Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers an exceptional experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer that is far more demanding than its minimalist aesthetic suggests. The data shows a combination capable of pushing high refresh rates even at 4K, though the scaling patterns reveal where the bottleneck shifts as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a classic resolution scaling curve, but with an interesting twist at the lower settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 359.6 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 321.6 FPS, and 4K Low brings it down to 239.7 FPS. That represents a 33% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which indicates the CPU is still managing to feed the GPU adequately even at the lowest quality preset.

The scaling becomes much steeper at higher quality presets. At Ultra settings, the frame rate goes from 251 FPS at 1080p, down to 180.1 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 114.3 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is less than half the 1080p Low result, showing that the GPU is the primary limiting factor when both resolution and quality are maxed out. The gap between 1080p and 1440p at Ultra is 70.9 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 65.8 FPS — a remarkably consistent drop that suggests the rendering workload scales predictably with pixel count.

What stands out is the behavior at Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the combo hits 332 FPS, which is only 27.6 FPS lower than Low. At 1440p Medium, it produces 295.6 FPS, a 26 FPS drop from Low. The pattern holds at 4K, where Medium delivers 190.1 FPS versus 239.7 FPS at Low. This suggests Medium settings are still largely CPU-bound at 1080p and 1440p, with the GPU taking over as the constraint only when resolution climbs to 4K.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Inside at 4K with high refresh rates?*

A: Yes. The measured data shows 117.7 FPS at 4K High and 114.3 FPS at 4K Ultra. Even at the most demanding settings, the average frame rate stays well above 100 FPS, making 120Hz displays a viable target for this game.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from 1080p to 4K?

A: At Low settings, the drop is from 359.6 FPS to 239.7 FPS, a 33% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is steeper: from 251 FPS to 114.3 FPS, a 54% reduction. The percentage loss increases with quality preset because the GPU becomes more saturated.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 7600 holding back the RX 7900 XTX in this game?

A: At 1080p Low, the 359.6 FPS result suggests the CPU is approaching its limit, but the processor still delivers enough headroom to keep the GPU fed. The 3DMark single-thread score of 999 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3246 indicate strong per-core performance, which matters for a game like this.

Q: What is the difference between High and Ultra settings?

A: The measured difference is small. At 4K, High averages 117.7 FPS while Ultra averages 114.3 FPS, a gap of 3.4 FPS. At 1080p, the difference is 13.6 FPS (264.6 versus 251). The visual upgrade from High to Ultra likely does not justify the frame rate cost.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 161 out of 1671 tested combinations, placing it in the top 10% of all systems tested for Inside. This is consistent with the GPU's 85th percentile ranking among all GPUs, though the CPU's 83rd percentile ranking is slightly lower.

Q: Does the game benefit more from CPU or GPU upgrades?

A: The resolution scaling data indicates the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K and at higher quality presets. At 1080p Low, the CPU becomes relatively more important, but the Ryzen 5 7600's strong single-thread performance (999 in 3DMark single-thread) keeps it competitive.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium as the optimal settings preset for this combination. At 1440p Medium, the combo delivers 295.6 FPS, which is only 26 FPS below the Low preset but offers substantially better visual quality. At 4K Medium, the 190.1 FPS average is 49.6 FPS higher than High settings and 75.8 FPS higher than Ultra, while still providing a smooth experience.

For players targeting 4K at 120Hz, High settings are the sensible choice. The 117.7 FPS average at 4K High is just barely below a 120Hz refresh target, and the difference from Ultra is only 3.4 FPS. Pushing to Ultra at 4K drops the average to 114.3 FPS, which could cause noticeable frame pacing issues on a 120Hz display.

At 1080p, the choice is between chasing maximum frame rates at Low (359.6 FPS) or settling for a still-massive 264.6 FPS at High. Given that most 1080p displays top out at 240Hz, the High preset is the better pick — it stays above 240 FPS and looks significantly better. Ultra at 1080p still produces 251 FPS, so even the highest quality setting remains competitive on 240Hz panels.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX combination ranks 161 out of 1671 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the top 9.6% of all systems benchmarked for this game. This is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU, suggesting the game's engine is not heavily dependent on core count or multi-threaded performance.

The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, scores 26574 in average benchmark performance, just 0.2% below the Ryzen 5 7600's 26617. The Intel Core i9-12900HK is 0.2% ahead, and the Intel Core i9-11900K is 0.3% behind. This clustering means the CPU choice between these processors is unlikely to create meaningful differences in Inside frame rates.

On the GPU side, the RX 7900 XTX's average benchmark score of 44019 places it 2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and 0.8% ahead of the RTX 4090 Mobile. The Radeon Pro 580 is 0.4% ahead, which is within measurement noise. The 85th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms this is a top-tier graphics solution for this title.

GPU Role

The RX 7900 XTX brings substantial memory resources to Inside: 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus with 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. While this puzzle platformer is unlikely to stress even a fraction of that memory capacity, the high bandwidth helps maintain consistent frame delivery at 4K where the measured frame rates remain above 114 FPS even at Ultra settings.

The GPU's clock behavior is notable. The base clock runs at 1929 MHz, the game clock at 2365 MHz, and the boost clock reaches 2498 MHz. The 2365 MHz game clock is the figure that matters for sustained gameplay, and the data suggests it holds up well — the 4K Ultra result of 114.3 FPS indicates the card is not thermally throttling or reducing clocks during extended sessions.

With 6144 shading units, 384 TMUs, and 192 ROPs, the RX 7900 XTX has the raw throughput to handle the visual effects in Inside without breaking a sweat. The FP32 performance of 61.39 TFLOPS is more than sufficient for a game of this scope, and the 96 ray accelerators provide headroom for any lighting effects the engine might employ. The measured results confirm the GPU is the dominant factor at 4K, where frame rates scale almost linearly with the quality preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 359.6 FPS, Medium drops to 332 FPS, High reaches 264.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 251 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 27.6 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 13.6 FPS, indicating diminishing returns at the top end.

At 2560x1440, the results remain strong. Low settings hit 321.6 FPS, Medium delivers 295.6 FPS, High averages 189.3 FPS, and Ultra produces 180.1 FPS. The jump from Medium to High is significant at 106.3 FPS, suggesting High settings introduce effects that substantially increase GPU load.

At 3840x2160, performance stays playable across all presets. Low settings average 239.7 FPS, Medium drops to 190.1 FPS, High manages 117.7 FPS, and Ultra produces 114.3 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is just 3.4 FPS, making the Ultra preset essentially a cosmetic upgrade with negligible performance cost at this resolution.

The full dataset shows a coherent pattern: Low and Medium settings are CPU-limited at 1080p and 1440p, while High and Ultra settings become GPU-limited as resolution increases. The Ryzen 5 7600's six cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, provide enough single-thread performance to avoid becoming a bottleneck in most scenarios, but the RX 7900 XTX's raw compute power ultimately defines the ceiling at higher resolutions and quality settings.