Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that remains remarkably easy to drive, and the data for the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 confirms this is a combination that demolishes the game's demands at every preset. With average frame rates ranging from a low of 145.3 FPS at 4K Ultra to a high of 320.7 FPS at 1080p Low, this system never dips below what would be considered a high refresh rate experience. The measured results show a clear pattern: the RTX 5090 is so powerful that the game's frame rate becomes heavily dependent on the CPU's single-thread performance and the resolution you choose to play at.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Inside with this hardware?

A: The data shows that all tested resolutions are viable. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 145.3, which is still excellent. For maximum smoothness, 1440p High delivers 224.5 FPS, while 1080p Low pushes the average to 320.7 FPS.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between the Low and Ultra presets?

A: The difference is substantial. At 1080p, the Low preset averages 320.7 FPS, while Ultra drops to 247.8 FPS, a reduction of about 23%. At 4K, the gap narrows slightly, with Low at 250.7 FPS and Ultra at 145.3 FPS, a steeper percentage drop of roughly 42%.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 overkill for a game like Inside?

A: The benchmark results indicate yes. Even at the most demanding tested setting (4K Ultra), the average FPS is 145.3. The GPU's percentile ranking of 94 vs all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 84306 are far beyond what this puzzle platformer requires to hit high refresh rates.

Q: Which component is the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p. The frame rate difference between Low (320.7 FPS) and High (251.6 FPS) at 1080p is significant, indicating that the CPU is working hard to feed the GPU. The Ryzen 7 5800XT's single-thread score in 3dmark is 959, and its passmark single-thread score is 3538.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 5800XT compare to its nearest rivals in this test?

A: The Ryzen 7 5800XT has an average benchmark score of 29774, placing it at the 86th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE, has an average score of 29740, a delta of 0.1%. The Ryzen 7 6800HS is slightly ahead with a score of 29856, a delta of -0.3%.

Q: Does the game use many CPU cores?

A: The benchmark results suggest it is not heavily multi-threaded. The CPU's 3dmark score for 2 threads is 1879, while the 8-thread score is 6141. The scaling from 2 to 8 threads is not linear, indicating that the game likely relies more on the performance of fewer, faster cores rather than scaling perfectly across all 8 cores and 16 threads of the Ryzen 7 5800XT.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing. Its specifications are immense: 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. The GPU's boost clock is 2407 MHz, and it houses 21760 shading units. These specs translate to a passmark G3D score of 39650 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 380114, placing it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs.

However, the measured FPS in Inside reveals that this GPU is not being fully utilized. The game is a 2D puzzle platformer, and its visual complexity does not stress the RTX 5090's raw compute power. For instance, at 4K High, the average FPS is 154.6, while at 4K Low, it jumps to 250.7. This suggests that even at 4K, the GPU has significant headroom. The frame rate is more likely bound by how fast the CPU can process game logic and submit draw calls, not by the GPU's ability to render the scene. The GPU is effectively waiting for work, a sign of a CPU bottleneck in a less demanding title.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT plays the critical role of the bottleneck in this scenario. This is a Zen 3 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, a base clock of 3.80 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. Its benchmark scores are strong for a general-purpose CPU, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23794 and a single-core score of 3359. The passmark multithread score is 27988.

Inside's performance is highly sensitive to single-thread performance. This is evident from the FPS differences when the resolution is lowered. At 1080p Low, the system averages 320.7 FPS. When we move to 4K Low, the average drops to 250.7 FPS. The CPU is able to push more frames at 1080p because the GPU is less burdened, but the bottleneck remains. The CPU's 3dmark single-thread score of 959 is a key indicator of its capability here. The data shows that the CPU is the limiting factor, as the massive computational power of the RTX 5090 cannot be fully harnessed because the CPU cannot prepare frames fast enough. The 16 threads are available, but the game seems to rely primarily on the strength of a single core, making the 4.80 GHz boost clock more important than the core count.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are consistently high: 320.7 FPS on Low, 298 FPS on Medium, 251.6 FPS on High, and 247.8 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, we see a notable step down: 288 FPS on Low, 269 FPS on Medium, 224.5 FPS on High, and 216.8 FPS on Ultra. At the demanding 3840x2160 resolution, the averages are 250.7 FPS on Low, 230.9 FPS on Medium, 154.6 FPS on High, and 145.3 FPS on Ultra.

Several patterns emerge from this data. First, the frame rate drop from Low to Ultra is significant at every resolution, but the absolute numbers remain high, all above 145 FPS. Second, the difference between the High and Ultra presets is relatively small, with a delta of only 3.8 FPS at 1080p and 9.3 FPS at 4K. This suggests that the Ultra preset is only slightly more demanding than High. Third, the most significant performance hit comes from the jump in resolution, particularly from 1440p to 4K. The data suggests that the RTX 5090 is capable of maintaining high frame rates, but the CPU becomes a limiting factor at lower resolutions, preventing the frame rate from scaling linearly with the GPU's power.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the nature of the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 320.7. At 1440p Low, it drops to 288 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls to 250.7 FPS. This is a decrease of 10.2% from 1080p to 1440p and another 12.9% from 1440p to 4K. In contrast, if the GPU were the sole bottleneck, we would expect a much more dramatic drop, as the pixel count increases by 2.25x from 1080p to 1440p and 4x from 1080p to 4K.

The relatively modest FPS drop when scaling resolution indicates that the CPU is the primary limiting factor, especially at 1080p. The CPU is likely maxed out at around 320 FPS, and increasing the resolution only slightly reduces its load while significantly increasing the GPU's. The RTX 5090 is so powerful that even at 4K, it is not the limiting component, as evidenced by the 250.7 FPS at 4K Low. This is a classic case of a high-end GPU being paired with a capable but not top-tier CPU, resulting in a CPU bottleneck in less graphically intensive games like Inside. The data clearly shows that the frame rate is not scaling with resolution in a way that would indicate a GPU limit.

Settings Recommendations

Given that the lowest average frame rate recorded across all tested settings and resolutions is 145.3 FPS at 4K Ultra, the RTX 5090 and Ryzen 7 5800XT combination can handle even the most demanding preset in Inside without dropping below high refresh rate territory. The data shows that the Ultra preset offers a marginal average FPS improvement over High, but the difference is negligible. At 1440p, the Ultra preset averages 216.8 FPS, while High averages 224.5 FPS, a difference of only 7.7 FPS. At 4K, the gap is slightly larger, with Ultra at 145.3 FPS and High at 154.6 FPS.

For players with a 1440p or 4K monitor with a refresh rate of 144Hz or higher, the Ultra preset is the clear recommendation. The system maintains an average FPS well above 144 at both resolutions. Even at 4K Ultra, the 145.3 FPS average is just above the 144Hz threshold. If a player has a 240Hz monitor, the data suggests that the High preset at 1440p, with its 224.5 FPS average, is the best choice to maximize smoothness. The Low preset provides the highest frame rates, but the graphical fidelity loss is unnecessary given the hardware's capability. The practical advice is to use the Ultra preset for the best visual experience, as the performance cost is minimal, and the system never falls below a playable threshold.