Inside

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination delivers extreme performance in Inside, a 2D puzzle platformer that is far more demanding on the CPU than typical for the genre. The measured frame rates are exceptionally high across all resolutions, with the data indicating that the system is rarely, if ever, the bottleneck. The following analysis breaks down the optimal settings, performance scaling, and component roles based on the benchmark data.

Settings Recommendations

For a game like Inside, where the visual style is a core part of the experience, the benchmark results suggest that players should prioritize the Ultra preset. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset achieves an average frame rate of 317 FPS, which is well beyond the refresh rate of even the most demanding high-refresh-rate monitors. This makes the visual fidelity of the Ultra preset essentially free at this resolution. The data shows that the frame rate does not drop below 300 FPS at 1080p even on the highest settings, ensuring a perfectly smooth experience.

Moving up to 2560x1440, the Ultra preset still delivers an excellent average of 228 FPS. While this is a significant drop from the 1080p figure, it remains high enough to fully utilize a 240Hz monitor. The performance headroom is so substantial that there is little reason to sacrifice graphical quality for additional frames. The High preset at this resolution offers an average of 239 FPS, a negligible 11 FPS difference, making the Ultra preset the clear choice for the best visual experience without a meaningful performance penalty.

At 4K (3840x2160), the choice becomes more interesting. The Ultra preset drops to an average of 143 FPS, which is still very high and suitable for high-refresh-rate 4K displays. However, the High preset at 150 FPS is nearly identical in performance. The data suggests that the Ultra preset is the best option for a 4K display, as it provides the highest image quality while maintaining an average frame rate above 140 FPS. The Medium preset at 240 FPS is the best choice for those with a 240Hz 4K monitor, but for most users, the visual gains of Ultra are preferable to the extra frames. The Low preset, while hitting 300 FPS, is not recommended for normal play, as it would compromise the game's atmospheric lighting and shadow work for a frame rate that is largely imperceptible in a game of this pacing.

The sweet spot, balancing visual quality and performance, is the Ultra preset. It is the recommended setting for all resolutions, as it consistently delivers frame rates high enough for a flawless experience, and in the case of 1080p and 1440p, leaves substantial performance on the table.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset to use with this hardware?

A: The Ultra preset is recommended. At 1080p and 1440p, it delivers average frame rates of 317 and 228 FPS, respectively. Even at 4K, it maintains an average of 143 FPS, offering the best visual experience without dropping below the threshold for high-refresh-rate gaming.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming with Inside?*

A: Yes, the data shows it is more than capable. At 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset, the system achieves an average of 143 FPS. With the High preset, it reaches 150 FPS, and with Medium, it jumps to 240 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: No, the benchmark data indicates the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p. The frame rate difference between Low (442 FPS) and Ultra (317 FPS) is 125 FPS, showing a clear performance scaling with graphical settings, but the CPU is still generating an enormous number of frames, indicating it is the component reaching its limit first.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: The frame rate drops from an average of 317 FPS at 1080p to 143 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 174 FPS. This is a significant drop, but the 4K result remains extremely high in absolute terms.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 1440p?

A: The Low preset achieves an average of 396 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 228 FPS. This means the Low preset is 168 FPS higher, but the Ultra preset's frame rate is still high enough to be considered superior for actual gameplay.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest minimum frame rate recorded in the data is 204 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 with the Medium settings. This indicates that even in the most demanding scenarios, the frame rate never dips below a very high threshold.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 15th out of 2887 tested configurations for Inside. This places the system in the top 0.5% of all tested hardware combinations, proof of the raw power of both components. The data confirms that this is a top-tier pairing for this game, with only 14 other combinations of CPU and GPU managing to produce higher average frame rates.

The rank is a direct result of the individual component performance. The CPU, with a benchmark percentile of 96 against all other CPUs, is near the top of the charts. Its average benchmark score of 84003 is 0.2% higher than its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, and 1.1% higher than the AMD EPYC 4584PX. The GPU is similarly impressive, with a percentile of 92 against all other GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 79842 is 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT. While these benchmark scores are general, the combination of two top-tier components results in an elite performance ranking in this specific game.

This high rank is particularly notable because Inside is not a graphically intensive title by modern standards. The fact that this system still ranks in the top 15 suggests that the game's performance is heavily reliant on CPU speed, an area where the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus excels. The data shows that the combination is not just powerful, but also well-matched for this game's specific engine demands.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rate data provides a clear picture of the system's capabilities across different resolution and settings combinations.

At 1920x1080, the performance is staggering. The Low preset achieves the highest average at 442 FPS. The Medium preset delivers an average of 408 FPS, with a minimum of 347 FPS and a maximum of 469 FPS. The High preset reaches 333 FPS, and the Ultra preset, the most demanding, still achieves an average of 317 FPS. This shows a 125 FPS difference between the lowest and highest settings, demonstrating that while the GPU is not heavily taxed at this resolution, the settings do have an impact.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains exceptionally high. The Low preset averages 396 FPS. The Medium preset follows with 365 FPS, with a minimum of 310 FPS and a maximum of 420 FPS. The High preset achieves 239 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 228 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 168 FPS, a larger gap than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is beginning to take on more of the workload.

At 3840x2160, the results show a clear shift toward GPU limitation. The Low preset averages 300 FPS. The Medium preset averages 240 FPS, with a minimum of 204 FPS and a maximum of 276 FPS. The High preset delivers 150 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 143 FPS. Here, the difference between Low and Ultra is 157 FPS, and the overall frame rates are significantly lower than at 1440p, showing the increased demand on the GPU at 4K.

The data consistently shows that the Medium preset provides the only recorded minimum and maximum frame rates, indicating it is a well-optimized setting level. The overall pattern is a smooth degradation of performance as resolution and settings increase, with no sudden or unexpected drops.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights into the bottleneck of this system. At the Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops from 317 FPS at 1080p to 228 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 28%. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the frame rate drops from 228 FPS to 143 FPS, a further reduction of 37%. This is a significant scaling pattern.

The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings is 174 FPS, or 55%. This steep decline indicates that the system is becoming progressively more GPU-bound at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU is capable of generating frames much faster than the GPU can render them, leading to a CPU bottleneck. As the resolution increases, the GPU's rendering workload increases proportionally, and it becomes the limiting factor.

This analysis is supported by the Low settings data. At Low settings, the frame rate scales from 442 FPS at 1080p to 396 FPS at 1440p, a drop of only 10%. From 1440p to 4K, it drops from 396 FPS to 300 FPS, a 24% reduction. The much smaller drops at Low settings suggest that the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p, while the GPU's load is so low that the resolution has a minimal impact. At 4K, even with Low settings, the GPU's workload is high enough to cause a more substantial frame rate drop.

The scaling behavior confirms that the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is an extremely powerful CPU, capable of feeding the RTX 5090 with enough data to reach over 400 FPS at 1080p. However, the RTX 5090 is the component that determines the final frame rate at higher resolutions, particularly at 4K, where the demands on the GPU are immense.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus plays a critical role in the exceptional performance seen in Inside. This is a game that is heavily reliant on CPU performance for its physics and logic calculations. The processor's specifications are a key factor in its ability to maintain such high frame rates.

This CPU features 24 cores and 24 threads, a configuration that is more than sufficient for a game like Inside, which is unlikely to utilize all of them. However, what matters more for gaming is its boost clock of 5.80 GHz. This high clock speed is crucial for generating the massive number of frames seen in the benchmark results. The game's logic, including the character's movement and the manipulation of objects, must be calculated every frame, and a higher clock speed allows these calculations to be completed faster.

The 3 nm process node and TSMC foundry used to manufacture the chip contribute to its efficiency and ability to reach such high clock speeds. The processor's 36 MB of shared L3 cache is also beneficial, providing a large pool of high-speed memory for the CPU to access frequently used game data.

In the context of the benchmark results, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p. The fact that the frame rate at Low settings (442 FPS) is only 125 FPS higher than at Ultra settings (317 FPS) demonstrates that the CPU is the limiting factor. The GPU can render the Low preset frames very quickly, but the CPU cannot generate them any faster. This is a classic sign of a CPU bottleneck, where the processor's speed is the constraining factor. The CPU's high single-core performance, as suggested by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7303, is directly responsible for this ability to maintain such high frame rates. Without this level of CPU performance, the system would not be able to achieve these results, regardless of the RTX 5090's power.