Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER pairing delivers exceptional performance in Inside, a 2016 Puzzle Platformer that is far more demanding than its minimalist aesthetic suggests. The measured data shows this combo handles the game with massive headroom at every resolution, though the scaling patterns reveal distinct bottlenecks that shift depending on your target display and settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about where the workload lands. At 1080p High settings, the combo produces 252.5 FPS average. Moving to 1440p High drops that to 183.6 FPS, a 27% reduction. At 4K High, the average falls to 114.8 FPS, which is 55% lower than the 1080p result. This steep decline indicates that the GPU is the primary scaling factor as resolution increases, which is expected for a game with Inside's lighting and post-processing effects.

The gap between 1440p and 4K is particularly telling. From 183.6 FPS at 1440p High to 114.8 FPS at 4K High, you lose 68.8 FPS — a 37% drop. This is a larger relative decrease than the 27% drop from 1080p to 1440p, suggesting the RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 192-bit bus are being pushed harder at 4K. The 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth is sufficient, but the pixel throughput demands at 3840x2160 are substantial.

However, the CPU's influence becomes visible when you look at the Low settings results. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 337.4 FPS. At 1440p Low, it still manages 303.8 FPS. The gap between these two is only 33.6 FPS, or roughly 10%. This compression of the resolution scaling at Low settings indicates that the Ryzen 5 8400F's 6 cores and 12 threads are starting to limit the upper ceiling. The CPU's base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost of 4.70 GHz are strong, but even a capable Zen 4 chip becomes the constraint when the GPU has less work to do per frame.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Inside at 4K Ultra smoothly?*

A: Yes. The 4K Ultra average is 109 FPS, which is comfortably above 60 FPS for a smooth experience. The 4K High preset is slightly faster at 114.8 FPS, so the Ultra preset's additional effects cost about 5% performance.

Q: Is the 1080p performance overkill for this game?

A: The data suggests yes for most displays. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 243.6 FPS, and at 1080p Low it reaches 337.4 FPS. Unless you have a 360 Hz monitor, you will be well beyond the refresh rate of typical 144 Hz or 240 Hz panels.

Q: Which setting preset offers the best balance at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 281.6 FPS, which is only 7% slower than Low (303.8 FPS) but substantially faster than High (183.6 FPS). The jump from Medium to High costs 98 FPS, suggesting High enables expensive visual features that are not worth the performance hit.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 231st out of 1671 tested combos, placing it in the top 14% of all configurations tested with this game. This is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with an upper-mid-range GPU.

Q: Is there a frame rate ceiling imposed by the CPU?

A: The 1080p Low result of 337.4 FPS versus the 1440p Low result of 303.8 FPS suggests a soft ceiling. The CPU's single-thread performance (951 in 3DMark single-thread) and 16 MB of L3 cache are adequate, but the game's logic thread may not scale beyond roughly 340 FPS.

Q: Should I use Low or Medium settings at 4K?

A: The difference is significant. Low at 4K produces 229.4 FPS, while Medium produces 187.1 FPS. For a puzzle platformer where visual atmosphere matters, Medium is likely the better choice since you still have nearly 190 FPS of headroom.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing for Inside. With 7168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs, the GPU has ample raw compute for a game of this era. The boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1980 MHz are relatively high for the Ada Lovelace architecture, and the 35.48 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is more than sufficient for the game's rendering demands.

The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory at 21 Gbps effective across a 192-bit bus yields 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This is crucial at 4K, where the frame buffer demands increase. The data shows the GPU scales well from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, but the 4K results reveal the memory subsystem is working harder. The 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is adequate, yet the 4K Ultra result of 109 FPS versus the 4K High result of 114.8 FPS shows that the Ultra preset's additional memory pressure costs over 5% performance.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 84 versus all GPUs indicates it sits above most installed graphics cards. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE, with deltas of -0.2% and -0.3% respectively. This means the 4070 SUPER is effectively tied with those cards in average benchmark score, but for Inside specifically, the data shows it has plenty of headroom even at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 231 out of 1671 tested configurations places it in the 86th percentile of all CPU-GPU pairings tested with Inside. This is a strong result, but it is not near the top of the list. The ranking indicates that many higher-end configurations, likely with more powerful GPUs or CPUs, achieve higher frame rates in this game.

Given the game's 2016 release date, the data suggests that most modern mid-range to high-end hardware can run it well. The 231st rank means there are 230 combos that perform better, which likely include RTX 4080 or 4090 class GPUs paired with high-core-count CPUs. However, for the specific hardware in this combo, the performance is excellent. The Ryzen 5 8400F's average benchmark score of 25064 places it at the 82nd percentile against all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 84th percentile. This balanced pairing explains why the combo achieves a top-14% ranking.

The rank also reflects that Inside is not a heavily threaded game. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient, but the game likely uses fewer threads, meaning the GPU does most of the heavy lifting. This is why the combo's rank is solid but not exceptional — the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, and there are simply more powerful GPUs available.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 8400F plays a supporting role in Inside, but it is not a bottleneck in most scenarios. With 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, the CPU provides strong single-thread performance that is critical for game logic. The base clock of 4.20 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz are high for a desktop processor, and the 16 MB of shared L3 cache helps with frame pacing.

The CPU's benchmark results show a single-thread score of 951 in 3DMark and 2943 in Cinebench R23, which are respectable numbers. The multi-thread score of 20851 in Cinebench R23 and 24530 in PassMark multithread indicate the CPU can handle background tasks without affecting game performance. The 65 W TDP means it runs cool and leaves thermal headroom for the GPU.

The data reveals the CPU's influence at 1080p Low settings. The 337.4 FPS average at 1080p Low versus 303.8 FPS at 1440p Low shows only a 33.6 FPS difference, whereas at High settings the difference between 1080p and 1440p is 68.9 FPS. This suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is providing frames as fast as it can, and the GPU is not the constraint. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 3684 aligns with this observation — it is a capable performer but not a top-tier chip for extreme frame rates.

The nearest rival CPUs in the database include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, with the 8400F scoring within 0.3% of the 7500F. This means the 8400F is effectively equivalent to other mid-range options for this game, and the GPU will determine the ultimate performance ceiling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the combo delivers exceptional frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 337.4 FPS, Medium drops to 313.5 FPS, High reduces to 252.5 FPS, and Ultra maintains 243.6 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 93.8 FPS, which indicates that the Ultra preset adds significant visual effects but still leaves ample performance for high-refresh displays.

At 1440p, the results remain strong. Low produces 303.8 FPS, Medium 281.6 FPS, High 183.6 FPS, and Ultra 177.2 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 98 FPS, which is the largest jump between adjacent settings at this resolution. This suggests that the High preset enables a substantial number of additional effects that tax the GPU heavily.

At 4K, the frame rates become more grounded. Low produces 229.4 FPS, which is still very high. Medium drops to 187.1 FPS, High to 114.8 FPS, and Ultra to 109 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium at 4K is 42.3 FPS, while the difference between Medium and High is 72.3 FPS. This shows that at 4K, the GPU is the primary constraint, and the jump from Medium to High is the most expensive in terms of performance.

The overall pattern across all resolutions is consistent: Low and Medium settings are always playable with high frame rates, while High and Ultra settings require a sacrifice at 4K. The data shows that for a 60 FPS target, even the 4K Ultra preset is achievable with a 109 FPS average. For a 144 Hz target, 1440p High is the upper bound at 183.6 FPS. For 240 Hz gaming, 1080p Ultra or 1440p Medium are the appropriate choices.