Inside

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for this AMD Ryzen 9 7900X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination in Inside reveal a classic pattern: the game becomes progressively less demanding on the GPU as resolution drops, eventually hitting a CPU-bound ceiling. At 4K Ultra, the combo delivers 142.6 FPS, which rises to 154.6 FPS at 4K High — a modest 8.4% improvement. Dropping to 4K Medium yields 244.8 FPS, a substantial 58% jump over Ultra, while 4K Low reaches 295.7 FPS. This scaling from Ultra to Low at 4K (a 107% increase) indicates that the GPU is doing meaningful work at this resolution, with settings having a large impact on frame delivery.

Moving to 1440p, the pattern shifts. At 1440p Ultra, the combo produces 231.9 FPS, only 63% higher than the 4K Ultra result. The 1440p High result of 240.5 FPS is remarkably close to the 4K Medium result of 244.8 FPS, suggesting that resolution scaling is becoming less impactful than settings scaling. At 1440p Low, the frame rate reaches 347.5 FPS, which is 17.5% higher than the 4K Low result. The gap between 1440p Ultra and 1440p Low is 49.8%, notably smaller than the 107% gap observed at 4K.

At 1080p, the CPU bottleneck becomes evident. The 1080p Ultra result is 292.8 FPS, and 1080p High reaches 297.3 FPS — a difference of only 1.5%. This near-identical performance across settings strongly suggests the processor is the limiting factor at this resolution. The 1080p Medium result of 355.4 FPS and 1080p Low result of 385.9 FPS show that even at lower settings, the frame rate ceiling is approaching. The jump from 1080p High to 1080p Low is 29.8%, which is far smaller than the 91.3% jump seen from 4K High to 4K Low.

The data indicates that Inside is a lightweight title for this hardware combination. At 1080p, the RTX 5090 is clearly not the constraint, as frame rates hover above 290 FPS even at Ultra settings. The 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 9 7900X with a 5.60 GHz boost clock is delivering enough single-thread performance to push well past 290 FPS, but the relatively small gains from 1080p High to 1080p Low (from 297.3 to 385.9 FPS) suggest the CPU is the primary limiter at this resolution. At 4K, the GPU takes over the limiting role, as evidenced by the much larger spread between settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Raphael, built on TSMC's 5 nm process. It features a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with 64 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, the processor achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 43695 and a single-core score of 6168, which places it in the 93rd percentile among all CPUs.

For Inside, a puzzle platformer released in 2016, the CPU's single-thread performance is the dominant factor. The game's 2D side-scrolling nature means it relies heavily on a single thread for game logic and physics. The 7900X's single-core Cinebench R23 score of 6168 is indicative of strong single-thread capability, which explains why the combo can reach 385.9 FPS at 1080p Low. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1093 and 2-thread score of 2137 further confirm that the processor handles low-thread-count workloads efficiently.

The multi-threaded performance of the 7900X is less relevant for this title. While the processor scores 12536 in 3DMark max-threads and 18351 in Cinebench R20 multi-core, Inside does not appear to scale meaningfully with additional cores. The fact that 1080p High (297.3 FPS) is nearly identical to 1080p Ultra (292.8 FPS) suggests that the game is not taxing the CPU across all 12 cores, but rather hitting a per-core limit. The 64 MB L3 cache is ample for the game's data footprint, and the DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures the processor is never starved of data.

Comparing to nearest rivals, the 7900X has an average benchmark score of 50556. This is 0.1% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 (50598), 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT (50738), 0.5% behind the Intel Core i7-13850HX (50827), and 0.8% behind the Intel Core i9-13980HX (50944). These deltas are small, indicating that the 7900X is competitive with these processors in general compute, though none of these rivals are likely to produce substantially different results in Inside given the game's modest CPU requirements.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 22nd out of 1671 tested combos for Inside. This places it in the top 1.3% of all configurations tested for this game, indicating that this pairing delivers near-top-tier performance. The rank reflects the measured FPS across all tested settings and resolutions, with the combo's strong 4K performance (142.6 FPS at Ultra) and exceptional 1080p performance (385.9 FPS at Low) contributing to its high standing.

The rank of 22 out of 1671 means there are 21 combos that outperform this one in Inside. Given the RTX 5090's 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs and the 7900X's 93rd percentile among CPUs, one might expect a higher rank. However, Inside is not a demanding title, and the limiting factor at lower resolutions is the CPU's single-thread performance. Combos ranking above this one likely feature CPUs with even higher single-thread scores, such as those with boost clocks exceeding 5.60 GHz or newer architectures with better IPC.

The RTX 5090's average benchmark score is 84306, which is 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D (84241), 0.2% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (84171), 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6600 (83209), and 1.6% behind the NVIDIA CMP 40HX (85637). These rivals are all within a 2% band, showing that the RTX 5090's GPU compute capabilities are well-matched to its peers. For Inside, the GPU's role is secondary; the 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are far beyond what this game requires, but they ensure that the GPU never becomes a bottleneck at any resolution or setting.

FAQ

Q: What is the frame rate at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The combo delivers an average of 142.6 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which is the most demanding configuration tested for this game.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the CPU is the primary limiter. The 1080p High result (297.3 FPS) is only 1.5% higher than 1080p Ultra (292.8 FPS), while 1080p Low reaches 385.9 FPS, indicating the processor's single-thread performance caps the frame rate.

Q: How does the 7900X compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The 7900X has an average benchmark score of 50556, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 5 235, 0.4% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT, 0.5% lower than the Intel Core i7-13850HX, and 0.8% lower than the Intel Core i9-13980HX.

Q: What is the best frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 385.9 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration where the frame rate exceeds 380 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5090's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 84306, which is 0.1% ahead of the RTX 5090 D, 0.2% ahead of the RTX 5050 Mobile, 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6600, and 1.6% behind the NVIDIA CMP 40HX.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 22nd out of 1671 tested combinations for Inside, placing it in the top 1.3% of all configurations tested for this game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a flagship GPU based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on TSMC's 5 nm process. It features 21760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, along with 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores. The GPU has a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its FP32 compute throughput is 104.8 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

For Inside, the RTX 5090's immense compute resources are largely underutilized. The game's 2D puzzle-platformer visuals do not require the GPU's full capabilities, as evidenced by the frame rates exceeding 290 FPS at 1080p Ultra. The GPU's 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs reflects its overall compute power, but in this specific title, the limiting factor at lower resolutions is the CPU. At 4K, the GPU's role becomes more significant: the difference between 4K Ultra (142.6 FPS) and 4K Low (295.7 FPS) is 107%, showing that the GPU's load scales substantially with settings at this resolution.

The RTX 5090's memory subsystem is also far beyond the requirements of Inside. The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are designed for 4K and 8K gaming with high-resolution textures, but this game's assets are comparatively modest. The GPU's pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s ensure that even at 4K with Ultra settings, the rendering pipeline is never constrained by fill rate or texturing throughput.

The benchmark results show that the RTX 5090's performance in Inside is consistent with its general compute capabilities. The PassMark G3D score of 39650 and 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 14411 indicate strong DirectX 12 performance, which aligns with the game's modern API support. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support ensures full compatibility with the game's rendering features, though Inside likely does not leverage advanced DX12 features heavily. Overall, the RTX 5090 provides more than sufficient GPU power for this title, with the CPU becoming the bottleneck at 1080p and the GPU only becoming the primary constraint at 4K with higher settings.