Inside

Inside is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer that is far more demanding than its minimalist aesthetic suggests, particularly when paired with an older graphics card like the AMD Radeon RX 580. The benchmark data for this combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D and the RX 580 reveals a configuration that is heavily constrained by the GPU at higher resolutions, while the CPU's strength becomes apparent only at 1080p. The measured frame rates show a wide performance gulf between the game's presets, making settings selection critical for a smooth experience.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and clearly indicates that the AMD Radeon RX 580 is the limiting component in this pairing. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 73.4 FPS at 1920x1080 to 55.1 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 25%. Pushing further to 3840x2160, the average drops to 33 FPS, which is less than half of the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario, where the processor has ample headroom but the graphics card's pixel throughput capabilities are exhausted.

The trend is even more pronounced at the Ultra preset. The system manages 72.4 FPS at 1080p, which is only slightly below the High preset score, suggesting the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at this resolution. However, at 1440p, Ultra dips to 48.6 FPS, and at 4K, it collapses to 31.9 FPS. The delta between the 1080p and 4K Ultra results is a 56% performance loss. This demonstrates that the Polaris 20 GPU, with its 32 ROPs and 256-bit memory bus, simply cannot sustain the fill rate demands of 4K with the game's heavier visual effects enabled.

Interestingly, the scaling from 1440p to 4K is more brutal than from 1080p to 1440p. For example, on Medium settings, the transition from 1080p (121.7 FPS) to 1440p (85.6 FPS) loses 36.1 FPS, while the move from 1440p to 4K (56.1 FPS) loses 29.5 FPS. This indicates that while the resolution increase is taxing, the RX 580's memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s becomes a bottleneck as the pixel count grows. The data suggests that 1080p is the intended resolution for this GPU in this title, as it is the only resolution where all presets remain playable.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark database places this specific CPU-GPU combination at rank 1555 out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the bottom 7% of all configurations, which is a low position but not surprising given the age of the graphics card. The GPU's percentile ranking versus all GPUs is 53, meaning it is exactly in the middle of the pack. However, the combo's rank is much lower, suggesting that the pairing is not optimized for this specific game's engine.

The CPU, however, is a strong performer. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D sits in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs and has an average benchmark score of 24673. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core i7-1360P (deltaPct of 0.2), the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D (deltaPct of 0.3), and the Intel Core i5-11600 (deltaPct of 0.5). These are all within a 0.5% performance margin, indicating the 5700X3D is a top-tier processor for gaming workloads. The GPU's average score of 13559 puts it just 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 and 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 455.

The discrepancy between the CPU's high standing and the combo's low rank is the story here. The data shows a massive imbalance: a processor that can compete with modern mid-range chips is shackled to a graphics card that is end-of-life. In a game like Inside, which relies more on shader complexity than draw calls, the RX 580's 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 performance becomes the ceiling. The combo rank of 1555 reflects that this pairing leaves significant CPU performance on the table.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the decisive factor in these results. The card features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, with a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz. Its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. For a game released in 2016, this hardware should be sufficient, but the measured data shows it struggling at higher resolutions.

The GPU's clock speeds are relatively modest by modern standards, and the boost clock of 1340 MHz is not significantly higher than the base. This means the card cannot dynamically ramp up performance to compensate for the 4K workload. The memory clock of 2000 MHz (or 8 Gbps effective) is also a limiting factor. In the Ultra preset at 4K, the average FPS of 31.9 is barely above playable, and the drop from Medium (56.1 FPS) to High (33 FPS) at 4K shows that the GPU's fill rate is severely taxed by the higher-quality shadows and post-processing effects.

The RX 580's DirectX 12 support (12_0) is used by the game, and the PassMark DirectX 12 score of 43 is low, but that benchmark does not directly translate to in-game performance. The data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck in every resolution above 1080p. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 147.7 FPS, which is high enough to suggest that the CPU is starting to become a factor, but even then, the GPU is still the primary limiter. The 8 GB of VRAM is not a concern here, as the game's textures are unlikely to exceed that capacity even at 4K, but the raw compute power is insufficient.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend entirely on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For a smooth 60 FPS experience, the data shows that 1080p Medium is the safest choice, delivering 121.7 FPS. This provides a significant headroom over the 60 FPS target and ensures that any sudden on-screen action does not cause a noticeable stutter. If a higher visual quality is desired, 1080p High at 73.4 FPS is also viable, but it leaves less margin for error.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more difficult. The High preset yields 55.1 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target. Dropping to Medium yields 85.6 FPS, which is comfortable. Therefore, the data recommends 1440p Medium as the best balance between visual fidelity and performance. The Ultra preset is not recommended at 1440p, as its 48.6 FPS average is below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

For 4K gaming, the data is clear: only the Low preset (67.1 FPS) provides a playable frame rate. The Medium preset at 56.1 FPS might be acceptable for some, but it is borderline. High and Ultra at 4K are not viable, with averages of 33 FPS and 31.9 FPS respectively. The recommendation is to stick with 1080p for the best experience, or to lower the resolution to 1440p and use Medium settings if a larger display is preferred. The data indicates that the RX 580 is best suited for 1080p Medium or High in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured results shows a clear pattern. At 1920x1080, the system produces 147.7 FPS on Low, 121.7 FPS on Medium, 73.4 FPS on High, and 72.4 FPS on Ultra. The small delta between High and Ultra (1 FPS) suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not heavily GPU-intensive at this resolution, or that the CPU is beginning to limit the frame rate. At 2560x1440, the scores are 109.8 FPS (Low), 85.6 FPS (Medium), 55.1 FPS (High), and 48.6 FPS (Ultra). The gap between Low and Medium narrows at higher resolutions, reinforcing the GPU bottleneck.

At 3840x2160, the results are 67.1 FPS (Low), 56.1 FPS (Medium), 33 FPS (High), and 31.9 FPS (Ultra). The jump from Low to Medium at 4K costs 11 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High costs 23.1 FPS. This indicates that the High preset introduces a specific rendering feature that is disproportionately expensive at 4K. The Ultra preset's cost over High is minimal (1.1 FPS), suggesting that the GPU is already saturated. The data consistently shows that the RX 580 can handle the game at 1080p with ease, but struggles to maintain a playable frame rate at 4K unless all settings are turned down to Low. The CPU's high single-thread performance, evidenced by its 3dmark single-thread score of 804, is not enough to overcome the GPU's limitations.