Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB combination delivers a playable experience in Inside, a 2016 Puzzle Platformer, with performance scaling that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary constraint at higher resolutions. The data shows a predictable decline in frame rates as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that decline varies significantly with the graphics preset, revealing how the system’s 4 GB VRAM and Ampere architecture handle the game’s demands.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a substantial performance hit across all settings, but the pattern is not uniform. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 195.5 FPS at 1080p to 91 FPS at 4K, a reduction of roughly 53%. At High settings, the drop is steeper in relative terms: from 99.2 FPS at 1080p down to 46.9 FPS at 4K, representing a 53% decrease as well. The Ultra preset shows a similar trend, falling from 95 FPS at 1080p to 42.2 FPS at 4K, a 56% loss.

This scaling behavior indicates that the RTX 3050 4 GB is the limiting component. At 1080p, the processor’s six Zen 4 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU, allowing it to reach 195.5 FPS on Low. As resolution climbs to 1440p and then 4K, the GPU’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth become the bottleneck. The 128-bit memory bus and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p but struggle to maintain high frame rates at 4K, where the fill rate demand increases fourfold compared to 1080p.

The intermediate step at 2560x1440 reinforces this conclusion. At Medium settings, the average FPS is 114.1, which is between the 1080p and 4K values (158 and 72.8 FPS respectively). This linear progression suggests the GPU is scaling with resolution in a predictable manner, with no sudden cliff that would indicate a CPU limitation. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to plateau or show diminishing differences between 1080p and 1440p, which is not the case here.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that Medium settings provide the best balance of visual quality and performance for this combination. At 1920x1080, Medium yields 158 FPS, which is 59% higher than High (99.2 FPS) and only 37 FPS lower than Low (195.5 FPS). The jump from Low to Medium costs about 37 FPS, but the visual improvement in a puzzle platformer with atmospheric lighting is likely worth that trade-off.

At 2560x1440, Medium delivers 114.1 FPS, which remains well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. High at 1440p drops to 73.3 FPS, still playable but with a 36% reduction compared to Medium. For users with 1440p displays, Medium is the recommended preset, as it maintains a comfortable margin above 100 FPS while preserving the game’s visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more constrained. Medium produces 72.8 FPS, which is acceptable for a slow-paced puzzle platformer, but High (46.9 FPS) and Ultra (42.2 FPS) fall below the 60 FPS line. Low at 4K achieves 91 FPS, but the graphical compromises are significant. For 4K users, Medium is the highest preset that keeps frame rates in a comfortable range, though Low is a viable option for those prioritizing smoothness over detail.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB ranks 1499 out of 1671 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the lower portion of the database, which is expected given the GPU’s 4 GB memory capacity and mid-range positioning. The percentile ranking of the GPU at 50 indicates it performs in the middle of all tested graphics cards, while the CPU ranks in the 82nd percentile among all processors.

The processor’s benchmark scores show it is a capable performer in its own right. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20851 and single-core score of 2943 are solid for a six-core part. In the 3DMark suite, it scores 6165 on max threads and 951 on single thread. These figures suggest the CPU is not holding back the system in Inside, which is a relatively lightweight title for modern hardware.

The nearest rivals to this CPU include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, with an average score of 25057, and the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F at 24993. The Ryzen 5 8400F’s average benchmark score of 25064 places it within 0.3% of the Ryzen 5 7500F and essentially tied with the Ryzen 7 2700X (0% delta). This indicates that the CPU’s gaming performance in Inside is consistent with its synthetic benchmarks, and the low rank is primarily attributable to the GPU’s limitations at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates reveal a clear hierarchy across the four presets and three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 195.5 on Low to 95 on Ultra. Medium hits 158, and High lands at 99.2. The spread from Low to Ultra is 100.5 FPS, showing that preset selection has a major impact on performance even at the lowest resolution tested.

At 2560x1440, the numbers are 142.6 FPS on Low, 114.1 on Medium, 73.3 on High, and 70.9 on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra is 71.7 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p. This compression suggests that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes more of a limiting factor, reducing the relative impact of preset changes.

At 3840x2160, the values are 91 FPS on Low, 72.8 on Medium, 46.9 on High, and 42.2 on Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra is 48.8 FPS, further compressing the range. Notably, the drop from Medium to High at 4K is 25.9 FPS, which is the largest single-step decrease in the dataset. This indicates that the High preset introduces effects that are particularly demanding on the 4 GB VRAM, potentially causing memory spillover or texture thrashing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is the dominant factor in this system’s Inside performance. Its 4 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at most settings but becomes strained at 4K. The GPU’s 2048 shading units and 32 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 55.68 GPixel/s, which translates to the observed frame rates.

The clock speeds are modest: a base of 1545 MHz and a boost of 1740 MHz. These clocks, combined with the 7.127 TFLOPS FP32 performance, are adequate for a puzzle platformer like Inside, which does not require the extreme computational throughput of a AAA shooter. The 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores are present but likely underutilized in this game, as Inside does not feature ray tracing or DLSS.

The 4 GB memory capacity is the most critical specification. At 1080p, the GPU can hold the necessary textures and buffers without issue, as evidenced by the 195.5 FPS on Low. However, at 4K with High or Ultra settings, the memory capacity becomes a bottleneck, causing the frame rate to drop below 50 FPS. The 12 Gbps effective memory speed helps mitigate this, but the 128-bit bus width limits the total bandwidth.

The GPU’s 90 W TDP and 250 W suggested PSU indicate it is a power-efficient part, but this efficiency comes at the cost of raw performance. In the context of Inside, the RTX 3050 4 GB delivers playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p with Medium settings, but users targeting 4K will need to accept Low or Medium presets to stay above 60 FPS. The data clearly shows that this GPU, while competent for its class, is the limiting component in this pairing.