Inside

Inside is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer from 2016 with a deliberately moody, minimal aesthetic, so the visual demands are modest, but the frame rate data for the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT combination shows that even this older GPU can push well beyond standard display refresh rates with the right settings.

Settings Recommendations

For this pairing, the measured results show a clear distinction between where the GPU is comfortably ahead of the display's refresh rate and where it starts to struggle. At 1080p, the High preset achieves an average of 137 FPS, which is excellent for any 120Hz or 144Hz panel. The Medium preset pushes that to 220 FPS, and Low reaches 275 FPS, but the jump from High to Medium is far more meaningful than the jump from Medium to Low. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 131 FPS, which is only 6 FPS lower than High, suggesting that the Ultra settings add detail without a massive performance hit at this resolution.

At 1440p, the story shifts. High averages 99 FPS, which is still very playable but requires a 144Hz monitor to be fully utilized. Medium delivers 158 FPS, giving you headroom for a 144Hz display, while Low hits 198 FPS for maximum responsiveness. Ultra at 1440p drops to 94 FPS, which is fine for 60Hz but not ideal for high-refresh gaming. The real problem appears at 4K: High averages 62 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold, but Ultra drops to 59 FPS, dipping below that line. Medium at 4K averages 99 FPS, which is surprisingly strong, but High at 4K is only 62 FPS.

The best overall experience for this combo is the Medium preset. At 1080p it yields 220 FPS, at 1440p it yields 158 FPS, and at 4K it yields 99 FPS. This is the only preset that stays above 60 FPS at every resolution tested. The High preset is a close second for 1080p and 1440p, but it falls to 62 FPS at 4K, which is borderline. The Ultra preset is not recommended for 4K, as the 59 FPS average is a visible compromise. Low is only useful if you are chasing the absolute highest frame rates on a 240Hz or higher display.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is built on the RDNA 1.0 architecture with a Navi 10 chip. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than adequate for a game like Inside that has relatively simple textures and lighting. The GPU has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. Its base clock is 1605 MHz, with a game clock of 1755 MHz and a boost clock of 1905 MHz. The FP32 compute rating is 9.754 TFLOPS.

In this game, the GPU's clock speed and memory bandwidth are not the limiting factors at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rates scale almost linearly with the settings preset, which indicates that the GPU is handling the workload without any memory bottlenecks. The 8 GB VRAM is not a concern here, as Inside's art style does not require large texture pools. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the card produces 275 FPS, which is far beyond what most displays can show, confirming that the GPU has ample headroom for this title.

The GPU's performance relative to its peers is also notable. The RX 5700 XT's average benchmark score is 16361, placing it in the 59th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, scores 16351, which is only 0.1% lower. This indicates that the card sits in a competitive mid-range position. Interestingly, the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell scores 16408, which is 0.3% higher, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 scores 16504, which is 0.9% higher. These are professional or flagship cards, so the RX 5700 XT holding within 1% of them in synthetic benchmarks confirms its efficiency for its time, though its actual gaming performance in modern titles will differ.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals where the GPU becomes the limiting factor. At 1080p High, the average is 137 FPS. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 99 FPS, a 28% reduction. Moving to 4K High drops it to 62 FPS, a 55% reduction from the 1440p figure and a 55% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling is typical for a GPU-heavy workload, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

For the Medium preset, the scaling is similar. At 1080p Medium, the average is 220 FPS. At 1440p Medium, it drops to 158 FPS, a 28% reduction. At 4K Medium, it drops to 99 FPS, a 37% reduction from 1440p. The 4K Medium result is notably strong, suggesting that the Medium preset's lower shadow quality and post-processing effects reduce the GPU load enough to keep the card from being fully saturated.

The Low preset shows the least relative drop, going from 275 FPS at 1080p to 198 FPS at 1440p (28% drop) to 124 FPS at 4K (37% drop from 1440p). This indicates that at Low settings, the GPU is not the sole bottleneck, and the CPU begins to play a larger role in sustaining frame rates. The fact that 4K Low (124 FPS) is still above 120 FPS shows that the RX 5700 XT can handle the resolution if you strip away the visual effects.

The data also shows that the Ultra preset suffers the most at high resolutions. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 131 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 59 FPS, a 55% reduction. This is the only preset that falls below the 60 FPS threshold at 4K, confirming that the extra effects in Ultra are too much for the GPU at that pixel count.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured rows show a clear hierarchy. Low settings yield an average of 275 FPS. Medium settings drop to 220 FPS, with a minimum of 187 FPS and a maximum of 253 FPS. High settings average 137 FPS. Ultra settings average 131 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is only 6 FPS, which is minimal, but the gap between Medium and High is 83 FPS, which is substantial. The data suggests that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for 1080p, as it offers a significant frame rate advantage over High while still maintaining a smooth experience.

At 2560x1440, the pattern continues. Low averages 198 FPS. Medium averages 158 FPS, with a minimum of 134 FPS and a maximum of 182 FPS. High averages 99 FPS. Ultra averages 94 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is only 5 FPS, again showing that Ultra does not cost much more than High at this resolution. However, the jump from Medium to High is 59 FPS, which is a much larger penalty. For a 144Hz monitor, Medium is the only preset that guarantees frame rates above the refresh rate, while High and Ultra fall below 100 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more constrained. Low averages 124 FPS. Medium averages 99 FPS, with a minimum of 84 FPS and a maximum of 114 FPS. High averages 62 FPS. Ultra averages 59 FPS. This is the only resolution where High and Ultra produce nearly identical results, with only 3 FPS separating them. The Medium preset at 4K is the standout, offering 99 FPS, which is far more playable than the 62 FPS from High. The Low preset at 124 FPS is also viable for 4K gaming on a 120Hz display, but the visual compromise is significant.

FAQ

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

A: Yes, but only with the Medium or Low presets. The Medium preset averages 99 FPS at 4K, and Low averages 124 FPS. The High preset averages 62 FPS, which is close to 60 FPS, but the Ultra preset averages 59 FPS, which falls below the threshold.

Q: What is the best preset for a 144Hz monitor at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset is the only one that consistently stays above 144 FPS, with an average of 158 FPS. The Low preset averages 198 FPS, but it removes too many visual details. High and Ultra average 99 FPS and 94 FPS respectively, which are below the 144 FPS target.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High in terms of performance?

A: At 1080p, Ultra averages 131 FPS versus 137 FPS for High, a difference of 6 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra averages 94 FPS versus 99 FPS for High, a difference of 5 FPS. At 4K, Ultra averages 59 FPS versus 62 FPS for High, a difference of 3 FPS. The Ultra preset costs very little performance across all resolutions.

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

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K with higher settings, as frame rates drop sharply. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 275 FPS is so high that the CPU's single-thread performance (Passmark single-thread score of 3494) likely becomes a limiting factor, though the game is not CPU-intensive.

Q: How does the RX 5700 XT's performance compare to its nearest rival?

A: The RX 5700 XT has an average benchmark score of 16361, which is 0.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M (16351) and 0.3% lower than the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (16408). It trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 (16504) by 0.9%.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data. At 1080p, the minimum is 187 FPS and the maximum is 253 FPS. At 1440p, the minimum is 134 FPS and the maximum is 182 FPS. At 4K, the minimum is 84 FPS and the maximum is 114 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 4.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. Its cache configuration is substantial: 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 96 MB of shared L3 cache. This large L3 cache is a key feature for gaming, as it reduces memory latency.

In Inside, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, but the data shows it is not irrelevant. The Passmark single-thread score is 3494, which is competitive, and the Passmark multithread score is 25047. The CPU's percentile versus all CPUs is 89, meaning it outperforms 89% of all processors. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, has an average score of 44466, which is 0.2% higher. The Intel Core i9-13950HX scores 44342, which is 0.5% higher, and the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 scores 44309, which is 0.6% higher. The Intel Core i5-14600 scores 44889, which is 0.7% lower.

The high L3 cache and boost clock of 4.50 GHz ensure that the CPU can feed the GPU with draw calls without becoming a bottleneck, especially at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 275 FPS average suggests that the CPU is still keeping up, though the frame rate is high enough that any stutter would be noticeable. The game is not heavily threaded, so the 6 cores and 12 threads are more than sufficient. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s on DDR5 is also ample for this title's data flow. The combination of a strong single-thread score and a large cache makes this processor well-suited for the task, allowing the RX 5700 XT to reach its full potential in this game.