Inside

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination delivers a highly playable experience in Inside, but the data reveals a clear performance ceiling imposed by the GPU. At 1080p, the system achieves a 230 FPS average on Low settings, yet this drops to 111.6 FPS on Ultra, indicating that while the CPU provides ample headroom, the graphics card struggles to maintain high frame rates at higher graphical loads. The combo ranks 1387th out of 1671 tested configurations, placing it in the lower-mid tier of the database, a position consistent with the GTX 1070's 51st percentile ranking among all GPUs.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable decline as resolution increases, but the magnitude of that decline varies significantly by settings preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 230 FPS at 1920x1080 to 162.5 FPS at 2560x1440, a 29.3% reduction, and then to 107 FPS at 3840x2160, a further 34.2% drop from 1440p. This steep scaling curve indicates that the GTX 1070's 256.3 GB/s memory bandwidth and 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are the primary limiting factors at higher pixel counts.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is less dramatic in absolute terms but still significant: 111.6 FPS at 1080p drops to 80.5 FPS at 1440p (a 27.9% decrease) and then to 51.6 FPS at 4K (a 35.9% decrease from 1440p). The fact that the 4K Ultra result (51.6 FPS) is close to the 4K High result (54.4 FPS) suggests that the GPU is becoming saturated, with additional graphical fidelity having diminishing impact on performance. Conversely, the 1080p Low result of 230 FPS is more than double the 4K Low result of 107 FPS, confirming that resolution scaling is the dominant performance factor.

The data indicates that at 1080p, the system is likely CPU-bound at lower settings—the 230 FPS average on Low is near the practical limit for many games—but becomes GPU-bound as settings increase. At 4K, the GPU is unequivocally the bottleneck across all presets, as even the lowest settings cannot push frame rates beyond 107 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average is 230 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where it averages 107 FPS. At Medium settings, the average drops to 85.7 FPS, while High and Ultra settings fall below 60 FPS, averaging 54.4 FPS and 51.6 FPS respectively.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 116.3 at 1080p to 84.4 at 1440p, a 27.4% reduction.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 5900X a bottleneck for the GTX 1070 in this game?

A: At 1080p Low settings, the 230 FPS result suggests the CPU can feed the GPU effectively, but at higher settings and resolutions, the GPU's performance ceiling becomes the limiting factor. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all CPUs versus the GPU's 51st percentile supports this conclusion.

Q: What is the difference between Medium and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: Medium averages 132.7 FPS, while Ultra averages 80.5 FPS, a 52.2 FPS gap that represents a 39.3% performance penalty for the higher preset.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 1387th out of 1671 combos, placing it in the bottom 17% of the database.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is the defining component in this configuration's gaming performance. With 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, it delivers 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes strained at 4K. The GPU's 1920 shading units and 64 ROPs, running at a base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz, produce a pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s.

In Inside, a puzzle platformer with a relatively modest graphical load, the GTX 1070 demonstrates its age. The 4K Ultra result of 51.6 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold that many players consider essential, while the 4K Medium result of 85.7 FPS shows that reducing settings can yield substantial gains. The GPU's 51st percentile ranking among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 12331 place it in the mid-range of current hardware, but the data shows it can still deliver excellent frame rates at lower resolutions.

The GPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals—the Quadro K4200 (0.7% slower), GTX 880M (1.3% faster), and GTX 1650 SUPER (1.4% faster)—indicates that it remains competitive with other mid-range options from its era. However, the 16 nm Pascal architecture lacks modern features, and the 8 GB VRAM, while sufficient for this game, may limit future titles. The measured results confirm that the GTX 1070 is the primary constraint on performance at 4K, where even Low settings cannot reach 120 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X + NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination ranks 1387th out of 1671 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the bottom 17% of all configurations, which is a surprisingly low position given the CPU's strength. The Ryzen 9 5900X itself ranks in the 90th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 39453, but the GTX 1070's 51st percentile ranking drags the overall combo down.

The discrepancy between the CPU's high ranking and the combo's low ranking highlights the GPU-bound nature of this game at higher settings. The CPU's nearest rivals—the AMD EPYC 4245P (0.2% slower), Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS (0.7% faster), Core i7-13700F (0.9% slower), and Core i7-13700 (1% faster)—all perform similarly in synthetic benchmarks, but none of them can compensate for the GPU's limitations in real-world gaming.

The combo's rank of 1387 out of 1671 suggests that most other tested configurations feature more balanced or GPU-heavy pairings. For a game like Inside, which is not particularly demanding on CPU resources, the Ryzen 9 5900X's 12 cores and 24 threads provide far more processing power than necessary, while the GTX 1070 struggles to keep up with modern graphical demands at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1080p, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, delivering 182.4 FPS average—a 77.4% improvement over Ultra's 111.6 FPS while retaining most visual features. For players prioritizing smoothness over fidelity, Low settings at 1080p achieve 230 FPS, which is nearly double the refresh rate of most monitors.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is again the recommended choice, averaging 132.7 FPS. This provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold and is 65.4% faster than Ultra's 80.5 FPS. The High preset at 84.4 FPS is also viable, but the jump to Medium yields a 57.3% performance increase with only a modest visual downgrade.

At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. Low settings are the only option for maintaining high frame rates, averaging 107 FPS. Medium settings drop to 85.7 FPS, which is still playable, but High (54.4 FPS) and Ultra (51.6 FPS) fall below the 60 FPS standard. The data suggests that 4K Ultra is not a viable option for this combo, and even 4K High requires accepting frame rates in the low 50s.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the GTX 1070 delivers its strongest performance. Low settings average 230 FPS, Medium averages 182.4 FPS, High averages 116.3 FPS, and Ultra averages 111.6 FPS. The small gap between High and Ultra (4.7 FPS) indicates diminishing returns at the highest preset, while the 47.6 FPS gap between Medium and High shows a significant step-up in graphical load.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 162.5 FPS (Low), 132.7 FPS (Medium), 84.4 FPS (High), and 80.5 FPS (Ultra). The pattern holds: Low to Medium is a 18.3% reduction, Medium to High is a 36.4% reduction, and High to Ultra is a 4.6% reduction. The 1440p results show that the GPU can still handle high refresh rates at lower presets, but High and Ultra both fall below 90 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the averages drop to 107 FPS (Low), 85.7 FPS (Medium), 54.4 FPS (High), and 51.6 FPS (Ultra). The 4K data reveals that the GTX 1070's 8 GB VRAM and 256-bit memory bus are sufficient for Low and Medium, but the higher presets overwhelm the GPU's compute capacity. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is just 2.8 FPS, suggesting that both are equally demanding and equally limited.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, with 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, is a high-end desktop processor that far exceeds the requirements of Inside. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.80 GHz, combined with 64 MB of L3 cache, provide exceptional single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. The CPU's benchmark scores—33150 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 4680 in single-core, and 9075 in 3DMark 16-thread—place it in the 90th percentile among all CPUs.

However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this game. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 230 FPS, which approaches the practical limits of many display interfaces. The fact that frame rates do not increase further at lower resolutions or settings suggests that the game engine or the GPU's rendering pipeline is the constraint, not the CPU.

The CPU's 105 W TDP and DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are more than sufficient for a puzzle platformer like Inside, which does not leverage the full multi-threading capabilities of the Ryzen 9 5900X. The processor's nearest rivals—the EPYC 4245P, Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS, Core i7-13700F, and Core i7-13700—all show similar performance deltas of less than 1%, confirming that the CPU is not a differentiator in this title. The data indicates that the Ryzen 9 5900X provides a stable foundation for the GTX 1070, but its considerable processing power remains largely untapped in this specific game.