Inside

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination delivers a thoroughly playable experience in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer that is far more forgiving on hardware than modern AAA titles. The measured data shows this pairing is capable of high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, with the primary bottleneck shifting from the CPU at lower resolutions to the GPU as pixel count climbs. This analysis breaks down the resolution scaling, the respective roles of the CPU and GPU, the exact measured frame rates, and the optimal settings for this specific configuration.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data for this combo in Inside reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 346 at 1080p to 249 at 1440p, a reduction of 97 FPS, and then further to 156 at 4K, another drop of 93 FPS. This represents a total reduction of approximately 55% from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. The pattern is consistent across all quality presets: High settings see averages of 173 FPS at 1080p, 124 FPS at 1440p, and 78 FPS at 4K, while Ultra settings produce 165 FPS, 118 FPS, and 74 FPS respectively.

The scaling factor between 1080p and 4K is roughly 2.2x to 2.3x across the board, which is close to the theoretical 4x pixel count increase but not proportional. This indicates that the system is not purely GPU-bound at every resolution. At 1080p, the very high frame rates—346 FPS on Low—suggest that the CPU is playing a significant role in limiting performance, as the GPU would struggle to render that many frames per second in most titles. The Ryzen 7 9700F, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, is strong enough to push these numbers, but the data shows a diminishing return as resolution rises.

The most telling comparison comes from the Medium settings, which include min and max FPS data. At 1080p Medium, the average is 277 FPS with a minimum of 235 and maximum of 318. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 199 FPS with a range of 169 to 229. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 125 FPS with a minimum of 106 and maximum of 144. The gap between min and max FPS remains relatively consistent, around 80-90 FPS at each resolution, indicating that the frame pacing is stable and the limiting factor is scaling uniformly with pixel count.

The data suggests that the RTX 3060 Ti, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, begins to become the primary constraint at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K at High settings (124 to 78 FPS, a 37% reduction) is steeper than the drop from 1080p to 1440p (173 to 124 FPS, a 28% reduction). This non-linear scaling is typical of a GPU that is reaching its fill-rate limits. Conversely, at 1080p, the CPU’s role is more pronounced; the difference between Low (346 FPS) and Ultra (165 FPS) is substantial, but even the lowest result is far above the 60 FPS threshold.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a desktop processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The CPU has a 65 W TDP and supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache.

In the context of Inside, the CPU’s role is to maintain high frame rates, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is not fully taxed. The PassMark multithread score for this CPU is 36470, with a single-thread score of 4691. These are strong numbers, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score are the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX at 69875 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i7-14700KF at 70163 (0.2% lower), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 69515 (0.7% higher), and the Intel Core i7-14700K at 69355 (0.9% higher). This indicates that the 9700F is competitive with high-end desktop and mobile parts from the previous generation.

For a game like Inside, which is a 2D puzzle platformer with relatively simple physics and AI, the CPU demands are modest. The 8-core, 16-thread configuration is overkill for this title, but the high single-thread performance (4691 in PassMark) is beneficial for maintaining consistent frame times. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 346 FPS, which is likely CPU-limited. The boost clock of 5.50 GHz helps ensure that even in scenes with many dynamic objects, the CPU can feed the GPU enough data to avoid stutters.

The CPU’s performance relative to its rivals is noteworthy. With an average benchmark score of 69996, it sits within 0.9% of the Intel Core i7-14700K and 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, both of which are higher-tier parts. This means that in CPU-bound scenarios, the 9700F will perform nearly identically to those chips. For Inside, where the frame rates at 1080p exceed 300 FPS on Low settings, the CPU is not a limiting factor for achieving smooth gameplay on any display. The 65 W TDP also suggests that thermal throttling is unlikely to be an issue, allowing the boost clock to be sustained during extended sessions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is based on the Ampere architecture with the GA104 chip, manufactured on an 8 nm process at Samsung. It has 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. The GPU features 38 ray tracing cores and 152 tensor cores, with a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The pixel rate is 133.2 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 253.1 GTexel/s, with an FP32 throughput of 16.20 TFLOPS.

In Inside, the RTX 3060 Ti’s primary role is to handle the rendering of the game’s atmospheric lighting, shadows, and post-processing effects. The game’s art style relies heavily on subtle lighting gradients and silhouettes, which can be demanding on the GPU’s fill rate. The GPU’s performance in synthetic benchmarks shows a PassMark G3D score of 20349 and a PassMark G2D score of 989. Its average benchmark score is 16129, placing it in the 59th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 9060 at 16014 (0.7% higher), the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M at 16351 (1.4% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT at 16361 (1.4% lower), and the AMD Radeon R9 370X at 15862 (1.7% higher).

The GPU’s 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for Inside at all tested settings, as the game’s textures are not memory-intensive. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU scales well across resolutions, but it is clearly the limiting factor at 4K. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 74, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. At 4K High, the average is 78 FPS, and at 4K Medium, it rises to 125 FPS. The boost clock of 1665 MHz is modest compared to newer GPUs, but it is adequate for this title.

The RTX 3060 Ti’s performance in Inside is consistent with its theoretical capabilities. The 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is more than enough for the game’s data requirements, and the 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is not a bottleneck. The GPU’s role becomes more significant at higher resolutions, where the pixel rate of 133.2 GPixel/s starts to limit the rendering of the game’s effects. Overall, the GPU provides a solid foundation for 1440p gaming at high settings, with 4K requiring a reduction in quality to maintain high frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo in Inside covers four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) across three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160). At 1920x1080, the results are exceptionally high. The Low preset achieves an average of 346 FPS, which is the highest recorded in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 277 FPS, with a minimum of 235 and a maximum of 318. The High preset averages 173 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 165 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is only 8 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds minimal visual improvement for a minor performance cost.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain very high. The Low preset averages 249 FPS, Medium averages 199 FPS (min 169, max 229), High averages 124 FPS, and Ultra averages 118 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 50 FPS, which is significant but still leaves a large margin above 60 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra is only 6 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset is not particularly demanding at this resolution. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 169 ensures that even in the most demanding scenes, the game stays well above the refresh rate of most monitors.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates are the lowest but still playable. The Low preset averages 156 FPS, Medium averages 125 FPS (min 106, max 144), High averages 78 FPS, and Ultra averages 74 FPS. The Low preset at 4K is worth noting: 156 FPS is more than double the High preset’s 78 FPS, indicating that the Low preset significantly reduces the GPU load. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 106 is above the 60 FPS threshold, making it the best choice for 4K gaming if a stable high frame rate is desired. The Ultra preset at 4K, with an average of 74 FPS, is still usable but may experience occasional dips below 60 FPS in complex scenes.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the largest performance margin over 60 FPS, with the 1080p and 1440p results offering min FPS above 169. The High and Ultra presets are similar in performance at each resolution, with Ultra being only 4-8 FPS slower on average. The Low preset offers the highest frame rates but may sacrifice visual quality in a game where atmosphere is key.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance for this combo. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 277 FPS average with a minimum of 235, which is far above any display’s refresh rate. At 2560x1440, Medium averages 199 FPS with a minimum of 169, providing a smooth experience even on 144Hz or 165Hz monitors. At 3840x2160, Medium averages 125 FPS with a minimum of 106, which is ideal for 4K gaming on a 120Hz display or a high-refresh-rate 1440p panel.

The High preset is a reasonable alternative for those who prioritize visual fidelity over raw frame rates. At 1080p, High averages 173 FPS, which is still excellent. At 1440p, High averages 124 FPS, which is sufficient for 120Hz displays. At 4K, High averages 78 FPS, which is playable but may not be smooth on high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset offers only marginal improvements over High, with 4-8 FPS differences across resolutions, making it the least efficient choice. For a game like Inside, where the art direction is more important than the specific level of anisotropic filtering or shadow quality, dropping from Ultra to High or Medium will have minimal visual impact.

For 4K specifically, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation. The jump from Medium (125 FPS) to High (78 FPS) is a 47 FPS loss, which is substantial. The Low preset at 4K (156 FPS) is an option for those with 144Hz 4K displays, but the visual quality reduction may detract from the game’s moody atmosphere. For 1080p and 1440p, any preset above Medium will deliver a high frame rate, but Medium provides the best combination of stability (min FPS) and visual quality. The data shows no reason to use Ultra unless the player is seeking the absolute highest quality and has a monitor that cannot display frame rates above 165 FPS anyway.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ranks 1273 out of 2887 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the 44th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning that a majority of tested combos perform better in this game. Given that the RTX 3060 Ti is an end-of-life product from 2020 and the 9700F is a 2025 release, the ranking reflects the GPU’s age more than the CPU’s capability. The GPU’s percentile versus all GPUs is 59, indicating that it is slightly above the median GPU, but the CPU’s percentile versus all CPUs is 94, showing that the processor is a high-end part.

The ranking suggests that while this combo is perfectly capable of running Inside at high frame rates, it is not among the top performers. The top combos likely feature newer GPUs with higher memory bandwidth and more shading units. However, the rank of 1273 out of 2887 is not a poor result; it places the combo in the upper half of tested configurations. The data indicates that the CPU is not holding back the GPU in this game, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p. The bottleneck is the RTX 3060 Ti at 4K, which is expected given its 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth.

The nearest GPU rivals—the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (0.7% higher score), Radeon Pro 5600M (1.4% lower), and Radeon RX 5700 XT (1.4% lower)—suggest that the 3060 Ti’s performance is closely matched with several other mid-range cards. For Inside, which is not a demanding title, the combo’s rank is less critical than the actual measured FPS, which shows excellent playability across all settings. The 1273rd rank among 2887 combos means that roughly 56% of tested configurations deliver higher average frame rates, but the absolute numbers are so high that the difference is unlikely to be noticeable in practice. For a puzzle platformer, a stable 60 FPS is the target, and this combo exceeds that at every resolution and preset, with the sole exception of 4K Ultra, which still averages 74 FPS.