Inside

# Inside — AMD Ryzen 7 3700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

The pairing of AMD's Ryzen 7 3700X with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 presents a striking contrast in generation and capability, and the measured frame rates in Inside reflect that asymmetry. This 2016 puzzle platformer is not a demanding title by modern standards, yet the data reveals a clear pattern: the RTX 5090 is largely underutilized, while the Ryzen 7 3700X's architectural limits become the governing factor at lower resolutions. The benchmark results show a system that delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested configurations, but the scaling behavior between resolutions and settings indicates a CPU-bound scenario that prevents the GPU from ever approaching its full potential.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a consistent, predictable drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, but the magnitude of that drop is modest compared to what a GPU-bound title would exhibit. At High settings, the average frame rate moves from 187 FPS at 1080p to 168 FPS at 1440p, then down to 144 FPS at 4K. That represents a 23% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is surprisingly small for a GPU of this class. For comparison, a typical GPU-bound scenario would show a much steeper decline, often exceeding 50% when moving from 1080p to 4K.

The Low settings row tells a similar story: 243 FPS at 1080p, 218 FPS at 1440p, and 187 FPS at 4K. The difference between the lowest and highest resolution is only 56 FPS, or roughly 23% — almost identical to the High settings scaling. Medium settings show 224 FPS at 1080p, 201 FPS at 1440p, and 172 FPS at 4K, again a 23% drop. Ultra settings yield 184 FPS at 1080p, 165 FPS at 1440p, and 141 FPS at 4K, with the same relative scaling pattern.

This consistency across all four settings presets is the key diagnostic. When the percentage drop from 1080p to 4K remains nearly constant regardless of graphics quality, it strongly suggests that the limiting factor is not the GPU's fill rate or shader throughput but rather the CPU's ability to feed the render pipeline. The RTX 5090, with its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, is vastly overprovisioned for this game's visual demands. The fact that 4K Ultra still manages 141 FPS average — only 43 FPS below 1080p Low — confirms that the resolution scaling is compressing toward a CPU-imposed ceiling rather than expanding toward a GPU-imposed one.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB202 chip, featuring 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines. Its boost clock of 2407 MHz and base clock of 2017 MHz are high by absolute standards, but in Inside, the GPU's raw specifications are almost irrelevant. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings never exceed 258 FPS (the maximum observed at 1080p Medium), which is far below what this GPU could theoretically produce in a lighter title or at lower settings.

The GPU's memory configuration — 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus delivering 1.79 TB/s — is a clear sign of a top-tier part, yet Inside likely requires only a fraction of that bandwidth and capacity. The game's release date of 2016-07-06 means its texture assets and rendering techniques are from an era when 4 GB of VRAM was considered generous. Consequently, the RTX 5090's 32 GB pool is effectively idle, and the memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) provides no tangible benefit in this title.

What the GPU role analysis reveals is a component operating well within its comfort zone, never taxed by resolution or settings changes. The delta between Low and Ultra at any given resolution is remarkably tight: at 1080p, the spread is 243 FPS to 184 FPS (a 59 FPS gap); at 1440p, it's 218 to 165 (53 FPS); at 4K, it's 187 to 141 (46 FPS). This narrowing of the settings gap as resolution increases is the opposite of what would happen if the GPU were the bottleneck — in a GPU-bound scenario, higher settings would exact a proportionally larger penalty at 4K. Here, the penalty actually shrinks, reinforcing the conclusion that the CPU is the primary constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database's measured combinations, this pairing of AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a combo rank of 1395 out of 3716 tested combinations. That places it in the 62nd percentile of all tested combos, which is a surprisingly modest standing given the caliber of the GPU. The rank reflects the overall balance of the system across multiple games, and in Inside specifically, the data shows why this pairing doesn't climb higher.

The Ryzen 7 3700X's nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark table provide context for its performance tier. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 scores 34,222 in average benchmark score, a delta of 0.1% from the 3700X's 34,260. The AMD EPYC 4244P matches at 34,220 (0.1% delta), while the Intel Core i5-13450HX comes in slightly higher at 34,333 (-0.2% delta, meaning the 3700X is 0.2% behind). The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H trails at 34,083 (0.5% delta, with the 3700X ahead). This cluster of rivals all sit within a 0.7% band, indicating the 3700X is positioned in a crowded mid-range tier of CPU performance.

For the RTX 5090, its nearest rivals are older professional and mobile parts, which speaks to its unique positioning. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB scores 79,605 (0.3% delta), the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB scores 79,396 (0.6% delta), and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT scores 78,940 (1.1% delta). The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X scores 80,959 (-1.4% delta). These comparisons are based on aggregate benchmark scores, not game-specific performance, but they illustrate that the 5090 sits in a performance envelope shared by very different hardware.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the RTX 5090 posts its highest frame rates but also reveals the CPU ceiling most clearly. Low settings deliver 243 FPS average, Medium 224 FPS, High 187 FPS, and Ultra 184 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 191 FPS and maximum of 258 FPS, providing the only min/max range in the 1080p set. The gap between Low and Medium is 19 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 3 FPS — a compression at the top end that suggests diminishing returns from graphics settings once the CPU's frame generation limit is approached.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the same pattern. Low averages 218 FPS, Medium 201 FPS (with a min of 171 and max of 231), High 168 FPS, and Ultra 165 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 53 FPS, slightly tighter than the 59 FPS spread at 1080p. This compression continues the trend of the CPU bottleneck becoming more pronounced as resolution increases, because the GPU has more work per frame but still finishes quickly, waiting on the CPU to submit the next frame.

At 3840x2160, the 4K results show the system still delivers very playable frame rates. Low averages 187 FPS, Medium 172 FPS (with a min of 146 and max of 198), High 144 FPS, and Ultra 141 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is now 46 FPS, the narrowest of all three resolutions. Notably, the 4K Low result (187 FPS) is identical to the 1080p High result (187 FPS), illustrating that the CPU is delivering a consistent frame rate ceiling regardless of what the GPU is asked to render. The 4K Ultra figure of 141 FPS is only 43 FPS below the 1080p Low figure, a remarkably small penalty for a 4x increase in pixel count.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 5090 bottlenecked by the Ryzen 7 3700X in Inside?

A: The data strongly indicates yes. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K shows only a ~23% drop, and the gap between Low and Ultra settings narrows as resolution increases, both classic signs of a CPU-imposed frame rate ceiling.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Inside?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate is 141 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Since higher resolutions do not significantly penalize performance, 4K Ultra is the most visually demanding option that still delivers excellent frame rates.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 3700X compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The 3700X has an average benchmark score of 34,260, which is effectively tied with the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (34,222, 0.1% delta) and AMD EPYC 4244P (34,220, 0.1% delta). It is 0.2% behind the Intel Core i5-13450HX (34,333) and 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (34,083).

Q: What GPU benchmark scores does the RTX 5090 achieve?

A: The RTX 5090 scores 18,355 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 334,370 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 376,728 in Geekbench Vulkan. Its Passmark G3D score is 39,650, and its Passmark GPU Compute score is 26,756.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM matter for Inside?

A: No. Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer with modest texture requirements, so the 32 GB GDDR7 memory pool and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are vastly more than needed. The game's frame rates are limited by the CPU, not by VRAM capacity or bandwidth.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among tested systems?

A: This pairing ranks 1395 out of 3716 tested combinations, placing it in the upper 62% of systems in the database. This is a modest ranking given the GPU's capability, reflecting the CPU's limiting effect on overall system performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is a Zen 2 (Matisse) architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has a 65 W TDP and supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. Its cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and a 32 MB L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 2,092 in Cinebench R15 multi-core, 204 in single-core, 8,899 in Geekbench multi-core, and 1,593 in single-core. Its Passmark multithread score is 22,458, and single-thread score is 2,656.

In Inside, these CPU specifications translate into a hard frame rate ceiling. The game's physics and game logic, running on the 8-core/16-thread processor, appear to be the limiting factor at all tested settings. The fact that 1080p Low (243 FPS) is only 56 FPS higher than 4K Low (187 FPS) indicates that the CPU cannot produce frames faster than roughly 243 FPS even in the best case, and the GPU's rendering speed at 4K Low is still fast enough to hit that CPU ceiling at 187 FPS.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 84 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34,260, places it in the upper tier of processors, but its single-thread performance is modest by 2025 standards. The Passmark single-thread score of 2,656 and Geekbench single-core of 1,593 suggest that per-core performance is not exceptional, which matters for a game like Inside that likely relies on one or two primary threads for its core simulation. This is why the frame rate ceiling is so consistent across resolutions — the CPU's single-thread throughput caps the frame submission rate, and the RTX 5090 is never the limiting component.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the user's display refresh rate and resolution preference. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 224 FPS average with a minimum of 191 FPS, which is the best balance of smoothness and visual quality. The Low preset at 243 FPS offers a marginal 19 FPS improvement but sacrifices visual fidelity. High and Ultra at 1080p (187 and 184 FPS respectively) are both playable, but the 37 FPS gap between Medium and High suggests that Medium provides the best frame rate headroom.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again stands out with 201 FPS average and a minimum of 171 FPS. This is comfortably above 144 Hz refresh rates, making it ideal for high-refresh displays. Low at 218 FPS is faster but visually less appealing, while High (168 FPS) and Ultra (165 FPS) are still well above 144 FPS but offer no tangible benefit over Medium given the CPU's frame rate ceiling.

At 4K, the Ultra preset at 141 FPS is the recommended choice for users with 120 Hz or 144 Hz displays, as it delivers the highest visual quality while staying above 120 FPS. For those with 60 Hz displays, even the 4K Ultra setting at 141 FPS provides massive headroom, and dropping to Low (187 FPS) would only benefit users with 165 Hz or higher refresh rate monitors. The Medium preset at 4K (172 FPS average, 146 FPS minimum) offers a middle ground, but given that Ultra is only 31 FPS slower than Medium, the visual quality gains from Ultra are likely worth the small performance trade-off.

Across all resolutions, the data shows that Medium settings provide the most consistent frame times, as evidenced by the min/max ranges (191-258 at 1080p, 171-231 at 1440p, 146-198 at 4K). The absence of min/max data for Low, High, and Ultra presets limits direct comparison, but the Medium ranges indicate stable frame delivery. For the best experience in Inside, users should select the highest resolution their display supports and use Ultra settings if they have a 120 Hz or 144 Hz monitor, or Medium settings if they prioritize maximum frame rate consistency.