Inside

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 delivers a remarkably smooth experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016. The measured frame rates show that this combination is not merely capable, but overwhelmingly powerful for the title, with every tested configuration exceeding 60 FPS at 4K and reaching well beyond 200 FPS at 1080p. The data indicates that the primary challenge for users will not be achieving playability, but rather deciding which combination of resolution and visual quality best leverages the hardware's considerable headroom.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 137 FPS, which is fully sufficient for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, the Medium preset at the same resolution offers a substantial increase to 230 FPS, a 67.9% improvement over Ultra. The Low preset pushes this further to 288 FPS, but the visual compromise is unnecessary. For most users seeking a balance between fidelity and speed, the Medium preset at 1080p is the optimal choice, as it maintains a very high frame rate while likely preserving most of the game's atmospheric lighting and shadow details.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. The High preset achieves 104 FPS, which is still excellent for most displays. The Medium preset again provides a significant boost, reaching 166 FPS, which is a 59.6% increase over High. The Ultra preset drops to 99 FPS, which, while still smooth, is only marginally faster than the 4K High result. For 1440p, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation, as it offers a frame rate well above the 144 Hz threshold for many gaming monitors, while the High preset remains a solid fallback for those prioritizing visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the performance landscape becomes more nuanced. The Ultra preset yields 62 FPS, which is playable but does not provide much headroom above the 60 FPS baseline. The High preset improves this to 65 FPS, a marginal gain. The Medium preset, however, jumps to 104 FPS, a 60% increase over High, making it the only 4K setting that comfortably exceeds 100 FPS. The Low preset reaches 130 FPS, but the graphical sacrifices are likely too severe for a game renowned for its visual storytelling. Therefore, the data strongly suggests that the Medium preset at 4K is the best overall experience, providing a high frame rate without the need to drop to the lowest quality settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable with this hardware?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 288, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Inside?*

A: Yes. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 62 FPS, while the Medium preset reaches 104 FPS, indicating that 4K is not only playable but can be enjoyed at high frame rates with moderate settings.

Q: How much of a performance drop occurs when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings?

A: At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 144 at 1080p to 104 at 1440p and finally to 65 at 4K. This represents a 54.9% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever the best choice according to the data?

A: The Ultra preset provides the lowest average FPS of all presets at every resolution. At 1080p, it averages 137 FPS, which is lower than High (144 FPS). The data suggests that the Ultra preset's performance cost is not justified by its average frame rate gains, making it a less favorable option.

Q: Which settings preset provides the most significant performance uplift?

A: The Low preset consistently provides the highest average FPS, but the Medium preset offers a substantial improvement over High and Ultra. For example, at 1440p, Medium averages 166 FPS compared to 104 FPS on High, a 59.6% increase.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 1864th out of 2887 tested combinations for Inside, placing it in the 35th percentile of all tested setups, which is a solid mid-pack result given the game's age.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data illustrates a clear and consistent scaling pattern across the three resolutions. At the Medium settings preset, the average FPS decreases from 230 at 1920x1080, to 166 at 2560x1440, and finally to 104 at 3840x2160. This represents a 27.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 37.3% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 54.8%, which is a significant but expected performance penalty for rendering four times the number of pixels.

This scaling behavior provides insight into the limiting component. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is relatively modest, and the drop from 1440p to 4K is more pronounced, suggesting that the workload is becoming increasingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions. The RTX 5060, with its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, is handling the increased pixel throughput, but the demands of 4K are pushing it further from its comfort zone. The CPU does not appear to be a bottleneck, as the high frame rates at 1080p (288 FPS on Low) indicate that the processor can feed frames far faster than the GPU can render them at lower resolutions. The scaling curve points to the GPU as the primary performance limiter as resolution increases, which is typical for a game like Inside that is not heavily CPU-dependent.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measurements provides a detailed picture of performance. At 1920x1080, the average FPS values are: 288 on Low, 230 on Medium (with a minimum of 196 and a maximum of 265), 144 on High, and 137 on Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium is 58 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 7 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset offers diminishing returns over High. The Medium preset's minimum of 196 FPS indicates that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate never drops below the refresh rate of most high-end 1080p monitors.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: 207 on Low, 166 on Medium (with a minimum of 141 and a maximum of 191), 104 on High, and 99 on Ultra. The performance difference between High and Ultra narrows to just 5 FPS, making High a more logical choice at this resolution. The Medium preset again proves to be the performance sweet spot, with a minimum of 141 FPS ensuring a consistently smooth experience on 144 Hz displays.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: 130 on Low, 104 on Medium (with a minimum of 89 and a maximum of 120), 65 on High, and 62 on Ultra. This is the only resolution where the Low preset falls below 144 FPS, and the High preset dips dangerously close to the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset, with a minimum of 89 FPS, is the only setting that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS at 4K. The data shows that the gap between Low and Medium is 26 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is a mere 3 FPS, reinforcing that Ultra is the least efficient preset in terms of performance per frame.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Inside, this specific configuration holds a rank of 1864 out of 2887 total combinations. This places it in the lower half of the field, at approximately the 64.6th percentile. While the absolute frame rates are exceptionally high, the rank reflects the fact that Inside is an older title that many high-end systems can max out with ease. The rank is more indicative of the relative performance of this specific CPU and GPU pairing against all other tested hardware, rather than a measure of playability.

The combo's rank suggests that while the RTX 5060 and Core Ultra X9 388H are a powerful duo, many other tested configurations, likely including higher-tier GPUs or CPUs, achieve even higher average frame rates in this game. However, the measured data shows that the actual gameplay experience is not compromised. The rank of 1864 is a data point for comparison, but the practical takeaway from the FPS measurements is that this system delivers exceptional performance, with even the most demanding 4K Ultra setting remaining playable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor based on the Panther Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. It features 18 MB of shared L3 cache and supports LPDDR5X memory. In the context of Inside, the CPU's role is to ensure that the game's logic and physics calculations are processed quickly enough to keep up with the GPU. The benchmark results show that this is not a challenge; the PassMark single-thread score of 4280 and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2200.5 indicate strong per-core performance, which is critical for a game engine that may not be perfectly optimized for multi-threading.

The high boost clock of 5.10 GHz is particularly relevant for a title like Inside. The data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 288 FPS, a very high frame rate that requires rapid CPU processing of game state updates. The processor's ability to maintain high clock speeds on a few cores directly contributes to this capability. The multi-core performance, demonstrated by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18911, is more than sufficient for the game's demands, and the processor's percentile ranking of 88th versus all CPUs confirms its high overall capability, placing it just 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D in average benchmark score. The CPU is not a limiting factor in this game, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates scale primarily with resolution, which is a GPU-side workload.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is the primary driver of the measured frame rates. It features 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Its boost clock is 2497 MHz, and it has 3840 shading units. In Inside, the GPU's role is to render the game's distinctive monochromatic art style, which involves complex lighting and shadow effects. The 8 GB VRAM is ample for this game, as the textures and geometry are not exceptionally demanding by modern standards.

The performance data shows that the GPU is the main scaling factor. As resolution increases, the average FPS drops proportionally, indicating that the GPU is working harder to fill more pixels. The RTX 5060's raw compute power, rated at 19.18 TFLOPS, is more than enough to render Inside at very high frame rates. The GPU's percentile ranking of 72nd versus all GPUs shows it is a solidly mid-to-high-range performer, but the benchmark results in this game are exceptional. The nearest rival, the AMD Radeon 860M, has an average score just 0.3% higher, but in the measured FPS data, the RTX 5060 demonstrates its strength. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s ensures that the 8 GB of VRAM can be fed quickly, preventing any potential bottlenecks in texture streaming. The data clearly shows that the RTX 5060 is the component that determines the final frame rate, and it does so with remarkable efficiency, providing playable frame rates even at the highest settings and resolution.