Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers an exceptional experience in Inside, a 2016 Puzzle Platformer. The measured frame rates are exceedingly high across all tested configurations, with the lowest average being 145.1 FPS at 4K Ultra settings. This combination of a six-core Zen 3 processor and a flagship Blackwell GPU ensures that the game is never a bottleneck, placing the combo at rank 207 out of 1671 tested combinations.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a predictable yet pronounced drop in frame rate as resolution increases, but the absolute numbers remain so high that the impact is minimal for playability. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 238.2 FPS. Moving to 1440p reduces this to 211.2 FPS, a decrease of 27 FPS, and finally, at 4K, the average falls to 153.4 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates that the rendering load is shifting to the GPU as pixel count rises, but the RTX 5090 has ample headroom.

The most telling comparison for understanding the limiting component comes from the Low settings preset. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 310.8 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. At 1440p Low, it only drops to 278.8 FPS, and even at 4K Low, it maintains a robust 235 FPS. The relatively small delta between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings—just 32 FPS—suggests that the CPU is starting to become a more significant factor at lower resolutions, where the GPU is less burdened. However, the Ryzen 5 5600X still manages to feed the GPU well enough to keep frame rates far above any display refresh rate.

When examining the Ultra preset, the scaling is more aggressive. The difference between 1080p Ultra (234.2 FPS) and 1440p Ultra (207.9 FPS) is 26.3 FPS, but the leap to 4K Ultra results in a substantial drop to 145.1 FPS. This 62.8 FPS reduction from 1440p to 4K highlights that the GPU is the primary constraint at the highest fidelity settings. The RTX 5090’s memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s and 32 GB of GDDR7 memory are clearly sufficient, but the sheer pixel throughput required at 4K is what drives the frame rate down. The data shows that while the CPU is capable at lower resolutions, the GPU becomes the definitive limiting component at 4K Ultra, though the playable result is still outstanding.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Zen 3 architecture, code-named Vermeer. It operates at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and can boost up to 4.60 GHz, with a 32 MB L3 cache. In a game like Inside, which is not highly threaded, these specifications are more than adequate. The benchmark results for the CPU show a strong single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2622 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2111. This is crucial for a puzzle platformer that relies on consistent physics and logic updates.

The CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18578, are less critical for this title but still demonstrate headroom. The percentile rank of 78 vs all CPUs indicates that it is a solid performer, though not the absolute top tier. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT (-0.3%), Intel Core i7-10700 (-0.3%), and Intel Core i5-12490F (-0.5%), placing the 5600X in a tightly contested mid-range to upper-mid-range segment.

The measured FPS data supports the notion that the CPU is not a bottleneck at 1080p. At that resolution, the difference between Low (310.8 FPS) and High (238.2 FPS) is 72.6 FPS, which is a significant gap. This suggests that the GPU is handling most of the visual load, and the CPU has enough single-thread power to keep up with the game’s logic without causing frame dips. The boost clock of 4.60 GHz is likely the key factor here, as it provides the rapid response needed for the game’s physics-based puzzles. There is no indication from the data that the 5600X is holding the RTX 5090 back, even at the high frame rates seen at 1080p Low.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the core of this combo’s performance, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB202 chip. It features a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. The sheer compute power is evident in its FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS and a Passmark G3D score of 39650. This places the GPU in the 94th percentile for all GPUs, indicating top-tier performance.

The GPU’s influence on the measured results is clear when examining the scaling between presets. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 89.9 FPS (235 FPS vs 145.1 FPS), showing that the graphics card’s workload increases substantially with visual fidelity. This is further evidenced by the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14411, which reflects its ability to handle modern rendering tasks. The 28 Gbps effective memory speed ensures that texture streaming and high-resolution assets are not a limiting factor, even at 4K.

The nearest rivals for the RTX 5090, based on average benchmark score, are the RTX 5090 D (0.1%), the RTX 5050 Mobile (0.2%), and the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (1.3%). The positive deltaPct values for these rivals indicate that the RTX 5090 has a slightly lower average score than the 5090 D and the 5050 Mobile, but the differences are negligible, within 0.2%. This suggests that the RTX 5090 is performing as expected for its class. In Inside, the GPU is the main driver of performance differences between presets, and its immense power ensures that even the Ultra preset, which appears to be the most demanding, remains highly playable.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance for this combo is the High preset. At 1080p High, the system achieves 238.2 FPS, which is only 3.9 FPS lower than the 1080p Ultra setting (234.2 FPS). This negligible difference suggests that High offers nearly the same visual experience with a slight performance edge. At 1440p High, the average is 211.2 FPS, and at 4K High, it remains at a very smooth 153.4 FPS. The High preset consistently provides over 150 FPS at all resolutions, which is ideal for players with high-refresh-rate monitors.

The Medium preset offers a minor performance increase over High. At 1080p, the difference is 44.7 FPS (282.9 vs 238.2), and at 4K, it is 64.8 FPS (218.2 vs 153.4). This jump is more pronounced at higher resolutions, suggesting that Medium reduces the GPU load significantly. However, the visual downgrade from High to Medium is typically more noticeable in textures and effects, and given the high frame rates already achieved, the trade-off is not necessary for this hardware.

The Ultra preset is the only setting where frame rates dip below 200 FPS at 4K, hitting 145.1 FPS. While this is still perfectly playable, the data shows that the step from High to Ultra yields a performance cost of 8.3 FPS at 1080p (238.2 vs 234.2) and 62.8 FPS at 4K (153.4 vs 145.1). The proportionally larger loss at 4K suggests that Ultra introduces rendering features that heavily tax the GPU’s pixel throughput. Therefore, for the best experience that leverages the RTX 5090’s power without unnecessary performance expenditure, High is the recommended preset, providing a robust frame rate at 4K and exceeding 200 FPS at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a combo rank of 207 out of 1671 tested combinations in Inside. This places it in the top 12.4% of all tested systems, which is a strong result given the CPU’s mid-range positioning. The high rank is almost entirely attributable to the GPU, which is in the 94th percentile, while the CPU is in the 78th percentile. This disparity indicates that the overall system performance is heavily skewed by the graphics card’s dominance.

When comparing to other combos, the data suggests that the 5600X’s performance is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 5090 in this specific game. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-10700 or AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT, have nearly identical average scores, with deltas under 0.5%. This implies that swapping the 5600X for one of these alternatives would result in a negligible change in FPS for Inside, as the game is not CPU-bound at the tested settings. The limiting factor is the GPU, and the RTX 5090’s placement in the 94th percentile for all GPUs confirms its role as the primary performance driver.

The rank of 207 out of 1671 is impressive, but it is not the top score, which would likely be held by systems with newer, more powerful CPUs. However, the measured FPS data shows that this combo is more than capable of delivering a flawless experience in Inside. The lowest average FPS across all 12 measured rows is 145.1, which is far above the threshold for smooth gameplay. This suggests that while the combo may not be the absolute fastest in the database, its real-world performance in this title is exceptional, and the CPU-GPU balance is well-matched for the game’s demands.