Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT delivers a remarkably smooth experience in Inside, a Puzzle Platformer from 2016-07-06. Benchmark results show this combination handles the game with substantial headroom, producing high frame rates even at 4K, though the data reveals distinct scaling patterns that illuminate which component drives performance at each setting level.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS values show a clear and consistent decline as resolution increases, but the shape of that decline varies significantly by preset. At Low settings, average FPS drops from 298 at 1920x1080 to 267 at 2560x1440, then falls further to 188 at 3840x2160. That is a 110 FPS difference between 1080p and 4K, representing a 37% reduction. At Medium settings, the same resolution jump produces a smaller absolute drop: 275 to 239 to 150, which is a 125 FPS difference (45% reduction). High settings show 208 at 1080p, 149 at 1440p, and 94 at 4K — a 114 FPS decline (55% reduction). Ultra settings follow a similar pattern: 198 at 1080p, 142 at 1440p, and 89 at 4K, a 109 FPS drop (55% reduction).

These percentages tell an interesting story. The proportional loss from 1080p to 4K grows as settings increase, from roughly 37% at Low to 55% at Ultra. This suggests that at lower presets, the CPU or some other bottleneck limits performance even at 1080p, so the GPU has less headroom to lose when pixel count rises. The fact that Low at 4K (188 FPS) still beats High at 1080p (208 FPS) indicates the RX 7800 XT is nowhere near saturated in this game. Meanwhile, the gap between Medium and High at the same resolution is substantial — for example, 150 vs 94 FPS at 4K — implying that specific settings within those presets create a steep workload jump. The data implies the limiting component shifts from CPU-bound behavior at low presets to a more balanced or GPU-leaning situation at higher presets, though even at Ultra 4K the system remains far from struggling.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 1273 out of 3716 tested combos for Inside, placing it in the 66th percentile of all systems evaluated. This is a strong showing for a game that is not particularly demanding by modern standards, but the rank reflects the entire system’s capability rather than just raw component power. Given that the GPU sits at the 51st percentile among all GPUs and the CPU at the 74th percentile among all CPUs, the combo rank is slightly lower than the CPU would suggest, likely because the GPU’s mid-pack standing tempers the overall result.

The nearest rival data for the CPU shows how close the mid-range field is. The Ryzen 5 5600 averages a benchmark score of 20468, just 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (20454) and 0.2% ahead of both the AMD Ryzen 5 8500G (20425) and AMD EPYC 9454P (20422). This margin is negligible, meaning the CPU’s performance in synthetic tests is essentially tied with those processors. For the GPU, the RX 7800 XT averages 11627, which is 0.5% below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (11680) and 1.8% below the AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT (11842), while sitting 0.9% above the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M (11528) and 1.3% above the NVIDIA Tesla K20c (11479). These small deltas in aggregate benchmarks do not directly translate to gaming performance, but they contextualize where these parts sit in the broader hardware landscape.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5600 brings 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This Zen 3 architecture chip, built on a 7 nm process, has a 65 W TDP and supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. Its single-thread performance is strong — evidenced by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 882 and a cinebench_r23_singlecore score of 2584 — which matters for Inside because puzzle platformers often rely on a few primary threads for game logic and physics.

In this game, the CPU’s role appears to be the limiting factor at low settings and high frame rates. At 1080p Low, the system hits 298 FPS, but the jump to 4K Low only drops that to 188 FPS — a 37% reduction. If the GPU were fully saturated, we would expect a much larger proportional drop when pixel count quadruples. The relatively modest decline suggests the CPU is holding back performance at 1080p Low, preventing the RX 7800 XT from reaching even higher frame rates. The multi-threaded capabilities of the 5600 are more than adequate for this title; its cinebench_r23_multicore score of 18309 and 3dmark_max_threads score of 5659 indicate it can handle far more demanding workloads. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache likely helps maintain stable frame pacing in this type of game, where streaming assets and maintaining consistent update loops are common.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a wide spread across presets. Low settings produce an average of 298 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium settings drop to 275 FPS, with a minimum of 234 and maximum of 317 FPS. High settings average 208 FPS, while Ultra averages 198 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 23 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High is a much larger 67 FPS, suggesting that High enables effects or shadow quality that significantly increases render cost. Ultra only costs another 10 FPS over High, indicating diminishing returns at the top end.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 267 FPS, Medium averages 239 FPS (min 203, max 275), High averages 149 FPS, and Ultra averages 142 FPS. The Medium-to-High gap here is 90 FPS, even more pronounced than at 1080p. This widening gap suggests that the GPU becomes more involved at 1440p, and the specific workload increase from Medium to High hits the graphics card harder. At 3840x2160, Low averages 188 FPS, Medium averages 150 FPS (min 128, max 173), High averages 94 FPS, and Ultra averages 89 FPS. The Medium-to-High drop is 56 FPS, while High-to-Ultra is only 5 FPS. Across all resolutions, the Ultra preset is only 4-9 FPS slower than High, which strongly implies that Ultra adds very little actual visual cost in this game. The minimum FPS values recorded at Medium (234 at 1080p, 203 at 1440p, 128 at 4K) show that even the lowest dips remain comfortably above 60 FPS, indicating no stutter issues.

GPU Role

The RX 7800 XT is a RDNA 3.0 part with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1295 MHz, with a boost clock of 2430 MHz and a game clock of 2124 MHz. The 3840 shading units and 96 ROPs give it substantial rasterization power, and its 37.32 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is more than enough for a 2016 title like Inside. The GPU’s 51st percentile ranking among all GPUs might seem modest, but its passmark_g3d score of 24176 is strong, and the 16 GB VRAM allocation is far beyond what this game requires.

The GPU’s role becomes clearer when examining the resolution scaling at higher presets. At Ultra settings, the drop from 1080p to 4K is 109 FPS, or 55%, which is closer to what we would expect from a GPU-bound scenario. However, the absolute numbers — 198 FPS at 1080p Ultra and 89 FPS at 4K Ultra — reveal that the card is never truly taxed. The bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s and the 16 GB frame buffer mean there is no memory pressure at any resolution tested. The fact that High and Ultra produce nearly identical results (within 5-9 FPS at every resolution) suggests that the Ultra preset may not meaningfully increase shader complexity or texture sampling, leaving the GPU with spare capacity. The GPU’s 60 ray accelerators and DirectX 12 Ultimate support are irrelevant here, as Inside predates widespread RT adoption, and the game’s simple geometry does not stress the 240 TMUs or 96 ROPs.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 275 FPS average with a minimum of 234 FPS, which is only 23 FPS below Low but 67 FPS above High. At 2560x1440, Medium averages 239 FPS with a 203 FPS minimum, still far above any display refresh rate. Even at 3840x2160, Medium produces 150 FPS average and 128 FPS minimum, which exceeds 120 Hz displays comfortably. The High preset, by contrast, cuts performance nearly in half compared to Medium at 1440p and 4K, yet the visual difference in a puzzle platformer is unlikely to justify that cost.

For users with 60 Hz displays, even Ultra at 4K (89 FPS average) is sufficient. For high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p or 1440p, Medium is clearly the sweet spot, providing frame rates between 239 and 275 FPS that far exceed typical 144 Hz or 165 Hz panels. Low settings offer only marginal gains over Medium (23 FPS at 1080p, 28 FPS at 1440p, 38 FPS at 4K) and would degrade visual fidelity for no practical benefit. Ultra is the least efficient choice, adding only 4-9 FPS over High at any resolution while presumably increasing visual load. The data strongly suggests that Medium is the intended experience on this hardware, with High or Ultra reserved for players who prioritize image quality over the already-abundant frame rate headroom.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K 60 FPS?*

A: Yes, with significant headroom. Even at Ultra settings, the average FPS at 3840x2160 is 89, well above 60. At Medium settings, the average rises to 150 FPS with a minimum of 128 FPS.

Q: What is the best preset for a 144 Hz monitor?

A: At 1920x1080, Medium averages 275 FPS and Low averages 298 FPS, both exceeding 144 Hz. At 2560x1440, Medium averages 239 FPS, while High drops to 149 FPS. Medium is the recommended preset for 144 Hz displays at either resolution.

Q: How much performance is lost going from 1080p to 4K?

A: The loss depends on the preset. At Low settings, average FPS drops from 298 to 188 (37% reduction). At Medium, it drops from 275 to 150 (45% reduction). At High, it drops from 208 to 94 (55% reduction). At Ultra, it drops from 198 to 89 (55% reduction).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data suggests the CPU limits performance at low settings, as the 1080p-to-4K FPS drop is smaller at Low (37%) than at High or Ultra (55%). At higher presets, the GPU becomes more involved, but neither component is fully saturated given the high absolute frame rates.

Q: Does the Ultra preset offer any benefit over High?

A: The measured difference is minimal. At 1080p, Ultra averages 198 FPS versus 208 FPS for High (10 FPS difference). At 1440p, the gap is 7 FPS (142 vs 149). At 4K, the gap is 5 FPS (89 vs 94). Ultra provides no meaningful performance advantage, but also costs very little.

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

A: It ranks 1273 out of 3716 tested combinations for Inside, placing it in the top 34% of all systems. The CPU ranks in the 74th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU ranks in the 51st percentile among all GPUs.