Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 pairing delivers a remarkably consistent experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016. The measured data shows the combination is capable of high frame rates across all tested resolutions, though the scaling pattern reveals a clear shift in system bottleneck as pixel count increases.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about where the performance ceiling sits. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces 117.1 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 drops that to 82.4 FPS, a reduction of roughly 30%. At 3840x2160, the average falls further to 51.3 FPS, which is a 56% drop from the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is typical of a system where the GPU becomes progressively more dominant as resolution increases.

The gap between the lowest and highest settings at each resolution reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p, Low settings yield 229 FPS, while Ultra produces 109.4 FPS — a difference of 119.6 FPS. The same comparison at 1440p shows 162.6 FPS on Low versus 79 FPS on Ultra, a spread of 83.6 FPS. At 4K, Low delivers 104 FPS and Ultra drops to 51.1 FPS, a difference of 52.9 FPS. The shrinking gap between Low and Ultra as resolution climbs indicates that the GPU is being saturated at higher pixel counts, leaving less headroom for settings-based performance variation.

The 4K results are particularly telling. The difference between High and Ultra at 3840x2160 is minimal — 51.3 FPS versus 51.1 FPS — suggesting the game's Ultra preset adds little visual overhead at this resolution. Conversely, the jump from Low to Medium at 4K is significant: 104 FPS to 80.6 FPS. This suggests the Medium preset introduces a meaningful increase in GPU workload, while the step from High to Ultra is nearly negligible. The data indicates that 4K Ultra is right at the edge of playability for this combo, while 4K Low remains comfortable.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5500 brings six cores and twelve threads to the pairing, built on the Zen 3 architecture with a 3.60 GHz base clock and 4.20 GHz boost clock. Its benchmark results show a processor that is well-suited to gaming workloads. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16429 and single-core score of 2319 indicate strong per-thread performance, which matters for games like Inside that rely heavily on single-threaded logic.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 79 among all tested processors places it comfortably above the median. Its average benchmark score of 20875 is effectively tied with the Intel Core i5-12500, which sits at 20897 with a deltaPct of -0.1. This near-identical performance with a modern Intel mid-range part suggests the Ryzen 5 5500 is not the limiting factor in most gaming scenarios.

The 3DMark results provide a more granular view of CPU scaling. The single-thread score of 836 and 2-thread score of 1645 show that the processor's individual cores are capable, while the max-thread score of 5411 indicates good multi-core scaling. For a puzzle platformer like Inside, which does not demand heavy multi-threaded workloads, the CPU's 12 threads provide ample headroom. The PassMark physics score of 896 further confirms that this processor handles game physics without becoming a bottleneck.

Evidence that the CPU is not constraining performance comes from the resolution scaling data. If the CPU were the limiting factor, frame rates would remain flat across resolutions. Instead, the measured FPS drops consistently as resolution increases, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario at higher pixel counts. At 1080p, where CPU load is relatively higher, the combo still achieves 109.4 FPS on Ultra, suggesting the processor never becomes a serious constraint.

GPU Role

The GTX 1070, built on the Pascal architecture with a GP104 chip, provides 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz, combined with 1920 shading units, deliver a measured FP32 performance of 6.463 TFLOPS. These specifications position the GPU as the primary performance driver in this pairing, especially at higher resolutions.

The GPU's benchmark results show a percentile ranking of 51 among all tested GPUs, placing it almost exactly at the median. Its average benchmark score of 12331 is within 1.4% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER, which scores 12504 with a deltaPct of -1.4. This places the GTX 1070 in a competitive position against much newer hardware, though its production status is end-of-life.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB proves sufficient for Inside, even at 4K Ultra settings. The game's art style, which uses a distinctive monochromatic palette, does not appear to demand excessive memory. The fact that the 4K Ultra result of 51.1 FPS is nearly identical to the 4K High result of 51.3 FPS suggests the GPU's compute throughput, rather than memory capacity, is the limiting factor at this resolution.

The GPU's DirectX 12 score of 48 in PassMark, while lower than its DirectX 11 score of 100, does not appear to negatively impact Inside. The game's release date of 2016-07-06 means it was designed with the DirectX 11 era in mind, and the GTX 1070's strong DirectX 11 performance aligns well with the game's requirements. The G3D score of 13498 and G2D score of 846 indicate a balanced GPU that handles both 3D rendering and 2D elements effectively, which matters for a puzzle platformer with layered visuals.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Ryzen 5 5500 and GTX 1070 ranks 1414 out of 1671 tested combos for Inside, placing it in the 85th percentile of all pairings. This rank is notable given the age of the GPU and the relatively recent CPU release. The ranking suggests that while this combo is not at the top tier of performance, it delivers a solid experience for a game that does not push hardware to its limits.

The rank position becomes more meaningful when considering the CPU's performance tier. The Ryzen 5 5500's nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, scores nearly identically with a deltaPct of -0.1. This means the CPU is performing at a level comparable to newer mid-range parts. The GPU's nearest rival, the GTX 1650 SUPER, is only 1.4% faster on average, indicating that the GTX 1070 remains competitive despite its age.

The combo's rank of 1414 out of 1671 means there are 257 combinations that perform worse, placing this pairing in the upper portion of the tested field. For a game like Inside, which does not require extreme hardware, this rank reflects a system that can comfortably handle the game at all settings and resolutions tested. The 4K Low result of 104 FPS and 1080p Ultra result of 109.4 FPS demonstrate that the combo has substantial headroom for most gaming scenarios.

FAQ

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

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the combo achieves 51.3 FPS average, and on Low settings it reaches 104 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 51.1 FPS, which is still at the threshold of playability.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher settings. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 229 FPS, but dropping to Ultra reduces this to 109.4 FPS, indicating that GPU workload scales significantly with settings while the CPU maintains consistent performance.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500 has an average benchmark score of 20875, which is within 0.1% of the Intel Core i5-12500 (20897) and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE (20900). It also edges out the AMD EPYC 7J13 (20845) by 0.1%.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to the GTX 1650 SUPER?

A: The GTX 1070 scores 12331 on average, while the GTX 1650 SUPER scores 12504, representing a deltaPct of -1.4. The GTX 1070 is slightly slower than the newer GPU but remains within a very narrow margin.

*Q: What is the best resolution setting for this combo in Inside?*

A: At 1440p, the combo delivers 82.4 FPS on High and 79 FPS on Ultra, which is an excellent balance of image quality and performance. At 4K, High settings (51.3 FPS) are preferable to Ultra (51.1 FPS) due to the negligible difference.

*Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM cause any issues in Inside?*

A: No. The 8 GB GDDR5 memory with 256.3 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for all tested settings. The game achieves its lowest 4K result of 51.1 FPS on Ultra without any indication of VRAM-related performance degradation.