Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that, on paper, should not stress modern hardware, yet the measured FPS data for the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and AMD Radeon 8060S combo reveals a complex scaling pattern. The benchmark results show a system that is capable of delivering extremely high frame rates at lower resolutions but begins to show its architectural limitations as pixel count increases. This analysis walks through the measured data to explain where the bottleneck lies, how the GPU and CPU each contribute to the final frame, and what settings provide the most consistent experience.

Resolution Scaling

The most immediate observation from the data is the dramatic drop in frame rate as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At the High preset, the average FPS falls from 155 at 1080p to 111 at 1440p, and then down to 70 at 4K. This represents a 54.8% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K, which is a substantial hit. The pattern is consistent across all settings presets, indicating a clear scaling relationship with pixel count.

At the Low preset, the scaling is even more pronounced in absolute terms. The system delivers 309 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 222 FPS at 1440p, and then plummets to 140 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 4K delta here is 169 FPS, or a 54.7% reduction. This near-identical percentage drop across Low and High presets is telling. It suggests that the limiting factor is not the complexity of the scene rendering but the raw pixel throughput, which points directly to the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth constraints.

The Medium preset shows a slightly different pattern with the inclusion of min and max FPS data. At 4K Medium, the average is 112 FPS, with a minimum of 95 and a maximum of 128. The variance of 33 FPS between min and max indicates that frame times are not perfectly stable, even at this mid-range setting. When moving to 1440p Medium, the average jumps to 178 FPS with a min of 151 and max of 205, showing a wider spread of 54 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the average is 247 FPS with a min of 210 and max of 284. The relative consistency of these ranges suggests that the game engine is well optimized, and the frame pacing issues are likely tied to the GPU's ability to sustain high output.

The data indicates that the system is heavily GPU-limited at 4K. The 4K Ultra preset yields only 67 FPS, which is barely above the 60 FPS threshold, while the 4K High preset achieves 70 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 73 FPS (140 vs 67), which is a 52.1% performance drop purely from settings changes. This shows that while the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, the settings still have a massive impact on the final frame rate.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 8060S is a mobile integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It features 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output pipelines. The GPU is configured with a base clock of 1295 MHz and a boost clock of 2900 MHz. Its memory is designated as "System Shared," meaning it relies on the host system's LPDDR5X memory, with bandwidth listed as "System Dependent."

This memory configuration is a critical factor in the 4K performance. The GPU's pixel rate is rated at 185.6 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 464.0 GTexel/s. At 4K resolution, the GPU must process over 8.3 million pixels per frame. Given the pixel rate, the theoretical maximum fill rate would allow for around 22 frames per millisecond, but the shared memory bandwidth becomes the limiting factor. The system's memory bandwidth is 153.6 GB/s, which is shared between the CPU and GPU. At 4K Ultra, the scene complexity increases memory pressure, causing the frame rate to drop to 67 FPS.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 87th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 55757. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (deltaPct 0.1), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 (deltaPct -0.6), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (deltaPct 1.7). While the RTX 5080 is a desktop-class card, the deltaPct of -0.6% indicates that the Radeon 8060S performs nearly identically in synthetic benchmarks. However, in this specific game, the 4K results suggest that the shared memory architecture does not scale as efficiently as dedicated VRAM would.

The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 14.85 TFLOPS, which is substantial for an integrated solution. Yet, the 4K High preset delivers only 70 FPS, which is 45.2% lower than the 1440p High result of 111 FPS. This non-linear scaling is a hallmark of memory bandwidth saturation. The GPU is not compute-bound at 4K; it is waiting on data from system memory.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K with the High preset?

A: The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with the High preset is 70 FPS.

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

A: The 1080p Low preset achieves an average of 309 FPS, while the 4K Ultra preset achieves an average of 67 FPS. This is a difference of 242 FPS, or a 78.3% reduction in performance.

Q: Is the system more CPU-bound or GPU-bound at 1440p Medium?

A: The 1440p Medium preset shows an average of 178 FPS with a minimum of 151 FPS, which is high enough to suggest the CPU is not the primary limitation. The GPU is still the main bottleneck, as the frame rate scales significantly with resolution.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest average FPS is 67, recorded at 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU have a higher percentile ranking relative to their respective hardware pools?

A: The CPU, Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, is in the 88th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU, AMD Radeon 8060S, is in the 87th percentile of all GPUs. They are nearly equivalent in relative standing.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS recorded at 1080p Medium?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 210 and the maximum FPS is 284, with an average of 247 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete matrix of resolution and settings combinations. Starting at 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 309 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 247 FPS, with a min of 210 and max of 284. The High preset averages 155 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 147 FPS. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 162 FPS, indicating that even at the lowest resolution, Ultra settings impose a significant load.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 222 FPS, a 28.2% drop from 1080p Low. The Medium preset averages 178 FPS, with a min of 151 and max of 205. The High preset averages 111 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 106 FPS. At 1440p, the gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 116 FPS, showing that the GPU is starting to become the limiting factor even at lower settings.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 140 FPS. The Medium preset averages 112 FPS, with a min of 95 and max of 128. The High preset averages 70 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 67 FPS. The 4K data reveals a compression of the settings range: Low to Ultra is only a 73 FPS spread, compared to 162 FPS at 1080p. This confirms that at 4K, the GPU is saturated, and settings changes have a diminishing impact on the frame rate.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min and max data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the min is 210 and max is 284, a 74 FPS range. At 1440p, the min is 151 and max is 205, a 54 FPS range. At 4K, the min is 95 and max is 128, a 33 FPS range. This narrowing range as resolution increases indicates that frame time consistency improves at higher resolutions, likely because the GPU is fully loaded and there is less idle time.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and AMD Radeon 8060S combination ranks 1600 out of 2887 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the 55.4th percentile of all tested configurations, which is slightly above the median. Given that the GPU is in the 87th percentile and the CPU is in the 88th percentile individually, the combo's ranking in this game is lower than expected based on synthetic benchmarks alone.

This discrepancy suggests that Inside's engine is not fully utilizing the strengths of this hardware. The game is a puzzle platformer with a relatively simple visual style, which typically favors raw CPU single-thread performance and GPU fill rate. The combo's rank of 1600 indicates that there are many other combinations that deliver better performance in this specific title, despite having lower individual component percentiles.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (deltaPct -0.2), the Intel Core i9-13950HX (deltaPct 0.3), and the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 (deltaPct 0.4). These rivals have nearly identical average benchmark scores, suggesting that the CPU is not a differentiator in this game. The GPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (deltaPct 0.1) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 (deltaPct -0.6), which also show close performance parity.

The rank of 1600 out of 2887 means that 1287 combos perform better, while 1599 perform worse. This is a middle-of-the-pack result, which is surprising given the high-end nature of both components. The data suggests that the shared memory architecture of the GPU is a significant handicap in this game, particularly at 4K where the memory bandwidth becomes a hard limit.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor based on the Panther Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports LPDDR5X memory on a dual-channel bus, providing 153.6 GB/s of bandwidth.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 18911 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2200.5 in single-core. Its Passmark single-thread score is 4280, and the multithread score is 36811. These scores place it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44466. Its nearest rivals show negligible differences, with the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D being 0.2% slower and the Intel Core i9-13950HX being 0.3% faster.

For Inside, the CPU's role is primarily to handle game logic, physics, and draw calls. The game is not heavily threaded, but the high single-thread performance of the X9 388H ensures that the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 309 FPS, which is close to the theoretical maximum for many displays. Even at 1080p Ultra, the CPU manages to push 147 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold.

However, the CPU's performance at 4K is less relevant, as the GPU becomes the limiting factor. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the frame rate is 67 FPS, which is not much lower than the 4K High result of 70 FPS. This indicates that the CPU is not causing a frame rate drop at 4K; the GPU is simply unable to render faster. The CPU's 16 cores and 16 threads provide ample headroom for the game's logic, and its 5.10 GHz boost clock ensures responsive frame pacing.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 4K gaming, the High preset at 70 FPS is the best choice, as it provides a smooth experience close to the 60 FPS standard. The Ultra preset drops to 67 FPS, which is a marginal 4.3% reduction for potentially minimal visual gains. The Medium preset at 112 FPS is the best option for high-refresh-rate 4K displays, though it requires a monitor capable of over 100 Hz.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers 111 FPS, which is ideal for most high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 178 FPS is the best choice for 144Hz or 165Hz displays, offering a significant frame rate boost over High. The Ultra preset at 106 FPS is also viable, but the 4.5% drop from High (111 to 106 FPS) suggests that the visual fidelity increase may not be worth the performance cost.

At 1080p, the High preset at 155 FPS is the balanced choice for competitive play, while the Ultra preset at 147 FPS is nearly identical in performance. The Medium preset at 247 FPS is the best option for extremely high refresh rate displays, such as 240Hz panels. The Low preset at 309 FPS is only useful for esports-style play where maximum frame rate is prioritized over visual quality.

The data shows that the Medium preset offers the best overall balance of performance and visual quality across all resolutions. It provides 247 FPS at 1080p, 178 FPS at 1440p, and 112 FPS at 4K, all of which are above the 60 FPS threshold. The inconsistent min FPS at Medium (210 at 1080p, 151 at 1440p, 95 at 4K) indicates that frame drops can occur, but the averages are high enough to mask these dips. Users with adaptive sync displays will benefit from the Medium preset's high average frame rates, as they provide more headroom for the display to manage frame time variations.