Inside

Inside is a modest puzzle platformer by modern standards, but the measured frame rates for this AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB pairing reveal a clear bottleneck dynamic that shifts depending on where you set the dials. The data shows a system that can absolutely dominate at 1080p but starts to show its limitations as pixel counts climb, making the settings menu more important than usual for this hardware combination.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K tells a textbook story of GPU-bound scaling. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 99 at 1920x1080 to 71 at 2560x1440, then further down to 45 at 3840x2160. That is a 54% reduction in average frame rate from 1080p to 4K at High settings, which is a substantial hit but not unexpected for a GPU with 4 GB of VRAM.

The scaling pattern changes dramatically when you look at Low settings. At 1080p Low, the system pushes 199 FPS average, which drops to 143 at 1440p and then 90 at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is roughly 55%, which is remarkably similar to the High settings drop. This consistency suggests that the RTX 3050 is the limiting factor across the board, regardless of quality presets, but the absolute numbers reveal where the headroom really is.

Look closer at the Medium preset, which is the only setting tier with complete min/max data. At 1080p Medium, the average is 159 FPS with a minimum of 135 and maximum of 183. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 114 with a minimum of 97 and maximum of 131. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 72 with a minimum of 61 and maximum of 83. The gap between minimum and maximum frame rates narrows as resolution increases, indicating that the GPU is working harder and leaving less variance for the CPU to fill.

The jump from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing at every preset. At High settings, that jump costs 26 FPS on average. At Low settings, it costs 53 FPS. At Medium, it costs 42 FPS. The 4K resolution essentially halves the performance you would get at 1440p, which strongly suggests that the 4 GB VRAM capacity and 128-bit memory bus are becoming serious constraints at that resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA107 chip manufactured on Samsung's 8 nm process. The card runs at a base clock of 1545 MHz and boosts up to 1740 MHz, with memory clocked at 1500 MHz running at 12 Gbps effective. The memory configuration consists of 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

These specs directly explain the 4K performance ceiling. The 4 GB frame buffer is going to be saturated at 3840x2160 even in a visually simple game like Inside, which is known for its dark, atmospheric environments rather than heavy texture detail. The 192.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is also modest by today's standards, and the data shows that the card cannot maintain playable frame rates at Ultra settings in 4K, where it averages just 43 FPS.

The GPU's compute resources are similarly limited. With 2048 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, the RTX 3050 4 GB delivers 7.127 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The pixel rate is 55.68 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 111.4 GTexel/s. These figures put the card in the 50th percentile of all GPUs, meaning it is exactly middle-of-the-road, and the benchmark results reflect that positioning.

At 1080p, the GPU has enough headroom to push well past 144 Hz at Low settings, hitting 199 FPS average. Even at High settings, the 99 FPS average is perfectly smooth for a game like Inside. The card's 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores are present but largely irrelevant for this title, which does not appear to leverage ray tracing or DLSS in the measured data.

The 4 GB VRAM is the most concerning aspect. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 43 FPS average, and even at 1440p Ultra it only manages 68 FPS. The High preset at 4K also struggles at 45 FPS. These numbers suggest that the card is running out of memory bandwidth and capacity simultaneously at higher resolutions, not just raw compute power.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a Zen 4 architecture processor built on TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring 6 cores and 12 threads. It runs at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boosts up to 5.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache.

This CPU is nowhere near the bottleneck in this game. The multi-threaded performance is strong, as shown by the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22799 and single-core score of 3218. The Geekbench scores are equally solid at 12362 multi-core and 2374 single-core. In 3DMark tests, the CPU scores 974 in single-thread and 6379 at max threads.

The CPU's position in the market is confirmed by its percentile ranking at 77, meaning it outperforms 77% of all CPUs in the benchmark database. Its average benchmark score of 24964 places it in close competition with the Intel Core i7-11850H, which scores 24935 with a delta of 0.1%, and the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F, which scores 25005 with a delta of -0.2%.

In the context of Inside, the CPU role is minimal. The game is a 2.5D puzzle platformer with relatively simple physics and AI, so the 6-core/12-thread configuration is more than sufficient. The data confirms this: at 1080p Low, the system hits 199 FPS average, which would require strong single-thread performance but is well within the 7500F's capabilities. The fact that frame rates scale so predictably with resolution changes indicates the CPU is feeding the GPU without creating a bottleneck.

The 5.00 GHz boost clock is the key specification for this game. Inside relies heavily on single-threaded game logic, and the high boost clock ensures that the main thread is not starved. The 32 MB of L3 cache also helps with data locality, though the game's modest asset requirements mean this is likely not a limiting factor.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for the best experience at each resolution. At 1920x1080, every preset is playable, but the Medium settings offer the best balance of visual quality and performance. The 159 FPS average with a 135 FPS minimum is well above any display refresh rate you would realistically use, and the jump from Medium to High costs 60 FPS on average while providing only marginal visual improvements in a game with Inside's art style.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again stands out as the sweet spot. The 114 FPS average with a 97 FPS minimum keeps you comfortably above 90 FPS, which is smooth for this genre. The High preset at 71 FPS is also acceptable, but the 43 FPS drop from Medium to High is steep for what amounts to minor visual gains. The Ultra preset at 68 FPS is technically playable but not worth the risk of dips below 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the situation is different. The Medium preset at 72 FPS average with a 61 FPS minimum is the only 4K option that maintains a consistent playable experience. The High preset at 45 FPS and Ultra at 43 FPS are both below the 60 FPS threshold and should be avoided. The Low preset at 90 FPS is playable but sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a game that relies on atmosphere and lighting.

The overall recommendation is to use Medium settings as your baseline. It is the only preset with complete min/max data, and those numbers show the most consistent frame pacing across all resolutions. The 135 FPS minimum at 1080p, 97 FPS minimum at 1440p, and 61 FPS minimum at 4K all indicate that Medium settings keep the GPU within its comfort zone without pushing it to the edge.

FAQ

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

A: Only at Medium settings, where it averages 72 FPS with a 61 FPS minimum. At High settings, the average drops to 45 FPS, and at Ultra it falls to 43 FPS, both below the 60 FPS target.

Q: What is the best resolution for this hardware in Inside?

A: 1920x1080 at Medium settings provides the best experience, with a 159 FPS average and a 135 FPS minimum. This gives you maximum headroom and the most consistent frame pacing of any resolution/settings combination in the measured data.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the clear limiting factor. Frame rates scale consistently with resolution changes at every preset, dropping roughly 54-55% from 1080p to 4K. The Ryzen 5 7500F's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by its 3218 Cinebench R23 single-core score, is more than sufficient for this title.

Q: Does the 4 GB VRAM cause problems in Inside?

A: The data suggests it does at 4K. The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 averages only 43 FPS, and the High preset at 45 FPS, indicating the card is struggling with memory bandwidth and capacity at that resolution. At 1080p and 1440p, the VRAM is adequate.

Q: How much performance do you gain by dropping from Ultra to Low settings?

A: At 1080p, you gain 104 FPS on average (95 to 199). At 1440p, you gain 75 FPS (68 to 143). At 4K, you gain 47 FPS (43 to 90). The gains are substantial at every resolution, but most impactful at 1080p.

Q: Is this a good pairing for Inside specifically?

A: The data indicates yes for 1080p and 1440p gaming. The system ranks 3242 out of 3716 tested combos in this game, which places it in the bottom 13% of all hardware combinations, but that ranking reflects the 4K limitations rather than the overall experience at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p)

• Low: 199 FPS average
• Medium: 159 FPS average, 135 FPS minimum, 183 FPS maximum
• High: 99 FPS average
• Ultra: 95 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p)

• Low: 143 FPS average
• Medium: 114 FPS average, 97 FPS minimum, 131 FPS maximum
• High: 71 FPS average
• Ultra: 68 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: 90 FPS average
• Medium: 72 FPS average, 61 FPS minimum, 83 FPS maximum
• High: 45 FPS average
• Ultra: 43 FPS average

The complete dataset covers 12 unique resolution/settings combinations, with only the Medium preset at each resolution including minimum and maximum frame rate data. This gives a partial picture of frame pacing, but the averages alone are sufficient to identify the performance tiers. The 1080p Medium combination is the standout configuration, delivering a 159 FPS average that is 60 FPS higher than High settings and 40 FPS higher than Ultra settings, while remaining 40 FPS below the Low preset's maximum output.