Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer. Across all tested resolutions and settings, the combo never drops below 85.1 frames per second, indicating that this hardware is far beyond the demands of the title. The data shows a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while at 1080p the CPU begins to play a more significant role in limiting performance.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the combo produces 180.9 FPS. Moving to 1440p Ultra reduces the average to 130.9 FPS, a drop of 50 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the average falls further to 85.1 FPS. This represents a 52.9% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings, which is a substantial decline that points to the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck as pixel count increases.

The scaling is more pronounced at lower settings. At Low settings, 1080p yields 281 FPS, 1440p yields 250.5 FPS, and 4K yields 173.8 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 107.2 FPS, a 38.1% reduction. This smaller percentage drop compared to Ultra settings suggests that at lower settings, the CPU is more likely to limit performance at 1080p, while the GPU still has headroom to work with at higher resolutions.

Interestingly, the gap between 1080p and 1440p is relatively modest compared to the gap between 1440p and 4K. At High settings, the difference between 1080p (189.7 FPS) and 1440p (136.3 FPS) is 53.4 FPS, while the difference between 1440p and 4K (89.9 FPS) is 46.4 FPS. This relatively linear scaling indicates that the RX 7700 XT's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being taxed progressively, with the 4K resolution representing the most demanding scenario where the GPU's 12 GB of VRAM and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth are pushed to their limits.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the dominant component in this pairing for Inside. With a boost clock of 2544 MHz and a game clock of 2171 MHz, the GPU has substantial computational headroom. The card's 3456 shading units and 96 ROPs are more than sufficient for this title's rendering demands, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS remains above 85.

The GPU's VRAM configuration plays a minimal role in this game. The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit bus provides 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. At 4K resolution, the game's texture and geometry data fit comfortably within this allocation, and the benchmark results show no signs of memory capacity being a limiting factor. The data indicates that the GPU's raw compute throughput, measured at 35.17 TFLOPS FP32, is the primary driver of performance at higher resolutions.

The benchmark scores for the RX 7700 XT place it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 30097 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, which scores 30109 with a deltaPct of 0. This near-parity in synthetic benchmarks translates into the observed real-world performance, where the GPU delivers frame rates that far exceed the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay at all tested settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on the optimal settings for this combo. At 1080p, all settings presets deliver well above 180 FPS, with Low at 281 FPS and Medium at 257.9 FPS. The difference between High (189.7 FPS) and Ultra (180.9 FPS) is a modest 8.8 FPS, suggesting that players can comfortably use Ultra settings without a meaningful performance penalty.

At 1440p, the situation is similar. Ultra settings produce 130.9 FPS, High produces 136.3 FPS, and Medium produces 219 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is just 5.4 FPS, making Ultra the recommended choice for visual fidelity. The substantial jump to Medium at 219 FPS indicates that the GPU has significant headroom, but the visual improvements from Medium to Ultra are likely worth the slight FPS reduction.

At 4K, the choice becomes more consequential. Ultra produces 85.1 FPS, while High produces 89.9 FPS, a difference of 4.8 FPS. Medium delivers 138.1 FPS, which is a 62.3% improvement over Ultra. For players with 4K displays, the data suggests that High settings offer the best balance, maintaining frame rates near 90 FPS while preserving most visual quality. Low settings at 4K (173.8 FPS) provide a significant boost, but the visual compromise is likely unnecessary given that High already exceeds 60 FPS comfortably.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Inside at 4K with maximum settings?*

A: Yes, at 4K Ultra settings the combo achieves an average of 85.1 FPS, which is above the standard 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How much performance is gained by dropping from Ultra to Low settings at 1080p?

A: The data shows an increase from 180.9 FPS at Ultra to 281 FPS at Low, representing a gain of 100.1 FPS or approximately 55% higher frame rate.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game at 1440p?

A: The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 1440p, as evidenced by the large FPS differences between settings presets, from 130.9 FPS at Ultra to 250.5 FPS at Low.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and High settings at 4K?

A: At 4K, Medium produces 138.1 FPS while High produces 89.9 FPS, a difference of 48.2 FPS in favor of Medium settings.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM capacity cause any issues in this game?

A: The benchmark data shows no evidence of VRAM limitations, as frame rates remain stable even at 4K Ultra with the demanding texture loads.

Q: How does this combo's performance at 1080p Ultra compare to 1440p Ultra?

A: At 1080p Ultra the average is 180.9 FPS, while at 1440p Ultra it drops to 130.9 FPS, a reduction of 50 FPS or 27.6%.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT ranks 709 out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the upper-middle tier of all tested configurations. Given that this is a relatively modest CPU paired with a high-end GPU, the ranking reflects the game's tendency to be GPU-bound. The CPU's 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs and the GPU's 73rd percentile ranking among all GPUs combine to produce a system that is well-matched for this title.

The ranking suggests that many other combos outperform this one, likely those with higher-end CPUs or more powerful GPUs. However, the actual FPS numbers show that this combo is far from struggling. The 709th rank out of 1671 means that approximately 58% of tested combos perform better, but the minimum average FPS of 85.1 at 4K Ultra indicates that the performance headroom is substantial for a game of this era.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-12500 with an average score of 20897 and a deltaPct of -0.1, and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE with a score of 20900 and a deltaPct of -0.1. These near-identical scores suggest that the Ryzen 5 5500 is well-positioned among its peers, and its performance is not a limiting factor in most scenarios.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 contributes 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, running at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. For Inside, a puzzle platformer that does not require extreme multi-threaded performance, this CPU provides ample processing power. The single-thread performance, measured at 836 in 3DMark single-thread and 3058 in PassMark single-thread, is sufficient to feed the GPU at lower resolutions.

The CPU's 16 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for this game's data streaming requirements. The benchmark data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 281 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame delivery capability. This is evidenced by the relatively smaller FPS gains when moving from Medium to Low at 1080p compared to the gains at higher resolutions.

The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16429 and single-core score of 2319 indicate that the CPU is capable of handling the game's physics and logic calculations without becoming a bottleneck. The percentile ranking of 79 against all CPUs confirms that this processor is in the upper quartile of performance. In this game, the CPU's role is to maintain consistent frame pacing, which it does effectively, as the data shows no instances where CPU limitations cause frame rates to drop below playable levels.