Inside

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 produces an exceptionally high-performing system for Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer. The measured data shows that this combination obliterates the game's requirements at every resolution and setting level, delivering frame rates that far exceed the refresh rates of most standard displays. The benchmark results indicate a system with immense headroom, where even the most demanding settings at 4K produce triple-digit average frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience for this combination is achieved by running the game at 4K Ultra settings. While the 1080p and 1440p rows show higher raw frame rates, the 4K Ultra preset still delivers an average of 140 FPS, which is well above the standard 120Hz or 144Hz refresh rate targets for high-end displays. This allows players to maximize visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness, as the system has enough performance to maintain high frame rates at the most demanding configuration tested.

For players with a 144Hz display, the 4K High preset is also a strong recommendation, as it produces an average of 144 FPS, exactly matching the display's refresh rate for perfect frame pacing. This preset offers a slight performance bump over Ultra (a 4 FPS difference) while remaining visually indistinguishable from the maximum settings in most scenes, given the game's stylized art direction.

At 1440p, the High preset is the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate gaming, delivering an average of 168 FPS. This comfortably exceeds typical 144Hz monitors and provides a 3 FPS advantage over the Ultra preset at the same resolution. However, the Medium preset at 1440p also warrants consideration, as its 201 FPS average is well-suited for 200Hz+ esports-style displays, and the minimum FPS of 171 ensures there are no noticeable dips even in complex puzzle sequences.

The Low presets are not recommended for this combination. While they produce the highest frame rates (243 FPS at 1080p, 218 FPS at 1440p, and 187 FPS at 4K), the visual downgrade is unnecessary given the system's capability to run the game at much higher settings with still-excellent performance. The data suggests that the Low preset introduces a CPU-bound scenario where the GPU is not being fully utilized, making it a suboptimal choice for a system with this level of graphics hardware. The Ultra preset is the definitive recommendation for the best visual experience, with High as a close second for those prioritizing slightly higher frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark results place this specific CPU-GPU combination at rank 1399 out of 3716 tested combos in Inside. This percentile position, roughly in the 62nd percentile of all combinations, is notable for a system featuring a flagship GPU. The ranking indicates that while the RTX 4090 is a top-tier graphics card, the overall combo's position is tempered by the CPU's performance tier. The data suggests that many other tested combos, likely featuring more recent high-core-count processors, achieve higher frame rates in this particular game, which is known to be more sensitive to CPU performance than typical modern titles.

This ranking is contextually interesting when compared to the individual component benchmarks. The CPU has a percentile of 84 versus all CPUs, and the GPU has a percentile of 88 versus all GPUs, yet their combined ranking in this game is lower than either individual percentile would suggest. This discrepancy implies that the game's engine is heavily dependent on the CPU's single-threaded performance, and the Ryzen 7 3700X's architecture, while capable, may not be as efficient as newer rivals in this specific workload. The combo's rank of 1399 out of 3716 means it outperforms roughly 62% of all tested configurations, which is a strong result but not a top-tier one.

The nearest rivals for the CPU, including the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 and Intel Core i5-13450HX, have average benchmark scores nearly identical to the Ryzen 7 3700X, with delta percentages of 0.1% and -0.2% respectively. This close grouping suggests that the CPU's performance is well established, but it does not offer the generational uplift seen in newer processors, which likely explains why the combo rank is not higher. The data shows that this combination is a very capable performer, but it does not sit at the absolute top of the leaderboard for Inside, reinforcing the notion that the game's performance ceiling is more related to CPU capability than GPU raw power.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, featuring a massive 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This immense memory subsystem is far more than Inside requires, as the game's visuals are not texture-heavy by modern standards. The benchmark results confirm that the GPU is rarely the limiting factor, with even the lowest preset at 4K producing 187 FPS, which is more than double the refresh rate of most displays. The GPU's 16,384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units provide more than enough raw compute power to handle the game's simple geometry and lighting effects.

The clock speeds of 2235 MHz base and 2520 MHz boost are exceptionally high, contributing to the GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. This raw power translates directly to the high frame rates observed in the measured data. At 4K Ultra, the RTX 4090 produces 140 FPS, which confirms its ability to push high pixel counts without breaking a sweat. The GPU's 176 ROPs handle the final pixel output, and the pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s ensures efficient rasterization at any resolution.

The data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, the frame rate drops, but the magnitude of the drop is relatively small. From 1080p High (187 FPS) to 4K High (144 FPS), the decrease is 43 FPS, or about 23%. This indicates that the GPU has ample headroom and is not saturated even at 4K. The GPU's performance in this game is so far above the requirements that it effectively becomes a non-factor, with the system's overall performance being dictated by the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The RTX 4090's end-of-life production status and massive transistor count (76,300 million) highlight its position as a flagship part that is overpowered for a game like Inside.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent performance hierarchy across all settings and resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rates are exceptionally high, with the Low preset achieving an average of 243 FPS and the Medium preset reaching 224 FPS with a minimum of 191 FPS and a maximum of 258 FPS. The High preset at 1080p averages 187 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 184 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is minimal (3 FPS), suggesting that the game's Ultra settings do not introduce a significant additional load on the GPU at this resolution, and the frame rate is likely more constrained by CPU single-thread performance.

At 1440p, the frame rates remain impressively high, with the Low preset averaging 218 FPS and the Medium preset averaging 201 FPS (minimum 171 FPS, maximum 231 FPS). The High preset drops slightly to 168 FPS, and the Ultra preset yields 165 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p shows a performance cost of approximately 20-25% across all settings, which is a moderate reduction and indicates that the GPU is still handling the increased pixel count with relative ease. The minimum FPS of 171 FPS on the Medium preset at 1440p is a strong indicator of stable performance, with no significant frame time spikes.

At 4K, the data shows the system's true capability. The Low preset averages 187 FPS, which is still above the 144Hz threshold. The Medium preset averages 172 FPS with a minimum of 146 FPS and a maximum of 198 FPS. The High preset averages 144 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 140 FPS. The minimum FPS of 146 FPS on the Medium preset at 4K is particularly noteworthy, as it shows that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate does not dip below the 144Hz refresh rate common on high-end monitors. The Ultra preset at 4K, with its 140 FPS average, is just slightly below the 144Hz target but still provides a smooth experience.

The data shows a clear pattern: the RTX 4090 is powerful enough to run Inside at maximum settings with high frame rates at 4K, and the CPU is sufficient to avoid causing major bottlenecks. The frame rate deltas between settings are consistent across resolutions, with Ultra being roughly 5-9% slower than High, and Low being significantly faster than Medium. The measured numbers confirm that this combination is overkill for the game, as even the most demanding configuration tested (4K Ultra) produces frame rates that are more than double the 60 FPS standard.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior of this combination is a critical indicator of the system's balance. The data shows that from 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS across all settings drops by roughly 20-25%. For example, at High settings, the frame rate goes from 187 FPS at 1080p to 168 FPS at 1440p, a decrease of 19 FPS or 10%. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is more significant: at High settings, the frame rate goes from 168 FPS to 144 FPS, a decrease of 24 FPS or 14%. This scaling pattern suggests that the system is not purely GPU-bound, as a purely GPU-bound scenario would show a more dramatic drop from 1440p to 4K (typically 50% or more).

The fact that the FPS does not halve when going from 1080p to 4K (e.g., High settings: 187 to 144 FPS, a 23% drop) indicates that the CPU is playing a significant role in limiting the maximum frame rate. At 1080p, the CPU is likely the primary bottleneck, as the GPU can render frames faster than the CPU can process game logic and issue draw calls. As resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows, but the CPU's workload remains relatively constant, which is why the frame rate does not scale down proportionally with the pixel count.

This pattern reveals that the RTX 4090 is heavily underutilized at 1080p and 1440p. The GPU's full potential is only approached at 4K, where the pixel count is high enough to engage the graphics card more meaningfully. However, even at 4K, the system does not show signs of a hard GPU bottleneck, as the Low preset still achieves 187 FPS, which is far from the GPU's theoretical maximum. The data suggests that the limiting component in this system for Inside is the CPU's single-threaded performance, which prevents the frame rate from scaling linearly with the GPU's immense power. The resolution scaling results indicate that players would see the most benefit from this GPU at 4K, where it is more fully utilized, but the overall frame rates remain exceptionally high at all resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 2 architecture, plays a crucial role in this system's performance in Inside. The CPU's base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz, combined with a 32 MB L3 cache, provide decent single-threaded performance, but the data suggests that it is not enough to fully unlock the RTX 4090's potential. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a single-thread score of 2656 in Passmark and 204 in Cinebench R15, are respectable but not exceptional compared to modern rivals.

The nearest rivals to the Ryzen 7 3700X include the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 and Intel Core i5-13450HX, which have nearly identical average benchmark scores (34222 and 34333, respectively) with delta percentages of 0.1% and -0.2%. This indicates that the Ryzen 7 3700X is competitive with newer mid-range processors in synthetic benchmarks, but its real-world gaming performance in CPU-bound scenarios may lag behind due to architectural differences. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs is solid, but for a game like Inside that relies heavily on a single main thread for game logic, the IPC (instructions per clock) of Zen 2 is a limiting factor.

The measured FPS data demonstrates the CPU's influence. At 1080p Low, the frame rate of 243 FPS is likely close to the CPU's maximum output for this game, as the GPU is not being stressed at all. The fact that the 4K Low preset still achieves 187 FPS, which is only 23% lower than 1080p Low, suggests that the CPU is the bottleneck in both scenarios. If the GPU were the bottleneck, the 4K frame rate would be much lower relative to 1080p. The CPU's 16 threads are largely irrelevant for this game, as it does not scale well across multiple cores; instead, the single-threaded performance and memory latency are the key factors.

The CPU's 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth is sufficient for the game's data requirements, but the Zen 2 architecture's relatively lower IPC compared to newer Zen 4 or Intel Raptor Lake parts means that the CPU cannot feed the GPU quickly enough to achieve frame rates above 250 FPS. The data shows that the system is CPU-limited at all resolutions, with the GPU having significant headroom. This is not a negative reflection on the Ryzen 7 3700X, as it is a capable processor, but it highlights that for a game like Inside, a newer CPU with higher single-thread performance would allow the RTX 4090 to achieve even higher frame rates, particularly at lower resolutions.