Inside

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Inside with the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti reveal a stark contrast between low and high graphical presets across resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 106.2 FPS, but this drops to 52 FPS at High settings—a reduction of more than half. This pattern intensifies at 4K, where the Low preset yields 51.5 FPS, but High settings plummet to 23.4 FPS, and Ultra dips further to 24.6 FPS.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K is particularly telling. At Low settings, performance falls from 106.2 FPS at 1080p to 80 FPS at 1440p, then to 51.5 FPS at 4K. This represents a 52% drop from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck even at minimal graphical load. In contrast, at High settings, the drop is less severe proportionally—from 52 FPS at 1080p to 37.3 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 23.4 FPS at 4K, a 55% decline. The consistency of this scaling suggests that the GTX 1050 Ti's memory bandwidth and shading capabilities are being saturated, while the Ryzen 7 7700X has ample headroom.

Interestingly, the Ultra preset does not always follow the expected trajectory. At 1440p, Ultra delivers 34.7 FPS, which is lower than High's 37.3 FPS, but at 4K, Ultra (24.6 FPS) actually edges out High (23.4 FPS) by a small margin. This anomaly points to the game's rendering engine being sensitive to specific settings rather than a linear progression, with the GPU's 4 GB of GDDR5 memory likely causing texture thrashing at higher resolutions.

The data indicates that for smooth gameplay (above 60 FPS), the user must stick to Low or Medium settings at 1080p, where the combo hits 106.2 and 85.2 FPS respectively. At 1440p, only Low (80 FPS) clears the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K resolution is not viable for playable frame rates on this hardware, as even the best-case Low preset only reaches 51.5 FPS, and High/Ultra dip below 25 FPS. This analysis shows a GPU-bound scenario across all tested configurations, with the CPU's performance being largely irrelevant to the final frame output.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is the clear limiting component in this pairing. With a base clock of 1291 MHz and a boost clock of 1392 MHz, the Pascal-architecture GPU (GP107 chip) offers 768 shading units and 32 ROPs. The 4 GB GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 112.1 GB/s of bandwidth, which becomes a significant constraint at higher resolutions and settings. The GPU's 2.138 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is modest by modern standards, and the data reflects this in the benchmark scores.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 30 places it in the lower third of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 5316 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce 930A (5317, 0% delta) and slightly ahead of the GeForce 940M (5297, 0.4% delta). This positions the GTX 1050 Ti as a low-end part, and the Inside results corroborate this. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 305 confirms its limited DirectX 12 capabilities, while PassMark DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 scores of 45 and 26 respectively show weak API performance.

The GPU's memory clocks run at 1752 MHz (7 Gbps effective), which is fixed and cannot be adjusted for the game's requirements. The 4 GB capacity is particularly problematic for a game like Inside, which has a dark, detailed art style that can consume VRAM quickly at Ultra settings. The measured FPS at Ultra settings (53.8 at 1080p, 34.7 at 1440p, 24.6 at 4K) suggests that texture quality and shadow resolution are taxing the memory subsystem. The GPU's pixel rate of 44.54 GPixel/s and texture rate of 66.82 GTexel/s are adequate for 1080p but insufficient for 4K, explaining the sub-25 FPS results at Ultra.

The GTX 1050 Ti's 75 W TDP and lack of power connectors indicate a design focused on low power consumption, but this comes at the cost of raw performance. The GPU's end-of-life production status and release date of 2016-10-24 make it a legacy part, and its benchmark results show it trailing even the integrated graphics of modern CPUs in some scenarios. For Inside, the GPU's role is to be the sole determinant of frame rate, as evidenced by the consistent scaling across resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X is a high-end desktop processor that is massively overqualified for this GPU pairing. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture (Raphael codename), the CPU operates at a base clock of 4.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. The 105 W TDP and 5 nm process node (TSMC) deliver strong computational performance, as shown by its 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 34313.

The CPU's benchmark results demonstrate its capability: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 30325, single-core 4281, and Geekbench multi-core hits 15538. The PassMark multithread score of 35686 and single-thread score of 4190 further confirm its strength. The nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-13500 (34175, 0.4% delta), Intel Core i7-12800HX (34136, 0.5% delta), and Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (34584, -0.8% delta), showing that the 7700X sits in a tight competitive cluster.

For Inside, a puzzle platformer that is not CPU-intensive, the Ryzen 7 7700X's 8 cores and 16 threads are barely utilized. The game's frame rates do not vary meaningfully with CPU load, as the bottleneck is entirely on the GPU. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth (DDR5 dual-channel) are far more than the game requires. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 8859 and max-thread score of 8852 show consistent multi-thread scaling, but this has no practical impact on Inside's performance.

The CPU's integrated Radeon Graphics are present but irrelevant since the discrete GPU handles rendering. The launch MSRP of $399 positions it as a premium part, but its role in this combo is to provide overhead that remains unused. The data shows that even at Low settings, where the CPU would theoretically have more influence, the frame rate scales with resolution in a GPU-bound manner (106.2 at 1080p to 51.5 at 4K). This confirms that the Ryzen 7 7700X is not a limiting factor at any tested resolution or setting.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti ranks 1655 out of 1671 tested combos for Inside, placing it in the bottom 1% of all systems. This poor ranking is entirely attributable to the GPU, as the CPU is a top-tier part. The combo's rank of 1655 with only 16 combos below it indicates that nearly every other hardware pairing tested outperforms this one.

The rank is particularly surprising given the CPU's strength. A system with a Ryzen 7 7700X would typically be expected to handle modern games with ease, but the GTX 1050 Ti's 4 GB VRAM and 112.1 GB/s bandwidth create a severe bottleneck. The GPU's 30th percentile ranking versus the CPU's 89th percentile illustrates the mismatch. The combo's measured FPS at 1080p High (52 FPS) is below the 60 FPS threshold, while many lower-end CPU pairings with better GPUs would exceed this easily.

The ranking data suggests that users would be better served by pairing the 7700X with a more capable GPU, but the benchmark database records this specific configuration's results. The combo's performance at 4K (23.4 FPS at High) is unplayable, and even 1440p High (37.3 FPS) is marginal. The only playable scenarios are 1080p Low/Medium and 1440p Low, which undermines the CPU's potential. This ranking serves as a cautionary example of GPU-limited performance, where the CPU's 8 cores and 5.4 GHz boost clock cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations in a graphically demanding scene.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with High settings for this combo?

A: The measured average FPS is 52 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the GTX 1050 Ti compare to its nearest rival, the GeForce 930A?

A: The GTX 1050 Ti has an average benchmark score of 5316, while the GeForce 930A scores 5317, representing a 0% delta. They are effectively identical in performance.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 7700X a bottleneck in this game?

A: No. The CPU ranks in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, and the frame rates scale with resolution in a manner consistent with GPU limitation, indicating the CPU has no impact on performance.

Q: What is the best playable setting for this combo?

A: At 1080p, Low settings achieve 106.2 FPS and Medium achieves 85.2 FPS, both playable. At 1440p, only Low (80 FPS) exceeds 60 FPS.

*Q: How does the combo rank among all tested systems for Inside?*

A: It ranks 1655 out of 1671 combos, placing it in the bottom 1% of tested systems, primarily due to the GPU's limitations.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth and how does it affect 4K performance?

A: The GTX 1050 Ti has a memory bandwidth of 112.1 GB/s. At 4K, this is insufficient, leading to 23.4 FPS at High and 24.6 FPS at Ultra, both unplayable.