Inside

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination delivers exceptionally high frame rates in Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016. The benchmark data shows a system that is heavily overqualified for the title's demands, with performance scaling that reveals a shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution and settings change. The measured results are consistently above 120 FPS across all tested configurations, indicating a smooth experience regardless of user preference.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. For a game like Inside, which is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer, the workload is typically not heavily multi-threaded. The data supports this: at 1080p with Low settings, the average frame rate reaches 314.8 FPS, which is likely near the ceiling of what the engine can produce. In this configuration, the CPU is the primary limiting factor, as the GPU has relatively little work to do.

The processor's single-thread performance is strong, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4680 and its 3DMark single-thread score of 941. These scores suggest that the 5900X can handle the primary game logic and physics calculations without creating a bottleneck. However, its multi-threaded capabilities are also vast, as shown by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33150 and a 3DMark max-threads score of 10075. This headroom means that even in scenes with numerous dynamic objects or complex physics interactions, the CPU is unlikely to be the cause of any frame pacing issues. The processor's average benchmark score of 39453 places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, and it trades blows with rivals like the Intel Core i7-13700F, which has an average score of 39095, a delta of 0.9%. This indicates a high level of general processing capability that is more than sufficient for the game's requirements.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 2295 MHz and a boost clock of 2550 MHz. In the context of Inside, the GPU's role becomes more prominent as resolution and settings increase. The data shows a clear progression: at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 122.4, while at 1080p Low, it reaches 314.8. This spread indicates that the GPU is being tasked with more work at higher resolutions, but it still handles the game with ease.

The GPU's raw compute power, measured at 52.22 TFLOPS for FP32, is far beyond what this game demands. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 and a Passmark G3D score of 34245 place the RTX 4080 SUPER in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, has an average score of 53489, which is a 0.2% delta, showing that the 4080 SUPER is positioned at the top of the performance stack. The sheer amount of VRAM and bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and high-resolution rendering are never a concern. The GPU is the limiting factor only at the highest settings and resolutions, where the frame rate, while still high, shows a notable decrease compared to lower presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p High, the average is 244.8 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the average drops to 212.3 FPS, a decrease of 32.5 FPS or roughly 13%. At 4K High, the average is 134.4 FPS, which is a significant drop of 77.9 FPS from the 1440p result, or about 37%. This trend suggests that the game becomes more GPU-bound as resolution increases.

The data shows that the scaling is not linear. The transition from 1440p to 4K is much more punishing than the transition from 1080p to 1440p. This indicates that the GPU is approaching its performance limits at 4K, even for a modest game like Inside. At 1080p, the CPU is more of a factor, as the frame rates are extremely high, and the GPU is waiting for instructions. At 4K, the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity become the primary constraint. The fact that 4K Ultra still yields 122.4 FPS shows that the RTX 4080 SUPER has a massive amount of headroom, but the scaling pattern confirms that the GPU is the component that dictates performance at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark results provide a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1080p, the frame rates are exceptionally high. The Low preset delivers 314.8 FPS, Medium delivers 295.2 FPS, High delivers 244.8 FPS, and Ultra delivers 241.8 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 73 FPS, which is a 23% reduction, but all results are far above any refresh rate that current monitors support.

At 1440p, the performance remains high. The Low preset yields 284.9 FPS, Medium yields 262.3 FPS, High yields 212.3 FPS, and Ultra yields 199.4 FPS. The relative gap between Low and Ultra has widened slightly to 85.5 FPS, a 30% reduction. This suggests that the GPU is beginning to feel the load, but it still has ample performance to spare.

At 4K, the scaling becomes more pronounced. The Low preset achieves 242.6 FPS, Medium achieves 212.6 FPS, High achieves 134.4 FPS, and Ultra achieves 122.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is now 120.2 FPS, which is a 50% reduction. This is a substantial drop, indicating that the Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that begins to stress the RTX 4080 SUPER. The difference between Medium and High at 4K is 78.2 FPS, which is a massive jump, suggesting that the High preset introduces significant graphical effects that are demanding on the GPU.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination ranks 209th out of 1671 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the top 12.5% of all systems tested. This is a strong ranking, but the data suggests that it is not the absolute highest-performing configuration. The high rank reflects the raw power of both components, but the fact that it does not break into the top 200 suggests that there are other combinations of processors and graphics cards that achieve higher frame rates in this specific title.

Given the game's age and low graphical complexity, it is likely that the ranking is influenced by CPU single-thread performance and memory latency. The Ryzen 9 5900X, while powerful, is a generation old, and newer processors may have a slight edge in the specific workloads that Inside presents. The 4080 SUPER's performance is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions, so the CPU's performance relative to other top-tier processors is what determines the final rank. The combo's position in the 209th spot, out of 1671, indicates that it is a highly capable system for this game, but there is still a small percentage of systems that are faster, likely due to newer CPU architectures.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal settings for this combination depend entirely on the target resolution and the user's preference for frame rate versus visual fidelity. For 1080p and 1440p displays, the Ultra preset is the recommended choice. At 1080p, Ultra still delivers 241.8 FPS, and at 1440p, it delivers 199.4 FPS. Both of these results are so far above the refresh rate of typical monitors that the visual enhancements of the Ultra preset come at no practical cost to smoothness.

For 4K resolution, the choice is more nuanced. The Ultra preset delivers 122.4 FPS, which is still a very playable frame rate. The High preset delivers 134.4 FPS, which is a 12 FPS increase. The Medium preset provides a much larger jump to 212.6 FPS, but this comes with a significant reduction in visual quality. The data suggests that the High preset is the sweet spot for 4K, as it offers a substantial improvement over Medium while maintaining a frame rate that is well above 120 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is only 12 FPS, but the visual impact of the Ultra preset is often marginal in a game with this art style. Therefore, for a 4K experience, using the High preset is recommended to ensure maximum smoothness while retaining a high level of visual detail. The Low preset at any resolution is not recommended, as the frame rate gains are not necessary, and the visual compromise is severe.