Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer. The data set shows this pairing achieving triple-digit average FPS even at 4K Ultra settings, indicating that the hardware massively overshoots the requirements of this title. The measured results provide a clear picture of how the game scales across resolutions and settings, revealing a system that is primarily limited by the game engine's frame pacing rather than component headroom.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic pattern of diminishing returns, but with an unusual twist: the frame rate drop is relatively modest, suggesting that both the CPU and GPU have significant overhead. At High settings, the average FPS moves from 246 at 1920x1080 to 221 at 2560x1440, representing a 10% reduction. Moving to 3840x2160 drops the average to 147 FPS, which is a 40% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4090 has ample bandwidth and compute resources, but the game's rendering load at 4K begins to assert itself more forcefully.

The Low settings row shows a steeper relative decline: 320 FPS at 1080p falls to 287 FPS at 1440p (a 10% drop) and then to 246 FPS at 4K (a 23% drop from 1080p). This suggests that at Low settings, the frame rate is more constrained by CPU-bound tasks, which scale less with resolution. The Medium settings data includes min and max FPS values, which are useful for understanding frame pacing: at 1080p Medium, the average is 296 FPS with a minimum of 251 and maximum of 340, showing a 89 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 227 FPS, but the spread narrows to 68 FPS (193 min, 261 max), indicating that at higher resolutions the GPU becomes more consistently loaded.

The most telling comparison is between High and Ultra settings at the same resolution. At 1080p, High averages 246 FPS while Ultra averages 242 FPS — a negligible 4 FPS difference. At 4K, High averages 147 FPS while Ultra averages 140 FPS, again a small 7 FPS gap. This suggests that the Ultra preset adds visual features that are not particularly demanding on this hardware, and the frame rate is likely limited by the game's single-threaded physics or logic updates rather than the GPU. The data implies that for Inside, the RTX 4090 is so powerful that resolution scaling is nearly flat until 4K, where pixel fill rate becomes the binding constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

The measured combination holds rank 296 out of 2,887 tested combos in this game, placing it in the 90th percentile of all tested pairings. This is a strong position, but the ranking is not as high as the raw component performance might suggest. The RTX 4090 alone sits in the 88th percentile among all GPUs, and the Ryzen 5 7500X3D is in the 89th percentile among all CPUs. The combo's rank of 296 out of 2,887 means that roughly 259 other combinations achieve higher average FPS in Inside, which is a surprising outcome given the top-tier hardware.

This gap between component percentiles and combo rank suggests that Inside is a game where very high frame rates are achievable with much less powerful hardware, and the ranking is likely dominated by systems with extremely high single-thread performance or specialized overclocks. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D has a single-thread Passmark score of 3,494, which is solid but not class-leading. Rivals like the Intel Core i5-14600 (with a deltaPct of -0.7% in average benchmark score) might edge out the X3D in certain single-threaded tasks, which could matter in a game like Inside that relies heavily on deterministic physics.

The combo's rank of 296 implies that there are 259 other combinations that perform better, which could include pairings with the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H (0.2% higher average score) or the Intel Core i9-13950HX (0.5% higher). These CPUs have higher single-thread capabilities that might translate to better frame pacing in Inside, even if the overall average FPS is similar. The data suggests that for this specific game, the CPU's single-thread performance is more critical than the GPU's raw throughput, which is why the combo does not crack the top 200.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is vastly overprovisioned for Inside, which is a 2D side-scroller with modest texture requirements. The GPU's base clock is 2235 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and the memory runs at 21 Gbps effective. These clocks are high, but the data shows that the GPU is rarely the limiting factor in this game.

The measured FPS values at 1080p Low (320 FPS) and 4K Low (246 FPS) demonstrate that the GPU has significant headroom even at the highest pixel count. The Passmark G3D score of 38,194 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223 confirm the GPU's compute dominance, but in Inside, the frame rate is capped by the game's rendering pipeline rather than the GPU's fill rate or shader throughput. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s are theoretical maxima that the game never approaches.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS is immense, but Inside does not leverage such raw compute. The data implies that the RTX 4090 is essentially idling during most of the gameplay, with the frame rate being determined by CPU-side game logic. The memory bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s is similarly irrelevant for a game that likely uses less than 4 GB of VRAM at 4K. This suggests that users pairing this GPU with lower-end CPUs would see nearly identical performance in Inside, as the GPU is not the bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), providing a comprehensive view of performance scaling. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 320, which is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset. Moving up the settings ladder at 1080p, Medium averages 296 FPS (with min 251 and max 340), High averages 246 FPS, and Ultra averages 242 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 78 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset imposes a meaningful, but not crippling, additional load.

At 1440p, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute values. Low averages 287 FPS, Medium averages 265 FPS (min 225, max 305), High averages 221 FPS, and Ultra averages 217 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 70 FPS, which is slightly smaller than the 78 FPS gap at 1080p, suggesting that resolution scaling is slightly more efficient at higher settings. The Medium preset at 1440p shows a min FPS of 225, which is 85% of the average, indicating occasional frame dips that could be perceptible on high-refresh-rate displays.

At 4K, the results are still impressive but show the expected degradation. Low averages 246 FPS, Medium averages 227 FPS (min 193, max 261), High averages 147 FPS, and Ultra averages 140 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra at 4K is 106 FPS, which is larger than at lower resolutions, confirming that the GPU's pixel fill rate becomes a factor at 4K. However, even the worst-case scenario (4K Ultra at 140 FPS) is far above the 60 FPS target that most games aim for, and the Medium preset at 4K still delivers 227 FPS with a minimum of 193 FPS.

The min FPS values for Medium settings across all resolutions (251 at 1080p, 225 at 1440p, 193 at 4K) show that the frame pacing is consistent, with no severe stutters. The max FPS values (340 at 1080p, 305 at 1440p, 261 at 4K) indicate that the system can push beyond the average when the scene is simpler, but the average is the more reliable metric for gameplay smoothness.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance headroom. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 296 with a minimum of 251, which means the frame rate never drops below 251 FPS — this is ideal for a 240 Hz or 360 Hz monitor. At 1440p Medium, the average is 265 FPS with a minimum of 225, still comfortably above 200 FPS for high-refresh-rate displays. At 4K Medium, the average is 227 FPS with a minimum of 193, which is excellent for 4K 144 Hz panels.

The High preset is also viable, but the data shows a significant drop at 4K (147 FPS average) compared to Medium (227 FPS). This 80 FPS difference at 4K is substantial, and the visual improvement from Medium to High is unlikely to be perceptible in Inside's dark, atmospheric art style. The Ultra preset provides only marginal gains over High (242 vs 246 FPS at 1080p) while consuming more GPU resources, making it the least efficient choice.

For users with 1440p displays, the Low preset at 287 FPS is overkill, and Medium at 265 FPS offers better visual fidelity with only a 22 FPS penalty. For 4K users, Medium at 227 FPS is the clear winner, as it maintains high frame rates while providing the game's intended visual presentation. The Low preset at 4K (246 FPS) is only 19 FPS higher than Medium but likely sacrifices shadows and lighting effects that are central to Inside's atmosphere.

Given that the minimum FPS at 4K Medium is 193, users should be confident that there are no severe frame drops during gameplay. The data suggests that Medium is the "sweet spot" for this game, as it provides a stable frame rate across all resolutions while preserving enough visual detail to appreciate the game's design.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The average FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings is 140 FPS, which is the lowest recorded value in the dataset but still well above standard 60 Hz refresh rates.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 7500X3D compare to its nearest rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 5 7500X3D has an average benchmark score of 44,573, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, 0.5% higher than the Intel Core i9-13950HX, and 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385. It trails the Intel Core i5-14600 by 0.7%.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 225, with an average of 265 and a maximum of 305.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 the bottleneck at 1080p Low settings?

A: No, the average FPS is 320 at 1080p Low, which suggests that the game's CPU-side logic or engine limits the frame rate, not the GPU, which has theoretical capabilities far exceeding this demand.

Q: How does the combo rank in this game compared to all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 296 out of 2,887 tested combinations, placing it in the top 10% of all tested pairings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset averages 147 FPS while Ultra averages 140 FPS, a difference of only 7 FPS, indicating that Ultra adds minimal visual benefit for the performance cost.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a base clock of 4.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. It features 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is a significant amount for gaming workloads, and belongs to the Zen 4 Raphael family built on a 5 nm process. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 3,494 and multithread score of 25,047 indicate solid performance, but the data from Inside suggests that the game is not heavily multithreaded.

The game's frame rate at 1080p Low (320 FPS) is likely constrained by the CPU's single-thread performance, as the GPU is clearly not the limiting factor. The CPU's boost clock of 4.50 GHz is respectable, but not exceptional compared to rival processors like the Intel Core i5-14600, which has a slightly higher average benchmark score. The L3 cache of 96 MB might help with cache-sensitive workloads, but Inside is a small game that likely fits in the CPU's L2 cache (1 MB per core) without needing the large L3.

The nearest rivals show that the Ryzen 5 7500X3D is within 0.7% of its closest competitors in average benchmark scores, which suggests that the CPU choice has minimal impact on Inside's performance. The data implies that the game's frame rate is more influenced by the GPU's ability to render frames quickly and the game engine's internal logic, rather than the CPU's raw compute power. The 65 W TDP of the Ryzen 5 7500X3D is low for a desktop processor, but this does not translate to a performance advantage in this game, as the frame rates are already exceptionally high.

The CPU's memory support for DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth is more than sufficient for Inside, which likely uses less than 16 GB of system memory. The data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck, as evidenced by the fact that the combo ranks in the 90th percentile despite the game being released in 2016, well before this CPU's launch in 2025. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is overkill for a game that probably uses 2-4 threads, but it ensures that there is no CPU-induced frame pacing issues, as evidenced by the consistent minimum FPS values across all settings.