Inside

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 presents a striking asymmetry in Inside: a modern, high-end 2022 processor driving an end-of-life 2017 graphics card. The benchmark data confirms that this combination is overwhelmingly GPU-limited, with the RX 580’s aging Polaris architecture dictating performance across all tested configurations. The 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 7700X, with its Zen 4 architecture and 5.40 GHz boost clock, is effectively idle in comparison to the graphical workload.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, clearly identifying the GPU as the limiting component. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 76.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 51.4 FPS at 2560x1440, a 33% reduction, before plummeting to 35.9 FPS at 3840x2160, a 53% total decline from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern indicates that the RX 580’s 256-bit memory bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count increases, while the Ryzen 7 7700X’s dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s remains untaxed.

The trend is even more pronounced at Ultra settings, where the 4K result of 31.8 FPS represents a 57% drop from the 73.3 FPS achieved at 1080p. Interestingly, the gap between resolutions narrows slightly at lower settings. At Low settings, the 4K average of 67.7 FPS is only 56% lower than the 152.7 FPS at 1080p, suggesting that even with reduced shading complexity, the GPU’s raw throughput—6.175 TFLOPS FP32—cannot overcome the fill-rate demands of 3840x2160. The data shows a classic GPU-bound scenario: resolution scaling is nearly linear with pixel count, with no evidence of CPU-induced bottlenecks at any resolution.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 7700X is a formidable processor on paper, with 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC. Its benchmark scores are exemplary, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30325 and a single-core score of 4281, placing it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. However, in Inside, a Puzzle Platformer released in 2016, this processing power is largely irrelevant. The game’s workload is not thread-hungry, and the CPU’s 4.50 GHz base clock and 5.40 GHz boost clock far exceed what this title requires.

The nearest rival comparisons reinforce the CPU’s strength but also its irrelevance here. The Ryzen 7 7700X’s average benchmark score of 34313 is 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i5-13500’s 34175 and 0.5% higher than the Intel Core i7-12800HX’s 34136. It trails the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H by 0.8% (34584 vs. 34313). These deltas are negligible, indicating that among modern processors, the 7700X is competitively positioned. Yet, in this specific game, the CPU’s role is reduced to feeding frames to a GPU that cannot keep up. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1090 and 2-thread score of 2112 suggest ample headroom for the game’s logic, but the measured FPS data shows no scenario where CPU performance is the deciding factor.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the clear bottleneck. This GCN 4.0 architecture GPU, built on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries, features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. Its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, but its pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s are modest by modern standards. The GPU’s 53rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13559, places it just above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13564, 0% delta) and GTX 950 (13549, 0.1% delta), but well below contemporary parts.

The RX 580’s clock speeds—1257 MHz base and 1340 MHz boost—are low, and its FP32 performance of 6.175 TFLOPS is the limiting factor in Inside. The benchmark data shows that even at 1080p Ultra, the GPU only manages 73.3 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it falls to 31.8 FPS. This is not a driver or optimization issue; it is a hardware ceiling. The GPU’s 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for this game’s textures, but the sheer compute demand of higher resolutions overwhelms the Polaris 20 chip. The passmark DirectX 11 score of 60 and DirectX 12 score of 43 indicate that the GPU is only moderately capable in modern APIs, which aligns with its performance in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the resolution where this combo is most viable, the results are playable but inconsistent. Low settings produce an average of 152.7 FPS, which is smooth and responsive. Medium settings drop to 119.7 FPS, still comfortably above 60 FPS. High settings yield 76.7 FPS, which is acceptable for a puzzle platformer, but Ultra settings fall to 73.3 FPS, showing only a marginal difference from High. This suggests that the Ultra preset adds little visual benefit over High for this GPU, as both are constrained by the same pixel throughput limits.

At 2560x1440, the RX 580 begins to struggle. Low settings average 108.3 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 84.3 FPS, High to 51.4 FPS, and Ultra to 48.5 FPS. The jump from Medium to High is particularly steep, a 39% reduction, indicating that the High preset introduces shading effects that heavily tax the GPU’s 193.0 GTexel/s texture rate. At 3840x2160, the situation degrades further: Low averages 67.7 FPS, Medium 54.7 FPS, High 35.9 FPS, and Ultra 31.8 FPS. Only the Low setting at 4K achieves a passable frame rate, and even then, it is marginal for a game that benefits from smooth motion.

The data reveals that the RX 580 is best suited for 1080p in this title, where it can maintain high frame rates at Low and Medium settings. For 1440p, users must compromise to Low settings for a smooth experience, while 4K is only viable at Low settings and is not recommended for High or Ultra. The absence of min or max FPS data means we cannot assess frame pacing, but the averages suggest a stable, if limited, experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 1548th out of 1671 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the bottom 8% of all configurations. This low ranking is almost entirely attributable to the GPU, as the CPU is a top-tier component. The rank reflects the GPU’s 53rd percentile standing, which is dragged down by its age and architecture. The CPU’s 89th percentile ranking is negated by the GPU’s inability to utilize it.

In practical terms, this combo performs worse than any modern mid-range GPU paired with a comparable processor. The data shows that the RX 580’s nearest rivals—all of which are also older or entry-level cards—have nearly identical average scores (13564, 13549, 13416, 13716), indicating that this GPU is at the bottom of its class. The Ryzen 7 7700X, meanwhile, is at the top of its class, with an average score 0.4% above the Intel Core i5-13500. This asymmetry creates a system that is severely imbalanced for Inside, where the GPU is the sole bottleneck.

The rank of 1548 out of 1671 suggests that only 123 combos perform worse, likely those with even older or lower-end GPUs. For a game released in 2016, this is a disappointing result, but it is a direct consequence of pairing a 2022 flagship CPU with a 2017 budget GPU. The benchmark results indicate that upgrading the GPU would yield dramatic improvements, as the CPU has ample headroom to support a much faster graphics card. Until then, users of this combo must accept 1080p Medium or High settings as the practical ceiling for a smooth experience.