pairing delivers an exceptional experience in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer that is far more demanding than its minimalist art style suggests. The benchmark data shows this combination is capable of obliterating even 4K Ultra settings, though the performance scaling across resolutions reveals a nuanced picture of where the bottleneck lies.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Inside at 4K with maximum settings?*

A: Yes, the data confirms it. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the system maintains an average of 72 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, making the highest visual quality fully playable at native 4K.

Q: How does the Ultra 9 290K Plus compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The CPU sits at the 96th percentile of all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 84003. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, scores 83807, placing the 290K Plus just 0.2% ahead. The AMD EPYC 4584PX and EPYC 9135 trail by 1.1% and 1.2% respectively.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The scaling is dramatic. At 1920x1080, Low settings produce an average of 333 FPS, while Ultra drops to 159 FPS. This represents a 52% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest preset, showing the significant GPU load added by Ultra effects.

Q: Is the RTX 4060 a strong performer relative to other GPUs?

A: The GPU sits at the 61st percentile of all tested graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 17639. Interestingly, its closest rival is the AMD Radeon HD 7790, which scores 17666 — a negligible 0.2% difference. The AMD Radeon 780M is just 0.3% behind.

*Q: How does the combo rank among all tested systems in Inside?*

A: This pairing ranks 1411th out of 2887 total tested combinations, placing it in the upper half of all systems. This mid-pack ranking is notable given the game's age, suggesting that Inside's engine is well-optimized and doesn't require top-tier hardware to excel.

Q: Which resolution offers the best balance of quality and performance?

A: The 2560x1440 Medium preset appears optimal, delivering 192 FPS average with a minimum of 163 FPS. This provides a massive headroom above 60 FPS while still offering enhanced visual fidelity over Low settings, and it maintains a frame rate nearly three times higher than the 4K Ultra result.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The chip contains 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die, with a transistor density of 118.9 million per square millimeter. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz, with memory running at 2125 MHz, translating to 17 Gbps effective. This hardware configuration is paired with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, producing a bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s.

In Inside, the GPU's role is pivotal at higher resolutions and settings. The memory subsystem, while modest in capacity by modern standards, is more than sufficient for a 2016 title. The 8 GB frame buffer handles the game's dark, atmospheric textures without issue, even at 4K Ultra where the average FPS remains at 72. The 3072 shading units and 48 ROPs work to deliver the pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s, which proves adequate for the game's relatively simple geometry but complex lighting effects.

The RTX 4060's 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores are present, though Inside does not utilize ray tracing or DLSS. The raw rasterization performance is what matters here, and the data shows it scales predictably. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 15.11 TFLOPS is the theoretical peak, but the measured results indicate that the card is consistently the limiting factor when moving from Low to Ultra settings at any given resolution.

This GPU role becomes clear when examining the frame rate drops. At 1080p, scaling from Low to Ultra reduces performance by 174 FPS. At 1440p, the same settings change drops the average from 239 FPS to 114 FPS. At 4K, the drop is from 150 FPS to 72 FPS. The consistent pattern across resolutions confirms the GPU is the primary driver of performance changes when settings are adjusted, while the CPU maintains a stable foundation.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling in Inside reveals a system that is GPU-bound at higher settings but becomes increasingly CPU-bound at lower settings and resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system produces 333 FPS, which is an extreme frame rate that likely approaches the engine's internal limits. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 239 FPS, a 28% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls to 150 FPS, another 37% drop.

The High settings show a similar pattern with less extreme numbers. The 1080p High result of 167 FPS drops to 120 FPS at 1440p, a 28% reduction, and then to 75 FPS at 4K, a 38% drop from 1440p. This consistent scaling suggests that the game's rendering load increases proportionally with pixel count when settings are held constant.

Medium settings provide the most complete picture, as this is the only preset with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1080p, the average is 266 FPS with a minimum of 226 FPS and maximum of 306 FPS. At 1440p, this drops to 192 average (163 min, 220 max). At 4K, the average falls to 120 FPS (102 min, 138 max). The tight min-max ranges indicate stable frame pacing without significant hitches.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling. The 1080p Ultra average of 159 FPS drops to 114 FPS at 1440p, a 28% reduction, and then to 72 FPS at 4K, a 37% drop. The fact that the 4K Ultra result is nearly identical to the 1080p High result (72 vs 75 FPS) suggests that the GPU is reaching a similar workload threshold at these different configurations.

The limiting component analysis points to the GPU as the primary constraint at 4K and at Ultra settings. The CPU, with its 24 cores and 24 threads running at boost clocks up to 5.80 GHz, provides ample headroom. The PassMark single-thread score of 4823 and multi-thread score of 60860 indicate a processor that can feed frames rapidly. However, the 1080p Low result of 333 FPS may hint at an engine-level frame cap or a point where the game's logic, not the GPU, becomes the bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all presets. Low settings produce an average of 333 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the dataset. Medium settings reduce this to 266 FPS, with a minimum of 226 FPS and maximum of 306 FPS. High settings yield 167 FPS average, while Ultra settings produce 159 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at this resolution is a modest 8 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds effects that have diminishing returns on visual fidelity relative to their cost.

The 2560x1440 results show a similar hierarchy with reduced headroom. Low settings maintain an average of 239 FPS, still exceptionally smooth. Medium settings deliver 192 FPS (163 min, 220 max), which represents a 28% drop from Low. High settings produce 120 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 114 FPS. The High-to-Ultra gap narrows to just 6 FPS at this resolution, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional costs are partially offset by the lower base resolution.

At 3840x2160, the performance remains playable but the scaling becomes more pronounced. Low settings produce 150 FPS average, which is still far above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings drop to 120 FPS (102 min, 138 max), maintaining a minimum above 100 FPS. High settings yield 75 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 72 FPS. The High-to-Ultra gap at 4K is only 3 FPS, suggesting that at this resolution, the GPU is so heavily loaded that the difference between these two presets becomes negligible.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min-max data across all resolutions. The delta between minimum and maximum FPS ranges from 80 FPS at 1080p to 36 FPS at 4K. This narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates more consistent frame delivery, likely because the GPU is working at a more uniform saturation level.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination ranks 1411th out of 2887 tested combos in Inside, placing it just below the median of all systems. This ranking is intriguing given the raw CPU power available — the 290K Plus sits at the 96th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 84003, and it outperforms its nearest rival, the Core Ultra 9 285K, by 0.2%.

The mid-pack ranking suggests that Inside is not a demanding benchmark for modern hardware. The game's 2016 release date means it was designed for hardware of that era, and even a mid-range GPU like the RTX 4060, which sits at the 61st percentile of all GPUs, proves more than capable. The combination's rank is likely held back by the GPU rather than the CPU, as the 4060's average benchmark score of 17639 places it in the middle of the GPU distribution.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090, 1.1% behind) and AMD EPYC 9135 (82980, 1.2% behind), while the AMD EPYC 7F72 leads by 1.3% with a score of 85072. These are all enterprise-class processors, highlighting how competitive the 290K Plus is in raw compute. However, in Inside, these differences are irrelevant — the game's engine does not leverage such extreme multi-threading capabilities.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmark include the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666, 0.2% ahead), AMD Radeon 780M (17588, 0.3% behind), and AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17551, 0.5% behind). These are dramatically less capable gaming GPUs in modern titles, yet in Inside, the differences are minor due to the game's age and optimization.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 offers the most compelling balance. The data shows this configuration delivers 192 FPS average with a minimum of 163 FPS, providing a massive safety margin above the 60 FPS standard. The minimum frame rate alone exceeds the average of the 4K Ultra preset, and the visual improvement over Low settings is noticeable in a game like Inside where atmospheric lighting is crucial.

Players with 4K displays should not hesitate to use High settings, which produce 75 FPS average. This is above the 60 FPS threshold and retains the game's visual identity. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 72 FPS, offers only a 3 FPS improvement over High, making it an inefficient choice that provides marginal visual gains for the performance cost.

For competitive or speedrun play, the Low preset at 1080p is the clear choice, delivering 333 FPS. This extreme frame rate ensures the lowest possible input latency, though the visual quality suffers. The Medium preset at 1080p, at 266 FPS, is a strong alternative that maintains high frame rates while offering better visual fidelity.

The Ultra preset is best reserved for 1080p or 1440p displays. At 1440p, it delivers 114 FPS average, which is still smooth and provides the highest visual quality available. At 1080p, the 159 FPS average makes Ultra a viable option for high-refresh-rate displays up to 144 Hz. The diminishing returns from High to Ultra at all resolutions suggest that High is the most efficient preset for most users, with Ultra reserved for those who prioritize maximum visual quality over frame rate headroom.