Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that, on paper, should not stress modern hardware. Yet, the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination reveals a fascinating scaling curve that defies the simplicity of the genre. The benchmark results indicate a system capable of delivering buttery-smooth frame rates at nearly every resolution, though the drop-off from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about where the performance ceiling lies.

Resolution Scaling

The most striking observation from the measured FPS is the sheer magnitude of the performance cliff when moving from 1440p to 4K. At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 155 FPS at 1920x1080 to 111 FPS at 2560x1440, a 28% reduction. However, the jump to 3840x2160 is far more punishing, as the average plummets to 70 FPS—a 37% loss from the 1440p figure. This non-linear scaling strongly suggests that the GPU is becoming the limiting component at 4K, whereas the CPU has ample headroom at lower resolutions.

The Low settings row provides the clearest evidence of this dynamic. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves a staggering 310 FPS average. At 1440p Low, it still manages 223 FPS, but at 4K Low, it falls to 140 FPS. The fact that even at the lowest graphical preset, 4K performance is less than half of what is seen at 1080p confirms that the RTX 2070 SUPER's rendering throughput—not the Ryzen 7 5800XT's processing power—is the bottleneck. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely being saturated by the sheer pixel count at 3840x2160.

What is particularly intriguing is the scaling between Medium and High settings. At 4K, the gap between Medium (112 FPS) and High (70 FPS) is a massive 42 FPS. This suggests that the High preset introduces a specific rendering feature or shader complexity that disproportionately impacts the GPU. The data implies that for this hardware pairing, the jump from Medium to High at 4K is not worth the performance sacrifice, as the visual fidelity gain in a puzzle platformer is unlikely to justify the frame rate penalty.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER holds a combo rank of 2087 out of 3716 tested combos. This places it in the 56th percentile of all system pairings, which is a surprisingly modest position given the individual component scores. The CPU alone sits in the 81st percentile when compared to all processors, while the GPU is in the 65th percentile among graphics cards. The combination of two above-average parts should logically produce a higher overall ranking.

The discrepancy suggests that this game, being a 2D side-scroller at its core, does not fully utilize the multi-threaded capabilities of the 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 5800XT. The CPU's 3dmark_16_threads score of 7683 and 3dmark_single_thread score of 959 indicate strong performance, but the game's engine appears to be limited by single-thread performance or GPU geometry throughput rather than raw core count. The combo rank of 2087 indicates that many other pairings—likely with more powerful GPUs or higher-clocked processors—can achieve better frame rates in this specific title.

The nearest rivals for the CPU include the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H with a deltaPct of 0, meaning these processors have virtually identical average benchmark scores. The GPU's closest competitor is the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, which scores 1% lower. This data suggests that the pairing is well-balanced in terms of synthetic benchmarks, but the in-game rank reveals that balance does not always translate to top-tier gaming performance, particularly in older titles like Inside that may not leverage the full feature set of modern hardware.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience for this system is unequivocally at Medium settings. At 1920x1080 Medium, the combo delivers 248 FPS average with a minimum of 210 FPS and a maximum of 285 FPS. This provides a massive frame rate cushion that ensures no perceptible stutter, even during the game's most visually chaotic moments. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average remains exceptionally high at 178 FPS with a minimum of 151 FPS, which is still well above any display's refresh rate threshold.

For users with 4K displays, Medium is the only sensible choice. The 112 FPS average at 3840x2160 Medium is the only 4K setting that maintains a triple-digit frame rate. The High preset at 4K drops to 70 FPS, which is playable but introduces a noticeable reduction in smoothness compared to the 112 FPS achieved at Medium. The Ultra preset at any resolution is difficult to recommend, as it only provides a 5 FPS improvement over High at 1080p (147 FPS vs 155 FPS is actually a decrease, indicating a possible measurement anomaly) and drops to 67 FPS at 4K.

The Low preset, while achieving the highest frame rates, is unnecessary given the headroom at Medium. At 1080p Low, the system produces 310 FPS, but the visual degradation in a game known for its atmospheric lighting and shadow work is not worth the extra 62 FPS over Medium. The data clearly indicates that Medium offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all three resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a comprehensive view of performance across twelve distinct configurations. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates range from 147 FPS at Ultra to 310 FPS at Low. The Medium preset's minimum of 210 FPS is particularly notable, as it ensures that even the most demanding scenes never dip below the refresh rate of most high-end monitors. The High preset at 155 FPS is also excellent, but the jump to Medium's 248 FPS is substantial enough to warrant the setting change.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales as expected but remains impressive. Low produces 223 FPS, Medium delivers 178 FPS with a minimum of 151 FPS, High achieves 111 FPS, and Ultra drops to 106 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at this resolution is minimal, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not heavily taxing the GPU. However, the 67 FPS difference between Low and Medium indicates that the Medium preset includes significant visual improvements that come at a moderate cost.

At 3840x2160, the data reveals the system's limits. Low still achieves a playable 140 FPS, and Medium maintains a solid 112 FPS with a minimum of 95 FPS. High drops to 70 FPS, and Ultra falls to 67 FPS. The frame rate variance at 4K is also worth noting: the Medium preset shows a spread of 34 FPS (95 to 129), which is nearly double the variance seen at 1080p Medium (75 FPS spread from 210 to 285). This increased variance at 4K is a sign that the GPU is working at its limit, with frame times becoming less consistent under load.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture and features 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation pipelines. Its base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz are modest by modern standards, but the card's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This bandwidth is critical for 4K rendering, as the pixel fill rate of 113.3 GPixel/s and texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s must be fed constantly with data.

The benchmark results show that the GPU's passmark_g3d score of 18169 and passmark_directx_12 score of 67 place it in the 65th percentile of all graphics cards. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, scores only 1% higher on average, indicating that the RTX 2070 SUPER is a solid mid-range performer. However, the 4K High setting (70 FPS) versus 4K Medium (112 FPS) gap suggests that the GPU's 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores—while present—are not being fully utilized by Inside's rendering engine, which likely relies on traditional rasterization techniques.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 9.062 TFLOPS is respectable, but the game's performance at 4K Ultra (67 FPS) is nearly identical to High (70 FPS). This indicates that the Ultra preset does not add substantial computational load beyond what High already requires, or that the GPU is hitting a memory bandwidth wall that additional shader work cannot overcome. The 14 Gbps effective memory clock is fast, but the 256-bit bus width may be the limiting factor at 4K, as the game's textures and frame buffers compete for the same bandwidth.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT is a Zen 3 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 4,150 million transistors on a 7 nm process give it strong single-thread and multi-thread performance, as evidenced by its cinebench_r23_multicore score of 23794 and singlecore score of 3359. The CPU's average benchmark score of 29879 places it in the 81st percentile of all processors.

In the context of Inside's performance, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The massive frame rates at 1080p Low (310 FPS) and 1440p Low (223 FPS) indicate that the CPU can easily feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic updates. The 3dmark_2_threads score of 1879 and 4_threads score of 3603 suggest that the game likely uses only a few threads, meaning the 8-core, 16-thread configuration is largely underutilized. The CPU's passmark_single_thread score of 3535 is strong, but it does not seem to be the primary determinant of performance at higher resolutions.

The nearest CPU rivals, the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H and Ryzen 7 8845HS, both have an average score within 0.3% of the 5800XT. This means that swapping the CPU for a newer mobile part would yield virtually identical gaming performance in Inside. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s via dual-channel DDR4 is adequate for this game, but the fact that 4K performance scales almost entirely with GPU settings suggests that the CPU is never the bottleneck, even at the lowest settings where the GPU is least stressed.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 Medium provides an average of 178 FPS with a minimum of 151 FPS, making it the sweet spot for high refresh rate displays. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 112 FPS, which is still excellent for a puzzle platformer.

Q: Why does the Ultra preset perform worse than High at 1080p?

A: The measured data shows 147 FPS at Ultra versus 155 FPS at High for 1920x1080. This 8 FPS decrease suggests that the Ultra preset may introduce effects that are not optimized for this GPU, or the measurement variance is larger than the difference between the two settings.

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER capable of 4K gaming in this title?

A: Yes, the benchmark results indicate that Medium settings at 3840x2160 achieve 112 FPS average with a 95 FPS minimum. However, High and Ultra settings drop to 70 FPS and 67 FPS respectively, which are less desirable for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT has an average benchmark score of 29879, which is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (29868, 0% delta) and AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (29955, -0.3% delta). The performance difference in gaming is negligible.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at 4K Medium?

A: The measured minimum of 95 FPS and maximum of 129 FPS at 3840x2160 Medium indicates a variance of 34 FPS. This is larger than the variance at lower resolutions, suggesting the GPU is working harder and frame pacing becomes less consistent at 4K.

Q: Does this game utilize the CPU's 16 threads?

A: The CPU's 3dmark_16_threads score of 7683 versus its 2_threads score of 1879 suggests strong multi-threading capability, but the game's performance at low resolutions (310 FPS at 1080p Low) indicates that it does not require more than a few threads to maintain high frame rates.