Inside

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile delivers an exceptional experience in Inside, a 2D puzzle platformer that is far more demanding on the CPU than the GPU. The measured data shows that this combo ranks in the 80th percentile among all tested combinations, with performance that scales dramatically with resolution and settings. The following analysis breaks down the measured FPS results, the role of each component, and how to optimize the experience.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this hardware combination depend heavily on the target resolution and the user's preference for frame rate versus visual fidelity. The data shows a clear tiering across the four settings presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—at each resolution. For users with high-refresh-rate displays, the Medium preset emerges as the most balanced choice, offering a substantial frame rate increase over High and Ultra while maintaining a playable experience.

At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 330 FPS, which is 43% higher than the High preset's 231 FPS and 50% higher than Ultra's 220 FPS. The jump from Medium to High costs 99 FPS, a significant drop that is unlikely to be worth the visual gains in a game with Inside's minimalist art style. The Low preset pushes the average to 357 FPS, but the visual degradation from Low to Medium is more noticeable than the 27 FPS gain, making Medium the sweet spot for 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats. Medium averages 266 FPS, while High drops to 166 FPS and Ultra to 158 FPS. The Medium preset maintains a comfortable margin above 240 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The 100 FPS gap between Medium and High is substantial, and the data suggests that the visual differences in Inside do not justify such a performance penalty. For 1440p, Medium is the recommended preset for competitive or high-refresh gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the choice becomes more nuanced. Medium averages 167 FPS, which is still very playable, but High and Ultra drop to 104 FPS and 99 FPS respectively. While Medium remains the highest-performing setting that still looks good, the 4K resolution benefits more from the increased detail of High or Ultra. However, the data shows that the 63 FPS difference between Medium and High at 4K is the largest relative drop across all resolutions. For users prioritizing frame rate, Medium is the clear choice; for those prioritizing image quality, High at 104 FPS is still well above the 60 FPS threshold. Given that Inside is a slow-paced puzzle game, the 99 FPS Ultra preset is also viable, but Medium offers the best balance of performance and visual quality across all three resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is a flagship mobile GPU based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The GPU features 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output pipelines. It also includes 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores, which are not heavily utilized in Inside due to its 2D nature. The GPU's clock speeds are modest for a flagship, with a base clock of 1335 MHz and a boost clock of 1695 MHz, but the sheer number of cores compensates for the lower clocks.

The RTX 4090 Mobile is equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 576.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 2250 MHz, with an effective data rate of 18 Gbps. For Inside, this memory configuration is vastly overkill. The game's 2D visuals require minimal texture memory, and the measured FPS data confirms that the GPU is rarely the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 357 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for frame generation. The GPU's pixel rate of 189.8 GPixel/s and texture rate of 515.3 GTexel/s are more than sufficient to handle Inside's rendering demands at any resolution.

The GPU's benchmark scores reflect its high-end positioning. It scores 27212 in PassMark G3D and 12347 in PassMark GPU Compute, placing it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000, scores 44075 in average benchmark score, with the RTX 4090 Mobile trailing by 0.9%. The RTX 4090 Mobile also leads the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile by 0.9% in average score. These benchmark results indicate that the GPU is a top-tier part, but in Inside, the data shows that its vast computational resources are underutilized, with the CPU often determining the final frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that highlights the CPU-bound nature of Inside with this hardware combo. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 330 to 266, a 19.4% decrease. Scaling from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings results in a further drop from 266 to 167 FPS, a 37.2% decrease. These scaling factors are unusually large for a GPU of this caliber, suggesting that the CPU is the primary bottleneck at lower resolutions.

At High settings, the scaling is more moderate. From 1080p to 1440p, FPS drops from 231 to 166, a 28.1% decrease. From 1440p to 4K, FPS drops from 166 to 104, a 37.3% decrease. The similar percentage drops across settings indicate that the game's rendering load scales consistently with resolution, but the absolute FPS values remain high enough that the CPU's frame generation limit is not fully exposed until the resolution increases.

The Low settings preset shows the most dramatic scaling. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 357 FPS. At 1440p Low, it drops to 320 FPS, an 10.4% decrease. At 4K Low, it drops to 209 FPS, a 34.7% decrease from 1440p. The relatively small drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings indicates that the CPU is likely the limiting factor at these resolutions, as the GPU has enough headroom to render the scene quickly. The larger drop at 4K suggests the GPU begins to take on more of the load.

The data indicates that the limiting component shifts from the CPU at 1080p to the GPU at 4K. At 1080p, the differences between Low, Medium, High, and Ultra are 357, 330, 231, and 220 FPS respectively. The small gap between High and Ultra (11 FPS) and the larger gap between Medium and High (99 FPS) suggest that the game's rendering features have a nonlinear impact on GPU load. At 4K, the gap between Low and Medium is 42 FPS, and between Medium and High is 63 FPS, showing that the GPU becomes more stressed as resolution increases.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive picture of performance across all combinations of resolution and settings. The following breakdown details the exact numbers recorded for each configuration.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 357 FPS. The Medium preset averages 330 FPS, with a minimum of 280 FPS and a maximum of 379 FPS. The High preset averages 231 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 220 FPS. The data shows a clear performance hierarchy, with Low being the fastest, followed by Medium, High, and Ultra. The gap between Medium and High is 99 FPS, which is the largest single-settings drop at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 320 FPS. The Medium preset averages 266 FPS, with a minimum of 226 FPS and a maximum of 306 FPS. The High preset averages 166 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 158 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 100 FPS, nearly identical to the 1080p drop. The minimum FPS for Medium at 1440p is 226, which is still above the refresh rate of most monitors.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 209 FPS. The Medium preset averages 167 FPS, with a minimum of 142 FPS and a maximum of 192 FPS. The High preset averages 104 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 99 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 63 FPS, which is smaller in absolute terms than at lower resolutions but represents a 37.7% decrease. The minimum FPS for Medium at 4K is 142, which is still well above the 60 FPS standard.

The data shows that the Medium preset consistently provides the best balance of performance and visual quality. At every resolution, Medium offers a significant FPS advantage over High and Ultra while maintaining a minimum FPS that never drops below 142, even at 4K. The Low preset is only marginally faster than Medium at 1080p (27 FPS difference) but becomes more competitive at 4K (42 FPS difference), suggesting that the GPU's rendering load increases with resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile combination ranks 730th out of 3716 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the top 20% of all configurations. This ranking is notable because Inside is not a demanding game by modern standards, and the combo's high rank is driven primarily by the CPU's exceptional single-threaded and multi-threaded performance.

The Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Dragon Range. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a 55 W TDP. The CPU scores 6030 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 42713 in multi-core, placing it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 76212 is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, which scores 76155 (a 0.1% difference). The AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX are also close, with the Ryzen 9 8945HX trailing them by 0.4% and 0.4% respectively.

The RTX 4090 Mobile's 84th percentile ranking among GPUs is less influential in Inside due to the game's low graphical demands. The combo's 730th rank out of 3716 is primarily a reflection of the CPU's ability to feed frames to the GPU. The data shows that the combo's FPS at 1080p Low (357) is likely near the CPU's maximum frame generation capability, as the GPU has more than enough headroom to render the scene faster. This is corroborated by the CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 3907, which indicates strong per-core performance that is critical for game logic and physics.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice at 2560x1440, delivering an average of 266 FPS with a minimum of 226 FPS. The High preset drops to 166 FPS, and Ultra to 158 FPS, making Medium the only preset that maintains a comfortable margin above 240 FPS for high-refresh-rate displays.

Q: Is the RTX 4090 Mobile the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: No, the data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p. At Low settings, the combo achieves 357 FPS, while at Medium it drops to 330 FPS. The small difference between Low and Medium (27 FPS) compared to the larger drop to High (99 FPS) indicates that the CPU's frame generation limit is reached before the GPU's rendering capabilities are fully utilized.

Q: How much FPS do I lose going from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 330 at 1080p to 266 at 1440p, and then to 167 at 4K. This represents a 49.4% total decrease from 1080p to 4K, with the largest single drop occurring between 1440p and 4K.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever worth using in this game?

A: The Ultra preset delivers 220 FPS at 1080p, 158 FPS at 1440p, and 99 FPS at 4K. While these are all playable, the visual difference between High and Ultra in Inside is minimal. The data shows that High is only 11-5 FPS faster than Ultra across resolutions, making Ultra a viable choice only for users who prioritize maximum visual fidelity over frame rate.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: This combo ranks 730th out of 3716 tested combinations in Inside, placing it in the top 20% of all systems. The rank is driven by the CPU's strong performance, as the GPU's capabilities are underutilized in this game.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU matter more for this game?

A: The CPU matters significantly more. The Ryzen 9 8945HX's high single-core performance (6030 in Cinebench R23) is crucial for game logic, while the RTX 4090 Mobile's massive GPU resources are largely idle. The FPS scaling with resolution suggests the CPU is the bottleneck at 1080p and 1440p, with the GPU only becoming more relevant at 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is the primary driver of performance in Inside, with its 16 cores and 32 threads providing ample processing power for the game's physics and logic systems. The CPU is based on the Zen 4 architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC, and features a 64 MB L3 cache. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz allow it to excel in both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads.

The CPU's benchmark scores are exceptional. It achieves 6030 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 42713 in multi-core, with a PassMark single-thread score of 3907 and a multithread score of 51405. These results place the CPU in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 76212. The nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, scores 76155, a difference of just 0.1%. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores 75779, trailing the 8945HX by 0.6%.

In Inside, the CPU's role is critical because the game is a 2D puzzle platformer with relatively simple graphics but complex game logic. The measured FPS data shows that the combo achieves 357 FPS at 1080p Low, which is likely near the CPU's frame generation limit. The 16 cores and 32 threads are more than sufficient for the game's threading model, and the high boost clock ensures that single-threaded tasks are handled with minimal latency.

The CPU's memory support for DDR5 with a dual-channel bus and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth provides ample memory bandwidth for the game's data access patterns. The 64 MB L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for the game's physics calculations. The CPU's integrated Radeon 610M graphics are not used in this configuration, as the discrete RTX 4090 Mobile handles all rendering.

The data indicates that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p and 1440p settings, as the GPU has significant headroom. This is evidenced by the fact that increasing the resolution from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings only reduces FPS from 357 to 320, an 10.4% drop, while increasing from 1440p to 4K reduces FPS to 209, a 34.7% drop. The CPU's ability to maintain high frame rates at lower resolutions reflects its strong single-core performance, which is essential for games like Inside that rely on a single primary game thread.