Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT delivers a remarkably fluid experience in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer that is far more demanding than its minimalist aesthetic suggests. The benchmark data, drawn from measured FPS rows across three resolutions and four quality presets, shows this combination is capable of pushing frame rates well beyond typical display refresh rates, though the choice of settings significantly dictates the headroom available. This analysis breaks down the measured performance to identify the optimal configuration, the role of each component, and how this specific pairing ranks among the broader test suite.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combo in Inside indicates that the Ultra preset is largely counterproductive. At 1920x1080, Ultra yields an average of 140.4 FPS, which is a substantial drop from the High preset's 146.5 FPS. While both are playable, the performance cost of the final settings tier is not justified by the typical visual gains in a game of this style. The data shows a more significant drop at higher resolutions; at 2560x1440, Ultra falls to 99.9 FPS, and at 3840x2160, it dips to 63 FPS. This pattern suggests that the Ultra preset introduces rendering loads that disproportionately impact the GPU, making it the least efficient choice for maximizing frame rate.

The best experience, according to the measured rows, is achieved with the High preset. This setting provides the highest average FPS at 4K (65.6 FPS) compared to Medium (102.6 FPS) and Low (130.1 FPS), but it maintains a very high level of visual fidelity. At 1440p, High produces 105.5 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors. The gap between High and Medium is notable, with High being roughly 37% slower at 4K (65.6 vs. 102.6 FPS), indicating that the visual upgrade is substantial. For users prioritizing frame rate above all else, the Low preset at 1080p yields an exceptional 233.1 FPS, but this comes with the expected reduction in graphical detail. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot, offering a balanced combination of visual quality and performance that keeps the game well above 60 FPS even at 3840x2160 resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 33 chip, is the primary driver of the performance scaling seen in the measured data. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves ample for the texture and geometry loads of Inside. The GPU's clock speeds are a key factor in its output; with a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2755 MHz, the card demonstrates strong sustained performance. The benchmark results show that the RX 7600 XT is capable of handling the game's demands efficiently, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p.

The GPU's role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 4K, the demand on the graphics processor grows, and the measured FPS reflects this. The card's 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs are sufficient to maintain playable frame rates at High settings in 4K, but the drop from 65.6 FPS at High to 63 FPS at Ultra indicates the GPU is nearing its limit with the most demanding preset. The data shows that the RX 7600 XT is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions, where CPU performance likely becomes more relevant, but it is the limiting factor at 4K with higher settings. The GPU's passmark G3D score of 17132 and its percentile ranking of 63 place it as a mid-range performer, which aligns with its measured ability to deliver high but not extreme frame rates in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database for Inside, this specific combination of the Ryzen 5 3600 and the RX 7600 XT holds a rank of 1220 out of 1671 tested combos. This places it in the lower third of all configurations tested for this game, which is a notable finding given the strong absolute FPS numbers. The comboRankInGame of 1220 suggests that while this pairing provides a good experience, there are many other combinations that yield higher average frame rates. This is likely due to the CPU's age; the Ryzen 5 3600, while capable, is not at the forefront of gaming performance in 2024.

The percentile data supports this interpretation. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus is 76, meaning it outperforms 76% of all processors in the database. However, its average benchmark score of 18129 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i5-11400 with a deltaPct of -0.1 and the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS with a deltaPct of 0.2. This indicates that the CPU's performance is solid but not exceptional. The GPU's percentileVsAllGpus is 63, with an average benchmark score of 20146, placing it slightly below the AMD Radeon RX 7600 and slightly above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER. The rank of 1220 suggests that the combination of a 76th percentile CPU and a 63rd percentile GPU results in a system that is outclassed by many newer or higher-tier parts, despite its ability to run Inside very well on its own.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Examining the measured FPS data in detail reveals consistent performance scaling across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers an average of 233.1 FPS on Low, 216.7 FPS on Medium, 146.5 FPS on High, and 140.4 FPS on Ultra. The jump from Medium to High is significant, a reduction of roughly 32%, suggesting that the High preset activates more computationally expensive effects. At 2560x1440, the averages are 210.4 FPS (Low), 168.1 FPS (Medium), 105.5 FPS (High), and 99.9 FPS (Ultra). The 1440p results show a similar pattern, with the gap between Medium and High widening to about 37%.

At 3840x2160, the performance scales as expected, with the averages being 130.1 FPS (Low), 102.6 FPS (Medium), 65.6 FPS (High), and 63 FPS (Ultra). The 4K data is particularly telling: the difference between High and Ultra is minimal (65.6 vs. 63 FPS), while the difference between Medium and High is substantial (102.6 vs. 65.6 FPS). This indicates that the High preset at 4K is a significant step up in visual complexity, but the Ultra preset adds little additional load, or the GPU is already saturated. The absolute numbers show that even at the most demanding 4K Ultra setting, the game remains playable at an average of 63 FPS, which is just above the standard 60 FPS threshold.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and expected trend of decreasing FPS as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. On the High preset, the average FPS drops from 146.5 at 1080p to 105.5 at 1440p, a reduction of about 28%. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the FPS drops from 105.5 to 65.6, a reduction of approximately 38%. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario; the frame rate drops are more pronounced at higher resolutions because the GPU must render more pixels.

The Low preset shows a different scaling curve. At 1080p, the average is 233.1 FPS, which drops to 210.4 FPS at 1440p (a 10% decrease) and then to 130.1 FPS at 4K (a 38% decrease from 1440p). The relatively small drop from 1080p to 1440p on Low suggests that the CPU is a more significant limiting factor at these lower graphical loads. The GPU has enough headroom at 1080p Low to render frames quickly, but the CPU cannot feed it data fast enough to maintain the same proportional increase in FPS as the resolution decreases. This indicates that at 1080p with lower settings, the Ryzen 5 3600 is the bottleneck, while at 4K and higher settings, the RX 7600 XT becomes the primary constraint. The resolution scaling data overall points to a balanced system where the limiting component shifts depending on the workload.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600, a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, plays a crucial role in ensuring the game runs smoothly, particularly at lower resolutions. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.20 GHz provide adequate single-thread performance for a game like Inside, which may not be heavily multithreaded. The CPU's benchmarks show a single-thread score of 696 in 3dmark and a cinebench R23 single-core score of 2124, indicating competent single-core capability. The multi-threaded performance is solid as well, with a cinebench R23 multicore score of 15045.

The CPU's influence is most evident in the 1080p Low preset results. The average FPS of 233.1 is exceptionally high, but it is only about 7% higher than the Medium preset's 216.7 FPS, despite the significantly lower graphical load. This suggests that the CPU is limiting the maximum frame rate achievable. Similarly, at 1440p Low, the FPS of 210.4 is only slightly lower than at 1080p, reinforcing that the CPU is keeping pace. However, the data shows that the Ryzen 5 3600 is not a severe bottleneck, as it allows the GPU to push very high frame rates. The CPU's avgBenchmarkScore of 18129 and its position among rivals, with the Intel Core i5-11400 just 0.1% ahead, confirm that it is a capable mid-range processor that pairs well with the RX 7600 XT for this title, providing enough processing power to avoid significant frame pacing issues at standard gaming resolutions.