Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer from 2016 that places minimal demands on modern hardware, so the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination has ample headroom at most settings. The recorded data shows that this pairing is limited almost entirely by the GPU at 4K, while lower resolutions become increasingly CPU-bound. The analysis below walks through the optimal settings per resolution, the division of labor between the two components, and the expected frame rates across all measured configurations.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Medium, with an average of 93.5 FPS. High and Ultra both fall short of the 60 FPS playability threshold: High averages 58.4 FPS, and Ultra averages 57.8 FPS. Low, by contrast, runs far above the threshold at 118 FPS. The verdict data confirms that only Low and Medium are playable at this resolution, with Medium being the best choice.

At 2560x1440, every preset clears the 60 FPS line. The best settings are Ultra, with an average of 90.1 FPS. High averages 91.8 FPS, Medium averages 148 FPS, and Low averages 182.5 FPS. Since Ultra remains comfortably above 60 FPS, there is no reason to drop below it unless the user wants to maximize frame rate for a high refresh rate display.

At 1920x1080, the best settings are also Ultra, with an average of 125.1 FPS. High averages 127.2 FPS, Medium averages 205.9 FPS, and Low averages 254.9 FPS. All presets are well above the playability threshold, so the choice comes down to visual quality versus raw speed. The data indicates that Ultra is the appropriate default, as it still delivers more than double the playability threshold.

CPU and GPU Roles

The measured FPS values reveal a clear shift in component responsibility across resolutions. At 3840x2160, the GPU dominates: dropping from Low to Ultra reduces average FPS from 118 to 57.8, a reduction of roughly half. The CPU, a 12-core, 24-thread Zen 4 part with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, has no trouble feeding frames at any setting; the bottleneck is the RTX 2060's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth at 4K.

At 2560x1440, the scaling pattern is similar but less severe. Low runs at 182.5 FPS, Medium at 148 FPS, High at 91.8 FPS, and Ultra at 90.1 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is tiny (1.7 FPS), which suggests that Ultra's additional effects are not heavily taxing the GPU at this resolution. The CPU still has significant headroom, as even the highest preset leaves 90 FPS on the table.

At 1920x1080, the CPU begins to matter more, though the GPU is still the primary constraint. Low runs at 254.9 FPS, Medium at 205.9 FPS, and High at 127.2 FPS, with Ultra at 125.1 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 49 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is only 2.1 FPS. This indicates that the RTX 2060 handles the lower presets easily, but the high-end presets at 1080p are still well within the GPU's capabilities. The Ryzen 9 7900X's single-thread performance, visible in a Passmark single-thread score of 4238, ensures that even the highest frame rates do not stall on CPU-bound scenes.

Comparing across resolutions at the same preset shows the GPU load scaling. At Ultra, the average FPS drops from 125.1 at 1080p to 90.1 at 1440p, then to 57.8 at 4K. That is a 35% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a further 36% drop from 1440p to 4K. At Low, the same resolution scaling produces 254.9, 182.5, and 118 FPS respectively. The consistent pattern is that the CPU can maintain high frame rates at all resolutions, but the GPU's fill rate and bandwidth limit the upper bound as pixel count rises.

FAQ

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

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 57.8, which is below the 60 FPS playability threshold. High settings average 58.4 FPS, also below the threshold. Medium is the highest playable preset at 4K, with an average of 93.5 FPS.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming?

A: Ultra is the best preset at 2560x1440, with an average of 90.1 FPS. All four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are playable at this resolution, so there is no compromise needed.

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

A: At 1920x1080, Low averages 254.9 FPS, while Ultra averages 125.1 FPS. That is roughly double the frame rate, though both are far above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor at 3840x2160. The recorded data shows that lowering settings from Ultra to Low increases average FPS from 57.8 to 118, which indicates a GPU-bound scenario. The Ryzen 9 7900X has ample headroom, as shown by its Passmark multithread score of 51406.

Q: Does the RTX 2060 perform similarly to any other GPUs in the database?

A: Yes. The nearest rivals to the RTX 2060 are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (0% delta), the AMD Radeon 680M (0.1% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (0.6% delta), and the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (0.8% delta). These GPUs have nearly identical average benchmark scores.

Q: What resolutions and settings are playable according to the verdict data?

A: At 3840x2160, only Low and Medium are playable. At 2560x1440 and 1920x1080, all four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are playable. The best playable setting at 4K is Medium at 93.5 FPS, at 1440p it is Ultra at 90.1 FPS, and at 1080p it is Ultra at 125.1 FPS.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The Ryzen 9 7900X has three nearest rivals in the CPU database: the AMD EPYC 7313P (0.2% delta, average score 53206, 0.2% below the 7900X's 53288 average), the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (0.3% delta, average score 53469, 0.3% above), the Intel Xeon 634 (0.6% delta, average score 52974, 0.6% below), and the Intel Core i7-14700F (0.6% delta, average score 53620, 0.6% above). These processors all sit within 0.6% of the 7900X's average benchmark score, meaning any of them would produce nearly identical frame rates in Inside, provided they are paired with the same RTX 2060.

The RTX 2060's nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (0% delta, average score 15283), the AMD Radeon 680M (0.1% delta, average score 15270), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (0.6% delta, average score 15199), and the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (0.8% delta, average score 15171). All of these GPUs have average benchmark scores within 0.8% of the RTX 2060's 15290 average. In practice, swapping the RTX 2060 for any of these cards would yield frame rates within a few percent of the values recorded here. The GTX 580 is the closest match, with a delta of exactly 0%.

Since the game is not demanding, the CPU choice matters less than the GPU at 4K. However, at 1080p where frame rates exceed 250 FPS on Low, the CPU's single-thread performance becomes relevant. A user replacing the 7900X with the Intel Core i7-14700F, which has a 0.6% higher average score, would see essentially the same performance. Replacing it with the AMD EPYC 7313P, which is 0.2% lower, would also be indistinguishable in this game.

The Verdict

Yes, this PC can run Inside. The verdict data shows that at 1920x1080, all four presets are playable, with the best being Ultra at an average of 125.1 FPS. At 2560x1440, all four presets are also playable, with Ultra averaging 90.1 FPS. At 3840x2160, only Low and Medium are playable; Medium is the best playable setting with an average of 93.5 FPS, while High and Ultra fall just below the 60 FPS threshold.

For users targeting 4K, the recommendation is to stick with Medium settings. The difference between Medium and High at 4K is notable (93.5 vs 58.4 FPS), but the visual upgrade may not justify the loss of smoothness. At 1440p and 1080p, there is no reason to compromise: Ultra settings deliver 90.1 FPS and 125.1 FPS respectively, both well above the playability threshold.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 2854 out of 3716 tested combos in the database for Inside. That places it in the lower half of all tested systems, which makes sense because the RTX 2060 is an older mid-range GPU (released in 2016, with a Passmark G3D score of 14111) and Inside is a game that does not stress even weak hardware much. The ranking reflects the GPU's position rather than the CPU, since the CPU is in the top tier of the database (91st percentile among all CPUs).

The low rank does not indicate poor performance in absolute terms, as the measured FPS values demonstrate that matter more than satisfy the game's requirements at most settings. What the rank tells us is that many modern combos with faster GPUs would score higher simply because they can handle 4K Ultra, which is the only preset that this pairing cannot fully max out.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x, the data shows the following average frame rates. At High settings, the average FPS is 127.2. At Low settings, the average FPS is 254.9. At Medium settings, the average FPS is 205.9. At Ultra settings, the average FPS is 125.1. The data does not include min or max FPS values, so all numbers are averages.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are as follows. High settings average 91.8 FPS. Low settings average 182.5 FPS. Medium settings average 148 FPS. Ultra settings average 90.1 FPS. Again, no min FPS or max FPS data is recorded in the measured data.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are as follows. High settings average 58. The recorded data shows Low settings average 118 FPS. Medium settings average 93.5 FPS. Ultra settings average 57.8 FPS. All values are average FPS only, with no min or max FPS values recorded in the measured data.

The complete list of average FPS values across all 12 measurements is: 58.4 (4K High), 118 (4K Low), 93.5 (4K Medium), 57.8 (4K Ultra), 91.8 (1440p High), 182.5 (1440p Low), 148 (1440p Medium), 90.1 (1440p Ultra), 127.2 (1080p High), 254.9 (1080p Low), 205.9 (1080p Medium), and 125.1 (1080p Ultra). Every one of these values is an average frame rate, and all of them are above the 60 FPS playability threshold except for the two 4K high-end presets. The combination of a strong CPU and a mid-range GPU is more than adequate for Inside at every resolution except 4K with High or Ultra settings.