Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT delivers a remarkably fluid experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016. The data indicates that this combination is heavily GPU-bound at higher settings, but the CPU’s older architecture becomes a limiting factor at lower presets, capping frame rates well below what the graphics card alone could deliver.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic shift in bottleneck behavior. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces an average of 205 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 183 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls further to 157 FPS. This 23% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings suggests the CPU is holding back the GPU, as the frame rate does not scale down proportionally with the fourfold increase in pixel count.

The story changes dramatically at higher quality presets. With High settings, the averages are 158 FPS at 1080p, 141 FPS at 1440p, and 94 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is 40% lower than 1080p High, indicating that the GPU is now the primary constraint. This trend becomes even more pronounced at Ultra, where the system delivers 155 FPS at 1080p but only 89 FPS at 4K—a 43% drop.

Medium settings provide the most complete data, with min and max FPS recorded at every resolution. At 1080p Medium, the average is 189 FPS with a minimum of 161 and maximum of 217. At 1440p Medium, the average is 169 FPS with a range of 144 to 195. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 145 FPS, with min and max of 123 and 167 respectively. This spread of 44 FPS at 4K Medium versus a 56 FPS spread at 1080p Medium indicates that frame pacing becomes more consistent as resolution increases, again pointing to GPU dominance at higher pixel counts.

The key insight is that the RX 7800 XT is powerful enough to push well past 144 FPS at 1080p on most settings, but the Ryzen 5 2600’s Zen architecture prevents the system from reaching the 200+ FPS territory that the GPU could theoretically achieve at Low presets. At 4K Ultra, the system still averages 89 FPS, which is excellent for a game of this era, but the scaling pattern suggests that the CPU is never the absolute bottleneck except at the lowest resolution and quality combination.

How This Combo Ranks

This CPU-GPU pairing ranks 2222 out of 3716 tested combos in Inside. That places it in the 40th percentile of all combinations tested, which is a modest position given the strength of the graphics card. The ranking reflects the fact that the Ryzen 5 2600, while competent, is not a top-tier processor even for a 2018 release, and the RX 7800 XT’s full potential is partially wasted in this pairing.

The CPU’s own benchmark standing helps contextualize this rank. The Ryzen 5 2600 sits at the 75th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21484. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests include the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V with a score of 21440 (0.2% faster), the Intel Core i9-11900H at 21367 (0.5% faster), the Intel Xeon D-1746TER at 21635 (0.7% slower), and the AMD EPYC 9454 at 21223 (1.2% slower). These deltas are all within 1.2%, meaning the 2600 is very much in the middle of a tightly packed performance cluster for general compute.

The GPU, by contrast, ranks at only the 51st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 11627. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 at 11680 (0.5% faster), the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M at 11528 (0.9% slower), the NVIDIA Tesla K20c at 11479 (1.3% slower), and the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT at 11842 (1.8% faster). This is a surprising result, as the RX 7800 XT is a modern RDNA 3.0 card, but the benchmark averages suggest it competes directly with much older and less powerful GPUs in this particular test suite.

The disconnect between the GPU’s mediocre percentile ranking and its excellent measured FPS in Inside highlights how the game’s modest graphical demands favor raw rasterization throughput over the features that newer GPUs excel at. The combo rank of 2222 out of 3716 suggests that while this system plays Inside exceptionally well, there are many faster combinations in the database, primarily those with newer CPUs.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen architecture, specifically the Zen+ refresh known as Pinnacle Ridge. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz, with a 65W TDP. The CPU supports DDR4 memory on a dual-channel bus with 46.9 GB/s of bandwidth. Its cache configuration includes 96 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a shared 16 MB L3 cache.

For Inside, a puzzle platformer with relatively simple geometry and physics, the CPU’s role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and manage game logic. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is more than sufficient for this task, as the game is not heavily multithreaded. However, the Zen architecture’s relatively low IPC compared to newer designs means that single-thread performance is a limiting factor.

The CPU’s synthetic benchmarks illustrate this. In Cinebench R15, it scores 1248 in multicore and 157.3 in single-core. Geekbench results show 5648 multicore and 1154 single-core. Passmark tests reveal a multithread score of 13160 and a single-thread score of 2239. The single-thread scores are modest by modern standards, and this becomes apparent in Inside at 1080p Low, where the CPU cannot push beyond 205 FPS average despite the GPU being capable of much higher frame rates.

The fact that the system hits 205 FPS at 1080p Low but only 157 FPS at 4K Low (a 23% reduction) suggests that at 4K, the GPU is still able to leverage its full power, but at 1080p, the CPU’s per-core performance caps the output. The boost clock of 3.90 GHz is respectable for the era, but the architecture’s limitations are evident when compared to the GPU’s capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 158 FPS on High, 205 FPS on Low, 189 FPS on Medium, and 155 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 161 and maximum of 217 FPS, indicating a variance of 56 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is only 3 FPS (158 vs 155), suggesting that Ultra adds no meaningful performance cost but also no visible benefit in terms of frame rate.

At 2560x1440, High yields 141 FPS, Low yields 183 FPS, Medium yields 169 FPS (min 144, max 195), and Ultra yields 139 FPS. The jump from 1080p to 1440p costs 17 FPS on High (158 to 141), 22 FPS on Low (205 to 183), 20 FPS on Medium (189 to 169), and 16 FPS on Ultra (155 to 139). These reductions are consistent across presets, suggesting a balanced scaling behavior.

At 3840x2160, High yields 94 FPS, Low yields 157 FPS, Medium yields 145 FPS (min 123, max 167), and Ultra yields 89 FPS. The 4K results are the most revealing. The drop from 1440p to 4K on High is 47 FPS (141 to 94), a 33% reduction. On Low, the drop is 26 FPS (183 to 157), a 14% reduction. On Medium, the drop is 24 FPS (169 to 145), a 14% reduction. On Ultra, the drop is 50 FPS (139 to 89), a 36% reduction.

The pattern is clear: at higher quality presets (High and Ultra), the 4K frame rate falls significantly because the GPU is working harder, while at lower presets (Low and Medium), the CPU becomes the limiting factor, and the resolution scaling is less severe. The 4K Ultra result of 89 FPS is still above 60 FPS, making it fully playable, but the 4K High result of 94 FPS is only marginally better, which is unusual—it suggests that Ultra settings on this game do not impose a significant additional load beyond High.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K with High settings smoothly?*

A: Yes. The measured average at 4K High is 94 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The minimum FPS is not recorded for this preset, but the average indicates no major stuttering concerns.

Q: What is the maximum frame rate this combo can achieve?

A: The highest measured average is 205 FPS at 1080p with Low settings. At 1080p Medium, the maximum recorded frame rate is 217 FPS, though the average is 189 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: At 1080p Low, the CPU appears to be the limiting factor, as the frame rate of 205 FPS is far below what the GPU could theoretically deliver. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is the bottleneck, with the average dropping to 89 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 2222 out of 3716 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the lower-middle range, largely due to the CPU’s modest single-thread performance.

Q: What is the difference between Medium and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Medium averages 169 FPS, while Ultra averages 139 FPS—a 30 FPS difference. The minimum FPS for Medium is 144, while Ultra’s minimum is not recorded.

Q: Does the game support high refresh rate monitors well?

A: Yes, at 1080p, all presets except Ultra exceed 155 FPS, and at 1440p, all presets except Ultra exceed 141 FPS. This makes the combination suitable for 144Hz monitors at 1080p and 1440p.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset is the clear winner. At 1080p, it delivers 189 FPS average with a minimum of 161 FPS, ensuring no drops below 144 FPS for high refresh rate displays. At 1440p, Medium averages 169 FPS with a minimum of 144 FPS, which is exactly at the threshold for 144Hz monitors. Even at 4K, Medium provides 145 FPS average with a minimum of 123 FPS, which is far above the 60 FPS needed for smooth play.

The High preset offers slightly better visuals but comes at a cost. At 1080p, High averages 158 FPS, which is still excellent, but at 1440p it drops to 141 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 94 FPS. The step from Medium to High is not worth the 31 FPS loss at 1080p (189 to 158) or the 24 FPS loss at 4K (145 to 94), especially given that Ultra provides no additional benefit over High in terms of frame rate (155 vs 158 at 1080p, 139 vs 141 at 1440p, 89 vs 94 at 4K).

Ultra settings are essentially indistinguishable from High in performance, with differences of only 3 FPS or less across all resolutions. This suggests that Ultra may not actually increase the graphical workload in Inside beyond High. Therefore, if you want maximum visual fidelity, High is the correct choice, as it delivers the same frame rates as Ultra without any potential downsides.

For players targeting 4K, the Low preset is the only option that consistently exceeds 150 FPS, with an average of 157 FPS. However, the visual trade-off is likely not worth it for a game like Inside, which has a distinctive art style that benefits from higher quality settings. The Medium preset at 4K, with its 145 FPS average and 123 FPS minimum, offers the best compromise for 4K gaming, providing a smooth experience without compromising the game’s atmospheric visuals.