Inside

# Inside with AMD Ryzen 5 9600X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The measured frame rates for this combination in Inside reveal a system that delivers exceptionally high performance across all tested configurations, with the RTX 4090 clearly dominating the workload. The data shows average FPS ranging from 140 at 4K Ultra to 419 at 1080p Low, indicating that this puzzle platformer runs far beyond the refresh rates of virtually any display. The combo ranks 47th out of 3716 tested combinations, placing it in the top 1.3% of all systems evaluated for this game.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data strongly suggests that Ultra settings provide the most balanced experience, particularly at 1440p and 4K. At 2560x1440 Ultra, the system delivers 222 FPS average, which remains comfortably above the 144Hz refresh rate common on high-end monitors. Moving to 4K Ultra drops the average to 140 FPS, which still meets the threshold for 120Hz displays but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. For players targeting the highest visual fidelity without sacrificing fluidity, Ultra at 1440p represents the sweet spot in this dataset.

At 1920x1080, even Ultra settings yield 309 FPS average, making resolution the primary bottleneck rather than the graphics preset. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is only 110 FPS (419 vs 309), suggesting that the GPU has ample headroom even at maximum settings. For competitive players or those with 240Hz displays, Medium at 1080p offers 386 FPS average with a minimum of 328 FPS, providing a substantial safety margin against frame dips.

High settings present an interesting middle ground. At 4K High, the system achieves 147 FPS average, which is only 7 FPS higher than Ultra but 88 FPS lower than Medium at the same resolution. This narrow gap between High and Ultra at 4K indicates that the Ultra preset's additional effects cost relatively little performance, making High a less compelling choice unless specific visual features are undesired. At 1440p High, the 234 FPS average approaches the performance of Ultra's 222 FPS, reinforcing that Ultra is generally preferable when the GPU has spare capacity.

For maximum frame rates, Low settings at 1080p deliver 419 FPS average, but the practical benefit over Medium's 386 FPS is minimal on most displays. The Medium preset also shows the only recorded minimum FPS values in the dataset (328 at 1080p, 294 at 1440p, 200 at 4K), suggesting that it provides a more consistent frame pacing experience. Given that Medium at 4K still achieves 235 FPS average, this preset offers the best combination of visual quality and performance headroom across all resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Does this system maintain playable frame rates at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes. The measured 4K Ultra average is 140 FPS, which exceeds the 120Hz refresh rate common on high-end 4K displays. The system also achieves 147 FPS at 4K High and 235 FPS at 4K Medium, indicating substantial performance reserves even at the highest resolution tested.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from Low to Ultra settings?

A: The performance cost varies by resolution. At 1080p, Ultra is 110 FPS slower than Low (309 vs 419 FPS). At 1440p, the gap widens to 153 FPS (222 vs 375 FPS). At 4K, Ultra is 153 FPS slower than Low (140 vs 293 FPS). The proportional cost increases with resolution, suggesting the GPU becomes more constrained at higher pixel counts.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 or the Ryzen 5 9600X the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 419 FPS, which likely approaches the CPU's frame delivery ceiling. As resolution increases to 4K, the frame rate drops dramatically to 293 FPS at Low settings, demonstrating that GPU rasterization throughput becomes the bottleneck at higher pixel counts.

Q: What is the best settings preset for consistent frame pacing?

A: The Medium preset shows the only recorded minimum FPS values in the dataset, with 328 FPS at 1080p, 294 FPS at 1440p, and 200 FPS at 4K. These minimums indicate that Medium maintains a more stable frame delivery pattern compared to other presets, which lack reported minimum values and may exhibit less consistent pacing.

Q: How does this system compare to the average performance of all tested combos?

A: This combination ranks 47th out of 3716 tested combos for Inside, placing it in the top percentile. The ranking reflects the RTX 4090's high average benchmark score of 60347, which places it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, combined with the Ryzen 5 9600X's 81st percentile CPU ranking.

*Q: Can this system achieve 4K 240Hz performance in Inside?*

A: No. The highest measured 4K average is 293 FPS at Low settings, which exceeds 240Hz. However, at Medium settings the average drops to 235 FPS, below the 240Hz threshold. At Ultra settings, the 140 FPS average is significantly below 240Hz, so reaching that refresh rate requires Low settings at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals how heavily this game's performance depends on GPU fill rate. At Low settings, the system delivers 419 FPS at 1080p, 375 FPS at 1440p, and 293 FPS at 4K. This represents a 10.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 21.9% drop from 1440p to 4K. The relatively modest scaling suggests that even at 4K, the RTX 4090 has substantial bandwidth and compute reserves.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern with more pronounced scaling. From 386 FPS at 1080p, performance falls to 346 FPS at 1440p (a 10.4% drop) and then to 235 FPS at 4K (a 32.1% drop from 1440p). The larger 4K penalty at Medium compared to Low indicates that the additional visual effects at Medium place more stress on the GPU's shading and texture units as pixel count increases.

At High settings, the scaling intensifies further. The system produces 322 FPS at 1080p, 234 FPS at 1440p (a 27.3% drop), and 147 FPS at 4K (a 37.2% drop from 1440p). Ultra settings exhibit the most dramatic resolution scaling, with 309 FPS at 1080p falling to 222 FPS at 1440p (a 28.2% drop) and then to 140 FPS at 4K (a 36.9% drop from 1440p).

This pattern strongly indicates that the RTX 4090 is the limiting component as resolution increases. The CPU's role diminishes at higher pixel counts because the GPU's rasterization workload grows quadratically with pixel count, while the CPU's frame preparation work remains relatively constant. At 1080p Low, the 419 FPS ceiling likely approaches the Ryzen 5 9600X's frame delivery capability, given its 6 cores and 12 threads operating at up to 5.40 GHz boost.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 47 out of 3716 tested combinations places this system in the top 1.3% of all configurations benchmarked for Inside. This ranking reflects the exceptional performance of the RTX 4090, which achieves an average benchmark score of 60347 and sits in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the Intel Arc Pro A60 (0% delta), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (0.3% faster), and AMD Radeon PRO V710 (2.9% slower), though these comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks rather than direct Inside measurements.

The Ryzen 5 9600X contributes to this ranking through its strong single-thread and multi-thread performance. With a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2183.5 and multi-core score of 17528.5, the CPU ranks in the 81st percentile of all processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE (0.2% faster), AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (0.5% slower), and AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT (0.6% slower), indicating that the 9600X performs comparably to higher-tier chips in synthetic workloads.

The combination's rank is particularly notable given that Inside is a puzzle platformer with relatively modest graphics demands compared to AAA titles. The fact that this system still ranks in the top 1.3% suggests that even high-refresh-rate displays at 4K resolution are fully saturated by the hardware. The rank of 47 indicates that only 46 other combinations out of 3716 deliver higher average FPS in this game, likely featuring more exotic CPU configurations or specialized overclocking setups.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 9600X provides 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, running at a base clock of 3.90 GHz and boosting up to 5.40 GHz. This processor has a 65W TDP and supports DDR5 memory through its AMD Socket AM5 platform, with a dual-channel memory bus delivering 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache likely benefits Inside's level streaming and physics calculations.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 9600X demonstrates strong single-thread performance with a Geekbench single-core score of 2923 and a 3DMark single-thread score of 1253. Its multi-thread capabilities are reflected in a Geekbench multi-core score of 14438 and a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17528.5. The PassMark single-thread score of 4570 and multi-thread score of 30027 further characterize the CPU's capabilities.

For Inside, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU at most settings and resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 419 FPS average, which may approach the CPU's maximum frame delivery rate given the game's relatively simple geometry and physics. The fact that increasing resolution to 4K at Low settings only reduces the frame rate to 293 FPS (a 30% drop) while increasing settings from Low to Ultra at 1080p reduces performance by 26% (419 to 309 FPS) suggests that both CPU and GPU contribute to the performance envelope.

The 9600X's high boost clock of 5.40 GHz likely helps maintain consistent frame times in Inside, since the game's puzzle-platformer mechanics may involve occasional physics-heavy moments. The CPU's 3DMark 2-thread score of 2456 and 4-thread score of 4649 indicate strong performance in lightly threaded workloads, which aligns with the game's likely usage of a few primary threads for game logic and rendering commands.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 419 FPS average, while Medium achieves 386 FPS with a minimum of 328 FPS and maximum of 444 FPS. High settings yield 322 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 309 FPS average. The tight grouping between High and Ultra at 1080p (only a 13 FPS difference) suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects are relatively inexpensive at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains exceptionally high. Low settings deliver 375 FPS average, Medium reaches 346 FPS with a minimum of 294 FPS and maximum of 398 FPS, High produces 234 FPS, and Ultra achieves 222 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 1440p is only 29 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High costs 112 FPS, indicating that High settings introduce substantially more demanding effects.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4090 continues to deliver playable frame rates across all presets. Low settings yield 293 FPS average, Medium achieves 235 FPS with a minimum of 200 FPS and maximum of 270 FPS, High produces 147 FPS, and Ultra delivers 140 FPS. The 4K data shows the largest relative spread between presets, with Low outperforming Ultra by 153 FPS (more than double). The Medium preset's minimum of 200 FPS at 4K demonstrates that even the lowest recorded frame rate remains well above standard 60Hz displays.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 serves as the dominant performance driver in this configuration. Built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD102 chip, this GPU features 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 raster operation units. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory operates across a 384-bit bus, delivering 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which proves critical for maintaining high frame rates at 4K resolution.

The RTX 4090's clock speeds range from a base of 2235 MHz to a boost of 2520 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). The GPU's compute capabilities include 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 82.58 TFLOPS of FP16 performance (1:1 ratio). With 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores, the GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4 APIs.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 4090 achieves a PassMark G3D score of 38194 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 255416. Its Vulkan performance reaches 271631 in Geekbench, and it scores 9223 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The GPU's average benchmark score of 60347 places it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the Intel Arc Pro A60 (0% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (0.3% faster).

The measured Inside results demonstrate that the RTX 4090's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the key factors enabling high frame rates at 4K. The GPU's 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate allow it to process the game's relatively simple visuals at extremely high speeds. The 24 GB VRAM capacity far exceeds the requirements of this puzzle platformer, ensuring that texture memory is never a bottleneck even at 4K Ultra settings.

The GPU's performance scaling across settings presets reveals that its shading and texture units handle the additional effects at Medium and High settings efficiently, but the jump to Ultra at 4K costs significant performance (235 to 140 FPS). This suggests that Ultra settings at 4K engage more demanding pixel shader work that stresses the GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 throughput. The RTX 4090's 450W TDP and triple-slot cooler design are consistent with the high sustained performance observed in the measured frame rates.