Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer that remains surprisingly demanding at high resolutions, and the combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and Intel Arc B570 produces a clear, measurable performance curve across the three tested presets and four resolutions. The data shows a system that is more than capable of delivering smooth gameplay at 1080p and 1440p, but which begins to strain at 4K when visual fidelity is maxed out.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows reveal a clear hierarchy: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra presets produce distinct performance tiers at every resolution. For a game like Inside, which relies on atmospheric lighting and shadow detail, the jump from Low to Medium is substantial in visual quality but comes at a moderate performance cost. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 192 FPS, which is 48 FPS lower than the Low preset’s 240 FPS, but still far beyond what any display can refresh. The High preset at 1080p drops to 120 FPS, while Ultra falls to 114 FPS. Given that the Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum FPS data (163 at 1080p, 117 at 1440p, and 74 at 4K), it appears to be the most stable, well-optimized setting tier for this hardware combination.

For the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point. At 2560x1440, Medium produces an average of 138 FPS, which is smooth for any practical purpose, and the minimum of 117 FPS indicates that even the heaviest scenes will not cause noticeable stutter. The High preset at 1440p averages 86 FPS, which is still playable, but the 52 FPS drop from Medium suggests that the graphical enhancements are not worth the frame rate loss on this GPU. Ultra is the most demanding tier, and at 1440p it averages 82 FPS, which is only 4 FPS slower than High, indicating diminishing returns between those two top presets.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. The Medium preset averages 87 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that remains comfortably above 60 FPS. High drops to 54 FPS, and Ultra falls to 52 FPS, both of which are below the 60 FPS threshold that many players consider the minimum for smooth gameplay. The Low preset at 4K averages 108 FPS, but the visual degradation is likely too severe for a game that relies on its art style. Therefore, for 4K displays, the Medium preset is the clear choice, as it provides the best combination of playable frame rates and acceptable visual quality. The data indicates that this CPU-GPU pairing is best utilized at 1440p Medium or 1080p Ultra, where the system has ample headroom.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the primary bottleneck in this configuration when pushing higher resolutions and settings. The GPU’s specifications include 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. The base and boost clocks are both set to 2500 MHz, and the card features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s, with an FP32 throughput of 11.52 TFLOPS.

In the context of Inside’s measured results, the GPU’s role becomes clear when examining the frame rate scaling from Low to Ultra. At 1080p, the difference between Low (240 FPS) and Ultra (114 FPS) is 126 FPS, which is a 53% reduction. This scaling is typical of a GPU that is being pushed harder by increased shading complexity and post-processing effects. The fact that the GPU’s 10 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor at these resolutions is evident from the consistent performance drops; if VRAM were exhausted, the frame rates would plummet erratically rather than scale linearly. The B570’s 380.0 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for a game of this era, as even the 4K Ultra preset, which is the most demanding scenario, maintains an average of 52 FPS without showing signs of memory-related hitches.

The GPU’s percentile ranking of 65 against all GPUs places it in the upper-midrange tier, and its nearest rival is the Intel Arc A750, which scores a deltaPct of -0.1, meaning the B570 is essentially performance-equivalent to its predecessor. This is an important context for understanding the 4K results: the card is not designed for maxed-out 4K gaming in modern titles, but it handles the older, less demanding engine of Inside reasonably well. The data shows that the GPU’s compute capabilities, as measured by its Passmark G3D score of 14195, are sufficient to maintain high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra average of 52 FPS suggests that the rasterization throughput is the limiting factor at that resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 240 at 1920x1080 to 172 at 2560x1440, a 28% reduction, and then to 108 at 3840x2160, a further 37% reduction. This indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, as the number of pixels nearly quadruples from 1080p to 4K, and the frame rate drops by roughly half, which is consistent with a fill-rate bottleneck.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend: 192 FPS at 1080p, 138 FPS at 1440p (a 28% drop), and 87 FPS at 4K (a 37% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentages across presets suggests that the GPU’s rendering pipeline is being uniformly taxed, and the CPU is not introducing any bottlenecks. The High preset follows the pattern: 120 FPS at 1080p, 86 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 114 FPS at 1080p, 82 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K.

The data shows that the jump from 1440p to 4K is the most punishing, with frame rates nearly halving for all presets. For example, the High preset drops from 86 FPS at 1440p to 54 FPS at 4K, a 37% reduction. This suggests that the Arc B570’s 80 ROPs and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are the primary constraints at 4K, as the increased resolution demands more pixel output. The CPU’s role in this scaling is minimal, as the Ryzen 9 7900X has ample single-thread performance (a 3DMark single-thread score of 1093 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2617) to feed the GPU at any resolution. The 12-core, 24-thread processor is far from being a limiting factor in a 2D-ish puzzle platformer like Inside, which does not stress multi-threaded workloads heavily.

The practical takeaway is that 1440p is the sweet spot for this combination, offering a 138 FPS average on Medium settings, which is smooth and responsive. At 4K, users must accept either the 87 FPS Medium preset or the 54 FPS High preset, and the data clearly shows that the GPU, not the CPU, dictates this trade-off.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combo in Inside?

A: The data indicates that 2560x1440 on Medium settings provides the best experience, with an average of 138 FPS and a minimum of 117 FPS. This resolution offers a significant visual upgrade over 1080p while maintaining frame rates well above 60 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Inside?

A: Yes, but only on lower presets. The Medium preset at 3840x2160 averages 87 FPS, which is playable. The High and Ultra presets average 54 FPS and 52 FPS respectively, which are below the 60 FPS threshold and may not feel smooth to all players.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its direct predecessor?

A: The B570’s average benchmark score is 20556, while the Intel Arc A750 scores 20582, resulting in a deltaPct of -0.1. This means the two cards are statistically identical in performance, with the B570 being a mere 0.1% slower.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 7900X a bottleneck for the Arc B570 in this game?

A: No. The CPU’s single-thread performance, as measured by a 3DMark single-thread score of 1093 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2617, is far more than sufficient for a puzzle platformer like Inside. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent, which indicates a GPU bottleneck, not a CPU one.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The Low preset averages 240 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 114 FPS, a difference of 126 FPS. This represents a 53% reduction in frame rate when moving from the least to most demanding preset.

Q: Why is the Medium preset the only one with reported minimum FPS values?

A: The fact pack includes minimum and maximum FPS data only for the Medium preset at each resolution. For example, at 1920x1080, the minimum is 163 FPS and the maximum is 221 FPS. This data suggests that the Medium preset was the focus of stability testing, and its tight frame time variance indicates it is the most consistent experience.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, code-named Raphael, and built on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a total L3 cache of 64 MB shared across all cores. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth, and it uses the AMD Socket AM5 platform.

In Inside, the CPU’s role is largely secondary to the GPU, but its high single-thread performance ensures that it never becomes a limiting factor. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 2137 and 4-thread score of 4151 indicate strong low-thread-count performance, which is relevant for a game that may not fully utilize all 24 threads. The Geekbench single-core score of 2617 is particularly high, and this translates to consistent frame pacing in CPU-light scenes. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 10972 and max-thread score of 12536 show that the CPU scales well in multi-threaded workloads, but Inside does not appear to be one of them, as the GPU is clearly the bottleneck based on resolution scaling.

The CPU’s overall percentile ranking of 91 against all CPUs places it in the top 10% of processors, and its nearest rival is the Intel Core i7-14700F, which has an average benchmark score of 53620 compared to the 7900X’s 53288, a deltaPct of -0.6. This means the 7900X is 0.6% slower than the i7-14700F in aggregate benchmarks, but this difference is negligible for gaming. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29300 and single-core score of 2016.5 further demonstrate its capability. For a game like Inside, the CPU’s 12 cores and 24 threads provide massive headroom, and the data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the GPU is producing 240 FPS, there is no sign of CPU frame rate limitations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance is exceptionally high across all presets. The Low preset averages 240 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 192 FPS, with a minimum of 163 FPS and a maximum of 221 FPS, indicating a stable frame rate. The High preset averages 120 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 114 FPS. This resolution is clearly GPU-bound, and the CPU has no impact on the results.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show a noticeable drop. The Low preset averages 172 FPS, a 28% reduction from 1080p. The Medium preset averages 138 FPS, with a minimum of 117 FPS and a maximum of 159 FPS. The High preset averages 86 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 82 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows at this resolution, with only a 4 FPS difference, suggesting that the GPU is hitting a similar performance ceiling for both presets.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop significantly, and the GPU becomes the dominant constraint. The Low preset averages 108 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 37% reduction from 1440p. The Medium preset averages 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that consistently stays above 60 FPS. The High preset averages 54 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 52 FPS, both of which are below the 60 FPS threshold. The data shows that at 4K, the Ultra preset is only 2 FPS slower than High, indicating that the GPU is saturated and additional graphical features do not cause proportionally larger drops.

The overall combo rank for this CPU-GPU pair in Inside is 2301 out of 2887 tested combinations, placing it in the 79th percentile of all tested hardware combos. This rank reflects the fact that the Arc B570 is a midrange GPU, and while it performs well at lower resolutions, it falls behind higher-end GPUs at 4K. The measured data confirms that the system is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K being possible only at reduced settings.