Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a fascinating performance profile in Inside, a game that scales dramatically with settings and resolution. The measured data reveals a configuration that is rarely the bottleneck, offering frame rates that range from highly playable to exceptionally high, depending on how the user configures the game. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS, the roles of each component, and how this specific combo stacks up against the broader database.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K in Inside is steep and highly dependent on the preset, revealing a clear shift in the limiting component. At the Low preset, the average frame rate plummets from 339.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 153.6 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of roughly 55%. This significant decline indicates that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is being pushed harder as pixel count increases, though the absolute numbers remain exceptionally high.

Moving to the High preset, the scaling is similar in percentage but different in magnitude. The frame rate drops from 170.5 FPS at 1080p to 78.6 FPS at 4K, a 54% decrease. The consistency of this percentage drop across Low and High presets suggests that the Radeon RX 6700 XT is the primary driver of performance at higher resolutions. The data implies that at 1080p, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU enough data to reach its limits, but as resolution increases, the GPU's rendering workload becomes the dominant factor, causing the observed FPS decline.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, falling from 160.1 FPS at 1080p to 75 FPS at 4K. This 53% reduction is in line with the other presets, reinforcing the idea that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. The fact that the 4K Ultra score is less than half of the 1080p Low score highlights how much headroom the Ryzen 5 9600X has. The data suggests that this combo is best suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p or 1440p gaming, where the frame rates are consistently above 118 FPS, while 4K is best reserved for the High or Medium presets to maintain smooth gameplay.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo in Inside?*

A: The highest average frame rate is 339.7 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to the 1440p Ultra performance?

A: The 4K Ultra average is 75 FPS, which is significantly lower than the 1440p Ultra average of 118.2 FPS. This represents a 36.6% drop in performance when moving up to 4K.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor even at 1080p, as frame rates vary significantly between presets (from 160.1 FPS at Ultra to 339.7 FPS at Low), indicating that lowering graphical settings directly translates to higher FPS.

Q: What is the average frame rate at 2560x1440 with Medium settings?

A: The measured average frame rate for this configuration is 193.7 FPS.

Q: Does this combo maintain a 60 FPS average at 4K with any settings preset?

A: Yes, all four tested presets at 3840x2160 (Low, Medium, High, and Ultra) achieve an average frame rate above 75 FPS, so all are capable of exceeding the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between the High and Ultra presets at 1920x1080?

A: The High preset averages 170.5 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 160.1 FPS, a difference of 10.4 FPS in favor of the High preset.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 22 chip, is a central figure in these results. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides a 384.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for a game of Inside's visual complexity. The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 2321 MHz and a boost of 2581 MHz, are relatively high, and the benchmark data shows it performs well above the 77th percentile of all tested GPUs.

The GPU's role is most clearly defined at higher resolutions. The benchmark results show that the frame rate scales predictably with resolution, suggesting that the GPU's compute and fill-rate capabilities are being fully utilized. The data indicates that the RX 6700 XT is not holding back the CPU at 1080p, but it becomes the primary constraint at 4K. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (75 FPS) versus 4K Low (153.6 FPS) shows a 51% performance swing, demonstrating that the GPU is sensitive to the graphical workload. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6800, has a slightly higher average benchmark score by 0.7%, but the RX 6700 XT's performance in Inside is clearly robust, driven by its high clocks and ample memory bandwidth.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo is exceptionally fast: the Low preset delivers an average of 339.7 FPS, Medium drops to 267 FPS, High achieves 170.5 FPS, and Ultra settles at 160.1 FPS. This range shows that the CPU has enough headroom to push the GPU to its maximum at lower resolutions, with the gap between Medium and High being substantial.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains very high. The Low preset averages 244.1 FPS, which is still above the 1080p High score. Medium follows at 193.7 FPS, High at 122.5 FPS, and Ultra at 118.2 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent, with a roughly 28-30% drop in FPS for each preset, indicating a smooth transition and a well-balanced system.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's workload becomes the defining factor. The Low preset averages 153.6 FPS, a remarkable score for 4K, while Medium drops to 120.1 FPS. High averages 78.6 FPS, and Ultra is the most demanding, averaging 75 FPS. The data shows that while 4K is playable on all presets, the High and Ultra settings will push the system closer to the edge of a 60 FPS comfort zone, though they still exceed it.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X, a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Zen 5 Granite Ridge architecture, demonstrates its strength in this title. With a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, it is clearly capable of handling the game's logic and physics without becoming a bottleneck. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a single-thread score of 3603 in Cinebench R23 and a multi-thread score of 25525, show it sits in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-13490F, being just 0.3% behind in average score.

In Inside, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p. The fact that the frame rate at 1080p Low (339.7 FPS) is so much higher than at 4K Low (153.6 FPS) indicates that the CPU is capable of delivering very high frame rates, but the GPU cannot keep up at higher resolutions. This suggests the Ryzen 5 9600X is not the limiting factor in this configuration. The data implies that the processor's high single-thread performance is ideal for a game like Inside, which often relies on a few well-optimized threads. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory further ensure that data can be fed to the GPU quickly, preventing stutters and frame drops.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the best experience depends on the user's display and preference for visual fidelity. For users with a 1080p or 1440p high-refresh-rate monitor, the High preset is the recommended starting point. At 1080p, it delivers 170.5 FPS, and at 1440p, it maintains 122.5 FPS. This preset offers a strong balance between visual quality and performance, with the frame rates high enough to take advantage of 120Hz or 144Hz displays. The Ultra preset provides only a marginal improvement in visual fidelity, as the average FPS drops to 160.1 at 1080p and 118.2 at 1440p, a difference of about 6% that is unlikely to be noticeable in a puzzle platformer.

For 4K users, the Medium preset is the optimal choice. It delivers an average of 120.1 FPS, which is a fluid experience and leaves headroom for any demanding scenes. The High preset at 4K is still playable at 78.6 FPS, but the Medium preset offers a significant FPS advantage without a massive visual compromise. The Low preset is only recommended for users prioritizing maximum frame rates above all else, as it doesn't offer a substantial performance gain over Medium at 4K (153.6 vs. 120.1 FPS) and will reduce visual detail.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Inside, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT ranks 818th out of 1671 combos. This places it in the upper-middle tier of all systems, which is a solid result given the hardware's respective positions in the CPU and GPU benchmarks. The combo ranks in the 49th percentile, meaning about half of the tested systems are faster in this specific game.

This ranking is interesting because it suggests that while the individual components are strong, the combination does not break into the top tier. The data indicates that the RX 6700 XT's performance, while good, is not enough to push this pairing higher in a game that appears to be more GPU-bound at higher resolutions. The 0.7% benchmark advantage of the Radeon RX 6800 over the RX 6700 XT hints that a slightly stronger GPU would yield a better rank. Ultimately, this combo is a highly capable 1080p and 1440p performer, and its 4K results are respectable, but it does not challenge the top-tier systems in the database for overall performance in Inside.