Inside

# Inside — AMD Ryzen 7 5800X + AMD Radeon RX 9070

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 delivers a formidable experience in Inside, a Puzzle Platformer released in July 2016. The measured data shows this combination ranks 498th out of 1671 tested combos, placing it in the top 30% of all configurations. With frame rates ranging from 95.4 FPS at 4K Ultra to 315.1 FPS at 1080p Low, this system demonstrates exceptional headroom for a game of this era, but the scaling patterns reveal interesting bottlenecks that warrant closer examination.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Ryzen 7 5800X brings 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture (codename Vermeer), operating at a 3.80 GHz base clock and boosting to 4.70 GHz. This 7 nm desktop processor, released in November 2020 with a launch MSRP of $449, sits at the 84th percentile among all CPUs in the database. Its benchmark scores paint a picture of a chip that is thoroughly overqualified for Inside's demands — the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23,571 and single-core score of 3,327 suggest processing capability far beyond what a 2D side-scrolling puzzle platformer requires.

What the data implies is that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor in this configuration. The 3DMark scores are revealing: single-thread performance at 943, scaling to 7,578 at max threads. This scaling pattern shows strong multi-threading efficiency, but Inside's workload — at 1080p Low, the system achieves 315.1 FPS — suggests the game engine simply cannot saturate the 5800X's capabilities. The nearest CPU rivals reinforce this: the Ryzen 7 5800 scores within 0.3% (27,535 vs 27,606 average), while the Intel Core i7-13700H trails by just 0.4% (27,716 average). These deltaPct values are so small that CPU choice becomes nearly irrelevant for this title.

The 5800X's single-thread performance (Cinebench R20 single-core score of 1,397, PassMark single-thread score of 3,445) is more relevant to Inside's logic and physics updates. However, even at 4K Ultra where the GPU is most stressed, the system still produces 95.4 FPS — a figure that suggests the CPU is comfortably feeding the GPU without becoming a bottleneck. The 32 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (51.2 GB/s bandwidth) provide ample memory bandwidth for the game's modest data requirements.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip, manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth — enormously overprovisioned for Inside, which is not a graphically demanding title by modern standards. The GPU's 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 128 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s. With a boost clock of 2520 MHz and a game clock of 2070 MHz, this card (launch MSRP 549 USD) ranks at the 79th percentile among all GPUs.

The benchmark data shows the RX 9070's raw compute strength: 36.13 TFLOPS FP32 performance and a PassMark G3D score of 25,381. Yet the nearest rivals in the GPU comparison table are surprising — the NVIDIA A2 (0.2% lower average score), Quadro GV100 (0.3% higher), and even the ancient AMD Radeon HD 7970 (0.7% higher). This clustering around a 34,500-34,900 average score range suggests that for Inside specifically, the RX 9070's massive compute resources are barely tapped. The game's 2D rendering style and simple geometry mean the GPU spends most of its time idling, with frame rates limited by engine-level synchronization rather than pixel throughput.

At 4K Ultra, the RX 9070 produces 95.4 FPS — a respectable figure for a game from 2016, but the incremental gains from lowering settings reveal the GPU is not the primary constraint. The 16 GB VRAM is never remotely challenged by Inside's texture requirements, and the 2:1 FP16 ratio (72.25 TFLOPS) suggests the card's compute architecture is optimized for workloads far heavier than this puzzle platformer.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured frame rates across resolutions tell a compelling story about where the bottleneck lies. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the average FPS drops from 219.1 to 158.7 — a 27.6% reduction. Scaling further to 4K High yields 100.6 FPS, a 54.1% drop from 1080p. These are substantial reductions, but they are far less severe than what would occur if the GPU were being pushed to its limits. A GPU-bound scenario typically shows 4K performance at 25-40% of 1080p performance; here, 4K retains 45.9% of 1080p throughput at High settings.

The story is similar across all quality presets. At Low settings, 1080p achieves 315.1 FPS, dropping to 284.6 at 1440p (9.7% reduction) and 194.3 at 4K (38.3% reduction). At Ultra, the progression is 207.4 → 146.1 → 95.4, with the 4K figure representing 46.0% of the 1080p number. These scaling patterns indicate a hybrid bottleneck: at lower resolutions, the CPU or engine limit begins to cap frame rates (note the relatively small 1080p-to-1440p drop at Low settings), while at higher resolutions, the GPU gradually becomes more involved.

The setting-to-setting deltas within each resolution are equally revealing. At 4K, moving from Low (194.3 FPS) to Medium (156.8 FPS) costs 19.3%, then High (100.6 FPS) costs another 35.8%, and Ultra (95.4 FPS) adds a further 5.2% drop. The massive jump from Medium to High suggests a particular rendering feature (perhaps enhanced shadows or post-processing) that disproportionately impacts the RX 9070. At 1080p, the Low-to-240p gap is just 7.6% (315.1 vs 291.1), but High takes a 24.7% hit (219.1), indicating that resolution matters less than specific quality toggles.

FAQ

*Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5800X sufficient for Inside at high frame rates?*

A: Yes, the data shows the CPU is more than adequate. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 315.1 FPS, and even at 4K Ultra it maintains 95.4 FPS. The 5800X's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23,571 and 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicate it has far more processing headroom than Inside requires.

*Q: How does the RX 9070's 16 GB VRAM affect performance in Inside?*

A: The 16 GB GDDR6 memory is vastly overprovisioned for this title. Inside's simple 2D art style and modest texture sizes never come close to exhausting even a fraction of the 644.6 GB/s bandwidth or 16 GB capacity. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 25,381 confirms it operates well within its comfort zone.

Q: Which resolution offers the best balance of visual quality and frame rate?

A: The 1440p Medium preset delivers 247.0 FPS, which is 90% of the 1080p Medium performance (291.1 FPS) while providing significantly more pixels. This represents the most efficient scaling point in the measured data, as the 1440p-to-4K jump at Medium incurs a 36.5% penalty for only 2.25x the pixel count.

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so much between Medium and High settings?

A: At 4K, the drop from Medium (156.8 FPS) to High (100.6 FPS) is a 35.8% reduction, which is disproportionately large compared to other setting transitions. This suggests a specific rendering feature enabled at High that heavily taxes the RX 9070's pixel rate (322.6 GPixel/s), likely volumetric effects or advanced shading.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: This pairing ranks 498th out of 1,671 tested combos, placing it in the 70th percentile of all systems. Given that Inside is not a demanding title, this ranking reflects the hardware's general capabilities rather than any specific optimization for the game.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 4K Ultra?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K Ultra. The 95.4 FPS result, combined with the 46.0% performance retention from 1080p Ultra, shows classic GPU-bound scaling. The CPU's 3DMark max-thread score of 7,578 demonstrates ample processing capacity that remains underutilized.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p (1920x1080):

• Low: 315.1 FPS average — the highest measured result across all configurations
• Medium: 291.1 FPS — a 7.6% reduction from Low, indicating minimal cost for moderate quality improvements
• High: 219.1 FPS — a 24.7% drop from Medium, reflecting a significant quality setting threshold
• Ultra: 207.4 FPS — only 5.3% below High, suggesting diminishing returns at the top preset

1440p (2560x1440):

• Low: 284.6 FPS — retains 90.3% of the 1080p Low performance
• Medium: 247.0 FPS — a 13.2% reduction from Low, less severe than at 1080p
• High: 158.7 FPS — a substantial 35.7% drop from Medium, emphasizing the High-setting cost
• Ultra: 146.1 FPS — 7.9% below High, continuing the trend of small Ultra premiums

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 194.3 FPS — still far above 60 FPS, showing the GPU's headroom even at maximum resolution
• Medium: 156.8 FPS — a 19.3% reduction from Low, the smallest Medium penalty across resolutions
• High: 100.6 FPS — a major 35.8% drop, the most significant single-setting penalty in the dataset
• Ultra: 95.4 FPS — just 5.2% below High, the smallest Ultra premium measured

Settings Recommendations

The measured data strongly favors Medium settings as the optimal balance point for this configuration. At 4K Medium, the system delivers 156.8 FPS — comfortably above 144 Hz refresh rates and 61.4% faster than 4K High. The jump to High costs 35.8% performance at 4K, which is an enormous price for what is likely a marginal visual improvement in a game with Inside's minimalist aesthetic. At 1440p, Medium produces 247.0 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of virtually all gaming monitors, making High settings (158.7 FPS) only worth considering if the display can exploit the extra frames.

For players prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, Ultra at 1440p (146.1 FPS) remains viable, but the data shows Ultra provides only 7.9% more performance cost than High at that resolution — suggesting the Ultra preset adds little beyond High. At 1080p, even Ultra achieves 207.4 FPS, so any preset is playable; however, the Medium preset's 291.1 FPS represents the best efficiency point, delivering 92.4% of Low's performance while offering superior image quality. The 4K Ultra result of 95.4 FPS is still above 60 FPS, but the 39.4% performance gap between Medium and Ultra at this resolution makes Medium the clear recommendation for 4K displays.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Ryzen 7 5800X and Radeon RX 9070 achieves a rank of 498 out of 1,671 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the top 29.8% of all systems. This ranking is noteworthy because Inside is a lightweight title from 2016, yet the combo still sits below the top quartile — a signal of how many higher-end configurations exist in the database. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking (versus all CPUs) and the GPU's 79th percentile ranking suggest both components are above-average performers, but their combined rank of 498 indicates that the game's modest requirements allow even mid-range hardware to compete closely.

The deltaPct values for both components' nearest rivals are remarkably small — all within ±0.8% — which explains why this combo doesn't rank higher. The CPU's closest competitor, the Ryzen 7 5800, scores within 0.3%, while the GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA A2, is just 0.2% off. This clustering means that in a game like Inside, where neither component is pushed to its limits, the difference between a 498th-place finish and a top-400 finish could come down to driver overhead or background system activity rather than raw hardware capability.

The data suggests that for Inside specifically, this combo's ranking is more a function of the game's low system requirements than any weakness in the components. The 5800X's single-thread performance (3,327 Cinebench R23) and the RX 9070's raw throughput (36.13 TFLOPS FP32) place both parts well above the median in their respective categories, yet the game simply cannot leverage this power fully. The 498th rank represents a realistic assessment of how this hardware handles a modest workload — it is excellent, but not exceptional, because the game leaves most of the hardware's capability untapped.