Inside

# Inside: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers an extraordinary performance profile in Inside, a 2016 puzzle platformer that proves remarkably demanding at high refresh rates. The pairing ranks 77th out of 1,671 tested combinations, placing it in the top 4.6% of all systems evaluated for this title. This is a curious outcome for a game with minimalist visuals, suggesting that Inside's rendering engine scales aggressively with both GPU and CPU resources, rewarding high-end hardware in ways that benchmark-oriented games often do not.

How This Combo Ranks

The 77th position out of 1,671 tested combos places this system firmly in elite territory for Inside. The data indicates that the Ryzen 7 9700X and RX 7900 XTX together produce frame rates that would be the envy of nearly every other configuration tested. This ranking is particularly notable because Inside is not a modern AAA title; it is a puzzle platformer from 2016. The fact that this pairing still lands in the top percentile suggests either that the game has peculiar performance ceilings or that the benchmark database includes many lower-end systems.

The GPU alone holds an 85th percentile ranking among all GPUs tested, while the CPU sits at an 89th percentile among all CPUs. When combined, these components push the system to a 95.4th percentile rank in this specific game. The delta between the component-level percentiles and the game-level rank hints that Inside may utilize both components more efficiently than average workloads, extracting additional performance from the pairing.

The CPU's nearest rivals in general benchmarks — the Intel Core i5-14500HX (0.2% ahead), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (0.6% behind), Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (0.4% behind), and Intel Core Ultra 5 225H (0.8% behind) — are all within a single percentage point. This indicates the 9700X is in a dense pack of similarly performing processors, making the game-level rank more attributable to how the entire system works together rather than CPU dominance alone.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX brings formidable specifications to Inside: 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, with a boost clock of 2498 MHz and a game clock of 2365 MHz. The 6144 shading units and 192 ROPs provide substantial raw fill rate, with the GPU capable of 479.6 GPixel/s pixel throughput and 959.2 GTexel/s texture rate. For a game with Inside's distinctive monochromatic palette and silhouetted characters, the pixel rate is likely the more relevant metric, as the visual style relies on crisp edges and smooth gradients rather than complex texture work.

The 24 GB VRAM capacity is wildly excessive for a 2016 puzzle platformer, yet the benchmark results show the GPU still matters enormously. At 1080p Low settings, the system produces 427.3 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 116.4 FPS. This 3.7x spread across resolution and settings demonstrates that the RX 7900 XTX is being pushed hard even in an older game, particularly at higher resolutions where the 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth comes into play.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 44,019 places it just behind the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (0.4% faster) and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (2% ahead), while it leads the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile by 0.8% and the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 by 1.6%. This clustering of scores suggests the 7900 XTX is performing at a level consistent with its desktop positioning, and in Inside specifically, the high refresh rates achieved indicate no obvious bottleneck from the graphics pipeline.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at lower resolutions. At High settings, the progression goes from 265.3 FPS at 1080p to 191.3 FPS at 1440p to 122.8 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 27.9%, while the 1440p to 4K drop is 35.8%. This accelerating decline with resolution is the classic signature of a GPU-limited scenario — as resolution increases, the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become the limiting factors.

At Low settings, the pattern shifts dramatically. The system delivers 427.3 FPS at 1080p, 383.8 FPS at 1440p, and 238.5 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is only 10.2%, suggesting that at Low settings and 1080p, the CPU is becoming the primary constraint. The 1440p to 4K drop of 37.9% then reasserts GPU dominance as pixel count quadruples.

This dual-phase scaling tells a compelling story: the Ryzen 7 9700X can feed the RX 7900 XTX well enough at 1080p Low to approach the 427 FPS mark, but the GPU's capabilities are so vast that even at 4K Low, it still produces 238.5 FPS. The game appears to have a soft CPU ceiling around 400+ FPS, which the 9700X's 5.50 GHz boost clock and Zen 5 architecture help reach.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces exceptional frame rates across all settings. Low settings yield 427.3 FPS average, Medium drops slightly to 393.8 FPS, High settles at 265.3 FPS, and Ultra maintains 250.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is just 7.8%, while the jump from Medium to High is 32.6%, indicating a significant quality/performance inflection point.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers remain impressive. Low delivers 383.8 FPS, Medium achieves 306.6 FPS, High produces 191.3 FPS, and Ultra reaches 180.8 FPS. The Medium to High drop of 37.6% is the largest single-setting transition at this resolution, suggesting that High settings introduce substantial rendering load.

At 3840x2160, the system still never dips below 116 FPS. Low produces 238.5 FPS, Medium delivers 191.6 FPS, High reaches 122.8 FPS, and Ultra manages 116.4 FPS. The Ultra to High difference at 4K is only 5.2%, while the Medium to High drop is 35.9%. This compression at the top end of settings suggests that Ultra and High are similarly demanding at 4K, with the GPU's 192 ROPs becoming the limiting factor.

FAQ

Q: Is this system overkill for a 2016 puzzle platformer?

A: The data shows the pairing produces 427.3 FPS at 1080p Low and never falls below 116.4 FPS even at 4K Ultra. For a game that likely targets 60 FPS on consoles, this system provides anywhere from 1.9x to 7.1x the necessary performance depending on resolution and settings.

Q: Which resolution offers the best balance of quality and speed?

A: At 1440p High, the system achieves 191.3 FPS, which is 2.1x the 4K Ultra result of 116.4 FPS while maintaining high visual fidelity. The 1440p Medium result of 306.6 FPS offers even more headroom with only a minor visual compromise.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700X scores within 0.8% of four rival processors in average benchmark scores. It trails the Intel Core Ultra 5 225H by 0.8% and the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H by 0.4%, while leading the Intel Core i5-14500HX by 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 by 0.6%.

Q: Why does the FPS drop so much from 1080p Low to 4K Ultra?

A: The 427.3 FPS at 1080p Low versus 116.4 FPS at 4K Ultra represents a 72.8% reduction. This scaling indicates the RX 7900 XTX's 384-bit memory bus and 192 ROPs are progressively more stressed as pixel count increases, even with the game's simple visual style.

Q: Does the 24 GB VRAM matter for this game?

A: Inside is a 2016 title with minimal textures, so the 24 GB GDDR6 allocation is far beyond what the game requires. The 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth may still contribute to the high frame rates, but VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor at any tested resolution.

Q: What is the largest performance gap between settings?

A: At every resolution, the transition from Medium to High produces the biggest drop: 32.6% at 1080p, 37.6% at 1440p, and 35.9% at 4K. This suggests High settings enable a rendering feature that substantially increases GPU load.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on Zen 5 architecture with a 3.80 GHz base clock and 5.50 GHz boost clock. Its 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs reflects strong single-thread performance, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 1,280 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,459. The processor's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth provide ample data throughput for feeding the RX 7900 XTX.

In Inside, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low settings, where the system reaches 427.3 FPS. This near-400 FPS territory is where CPU logic, physics, and draw call processing typically become limiting. The 9700X's high boost clock of 5.50 GHz and efficient Zen 5 architecture allow it to sustain these extreme frame rates without becoming a bottleneck.

The processor's benchmark scores show a clear scaling pattern: 3DMark 4-thread score of 4,869, 8-thread score of 8,184, and max-thread score of 9,771. This near-linear scaling suggests the processor handles multi-threaded workloads efficiently, though Inside as a 2016 title may not utilize all 16 threads. The Geekbench multicore score of 17,002 and single-core score of 3,353 indicate strong per-core performance that matters more for older games with limited thread usage.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium settings as the optimal balance for this system. At 1080p Medium, the system produces 393.8 FPS — only 7.8% below Low but with improved visual quality. At 1440p Medium, 306.6 FPS represents a 20% reduction from 1080p Low while still exceeding 300 FPS. Even at 4K Medium, the 191.6 FPS result is 64.7% higher than 4K Ultra and 18.5% higher than 4K High.

For players prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, Ultra settings at 1440p deliver 180.8 FPS, which remains well above typical high-refresh display capabilities. The 4K Ultra result of 116.4 FPS is still comfortable for 120 Hz displays, though High settings at 4K (122.8 FPS) offer a negligible 5.2% performance penalty for what may be a visible quality improvement.

The High preset represents the most demanding tier before diminishing returns. The jump from Medium to High costs 32.6% to 37.6% performance depending on resolution, while High to Ultra costs only 4.7% to 5.5%. This inverted scaling suggests that High settings enable a specific rendering feature that Ultra does not substantially extend. Players seeking the highest frame rates should choose Low or Medium, while those with 120 Hz or 144 Hz displays will find High or Ultra perfectly playable across all tested resolutions.