Inside

The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is an exceptionally fast mobile combination for Inside. The data shows this 2D puzzle platformer is pushed to extreme frame rates, often exceeding the refresh rate of high-end displays. The benchmark results indicate that this combo is overkill for the game's modest visual demands, but the headroom ensures a flawless experience across all settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a clear pattern: the CPU is the primary driver of performance at lower resolutions, while the GPU catches up as the pixel count rises. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo delivers 382 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 303 FPS, a 20.7% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls to 191 FPS, which is 50% lower than the 1080p result. This scaling is not linear, indicating that the workload shifts from a CPU-bound scenario at 1080p to a more GPU-bound scenario at 4K.

The Medium settings preset provides a clearer picture of this transition. At 1080p Medium, the average is 337 FPS. At 1440p Medium, it drops to 243 FPS (a 27.9% decrease), and at 4K Medium, it falls to 152 FPS (a 54.9% decrease from 1080p). The larger proportional drop from 1440p to 4K compared to 1080p to 1440p suggests the GPU is becoming the limiting factor at the higher resolution.

The High and Ultra presets show a similar trend but with lower absolute numbers. At High settings, the frame rate goes from 211 FPS at 1080p to 152 FPS at 1440p (a 28% drop) and then 95 FPS at 4K (a 55% drop from 1080p). For Ultra, the progression is 201 FPS at 1080p, 144 FPS at 1440p (a 28.4% drop), and 91 FPS at 4K (a 54.7% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings indicates a well-balanced scaling curve where the GPU load increases predictably with pixel count.

The data strongly suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is the bottleneck. The difference between 1080p Low (382 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (201 FPS) shows that even at the highest settings, the GPU is not fully saturated. At 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as evidenced by the larger frame rate penalties. For a player targeting 240Hz at 1080p or 1440p, this combo will easily achieve that goal. At 4K, a 144Hz display is achievable with Medium settings, but High and Ultra will cap out below that.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a high-end mobile GPU with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus. The memory runs at 1400 MHz, translating to 22.4 Gbps effective, yielding a bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. This large memory pool and high bandwidth are overkill for Inside, which is not a texture-heavy title. The GPU's 9728 shading units and 304 texture mapping units are more than sufficient to handle the game's 2D sprites and lighting effects.

The GPU's clock speeds are high, with a base of 2205 MHz and a boost of 2505 MHz. These clocks are likely not sustained during gameplay, as the frame rate is often limited by the CPU at lower resolutions. The data shows that the GPU has significant headroom; at 1080p Low, the system produces 382 FPS, which is a massive workload, but the GPU is not the constraint. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 91 FPS, indicating the GPU is finally being pushed harder, though still not to its absolute limit.

The RTX 4080's performance percentile is 86, placing it above the vast majority of GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 54247 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, which is just 0.1% ahead. It also outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X by 1.1% and is 2.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB. In Inside, these differences are irrelevant because the game is so light that any of these GPUs would deliver hundreds of frames per second. The 16 GB VRAM is future-proofing; it will never be fully utilized by this title.

FAQ

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

A: Yes. The measured data shows an average of 91 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is perfectly playable on a standard 60Hz display and even on many 4K monitors with a 120Hz refresh rate, though it will not hit the higher refresh rates possible at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The benchmark results indicate the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p. The frame rate at 1080p Low is 382 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it is 201 FPS. The relatively small gap between settings suggests the GPU is not fully saturated, leaving the CPU to dictate the maximum output.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1440p to 4K?

A: The data shows a significant drop. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 152 FPS at 1440p to 95 FPS at 4K, a 37.5% decrease. At Medium settings, it drops from 243 FPS to 152 FPS, a 37.4% decrease. This indicates a substantial increase in GPU load at 4K.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 144Hz 1440p monitor?

A: All presets are playable. Even at Ultra, the average is 144 FPS, which exactly matches a 144Hz refresh rate. For guaranteed headroom, Medium offers 243 FPS, and High provides 152 FPS, both comfortably above the refresh rate.

Q: Does the RTX 4080's 16 GB VRAM matter for this game?

A: No. Inside is a puzzle platformer with a simple art style. The 16 GB GDDR6X memory is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any resolution or settings preset. The game's requirements are far below what this GPU offers.

Q: How does this combo's performance compare to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 928th out of 3716 tested combinations for Inside. This places it in the top 25% of all tested systems, indicating it is a high-performing configuration, though not the absolute fastest due to the CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: Average 382 FPS. This is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo, showcasing the CPU's ability to feed frames rapidly.
• Medium: Average 337 FPS, with a minimum of 287 and a maximum of 388. The minimum frame rate is still incredibly high, ensuring smooth gameplay.
• High: Average 211 FPS. A significant drop from Medium, but still far beyond the needs of a 144Hz display.
• Ultra: Average 201 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is small, suggesting diminishing returns in visual fidelity for the slight performance cost.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average 303 FPS. A 20.7% reduction from 1080p Low, but still exceptionally high.
• Medium: Average 243 FPS, with a minimum of 206 and a maximum of 279. The minimum frame rate is still above 200, providing a flawless experience.
• High: Average 152 FPS. This is the exact refresh rate of many high-end monitors, making it a perfect match for 144Hz displays.
• Ultra: Average 144 FPS. This is a 5.3% drop from High, indicating the Ultra preset has a minimal impact at this resolution.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: Average 191 FPS. This is a 37% reduction from 1440p Low, showing the GPU's workload is increasing substantially.
• Medium: Average 152 FPS, with a minimum of 130 and a maximum of 175. The minimum frame rate is still well above 60 FPS, ensuring smooth 4K gameplay.
• High: Average 95 FPS. This is a 37.5% drop from 1440p High, confirming the GPU is now the primary bottleneck.
• Ultra: Average 91 FPS. The lowest recorded average, but still playable on a 4K display with VRR enabled.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination is ranked 928th out of 3716 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the 75th percentile of all configurations, meaning it outperforms 75% of the systems tested. This is a strong result, but not the top tier, which likely includes desktop-grade CPUs and GPUs with higher power limits.

The ranking reflects the mobile nature of this combo. The CPU, while powerful for a laptop part, cannot match the sustained multi-core performance of high-end desktop processors. The benchmark results show that at 1080p, the frame rate is often CPU-limited, which caps the combo's overall ranking. At 4K, the GPU takes over, and the RTX 4080's performance is more competitive, but the average score across all resolutions still places it in the upper quartile.

Given the game's age and low graphical complexity, this ranking is more about the CPU's ability to push frames than the GPU's raw power. The data indicates that a system with a faster single-threaded CPU but a weaker GPU might achieve a higher rank in Inside because the game does not heavily tax the graphics card. However, for most users, a rank of 928 out of 3716 is excellent, providing a gaming experience that is far smoother than the majority of systems.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H is a 16-core, 16-thread mobile processor based on the Panther Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.00 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with 18 MB of shared L3 cache. Its benchmark scores are competitive; in Cinebench R23, it scores 28221 multi-core and 3984 single-core. This positions it in the 87th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40518.

The CPU's nearest rivals in terms of average score are the Intel Core 7 253PE (40557, -0.1%), the Intel Core 5 223PE (40585, -0.2%), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H (40431, 0.2%), and the Intel Xeon 6507P (40426, 0.2%). The differences are negligible, all within 0.2% of each other, indicating that the Ultra X7 368H is in a very tight performance band with these other mobile and server parts.

In Inside, the CPU's role is to calculate game logic, physics for the 2D environment, and frame generation. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor. The jump from 1080p Low (382 FPS) to 1080p Ultra (201 FPS) is driven by increased GPU load, but the CPU is still able to feed it enough frames to hit over 200 FPS. The single-core performance is more critical than multi-core here, as the game likely uses a limited number of threads. The high boost clock of 5.00 GHz is a significant advantage for this workload.

The CPU's 16 cores and 16 threads are not fully utilized by Inside, but the high clock speeds ensure that the main game thread is processed quickly. The L3 cache of 18 MB helps reduce memory latency, which is important for fast-paced frame delivery. The data suggests that this CPU is more than capable of handling the game's demands, and its performance is only limited by the GPU at higher resolutions, which is the expected balance for a gaming laptop.