Inside

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 delivers extraordinary frame rates in Inside, a Puzzle Platformer from 2016. This combination ranks 39th out of 1671 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.3% of all systems. The measured data reveals a setup that is heavily GPU-limited at lower resolutions, with the CPU becoming increasingly relevant as resolution scales down.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals a clear bottleneck shift. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 370.6 FPS, but at 4K Low, it falls to 284.8 FPS — a 23.1% reduction. This relatively modest drop for a 4x pixel increase suggests the GPU is not being fully saturated at 1080p; the CPU is holding the system back from reaching even higher frame rates.

The scaling pattern becomes more telling at High settings. At 1080p High, the system hits 285.9 FPS, while 1440p High delivers 241.4 FPS, and 4K High drops to 153.1 FPS. The 1440p to 4K transition shows a 36.6% performance loss, which is closer to what pure pixel-count scaling would predict. This indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor, while at 1080p, the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are struggling to feed the RTX 5090 fast enough.

Ultra settings tell a similar story. Moving from 1080p Ultra (282.3 FPS) to 1440p Ultra (229.6 FPS) costs 18.7% performance, but jumping to 4K Ultra (143.5 FPS) costs another 37.5%. The data suggests that Inside's rendering engine scales predictably with pixel count once the GPU is fully engaged, but at 1080p, the CPU's single-thread performance — a 3dmark single-thread score of 1049 — becomes the ceiling.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is far beyond what Inside requires. The measured FPS data shows no signs of VRAM capacity limiting performance, even at 4K Ultra. The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate are more than sufficient for this title's puzzle-platformer visuals.

The clock behavior is noteworthy. With a base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz, the RTX 5090 maintains high utilization across all tested settings. The data shows that at Low settings, the GPU is rarely the bottleneck — the 370.6 FPS at 1080p Low versus 335.5 FPS at 1440p Low (a 9.5% drop) suggests the GPU has headroom even at 1440p. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 39650 places it in the 94th percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 84306 is 0.1% higher than the RTX 5090 D, its closest rival.

However, the GPU's 94th percentile ranking and massive memory bandwidth don't translate into proportionally massive FPS gains in Inside. The game appears to be relatively lightweight, with the GPU only becoming the primary limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where it still manages 143.5 FPS — far above playable thresholds.

FAQ

Q: Why does the FPS gap between Low and Ultra settings shrink as resolution increases?

A: At 1080p, Low delivers 370.6 FPS while Ultra delivers 282.3 FPS — a 23.8% gap. At 4K, the gap narrows to 49.6% (284.8 vs 143.5 FPS). Higher resolutions increase GPU load, making the GPU the bottleneck, which compresses the relative difference between settings.

Q: Is the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM necessary for this game?

A: The data shows no VRAM-related performance cliffs. Inside runs at 143.5 FPS minimum across all tested configurations, indicating the 32 GB memory pool is vastly more than required. The game's visuals are simple enough that even 8 GB would likely suffice, though the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth helps maintain consistent frame pacing.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threading affect performance at 1080p?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700's 8 cores and 16 threads produce a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29302, placing it in the 91st percentile of CPUs. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 370.6 FPS, but this is likely near the CPU's limit for frame generation, as the GPU could theoretically push higher.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: At 1440p, the system delivers 229.6 FPS at Ultra and 335.5 FPS at Low. This resolution balances GPU utilization without CPU bottlenecking, offering the highest frame rates while still exercising the RTX 5090's capabilities.

Q: How does this combo compare to the GPU's nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 84306 is 0.1% higher than the RTX 5090 D and 0.2% higher than the RTX 5050 Mobile. However, the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are significantly larger than what those rivals offer, even if the benchmark scores are similar.

Q: Does the CPU's single-thread performance limit 4K Ultra?

A: No. At 4K Ultra, the system produces 143.5 FPS, which is likely GPU-limited. The CPU's single-thread score of 1049 in 3dmark is sufficient for this resolution, as the GPU's rendering load dominates the frame time.

Settings Recommendations

The data shows that Ultra settings provide diminishing returns over High. At 1080p, High delivers 285.9 FPS versus Ultra's 282.3 FPS — a negligible 1.3% difference. At 1440p, the gap widens slightly to 4.9% (241.4 vs 229.6 FPS), while at 4K, Ultra costs 6.3% performance compared to High (153.1 vs 143.5 FPS).

For the best experience, High settings at 1440p offer the ideal balance. The system produces 241.4 FPS at this configuration, which is 57.6% higher than 4K High and only 15.6% lower than 1080p High. Given that Inside is a puzzle platformer with atmospheric visuals, the visual difference between High and Ultra is likely minor, while the 4K Ultra mode at 143.5 FPS remains perfectly playable on high-refresh displays.

Medium settings provide a middle ground, delivering 346 FPS at 1080p and 309.2 FPS at 1440p. These numbers suggest Medium is the "sweet spot" for competitive frame rates, but High at 1440p offers a better trade-off between visual fidelity and performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 39th out of 1671 tested combinations, placing it in the top 2.3% of all systems tested. This ranking is remarkably high for a CPU that is not a flagship — the Ryzen 7 7700's average benchmark score of 40468 is just 0.1% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H and 0.5% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365. The GPU's 94th percentile ranking and 84306 average benchmark score drive the combo's high placement.

The ranking suggests that Inside is not particularly demanding on either component, allowing even mid-range CPUs to achieve high frame rates when paired with a top-tier GPU. However, the combo's 39th position indicates that some configurations with faster CPUs (like those with higher single-thread scores) achieve even higher FPS at 1080p, where the CPU bottleneck is most pronounced.

The RTX 5090's nearest rival, the RTX 5090 D, scores 84241 on average — just 0.1% lower — but the 5090's higher memory bandwidth (1.79 TB/s vs. likely lower on the D variant) may contribute to the 5090's slight edge in this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 370.6 FPS, Medium 346 FPS, High 285.9 FPS, and Ultra 282.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 23.8%, indicating that even at maximum settings, the CPU is the primary bottleneck.

At 2560x1440, frame rates remain exceptionally high. Low settings hit 335.5 FPS, Medium 309.2 FPS, High 241.4 FPS, and Ultra 229.6 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs between 9.5% (Low) and 18.7% (Ultra) performance, showing that the GPU begins to assert more influence.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings produce 284.8 FPS, Medium 244.5 FPS, High 153.1 FPS, and Ultra 143.5 FPS. The 1440p to 4K jump costs 15.1% (Low) to 37.5% (Ultra) performance, with the larger penalty at Ultra settings reflecting the GPU's increased workload.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700's 8 cores and 16 threads, based on Zen 4 architecture, provide a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29302 and a single-core score of 4136. The CPU's 3.80 GHz base clock and 5.30 GHz boost clock, along with its 32 MB shared L3 cache, give it a 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs.

In Inside, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p. The system's 370.6 FPS at Low settings is likely near the CPU's frame-generation ceiling, as the GPU could theoretically render more frames. The CPU's 16 threads are more than sufficient for this game's physics and logic, but the single-thread performance — evidenced by a 3dmark single-thread score of 1049 — becomes the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s over DDR5 dual-channel is not a bottleneck, as Inside does not appear to be memory-intensive. The 65W TDP and 5nm process node indicate efficient operation, though the data suggests the CPU is rarely the limiting component above 1080p. At 4K, the CPU's 8 cores provide ample headroom, allowing the GPU to fully saturate its rendering pipeline.