Inside

# Inside — AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 delivers a thoroughly capable experience in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer that is far more demanding on the GPU than its minimalist aesthetic suggests. Measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets show this combination comfortably exceeding 60 FPS at 4K with High settings, while dropping to 55 FPS at Ultra — a clear signal that the GPU, not the six-core CPU, is the primary performance arbiter in this title. The combo ranks 2971 out of 3716 tested combinations, placing it in the lower third of all pairings tested, yet the absolute performance remains strong due to the game’s modest overall requirements.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a predictable, but steep, penalty as resolution climbs from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 128 at 1920x1080 to 92 at 2560x1440, then to 58 at 3840x2160. That represents a 55% drop from 1080p to 4K, and a 37% drop from 1440p to 4K. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 2060’s pixel throughput is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, with the Ryzen 5 2600 providing ample headroom even at 1080p where the CPU would typically become more relevant.

The Low preset shows even more dramatic scaling: 205 FPS at 1080p, 183 FPS at 1440p, and 116 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low figure is nearly double the 4K High figure, suggesting that the GPU’s shading units and memory bandwidth are heavily taxed by the higher-quality effects. Interestingly, the gap between Low and High at 1080p is 77 FPS (205 vs 128), but at 4K the gap widens to 58 FPS (116 vs 58) in absolute terms, though the percentage gap actually narrows. This nonlinear behavior points to a GPU that becomes increasingly bottlenecked as both resolution and settings increase.

Medium settings at 4K produce 93 FPS average with a minimum of 79 and maximum of 106, which is notably close to the 1440p High result of 92 FPS. This suggests that Medium at 4K and High at 1440p impose a similar load on the GPU, likely due to the interplay between shadow quality, texture filtering, and post-processing effects. Ultra settings, meanwhile, only manage 55 FPS at 4K — the only measured configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, and only by a small margin.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this CPU-GPU pairing ranks 2971 out of 3716 tested combinations for Inside. That places it in the 20th percentile of all combos, meaning roughly 80% of tested pairings deliver higher average frame rates. However, this rank must be contextualized: the database includes many high-end and current-generation pairings, and the absolute performance shown here is still entirely playable.

The CPU itself sits at the 75th percentile among all CPUs tested, with an average benchmark score of 21484. Its nearest rivals in aggregate CPU performance are the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (score 21440, delta 0.2%), Intel Core i9-11900H (score 21367, delta 0.5%), Intel Xeon D-1746TER (score 21635, delta -0.7%), and AMD EPYC 9454 (score 21223, delta 1.2%). The Ryzen 5 2600 is effectively within 1% of all these processors, indicating that its six cores and twelve threads are competitive with much newer and more expensive silicon in synthetic workloads.

The GPU, meanwhile, sits at the 58th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15290. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (score 15283, delta 0%), AMD Radeon 680M (score 15270, delta 0.1%), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (score 15199, delta 0.6%), and AMD Radeon RX 7600 (score 15171, delta 0.8%). The RTX 2060 is essentially tied with these parts in aggregate GPU performance, yet in Inside specifically, the combination ranks lower than the GPU percentile alone would suggest — likely due to the CPU’s older architecture limiting frame pacing in certain scenes.

FAQ

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

A: Yes. At 4K High settings, the average FPS is 58, which is just below the 60 FPS target but still smooth. At 4K Medium, the average rises to 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. Ultra settings at 4K drop to 55 FPS average.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its closest GPU rivals in aggregate benchmarks?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290, which is within 0.8% of the GTX 580 (15283), Radeon 680M (15270), RTX 3050 OEM (15199), and Radeon RX 7600 (15171). In Inside, the RTX 2060’s 6 GB GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus provide sufficient bandwidth for 4K Medium.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 60 FPS target at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings produce 92 FPS average, Ultra produces 88 FPS, and Medium produces 147 FPS. All presets exceed 60 FPS comfortably at 1440p, so the choice depends on visual preference — Ultra at 88 FPS is the highest quality option that still clears 60 FPS.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 2600 a bottleneck for this game at 1080p?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. At 1080p, even the most demanding Ultra preset averages 122 FPS, while Low reaches 205 FPS. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads at 3.40 GHz base and 3.90 GHz boost are sufficient for the game’s physics and logic, with the GPU remaining the limiting factor.

Q: How much performance is lost between Low and Ultra at the same resolution?

A: At 1080p, Low averages 205 FPS while Ultra averages 122 FPS, a 40% reduction. At 1440p, the drop is from 183 FPS to 88 FPS, a 52% reduction. At 4K, Low averages 116 FPS while Ultra averages 55 FPS, a 53% reduction — showing that higher resolutions amplify the cost of Ultra settings.

Q: Does the combo’s rank of 2971 out of 3716 mean it is a poor performer?

A: No. The rank reflects the fact that many tested combos use higher-end or newer components. In absolute terms, this pairing delivers 58 FPS at 4K High, which is playable. The rank should be interpreted as “mid-pack among enthusiast pairings,” not as a failing grade.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the RTX 2060 delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings average 205 FPS, Medium averages 189 FPS with a minimum of 161 and maximum of 217, High averages 128 FPS, and Ultra averages 122 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 83 FPS, and even the most demanding preset clears 120 FPS, making 1080p a non-issue for this combo.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong across all presets. Low averages 183 FPS, Medium averages 147 FPS with a minimum of 125 and maximum of 169, High averages 92 FPS, and Ultra averages 88 FPS. The step from Medium to High costs 55 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs only 4 FPS — suggesting diminishing returns for the Ultra preset at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits. Low averages 116 FPS, Medium averages 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 and maximum of 106, High averages 58 FPS, and Ultra averages 55 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 35 FPS, while High to Ultra is only 3 FPS, indicating that the High and Ultra presets impose nearly identical loads at 4K. Notably, the minimum FPS at 4K Medium (79) is higher than the average FPS at 4K High (58), making Medium the safest choice for consistent frame pacing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, built on the Turing architecture with the TU106 chip, provides 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for 4K Medium in Inside. The GPU’s base clock of 1365 MHz and boost clock of 1680 MHz, combined with 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, contribute to a measured 6.451 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

In Inside, the GPU’s role is dominant: the frame rate scales almost linearly with pixel count, and settings changes produce larger FPS swings than resolution changes. The GPU’s 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an aggregate benchmark score of 15290, aligns with its measured performance here — it is a mid-range part that handles 4K in a modestly demanding game but requires settings compromises to maintain 60 FPS. The 14 Gbps effective memory speed and 192-bit bus are adequate for the game’s texture streaming, but the 6 GB capacity is not stressed at any of the tested settings, as the game’s art style uses relatively small texture sets.

The RTX 2060’s nearest rivals in aggregate score are the GTX 580 (0% delta), Radeon 680M (0.1%), RTX 3050 OEM (0.6%), and RX 7600 (0.8%). In Inside, this GPU outperforms those aggregate expectations at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra result of 55 FPS shows that the 48 ROPs and 201.6 GTexel/s texture rate are the limiting factors for the highest quality settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600, a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 2000 series, operates at a 3.40 GHz base clock and 3.90 GHz boost clock. Its Zen architecture, fabricated on a 12 nm process by GlobalFoundries, includes 16 MB of shared L3 cache and 512 KB of L2 cache per core. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 46.9 GB/s bandwidth provide ample headroom for Inside’s physics and logic systems.

In this game, the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 205 FPS average, which is well beyond what the GPU alone would sustain — indicating that the CPU can feed the GPU efficiently even at very high frame rates. The CPU’s aggregate benchmark score of 21484 places it at the 75th percentile, with nearest rivals within 1.2% (Intel Core Ultra 5 228V at 0.2%, Intel Core i9-11900H at 0.5%, Intel Xeon D-1746TER at -0.7%, and AMD EPYC 9454 at 1.2%). This suggests that the Ryzen 5 2600 is not holding back the RTX 2060 in this title.

The CPU’s 16 MB L3 cache and 6 physical cores are sufficient for Inside’s single-threaded-heavy workload, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p where CPU overhead would normally appear. Even at 4K Ultra (55 FPS), the frame rate is GPU-limited, as the CPU has ample spare capacity. The 12 threads provide headroom for background tasks, but the game itself rarely uses more than a few cores, so the 3.90 GHz boost clock is the more relevant specification here.

Settings Recommendations

For a 60 FPS target at 4K, the Medium preset is the optimal choice. It delivers 93 FPS average with a minimum of 79 FPS and maximum of 106 FPS, providing a comfortable margin above the target while maintaining visual quality. High at 4K averages 58 FPS, which dips below 60, while Ultra at 55 FPS is worse — so Medium is the only 4K preset that guarantees smooth frame pacing.

At 1440p, Ultra is the best experience, averaging 88 FPS while providing the highest visual fidelity. The cost from High to Ultra is only 4 FPS (92 to 88), so there is no reason to settle for High. Medium at 147 FPS is unnecessary unless the user prioritizes maximum refresh rate on a high-Hz monitor.

At 1080p, Ultra at 122 FPS is the clear recommendation — it exceeds 120 FPS, providing a smooth experience on standard 60 Hz and 120 Hz displays alike. If the user has a 144 Hz monitor, Medium at 189 FPS would be preferable, but the visual difference between Medium and Ultra is substantial enough that the 122 FPS Ultra result is the better trade-off for most users.

The minimum FPS data available for Medium settings (161 FPS at 1080p, 125 FPS at 1440p, 79 FPS at 4K) shows that Medium provides the most consistent frame delivery of any preset at each resolution. For users sensitive to frame drops, Medium is the safest preset, while High and Ultra offer higher visual quality at the cost of lower and less consistent frame rates. In summary, Medium at 4K, Ultra at 1440p, and Ultra at 1080p are the recommended configurations for this combo in Inside.