Inside

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 delivers a surprisingly playable experience in Inside, though the data reveals a system that is heavily constrained by the GPU at higher resolutions. This combination demonstrates how a strong CPU can prop up an aging graphics card, but the benchmark results also show clear limits that dictate the best settings for smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a stark and predictable drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 150 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 108 FPS, a 28% reduction, and at 4K Low it falls to 68 FPS, which is a 55% reduction from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that the RX 580 is the primary limiting factor; the pixel throughput demand at higher resolutions overwhelms the GPU’s capabilities, while the CPU has ample headroom to keep up.

The trend becomes even more telling at higher settings. With High settings, the average FPS goes from 75 at 1080p to 54 at 1440p (a 28% drop) and then to 34 at 4K (a 55% drop from 1080p). The consistency of these percentage drops across different quality presets strongly suggests that the bottleneck is the GPU’s fillrate and memory bandwidth, not the CPU’s processing power. The 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on the RX 580 is sufficient for this game, but the 256.0 GB/s bandwidth and 32 ROPs struggle to push the larger frame buffers required at 4K.

What is particularly interesting is the fact that the FPS does not halve when going from 1080p to 4K, which would be the case if the GPU were the sole bottleneck. At Low settings, 1080p yields 150 FPS while 4K yields 68 FPS, a ratio of 2.2x. This indicates that while the GPU is the primary constraint, the CPU is not entirely idle. The Ryzen 7 5800X’s high single-thread performance helps mitigate some of the overhead at 1080p, allowing for very high frame rates that the GPU can just barely feed. At 4K, the CPU has more time to prepare frames, so the GPU’s raw pixel-pushing ability becomes the absolute wall.

The data also shows that the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens with resolution. At 1080p, Low (150 FPS) to Ultra (71 FPS) is a 53% performance penalty. At 4K, the same comparison shows Low (68 FPS) to Ultra (32 FPS) is a 53% penalty as well. This consistency implies that the visual features enabled by higher settings (likely shadows, post-processing, and texture filtering) impose a similar relative cost regardless of resolution, but the absolute cost is higher when the GPU is already saturated.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested hardware combinations for Inside, this pairing sits near the bottom, ranked 3386 out of 3716 combos. This places it in the 9th percentile of all tested systems, meaning that roughly 91% of other CPU-GPU pairings deliver higher average frame rates in this title. This low ranking is primarily attributable to the RX 580, which is an older, mid-range GPU that is now end-of-life. The CPU, by contrast, is a high-end desktop part that ranks in the 81st percentile against all CPUs.

The stark contrast between the CPU’s strong percentile (81) and the GPU’s mediocre one (53) illustrates a significant imbalance. The Ryzen 7 5800X has the raw processing power to drive far more capable graphics cards, but it is being held back by the RX 580. In a game like Inside, which is not particularly demanding on CPU threads, the GPU becomes the sole determinant of performance, dragging the combo’s overall rank down. The data suggests that even a modest GPU upgrade would dramatically improve this system’s standing in this benchmark list, as the CPU would have no trouble feeding a faster card.

The combo’s rank of 3386 out of 3716 is a clear indicator that this is not a balanced pairing for modern gaming, even for an older title like Inside. While the CPU is a top-tier contender from 2020, the GPU is a budget-mainstream part from 2017. The benchmark results confirm that the GPU is the weak link, and the low rank is a direct consequence of that mismatch.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is a 5000 series processor built on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. This CPU is manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC and has a 32 MB L3 cache. For a game like Inside, which is a 2.5D puzzle platformer, the CPU’s role is mostly about maintaining a stable frame pacing and handling game logic, physics, and draw calls.

The benchmark scores for the 5800X show strong single-thread performance, which is critical for gaming. Its 3dmark single-thread score is 943, and its 3dmark 2-thread score is 1846. In Cinebench R23, it scores 1574.5 points in single-core and 15476 in multi-core. The Passmark single-thread score of 3445 is particularly relevant, as it indicates the CPU can process instructions quickly, which helps avoid bottlenecks even when the GPU is outputting very high frame rates at 1080p.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in any of the tested resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system hits 150 FPS, which is a high frame rate that requires a capable CPU to manage. The fact that the FPS at 4K Low (68) is only 45% of the 1080p Low figure, rather than 25%, suggests that the CPU is still providing some benefit at lower resolutions. This is because the 5800X’s high boost clock of 4.70 GHz and 16 threads can handle the per-frame overhead efficiently, even when the GPU is struggling to keep up with pixel counts. The CPU’s 3dmark 16-thread score of 7586 and 8-thread score of 6035 also indicate plenty of multi-threaded headroom, though Inside likely doesn’t utilize all 16 threads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at how this combo performs across a matrix of resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system is largely playable across all settings. Low settings yield an average of 150 FPS, Medium averages 120 FPS with a minimum of 102 FPS and a maximum of 138 FPS, High averages 75 FPS, and Ultra averages 71 FPS. This shows that for smooth 60 FPS gameplay at 1080p, even Ultra settings are achievable, though there is a significant cliff between Medium (120 FPS) and High (75 FPS), suggesting that High enables a demanding feature that halves performance.

At 2560x1440, the performance becomes more constrained. Low settings average 108 FPS, Medium averages 86 FPS with a minimum of 73 FPS and a maximum of 99 FPS, High averages 54 FPS, and Ultra averages 51 FPS. The data indicates that Medium settings are the sweet spot for a stable 60+ FPS experience at 1440p, while High and Ultra will dip below 60 FPS, which may be noticeable in a game that relies on smooth animation for its atmospheric storytelling.

At 3840x2160, the RX 580 begins to struggle. Low settings average 68 FPS, Medium averages 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 62 FPS, High averages 34 FPS, and Ultra averages 32 FPS. Only Low settings provide a consistently playable frame rate above 60 FPS, while Medium is borderline, with the minimum FPS of 46 indicating occasional stutters. High and Ultra are largely unplayable for a smooth experience, as the average frame rate falls well below 60 FPS. For 4K gaming, the data suggests that players must either accept Low settings or lower the resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is a graphics card based on the Polaris 20 chip, using the GCN 4.0 architecture. It is manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries and features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The card has a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz. It comes with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. Its pixel rate is 42.88 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 193.0 GTexel/s, with a peak FP32 performance of 6.175 TFLOPS.

The GPU’s benchmark scores put it in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, which is exactly average. Its Passmark G3D score is 8813, and its 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1005. In Geekbench, it scores 45235 in Metal, 37453 in OpenCL, and 45173 in Vulkan. The nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, which is 0.1% faster, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER, which is 0.4% faster. This places the RX 580 in the same performance tier as those cards, though they are all more modern designs.

For Inside, the GPU’s role is to render the game’s distinctive silhouette art style and 2.5D environments. The data shows that the RX 580’s 8 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor, as the game is not memory-hungry. Instead, the card’s raw compute and memory bandwidth are the constraints. The 32 ROPs are responsible for pixel fillrate, and the 42.88 GPixel/s rate is clearly insufficient for 4K at high settings. The 256.0 GB/s memory bandwidth also becomes a bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the GPU needs to fetch more texture data for larger framebuffers. The boost clock of 1340 MHz is relatively low by modern standards, which limits the card’s ability to sustain high frame rates under load.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo can achieve at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 150 FPS. This is the maximum measured frame rate for this pairing.

Q: Is this combo capable of 60 FPS gameplay at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where it averages 68 FPS. At Medium settings, the average drops to 54 FPS, with a minimum of 46 FPS, so it is not consistently at 60 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU’s performance percentile compare to the GPU’s?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is in the 81st percentile of all CPUs, while the AMD Radeon RX 580 is in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs. This indicates the CPU is far stronger relative to its peers than the GPU.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings average 108 FPS, while Ultra settings average 51 FPS. This represents a 53% reduction in average FPS from Low to Ultra.

Q: What is the combo’s exact rank among all tested systems for this game?

A: This combo is ranked 3386 out of 3716 total tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 9% of all systems tested in Inside.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck this system at 1080p High settings?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the bottleneck. At 1080p High, the average FPS is 75, while at 1080p Low it is 150. The CPU has high single-thread scores (e.g., 3445 in Passmark single-thread), so it is unlikely to be the limiting factor at these frame rates.