Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 delivers a playable, if not spectacular, experience in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer. The measured frame rates reveal a system that is heavily influenced by graphics settings, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck at higher presets. The data shows a clear hierarchy where resolution scaling and preset selection have a more pronounced impact on performance than the underlying CPU capabilities.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 demonstrates a classic GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 150.5 FPS, which is exceptionally high for this genre. Moving to 1440p Low drops the average to 109.1 FPS, a reduction of approximately 27%. The leap to 4K Low further reduces performance to 66.8 FPS, which is roughly 39% lower than the 1440p result. This steep decline indicates that the RX 580’s rendering pipeline is saturated as pixel count increases.

The pattern intensifies at higher presets. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 75.2 FPS at 1080p, to 53.6 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 35.4 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1080p and 4K at High settings is a 53% loss in performance. At Ultra, the numbers tell a similar story: 70.8 FPS at 1080p, 49.7 FPS at 1440p, and 32.3 FPS at 4K. The data suggests that the limiting component is the GPU, as the scaling curve is steep and consistent across all presets. The CPU, with its high single-thread performance, is not the constraint here; otherwise, the frame rate would remain more flat across resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is a Polaris 20 chip built on a 14 nm process, featuring 2304 shading units and 32 ROPs. Its memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The card’s base clock is 1257 MHz with a boost clock of 1340 MHz. These specifications place it in the mid-range tier, and the benchmark results reflect that positioning. In the Passmark G3D test, the GPU scores 8813, which places it at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570, which scores nearly identically with a deltaPct of 0%, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950, which is 0.1% behind.

For Inside, the GPU’s VRAM capacity is sufficient, as the game’s art style does not demand massive texture buffers. The 8 GB allocation is not a limiting factor at any of the tested resolutions. Instead, the raw compute throughput of the RX 580 dictates the frame rates. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the card produces only 32.3 FPS, which is below the standard 60 FPS target. Even at 1440p High, the card manages 53.6 FPS, indicating that the GPU is working near its limit. The performance gap between Low and Ultra settings at any given resolution is substantial, with the 1080p Low score of 150.5 FPS falling to 70.8 FPS at Ultra, a 53% reduction. This suggests that the GPU’s fill rate and shader throughput are the primary determinants of performance in this title.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a Zen 4 architecture processor with 6 cores and 12 threads. It operates at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. This CPU is part of the 7000 series, built on a 5 nm process by TSMC. Its cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 32 MB L3 cache. The processor supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22799 and a single-core score of 3218, placing it in the 82nd percentile among all CPUs.

For a game like Inside, which is not heavily threaded, the CPU’s single-core performance is what matters most. The data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this configuration. At 1080p Low, where the GPU has the least work, the system achieves 150.5 FPS, demonstrating that the Ryzen 5 7500F can feed frames at a high rate. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would see similar frame rates across different resolutions at the same settings. Instead, the frame rates drop significantly as resolution increases, confirming that the GPU is the constraining component. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and the Intel Core i7-11850H, show aggregate benchmark scores within 0.3% of the 7500F, but their performance in this specific title would be equally sufficient given the game’s low CPU demands.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 7500F and the RX 580 ranks 1545 out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the bottom 8% of all configurations in the database. This low ranking is primarily due to the GPU’s age and performance class, not the CPU. The data indicates that the CPU is capable of supporting much higher frame rates, but the RX 580 holds the system back. The combo’s ranking suggests that many other GPU pairings with the same CPU would yield significantly better results. The RX 580’s percentile rank of 53% among all GPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 13559, illustrates that it is a mid-pack component. When paired with a top-tier CPU like the 7500F, the imbalance is stark. The GPU’s nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 and GTX 950, perform within 1.1% of the RX 580, indicating that this performance tier is well-populated and that the combo’s ranking is a reflection of the GPU’s capabilities relative to the entire database.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance is achieved at Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the system delivers an average of 120 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 88.6 FPS, still providing a fluid experience. Even at 4K Medium, the frame rate of 53.6 FPS is close to playable, though not ideal for fast-paced sections.

High settings are playable at 1080p with 75.2 FPS and at 1440p with 53.6 FPS, but 4K High falls to 35.4 FPS, which is too low for a smooth experience. Ultra settings are only viable at 1080p, where 70.8 FPS is achieved. At 1440p Ultra, the frame rate drops to 49.7 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it is 32.3 FPS. For a consistent 60 FPS experience across all resolutions, Low settings are required, with 4K Low yielding 66.8 FPS. However, the visual upgrade from Low to Medium is significant for a puzzle platformer with atmospheric lighting. Therefore, the data supports Medium settings as the sweet spot, offering a 60% improvement over Low at 1080p while maintaining a frame rate that is nearly double the 60 FPS target.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are as follows: Low settings produce 150.5 FPS, Medium produces 120 FPS, High produces 75.2 FPS, and Ultra produces 70.8 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 30.5 FPS, while the drop from Medium to High is 44.8 FPS, indicating a steep performance cost for the higher preset.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 109.1 FPS for Low, 88.6 FPS for Medium, 53.6 FPS for High, and 49.7 FPS for Ultra. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings incurs a 41.4 FPS penalty, while at Ultra, the penalty is 21.1 FPS. This shows that the GPU’s scaling is more efficient at lower presets due to reduced shader load.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 66.8 FPS for Low, 53.6 FPS for Medium, 35.4 FPS for High, and 32.3 FPS for Ultra. The 4K resolution proves to be a significant challenge for the RX 580, as even Low settings cannot maintain a 70 FPS average. The data shows a clear linear progression where each increase in resolution or settings tier reduces the average frame rate by a predictable margin, confirming the GPU-bound nature of this configuration.