Inside

Inside, a puzzle platformer from 2016, proves to be remarkably undemanding on modern hardware. The data for the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combination shows a system that delivers exceptionally high frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, firmly establishing the GPU as the primary performance driver even at 4K. The measured results indicate that this pairing is overwhelmingly GPU-bound, with the processor's substantial multi-threaded capabilities providing ample headroom for the game's logic and physics.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Inside?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 387 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This drops to 311 FPS at 2560x1440 and 196 FPS at 3840x2160 at the same Low settings.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K with High settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with High settings, the system produces an average of 98 FPS. This is a substantial performance level, indicating that the RX 9070 is more than capable of handling the game at 4K without needing to compromise on visual quality.

Q: Is there a significant performance difference between High and Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the data shows a consistent performance drop when moving from High to Ultra across all resolutions. At 1080p, the average FPS drops from 217 to 206; at 1440p, it drops from 156 to 148; and at 4K, it drops from 98 to 93.

Q: What is the system's overall performance rank for this game?

A: The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 837th out of 3716 tested combinations for Inside. This places it in the top ~22% of all tested hardware pairings for this specific title.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck performance in this game?

A: The benchmark results strongly indicate a GPU bottleneck. The FPS scales significantly with resolution changes, which is a classic sign of GPU limitation, while the Ryzen 9 7900X's high multi-threaded scores provide more than enough processing power for a game of this scope.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this system?

A: The only minimum FPS values provided are for the Medium settings preset. The lowest recorded minimum is 133 FPS at 3840x2160, while at 2560x1440 the minimum is 212 FPS and at 1920x1080 it is 294 FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the clear performance arbiter in Inside. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a 644.6 GB/s memory bandwidth, which is far more than the game requires, yet the benchmark data shows the GPU is still the limiting factor. The RDNA 4.0 architecture, built on a 4 nm process, operates with a base clock of 1330 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with a game clock of 2070 MHz. These clock speeds, combined with 3584 shading units and 128 ROPs, are more than sufficient to push the game's simple 2D side-scrolling visuals at extremely high frame rates.

The GPU's performance is reflected in its benchmark scores, with a Passmark G3D score of 25381 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6290. Its average benchmark score of 23877 places it in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z and the AMD Radeon RX 6800S. The data suggests that the RX 9070's capabilities are so far beyond the game's requirements that even at 4K, the performance is limited by the GPU's raw throughput rather than any other system component. The game's frame rates, which range from 93 FPS at 4K Ultra to 387 FPS at 1080p Low, demonstrate the GPU's ability to handle the workload with substantial headroom.

Settings Recommendations

For this hardware combination, the choice of settings in Inside is primarily about balancing visual fidelity against the desire for extremely high refresh rates. The data shows that the Medium preset offers an excellent compromise, providing a substantial performance boost over High and Ultra while maintaining smooth gameplay. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 346 FPS, which is significantly higher than the 217 FPS at High. This difference is even more pronounced at 1440p, where Medium achieves 249 FPS compared to 156 FPS at High. At 4K, Medium still delivers a very playable 157 FPS, which is a 60% improvement over the High preset's 98 FPS.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum FPS values, which helps gauge frame time consistency. The minimum FPS values of 294 at 1080p, 212 at 1440p, and 133 at 4K all indicate that the frame pacing remains stable, preventing any noticeable stutter. While the Ultra preset offers the highest visual quality, the performance drop is noticeable, particularly at higher resolutions. The Low preset provides massive performance numbers, but it likely sacrifices too much visual detail for a game that is already not graphically intensive. Therefore, the Medium preset is the recommended choice for the best overall experience, as it provides the most balanced combination of high performance and visual quality across all tested resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combination in Inside reveals a consistent performance hierarchy based on resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the system delivers extremely high frame rates across the board. With Low settings, the average FPS is 387. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 346, with a minimum of 294 and a maximum of 398. High settings produce an average of 217 FPS, while Ultra is slightly lower at 206 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains exceptionally strong. The Low preset yields an average of 311 FPS. The Medium preset shows an average of 249 FPS, with a minimum of 212 and a maximum of 287. High settings result in an average of 156 FPS, and the Ultra preset produces an average of 148 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a performance decrease of approximately 20-25% for each corresponding settings preset.

At 3840x2160, the system still delivers very playable frame rates. Low settings maintain an average of 196 FPS. The Medium preset achieves an average of 157 FPS, with a minimum of 133 and a maximum of 180. High settings drop to an average of 98 FPS, and Ultra is the most demanding, with an average of 93 FPS. This 4K data demonstrates that even at the highest resolution, the system is capable of delivering a smooth gaming experience in Inside, with the gap between High and Ultra settings narrowing to just 5 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K provides clear evidence that the AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the performance limiting component in this setup. At Low settings, performance scales from 387 FPS at 1080p down to 196 FPS at 4K, a reduction of approximately 49%. This nearly halving of the frame rate with a quadrupling of the pixel count is a classic indicator of a GPU-bound scenario, as the CPU's workload does not increase with resolution.

The scaling pattern is similar for other settings. At Medium, the average FPS drops from 346 at 1080p to 157 at 4K, a 55% decrease. At High settings, the drop is from 217 FPS to 98 FPS, a 55% reduction. Even at Ultra, the performance falls from 206 FPS at 1080p to 93 FPS at 4K, a 55% decrease. This consistent percentage drop across all settings presets reinforces the conclusion that the GPU's pixel throughput is the primary constraint.

Furthermore, the fact that the frame rates at 4K are still extremely high (93 FPS at Ultra) indicates that the game is not pushing the GPU to its absolute limits. The bottleneck is the GPU's ability to render pixels, but the RX 9070 has so much performance that it still handles the 4K workload with ease. The Ryzen 9 7900X, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, is clearly not a limiting factor, as the resolution-based scaling would not be so pronounced if the CPU were struggling.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X's role in Inside is to provide a stable and powerful foundation that never becomes a bottleneck. With 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, this processor offers substantial multi-threaded performance. Its benchmark scores reflect this, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29300 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 19267. The Passmark multi-thread score of 51406 and a single-thread score of 4238 further demonstrate its capability in both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads.

Inside is not a demanding game in terms of CPU resources, but the data shows that the Ryzen 9 7900X's high performance ensures that it is not the limiting factor. The CPU's boost clock of 5.60 GHz and base clock of 4.70 GHz provide excellent single-thread performance, which is often more critical for game logic and physics. The 64 MB of shared L3 cache also helps to reduce memory latency and improve data access speeds.

The processor's average benchmark score of 53288 places it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, showing it is a top-tier performer. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7313P and Intel Core i7-14700F, with performance deltas of less than 1%. Given that the measured FPS scales heavily with resolution changes, the data confirms that the Ryzen 9 7900X provides more than enough headroom for the game, ensuring that the Radeon RX 9070 is the sole determinant of frame rates in Inside.