Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti delivers a highly capable experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016. The measured data shows this combination is far from being a bottleneck at most settings, with frame rates that frequently exceed display refresh rates. However, the game’s extreme simplicity means the balance between CPU and GPU shifts dramatically depending on the resolution and quality preset selected, revealing interesting scaling characteristics.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K illustrates a clear transition from a CPU-limited scenario at lower resolutions to a GPU-bound one at higher ones. At 1080p with Low settings, the combination produces an average of 283.3 FPS. Stepping up to 1440p Low reduces this to 202.2 FPS, a drop of approximately 28.6%. Moving to 4K Low yields 129.8 FPS, which is another 35.8% reduction from the 1440p figure. This steep decline indicates that the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is becoming the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases, even at the lowest quality settings.

The trend becomes even more pronounced when examining the High preset. At 1080p High, the average is 137.6 FPS. At 1440p High, it falls to 104.1 FPS, a 24.3% decrease. At 4K High, the average drops to 63.8 FPS, which is a 38.7% reduction from the 1440p result. This pattern confirms that the GPU’s rendering workload scales significantly with resolution, and the CPU, with its high boost clock of 5.30 GHz, has ample headroom to keep feeding frames at these levels.

Comparing the scaling across presets reveals that the gap between 1080p and 4K is smallest at Ultra settings. The Ultra preset at 1080p produces 135.6 FPS, while at 4K it produces 59.6 FPS. This represents a 56% drop. In contrast, the Low preset shows a 54% drop from 1080p to 4K. The similarity of these percentage drops suggests that even at Ultra settings, the game engine does not introduce a disproportionately heavy CPU load; the limiting factor remains the GPU’s fill rate and shading power as the resolution climbs. The data indicates that for a 60 Hz display, 4K Ultra is just barely achievable, while 4K High offers a more comfortable margin.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 7600X features 6 cores and 12 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture. Its base clock of 4.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz are substantial, and benchmark results show strong single-thread performance with a 3dmark single-thread score of 1060. In a game like Inside, which is a 2D puzzle platformer, the primary thread often dictates performance. The CPU’s high clock speeds are directly relevant to the frame rates observed at 1080p.

At 1080p Low, the 283.3 FPS average suggests the CPU is near its limit, as the GPU is not heavily taxed at this resolution and settings level. The CPU's passmark single-thread score of 4135 further supports its capability. However, the game appears well-optimized for multi-threading as well, given the CPU’s 3dmark_16_threads score of 6879 and cinebench_r23_multicore score of 24128. This suggests that even if the engine uses multiple threads, the 7600X has the resources to handle them.

The role of the CPU becomes less critical as resolution increases. At 4K High, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as the frame rate drops to 63.8 FPS regardless of the CPU’s clock speed. The data shows that the 7600X is never a bottleneck at 1440p or 4K in this game, as the frame rates are consistently high enough to suggest the GPU is doing the heavy lifting. The Ryzen 5 7600X’s 32 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support also contribute to its ability to maintain stable frame delivery, though specific memory performance is not measured in the provided FPS data.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for 144 Hz gaming?

A: The 1440p Medium preset, with an average of 160.1 FPS, is the highest settings level that comfortably exceeds a 144 Hz refresh rate. The 1440p High preset, at 104.1 FPS, does not reach this threshold.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only with specific settings. The 4K High preset achieves an average of 63.8 FPS, which is above 60 FPS. The 4K Ultra preset, at 59.6 FPS, falls just short of a locked 60 FPS average.

Q: How much slower is Ultra compared to High at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the Ultra preset averages 98.9 FPS, while High averages 104.1 FPS. This is a difference of 5.2 FPS, or approximately a 5% reduction in performance for the highest quality tier.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for high frame rates at 1080p?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the average of 283.3 FPS indicates the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as the GPU is underutilized. The Ryzen 5 7600X’s high boost clock of 5.30 GHz helps achieve this, but the GPU becomes more relevant as settings increase.

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

A: The Low preset at 4K averages 129.8 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 59.6 FPS. This is a difference of 70.2 FPS, showing that the Ultra settings more than double the rendering workload compared to Low.

Q: Does the game scale well with multi-core CPUs?

A: The CPU’s benchmark scores suggest it has ample multi-threaded capacity, with a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 24128. However, the FPS data shows that even at high frame rates, the game does not appear to be limited by the CPU’s multi-core performance, as the 7600X has 12 threads available.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience. For players targeting the highest possible frame rates, the 1080p Low preset is the clear choice, delivering an average of 283.3 FPS. This is ideal for competitive play or for users with very high refresh rate displays. However, the visual quality is likely to be noticeably reduced.

For a balanced experience at 1080p, the High preset at 137.6 FPS offers a substantial improvement in visual fidelity over Low while still maintaining a frame rate that is well above 120 FPS. The Medium preset at 224.6 FPS is a middle ground, but High provides a better frame-per-quality ratio in the data.

At 1440p, the Medium preset, averaging 160.1 FPS, is the recommended choice for high refresh rate monitors. It provides a significant upgrade in resolution over 1080p while keeping frame rates high. The High preset at 104.1 FPS is also viable for 100 Hz displays, but Medium offers more headroom. For 4K, the High preset is the best option, as it is the only settings level that maintains an average above 60 FPS, at 63.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 59.6 FPS is technically playable but may not provide a consistent experience on a standard 60 Hz display.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination is ranked 1127 out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the high frame rates measured, but it reflects the fact that Inside is an older, less demanding title. Many other combinations, including those with less powerful components, likely achieve similar or higher frame rates because the game’s engine is not heavily taxing modern hardware.

The CPU itself has a percentile ranking of 83 among all CPUs, indicating it is more powerful than a large majority of processors. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U, has a nearly identical average benchmark score with a deltaPct of 0. The GPU, with a percentile of 69, is also above average. The combination’s low rank in this specific game is therefore not an indictment of its power, but rather a reflection of the game’s low system requirements, where even modest hardware can perform well. The data shows the combo is more than sufficient for this title, even if other tested configurations rank higher.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the average frame rates for each resolution and settings combination.

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS |

| :--------- | :------- | ----------: |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 283.3 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 224.6 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 137.6 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 135.6 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 202.2 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 160.1 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 104.1 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 98.9 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 129.8 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 100.3 |

| 3840x2160 | High | 63.8 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 59.6 |

At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium reduces performance by 58.7 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High reduces it by 87 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal, at just 2 FPS, suggesting the Ultra preset adds little extra load on the GPU over High. At 1440p, the pattern is similar, with a 42.1 FPS drop from Low to Medium and a 56 FPS drop from Medium to High. At 4K, the drop from Low to Medium is 29.5 FPS, and from Medium to High is 36.5 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is only 4.2 FPS slower than High, showing that the GPU is the definitive bottleneck at this resolution, with settings having a diminishing impact on the overall frame rate.