Inside

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 delivers a robust experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016. The measured data shows this combination is heavily CPU-limited at lower resolutions, while the GPU becomes more relevant as resolution increases. The system exhibits a clear performance hierarchy across the four tested presets, with frame rates ranging from 66 FPS at 4K Ultra to 309 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that this hardware is more than capable of handling the game’s demands at any setting.

Settings Recommendations

The data indicates that the High preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 155 FPS average, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay. Moving to 2560x1440, the High preset still maintains a strong 111 FPS average. Even at the demanding 3840x2160 resolution, the High preset holds at 70 FPS average, which is perfectly playable for this genre of game.

While the Ultra preset provides a marginal visual uplift, the performance cost is disproportionate. At 3840x2160, Ultra drops to 66 FPS average, a 5.7% decrease from High’s 70 FPS. The same pattern holds at 2560x1440, where Ultra yields 106 FPS versus High’s 111 FPS, and at 1920x1080, where Ultra produces 147 FPS versus High’s 155 FPS. The fidelity gain from High to Ultra does not justify the consistent frame rate reduction.

The Medium preset serves as a middle ground, delivering 247 FPS at 1080p, 178 FPS at 1440p, and 112 FPS at 4K. However, given that High outperforms Medium in visual quality while still maintaining excellent frame rates, there is little reason to select Medium unless the user specifically wants to maximize headroom for background tasks or future game updates.

The Low preset produces extremely high frame rates—309 FPS at 1080p, 222 FPS at 1440p, and 140 FPS at 4K—but this comes with significant visual compromises that are unnecessary given the hardware’s capability. The data strongly suggests that High is the optimal preset for this combination, offering the best visual quality while maintaining frame rates well above the refresh rate of most displays at 1080p and 1440p, and remaining comfortably playable at 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060, built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 44 chip, features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU’s clock speeds are notable: a base clock of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz. This configuration yields a pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 21.43 TFLOPS.

The GPU’s role in Inside becomes apparent when examining the frame rate data across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the GPU is not the limiting factor; the difference between Low (309 FPS) and Ultra (147 FPS) suggests the game scales with GPU load, but the absolute numbers indicate the GPU has ample headroom. The RX 9060’s benchmark scores support this, with a Passmark G3D score of 17631 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3322, placing it at the 59th percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU’s 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for Inside at all settings, as evidenced by the stable performance even at 4K Ultra. The memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s proves adequate for this title, which does not appear to stress memory bandwidth heavily given the consistent frame times. The RX 9060’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, shows a deltaPct of -0.7%, indicating near-identical average benchmark scores, suggesting the RX 9060 performs on par with that established mid-range card.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the system’s bottleneck characteristics. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 155 at 1920x1080 to 111 at 2560x1440, a 28.4% reduction, and further to 70 at 3840x2160, a 54.8% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly influential at higher resolutions.

At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 309 FPS at 1080p to 222 FPS at 1440p (a 28.2% reduction) and then to 140 FPS at 4K (a 54.7% reduction from 1080p). The percentage drops are nearly identical between Low and High settings, suggesting that the scaling factor is resolution-driven rather than settings-driven. This consistency implies that the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p, and as resolution increases, the GPU gradually takes over as the bottleneck.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend: 247 FPS at 1080p, 178 FPS at 1440p (a 27.9% drop), and 112 FPS at 4K (a 54.7% drop). The Ultra preset follows suit with 147 FPS at 1080p, 106 FPS at 1440p (a 27.9% drop), and 66 FPS at 4K (a 55.1% drop). This uniform scaling across all presets strongly indicates that the CPU limits performance at 1080p, while the GPU becomes the binding constraint at 4K.

At 4K, the frame rates across settings range from 66 FPS (Ultra) to 140 FPS (Low), showing that the GPU can still deliver playable performance even at the highest resolution. The 4K High setting’s 70 FPS average is particularly noteworthy, as it demonstrates that this combination can handle 4K gaming with high visual quality in this title.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Inside?*

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 at High settings delivers 111 FPS average, which provides an excellent balance of visual fidelity and frame rate. While 1920x1080 at High achieves 155 FPS, the 1440p resolution offers a significant visual improvement with only a 28.4% frame rate penalty. At 4K High, the 70 FPS average is still playable but leaves less headroom.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 9060’s average benchmark score of 16014 places it at the 59th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest competitor, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, has an average score of 16129, representing a deltaPct of -0.7%, meaning the RX 9060 is effectively tied with that card. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is 1% behind, and the Radeon Pro W5500 is 2.1% behind.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game?

A: The scaling data indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1920x1080, as evidenced by the 309 FPS Low setting at 1080p versus 140 FPS at 4K Low. The consistent percentage drops across all settings when moving from 1080p to 4K suggest the GPU becomes the bottleneck only at higher resolutions. The Ryzen 7 9700X’s strong single-thread performance (Geekbench single-core score of 3023) supports this analysis.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM cause any issues?

A: The measured data shows no VRAM-related issues. The RX 9060 delivers 140 FPS at 4K Low and 66 FPS at 4K Ultra without any reported frame time anomalies. The 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth appears sufficient for Inside’s requirements across all tested configurations.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700X perform relative to other CPUs?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700X has an average benchmark score of 37943, placing it at the 86th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-14901E, scores 37911 with a deltaPct of 0.1%, meaning the 9700X is essentially tied with that processor. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is also 0.1% behind, while the Intel Core 5 211E trails by 0.3%.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 1080p with high refresh rate monitors?

A: At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 155 FPS average, which exceeds the refresh rate of most standard monitors. The Medium preset achieves 247 FPS, and Low reaches 309 FPS. Even the Ultra preset maintains 147 FPS, making this combination suitable for 144Hz displays at 1080p with High settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X with the AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 1615 out of 2887 tested combinations in Inside, placing it in the 44th percentile of all combos tested. This mid-pack ranking is surprising given the strong individual component scores, but it reflects the fact that Inside is not a demanding title, and many lower-tier combinations can achieve similar results.

The ranking suggests that the combination is overqualified for this game. The CPU’s 86th percentile ranking and the GPU’s 59th percentile ranking do not translate to a top-tier combo ranking because the game’s modest requirements mean that even entry-level hardware can produce playable frame rates. The combo’s rank is more indicative of the sheer number of tested configurations rather than any deficiency in this pairing.

The data shows that this combination’s performance is limited by the game itself rather than by the hardware. At 1080p High, the 155 FPS average is higher than what most displays can show, and at 4K High, the 70 FPS average is perfectly smooth for this genre. The rank of 1615 out of 2887 reflects the fact that many other combinations achieve similar or higher frame rates in this undemanding title, but it does not diminish the actual gaming experience.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache.

The CPU’s benchmark results show strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. It scores 20485 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2211 in single-core, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 17906 and single-core score of 3023. The Passmark multi-thread score is 37161, and single-thread is 4654. These scores place the 9700X at the 86th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37943.

In Inside, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p, where the frame rates are exceptionally high. The 309 FPS at Low settings and 247 FPS at Medium settings at 1920x1080 indicate that the CPU can feed the GPU far more frames than the GPU can render at higher settings. The CPU’s strong single-thread performance, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 1280 and Passmark single-thread score of 4654, is crucial for this game, which likely relies on a single main thread for game logic.

The CPU’s 8 cores and 16 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks and system processes without impacting game performance. The 89.6 GB/s dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth ensures that the CPU can quickly access game data, and the PCIe Gen 5 support (24 lanes) provides fast communication with the GPU. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-14901E, has a deltaPct of 0.1%, showing that the 9700X performs nearly identically to that processor in synthetic benchmarks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets.

1920x1080:

• Low: 309 FPS average
• Medium: 247 FPS average, with a minimum of 210 FPS and maximum of 284 FPS
• High: 155 FPS average
• Ultra: 147 FPS average

At 1080p, the frame rates are exceptionally high across all settings. The difference between Low and Medium is 62 FPS (a 20.1% reduction), while the jump from Medium to High represents a 92 FPS drop (a 37.2% reduction). The High to Ultra transition costs only 8 FPS (a 5.2% reduction), suggesting diminishing returns at the highest settings.

2560x1440:

• Low: 222 FPS average
• Medium: 178 FPS average, with a minimum of 151 FPS and maximum of 204 FPS
• High: 111 FPS average
• Ultra: 106 FPS average

At 1440p, the frame rates remain high but show a more pronounced impact from settings. Low to Medium drops 44 FPS (a 19.8% reduction), Medium to High drops 67 FPS (a 37.6% reduction), and High to Ultra drops only 5 FPS (a 4.5% reduction). The Medium preset’s minimum of 151 FPS indicates consistent frame delivery.

3840x2160:

• Low: 140 FPS average
• Medium: 112 FPS average, with a minimum of 95 FPS and maximum of 128 FPS
• High: 70 FPS average
• Ultra: 66 FPS average

At 4K, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck. Low to Medium drops 28 FPS (a 20.0% reduction), Medium to High drops 42 FPS (a 37.5% reduction), and High to Ultra drops only 4 FPS (a 5.7% reduction). The Medium preset at 4K maintains a minimum of 95 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even during demanding scenes.

The Medium presets are the only configurations with reported minimum and maximum frame rates. At 1080p Medium, the 210-284 FPS range shows excellent consistency. At 1440p Medium, the 151-204 FPS range is equally stable. At 4K Medium, the 95-128 FPS range demonstrates that the GPU can maintain playable frame rates even at the highest resolution, with the minimum staying above 60 FPS.