Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer from 2016 that places unusual demands on a modern laptop configuration, and the measured results for the Intel Core Ultra X7 368H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 show a system that is largely GPU-bound at higher resolutions but reveals interesting CPU headroom at 1080p. The data, drawn from a benchmark database of 2,887 tested combinations, places this specific pairing at rank 1,864, which is a mid-pack result that deserves a closer look at how each component contributes to the final frame rates. This analysis walks through the resolution scaling, the individual CPU and GPU roles, and the practical settings recommendations based entirely on the measured FPS rows provided.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable pattern: performance degrades as resolution increases, but the rate of degradation is not uniform across all settings. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system produces an average of 288 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at Low drops that to 207 FPS, a reduction of 81 FPS or roughly 28%. At 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average falls further to 130 FPS, which is a 37% drop from the 1440p figure. This scaling suggests that even at Low settings, the GPU is becoming a limiting factor as pixel count rises, but the CPU is still able to feed frames at a very high rate at 1080p.

Looking at the High settings tier, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute numbers. At 1080p High, the average is 144 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 104 FPS, a 28% reduction that mirrors the Low settings scaling. At 4K High, the average falls to 65 FPS, which is a 37% drop from 1440p. This consistency across Low and High settings indicates that the bottleneck shifts smoothly from CPU-bound at 1080p to GPU-bound at 4K, with the RTX 5060’s rendering load dominating the frame time as resolution increases.

The Medium settings tier provides the only min/max FPS data in the entire dataset, offering a glimpse into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the average is 230 FPS with a minimum of 196 and a maximum of 265. At 1440p Medium, those numbers become 166 average, 141 minimum, and 191 maximum. At 4K Medium, the average is 104 with a minimum of 89 and a maximum of 120. The spread between min and max FPS remains relatively consistent across resolutions, around 69-74 FPS at 1080p and 31 FPS at 4K, which suggests that the game’s frame time variance is more pronounced at lower resolutions where the CPU has more headroom to produce variable frame rates.

The Ultra settings tier shows the most significant resolution penalty. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 137 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 99 FPS, a 28% reduction. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 62 FPS, a 37% drop from 1440p. This consistent 28%/37% scaling across all four settings presets strongly indicates that the RTX 5060’s GPU rendering pipeline is the primary constraint at 1440p and above, while at 1080p the CPU is still capable of pushing well beyond 200 FPS at lower settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor from the Panther Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.00 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its benchmark results show a strong single-threaded presence, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,984 points and a Passmark single-thread score of 4,005. In multi-threaded workloads, it achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28,221 points and a Passmark multi-thread score of 32,956, placing it in the 87th percentile against all CPUs. This processor is clearly not a weak link for a puzzle platformer like Inside, which typically relies on a few main threads for game logic and physics.

The measured FPS data supports this interpretation. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 288 FPS, which is far beyond the refresh rate of most displays and indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution and settings level. Even at 1080p Ultra, the average of 137 FPS is well above the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay, showing that the CPU can handle the game’s logic without becoming a bottleneck. The fact that the FPS drops by roughly 28% when moving from 1080p to 1440p at every settings tier suggests that the GPU is the dominant constraint once resolution increases, not the CPU.

Comparing to nearest rivals, the Core Ultra X7 368H has an average benchmark score of 40,518, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core 7 253PE at 40,557 (a delta of -0.1%) and the Intel Core 5 223PE at 40,585 (a delta of -0.2%). It is also very close to the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H at 40,431 (a delta of 0.2%) and the Intel Xeon 6507P at 40,426 (a delta of 0.2%). These sub-1% differences mean that any of these CPUs would likely produce similar frame rates in Inside, and the measured results confirm that the CPU is not the differentiator in this specific game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is a Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU with 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Its clocks are listed as a base of 2280 MHz and a boost of 2497 MHz. In synthetic benchmarks, it achieves a Passmark G3D score of 20,891 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3,628, placing it in the 72nd percentile against all GPUs. The nearest rivals by average benchmark score include the AMD Radeon 860M at 26,401 (a delta of -0.3%), the NVIDIA GeForce MX550 at 26,421 (a delta of -0.3%), and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT at 26,011 (a delta of 1.2%).

The GPU’s role in Inside is most evident in the resolution scaling. At 1080p, the RTX 5060 is able to produce 288 FPS at Low settings and 137 FPS at Ultra, which indicates that the GPU is not fully saturated at this resolution. However, at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 62 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The 37% drop from 1440p to 4K at every settings tier is a strong indication that the GPU’s pixel throughput, particularly its 119.9 GPixel/s pixel rate and 19.18 TFLOPS FP32 performance, is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for this game, as the Medium settings tier at 4K shows an average of 104 FPS, suggesting that memory capacity is not causing any frame rate penalties.

The fact that the RTX 5060’s nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks is the AMD Radeon 860M, an integrated GPU, is notable. The measured FPS in Inside shows that the RTX 5060 is more than capable of handling this game at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K Ultra, it sits close to the edge of smooth performance. This aligns with the GPU’s 72nd percentile ranking, which indicates that while it is a competent mobile GPU, it is not a top-tier performer.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra X7 368H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is ranked 1,864 out of 2,887 tested combos for Inside. This places the system in the lower half of all tested configurations, which is surprising given the individual component benchmarks. The CPU is in the 87th percentile, and the GPU is in the 72nd percentile, yet the combined rank is only around the 35th percentile. This disconnect suggests that the game’s performance is heavily dependent on the GPU, and the RTX 5060’s mid-tier positioning drags the overall rank down despite the strong CPU.

Looking at the measured FPS, this rank makes sense when considering that many other combos likely feature higher-end GPUs that achieve much higher frame rates at 4K. The 4K Ultra average of 62 FPS is playable but not exceptional, and the 4K High average of 65 FPS is similar. At 1080p, the performance is excellent, with 288 FPS at Low and 137 FPS at Ultra, but the rank is based on a composite across all resolutions and settings, and the 4K results are likely weighing the score down.

The nearest rival CPUs, such as the Intel Core 7 253PE and AMD Ryzen 9 7940H, have nearly identical average scores, so the CPU choice is unlikely to change the rank significantly. The GPU is the clear differentiator here, and the RTX 5060’s position relative to other GPUs in the database explains why this combo sits at 1,864. For a game like Inside, which is not particularly demanding, the RTX 5060 is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it does not provide the headroom that higher-tier GPUs would offer at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this system depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, all settings presets produce playable frame rates, with Low at 288 FPS, Medium at 230 FPS, High at 144 FPS, and Ultra at 137 FPS. The jump from High to Ultra costs only 7 FPS, which is a negligible difference, so Ultra is the recommended choice for 1080p if visual quality is a priority. For players with a 144 Hz display, High or Ultra settings will comfortably exceed that refresh rate.

At 2560x1440, the options are more constrained. Low settings produce 207 FPS, Medium produces 166 FPS, High produces 104 FPS, and Ultra produces 99 FPS. The 5 FPS difference between High and Ultra is small, so either is viable, but for a 144 Hz monitor, Medium settings at 166 FPS would be the best choice to keep the frame rate above the refresh rate. For a 60 Hz display, Ultra at 99 FPS provides the best visual quality without any risk of dropping below 60.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates at higher settings. Low produces 130 FPS, Medium produces 104 FPS, High produces 65 FPS, and Ultra produces 62 FPS. The 40 FPS difference between Medium and High is significant, and the 3 FPS difference between High and Ultra is minimal. For 4K gaming, Medium settings at 104 FPS are the sweet spot, providing a smooth experience that is well above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings at 65 FPS are also acceptable, but Ultra at 62 FPS offers no meaningful improvement over High and should be avoided.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this system?

A: At 1920x1080, Ultra settings provide 137 FPS average, which is excellent. At 2560x1440, Medium settings at 166 FPS are the best balance. At 3840x2160, Medium settings at 104 FPS are recommended over High (65 FPS) or Ultra (62 FPS).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in Inside?

A: At 1080p, the CPU is not the bottleneck, as Low settings produce 288 FPS. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as FPS scales down consistently by 28% from 1080p to 1440p and 37% from 1440p to 4K across all settings.

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

A: This combo ranks 1,864 out of 2,887 tested combinations for Inside, placing it in the lower half of the database despite the CPU being in the 87th percentile and the GPU in the 72nd percentile.

Q: Can this system play Inside at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 104, while at 4K High it drops to 65 FPS and at 4K Ultra to 62 FPS.

Q: What is the frame time variance like?

A: The only min/max data available is for Medium settings. At 1080p, the range is 196-265 FPS (average 230). At 1440p, it is 141-191 FPS (average 166). At 4K, it is 89-120 FPS (average 104).

Q: How does the RTX 5060 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5060 has an average benchmark score of 26,331. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon 860M (26,401, -0.3% delta), NVIDIA GeForce MX550 (26,421, -0.3% delta), and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT (26,011, 1.2% delta).

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is a complete listing of the measured FPS data for the Intel Core Ultra X7 368H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 in Inside:

At 3840x2160 (4K), the results are: Low settings average 130 FPS. Medium settings average 104 FPS, with a minimum of 89 and a maximum of 120. High settings average 65 FPS. Ultra settings average 62 FPS.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the results are: Low settings average 207 FPS. Medium settings average 166 FPS, with a minimum of 141 and a maximum of 191. High settings average 104 FPS. Ultra settings average 99 FPS.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the results are: Low settings average 288 FPS. Medium settings average 230 FPS, with a minimum of 196 and a maximum of 265. High settings average 144 FPS. Ultra settings average 137 FPS.

These numbers show a consistent pattern across all settings presets, with 1080p offering the highest frame rates and 4K the lowest. The system is capable of exceeding 60 FPS at 4K on all settings, but only Medium settings provide a comfortable margin above that threshold. At 1080p, the system is capable of well over 200 FPS at Low and Medium settings, making it suitable for high-refresh-rate displays.