Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a high-end combination aimed squarely at maximizing frame rates. In Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer, this hardware is largely overkill, but the benchmark data shows exactly how the system behaves across three resolutions and four quality presets. The results reveal a pattern where the GPU is rarely the limiting factor, and the sheer speed of the RTX 4080 SUPER pushes frame rates into territory that far exceeds the demands of the game's visuals.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows the expected trend of frame rates declining as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is heavily influenced by the graphics preset. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 206 FPS at 1920x1080 to 185 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 132 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a significant 36% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU is starting to feel the load of the higher pixel count, though the absolute numbers remain very high.

Looking at the Low preset, the scaling is nearly flat. The system delivers 268 FPS at 1080p, 240 FPS at 1440p, and 206 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is only about 10%, and the drop to 4K is a bit steeper at 23%. This relatively minor decline strongly suggests that at these lower settings, the CPU or other system components are acting as a bottleneck, preventing the GPU from fully stretching its legs even at 1080p. The GPU has so much headroom that it can maintain high frame rates even when the resolution is increased.

The Ultra preset tells a different story. Here, the frame rates are 203 FPS at 1080p, 182 FPS at 1440p, and 126 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is a 38% drop, which is similar to the High preset. This indicates that when the visual load is at its maximum, the GPU becomes a more significant factor, though it still manages to produce exceptionally smooth gameplay. The nature of Inside means that even the most demanding settings are not enough to push this GPU to its breaking point at 4K. The data across all presets shows that the system is capable of maintaining high performance, but the limiting component shifts from the CPU at low settings to the GPU at higher resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the extensive database of tested hardware combinations, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER achieves a comboRankInGame of 780 out of 2887 total combos. This places the system in the top 27% of all tested configurations for this specific game. Given the age and light graphical demands of Inside, this ranking reflects that while the system is powerful, many other combinations—likely those with even faster top-tier CPUs or more specialized parts—can achieve similar frame rates because the game is not a rigorous test of raw power.

The ranking suggests that the combination is more than capable of delivering a flawless experience, but the game's engine and visual complexity do not reward the hardware in a way that would push it into the top tier of the ranking. The high average frame rates across all settings are proof of the system's strength, but the ranking indicates that the hardware is not being fully utilized to differentiate itself from other high-end pairings. This is a case where the hardware is so strong that its performance in this title is largely limited by the game's own frame rate caps or engine logic, rather than the hardware's maximum potential. The data shows a system that is firmly in the upper echelon of performance, but not the absolute best, simply because this game cannot scale to use all of its available resources.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications highlight why it is so effective. It features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. For Inside, this is an immense amount of memory and bandwidth that is far beyond what the game requires, ensuring that texture loading and memory allocation are never a concern at any resolution. The GPU's core is also very fast, with a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2550 MHz, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process.

The GPU's benchmark scores are consistently high, with a Passmark G3D score of 34245 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 260075. The performance data confirms that the GPU is the primary driver of the frame rate differences between presets. At 4K with Ultra settings, the frame rate drops to 126 FPS, which is the lowest recorded. This is still an excellent result, but it shows the GPU is working harder than at lower resolutions. Conversely, at Low settings, the GPU is so underutilized that the frame rate is likely capped by the CPU or the game's engine, as evidenced by the relatively small difference between the 206 FPS at 4K and the 268 FPS at 1080p. The RTX 4080 SUPER is a GPU that is designed for 4K gaming, and this data shows it handles Inside with ease, never dropping below a very playable frame rate even under the most demanding settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a clear picture of performance across all scenarios. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields the highest average at 268 FPS, followed by Medium at 247 FPS, High at 206 FPS, and Ultra at 203 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 21 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is a mere 3 FPS, suggesting the Ultra preset offers diminishing returns. The Medium preset at 1080p shows a min FPS of 210 and a max of 285, indicating some variance but still a very stable experience.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset again leads with 240 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 222 FPS with a min of 188 FPS and a max of 255 FPS. The High preset achieves 185 FPS, and Ultra drops to 182 FPS. The pattern is consistent: the reduction from Low to Medium is 18 FPS, and from High to Ultra is only 3 FPS. This reinforces that the visual jump from High to Ultra is not heavily penalizing performance.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset delivers 206 FPS, which is identical to the High preset at 1080p. The Medium preset provides 190 FPS with a min of 161 FPS and a max of 218 FPS. The High preset drops to 132 FPS, and the Ultra preset is the most demanding, producing 126 FPS. Here, the difference between Low and Medium is 16 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is 6 FPS. The data clearly shows that even at 4K, the system never drops below 126 FPS, ensuring a effortless and responsive experience in a game where timing and precision are key.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal way to play Inside with this hardware is to prioritize frame rate and smoothness, as the game's visual style is more about atmosphere than graphical fidelity. The Ultra preset provides the best visual quality, but the performance difference compared to High is minimal. At 1080p, Ultra offers 203 FPS versus High's 206 FPS, a negligible 3 FPS difference. At 1440p, the gap is the same, with 182 FPS for Ultra and 185 FPS for High. Even at 4K, the difference is only 6 FPS, with Ultra at 126 FPS and High at 132 FPS.

Given that the visual difference between High and Ultra is likely imperceptible in a game with Inside's muted color palette and silhouetted characters, the High preset is the most efficient choice. It offers essentially the same performance as Ultra with a slight reduction in visual effects, which could help maintain a more consistent frame rate. However, the Medium preset is arguably the best for a competitive or high-refresh-rate experience. At 1440p, Medium yields 222 FPS, which is 37 FPS higher than High. At 4K, Medium provides 190 FPS, a massive 58 FPS improvement over High. Since the game is a puzzle platformer, the extra smoothness from Medium is more valuable than the subtle visual enhancements from High or Ultra. The data suggests that for the vast majority of players, the Medium preset at 1440p or 4K offers the best balance, delivering incredibly high frame rates that are far beyond what is necessary for a smooth experience, while still looking great. The Low preset offers the absolute highest frame rates but is unnecessary given the performance headroom.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz. Its key feature is the large 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is a significant advantage in many games. The CPU's benchmark scores are solid, with a Passmark single-thread score of 2941 and a Passmark multithread score of 20363. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and Intel Core Ultra 5 225, have nearly identical average scores, with delta percentages of only 0.2%, showing that this CPU is well-positioned in its performance class.

In the context of Inside, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU, but it is still a crucial factor. The data shows that at Low settings, the frame rates are likely CPU-bound, as the GPU has so much headroom that it cannot reach its full potential. For example, at 1080p Low, the system achieves 268 FPS, but at 4K Low, it still manages 206 FPS. This relatively small drop suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor in both cases, and the game's engine is not able to utilize the full power of the RTX 4080 SUPER. The CPU's strong single-thread performance, indicated by its 2941 score, helps ensure that the game logic and physics are processed quickly, preventing any stutters or hitches. The large L3 cache is also beneficial for game data, though its impact is less pronounced in a game this old. Overall, the Ryzen 5 5500X3D provides more than enough processing power to keep up with the RTX 4080 SUPER, ensuring that the GPU is never waiting on the CPU for data. The benchmark results show that this is a balanced pairing, with the CPU's performance being sufficient to avoid creating a bottleneck at the lower settings, while the GPU takes over as the primary driver at higher resolutions and settings.