Inside

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination delivers a decisive performance profile in Inside, a puzzle platformer that scales dramatically with resolution and settings. The measured data shows this pairing is capable of exceptional frame rates, but the distribution of those rates reveals a clear narrative about which component governs the experience at different visual loads.

Resolution Scaling

The benchmark data shows a predictable and steep decline in average frame rates as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, but the magnitude of that decline is highly dependent on the settings preset. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 328 at 1080p to 236 at 1440p, a reduction of 92 frames, and then further to 148 at 4K, a total drop of 180 frames from 1080p to 4K. This 45% reduction in performance from the lowest to the highest resolution indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is beginning to feel the pressure of the additional pixel count, though the absolute numbers remain very high.

The scaling pattern shifts at Medium settings. The average FPS goes from 262 at 1080p to 189 at 1440p, a drop of 73 frames, and then to 118 at 4K, a further drop of 71 frames. The percentage decline from 1080p to 4K is roughly 55%, which is steeper than at Low settings. This suggests that the increased shading and texture work at Medium settings magnifies the GPU's workload more than the resolution change alone.

High settings tell a similar story with slightly lower absolute numbers. The average FPS is 164 at 1080p, 118 at 1440p, and 74 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 46 frames, and from 1440p to 4K is another 44 frames. The consistent pattern of roughly halving the frame rate at each resolution step is typical of a GPU-bound scenario.

Ultra settings produce the most constrained results. The average FPS is 156 at 1080p, 112 at 1440p, and 71 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 44 frames, and from 1440p to 4K is 41 frames. Interestingly, the absolute difference between High and Ultra at 4K is only 3 frames (74 vs 71), which suggests that at 4K, the GPU is hitting a hard performance ceiling regardless of the minor additional load from Ultra settings.

The data indicates that the limiting component shifts across the resolution spectrum. At 1080p, the frame rates are so high (328 FPS at Low) that the CPU and memory subsystem are likely the primary constraint, as the GPU is not being fully taxed. As resolution increases to 1440p and then 4K, the GPU becomes the dominant limiting factor, evidenced by the proportional scaling of workload with pixel count. The transition is smooth, but the 4K results, particularly at High and Ultra, are the clearest indicator of GPU-bound operation.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear picture of the performance trade-offs between presets. The data shows that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, providing a significant frame rate boost over High and Ultra while maintaining visual fidelity that is likely indistinguishable in a 2D side-scrolling context.

At 4K, Medium delivers an average of 118 FPS, which is 44 frames higher than High and 47 frames higher than Ultra. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium is also recorded at 101, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This makes Medium the only preset at 4K that guarantees a consistently fluid experience without any recorded dips below 100 FPS.

At 1440p, Medium achieves 189 FPS on average, with a minimum of 160 FPS. This is a massive headroom over the 60 FPS standard, and it is 71 frames higher than High and 77 frames higher than Ultra. The Medium preset at 1440p is essentially overkill for standard displays, but it demonstrates that the hardware is far from stressed.

At 1080p, Medium hits 262 FPS on average, with a minimum of 223 FPS. This is the highest minimum FPS recorded across any setting at 1080p, indicating exceptional frame pacing. While Low settings push the average to 328 FPS, the difference between 262 and 328 FPS is likely imperceptible to most users, making Medium the superior choice for visual quality without sacrificing measurable performance.

The High preset is a viable choice for users prioritizing visual effects, but the data shows it consistently underperforms Medium by a substantial margin: 44 frames at 4K, 71 frames at 1440p, and 98 frames at 1080p. Given that the game is a puzzle platformer with a minimalist art style, the visual difference between Medium and High is unlikely to justify the frame rate cost. Ultra settings offer the lowest average FPS at every resolution, and at 4K, the 71 FPS average is only 3 frames higher than High, making it the least efficient preset for the measured performance gain.

The recommendation from the data is clear: the Medium preset delivers the best experience per the measured rows, offering the highest minimum FPS at every resolution and a comfortable margin above display refresh rates. It is the only preset that maintains a minimum FPS above 100 at both 4K and 1440p.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable at 1920x1080?

A: The maximum average frame rate is 328 FPS, achieved with the Low settings preset at 1920x1080.

Q: Does the RTX 5070 maintain a playable frame rate at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: Yes, the data shows an average of 71 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which is above the standard 60 FPS playability threshold.

Q: Which settings preset provides the highest minimum FPS at 2560x1440?

A: The Medium preset provides the highest minimum FPS at 2560x1440, with a recorded minimum of 160 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 164 at 1920x1080 to 74 at 3840x2160, a loss of 90 frames per second.

Q: Is the RTX 5070 the bottleneck at 1080p Low settings?

A: No, the data suggests the GPU is not the primary bottleneck at 1080p Low, as the 328 FPS average indicates the workload is likely being constrained by the CPU or other system components.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: The difference is minimal, with High averaging 74 FPS and Ultra averaging 71 FPS at 3840x2160, a gap of only 3 frames per second.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark data provides a complete matrix of average frame rates across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the RTX 5070 and Ryzen 9 8945HX combination delivers an average of 328 FPS at Low, 262 FPS at Medium, 164 FPS at High, and 156 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset at 1080p also records a minimum FPS of 223 and a maximum of 302, showing a tight frame delivery window.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops to 236 at Low, 189 at Medium, 118 at High, and 112 at Ultra. The Medium preset at 1440p records a minimum of 160 FPS and a maximum of 217 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is a reduction of 92 FPS, while at Medium it is a reduction of 73 FPS, at High it is 46 FPS, and at Ultra it is 44 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS is 148 at Low, 118 at Medium, 74 at High, and 71 at Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, showing a minimum of 101 FPS and a maximum of 136 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings is a reduction of 88 FPS, at Medium it is 71 FPS, at High it is 44 FPS, and at Ultra it is 41 FPS.

The data reveals a consistent pattern where the performance delta between settings presets narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 172 FPS. At 1440p, that difference narrows to 124 FPS. At 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra is 77 FPS. This convergence at higher resolutions is a classic indicator of the GPU becoming the dominant constraint, as the pixel workload overwhelms the differences in shader complexity.

Looking at the efficiency of each preset, the ratio of average FPS at 4K to 1080p is 0.45 for Low, 0.45 for Medium, 0.45 for High, and 0.46 for Ultra. This remarkably consistent ratio across all settings suggests that the GPU scaling with resolution is linear and independent of the preset, reinforcing that the RTX 5070's pixel throughput is the limiting factor at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the primary driver of the frame rates observed in Inside. The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. For a puzzle platformer with a limited visual scope, this memory configuration is more than sufficient to hold all textures and geometry at any resolution. The data does not indicate any memory-related performance issues, as the frame rates are consistent and do not show signs of texture streaming or stuttering.

The GPU's clock speeds are listed as a base of 2325 MHz and a boost of 2512 MHz. These clocks, combined with the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, produce a peak FP32 performance of 30.87 TFLOPS. In the context of Inside, this compute capability is heavily underutilized at 1080p, as evidenced by the 328 FPS average at Low settings. The GPU is capable of far more work than the game demands at that resolution.

At 4K, the GPU's role becomes more defined. The frame rates drop to 148 FPS at Low and 71 FPS at Ultra, indicating that the GPU's pixel fill rate and shading units are being taxed by the four-fold increase in pixel count from 1080p. The 80 ROPs and 192 TMUs are responsible for the rasterization work, and the data suggests they handle the load efficiently, as the frame pacing remains stable with no recorded dips below 101 FPS at the Medium preset.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide context for its overall performance. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 29137 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5077. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 178923 indicates strong API utilization. These synthetic results align with the measured FPS in Inside, confirming that the RTX 5070 is a high-performing mobile GPU that ranks in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs.

The nearest rivals by average benchmark score are the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (0.1% higher score) and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (0.8% higher score), while the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile is 2% lower. The RTX 5070's 12 GB VRAM is a critical asset for future titles, but for Inside, it is not a limiting factor. The GPU's 250 W TDP and dual-slot design are physical characteristics that do not directly impact the measured performance but indicate the power envelope required for these results.

CPU Role

The AMD 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. For a game like Inside, which is not CPU-intensive due to its simple physics and AI, this processor provides an enormous amount of computational headroom.

The CPU's benchmark scores are exceptional. It achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713 and a single-core score of 6030. The Passmark multi-thread score is 51405, and the single-thread score is 3907. These results place the CPU in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, indicating that it is one of the most powerful mobile processors available.

In the context of Inside, the CPU's role is to ensure that frame delivery is never bottlenecked by game logic. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the average FPS reaches 328, which is likely near the game engine's internal limit or the CPU's ability to feed the GPU with draw calls. The CPU's high single-thread performance, as evidenced by the 6030 Cinebench R23 single-core score, is critical for this scenario, as many games rely on a single main thread for game logic.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (0.1% higher average score) and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (0.6% higher average score). The differences are negligible, indicating that the 8945HX is at the top of the mobile CPU hierarchy. The 64 MB of L3 cache is beneficial for keeping frequently accessed game data close to the cores, reducing latency.

The 32 threads are vastly underutilized by Inside, but they provide future-proofing for more demanding titles. The CPU's 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, paired with DDR5 support, ensures that the GPU is never starved for data. In the measured results, the CPU is not the limiting component at 1440p or 4K, as the frame rates scale consistently with GPU workload. However, at 1080p with Low settings, the 328 FPS ceiling is likely due to CPU constraints, as the GPU is capable of much higher output.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 1474 out of 2887 tested combos for Inside. This places the combo in the 51st percentile of all tested configurations, which is a moderate ranking given the individual components' high benchmark percentiles (95th for CPU, 82nd for GPU).

The rank of 1474 out of 2887 indicates that while this hardware is powerful, there are many other combos that achieve higher frame rates in this specific game. This is likely because Inside is an older title (released in 2016) with modest system requirements, and many older or less powerful GPUs can achieve high frame rates at lower resolutions. The ranking does not reflect a flaw in this combo, but rather the game's low demands and the wide range of tested hardware.

The data shows that this combo's performance is exceptional in absolute terms, with even the lowest average FPS (71 at 4K Ultra) being well above playable thresholds. The mid-pack ranking reflects the game's optimization and accessibility, not to any weakness in the hardware. For users with high-refresh-rate displays, this combo is capable of maxing out most monitors at 1440p, as the average FPS at High settings is 118, which is above the 144 Hz standard.

The combo's ranking relative to other tested combos is likely influenced by the fact that Inside does not benefit significantly from the CPU's 16 cores or the GPU's advanced Blackwell features. The game is a 2D puzzle platformer with simple visuals, so the performance is primarily determined by raw rasterization speed at high resolutions. The RTX 5070's 30.87 TFLOPS FP32 performance is more than sufficient, and the combo's rank would likely be higher in a more demanding 3D title. The 1474th rank out of 2887 combos places it in the middle of the distribution, but the measured data shows that this is a high-performance pairing that handles Inside with ease at any resolution or setting.