Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer from 2016, and the measured performance data for the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER reveals a title that is remarkably scalable across resolutions and settings. The dataset shows this combination delivering fluid frame rates even at 4K, with the primary bottleneck shifting from the GPU to the CPU only at the lowest settings and resolutions. The analysis below breaks down the measured FPS, scaling behavior, and the role each component plays in this specific game.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and clearly indicates a GPU-bound workload at higher resolutions. At the High preset, the average frame rate falls from 141.1 FPS at 1920x1080 to 98.4 FPS at 2560x1440, a 30.2% reduction, and then to 62.3 FPS at 3840x2160, a further 36.7% reduction from the 1440p result. This steep decline is the classic signature of a pixel-throughput-limited scenario, where the RTX 2060 SUPER's 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is being saturated by the increasing resolution.

The scaling pattern becomes even more pronounced at lower settings, where the CPU has less work to do. At the Low preset, the frame rate drops from 246.1 FPS at 1080p to 200.8 FPS at 1440p (an 18.4% decrease), and then to 128.4 FPS at 4K (a 36.1% decrease from 1440p). The fact that the 4K Low result is still nearly double the 1080p High result indicates that the game's visual effects at High are far more demanding than the raw resolution increase alone.

The most telling observation is the difference between the Low and Ultra presets at each resolution. At 1080p, the gap is 113.6 FPS (246.1 vs 132.5), while at 4K, that gap shrinks to 67.5 FPS (128.4 vs 60.9). This narrowing gap at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at 4K, regardless of the preset. Conversely, the large absolute delta at 1080p suggests that the Ryzen 7 3700X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, is providing ample headroom for the GPU to stretch its legs at lower resolutions, but the GPU simply cannot keep up as pixel count increases.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data offers a clear hierarchy of presets, with the Medium setting providing the best balance between visual fidelity and frame rate performance. At 1080p, Medium delivers 223.2 FPS, which is 81.1 FPS higher than High and only 22.9 FPS lower than Low. This suggests that the step from Low to Medium is relatively inexpensive in terms of GPU load, while the step from Medium to High carries a much heavier penalty of 82.1 FPS. The Ultra preset, at 132.5 FPS, is only 8.6 FPS lower than High, indicating diminishing returns for the highest quality settings.

At 1440p, the Medium preset produces 160.4 FPS, which is still far above the 60 FPS threshold and represents a 62.0 FPS advantage over High. Even at 4K, Medium manages 102.0 FPS, which is comfortably playable on a high refresh rate display. The data suggests that Medium is the "sweet spot" for this combination, as it avoids the steep performance cliff seen when moving to High while still providing substantial graphical improvements over Low.

For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, High at 1440p (98.4 FPS) is the best option, as it remains above 90 FPS. Ultra at 4K (60.9 FPS) is the only preset that dips below the 100 FPS mark, and it sits just barely above the 60 FPS baseline. The Low preset is only recommended for competitive play or extremely high refresh rate displays, as it yields 246.1 FPS at 1080p and 200.8 FPS at 1440p, but the visual compromise is substantial.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination ranks 1263 out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the 75.5th percentile of all tested configurations, indicating that it outperforms a majority of systems in this game, but is far from the top tier. The rank suggests that while this combo is capable of delivering excellent frame rates, there are 408 other combinations that achieve higher average FPS.

The CPU's position in the broader benchmark landscape is strong, holding an 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 28631 puts it within 0.1% of the Intel Core i5-12600 (28654) and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (28591), and it edges out the AMD EPYC 7203P (28583) by 0.2%. This indicates that the Ryzen 7 3700X is not the limiting factor in most scenarios, as its compute capabilities are well-matched to the RTX 2060 SUPER.

The GPU, meanwhile, sits at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774. It trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 by 0.5% (19680) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN by 0.3% (19706), while leading the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 by 0.8% (19623). The combo's mid-pack ranking in this specific game is likely explained by Inside's relatively modest system requirements, where even older or lower-tier GPUs can achieve playable frame rates, compressing the performance spread at the top.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a wide spread across presets. The Low setting achieves 246.1 FPS, Medium drops to 223.2 FPS, High falls further to 141.1 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 132.5 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is only 22.9 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High costs 82.1 FPS, indicating a significant increase in shader complexity or post-processing effects.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down proportionally. Low delivers 200.8 FPS, Medium produces 160.4 FPS, High reaches 98.4 FPS, and Ultra manages 99.0 FPS. Notably, the gap between High and Ultra at 1440p is negligible (0.6 FPS), suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are nearly free at this resolution, or that the GPU is already saturated by High.

At 3840x2160, the results are as follows: Low achieves 128.4 FPS, Medium hits 102.0 FPS, High drops to 62.3 FPS, and Ultra is the only preset below 60 FPS at 60.9 FPS. The 4K Medium result is particularly impressive, outperforming the 1080p High result by a wide margin. The 4K Low result (128.4 FPS) is 13.8% faster than the 1440p High result (98.4 FPS), which highlights how much headroom exists when settings are reduced.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the decisive component in this pairing for Inside. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the game's textures and assets even at 4K. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), and the GPU's boost clock of 1650 MHz (base 1470 MHz) allows for sustained performance under load.

The GPU's TU106 chip, built on a 12 nm process at TSMC, packs 10,800 million transistors on a 445 mm² die. The 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs are well-suited for a 2D side-scrolling puzzle platformer, which typically relies more on fill rate and pixel throughput than on complex geometry. The 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are present on the chip, but Inside does not use ray tracing or DLSS, so these units remain idle during gameplay.

The data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K and at higher presets. The steep drop from 102.0 FPS (Medium 4K) to 62.3 FPS (High 4K) is a 38.9% reduction, which is far more than what would be expected from a simple settings change. This suggests that the High preset in Inside introduces effects such as high-resolution shadows or ambient occlusion that heavily tax the GPU's pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s. The fact that the GPU's PassMark G3D score of 16462 places it at the 63rd percentile confirms that it is a mid-range part, and Inside's performance scaling reflects that positioning.