Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER produces an intriguing dataset in Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016-07-06. The measured results show a combination where the GPU’s raw power is consistently moderated by the older CPU, yet the frame rates remain exceptionally high across all tested configurations. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS rows, the roles of each component, and what the data implies about this pairing’s behavior.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows reveal a clear hierarchy across the four quality presets at every resolution. At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver an average of 207.6 FPS, which is the highest figure recorded for this combo. Medium drops to 188.4 FPS, High to 156.3 FPS, and Ultra to 152.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 55.3 FPS, indicating that the preset choice has a substantial impact on performance even at the lowest resolution.

At 2560x1440, the pattern persists: Low averages 182.9 FPS, Medium 168.1 FPS, High 139.2 FPS, and Ultra 141.1 FPS. Notably, Ultra slightly outperforms High here by 1.9 FPS, a minor anomaly that suggests the settings are not perfectly linear in their demands. At 3840x2160, the spread tightens: Low hits 154.3 FPS, Medium 146.5 FPS, High 120.4 FPS, and Ultra 116.3 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 38.0 FPS, smaller than at 1080p, which points to a growing bottleneck elsewhere.

Given the data, the High preset offers the best balance for most users. At 1080p it provides 156.3 FPS, which is still far above smooth gameplay thresholds, while at 4K it maintains 120.4 FPS. Ultra’s gains over High are negligible in the measured rows—at 1440p it is 1.9 FPS faster, but at 1080p it is 4.0 FPS slower, and at 4K it is 4.1 FPS slower—so High avoids the inconsistency without sacrificing visual quality meaningfully. For maximum frame rates, Low is the choice, but the data suggests that the CPU, not the GPU, limits the upper ceiling.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a 5 nm Ada Lovelace part with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 2295 MHz with a boost of 2550 MHz, and it houses 10240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. The GPU’s benchmark scores are robust: a Passmark G3D score of 34245 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 246994, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, trails by 0.2% in average benchmark score, while the RTX 5070 Ti is 2.9% behind.

In Inside, the GPU’s role is evident from the scaling between presets. At 1080p, dropping from Ultra to Low yields a 55.3 FPS gain, which is a 36.3% increase. This is a significant jump, but the absolute numbers—152.3 to 207.6 FPS—suggest the GPU is not being fully taxed. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 816.0 GTexel/s texture rate are far beyond what this 2016 puzzle platformer requires. The VRAM capacity of 16 GB is also irrelevant here, as the game’s visual complexity is minimal. The data implies that the GPU is operating well below its potential, with the CPU likely capping the frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 12 nm Zen-based processor with 6 cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost of 3.90 GHz. Its cache layout includes 96 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of shared L3. The CPU’s benchmark scores show a mixed profile: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11186 and a single-core score of 1579, with a Passmark single-thread score of 2239. It sits in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-1345U, being just 0.4% faster in average benchmark score.

In the measured FPS data, the CPU’s influence is most apparent when comparing resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 207.6 FPS, but at 4K Low it drops to 154.3 FPS—a 53.3 FPS reduction. However, the GPU should theoretically handle 4K far better than this gap suggests, given its 736.3 GB/s bandwidth and 16 GB VRAM. The CPU’s 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 3.90 GHz boost is adequate for a game like Inside, but its single-thread performance, evidenced by the 1579 Cinebench R23 single-core score, likely limits how fast frames can be queued. The data shows that at 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 55.3 FPS, but at 4K it shrinks to 38.0 FPS, indicating that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes more of a factor, but the CPU still prevents the frame rates from scaling linearly with the GPU’s power.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Ryzen 5 2600 and RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 967th out of 1671 tested combinations in Inside. This places it in the upper-middle tier, which is surprising given the GPU’s high percentile (88th) versus the CPU’s lower one (77th). The rank suggests that many other pairings, likely with newer CPUs, achieve higher frame rates even if their GPUs are less powerful. For example, the CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-11600KF, is only 0.6% slower on average, but a newer CPU would likely have better single-core performance, which matters more in a game like Inside.

The data implies that the RTX 4080 SUPER is overqualified for this pairing. The GPU’s own nearest rival, the RX 6900 XT, is nearly identical in benchmark terms, but the combo rank indicates that the CPU holds back the overall result. At 1080p, the combo achieves 207.6 FPS on Low, which is excellent, but the rank of 967 out of 1671 means 704 other combos perform better. This is a clear sign that the Ryzen 5 2600’s Zen architecture, despite its 6 cores and 12 threads, cannot fully feed the RTX 4080 SUPER’s frame generation capabilities in a low-demand title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are revealing. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 207.6 at 1080p to 182.9 at 1440p (a drop of 24.7 FPS) and then to 154.3 at 4K (a further drop of 28.6 FPS). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 53.3 FPS, or 25.7%. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 152.3 at 1080p to 141.1 at 1440p (11.2 FPS) and then to 116.3 at 4K (24.8 FPS), totaling 36.0 FPS or 23.6%. This pattern shows that the percentage drop is similar across settings, but the absolute drop is larger at Low.

This behavior indicates that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU is the primary bottleneck, as evidenced by the fact that increasing the resolution to 1440p only costs 24.7 FPS at Low, which is less than the 55.3 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p. At 4K, the GPU begins to take over, but the RTX 4080 SUPER is so powerful that it still delivers 154.3 FPS on Low. The data suggests that even at 4K, the CPU is still capping performance, because a GPU with 736.3 GB/s bandwidth should be capable of far more than 154.3 FPS in a puzzle platformer. The resolution scaling shows a diminishing return: the FPS drop from 1440p to 4K is larger than from 1080p to 1440p at every setting except Low, implying that the GPU’s workload increases, but the CPU’s limits remain constant.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS is 207.6, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT’s 53489.

Q: At which resolution does the combo show the smallest difference between Low and Ultra settings?

A: The smallest difference between Low and Ultra is 38.0 FPS, observed at 3840x2160, where Low averages 154.3 FPS and Ultra averages 116.3 FPS.

Q: What is the CPU’s single-thread benchmark score?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 scores 1579 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 2239 in Passmark single-thread.

Q: How many total combos are ranked, and where does this one place?

A: This combo ranks 967th out of 1671 tested combos in Inside.

Q: Does the GPU’s VRAM capacity affect the measured results?

A: The GPU has 16 GB of GDDR6X memory, but the data shows no evidence that VRAM is a limiting factor, as the frame rates are high even at 4K Ultra (116.3 FPS).

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are: Low 207.6, Medium 188.4, High 156.3, and Ultra 152.3. The spread from Low to Ultra is 55.3 FPS, with Medium sitting 19.2 FPS below Low and High 32.1 FPS below Medium.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 182.9, Medium 168.1, High 139.2, and Ultra 141.1. Here, Ultra is 1.9 FPS faster than High, which is an anomaly. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 24.7 FPS on Low, 20.3 FPS on Medium, 17.1 FPS on High, and 11.2 FPS on Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 154.3, Medium 146.5, High 120.4, and Ultra 116.3. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 28.6 FPS on Low, 21.6 FPS on Medium, 18.8 FPS on High, and 24.8 FPS on Ultra. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 53.3 FPS on Low, 41.9 FPS on Medium, 35.9 FPS on High, and 36.0 FPS on Ultra. These numbers show that the Low preset has the largest absolute loss when moving to higher resolutions, while High and Ultra lose similar amounts, reinforcing that the CPU’s influence diminishes as the GPU’s workload increases.