Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that is remarkably light on GPU demands by modern standards, and the measured frame rates with the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 confirm this. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly overqualified for the task, delivering playable and often extremely high frame rates at every resolution and settings combination tested. This analysis interprets the measured FPS rows to provide practical settings guidance, break down performance by resolution, and clarify the roles of the CPU and GPU in this specific title.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the "Ultra" preset is the only setting level that presents any challenge to this hardware, and even then, the challenge is minimal. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 71, which is perfectly smooth for a game of this genre. At 1440p Ultra, the average jumps to 112 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra, it reaches 156 FPS. There is no reason to compromise visual fidelity for performance, as the GPU is never a bottleneck in a meaningful way. The data suggests that for the best experience, users should enable the Ultra preset and enjoy the highest visual quality without worrying about frame rate drops.

However, for players with high-refresh-rate monitors, particularly 144Hz or higher, the "High" preset offers a compelling alternative. At 1080p High, the system produces 164 FPS on average, which is a modest 5% increase over Ultra's 156 FPS. The more significant gains from dropping settings appear at higher resolutions. At 1440p, moving from Ultra to High increases the average frame rate from 112 to 118 FPS, a 5.4% improvement. At 4K, the same settings change yields a more substantial improvement, going from 71 to 74 FPS, a 4.2% gain. These differences are marginal and likely imperceptible in a game like this, so the visual benefits of Ultra outweigh the minor FPS differences.

The "Medium" and "Low" presets are largely unnecessary for this configuration. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 262 FPS, and at 1440p it produces 189 FPS, which are far beyond the refresh rate of most displays. The Low preset pushes these numbers even higher, to 328 FPS at 1080p and 236 FPS at 1440p. These settings exist for much weaker hardware. For this specific CPU and GPU combination, the data clearly shows that the Ultra preset is the optimal choice for the best balance of visual quality and performance. If a player has a 240Hz or higher refresh rate monitor and is chasing every possible frame, the High preset at 1080p is the only reasonable alternative, offering 164 FPS while still maintaining high visual fidelity.

FAQ

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

A: Yes. The measured data shows an average of 71 FPS at 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset. This is well within the playable range for a smooth experience, and the game's pacing means this frame rate will feel consistent.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Ultra and High presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 112 FPS, while the High preset averages 118 FPS. This represents a 5.4% increase in frame rate when dropping from Ultra to High, which is a negligible difference given the high absolute frame rates.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to the Ultra preset at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 produces an average of 328 FPS, which is more than double the 156 FPS average of the Ultra preset. This highlights how underutilized the hardware is at this resolution.

Q: Is there a significant frame rate drop when moving from 1440p to 4K?

A: Yes, the data shows a substantial drop. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 118 at 1440p to 74 at 4K, a 37% reduction. At Ultra settings, it falls from 112 to 71, a 36.6% reduction. This indicates the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor at 4K, though performance remains good.

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

A: The only settings with measured minimum FPS values are the Medium presets. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 223 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 160 FPS. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 101 FPS. No minimums are provided for other presets.

Q: How does the average FPS at 4K Medium compare to 4K High?

A: The 4K Medium preset averages 118 FPS, while the 4K High preset averages 74 FPS. The Medium preset is 59% faster than High, showing that the game scales significantly with settings at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the primary driver of performance in Inside, but its immense power means it is rarely stressed. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. The card's boost clock is rated at 2512 MHz, with a base clock of 2325 MHz. These specifications are far beyond what a 2016 puzzle platformer requires, and the benchmark results reflect this overabundance of capability.

The VRAM capacity of 12 GB is a non-issue for Inside. The game's art style and geometry are not demanding enough to approach this limit at any resolution tested, including 4K. The memory bandwidth is similarly excessive, but it ensures that texture streaming and memory access are never bottlenecks. The GPU's compute capabilities, rated at 30.87 TFLOPS for FP32, are largely idle, as the game does not utilize complex shaders or physics simulations that would stress this hardware.

The GPU's role becomes more apparent when examining the frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 1080p, the system achieves 328 FPS on Low settings, which suggests the CPU or game engine is hitting a limit, as the GPU is capable of far more. However, as resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the GPU's workload increases, and the frame rates drop accordingly. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 71, which is still very high, but it shows the GPU is finally being utilized more fully. The data indicates that the RTX 5070 is the component that dictates performance at 4K, but it never becomes a limiting factor in the traditional sense, as all results are well above 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers extraordinary frame rates. The Low preset averages 328 FPS, the Medium preset averages 262 FPS with a minimum of 223 FPS, the High preset averages 164 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 156 FPS. These numbers indicate that at 1080p, the system is heavily CPU-bound or engine-limited, as the GPU is capable of much higher output.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain exceptionally high. The Low preset averages 236 FPS, the Medium preset averages 189 FPS with a minimum of 160 FPS, the High preset averages 118 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 112 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a consistent reduction in performance, with the Ultra preset dropping from 156 to 112 FPS, a 28% decrease. This suggests the GPU is beginning to take on a more significant role, though the absolute numbers remain far above what is necessary for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the system finally shows some signs of being challenged, but the results are still excellent. The Low preset averages 148 FPS, the Medium preset averages 118 FPS with a minimum of 101 FPS, the High preset averages 74 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 71 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is substantial, with the Low preset being 108% faster. This wide spread indicates that the GPU is the primary performance determinant at this resolution, and adjusting settings has a much more significant impact than at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate behavior from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the system's bottleneck. Moving from 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS on the Ultra preset drops from 156 to 112, a 28.2% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the average FPS drops from 112 to 71, a 36.6% decrease. This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU becomes progressively more important as resolution increases.

At 1080p, the system appears to be limited by the CPU or game engine. The Low preset achieves 328 FPS, which is an extraordinarily high number. If the GPU were the limit, we would expect to see more variation between settings at this resolution. However, the difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is a factor of 2.1x, which is smaller than the 3.1x difference at 1440p and the 2.1x difference at 4K. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU's processing speed, with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz across its 16 cores, is the limiting factor.

At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting component. The RTX 5070's workload increases with the pixel count, and the frame rates drop accordingly. The fact that the Low preset still achieves 148 FPS at 4K shows that even a light GPU load is sufficient for this game. The scaling pattern is typical of a system where the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions, but the absolute performance is so high that it does not matter for practical purposes. The data shows that users can expect a smooth experience at any resolution, with the only caveat being that 4K Ultra will not hit the high refresh rates achievable at 1080p.

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, with 18 MB of shared L3 cache. This mobile processor is rated at a 25 W TDP, which is remarkably low for its performance class. In the context of Inside, the CPU's role is to ensure the game logic and physics run smoothly, but the data suggests it does so with immense headroom.

Benchmark results for the CPU show a strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18911 and a single-core score of 2200.5. The processor's average benchmark score is 44466, placing it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival is the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D, which scores 44573, a negligible -0.2% difference. This indicates the CPU is a top-tier performer, but for Inside, such power is largely unused.

The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the system reaches 328 FPS on Low settings. This is likely near the engine's maximum frame rate limit or the CPU's single-threaded performance ceiling. The CPU's high boost clock of 5.10 GHz is critical for this, as the game's logic is likely single-threaded. The 16 cores and 16 threads are not fully utilized, but they ensure that background tasks do not interfere with gameplay. The CPU's 153.6 GB/s memory bandwidth and LPDDR5X support also help maintain smooth frame pacing, even at the high frame rates seen at 1080p.

Compared to its rivals, the Core Ultra X9 388H trades blows with the Intel Core i9-13950HX, which scores 44342, a 0.3% difference. This puts the Ultra X9 388H in elite company, but for Inside, the performance difference is irrelevant. The game is not CPU-intensive, and the data shows that the CPU is never the primary bottleneck except at 1080p Low settings, where the frame rate hits 328 FPS. For all practical purposes, the CPU provides more than enough processing power for this game, and its high single-core performance ensures that the game's logic runs without any hitches.