Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer with modest graphical demands, and the measured results for this AMD Ryzen 5 8400F + AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination reflect that. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly capable of running the game at high frame rates across all tested resolutions, with the primary bottleneck shifting from the GPU at 4K to the CPU at 1080p. This analysis walks through the measured FPS, component roles, and ranking to provide a clear picture of performance.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial but not catastrophic, revealing a system that is well-balanced for this title. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 309 FPS at 1920x1080 to 222 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 87 FPS, and then further to 140 FPS at 3840x2160, a total drop of 169 FPS from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is heavily limiting performance, as the GPU has ample headroom to render far more frames than the processor can feed.

Moving to Medium settings, the same trend continues but with lower absolute numbers. The 1080p average of 247 FPS drops to 178 FPS at 1440p (a 69 FPS decrease) and then to 112 FPS at 4K (a further 66 FPS decrease). The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is about 55%, which is typical for a game where the GPU load increases significantly with resolution. At High settings, the 1080p average is 155 FPS, dropping to 111 FPS at 1440p and 70 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure represents a 55% reduction from 1080p, consistent with the Medium preset's scaling.

Ultra settings show the most pronounced resolution sensitivity. The 1080p average of 147 FPS falls to 106 FPS at 1440p and then to 66 FPS at 4K. This 4K result is less than half of the 1080p score, indicating that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at this high preset and resolution combination. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 74 FPS (140 vs 66), whereas at 1080p the gap is 162 FPS (309 vs 147). This narrowing gap at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU's workload scales more aggressively than the CPU's, making the graphics card the bottleneck at 4K regardless of settings.

The data suggests that for a game like Inside, the sweet spot for this combo is 1440p, where even Ultra settings maintain an average above 100 FPS. At 4K, users will need to compromise on settings to stay above 60 FPS, with Low delivering 140 FPS and Medium delivering 112 FPS, both comfortably above the threshold. The scaling behavior across all presets is smooth, with no anomalous spikes or crashes, which points to a stable driver and hardware configuration.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. For Inside, a game from 2016, this memory configuration is more than sufficient, as the title's textures and assets are not demanding by modern standards. The GPU's clocks are notable, with a base of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz. The high boost clock helps sustain frame rates in lighter scenes, while the game clock represents typical sustained performance under load.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 59th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which scores 16129, a delta of -0.7%. This indicates the RX 9060 is essentially on par with that card in synthetic tests. The RX 9060 also closely matches the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862, +1%) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15852, +1%), showing that it sits in a competitive mid-range tier.

In Inside specifically, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at 4K, where the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are taxed. The RX 9060 has a pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s, which are adequate for this game's simple 2D-style visuals. The FP32 performance of 21.43 TFLOPS is more than enough for the shader work required. The 8 GB VRAM is never a limiting factor here, as even at 4K Ultra, the game's memory footprint is well below this capacity, allowing the GPU to focus on rendering rather than swapping assets.

The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (66 FPS) suggests the GPU is the limiting component at this extreme setting, but it still delivers a playable experience. At 1080p, the GPU is rarely stressed, as evidenced by the 309 FPS Low average, which is likely capped by the CPU's ability to issue draw calls. The RDNA 4.0 architecture with 1792 shading units and 64 ROPs handles the game's lighting and effects efficiently, with no signs of driver overhead or stuttering in the data.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 2129 out of 3716 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the 57th percentile of all tested systems. This rank is surprisingly low given the high frame rates achieved, but it reflects the fact that many other combos in the database include more powerful GPUs or CPUs that push even higher FPS in this lightweight title. The rank is more indicative of the hardware's overall tier than its actual playability, as 2129th place still corresponds to excellent performance in absolute terms.

The CPU's own percentile is 77th among all CPUs, which is higher than the combo's rank, suggesting that the GPU is holding the combo back relative to other systems. The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (avg score 24964, +0.2%), Intel Core i7-11850H (24935, +0.3%), and Intel Core i7-13620H (24911, +0.4%), all of which are within 0.4% of the 8400F's average benchmark score of 25005. This indicates the CPU is well-matched with similar mid-range processors.

The GPU's rank of 59th percentile is lower than the CPU's, and its nearest rivals show it is competitive with the RTX 3060 Ti but not a top-tier performer. The combo's overall rank of 2129 suggests that in a game like Inside, which is not GPU-intensive, the CPU's strength is somewhat wasted, as the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. However, for users with high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors, this combo still delivers over 140 FPS on Ultra, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay.

The delta between the combo's rank and the CPU's percentile indicates that pairing this CPU with a stronger GPU would likely yield a much higher rank in Inside. Conversely, the GPU's mid-range positioning means that at 4K, the combo falls to around 66 FPS on Ultra, which is still playable but not exceptional. The data shows this is a balanced system for general use, but in Inside specifically, it performs better at lower resolutions where the CPU can flex its single-threaded strength.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS this combo achieves in Inside?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 309 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only setting that breaks the 300 FPS barrier, with Medium at 247 FPS and High at 155 FPS at the same resolution.

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K in Inside?

A: Yes, all tested settings at 3840x2160 exceed 60 FPS. The lowest average is 66 FPS on Ultra, while Low reaches 140 FPS, Medium 112 FPS, and High 70 FPS, all safely above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest GPU rival?

A: The RX 9060's average benchmark score is 16014, which is 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti's score of 16129. It is 1% higher than the AMD Radeon R9 370X and RX 7700, and 2.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W5500.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance relative to its multi-thread performance?

A: The CPU scores 2943 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 20851 in multi-core, giving a ratio of about 1:7. This strong single-thread performance (95th percentile in the 3DMark single-thread test) is beneficial for games like Inside that rely on a few fast cores.

Q: Is there a significant FPS difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: Yes, the difference is 67 FPS. Medium averages 178 FPS, while High averages 111 FPS, showing that High settings impose a substantial additional GPU load compared to Medium.

Q: Does the combo's rank in Inside suggest poor performance?

A: No, the rank of 2129 out of 3716 combos (57th percentile) is misleading. The actual frame rates are high, with even 4K Ultra exceeding 60 FPS. The rank is low because many other combos in the database have more powerful GPUs that push higher FPS in this easy-to-run game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured data shows a clear hierarchy across settings. Low settings produce an average of 309 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. Medium settings reduce this to 247 FPS, with a minimum of 210 FPS and a maximum of 284 FPS, indicating some frame time variance but no severe dips. High settings deliver 155 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 147 FPS average. The difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is only 8 FPS, suggesting that Ultra's additional effects are not heavily taxing the GPU at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings average 222 FPS, a 28% drop from 1080p. Medium settings average 178 FPS, with a minimum of 151 FPS and a maximum of 204 FPS, showing a tighter frame time distribution than at 1080p. High settings average 111 FPS, and Ultra averages 106 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 1440p is just 5 FPS, again indicating that the GPU handles the Ultra preset's additions with minimal extra cost.

At 3840x2160, the GPU workload becomes the dominant factor. Low settings average 140 FPS, which is 45% lower than the 1080p Low score. Medium settings average 112 FPS, with a minimum of 95 FPS and a maximum of 128 FPS, showing that the game remains playable even at 4K. High settings average 70 FPS, and Ultra averages 66 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is only 4 FPS, and the minimum FPS for Medium is 95, which is still above 60 FPS. The data shows that no tested setting at any resolution drops below 60 FPS average, making this combo universally playable for Inside.

The min/max data is only available for Medium settings at each resolution, which provides insight into frame pacing. At 1080p, the range is 210-284 FPS (a 74 FPS spread), at 1440p it is 151-204 FPS (a 53 FPS spread), and at 4K it is 95-128 FPS (a 33 FPS spread). This narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU's consistent workload reduces CPU-induced frame spikes, leading to smoother delivery of frames.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. Its 16 MB of L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 per core provide ample fast memory for game logic. In Inside, which is not heavily multithreaded, the CPU's strong single-thread performance is critical. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943 places it well above average, and the 3DMark single-thread score of 951 confirms this strength.

The CPU's multi-thread performance is also solid, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20851 and a 3DMark max-threads score of 6165. However, Inside rarely uses more than a few threads, so the 12-thread capability is largely untapped. The PassMark multithread score of 24389 and the 3DMark 16-thread score of 6091 show that the CPU can handle heavy parallel workloads if needed, but in this game, the single-thread performance is what drives the high frame rates.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 25005 places it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals within 0.4% in either direction. This means the 8400F is a solid mid-range processor that does not bottleneck the RX 9060 in most scenarios. In Inside, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the 309 FPS average is likely limited by the CPU's ability to process game state and issue rendering commands, rather than the GPU's output capacity.

The TDP of 65 W and 4 nm process node ensure efficient operation, but these factors do not directly affect game performance. The CPU's memory support for DDR5 with dual-channel and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for the game's data streaming needs. Overall, the CPU provides a strong foundation for this combo, with its single-threaded strength being the key attribute for Inside's performance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the user's resolution and refresh rate goals. For 1080p displays with high refresh rates (144 Hz or above), Ultra settings at 147 FPS average are recommended, as the performance is sufficient to take advantage of most monitors, and the visual quality is maximized. If a user has a 240 Hz monitor, dropping to High settings (155 FPS) provides a slight boost, but the difference is minimal, and Ultra's visual improvements are worth the small FPS cost.

At 1440p, Ultra settings at 106 FPS average are suitable for 60-100 Hz displays. For users with 144 Hz monitors, High settings at 111 FPS will not reach the full refresh rate, but the game's genre (puzzle platformer) does not require extreme frame rates for competitive play. Medium settings at 178 FPS are the best choice for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors, as they deliver a significant FPS increase over High (67 FPS more) while likely maintaining good visual quality for a 2016 title.

For 4K displays, the choice is between High (70 FPS) and Medium (112 FPS). High settings provide better visuals but may not be smooth on 60 Hz displays if there are occasional dips, though the average is above 60. Medium settings are the recommended balance, as they deliver 112 FPS average with a minimum of 95 FPS, ensuring a consistently smooth experience on 60 Hz or even 120 Hz 4K displays. Ultra at 66 FPS is technically playable but leaves less headroom, so Medium is the safer choice for 4K.

The data shows that Low settings are rarely necessary, as even 4K Medium exceeds 100 FPS. The only scenario where Low might be considered is on a 4K 144 Hz display, where the 140 FPS average on Low is the only setting that approaches that refresh rate. However, for most users, Medium at 1440p or 4K provides the best combination of visual fidelity and performance, making it the recommended preset across the board unless a specific refresh rate target demands otherwise.