Inside

# Inside — AMD Ryzen 5 9600X + AMD Radeon RX 6600

The measured FPS data for this puzzle platformer reveals a system that scales predictably with resolution and settings, but with some notable inflection points. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 259.2 FPS, which drops to 122.8 FPS at Ultra — a 52.6% reduction. The 4K Ultra result of 55.4 FPS is just above the 60 FPS threshold, while 4K High lands at 59 FPS, indicating this pairing is right at the edge of playable 4K at max settings. The RX 6600, which sits in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, appears to be the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the Ryzen 5 9600X's strong single-thread performance (85th percentile among CPUs) keeps frame rates high at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 1440p to 4K shows a consistent pattern of frame rate erosion, but the rate of decline varies by preset. At Low settings, 1080p yields 259.2 FPS, 1440p drops to 183 FPS (a 29.4% decrease), and 4K falls to 117 FPS (a 36.1% decrease from 1440p). This steep drop at 4K Low suggests the GPU is becoming the limiting factor even at minimal graphical load. At Ultra settings, the scaling is more gradual: 1080p produces 122.8 FPS, 1440p drops to 87.6 FPS (28.7% lower), and 4K reaches 55.4 FPS (36.8% lower than 1440p). The similar percentage drops across settings indicate that resolution scaling is consistent, but the absolute margins shrink as the preset becomes more demanding.

The Medium preset shows the most linear scaling pattern: 205.9 FPS at 1080p, 147.2 FPS at 1440p (28.5% drop), and 95.8 FPS at 4K (34.9% drop from 1440p). High settings follow suit with 125.7 FPS at 1080p, 93.3 FPS at 1440p (25.8% drop), and 59 FPS at 4K (36.8% drop). The fact that 4K High (59 FPS) and 4K Ultra (55.4 FPS) are within 6.5% of each other suggests that the GPU is saturating at these resolutions regardless of the extra visual features Ultra enables. This behavior points to a GPU-bound scenario at 4K, where the RX 6600's 8 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth become the bottleneck rather than the CPU's compute capability.

FAQ

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

A: No. The measured average at 4K Ultra is 55.4 FPS, which is 7.7% below the 60 FPS target. However, at 4K High the average reaches 59 FPS, nearly hitting the mark.

Q: What is the best resolution for a 144 Hz monitor?

A: At 1440p, only the Low preset (183 FPS) exceeds 144 FPS. The Medium preset at 147.2 FPS also clears this threshold, but High (93.3 FPS) and Ultra (87.6 FPS) fall short.

Q: How does the RX 6600 compare to its nearest rival in general GPU benchmarks?

A: The RX 6600's average benchmark score of 25235 is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon 890M (25246, 0% delta). It also trails the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP by 0.2% and the AMD Radeon RX 6700M by 0.2%, while leading the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti by 0.5%.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1080p Low?

A: The 259.2 FPS result at 1080p Low is the highest measured value across all configurations, suggesting the Ryzen 5 9600X can feed the RX 6600 adequately at lower settings. The CPU's 3dmark single-thread score of 1253 and passmark single-thread score of 4570 support its capability in this scenario.

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

A: The 1440p Low preset produces 183 FPS, while Ultra drops to 87.6 FPS — a reduction of 52.1%. This is the largest relative gap between presets at any resolution.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM on the RX 6600 cause issues at 4K?

A: The 4K Ultra result of 55.4 FPS and 4K High of 59 FPS indicate the GPU is operating near its limits. The 128-bit memory bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth may constrain texture streaming at this resolution, though the data does not show a catastrophic failure.

Settings Recommendations

For a balance of visual quality and frame rate, the High preset at 1440p delivers 93.3 FPS, which is smooth for a puzzle platformer and leaves headroom for demanding scenes. At 4K, High settings at 59 FPS are the best playable option, as dropping to Medium only improves to 95.8 FPS at 1440p but cannot break 60 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset offers diminishing returns: at 1080p it drops from 125.7 FPS (High) to 122.8 FPS, a mere 2.3% penalty, but at 1440p the Ultra-to-High gap widens to 6.1%, and at 4K it reaches 6.5%. Players with 60 Hz displays at 4K should choose High, while those with 144 Hz monitors at 1080p can comfortably use Ultra. The Low preset at 1080p (259.2 FPS) is only relevant for competitive play, which is unnecessary in a puzzle platformer.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces 259.2 FPS on Low, 205.9 FPS on Medium, 125.7 FPS on High, and 122.8 FPS on Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium costs 20.6% of performance, but the Medium-to-High drop is more severe at 38.9%. High-to-Ultra is minimal at 2.3%. At 2560x1440, Low yields 183 FPS, Medium 147.2 FPS (19.6% drop from Low), High 93.3 FPS (36.6% drop from Medium), and Ultra 87.6 FPS (6.1% drop from High). At 3840x2160, Low achieves 117 FPS, Medium 95.8 FPS (18.1% drop), High 59 FPS (38.4% drop), and Ultra 55.4 FPS (6.1% drop). The pattern repeats at every resolution: the Medium-to-High transition is the most punishing, while High-to-Ultra is barely perceptible. This suggests the High preset includes a significant visual feature that Medium lacks, while Ultra adds minimal overhead. The 4K numbers tell a clear story — this GPU cannot sustain 60 FPS at the highest quality, but it comes close enough that a small settings tweak resolves the issue.

GPU Role

The RX 6600, with its Navi 23 chip on RDNA 2.0 architecture, provides 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit bus, yielding 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock of 1626 MHz, boost clock of 2491 MHz, and game clock of 2044 MHz define its operational envelope. In this game, the GPU's role becomes dominant at higher resolutions and presets. The 4K Ultra result of 55.4 FPS and 4K High of 59 FPS are within 6.1% of each other, indicating the GPU is compute-limited rather than memory-limited at these settings. The GPU's passmark G3D score of 15096 and 3dmark Steel Nomad score of 1492 place it in the 69th percentile, which aligns with its mid-range positioning. The fact that 4K Low (117 FPS) is more than double 4K Ultra (55.4 FPS) shows that the GPU's shading units (1792) and texture units (112) scale well with reduced work, but the 64 ROPs may cap pixel throughput at high settings. The GPU's 28 ray accelerators are irrelevant here, as Inside is a 2D-side-scrolling puzzle platformer with no ray-traced effects. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for this game's art style, but the 128-bit bus limits memory bandwidth, which could explain why the Medium-to-High transition at 4K costs 38.4% performance — likely a texture quality setting that exceeds the available bandwidth.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 9600X brings six Zen 5 cores with twelve threads, running at a base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost of 5.40 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core provide ample fast storage for game data. In this title, the CPU's role is secondary but not negligible. The 1080p Low result of 259.2 FPS demonstrates that the CPU can drive frame rates well beyond typical display refresh rates, and the 3dmark single-thread score of 1253 and passmark single-thread score of 4570 confirm strong per-core performance. The CPU's cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25525 and single-core score of 3603 show balanced capability, though Inside's gameplay mechanics likely rely more on single-threaded logic than multi-threaded physics. The 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28246, places it slightly ahead of the Intel Core i5-13490F (0.3% delta) and AMD Ryzen 5 230 (0.3% delta), while trailing the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS by 0.4% and Intel Core i5-14500T by 0.5%. The CPU's 4 nm process node and 65 W TDP mean it generates minimal heat, allowing sustained boost clocks during extended gaming sessions. The fact that 1080p Ultra (122.8 FPS) is only 2.3% lower than 1080p High (125.7 FPS) suggests the CPU is not a limiting factor even when the GPU is less stressed at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 1331 out of 1671 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the 20.4th percentile of all configurations. This relatively low rank reflects the RX 6600's position as a mid-range GPU rather than any deficiency in the CPU. The combo's measured performance at 1080p High (125.7 FPS) and 1440p High (93.3 FPS) are respectable, but the GPU's 69th percentile standing drags the overall rank downward. The Ryzen 5 9600X's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i5-13490F and AMD Ryzen 5 230 — have nearly identical average scores (28173 and 28164 respectively, both 0.3% lower), meaning any CPU swap within this performance tier would yield similar results. On the GPU side, the RX 6600's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon 890M, has an average score of 25246, just 0% different, suggesting that integrated graphics in high-end APUs can match this discrete GPU in synthetic benchmarks, though the measured FPS data shows the RX 6600 still delivers playable frame rates at 4K. The rank of 1331 out of 1671 indicates that most other combos in the database deliver higher frame rates in this game, but the absolute numbers remain smooth for the genre. For a puzzle platformer that does not demand high frame rates, this combo offers a playable experience across all tested settings, with the caveat that 4K Ultra dips slightly below 60 FPS.