Inside

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers extraordinarily high frame rates in Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016. The measured data shows this combination is heavily overqualified for the title, with performance far exceeding display refresh rate capabilities at every tested setting. The analysis below breaks down how this hardware behaves across resolutions and settings, what the scaling patterns indicate about system bottlenecks, and how this specific configuration ranks against other tested combos in the database.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that becomes progressively more GPU-bound, though even at the highest resolution the RTX 4080 remains overwhelmingly dominant. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 431 at 1920x1080 to 386 at 2560x1440, then falls to 265 at 3840x2160. This represents a 10.4% decline from 1080p to 1440p, but a much steeper 31.3% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling pattern suggests that at 1080p Low, the CPU is likely the limiting factor, as the frame rate of 431 FPS approaches what even a high-end processor can feed to the GPU in a physics-light puzzle game.

Moving to Medium settings, the same resolution progression shows 398 FPS at 1080p, 338 FPS at 1440p, and 212 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 15.1% and 37.3% respectively, indicating that the additional shading work at Medium settings begins to shift the bottleneck more firmly toward the GPU. The 4K Medium result includes measured minimum and maximum values of 181 and 244 FPS, showing a frame time variance that suggests occasional CPU hiccups or driver overhead spikes even at this resolution.

At High settings, the averages are 294 FPS at 1080p, 211 FPS at 1440p, and 133 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 28.2%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 37.0%. This increasingly steep scaling curve is classic GPU-bound behavior, where doubling the pixel count roughly halves the frame rate. The RTX 4080's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are clearly sufficient for this title, as even the 4K High result remains far above any VRR floor.

Ultra settings produce the most dramatic scaling: 280 FPS at 1080p, 201 FPS at 1440p, and 126 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 28.2%, and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 37.3%. Interestingly, the Ultra preset at 4K (126 FPS) is nearly identical to the High preset at 4K (133 FPS), suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are relatively minor in this game, or that the GPU has headroom to absorb them without major frame rate penalties. The data implies that Inside's visual complexity, while artistically dense, does not stress modern hardware in ways that create dramatic differences between High and Ultra presets at high resolutions.

The resolution scaling data collectively suggests that at 1080p, this combination is CPU-limited across all settings, with frame rates ranging from 280 to 431 FPS depending on preset. At 1440p, the system transitions to a more balanced state, while at 4K, the GPU becomes the primary constraint. For a game released in 2016, these results indicate that the Ryzen 7 9700F's 8 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient, and the RTX 4080's Ada Lovelace architecture is the dominant factor in determining final output.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo in Inside?*

A: The maximum measured average FPS is 431, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This represents the ceiling for this configuration in the tested scenarios.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its closest rival in GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 scores an average benchmark of 54247, which is 0.1% ahead of the RTX 4080 SUPER (54209) and 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54828). It trails the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55698) by 2.6% and the AMD Radeon 8060S (55757) by 2.7%.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 4K Medium settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 181, with a maximum of 244 and an average of 212. This is the only preset at 4K that includes min/max data in the measurements.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700F's average benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69996 on average, which is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875), 0.7% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515), and 0.9% ahead of the Intel Core i7-14700K (69355). It trails the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163) by 0.2%.

*Q: Can this system run Inside at 4K Ultra settings above 120 FPS?*

A: Yes, the measured average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 126, which is above the 120 FPS threshold. This is the lowest average across all tested configurations, yet it remains highly playable on high-refresh displays.

*Q: What does the combo rank indicate about this pairing for Inside?*

A: This combo ranks 98th out of 3716 tested combinations, placing it in the top 2.6% of all configurations in the database for this game. The percentile rankings for the individual components are 94th for the CPU and 86th for the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the experience in Inside. Given the game's nature as a puzzle platformer, the priority should be maintaining consistent frame rates rather than chasing maximum visual fidelity, though this system has enough headroom to do both simultaneously.

For 4K displays, the High preset at 133 FPS average is the most balanced choice. It delivers a frame rate that exceeds 120 Hz refresh rates while preserving visual quality. The Ultra preset at 126 FPS offers only a 5.3% reduction in frame rate compared to High, so users with VRR displays could opt for Ultra without meaningful downside. The Medium preset at 212 FPS is the best choice for 240 Hz panels, as it more than doubles the High preset's frame rate while still providing moderate visual enhancements over Low. The Low preset at 265 FPS is only recommended for competitive play or extreme refresh rate displays, as the visual downgrade from Medium is substantial for a game that relies on atmospheric presentation.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 338 FPS is the standout recommendation. It provides a massive frame rate boost over High (211 FPS) while maintaining enough visual fidelity for the game's dimly lit environments. For users with 360 Hz displays, the Low preset at 386 FPS is the only option that comes close to saturating such high refresh rates. The Ultra preset at 201 FPS is a reasonable choice for those prioritizing visuals, as it remains above 200 FPS and is only 4.7% slower than High.

For 1080p, the Medium preset at 398 FPS is the optimal balance. It offers nearly the same frame rate as Low (431 FPS) with significantly better visual quality. The High preset at 294 FPS is ideal for users with 300 Hz displays, while the Ultra preset at 280 FPS provides the best visuals while still exceeding 240 Hz refresh rates. Given that even the lowest measured average across all settings and resolutions is 126 FPS, there is no scenario where this system struggles to maintain playable frame rates in Inside.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest performance across all presets. The Low setting produces an average of 431 FPS, Medium drops to 398 FPS with measured minimum and maximum of 338 and 457 FPS, High reaches 294 FPS, and Ultra achieves 280 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 7.7%, while the gap between High and Ultra is 4.8%, indicating diminishing returns as settings increase.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 386 FPS on Low, 338 FPS on Medium (with min/max of 287/389), 211 FPS on High, and 201 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Medium gap narrows to 12.4%, while the High-to-Ultra gap remains modest at 4.7%. The 1440p Medium result shows a wider min/max spread than the 1080p Medium result, suggesting slightly more frame time variance at higher resolution.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 265 FPS on Low, 212 FPS on Medium (with min/max of 181/244), 133 FPS on High, and 126 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Medium drop is 20.0%, and the High-to-Ultra drop is 5.3%. The 4K Medium min/max spread of 63 FPS is the largest of any tested configuration, indicating that the system experiences more pronounced frame pacing fluctuations at this resolution.

Comparing across resolutions for each preset, the Low setting shows a 38.5% drop from 1080p to 4K, Medium shows a 46.7% drop, High shows a 54.8% drop, and Ultra shows a 55.0% drop. This progressive increase in resolution sensitivity with higher settings confirms that the GPU becomes more dominant as visual complexity rises. The data also reveals that the difference between High and Ultra is consistently small, never exceeding 5.3% at any resolution, which suggests that the Ultra preset in Inside adds minimal computational load beyond High.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the primary driver of frame rate performance in Inside at higher resolutions and settings. The GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for a game of this era. The memory clocks run at 1400 MHz with 22.4 Gbps effective speed, and the GPU operates at a base clock of 2205 MHz with a boost of 2505 MHz.

The RTX 4080's benchmark scores contextualize its performance. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 34457 and a Passmark GPU Compute score of 20671. In DirectX 11 tests, it scores 314, while DirectX 12 yields 132, and DirectX 9 produces 370. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6567, and Geekbench scores are 214739 for OpenCL and 263779 for Vulkan. These numbers place the GPU at the 86th percentile of all GPUs.

The 4K results demonstrate the GPU's capability. At 4K Ultra, the 126 FPS average indicates that the RTX 4080 is nowhere near its limits in this title. The GPU's 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 render output units provide ample raw compute for Inside's rendering requirements. The 76 RT cores and 304 tensor cores are largely irrelevant for this non-ray-traced puzzle platformer, but they contribute to the GPU's overall architectural efficiency.

The fact that the RTX 4080's nearest rival is the RTX 4080 SUPER (0.1% faster in average benchmarks) suggests that this GPU's performance in Inside would be nearly identical to its immediate successor. The GPU's 320 W TDP and triple-slot design indicate a high-power part, but the measured performance shows it rarely needs to work hard in this game. The pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s are more than adequate for the 4K Ultra workload, as evidenced by the sustained 126 FPS average.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F plays a supporting but crucial role in achieving the high frame rates seen at 1080p. This 8-core, 16-thread processor from the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) operates with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The 65 W TDP is modest for a desktop CPU, yet the benchmark data shows it competes with much higher-power processors.

The CPU's Passmark scores reveal its strengths: a multithread score of 36470, a single-thread score of 4691, and an integer math score of 120788. The floating point math score is 77955, and the data compression score reaches 421988. These metrics place the CPU at the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69996.

At 1080p Low, the 431 FPS average suggests the CPU is the bottleneck, as the GPU could likely push higher frame rates if the processor could feed it faster. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core provide low-latency access to game data, which is critical for maintaining high frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for this workload.

The nearest rival comparison shows the Ryzen 7 9700F is virtually tied with the Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.2% faster), the Core i7-14700KF (0.2% slower), the Ryzen 9 7950X (0.7% faster), and the Core i7-14700K (0.9% faster). This clustering indicates that the CPU's performance is well-balanced for gaming workloads, and its 8 cores are sufficient for Inside's light threading requirements. The 4 nm process node and 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die contribute to the CPU's efficiency, though these architectural details have minimal direct impact on this game's performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 98th out of 3716 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the top 2.6% of all configurations in the database. This ranking is consistent with the individual component percentiles: the CPU at the 94th percentile and the GPU at the 86th percentile.

The rank of 98 suggests that while this is an elite-tier configuration, there are 97 other combos that perform better in this specific game. Given that Inside is a puzzle platformer with moderate graphical demands, the ranking gap likely comes from systems with even more powerful CPUs that can push higher frame rates at 1080p, where this configuration shows signs of CPU limitation. The GPU's 86th percentile ranking is actually lower than the CPU's 94th percentile, which is unusual for a gaming-focused system and further confirms that the CPU is the more limiting factor in this pairing.

The data indicates that this combo occupies a unique position: it delivers exceptional performance at 4K (126-265 FPS depending on settings) while also capable of extreme frame rates at 1080p (280-431 FPS). The rank of 98 out of 3716 means that 3618 other tested configurations deliver lower performance in Inside, which speaks to the overall strength of this pairing. For a game that runs this well on mid-range hardware, the fact that this combo cracks the top 100 suggests that the Ryzen 7 9700F's strong single-thread performance and the RTX 4080's raw throughput combine to overcome any potential bottlenecks.

The benchmark results indicate that this combo is overkill for Inside in most scenarios, but the high frame rates provide headroom for future titles or more demanding games. The ranking also reflects the efficiency of the pairing: the CPU's 65 W TDP and the GPU's 320 W TDP represent a balanced power envelope that delivers top-tier performance without requiring extreme cooling solutions. The data suggests that users with this combo can expect consistently high performance across a wide range of resolutions and settings, with the only limitation being the CPU's ability to feed the GPU at lower resolutions.