Inside

# Inside — AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080

The measured frame rates for Inside with this AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination reveal a title that is demanding enough to show meaningful scaling across resolutions, yet light enough that even the most punishing preset remains comfortably playable. The data indicates a system that never drops below triple-digit average FPS at any tested setting, with the gap between 1080p and 4K narrowing as graphical load increases — a pattern that hints at a nuanced balance between the CPU's six cores and the GPU's Blackwell architecture.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 tells a clear story about where the bottleneck shifts. At High settings, the average frame rate moves from 246 FPS at 1080p down to 219 FPS at 1440p, then falls further to 138 FPS at 4K. That represents a 43.9% drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings, which is substantial but not catastrophic. The Low preset shows a similar pattern: 320 FPS at 1080p, 287 FPS at 1440p, and 246 FPS at 4K — a 23.1% reduction from 1080p to 4K. Interestingly, the Low preset at 4K (246 FPS) matches the High preset at 1080p (246 FPS), suggesting that resolution scaling and preset scaling interact in predictable ways.

The Medium preset provides the most complete data with min and max FPS values. At 1080p, the average is 296 FPS with a range of 251 to 340 FPS. Moving to 1440p, the average drops to 265 FPS (225 min, 305 max). At 4K, the average falls to 220 FPS with a tighter range of 187 to 253 FPS. The delta between 1080p and 4K at Medium is 25.7%, which is less severe than the High preset's drop. This suggests that as settings increase, the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor, while at lower settings, the CPU's capabilities are more prominently exercised.

Ultra settings show the smallest absolute frame rates but also the smallest relative drop between resolutions: 242 FPS at 1080p, 209 FPS at 1440p, and 131 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K reduction is 45.9%, which is the steepest of all presets. This makes sense — Ultra settings load the GPU heavily, and the pixel count increase from 1080p to 4K requires four times the rasterization work. The fact that Ultra at 1080p (242 FPS) is nearly identical to High at 1080p (246 FPS) suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU or some other system component may be approaching its ceiling, preventing the GPU from fully stretching its legs.

What does this imply about the limiting component? At 1080p, the differences between presets are relatively modest — 320 FPS at Low versus 242 FPS at Ultra is a 24.4% spread. At 4K, that spread widens dramatically: 246 FPS at Low versus 131 FPS at Ultra is a 46.7% difference. The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU's six cores and 12 threads are likely keeping pace with the GPU's output, capping performance around the 300 FPS range. As resolution climbs to 4K, the GPU's 10752 shading units become the dominant factor, and the frame rate scales more directly with pixel count and preset complexity.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combination?

A: The highest average FPS in the measured data is 320 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is followed closely by 296 FPS at 1080p Medium and 287 FPS at 1440p Low.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Low?

A: The 4K Ultra preset delivers an average of 131 FPS, while 1080p Low reaches 320 FPS. This represents a 59.1% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lightest 1080p configuration to the heaviest 4K configuration, highlighting the significant GPU workload increase.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded?

A: The lowest average FPS in the dataset is 131 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. Despite being the lowest figure, this remains comfortably above 120 FPS, indicating that the system never struggles to maintain smooth gameplay in Inside.

Q: Are there any settings where the minimum FPS drops below 187 FPS?

A: No. The only measured minimum FPS values are 187 FPS at 4K Medium, 225 FPS at 1440p Medium, and 251 FPS at 1080p Medium. All other presets only have average FPS recorded, but the available minimums stay well above 180 FPS.

Q: How does the 1440p High preset compare to the 1080p Ultra preset?

A: The 1440p High preset averages 219 FPS, while 1080p Ultra averages 242 FPS. The difference is only 10.5%, suggesting that at these settings, the resolution increase from 1080p to 1440p has a modest impact on performance relative to the preset choice.

Q: What is the FPS range at 4K Medium settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 220, with a minimum of 187 FPS and a maximum of 253 FPS. This provides the widest recorded spread among the Medium preset measurements, indicating some scene-to-scene variability at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 333rd out of 2887 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the top 11.5% of all configurations in the database, which is a strong showing for a system built around a six-core CPU and a 16 GB GPU. The rank of 333 out of 2887 suggests that while there are many faster combinations, this pairing outperforms the vast majority of tested systems in this specific game.

The CPU's own benchmark percentile tells an interesting story. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D sits at the 89th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44573. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, which scores 44466 (a 0.2% difference), and the Intel Core i9-13950HX at 44342 (0.5% higher). The AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 comes in at 44309 (0.6% higher), while the Intel Core i5-14600 scores 44889, which is 0.7% higher than the 7500X3D. These tight deltas indicate that the 7500X3D is very much in the middle of a competitive pack for general CPU performance, yet its 96 MB of shared L3 cache likely provides specific advantages in gaming workloads.

On the GPU side, the RTX 5080 achieves an 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 56083. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 8060S at 55757 (0.6% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB at 55698 (0.7% lower), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X at 54828 (2.3% lower). The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE scores higher at 57367, putting it 2.2% ahead of the RTX 5080. These margins are small, suggesting that the RTX 5080's position in the GPU hierarchy is closely contested, but its combination with the 7500X3D yields a combo rank that reflects solid overall performance in Inside.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear progression across presets. Low settings produce an average of 320 FPS, which is the highest figure in the entire dataset. Medium settings reduce this to 296 FPS, with a recorded minimum of 251 FPS and maximum of 340 FPS. High settings average 246 FPS, while Ultra settings average 242 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 78 FPS, indicating that the GPU has headroom at this resolution even when settings are cranked up.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low settings average 287 FPS, which is a 10.3% drop from the 1080p Low figure. Medium settings average 265 FPS (225 min, 305 max), while High settings average 219 FPS. Ultra settings average 209 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 1440p is 78 FPS as well, but the absolute numbers are lower across the board, reflecting the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the performance curve steepens. Low settings average 246 FPS, which is identical to the 1080p High figure — a notable coincidence that underscores how resolution and settings trade off against each other. Medium settings average 220 FPS (187 min, 253 max), High settings average 138 FPS, and Ultra settings average 131 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 4K is 115 FPS, which is significantly wider than at lower resolutions. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU's rendering workload becomes the primary constraint, and preset choices have a larger relative impact on frame rates.

Looking at the Medium preset across all three resolutions, which has the most complete data, the 1080p average of 296 FPS drops to 265 FPS at 1440p (a 10.5% reduction) and then to 220 FPS at 4K (a 17.0% reduction from 1440p). The minimum FPS values follow a similar trajectory: 251 FPS at 1080p, 225 FPS at 1440p, and 187 FPS at 4K. These figures indicate consistent performance scaling, with the 4K jump being the most demanding.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 brings 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is paired with 10752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 112 ROPs. The GPU's boost clock is 2617 MHz, with a base clock of 2295 MHz. These specifications position the RTX 5080 as a high-end card, and the measured FPS data in Inside reflects that capability.

The VRAM capacity of 16 GB is ample for a game like Inside, which was released in 2016 and does not have the texture-heavy demands of modern AAA titles. The memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s ensures that the GPU can feed its 10752 shading units without starvation, even at 4K resolution with higher presets. The data supports this: at 4K Ultra, the GPU still manages 131 FPS, which is well above playable thresholds.

The RTX 5080's architecture, Blackwell 2.0, is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, with 45,600 million transistors on a 378 mm² die. The GPU's FP32 performance is 56.28 TFLOPS, which provides substantial compute headroom. In Inside, a puzzle platformer with relatively simple geometry and lighting, this compute power is not fully stressed, but it does allow the GPU to maintain high frame rates even at 4K.

The GPU's benchmark scores further contextualize its role. The Passmark G3D score is 36565, while the Geekbench Vulkan score is 255450 and the OpenCL score is 235901. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 8637. These numbers indicate strong DirectX 12 and Vulkan performance, which aligns with the game's requirements. The GPU sits at the 87th percentile among all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 56083 places it just 0.6% above the AMD Radeon 8060S and 0.7% above the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is a six-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, based on the Raphael codename and Zen 4 architecture. It operates at a base clock of 4.00 GHz and boosts to 4.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU has 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and a substantial 96 MB of shared L3 cache. This large L3 cache is a defining feature of the X3D branding, and it likely contributes to gaming performance by reducing memory latency.

The CPU's memory support includes DDR5 with a dual-channel bus, providing 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth. It also supports ECC memory and uses the AMD Socket AM5. The processor is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, with 11,270 million transistors on a 71 mm² die. Its Passmark scores show strong multi-threaded performance: 25047 in multithread, 70774 in integer math, and 43594 in floating point math. The single-thread score is 3494, which is competitive for gaming workloads.

In Inside, the CPU's role is less demanding than in many other titles, given the game's relatively simple simulation and physics. However, the high L3 cache and decent single-thread performance ensure that the CPU does not become a bottleneck, especially at 1080p where the GPU has more headroom. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the system reaches 320 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's practical limit for this game. The fact that 1080p Ultra (242 FPS) is not dramatically lower than 1080p High (246 FPS) suggests that the CPU can handle the increased draw calls and object counts without significant performance degradation.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 89th among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44573, places it in a tight cluster with rivals like the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H (44466, 0.2% lower) and the Intel Core i5-14600 (44889, 0.7% higher). These small deltas indicate that the 7500X3D is well-matched to its peers in general compute, but its X3D cache may provide an edge in gaming-specific scenarios that general benchmarks do not fully capture.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combination depend on the user's display resolution and frame rate targets. At 1080p, all presets deliver average FPS above 240, with Low reaching 320 FPS and Ultra at 242 FPS. For users with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, the Medium preset at 296 FPS (251 min, 340 max) offers the best balance of visual quality and performance headroom, ensuring that even the lowest recorded frame rate stays well above 240 FPS.

At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 265 FPS (225 min, 305 max), which is ideal for 240 Hz displays. High settings at 219 FPS are also viable for 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitors, while Ultra at 209 FPS remains playable but leaves less margin for frame rate dips. The Low preset at 287 FPS is only marginally higher than Medium, making it a poor trade-off in visual quality for the small FPS gain.

At 4K, the choice becomes more critical. The Medium preset averages 220 FPS (187 min, 253 max), which is the highest 4K average with full min/max data. High settings at 138 FPS and Ultra at 131 FPS are both above 120 FPS, making them suitable for 120 Hz displays, but they sacrifice significant performance compared to Medium. Given the 33% reduction from Medium to High (220 FPS to 138 FPS), the Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot at 4K, providing smooth gameplay with only a modest visual compromise.

Across all resolutions, the data suggests that Medium settings offer the most balanced experience. At 1080p, it delivers 296 FPS with a tight range; at 1440p, it maintains 265 FPS with a minimum of 225 FPS; and at 4K, it achieves 220 FPS with a minimum of 187 FPS. The Ultra preset, while visually richer, provides diminishing returns in Inside, a game whose art style is defined by atmospheric lighting and silhouettes rather than high-frequency texture detail. For users prioritizing frame rate consistency, Medium is the recommended preset; for those with 120 Hz 4K displays who want maximum visual fidelity, High at 138 FPS remains viable.