Inside

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers a formidable performance profile in Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016. The data shows this combination is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but the CPU’s strong single-threaded performance ensures that even at 1080p, frame rates remain exceptionally high. This analysis breaks down the measured results, contextualizes the combo’s standing against other tested systems, and provides actionable settings guidance based solely on the supplied data.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep, revealing that the Radeon RX 7900 XT becomes the limiting factor as pixel count increases. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 420.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 223.3 FPS at 3840x2160—a reduction of roughly 47%. The trend is consistent across all presets: High settings drop from 249.9 FPS at 1080p to 111.4 FPS at 4K, while Ultra falls from 237.7 FPS to 105.2 FPS over the same resolution span.

This scaling pattern indicates that at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 9600X’s single-core strength (3dmark_single_thread score of 1253) is sufficient to feed the GPU, allowing it to reach near its maximum output. However, at 4K, the GPU’s shading units (5376) and memory bandwidth (800.0 GB/s) are taxed heavily, with the 4K Ultra result (105.2 FPS) representing only 44% of the 1080p Low figure. The gap between Medium and High settings at 4K (179.4 FPS vs 111.4 FPS) is larger than at 1080p (385.6 FPS vs 249.9 FPS), confirming that resolution scaling amplifies the GPU’s workload disproportionately. For a game with simple geometry like Inside, the CPU overhead is minimal, so the bottleneck clearly shifts to the graphics card as resolution rises.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 136th out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. That places it in the top 8.1% of all configurations, a strong result for a game that is not particularly demanding by modern standards. The ranking reflects the synergy between the Ryzen 5 9600X’s high boost clock (5.40 GHz) and the RX 7900 XT’s raw throughput, but it also shows that many higher-end or more balanced combos outperform it.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 38358 puts it in the 82nd percentile among all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (deltaPct 0.0) and the NVIDIA CMP 70HX (deltaPct 0.3). This suggests the RX 7900 XT is competitive with top-tier mobile parts but not the absolute fastest desktop cards. Meanwhile, the CPU’s average score of 28246 lands in the 85th percentile, with the Intel Core i5-13490F (deltaPct 0.3) and AMD Ryzen 5 230 (deltaPct 0.3) as close competitors. The combo’s rank of 136 indicates that while each component is individually strong, the pairing does not exceed the sum of its parts—likely because Inside’s frame rates are already so high that minor CPU or GPU differences have diminishing returns.

FAQ

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

A: The highest average FPS is 420.3, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How much slower is 4K Ultra compared to 1080p Low?

A: The 4K Ultra average FPS (105.2) is 75% lower than the 1080p Low result (420.3), indicating a severe GPU bottleneck at higher resolutions.

Q: Which settings preset provides the most consistent performance across all resolutions?

A: High settings show the smallest relative drop from 1080p (249.9 FPS) to 4K (111.4 FPS), a 55% reduction, whereas Low drops 47% and Ultra drops 56%. High offers a balanced trade-off.

Q: Does the CPU become a limiting factor at any tested resolution?

A: The data suggests no, as even at 1080p Low (420.3 FPS), the frame rate is extremely high. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads with a 5.40 GHz boost clock are ample for Inside.

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

A: It ranks 136th out of 1671 combos, placing it in the top 8.1% of systems tested for this game.

Q: What is the difference between the 1440p Medium and Ultra results?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium averages 285.1 FPS while Ultra averages 172 FPS—a difference of 113.1 FPS, or about 40% lower performance for Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance across all presets. Low settings hit 420.3 FPS, Medium produces 385.6 FPS, High reaches 249.9 FPS, and Ultra manages 237.7 FPS. The gap between Medium and High (135.7 FPS) is notable, suggesting that High introduces significant GPU workload increases. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 352.8 FPS (Low), 285.1 FPS (Medium), 180.7 FPS (High), and 172 FPS (Ultra). The 1440p results show a smoother degradation from Medium to High (104.4 FPS drop) compared to 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the data reveals a clear hierarchy: Low averages 223.3 FPS, Medium 179.4 FPS, High 111.4 FPS, and Ultra 105.2 FPS. The 4K High and Ultra results are nearly identical (111.4 vs 105.2), indicating that Ultra’s additional effects are nearly free relative to High at this resolution. Across all resolutions, Low settings consistently double the frame rate of Ultra at 1080p (420.3 vs 237.7) but only double it at 4K (223.3 vs 105.2), reinforcing the GPU-bound nature of higher resolutions. The minimum and maximum FPS values are not provided, so the analysis relies solely on average figures, which are uniformly high enough for smooth gameplay even at 4K Ultra.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) using a 4 nm process at TSMC. Its base clock of 3.90 GHz boosts up to 5.40 GHz, with a 32 MB shared L3 cache. For Inside, a puzzle platformer with modest physics and AI demands, the CPU’s single-thread performance is the most relevant metric: its 3dmark_single_thread score of 1253 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3603 indicate strong per-core efficiency.

The data shows that even at 1080p Low, where frame rates exceed 420 FPS, the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU. This is evident because the 1080p Low result (420.3 FPS) is substantially higher than the 4K Low result (223.3 FPS), meaning the GPU is the constraint at higher resolutions. The CPU’s multithreaded scores (Cinebench R23 multicore 25525, Geekbench multicore 15182) are respectable but unnecessary for this title, as Inside likely uses only a few threads. The 65W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 support (89.6 GB/s bandwidth) provide ample headroom, but the benchmark results confirm that the Ryzen 5 9600X is more than sufficient for this game’s requirements, ranking in the 85th percentile of all CPUs.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the measured data supports using High settings at 2560x1440 or 1920x1080. At 1440p High, the average FPS of 180.7 is well above the 144 Hz refresh rate common on gaming monitors, while 1080p High delivers 249.9 FPS, leaving headroom for future demanding scenes. Ultra settings at these resolutions (172 FPS at 1440p, 237.7 FPS at 1080p) provide only marginal visual gains over High while reducing performance by 5-10%, so High is the recommended preset for most users.

At 4K, the choice depends on the display’s refresh rate. High settings produce 111.4 FPS, which is adequate for 60 Hz displays but not for 120 Hz panels. Ultra at 4K drops to 105.2 FPS, a negligible difference, so High is again preferable. Medium settings at 4K (179.4 FPS) offer a substantial performance boost with likely minor visual trade-offs, making them the best option for high-refresh 4K monitors. Low settings (223.3 FPS at 4K) are only necessary for competitive play at extremely high frame rates, which is unlikely for a puzzle platformer. Overall, High at 1080p or 1440p delivers the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, while Medium at 4K is the pragmatic choice for smooth gameplay.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is a high-end graphics card based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture (Navi 31 chip) with 5376 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. It features 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, providing 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The boost clock is 2394 MHz with a game clock of 2025 MHz, and the card supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), making it fully compatible with modern rendering features.

In Inside, the GPU’s role is dominant, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The card’s compute power (51.48 TFLOPS FP32) ensures high frame rates even at 4K, but its performance relative to rivals (82nd percentile, avg score 38358) shows it is not the absolute fastest. The 20 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for this game’s textures, which are simple due to the 2016 release date, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor. The pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s allow the card to handle the game’s 2.5D side-scrolling environments effortlessly.

The GPU’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (deltaPct 0.0) and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (deltaPct 0.6), indicating that the RX 7900 XT competes closely with high-end laptop GPUs. Despite being end-of-life, the card’s performance in Inside is robust, with no preset or resolution dropping below 105 FPS. The data confirms that the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates at 4K, while at 1080p, both components are underutilized, resulting in extremely high averages that exceed the refresh rates of virtually all displays.