Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer from 2016 that, on this hardware pairing, delivers exceptionally high frame rates across the board. The data shows that the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at lower resolutions and remarkably capable even at 4K, with the average frame rate never dropping below 142 FPS at any settings preset tested. This pairing is far beyond what the game requires, making it a top-tier combination for high-refresh-rate displays.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces an average of 215.8 FPS. Moving to 1440p with the same High preset, the average drops to 191.2 FPS, a decrease of roughly 11.4% from the 1080p figure. At 4K with High settings, the average is 146.6 FPS, which represents a further drop of about 23.3% from the 1440p result. This steady decline illustrates that the rendering load is scaling directly with pixel count.

The scaling behavior is more pronounced at lower settings, where the frame rate ceiling is higher. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 277.8 at 1080p, to 250.6 at 1440p, and finally to 216.4 at 4K. This indicates that even when the graphical workload is minimized, the GPU's capabilities are sufficient to maintain very high output, though the resolution still imposes a measurable cost. The consistent drop from 1080p to 4K suggests that the system is not hitting a hard CPU limit; instead, the performance is scaling with the GPU's workload.

The data indicates that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the frame rates are so high that the CPU's ability to feed the GPU becomes a relevant factor, but the Ryzen 5 5500's 6-core, 12-thread configuration proves adequate to keep the RTX 4090 well-utilized. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the primary determinant of performance, as the frame rate drops are directly proportional to the increased pixel count. This pairing is exceptionally well-balanced for this game, even at the demanding 4K resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 features 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. This Zen 3 architecture processor has a 16 MB L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory. In the context of Inside, a game that is not particularly demanding on multithreaded workloads, this processor's single-thread and multi-thread performance are more than sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck.

Benchmark results for the CPU show a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16429 and a single-core score of 2319. The PassMark multithread score is 19330, with a single-thread score of 3058. These numbers place the CPU in the 79th percentile of all CPUs, indicating strong general performance. However, the game's frame rates at 1080p, where CPU load is relatively higher, still exceed 210 FPS on all presets, demonstrating that the processor is never the limiting factor.

The data shows that even at the highest frame rates measured (277.8 FPS at 1080p Low), the CPU is able to keep up. The nearest rivals to this processor, such as the Intel Core i5-12500 and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE, have nearly identical average benchmark scores, with deltaPct values of -0.1% and -0.1% respectively, confirming that this CPU's performance is right in line with its peers. For a game like Inside, the CPU's role is to ensure a stable frame delivery, and the benchmark results confirm that it does so without issue.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is a powerhouse with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a massive 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth. Its architecture, Ada Lovelace, features 16384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units. The GPU's boost clock is 2520 MHz, and its raw compute power is rated at 82.58 TFLOPS for FP32 operations. This specification set is far beyond the requirements of Inside.

The GPU's performance is reflected in its benchmark scores, including a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223 and a PassMark G3D score of 38194. These scores place the GPU in the 91st percentile of all GPUs, making it one of the most powerful consumer graphics cards available. The data from Inside shows that the RTX 4090 handles the game with ease, with the lowest average frame rate across all tested configurations being 142.4 FPS at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's massive memory bandwidth and high pixel rate are likely the key contributors to its ability to maintain high frame rates at 4K. The pixel rate is 443.5 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 1,290.2 GTexel/s, which ensures that the card can fill the screen with detailed textures without delay. In this game, the GPU is the dominant component, and its near-top-tier performance is what allows for the exceptionally high frame rates observed in the measurements.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 404th out of 1671 total combos for this game. This places it in the top 24.2% of all tested systems, which is a strong result considering the CPU is a mid-range part. The high rank is almost entirely due to the GPU's exceptional performance, which compensates for the CPU's more modest standing.

The CPU's percentile rank of 79 and the GPU's percentile rank of 91 highlight the imbalance in performance potential between the two components. However, in the context of Inside, this imbalance does not harm the result. The game's low CPU overhead means that the RTX 4090 is allowed to perform close to its full potential, resulting in a combo rank that is higher than the CPU's individual percentile might suggest. The data indicates that this is a highly effective pairing for this specific title.

The rank of 404 out of 1671 shows that while many combinations are faster, this setup is still in the upper quartile. It outperforms a significant majority of systems, including those with more balanced but slower components. The performance is driven by the GPU, and this combination confirms how a strong GPU can boost a system's standing in games that are not CPU-intensive.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 277.8 FPS for Low, 257.2 FPS for Medium, 215.8 FPS for High, and 210.4 FPS for Ultra. The spread between Low and Ultra is 67.4 FPS, indicating that the settings have a moderate impact at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are 250.6 FPS for Low, 229.8 FPS for Medium, 191.2 FPS for High, and 190.2 FPS for Ultra. The performance gap between Low and Ultra narrows slightly to 60.4 FPS. At 3840x2160, the averages are 216.4 FPS for Low, 200 FPS for Medium, 146.6 FPS for High, and 142.4 FPS for Ultra. Here, the difference between Low and Ultra is 74 FPS, the largest spread observed.

The pattern across all resolutions is consistent: the Low preset provides the highest frame rate, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra being the most demanding. The difference between High and Ultra is relatively small, with only a 5.4 FPS difference at 1080p, a 1 FPS difference at 1440p, and a 4.2 FPS difference at 4K. This suggests that the visual upgrade from High to Ultra costs very little in performance for this GPU.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation for this hardware combination. At 4K, the Ultra preset still achieves an average of 142.4 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target and sufficient for most high-refresh-rate displays. The performance difference between Ultra and High is minimal, making the Ultra preset the best choice for maximizing visual quality without a significant frame rate penalty.

For users with 1440p displays, the Ultra preset provides an average of 190.2 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth. The data shows that the GPU has ample headroom, so enabling the highest settings is the optimal choice. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 210.4 FPS, which is more than enough for the fastest gaming monitors.

The Low preset offers the highest frame rates, but the benefit over Ultra is not worth the reduction in visual fidelity. The frame rate difference between Low and Ultra is 67.4 FPS at 1080p, 60.4 FPS at 1440p, and 74 FPS at 4K. However, since the Ultra preset already maintains such high average frame rates, there is no practical reason to lower the settings. The data suggests that the Ultra preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance for this game.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: The average frame rate at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 142.4 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average of 250.6 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 190.2 FPS, making Low approximately 31.8% faster.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at 1080p?

A: No, the data shows that even at 1080p with Low settings, where the frame rate is highest at 277.8 FPS, the CPU is able to keep up without limiting performance.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset averages 146.6 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 142.4 FPS, a difference of only 4.2 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 404th out of 1671 tested combos for Inside, placing it in the top 24.2% of all systems.

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

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 277.8 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.