Inside

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers exceptional performance in Inside, a puzzle platformer with modest graphical demands. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings are extremely high, indicating that this combination is far more powerful than the game requires. The data shows a system that is entirely GPU-bound at lower resolutions but transitions to a more balanced load as resolution increases, though even at 4K, the frame rates remain far above the threshold for smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial but follows a predictable curve, revealing how the workload shifts between the CPU and GPU. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 234.3 FPS. Moving to 1440p reduces this to 176.1 FPS, a 24.8% decrease, and at 4K, the frame rate falls to 112.7 FPS, a 51.9% drop from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is playing a more significant role, as the GPU has ample headroom to render frames quickly. The 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 5700, with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, provides sufficient single-thread performance to keep up with the GPU’s output at this resolution.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is less severe, with a 36.0% reduction in frame rate, suggesting the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor. The RX 7900 XT, with its 5376 shading units and a boost clock of 2394 MHz, is nonetheless powerful enough to maintain over 100 FPS at 4K High. The Ultra preset shows a similar trend: 230.5 FPS at 1080p, 166.5 FPS at 1440p, and 105.6 FPS at 4K. The consistent drop across settings indicates that the game’s rendering load scales uniformly with resolution, and the system’s performance is not bottlenecked by any single component in a way that would cause erratic frame pacing.

The most telling data point for resolution scaling is the Low preset, where the frame rates are exceptionally high: 302 FPS at 1080p, 268.1 FPS at 1440p, and 223.3 FPS at 4K. The relatively small drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings (26.1%) compared to the High preset (51.9%) suggests that the CPU is more involved when the GPU is less stressed. At Low settings, the GPU has even more headroom, and the CPU’s 16 threads are better utilized. This pattern is typical for a game like Inside, which has a fixed camera perspective and limited draw distance, placing a lower burden on the GPU than a 3D open-world title. The benchmark results indicate that this combo is overkill for the game, with the GPU rarely being fully utilized even at 4K Ultra.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data allows for clear settings recommendations based on the user’s display refresh rate and preference for visual fidelity. At 1080p, every preset delivers frame rates well above 200 FPS, so the choice comes down to visual quality. The Ultra preset, at 230.5 FPS, provides the highest visual fidelity with only a 6.3% performance cost compared to High (234.3 FPS). There is no reason to select Medium (280.7 FPS) or Low (302 FPS) at this resolution, as the Ultra preset still offers a frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end monitors.

At 1440p, the Ultra preset yields 166.5 FPS, which is still exceptionally smooth for a puzzle platformer. The step down to High (176.1 FPS) offers a modest 5.8% performance increase but a noticeable reduction in shadow quality and post-processing effects. Given the genre’s emphasis on atmospheric lighting and subtle visual details, the Ultra preset is the recommended choice for 1440p, as the performance difference is negligible in real-world terms. The Medium preset (248 FPS) and Low preset (268.1 FPS) provide no tangible benefit unless the user is targeting a 240Hz monitor, but the visual compromise is significant for a game that relies on its art direction.

At 4K, the Ultra preset drops to 105.6 FPS, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and suitable for a 120Hz display. The High preset (112.7 FPS) is only 6.7% faster, so the Ultra preset remains the better choice for visual quality. The Medium preset (178.4 FPS) and Low preset (223.3 FPS) are unnecessary, as the game’s art style benefits from higher shadow resolution and ambient occlusion, which are typically reduced at those settings. The data suggests that the Ultra preset is the optimal choice across all resolutions, as the performance cost is minimal relative to the visual fidelity gains. For users with a 144Hz monitor at 4K, the High preset offers a more comfortable margin above 144 FPS, but the difference between Ultra and High is unlikely to be perceptible in a game with Inside’s slow pacing.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT ranks 406th out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the top 24.3% of all configurations, which is a strong showing given the game’s age and relatively low system requirements. The rank is heavily influenced by the GPU’s raw performance, as the RX 7900 XT is a high-end card that excels in both compute and rasterization workloads. The CPU’s contribution is secondary, but the Ryzen 7 5700’s 16 threads and 16 MB of L3 cache ensure that it does not hold back the GPU in this title.

The combo’s rank is notable considering the game’s release date, as newer titles often favor more recent architectures. The RX 7900 XT, with its RDNA 3.0 architecture and 20 GB of GDDR6 memory, provides ample bandwidth (800.0 GB/s) for the game’s texture streaming. The CPU, while not the newest generation, offers a boost clock of 4.60 GHz and a strong single-thread score of 2916 in Cinebench R23, which is sufficient for the game’s logic and physics calculations. The rank of 406 may seem modest, but it reflects the fact that Inside is not a demanding title, and many lower-end GPUs can achieve high frame rates, narrowing the performance gap between top-tier and mid-range hardware.

Compared to the CPU’s nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 5700 is on par with the Intel Core i9-9900K (0.7% delta) and Intel Core i7-12700H (0.8% delta). This means that the CPU is not a differentiator in this combo; the GPU is the primary driver of the 406th rank. The RX 7900 XT’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (0.0% delta) and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (0.6% delta), indicating that the GPU’s performance is comparable to top-tier laptop parts. This suggests that the combo’s rank is limited by the game’s engine, which cannot fully utilize the hardware’s potential, rather than any deficiency in the components themselves.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates are consistent across all nine combinations of resolution and settings, with no anomalous dips or spikes. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 302 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate in the entire dataset. The Medium preset follows at 280.7 FPS, High at 234.3 FPS, and Ultra at 230.5 FPS. The performance difference between Low and Ultra is 23.7%, which is relatively small, indicating that the game’s graphical settings have a limited impact on GPU load. This is expected for a game with a simple 2D side-scrolling perspective and limited particle effects.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a more pronounced difference between presets. The Low preset achieves 268.1 FPS, Medium 248 FPS, High 176.1 FPS, and Ultra 166.5 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 29.0%, which is larger than the gap between Low and Medium (7.5%). This suggests that the High preset introduces features like higher-resolution shadows and improved lighting that disproportionately affect performance. The Ultra preset adds only 5.8% more cost over High, making it a worthwhile upgrade for visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are still highly playable but show the greatest sensitivity to settings. The Low preset achieves 223.3 FPS, Medium 178.4 FPS, High 112.7 FPS, and Ultra 105.6 FPS. The drop from Low to High is 49.5%, which is substantial, but the absolute frame rates are still more than adequate for a smooth experience. The Ultra preset is only 6.3% slower than High, reinforcing the recommendation to use Ultra for the best visual experience. The data shows no frame time inconsistencies, as the minimum and maximum FPS are not reported, but the average FPS values are stable enough to assume consistent performance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT plays the dominant role in this combo’s performance, as evidenced by the frame rates scaling with resolution. The GPU’s 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s, which is more than sufficient for Inside’s texture assets. The game’s art style uses a limited color palette and simple textures, so the VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor at any resolution or setting. The GPU’s boost clock of 2394 MHz and game clock of 2025 MHz are high for a RDNA 3.0 part, and the 5376 shading units ensure that the card can handle the game’s pixel shader workload without breaking a sweat.

The GPU’s raw compute power, rated at 51.48 TFLOPS FP32, is far beyond what Inside requires, but it contributes to the high frame rates at 4K. The card’s 192 ROPs and 336 TMUs are also well-suited for the game’s resolution scaling, as they allow for efficient pixel fill and texture filtering. The GPU’s DirectX 12 Ultimate support and 12_2 feature level are irrelevant for this game, as Inside was released in 2016 and likely uses DirectX 11 or OpenGL, but the card’s backward compatibility ensures no performance penalties.

The GPU’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile, has an identical average benchmark score (0.0% delta), indicating that the RX 7900 XT is at the top of its class. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 82 places it above 82% of all GPUs in the database, which aligns with the combo’s overall rank. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU’s performance is not constrained by the CPU, as the Ryzen 7 5700 is powerful enough to feed the GPU at all resolutions. The GPU’s 300 W TDP and dual-slot cooler are more than adequate for the game’s load, as the card is unlikely to reach its thermal limits in a title with such low GPU utilization.