Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT combination delivers an exceptionally high level of performance in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer, with frame rates that remain fluid even at demanding 4K resolutions. The data shows a system that is heavily overqualified for this title, providing a wide margin of headroom across all tested settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates reveal how the rendering load scales with pixel count, and the pattern is telling. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 268 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 240 FPS, a reduction of 28 FPS or roughly 10.4%. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 188 FPS, which is a further 52 FPS drop from the 1440p result.

The scaling pattern shifts with higher graphical settings. At Medium settings, the progression is 247 FPS (1080p) to 222 FPS (1440p) to 150 FPS (4K). The gap between 1440p and 4K at Medium is 72 FPS, which is a larger absolute drop than the 25 FPS decline seen between 1080p and 1440p. This indicates that the 4K resolution is starting to place a more significant load on the GPU, even for a game as light as Inside.

At High settings, the averages are 206 FPS at 1080p, 149 FPS at 1440p, and 94 FPS at 4K. The percentage decline from 1080p to 1440p is 27.7%, and from 1440p to 4K it is 36.9%. This accelerating drop-off is a classic sign that the GPU is becoming the limiting component as resolution increases. The Ultra preset tells a similar story: 198 FPS (1080p), 142 FPS (1440p), and 89 FPS (4K).

The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU and GPU are both capable of pushing frame rates to extreme levels, but the scaling between resolutions is not linear. The transition from 1440p to 4K consistently costs more performance than the jump from 1080p to 1440p, regardless of the preset. For example, at Low settings, the 1080p to 1440p drop is 28 FPS, while the 1440p to 4K drop is 52 FPS. This indicates that the RX 7800 XT, while powerful, must work considerably harder to fill the 8.3 million pixels of a 4K display compared to the 3.7 million of a 1440p panel.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the primary engine driving these results, and its specifications align with the scaling behavior observed. It features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. This large memory pool is far more than sufficient for Inside, a game from 2016, ensuring that texture and geometry data never become a bottleneck.

The GPU's clock speeds are substantial, with a base clock of 1295 MHz and a boost clock of 2430 MHz. The game clock is listed at 2124 MHz, which is the typical sustained clock under gaming load. These high frequencies are reflected in the GPU's compute capabilities, with an FP32 throughput of 37.32 TFLOPS. This raw power is why the combo can maintain an average of 94 FPS at 4K High, a result that would be considered excellent for many modern titles, let alone a puzzle platformer.

The RX 7800 XT's performance in standard benchmarks places it in a specific context. Its Passmark G3D score is 24176, and its average benchmark score is 11627. The percentile vs all GPUs is 51, meaning it sits slightly above the median of all tested graphics cards. Interestingly, its nearest rivals based on average score include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (difference -0.5%), the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M (difference 0.9%), and the NVIDIA Tesla K20c (difference 1.3%). These rivals are all older or lower-tier cards, which is unusual. This suggests that the average benchmark score for the RX 7800 XT is pulled down by less demanding tests, but in a gaming scenario like Inside, its high clock speeds and modern architecture shine.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s is a key asset. While Inside is not a memory-intensive game, the combination of high bandwidth and 16 GB of VRAM ensures that there is no penalty for running at 4K with Ultra settings. The data shows a drop from 94 FPS at High to 89 FPS at Ultra at 4K, a relatively small 5 FPS penalty. This indicates that the most demanding preset is still well within the capabilities of the GPU's memory subsystem and shader array.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer. It operates on the AMD Socket AM4 platform and is produced on a 7 nm process node. Its base clock is 3.00 GHz, and it can boost up to 4.00 GHz. This is a relatively modest clock speed for a modern desktop CPU, but the processor compensates with a large 96 MB shared L3 cache.

This large cache is the defining feature of the X3D line and is likely a significant contributor to the high frame rates seen at 1080p. In a game like Inside, which may have small, repeated data sets, the large L3 cache can hold more of the game's working set, reducing the need to access slower main memory. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score is 2941, and its Passmark multithread score is 20363. The multithread score is bolstered by the 12 threads, but the single-thread performance is more critical for a game that may not scale perfectly across all cores.

The CPU's overall average benchmark score is 37018, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in terms of average score are the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (difference 0.2%), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (difference -0.2%), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (difference 0.2%). These extremely small delta percentages (all less than 0.3%) indicate that the 5500X3D performs nearly identically to these other processors in general benchmarks.

The CPU's role in Inside is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 268 FPS. At this resolution, the GPU is not heavily loaded, so the CPU's ability to process game logic and issue rendering commands becomes the limiting factor. The fact that the frame rate drops to 240 FPS at 1440p Low suggests that the GPU is still not saturated at 1080p, and the CPU is indeed the ceiling at that lower resolution. However, the large L3 cache ensures that the CPU can maintain these high frame rates without stuttering, as evidenced by the min FPS of 210 at 1080p Medium.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 268 FPS. Medium provides 247 FPS on average, with a minimum of 210 FPS and a maximum of 285 FPS. High averages 206 FPS, and Ultra averages 198 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 70 FPS, showing that the settings have a noticeable impact even at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 240 FPS. Medium averages 222 FPS, with a minimum of 188 FPS and a maximum of 255 FPS. High averages 149 FPS, and Ultra averages 142 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is only 7 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not particularly demanding here.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 188 FPS. Medium averages 150 FPS, with a minimum of 128 FPS and a maximum of 173 FPS. High averages 94 FPS, and Ultra averages 89 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 99 FPS, which is the largest spread of any resolution. This is expected, as the GPU is working hardest at 4K, and the difference between the simplest and most complex rendering paths becomes more pronounced.

The Medium preset is the only one for which min and max FPS values are provided for all resolutions. These numbers show consistency. At 1080p, the range is 210 to 285 FPS, a 75 FPS spread. At 1440p, the range is 188 to 255 FPS, a 67 FPS spread. At 4K, the range is 128 to 173 FPS, a 45 FPS spread. The narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that the frame pacing becomes more consistent as the GPU becomes the bottleneck, preventing CPU-side spikes from causing large variations.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Ryzen 5 5500X3D and RX 7800 XT achieves a rank of 1095 out of 2887 total combos for Inside. This places it in the top 38% of all tested systems. This ranking is notable because the individual components have strong but not top-tier benchmark scores. The CPU is in the 85th percentile, and the GPU is in the 51st percentile. However, the combination's rank of 1095 suggests that the pairing is well-balanced for this specific game, avoiding a scenario where one component severely bottlenecks the other.

The rank of 1095 out of 2887 also indicates that there are many other combos that perform better. These would likely include systems with higher-end GPUs like the RX 7900 series or RTX 4080s, which could push frame rates even higher at 4K. However, for Inside, the RX 7800 XT already delivers over 89 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is far beyond the 60 FPS target most players aim for. The ranking confirms the fact that this mid-to-high-range setup can compete with more expensive configurations in this undemanding title.

The data shows that the combo is not near the top of the ranking, but it is comfortably above the median. This is a sensible result; a 6-core CPU and a 7800 XT GPU are a powerful pairing, but they are not the absolute fastest available. The rank of 1095 is a fair reflection of the hardware's overall potential, and the high frame rates measured in Inside demonstrate that the game is not a challenge for this system.

FAQ

*Q: What is the maximum average frame rate this combo achieves in Inside?*

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 268 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: Can this system maintain a stable 60 FPS at 4K with the Ultra preset?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo produces an average of 89 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p Low. The frame rate drops from 268 FPS to 240 FPS when moving to 1440p Low, indicating the GPU has headroom at 1080p that the CPU cannot fully utilize.

Q: What is the average frame rate difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 149 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 142 FPS. This is a difference of 7 FPS.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its nearest rival in general benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500X3D has an average benchmark score of 37018, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 5 225.

Q: What is the lowest minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 128 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with the Medium settings preset.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the experience. For players prioritizing the highest possible frame rates on a 1080p or 1440p monitor, the Low preset is the obvious choice, offering 268 FPS and 240 FPS respectively. However, the visual simplicity of the Low preset may not be desirable. The Medium preset is a strong middle ground, providing 247 FPS at 1080p and 222 FPS at 1440p, while the minimum FPS data (210 and 188 respectively) shows that it maintains excellent frame pacing without significant dips.

For 4K gaming, the High preset is the recommended starting point, as it yields an average of 94 FPS. This is a significant drop from the Low preset's 188 FPS, but it still provides a smooth and responsive experience with better visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 4K averages 89 FPS, a difference of only 5 FPS from High. Given the small performance cost, the Ultra preset is the best choice for 4K users who want the highest image quality, as the 89 FPS average is still comfortably above the 60 FPS standard.

The Ultra preset is also viable at 1080p and 1440p, with averages of 198 FPS and 142 FPS. The 142 FPS at 1440p is still exceptionally high, but the 89 FPS at 4K Ultra is the only scenario where the system dips below the 100 FPS mark. Considering the data, the best overall experience for most users is the Medium preset at 1440p, which balances a high average of 222 FPS with a guaranteed minimum of 188 FPS. For 4K displays, the Ultra preset is recommended, as it provides the best visuals while maintaining an average of 89 FPS, a result that showcases the GPU's capability even under the highest load.