Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that, on paper, should be trivial for modern hardware. Yet, the measured frame rates for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT combination reveal a fascinating scaling curve that tells a nuanced story about where the bottlenecks truly lie. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly powerful for this title, but the way performance degrades across resolutions and settings offers specific insights into the game's engine limitations and the hardware's headroom.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking observation is the performance collapse at 4K Ultra. At 1080p Ultra, the combo delivers 196.7 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 91.8 FPS. This represents a reduction of over 53% in frame rate, which is a significant hit even for a demanding title. However, the scaling is not linear across all settings. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p (377.3 FPS) to 4K (185 FPS) is almost exactly a 50% reduction, suggesting that the GPU is still the primary scaling factor even at low graphical fidelity.

The data implies that the limiting component changes depending on the preset. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 377.3 FPS is astronomically high, suggesting the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as the GPU is not being stressed. As resolution increases to 4K Low, the frame rate halves to 185 FPS, which points to the GPU taking over as the primary bottleneck. The pattern is consistent: the gap between 1080p and 1440p is large, but the gap between 1440p and 4K is even more pronounced, indicating that the RX 7800 XT's raw rendering throughput begins to buckle under the pixel count at 4K, regardless of the visual complexity. This is a classic sign of a game that is not heavily GPU-bound at lower resolutions but becomes so at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific configuration ranks at position 475 out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the top 28% of all systems tested for this game, which is a strong showing given that the game is over seven years old. The rank suggests that while this is not the absolute fastest possible combination, it is significantly faster than the majority of systems in the database.

The percentile rankings of the individual components corroborate this. The CPU sits in the 83rd percentile among all processors, while the GPU is in the 76th percentile among all graphics cards. The combo's rank being slightly lower than the CPU's percentile suggests that the game's performance is not solely dictated by the processor's raw power, but that the GPU's standing also plays a role. The nearest rivals for the CPU, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U with a deltaPct of 0, and the AMD Ryzen 7 7735U at -0.1%, show that the 7600X is in a very tight performance cluster. This indicates that in a game like Inside, the difference between a high-end desktop CPU and a mobile APU is negligible, further proving that the game is not CPU-intensive, and the ranking is likely influenced more by the GPU's capability at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data strongly suggests that the Ultra preset is not the optimal choice for this hardware. While it provides a playable 196.7 FPS at 1080p, it drops to 139.5 FPS at 1440p and 91.8 FPS at 4K. The jump from High to Ultra is relatively small in terms of frame rate cost at 1080p (a difference of only 8.9 FPS), but at 4K, the gap widens to just 2.7 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset offers marginal visual gains over High for a significant performance hit at higher resolutions.

The High preset provides the best balance. At 1080p, it achieves 205.6 FPS, which is well beyond the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. At 1440p, it maintains a fluid 150.6 FPS, and even at 4K, it holds a respectable 94.5 FPS. The data shows that High is the most efficient preset for this game, offering a massive performance lead over Ultra while likely providing nearly identical visual fidelity in a game with such a muted aesthetic. For users with a 144Hz or 240Hz monitor, dropping to Medium at 1080p unlocks 328.2 FPS, but the visual compromise is likely not worth the extra frames when High is already so fluid.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a clear picture of performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high across all settings. The Low preset leads with 377.3 FPS, followed by Medium at 328.2 FPS, High at 205.6 FPS, and Ultra at 196.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 49.1 FPS, but the gap between Medium and High is a massive 122.6 FPS, suggesting a significant jump in shading and lighting complexity in the High preset.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds but at lower absolute numbers. Low leads with 297.1 FPS, Medium follows at 234.5 FPS, High at 150.6 FPS, and Ultra at 139.5 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a performance reduction of 21.2% for Low, 28.5% for Medium, 26.7% for High, and 29.1% for Ultra. This consistent reduction across settings indicates that the resolution scaling is predominantly a GPU workload, which is expected.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops become more severe. Low still manages a very playable 185 FPS, while Medium hits 146.5 FPS. High falls to 94.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 91.8 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows reductions of 37.7% for Low, 37.5% for Medium, 37.2% for High, and 34.2% for Ultra. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is heavily saturated, and the relative difference between presets is compressed because the pixel fill rate is the dominant constraint.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. For a game like Inside, which has a relatively simple visual style, this memory capacity is more than sufficient. The data shows that the GPU is not memory-constrained, as even at 4K Ultra, the frame rate does not collapse to unplayable levels, indicating that the memory subsystem is keeping up with the demand.

The GPU's clock speeds are also relevant. The boost clock is rated at 2430 MHz, and the game clock at 2124 MHz. The fact that the frame rates scale so predictably with resolution suggests that the GPU is operating at its expected clock frequencies. The performance hit from 1440p to 4K is substantial, which is consistent with the GPU's raw pixel throughput limits. The chip itself, Navi 32, is built on a 5 nm process and contains 28,100 million transistors. The data suggests that the RX 7800 XT is the definitive bottleneck at 4K, as the frame rates at 4K High (94.5 FPS) and 4K Ultra (91.8 FPS) are quite close, indicating that the GPU is running out of shader and ROP throughput rather than memory bandwidth.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. For a title like Inside, the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution. The 1080p Low frame rate of 377.3 FPS reflects the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic without breaking a sweat. The CPU's high single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 1060, is crucial for a game engine that may not be well-optimized for many cores.

The data shows that the CPU has massive headroom. The frame rate difference between 1080p Low and 4K Low is 192.3 FPS, which is almost entirely a GPU workload increase. The CPU's role is to maintain a consistent frame pacing, and the fact that the frame rates are so high even at 1080p indicates that the processor is not a bottleneck. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and DDR5 memory support with a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s likely contribute to this fluidity, ensuring that the game's data can be accessed quickly. The CPU is effectively idle, waiting for the GPU to render frames, which is why the combo ranks so high in the database for this specific game.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average frame rate is 150.6 FPS at 2560x1440 with the High preset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the frame rate reaches 377.3 FPS, indicating the CPU is likely the limiting factor due to the sheer number of frames being requested. The data shows the GPU is not stressed enough to be the bottleneck at this low resolution and settings.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 4K?

A: The Ultra preset averages 91.8 FPS, while High averages 94.5 FPS. The difference is only 2.7 FPS, suggesting the Ultra preset offers minimal performance benefit and is likely not worth the extra load.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested systems for Inside?

A: The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT ranks 475 out of 1671 tested combos.

Q: What is the highest measured frame rate in the entire dataset?

A: The highest measured frame rate is 377.3 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low preset.

Q: Does the GPU have enough memory for this game?

A: The GPU has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. The benchmark data shows no signs of memory-related stuttering or performance collapse, indicating that 16 GB is far more than enough for this game.