Inside

The pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER produces a fascinating bottleneck dynamic in Inside, a 2016 Puzzle Platformer that is anything but graphically demanding by modern standards. The data shows a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions, but which begins to expose the aging CPU's limitations as resolution drops and frame rates soar past the 200 FPS mark. The result is a machine that can deliver a flawless experience at 4K, yet leaves performance on the table for high-refresh-rate 1080p gaming.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution decreases, but the magnitude of the gains tells a story about where the system's true limits lie. At 4K with High settings, the combo averages 123.4 FPS. Dropping to 1440p High improves this to 143.6 FPS, a 16.4% increase. Moving down to 1080p High yields 158.6 FPS, which is only a 10.4% jump over the 1440p result. This diminishing return is the classic signature of a CPU bottleneck beginning to form.

The pattern becomes even more pronounced at the Low preset. At 4K Low, the system produces 159.6 FPS. At 1440p Low, it reaches 181.5 FPS, a 13.7% gain. However, the jump from 1440p to 1080p Low is a mere 12.4% (from 181.5 to 204 FPS). This is significant because the GPU is being asked to do far less work at 1080p Low; if the graphics card were the sole limiting factor, the frame rate increase would be much more substantial. The fact that the scaling flattens indicates that the Ryzen 5 2600's six Zen cores and 12 threads are becoming the primary constraint.

The Ultra preset reinforces this finding. The gap between 4K (118 FPS) and 1080p (157.4 FPS) is 39.4 FPS, which is a 33.4% improvement. However, the gap between 1440p Ultra (138.9 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (157.4 FPS) is just 18.5 FPS, or 13.3%. This consistent pattern across all presets confirms that while the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER scales admirably with resolution, the CPU's single-thread performance—evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1579—is the wall that prevents the system from fully exploiting the GPU's potential at lower resolutions. The data suggests that 1440p is the sweet spot where the balance between the two components is most harmonious, with the 4K numbers showing the GPU is still doing most of the heavy lifting.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy of performance across the four presets, and the optimal choice depends heavily on the target resolution. For 4K displays, the High preset is the standout recommendation. It delivers 123.4 FPS, which is 5.4 FPS faster than Ultra (118 FPS) and only 20.5 FPS slower than Low (159.6 FPS). Given that Inside is a slow-paced puzzle platformer, the visual fidelity gains from High over Low are far more impactful than the frame rate difference. The 4K Ultra preset, at 118 FPS, is still entirely playable but offers no meaningful advantage over High for a marginal 4.6% performance penalty.

At 1440p, the choice becomes more nuanced. The High preset at 143.6 FPS is an excellent balance, but the Medium preset at 168.6 FPS offers a 17.4% performance boost over Ultra (138.9 FPS). For players with high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors (144Hz or higher), the Medium preset is the better choice, as it gets closer to the refresh ceiling while still maintaining decent visual quality. The Low preset at 181.5 FPS is only 7.6% faster than Medium, making it a poor trade-off for the significant visual downgrade.

For 1080p gaming, the CPU bottleneck becomes the deciding factor. The Ultra preset at 157.4 FPS and High at 158.6 FPS are nearly identical in performance, differing by only 1.2 FPS. This indicates that the GPU is not the limiting factor here; the CPU is. Therefore, players should select Ultra at 1080p without fear of a performance hit, as the Ryzen 5 2600 will cap the frame rate regardless. The Medium preset at 191.3 FPS and Low at 204 FPS are faster, but they require sacrificing visual quality for frame rates that exceed most 1080p monitors' refresh rates anyway. The data shows that Ultra is the optimal 1080p preset for this pairing, delivering the best visuals within the CPU's performance envelope.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a six-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen+ architecture, built on a 12 nm process at GlobalFoundries. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 3.90 GHz, combined with a 16 MB shared L3 cache, position it as a capable mid-range chip from 2018. Its benchmark scores, such as 11,186 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,579 in single-core, place it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19,616. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-1345U (deltaPct -0.4) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U (deltaPct 0.6), indicating that its overall compute performance is still competitive with modern low-power mobile parts.

However, for Inside, the CPU's role is primarily about single-threaded game logic and draw call submission. The game is not heavily multithreaded, so the Ryzen 5 2600's 12 threads provide little advantage over a six-thread part. Instead, the single-core performance is what matters, and the 1,579 Cinebench R23 single-core score is modest by today's standards. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system hits 204 FPS, but the scaling from 1440p to 1080p is only 12.4%, suggesting the CPU is nearing its limit. The boost clock of 3.90 GHz is the peak, and in a lightly threaded game like Inside, the CPU is likely running at or near this frequency, but its architecture's instructions per clock (IPC) is the limiting factor.

The percentile rank of 77 means this CPU outperforms 77% of all processors in the database, but that metric is skewed by the inclusion of many low-power and older parts. In a gaming context, the Ryzen 5 2600's single-thread performance is a known weak point. The measured FPS data confirms this: the frame rate ceiling at 1080p, regardless of preset, appears to be around 204 FPS. This is still exceptionally smooth for a puzzle platformer, but it falls short of what the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER could deliver with a faster CPU. The CPU's 65W TDP and unlocked multiplier suggest it was designed for overclocking, which could help close the gap, but the data presented here reflects stock settings.

FAQ

*Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this CPU-GPU combo in Inside?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 204, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low preset.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER being fully utilized at 1080p in this game?

A: No. The data shows that at 1080p, the difference between Ultra (157.4 FPS) and High (158.6 FPS) is negligible, while Low (204 FPS) is significantly faster. This indicates the CPU is the limiting factor, not the GPU.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 2600 compare to its closest rival, the Intel Core i5-1345U?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 19,616, which is 0.4% lower than the Intel Core i5-1345U's score of 19,691. This places them in a virtual tie in overall CPU performance.

Q: What is the best preset for a 4K display?

A: The High preset is recommended, as it delivers 123.4 FPS, which is 5.4 FPS faster than Ultra (118 FPS) and only 36.2 FPS slower than Low (159.6 FPS). The visual quality improvement over Low makes High the optimal balance.

*Q: Does the GPU's performance in Inside scale linearly with resolution?*

A: No. The scaling is not linear. For example, at High settings, the FPS goes from 123.4 at 4K to 143.6 at 1440p, then to 158.6 at 1080p. The gains diminish as resolution drops, indicating a CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48,704.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is a powerhouse based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 8,448 shading units, 264 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, alongside 66 RT cores and 264 tensor cores. Its boost clock of 2610 MHz and base clock of 2340 MHz are complemented by a substantial 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s. This memory configuration is more than sufficient for Inside, which was released in 2016 and has modest VRAM requirements. The GPU's benchmark results are impressive, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5,569 and a Passmark G3D score of 31,811, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs.

In Inside, the GPU's role is to render the game's atmospheric, monochromatic visuals with ease. At 4K Ultra, the card still manages 118 FPS, which reflects its raw compute power. The FP32 performance of 44.10 TFLOPS and texture rate of 689.0 GTexel/s are overkill for this title. The data shows that the GPU is only fully stressed at 4K, where the FPS drops from 204 at 1080p Low to 159.6 at 4K Low, a 21.8% reduction in performance. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA CMP 50HX, has a deltaPct of -0.7, meaning it is 0.7% slower, while the Intel Arc A550M is 2.1% faster. This indicates the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER sits in a tight performance cluster.

The most telling statistic is the gap between the 4K Ultra (118 FPS) and 4K High (123.4 FPS) presets. This 5.4 FPS difference is minimal, suggesting that the GPU is not the primary bottleneck even at 4K. The card's 16 GB of VRAM is never a concern in this game, and its 96 ROPs ensure pixel fill rates (250.6 GPixel/s) are more than adequate. The GPU's role here is to provide a rock-solid foundation that allows the CPU to become the limiting factor. The data indicates that for this particular game and CPU pairing, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is effectively "wasted" at 1080p, but it provides a future-proof platform for more demanding titles where its 44.10 TFLOPS of compute power can be fully utilized.