Inside

Inside is a 2D puzzle platformer that scales unusually well across hardware, and the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT shows a configuration that is heavily GPU-bound at higher settings, yet surprisingly CPU-limited at the lowest presets. The benchmark results, drawn from 12 distinct resolution and settings combinations, reveal a performance curve that favors high refresh rate monitors, with the most demanding Ultra preset at 4K still delivering a playable average of 58.6 FPS. This pairing, ranking 1319 out of 1671 tested combinations for this game, sits in the 77th percentile for the CPU and 68th percentile for the GPU, indicating a balanced mid-range setup that punches above its weight in a title with modest rendering demands.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K produces a dramatic, yet predictable, drop in frame rates, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly by settings preset. At the Low preset, the average FPS falls from 206.3 at 1920x1080 to 126.7 at 3840x2160, a reduction of approximately 38.6%. This relatively modest decline suggests that at Low settings, the system is not fully stressed by pixel throughput, and the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are doing more of the heavy lifting relative to the GPU. In contrast, the Ultra preset shows a steeper scaling penalty: 131.5 FPS at 1080p drops to 58.6 FPS at 4K, a 55.4% reduction. This indicates that the Radeon RX 5700 XT’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed heavily by the combination of high resolution and maximum visual fidelity.

The Medium and High presets sit between these extremes, with Medium dropping from 190.2 FPS at 1080p to 102.1 FPS at 4K (a 46.3% loss) and High falling from 139.6 FPS to 62.4 FPS (a 55.3% loss). The fact that High and Ultra scale almost identically in percentage terms suggests that the GPU’s shading units (2560) and texture units (160) become the limiting factor beyond 1440p, rather than memory capacity. At 2560x1440, the Low preset still achieves 182.9 FPS, which is 88.7% of the 1080p Low result, indicating that the 5700 XT’s 9.754 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is sufficient for this game’s simple geometry. Conversely, the 4K Ultra result of 58.6 FPS, while playable, shows that this is the boundary where the 225 W TDP card starts to hit its architectural limits with RDNA 1.0.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only at lower presets. The High preset at 3840x2160 averages 62.4 FPS, while Ultra drops to 58.6 FPS. Both are above the 60 FPS threshold, but the Low preset at 126.7 FPS is the only 4K option that provides a comfortable margin for high refresh rate displays.

Q: What is the biggest performance gap between settings at the same resolution?

A: At 1920x1080, the gap between Low (206.3 FPS) and Ultra (131.5 FPS) is 74.8 FPS, representing a 36.3% performance penalty for maximum visual quality. This gap widens to 68.1 FPS at 4K, where the Ultra preset (58.6 FPS) is less than half the speed of Low (126.7 FPS).

Q: How does this CPU compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 19616, which places it within 0.7% of the Intel Core i7-10700F (19485) and 0.6% above the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U (19508). It trails the Intel Core i5-1345U by 0.4% and the Core i5-11600KF by 0.6%, showing it remains competitive with much newer mobile and desktop parts.

Q: Is the GPU the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The data suggests yes, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. For instance, the 4K Ultra result (58.6 FPS) is 55.4% slower than 1080p Ultra (131.5 FPS), while the CPU’s single-thread score of 2239 in Passmark indicates it can feed frames adequately at lower resolutions where GPU load is lighter.

Q: What is the best resolution for high refresh rate gaming with this setup?

A: At 1920x1080, all presets exceed 130 FPS, with Low and Medium reaching 206.3 and 190.2 FPS respectively. Even the High preset at 139.6 FPS is suitable for 144 Hz monitors. At 2560x1440, only Low (182.9 FPS) and Medium (160.3 FPS) break the 144 FPS barrier.

Q: How does the GPU’s memory configuration affect performance here?

A: The 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The 4K results, which drop from 102.1 FPS on Medium to 62.4 FPS on High, suggest that bandwidth utilization scales with texture detail. The Ultra preset’s 58.6 FPS at 4K indicates the memory subsystem is nearing saturation, though not critically so.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 5700 XT’s specifications directly explain the measured frame rates. Its base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1905 MHz, alongside a game clock of 1755 MHz, provide the computational throughput necessary for Inside’s 2D rendering, which is less demanding than typical 3D titles. The 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs handle the game’s parallax layers and lighting effects efficiently, as evidenced by the 1080p Medium result of 190.2 FPS. The GPU’s 7 nm process node and RDNA 1.0 architecture, with a die size of 251 mm² and 10,300 million transistors, allow for high clock speeds without excessive power draw, though the 225 W TDP does require a 550 W suggested PSU.

Memory plays a critical role in resolution scaling. The 8 GB GDDR6 capacity is more than sufficient for a puzzle platformer, but the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes a factor at 4K. The jump from Medium (102.1 FPS) to High (62.4 FPS) at 3840x2160 represents a 38.9% drop, which aligns with increased texture streaming demands. The GPU’s 121.9 GPixel/s pixel rate and 304.8 GTexel/s texture rate are adequate for this game’s art style, but the Ultra preset’s 58.6 FPS at 4K approaches the limit of what the 5700 XT can sustain without frame drops. In benchmark comparisons, this GPU scores 16277 in Passmark G3D, placing it 0.1% behind the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile and 0.3% ahead of the Intel Arc A350M.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, the High preset at 2560x1440 is the sweet spot, delivering 101.5 FPS with a 62.4 FPS floor at 4K should the resolution be raised. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset’s 190.2 FPS is ideal for 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitors, providing a 36.3% performance headroom over Ultra while still offering improved lighting over Low. Players prioritizing smoothness over visuals should select Low at 4K, which at 126.7 FPS is more than double the Ultra preset’s 58.6 FPS. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p, where 131.5 FPS remains playable, or for 1440p users who accept 95.9 FPS. The data shows that High at 1440p (101.5 FPS) outperforms Ultra at 4K (58.6 FPS) by 73.2%, making it the clear choice for quality-conscious users.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings spectrum is usable: Low averages 206.3 FPS, Medium 190.2 FPS, High 139.6 FPS, and Ultra 131.5 FPS. The 74.8 FPS gap between Low and Ultra highlights how much headroom exists for higher refresh rates. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 182.9 FPS (Low), 160.3 FPS (Medium), 101.5 FPS (High), and 95.9 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset at 1440p (160.3 FPS) is faster than the High preset at 1080p (139.6 FPS), demonstrating that resolution scaling is more forgiving than settings scaling in this game. At 3840x2160, the results are 126.7 FPS (Low), 102.1 FPS (Medium), 62.4 FPS (High), and 58.6 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Low result is notably higher than 1080p Ultra, showing that settings have a greater impact than resolution through this range. The most significant single-step drop occurs between Medium and High at 4K, a 39.7 FPS reduction from 102.1 to 62.4 FPS.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 2600’s 6 cores and 12 threads, based on the Zen+ architecture with a 12 nm process, provide ample processing power for a puzzle platformer. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 3.90 GHz, combined with 16 MB of shared L3 cache, keep frame pacing consistent even at high FPS. The CPU’s Passmark single-thread score of 2239 and multithread score of 13160 indicate strong per-core performance for game logic, physics, and audio processing. In Cinebench R23, the multicore score of 11186 and single-core score of 1579 show that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this configuration. However, the data reveals that at 1080p Low, the 206.3 FPS result is likely CPU-limited, as the GPU is underutilized at such high frame rates. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 46.9 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for this game’s memory access patterns.

The CPU’s benchmark percentile of 77 versus all CPUs, and its average score of 19616, place it in a competitive position. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-1345U, scores 19691 (0.4% higher), while the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U scores 19508 (0.6% lower). This indicates that the 2600, despite being older, still holds its own against modern parts in synthetic tests. In Inside, the CPU’s 12 threads are more than adequate for the game’s single-threaded rendering pipeline, and the measured results suggest that the 5700 XT is the limiting factor at higher settings. The 160.3 FPS at 1440p Medium versus 190.2 FPS at 1080p Medium shows a 15.7% reduction, which is more attributable to GPU pixel fill rate than CPU performance.