Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 produces a fascinating split personality in Inside. This is a game that scales dramatically with settings, and the data shows a system that can deliver silky-smooth 1080p playback or struggle at 4K, depending entirely on the preset you choose. The benchmark results indicate this combo ranks 1527th out of 1671 tested combinations, placing it in the lower tier of systems, but the measured FPS reveals that this ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU's age rather than a fundamental inability to run the game well.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling behavior from 1080p to 4K is textbook GPU-bound, but with an unusual twist. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 150.8 FPS. Dropping to 1440p Low reduces that to 110.9 FPS, a 26.5% penalty. Moving to 4K Low yields 69.7 FPS, which is a 53.8% drop from 1440p and a 53.8% drop from 1080p. This steep decline confirms that the RX 580's rendering pipeline is the limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The pattern intensifies at higher presets. At 4K Ultra, the system manages just 34.4 FPS, which is less than half of the 72.3 FPS seen at 1080p Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is also telling: 69.7 FPS versus 34.4 FPS represents a 50.6% performance hit, while the same settings comparison at 1080p shows only a 52.1% drop. This suggests the GPU is being pushed to its absolute limits at 4K, where even reducing settings cannot fully compensate for the sheer pixel workload.

Interestingly, the scaling between Medium and High is much smaller than between Low and Medium. At 1440p, Medium delivers 87.7 FPS while High drops to 56.7 FPS, a 35.3% reduction. The jump from High to Ultra at 1440p is a smaller 5.8% drop, from 56.7 to 53.4 FPS. This indicates that the High preset introduces a significant computational cost over Medium, but Ultra adds relatively little on top of High. The data suggests that for this specific combo, the limiting component shifts from the GPU at lower resolutions to a more balanced constraint at higher settings, though the RX 580's 8 GB of VRAM and 256-bit bus remain the primary bottlenecks.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 580 is the clear performance ceiling here. Its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p but becomes strained at higher resolutions. The GPU's clocks are modest by modern standards, with a base of 1257 MHz and boost up to 1340 MHz. The 2304 shading units and 32 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s, which explains why the card handles 1080p so well but collapses under 4K load.

The GPU's benchmark profile shows it sits at the 53rd percentile versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13559. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 with a delta of 0%, the GTX 950 at 0.1% ahead, and the AMD Radeon Pro 455 at 1.1% ahead. The NVIDIA P106-090 trails by 1.1%. These margins are razor-thin, placing the RX 580 in a crowded mid-range tier. In Inside, this translates to a card that can hit 150.8 FPS at 1080p Low, but the measured data shows it cannot sustain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra, where it bottoms out at 34.4 FPS.

The 14 nm process node from GlobalFoundries and GCN 4.0 architecture are dated, but the card's FP32 performance of 6.175 TFLOPS is still respectable for a game like this. The 185 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU are moderate, and the PCIe 3.0 x16 interface does not appear to be a limiting factor given the measured results. The GPU's end-of-life production status is reflected in its performance, but it remains functional for this title at reasonable settings.

Settings Recommendations

For a smooth experience, the data points to 1080p Medium as the sweet spot. At 119 FPS, it provides a 60% improvement over High's 73.1 FPS while maintaining visual fidelity that is clearly superior to Low. The jump from Medium to High costs 45.9 FPS, which is a substantial 38.6% reduction, and the visual difference in a puzzle platformer like Inside is unlikely to justify that trade-off for most players.

If you have a 1440p monitor, Medium is the only sensible choice. The 87.7 FPS at Medium is playable, while High drops to 56.7 FPS and Ultra to 53.4 FPS, both of which are borderline for a game that benefits from smooth motion. At 4K, the situation is dire: Low delivers 69.7 FPS, which is the only preset above 60 FPS. Medium falls to 52.2 FPS, and High and Ultra are below 40 FPS. The recommendation for 4K is to stick with Low or accept the frame rate hit.

The measured rows show that High and Ultra produce nearly identical results at 1440p and 4K, with differences of only 3.3 FPS and 1.1 FPS respectively. This suggests that the Ultra preset adds minimal visual benefit over High for this GPU, so there is no reason to select it. Medium offers the best balance of performance and quality across all resolutions, making it the default recommendation for this combo.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings is usable. Low delivers 150.8 FPS, Medium 119 FPS, High 73.1 FPS, and Ultra 72.3 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is the largest single-step drop at 45.9 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is negligible at 0.8 FPS. This resolution is clearly where the RX 580 excels, with even Ultra remaining above the 60 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers compress significantly. Low produces 110.9 FPS, Medium 87.7 FPS, High 56.7 FPS, and Ultra 53.4 FPS. The step from Medium to High costs 31 FPS, which is a 35.3% reduction. This is the resolution where the GPU's memory bandwidth starts to become a constraint, as evidenced by the sharper drop-off at higher presets.

At 3840x2160, the results are stark. Low manages 69.7 FPS, Medium 52.2 FPS, High 35.5 FPS, and Ultra 34.4 FPS. Only Low achieves a playable frame rate, and even that is barely above 60 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 16.7 FPS, and High to Ultra is just 1.1 FPS. This resolution is not recommended for this combo unless you are willing to accept Low settings and tolerate occasional dips.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1527th out of 1671 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 8.6% of all systems. This low ranking is primarily driven by the RX 580's age and performance ceiling, as the GPU sits at the 53rd percentile versus all GPUs. The Ryzen 5 9600X, by contrast, is a much stronger component, ranking at the 85th percentile versus all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 28246. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-13490F at 0.3% behind, the AMD Ryzen 5 230 at 0.3% behind, the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS at 0.4% ahead, and the Intel Core i5-14500T at 0.5% ahead.

The disparity between the CPU's high percentile and the GPU's mid-range percentile explains why the combo ranks so low. The CPU is capable of far more than the GPU can deliver, creating a bottleneck that holds back the entire system. In Inside, this means the CPU is rarely the limiting factor, as evidenced by the frame rates being consistent with what the GPU alone can produce. The ranking is a reflection of the GPU's limitations, not the CPU's capabilities.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It operates on the AMD Socket AM5 platform with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. The CPU's 65 W TDP is modest, and its 32 MB of shared L3 cache provides ample bandwidth for gaming workloads. The 4 nm process node from TSMC, with 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die, gives it a significant efficiency advantage over the GPU.

In Inside, the CPU's role is minimal due to the game's relatively light processing requirements. The measured FPS at 1080p Low of 150.8 FPS suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck, as the GPU is still able to push high frame rates. The CPU's benchmark scores, including a single-thread score of 4570 in Passmark and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3603, indicate it has ample headroom for this title. The multi-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25525, further confirms that the CPU is not the limiting factor.

The CPU's 12 threads and 6 cores are more than sufficient for a puzzle platformer, and the 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth from dual-channel DDR5 support ensures data delivery is not a constraint. The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the Intel Core i5-13490F and AMD Ryzen 5 230, both within 0.3% of its average score, while the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS and Intel Core i5-14500T trail by 0.4% and 0.5% respectively. These margins show the 9600X is a solid mid-range CPU, but its performance is wasted in this pairing because the RX 580 cannot fully utilize it. The data clearly shows that upgrading the GPU would yield far greater gains in Inside than any CPU change.