Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT achieves a combo rank of 391 out of 1,671 tested combinations in Inside. This places the pairing in the top 23.4% of all tested systems for this title, which is a strong showing for a puzzle platformer that does not typically stress high-end hardware as severely as AAA shooters. The rank reflects a balanced configuration where neither component bottlenecks the other in this specific game, allowing the system to deliver framerates that exceed the refresh rates of most standard displays across all tested settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's position at 391 out of 1,671 is noteworthy given the game's release date and genre. Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer with relatively modest graphical demands compared to modern titles, yet the hardware still lands in the upper quartile of all tested combinations. The data indicates that the CPU's performance percentile of 82 and the GPU's percentile of 82 are closely matched, which contributes to the cohesive overall ranking. This synergy means the system does not exhibit the classic imbalance where one component is severely underutilized while the other is saturated. Benchmark results show that the combo outperforms 1,280 other tested configurations, and the rank is more a reflection of the sheer number of high-end systems tested than any deficiency in this pairing. For a game that can be completed in a few hours, the hardware provides a comfortable margin over the minimum requirements, as evidenced by the lowest recorded average FPS of 98.8 at 4K Ultra settings.

GPU Role

The GPU section is dominated by the Radeon RX 9070 XT's 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is substantial for a game like Inside, which uses a muted color palette and simple 2D layers but still benefits from high fill rates. The card's pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s are more than sufficient to handle the game's side-scrolling environments, even at 4K resolution. The boost clock of 2970 MHz and game clock of 2400 MHz drive the 4096 shading units, which produce 48.66 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. In practice, these specifications translate to the observed framerates: at 1080p High settings, the GPU pushes 226.4 FPS, and even at 4K High it maintains 100.6 FPS. The data suggests that the GPU is never the limiting factor in this title, as the lowest average FPS across all resolution and settings combinations is still above 98 FPS. The RDNA 4.0 architecture's efficiency is evident, as the card operates well within its 304 W TDP to deliver these results without thermal throttling becoming an issue in the measured data.

Resolution Scaling

Analyzing the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals how the system scales under increasing pixel load. At High settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces average FPS from 226.4 to 161.8, a drop of 64.6 FPS, and then further to 100.6 at 4K, another 61.2 FPS decrease. This linear scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the dominant component at higher resolutions, with the CPU's role diminishing as pixel count rises. However, the scaling is not perfectly proportional to pixel count—moving from 1080p to 4K multiplies pixels by 4, but FPS drops by only 55.6% at High settings. This suggests that the game's rendering workload does not scale linearly with resolution, likely due to the simple geometry and limited draw distances. At Low settings, the 1080p to 4K transition sees FPS drop from 337.4 to 207.6, a reduction of 38.5%, which is even less severe. This indicates that at lower settings, the CPU becomes more relevant, as the GPU has spare capacity to handle the resolution increase. The data shows that the system is well-balanced, with the CPU providing enough single-thread performance to keep up at 1080p Low where the GPU is pushing 337.4 FPS, but the GPU taking over as the primary limiter at 4K Ultra where it delivers 98.8 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide clear guidance on the optimal settings preset for this hardware. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 217.3 FPS, which is only 9.1 FPS lower than High at 226.4 FPS, making Ultra the recommended choice for 1080p users who want maximum visual fidelity without sacrificing playability. The Medium preset at 312.5 FPS offers diminishing returns in visual quality for a 95.2 FPS gain over Ultra, which is unnecessary for a game that runs smoothly at any setting. At 1440p, the Ultra preset sustains 154 FPS, which is still above 144 Hz, making it the ideal choice for high-refresh-rate monitors. The drop from High at 161.8 FPS to Ultra at 154 FPS is marginal, so Ultra is recommended for 1440p as well. At 4K, the situation changes: High settings produce 100.6 FPS, while Ultra drops to 98.8 FPS, a difference of only 1.8 FPS. Given this negligible gap, Ultra is the superior choice at 4K, as it provides the best visual quality with virtually no performance penalty. The Low preset is never recommended, as it offers no tangible benefit—even at 4K, Low only reaches 207.6 FPS, which is beyond the refresh rate of most monitors, and the visual degradation is unnecessary for a game of this style.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160, the Ultra preset delivers 98.8 FPS, while High achieves 100.6 FPS. The 1.8 FPS difference is imperceptible, so Ultra is recommended for the best visual experience without meaningful performance loss.

*Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance affect Inside?*

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has a single-thread score of 951 in 3dmark and 2943 in Cinebench R23. Benchmark results indicate that at 1080p Low settings, the system reaches 337.4 FPS, which demonstrates that the CPU's 4.70 GHz boost clock is sufficient to feed the GPU even at very high framerates.

Q: Is 16 GB of VRAM necessary for this game?

A: The GPU's 16 GB GDDR6 memory is far more than what Inside requires, as evidenced by the high framerates at all settings. However, the memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s contributes to the consistent performance across resolutions, ensuring no stuttering or frame drops.

Q: How does this combo compare to the nearest CPU rivals in terms of overall performance?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25,064, which is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X at 25,057 (0% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F at 24,993 (0.3% delta). This means the CPU choice has negligible impact on the gaming experience in Inside.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings produce 161.8 FPS, while Ultra produces 154 FPS, a difference of 7.8 FPS. This small gap makes Ultra the preferred setting for 1440p users seeking maximum quality.

Q: Does the game benefit from the GPU's ray tracing capabilities?

A: The GPU has 64 RT cores, but Inside is a 2D puzzle platformer that does not utilize ray tracing. The data shows no ray tracing-specific benchmarks, and the game's rendering style relies on traditional rasterization, which the GPU handles at 4096 shading units.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 8400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. For a game like Inside, which is not heavily threaded, the single-thread performance is critical. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2943 and 3dmark single-thread score of 951 indicate strong per-core performance, which is evidenced by the system's ability to maintain high framerates even at 1080p Low settings where the GPU is not the bottleneck. The 16 MB of shared L3 cache and 4 nm Zen 4 architecture provide low latency access to game data, which helps maintain consistent frame times during the game's environmental transitions. The CPU's 65 W TDP and DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth ensure that memory bandwidth is not a constraint, as the game's data streaming requirements are modest. The data shows that the CPU's role is most pronounced at lower resolutions and settings, where the system achieves 337.4 FPS at 1080p Low, but its influence wanes at 4K Ultra, where the GPU's 98.8 FPS becomes the limiting factor. The CPU's 82nd percentile ranking against all processors confirms that it is more than adequate for this title, and the lack of a significant performance delta compared to rivals like the Ryzen 7 2700X (0% delta) reinforces that the GPU is the primary driver of the measured results in Inside.