Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination delivers exceptional performance in Inside, a Puzzle Platformer from 2016. Benchmark results show this pairing achieves frame rates high enough to saturate virtually any display, with the measured data indicating a top-tier position among tested configurations. The following analysis breaks down the specific performance metrics, scaling behavior, and component roles.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 274th out of 2887 tested combos for Inside. This places the pairing in the top 9.5% of all configurations tested, a strong result for a game that is not particularly demanding by modern standards. The high percentile ranking suggests that while the hardware is overqualified for this title, the measured frame rates reflect a system that will not encounter performance bottlenecks.

The CPU itself holds the 89th percentile against all processors in the database, with an average benchmark score of 44573. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmarks are the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, which scores 44466 (a 0.2% delta), and the Intel Core i9-13950HX at 44342 (0.5% delta). The AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 sits just 0.6% behind at 44309. Notably, the Intel Core i5-14600 scores 44889, putting it 0.7% ahead of the 7500X3D in average benchmark scores, indicating that the AMD chip is competitive with but not decisively superior to mid-range Intel offerings in general compute tasks.

The GPU, the RTX 5090 D, ranks in the 92nd percentile against all graphics cards. Its average benchmark score is 77712. The nearest rivals are interesting: the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT scores 76904 (1.1% ahead of the 5090 D in the aggregate), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT scores 78940 (1.6% behind), and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe variants sit 2.1% and 2.4% behind respectively. This data suggests that the 5090 D's raw compute benchmarks are closely matched with mobile and datacenter parts from previous generations, although the 5090 D's massive 32 GB VRAM and Blackwell architecture differentiate it in real-world gaming scenarios.

For Inside specifically, the measured frame rates are extraordinarily high. At 1080p High settings, the combo delivers 246 FPS, which is above the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The ranking of 274th out of 2887 combos indicates that many other configurations also achieve high frame rates in this lightweight title, but the 7500X3D + 5090 D combination is firmly in the upper echelon.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing for Inside. The GPU features a 32 GB GDDR7 memory buffer with a 512-bit bus width and a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. These specifications are vast overkill for a game like Inside, which does not require high-resolution textures or large asset streaming. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, translating to 28 Gbps effective.

The GPU's base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz. These clock speeds are typical for a flagship-class card, and the high boost frequency allows the 5090 D to process the simple geometry and lighting of Inside with ease. The card's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power, along with its 21760 shading units, ensures that even the most complex scenes in the game are rendered without any strain on the GPU.

Since Inside is a 2D side-scrolling puzzle platformer with a distinctive monochromatic art style, the GPU's advanced features—such as 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores—are not heavily utilized. The game does not employ ray-traced lighting or DLSS upscaling in a meaningful way. Consequently, the RTX 5090 D operates well below its maximum potential, and the measured frame rates are limited more by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls than by the graphics card's rendering throughput. The GPU's role here is to provide a massive headroom, ensuring that there is never a graphics-related dip in performance. The measured scores indicate that the card is well ahead of the game's requirements, as even the lowest measured average FPS of 153 at 4K Ultra is far above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p High settings, the combo achieves 246 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 High, the frame rate drops to 221 FPS, a decrease of approximately 10.2%. At 3840x2160 High, the average FPS falls to 160, which is a 35% reduction from the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is informative: the drop from 1080p to 1440p is relatively modest, but the jump to 4K causes a more significant decline.

This behavior indicates that the system is partially CPU-bound at lower resolutions. At 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is able to prepare frames faster than the GPU can render them, but the GPU still has significant headroom. The pronounced drop at 4K suggests that the GPU's rendering workload is finally increasing enough to become a more limiting factor. However, even at 4K, the 160 FPS average is exceptionally high, meaning that neither component is truly saturated.

The Low preset shows similar scaling. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 320 FPS. At 1440p Low, it drops to 287 FPS (a 10.3% decrease). At 4K Low, the average is 246 FPS, a 23.1% drop from 1080p. The fact that the percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is nearly identical between High and Low presets (around 10%) suggests that the limiting factor at these resolutions is related to CPU or driver overhead rather than pure GPU pixel throughput. In contrast, the drop from 1440p to 4K is larger for High (27.6% reduction) than for Low (14.3% reduction), which aligns with the GPU becoming more heavily loaded as resolution and graphical complexity increase.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, particularly at higher resolutions. The data shows that at 4K Medium, the combo achieves 227 FPS with a minimum of 193 FPS and a maximum of 261 FPS. This is a substantial improvement over the High preset's 160 FPS average at the same resolution. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 153 FPS, which is still very playable but offers diminishing returns over Medium for a game with such a stylized aesthetic.

For users with 1440p displays, the Medium preset delivers 265 FPS with a 225 FPS minimum, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The High preset at 1440p yields 221 FPS, which is also excellent, but the Medium preset provides a higher minimum frame rate, suggesting more consistent frame pacing. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 287 FPS, but the visual downgrade in a game like Inside is likely not worth the extra 22 FPS over Medium.

At 1080p, all presets are viable. The Low preset reaches 320 FPS, while Medium achieves 296 FPS and High reaches 246 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p produces 242 FPS, which is nearly identical to High. Given that the game's art style relies on subtle lighting and shadow effects, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point, as it maintains high frame rates across all resolutions while preserving the game's intended atmosphere. The measured data indicates that the largest jump in frame rate occurs between High and Medium at 4K (from 160 to 227 FPS), making Medium the clear sweet spot for 4K users.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table summarizes the exact measured average FPS values across all tested resolutions and settings. Minimum and maximum values are provided where available in the data.

3840x2160 (4K)

• Low: 246 FPS
• Medium: 227 FPS (min 193, max 261)
• High: 160 FPS
• Ultra: 153 FPS

2560x1440 (1440p)

• Low: 287 FPS
• Medium: 265 FPS (min 225, max 305)
• High: 221 FPS
• Ultra: 217 FPS

1920x1080 (1080p)

• Low: 320 FPS
• Medium: 296 FPS (min 251, max 340)
• High: 246 FPS
• Ultra: 242 FPS

The data shows a consistent hierarchy: Low > Medium > High > Ultra in terms of average FPS at every resolution. The gap between High and Ultra is small, typically only 4-7 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset adds minimal overhead over High. The gap between Medium and High is more substantial, especially at 4K where the difference is 67 FPS. This suggests that the High preset enables a graphical feature that has a significant performance cost on this hardware.

The minimum frame rates at Medium settings provide insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p, the minimum is 251 FPS, while the average is 296 FPS, resulting in a spread of 45 FPS. At 1440p, the minimum is 225 FPS against an average of 265 FPS, a spread of 40 FPS. At 4K, the minimum is 193 FPS against an average of 227 FPS, a spread of 34 FPS. The decreasing spread with increasing resolution suggests that the GPU is becoming more consistently utilized at higher resolutions, reducing the impact of CPU-induced frame time spikes.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Inside with this hardware?*

A: The data shows that at 4K Medium, the combo achieves 227 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate of most 4K monitors. Since 4K Medium offers the highest resolution with a high frame rate, it is the recommended target for this hardware.

*Q: Is the RTX 5090 D or the Ryzen 5 7500X3D the bottleneck in Inside?*

A: The benchmark results indicate that the system is likely CPU-bound at lower resolutions. The frame rate drop from 1080p to 1440p is only around 10% for both Low and High presets, whereas the drop from 1440p to 4K is much larger for High settings, suggesting the GPU becomes more relevant at 4K. Neither component appears to be fully saturated.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 7500X3D compare to its nearest rivals in general compute?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 44573, which is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i9-13950HX. It trails the Intel Core i5-14600 by 0.7%.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest rivals in raw GPU benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 77712. The AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT scores 76904, which is 1.1% higher, while the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT scores 78940, which is 1.6% lower. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB scores 79396, a 2.1% difference.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 320 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 242 FPS. This represents a 78 FPS difference, or approximately a 24% reduction in frame rate when maximizing settings.

Q: Does the 4K Medium preset provide a higher minimum frame rate than the 1080p High preset?

A: No. The 4K Medium preset has a minimum frame rate of 193 FPS, while the 1080p High preset has no measured minimum value in the data, but its average is 246 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 193 FPS is still very high.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, based on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture. It operates at a base clock of 4.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. The CPU has a 96 MB shared L3 cache, which is large for a 6-core part and is designed to improve gaming performance by reducing memory latency. The CPU's TDP is 65 W, making it an efficient choice.

In Inside, the CPU's role is to handle the game's simulation and draw call submission. The game is not heavily multi-threaded, so the 12 threads are more than sufficient. The high boost clock of 4.50 GHz ensures that the single-threaded performance is strong, which is critical for a game where the main thread often dictates frame pacing. The PassMark single-thread score for the 7500X3D is 3494, and its multithread score is 25047.

The measured FPS data suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at very high rates. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 320 FPS, which indicates that the CPU can generate frames at that speed without being the limiting factor. However, the fact that the frame rate does not scale linearly with resolution at the Low preset—dropping from 320 FPS at 1080p to 287 FPS at 1440p—implies that there is some CPU overhead that scales with resolution or that the GPU is beginning to take on more work.

The CPU's nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and the Intel Core i9-13950HX. The 7500X3D's 96 MB L3 cache is a key differentiator, as it is significantly larger than typical caches on competing parts, which can improve cache hit rates in gaming workloads. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking against all CPUs indicates that it is a high-performing part, though not at the absolute top tier. For Inside, the CPU's performance is more than adequate, as the game's logic is simple and the frame rates are consistently high across all settings, confirming that the CPU is not a limiting factor for this title.