Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 presents a striking asymmetry in Inside: a mid-range Zen 3 processor from 2022 driving the fastest consumer GPU available. The benchmark results reveal a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at lower resolutions, yet finds its equilibrium at 4K where the RTX 5090's immense rendering power is finally taxed enough to align with the CPU's output.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS deltas across resolutions tell a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p High, the combo delivers 212.7 FPS, which drops to 194.3 FPS at 1440p — a modest 8.7% decrease. However, moving from 1440p to 4K High yields a sharper 21.7% reduction to 152.1 FPS. This pattern indicates that at 1080p and 1440p, the Ryzen 5 5500 is the limiting factor; the RTX 5090 is capable of far more frames, but the CPU's single-thread performance caps the output. At 4K, the GPU's workload increases sufficiently to become the primary constraint, allowing the system to scale more predictably with resolution.

The Low settings rows amplify this CPU-bound behavior. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 279 FPS, but 1440p Low only drops to 249.4 FPS (a 10.6% reduction). The 4K Low result of 216.3 FPS shows a further 13.3% decline. Notably, the gap between 1080p Low and 1440p Low is smaller than the gap between 1440p Low and 4K Low, suggesting that the CPU is saturated even at 1440p. The data implies that for competitive or high-refresh-rate play, this combo leaves performance on the table until the resolution climbs to 4K.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5500 offers 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its benchmark profile shows a single-thread score of 836 in 3dmark and 2319 in Cinebench R23 single-core, which places it in the 79th percentile among all CPUs. These figures suggest adequate, but not exceptional, single-thread performance — a critical factor for Inside, a 2D puzzle platformer that likely relies heavily on a few threads for game logic and physics.

The CPU's multi-threaded scores are more robust: Cinebench R23 multi-core reaches 16429, and 3dmark max threads hits 5411. However, these capabilities are largely unused in this title. The 1080p High result of 212.7 FPS versus 1080p Ultra at 212.2 FPS shows virtually no difference, indicating that the game's rendering demands at 1080p are trivial for the RTX 5090, and the CPU is the sole arbiter of frame rate. The Ryzen 5 5500's nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, has an average benchmark score of 20897 versus 20875 for the AMD chip, a delta of -0.1%, meaning the two are effectively tied in general compute but the Intel part may have slight advantages in specific workloads.

The CPU's 65W TDP and 16MB L3 cache are modest, but the data suggests that for Inside, the primary limitation is clock speed and IPC rather than cache or core count. The boost clock of 4.20 GHz is respectable, yet the 3dmark single-thread score of 836 is far below what the RTX 5090's driver and render pipeline could feed if given a stronger CPU. This combo effectively shows that a 6-core/12-thread chip from 2022 becomes the ceiling for a 2025 flagship GPU in lightly-threaded titles.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a behemoth: 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, with a boost clock of 2407 MHz and 21760 shading units. Its 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14411 and Passmark G3D score of 39650 place it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs. In Inside, this hardware is vastly overprovisioned for the visual complexity, which features simple geometry and limited particle effects typical of a 2016 puzzle platformer.

The GPU's role becomes evident in the settings scaling. At 4K, moving from Low (216.3 FPS) to Medium (201.1 FPS) costs only 7.0% performance, while High (152.1 FPS) to Ultra (143.6 FPS) shows a 5.6% drop. These relatively small penalties suggest that the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM and massive compute resources absorb the increased shader complexity without memory or bandwidth constraints. The 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance is more than sufficient for Inside's pixel shaders, and the 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate ensures fill-rate is never a bottleneck.

However, the GPU's potential is curtailed by the CPU pairing. At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 212.2 FPS, nearly identical to 1080p High's 212.7 FPS. This plateau across settings at 1080p is a hallmark of GPU underutilization. The RTX 5090's nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, scores 84241 average versus 84306, a delta of 0.1%, confirming this is the flagship tier. Yet in Inside, the GPU likely never exceeds 70% utilization at 1080p, leaving substantial headroom that a stronger CPU could exploit.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing ranks 397th out of 1671 combos for Inside, placing it in the top 24% of all systems tested. This rank is surprisingly modest given the RTX 5090's position as the fastest GPU available, and it directly reflects the CPU's constraint. The combo outperforms the majority of systems, but it sits far below what the GPU alone could achieve with a top-tier processor.

The rank of 397 suggests that many combinations with slightly weaker GPUs but stronger CPUs (e.g., high-core-count Intel or AMD parts) achieve higher frame rates in this title. The data implies that Inside is a CPU-frequency-sensitive game, and the Ryzen 5 5500's 4.20 GHz boost clock and Zen 3 IPC are sufficient for solid performance but not for unlocking the RTX 5090's full potential. For context, the CPU's average benchmark score of 20875 is nearly identical to its rival the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE (20900, -0.1% delta), and the GPU's 84306 average is within 0.1% of the RTX 5090 D — yet the combo rank is influenced more by the CPU's relative weakness than the GPU's strength.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 279 FPS on Low, 259.6 FPS on Medium, 212.7 FPS on High, and 212.2 FPS on Ultra. The minimal gap between High and Ultra (0.5 FPS) shows that the CPU's frame generation ceiling is reached at approximately 213 FPS regardless of visual fidelity. The jump from Medium to High costs 46.9 FPS (18.1%), indicating a significant shader complexity increase that the GPU handles easily, but the CPU still caps the output.

At 2560x1440, results are 249.4 FPS on Low, 231 FPS on Medium, 194.3 FPS on High, and 188.6 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p costs 10.6% on Low, 11.0% on Medium, 8.7% on High, and 11.1% on Ultra. These consistent single-digit percentage reductions confirm that the GPU is still not fully engaged at 1440p; a GPU-bound system would show larger drops.

At 3840x2160, the numbers are 216.3 FPS on Low, 201.1 FPS on Medium, 152.1 FPS on High, and 143.6 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Low result (216.3 FPS) is actually higher than the 1080p Ultra result (212.2 FPS), which is unusual — it suggests that at 4K Low, the GPU's workload is balanced enough to allow slightly higher CPU throughput, or the lower settings reduce draw-call overhead. The High-to-Ultra delta at 4K is only 5.6%, showing diminishing returns from the highest preset's extra effects.

FAQ

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 bottlenecking the RTX 5090 in Inside?

A: Yes. The 1080p High and Ultra results are nearly identical (212.7 vs 212.2 FPS), and the 1440p High result (194.3 FPS) is only 8.7% lower than 1080p, indicating the CPU's frame rate ceiling is around 213 FPS, which the GPU hits easily at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to avoid CPU limitation?

A: 4K. At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, as evidenced by the larger FPS drops between settings (e.g., 216.3 FPS on Low to 152.1 FPS on High). This resolution exploits the RTX 5090's rendering power while the CPU can still feed it adequately.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested systems?

A: It ranks 397th out of 1671 tested combinations, placing it in the 76th percentile of all combos. This is strong but not elite, reflecting the CPU's mid-range position despite the flagship GPU.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM matter for Inside?

A: No. The game's maximum memory usage is well within the GPU's capacity, and the bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s is far more than needed. The VRAM size has no measurable impact on the FPS results in this title.

Q: What settings preset gives the highest frame rate?

A: Low settings at 1080p yields 279 FPS, the highest measured. However, at 4K Low, the system still delivers 216.3 FPS, which is above typical 144Hz monitor refresh rates, making 4K Low a viable option for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500's average benchmark score is 20875, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i5-12500's 20897 and 0.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE's 20900. These differences are negligible in real-world gaming.

Settings Recommendations

For maximum frame rate, the Low preset at 1080p delivers 279 FPS, ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, the data shows that Medium at 1080p (259.6 FPS) costs only 7% performance while likely improving visual quality. At 1440p, Low (249.4 FPS) offers the best balance of clarity and speed, as Medium (231 FPS) still exceeds 144Hz but with a 7.4% penalty.

For 4K displays, the Ultra preset at 143.6 FPS is the most visually complete option, and it remains above 120 FPS, making it suitable for high-refresh 4K panels. The High preset at 152.1 FPS provides a 5.9% improvement over Ultra with minimal visual degradation. Given that the CPU bottleneck is resolved at 4K, players with 4K monitors should choose High or Ultra based on visual preference. The Low preset at 4K (216.3 FPS) is only recommended for competitive play where every frame matters, as it sacrifices significant visual fidelity for a 42% FPS gain over Ultra. The data suggests that Medium settings at 1440p or High settings at 4K offer the most balanced experience, delivering well above 144 FPS while retaining the game's atmospheric art style.