Inside

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 delivers a striking performance profile in Inside, a Puzzle Platformer from 2016-07-06. The measured data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at lower resolutions and only begins to show balance at the highest settings. Across all four quality presets, the transition from 1080p to 4K produces a predictable but steep decline in frame rates, with the magnitude of that drop varying significantly based on the workload imposed on the graphics card.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases, but the shape of that curve depends heavily on the preset. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 380.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 273.7 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 107 FPS, and then to 168.8 FPS at 3840x2160, another drop of 104.9 FPS. This indicates that even at Low settings, the RTX 3070 is the primary limiter at 4K, though the absolute numbers remain exceptionally high for a game of this genre.

Moving to Medium settings, the scaling is similar in relative terms: 300.5 FPS at 1080p, 219.8 FPS at 1440p, and 138.5 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 80.7 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 81.3 FPS, suggesting a roughly linear relationship with pixel count. The High preset shows a more pronounced drop at higher resolutions: 187.9 FPS at 1080p, 138 FPS at 1440p, and 82.9 FPS at 4K. The percentage loss from 1080p to 4K here is substantial, indicating that the GPU is being pushed harder.

Ultra settings produce the most significant scaling penalty. The system delivers 179.8 FPS at 1080p, 126.8 FPS at 1440p, and just 81.2 FPS at 4K. The difference between 1080p and 4K Ultra is 98.6 FPS, a drop of over half the initial frame rate. This pattern confirms that Inside is not a demanding title by modern standards, but the RTX 3070’s 8 GB memory buffer and 256-bit bus are still taxed at 4K with higher-quality presets. The data shows that at 1080p and 1440p, even Ultra settings remain comfortably above 120 FPS, while 4K Ultra dips to 81.2 FPS, which is still playable but no longer in high-refresh-rate territory.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, fabricated on Samsung’s 8 nm process with 17,400 million transistors. Its base clock of 1500 MHz and boost clock of 1725 MHz are modest by current standards, but the card compensates with 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specs explain why the card performs so well at 1080p and 1440p but starts to show strain at 4K, particularly with the pixel fill rate demands of 165.6 GPixel/s.

The benchmark results for the RTX 3070 place it in the 72nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28238. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, which scores 27985 (a delta of 0.9 percent), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti at 27956 (a delta of 1 percent). The RTX 3070 outperforms both by a small margin, but the data also shows it slightly trails the AMD FirePro S7150, which scores 28409 (a delta of -0.6 percent). In Inside, the GPU’s role is dominant: the measured FPS at Low settings reaches 380.7 at 1080p, which is far beyond what the CPU could bottleneck, confirming that the RTX 3070 is the driving force behind these numbers.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this game, as Inside is not a texture-heavy title. However, the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth and 1750 MHz memory clock (14 Gbps effective) are key factors in maintaining high frame rates at 4K. The pixel rate of 165.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 317.4 GTexel/s are well-suited to the game’s simple 2D-like rendering, allowing the GPU to push frame rates that exceed typical expectations for a puzzle platformer.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a Zen 5 part from the 9000 series, codenamed Granite Ridge, with 8 cores and 16 threads on a 4 nm TSMC process. Its base clock of 4.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.20 GHz are high, but the standout feature is the 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is critical for gaming performance. The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 34004 and a single-core score of 4800, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 18413 and single-core score of 3341. The 3DMark scores show scaling from 2394 (2 threads) to 10067 (max threads), indicating excellent multi-threaded performance.

In Inside, the CPU role is secondary. The measured FPS at 1080p Low is 380.7, which is likely near the engine’s maximum frame rate cap or the CPU’s single-thread limit. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D has a single-thread 3DMark score of 1212 and a Passmark single-thread score of 4430, both of which are high enough to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 3070 in this title. The percentile rank of 90 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37780, places it slightly below the Intel Core i9-13900HK (38020, delta -0.6 percent) but above the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (37831, delta -0.1 percent) and Intel Core i5-13600KF (38028, delta -0.7 percent).

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in any of the measured configurations. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 81.2 FPS, which is a 62.4 percent reduction from the 1080p Ultra score of 179.8 FPS. This large drop is entirely attributable to the GPU’s workload, as the CPU’s 16 threads and 96 MB L3 cache provide ample headroom. The 8-core, 16-thread configuration with boost clocks up to 5.20 GHz ensures that even the highest FPS numbers at 1080p Low are not CPU-bound, though the 380.7 FPS figure may approach the engine’s limits.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 622nd out of 1671 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the top 37.2 percent of all configurations. This rank is notably lower than what the individual component percentiles might suggest, given that the CPU is in the 90th percentile and the GPU is in the 72nd percentile. The discrepancy arises because Inside is a lightweight title where many lower-end GPUs can achieve high frame rates, and the RTX 3070’s mid-range standing is the limiting factor.

The combo’s rank of 622 out of 1671 indicates that it outperforms the majority of systems but is not in the top tier. For context, the RTX 3070’s average benchmark score of 28238 places it near the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (27985) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (27956), which are both older or lower-tier cards. However, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D’s superior CPU performance does not translate into a significantly higher combo rank in this game because the GPU is the bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the system achieves 380.7 FPS on Low settings, which is excellent, but at 4K Ultra, the 81.2 FPS result is only slightly above the 60 FPS threshold, limiting the combo’s overall standing.

The data shows that the combo’s rank is driven by the GPU’s relative weakness at 4K. While the RTX 3070 can handle 1440p Ultra at 126.8 FPS, the jump to 4K reduces performance by over a third. This suggests that the combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it ranks higher relative to other systems. The 1671 total combos likely include many with more powerful GPUs, such as the RTX 3080 or RX 6800 XT, which would push the RTX 3070 down the rankings despite the excellent CPU.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, all presets deliver frame rates above 179.8 FPS, with Low reaching 380.7 FPS. For a 144 Hz or 165 Hz monitor, the Ultra preset at 1080p is recommended, as it provides 179.8 FPS, which is well above the refresh rate while offering the best visual quality. The High preset at 187.9 FPS offers little benefit over Ultra, so the extra visual fidelity of Ultra is worth the minor FPS cost.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset delivers 126.8 FPS, which is suitable for 120 Hz displays. The High preset at 138 FPS is also viable, but the 11.2 FPS difference between High and Ultra is small enough that Ultra is preferable for most users. The Medium preset at 219.8 FPS is unnecessary unless the user has a 240 Hz monitor, in which case the lower visual quality may be acceptable. The Low preset at 273.7 FPS is only recommended for competitive play, which is not relevant for a puzzle platformer.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes. The Ultra preset drops to 81.2 FPS, which is above 60 FPS but not ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. The High preset at 82.9 FPS is nearly identical, suggesting that the difference between High and Ultra is negligible at 4K. The Medium preset at 138.5 FPS is the best choice for 4K gaming, providing a significant FPS boost over High and Ultra while maintaining acceptable visual quality. The Low preset at 168.8 FPS is overkill and would degrade the game’s visual atmosphere, which is a key element of Inside. Therefore, the Medium preset at 4K offers the best balance of frame rate and fidelity, while at 1080p and 1440p, the Ultra preset is recommended for the full experience.