Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer from 2016, and this benchmark pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile shows that the game is thoroughly dominated by the graphics card at higher resolutions, while the processor has enough headroom to deliver extraordinarily high frame rates at lower settings. The data set shows a clear progression from a GPU-bound experience at 4K to a scenario where the CPU's single-core strength becomes the primary constraint on maximum frame rates. This analysis will break down the measured performance across resolutions, settings, and component roles.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a classic scaling pattern where the demand on the GPU increases exponentially with pixel count, while the CPU workload remains relatively constant. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 328 FPS, but at 4K with Low settings, that average drops to 148 FPS. This represents a reduction of approximately 55% in frame rate, which is a direct consequence of the RTX 5070 Mobile having to render over four times the number of pixels at 4K compared to 1080p.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 189 at 1440p to 118 at 4K, a 37.6% decrease. At High settings, the drop is from 118 at 1440p to 74 at 4K, a 37.3% decrease. These figures indicate that the GPU is the limiting component at these resolutions, as the frame rate is directly tied to the pixel throughput of the RTX 5070 Mobile. The game's simple, dark art style does not present a heavy geometric load, so the bottleneck is purely fill-rate and memory bandwidth.

At 1080p, the scaling pattern changes character. The jump from Low (328 FPS) to Medium (262 FPS) is a 20.1% drop, and from Medium to High (164 FPS) is a 37.4% drop. The difference between High (164 FPS) and Ultra (156 FPS) is only 4.9%, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds effects that are not as taxing on the GPU as the transition from Medium to High. More importantly, the frame rates at 1080p are so high that they approach the limits of what the CPU can feed to the GPU, especially at Low and Medium settings where the GPU has less work to do per frame.

The data indicates a clear threshold: below 1440p, the system is capable of exceeding 200 FPS at medium or lower settings, which is far beyond the refresh rate of most displays. At 4K, the system settles into a more traditional range, with High and Ultra settings producing averages of 74 and 71 FPS, respectively, which are suitable for a smooth experience on a 60Hz or 75Hz monitor. The fact that the 4K Low result (148 FPS) is still higher than the 1440p High result (118 FPS) underscores how much headroom the CPU has; the GPU is the sole arbiter of performance at 4K.

FAQ

Q: Can this laptop combination run Inside at 4K with maximum settings?

A: Yes, the measured data shows an average of 71 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings. This is playable, though not as high as the 74 FPS average achieved at High settings, which offers a slight performance advantage.

Q: What is the best setting for a high refresh rate 1440p monitor?

A: For a 144Hz or higher display, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is the optimal choice, as it produces an average of 189 FPS with a minimum of 160 FPS. The High preset at 118 FPS would also be viable for a 120Hz display, but Medium ensures the frame rate stays above the 144Hz threshold.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game?

A: At 1080p and 1440p with lower settings, the CPU's single-core performance is the limiting factor, as evidenced by the extremely high frame rates. At 4K, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, as the frame rate drops proportionally with the increase in resolution, despite the CPU being idle.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 Mobile compare to its nearest rivals in this context?

A: The RTX 5070 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 29928, which is 0.1% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and 0.5% higher than the RTX 2080 Ti. This indicates it performs in the same tier as those desktop cards, making it a capable GPU for this game's modest demands.

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

A: The difference is substantial. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 328 FPS, while the Ultra preset produces 156 FPS. This is a 52.4% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Q: Does the game have any frame rate dips at higher resolutions?

A: The data provides minimum FPS only for Medium settings. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 101 FPS, and at 1440p Medium it is 160 FPS. These minimums are only slightly below the averages, suggesting stable frame pacing with no major stutters in this specific test.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile is the dominant component in this pairing for most of the tested resolutions. Its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s, which is sufficient for the textures and effects in a puzzle platformer. The GPU's 4608 shading units and 48 ROPs are responsible for the fill-rate performance that dictates the 4K results. The base clock is 907 MHz with a boost clock of 1425 MHz, and the measured performance shows that this configuration is capable of producing 148 FPS at 4K Low, which is a demanding test for any mobile GPU.

The GPU's average benchmark score is 29928, placing it in the 75th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 3070 Ti (average score 29945, deltaPct -0.1%) and the RTX 2080 Ti (average score 29783, deltaPct 0.5%). This means the RTX 5070 Mobile is virtually tied with those previous-generation desktop cards in raw compute power. In Inside, this translates to a GPU that is not stressed until the resolution reaches 4K. At 1080p and 1440p, the GPU is often waiting for the CPU to deliver draw calls, as evidenced by the frame rate scaling being less than linear when moving from Low to Medium settings.

The VRAM capacity of 8 GB is not a concern for this game, as the texture sizes are modest. The data shows no significant performance collapse at 4K Ultra, which would be a sign of VRAM overflow. The 1425 MHz boost clock is relatively low for a modern GPU, but the architecture's efficiency compensates for this, as seen in the 4K High result of 74 FPS. The GPU's role is clear: it is the primary limiter at 4K, and its performance at that resolution is the deciding factor for a smooth experience. The fact that the 4K Ultra average (71 FPS) is only 4.1% lower than the 4K High average (74 FPS) suggests that the GPU has enough headroom to handle the extra visual effects without a major frame rate hit.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile ranks 1943 out of 3716 tested combos in Inside. This places it in the 47.7th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it is slightly below the median performance for this game. This ranking is surprising given the high individual benchmark scores of both components, but it reflects the fact that Inside is an older game that does not fully utilize the multi-core capabilities of the CPU or the advanced features of the GPU.

The CPU's percentile vs all CPUs is 95, meaning it is in the top 5% of processors, while the GPU's percentile vs all GPUs is 75, meaning it is in the top 25% of graphics cards. Despite these strong individual standings, the combo rank is only at the 47.7th percentile, indicating that other systems with lower-tier components may achieve similar or better frame rates in this specific game due to better optimization or higher clock speeds. The data suggests that the game's engine is not well-suited to scaling with the 16-core, 32-thread CPU, and it is more dependent on single-core performance and GPU fill rate.

The combo's rank of 1943 out of 3716 is not a reflection of poor performance, but rather a signal of the high number of tested configurations. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (328 FPS) is exceptionally high, and even at 4K Ultra, the system maintains a playable 71 FPS. This rank would likely be higher on a list of only mobile systems, as many of the 3716 combos may include desktop CPUs and GPUs with higher power envelopes. For a mobile platform, this pairing is demonstrably capable, even if its percentile rank is middling.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. In Inside, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, but its single-core performance is what enables the extremely high frame rates at 1080p. The CPU's benchmark scores are impressive: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713 and a single-core score of 6030. The Passmark single-thread score of 3907 and multi-thread score of 51405 further illustrate its capabilities.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, which has an average score of 76155 (deltaPct 0.1% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, which has an average score of 75779 (deltaPct 0.6% lower). This places the 8945HX in the top tier of mobile processors, with a 95th percentile ranking. However, in Inside, the game does not leverage the 32 threads; it is a lightly threaded title that benefits more from the 5.40 GHz boost clock than from the core count.

The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 328 FPS, which is a frame rate that is typically limited by the CPU's ability to process game logic and issue draw calls. The fact that the frame rate drops to 156 FPS at 1080p Ultra indicates that the GPU is becoming more involved, but the CPU is still not the bottleneck at that setting. The 64 MB of L3 cache is ample for the game's data, and the 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth is more than sufficient. The CPU's 55 W TDP is low for a 16-core part, but the data shows that this does not hinder its performance in this game, as it is rarely fully utilized. The CPU's role is to provide a high-speed foundation that allows the GPU to reach its potential, and the benchmark results confirm that it does so without becoming a limiting factor until the frame rates approach 300 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers a wide range of frame rates depending on the settings preset. With Low settings, the average FPS is 328, which is the highest recorded in the entire data set. Moving to Medium settings, the average drops to 262 FPS, with a minimum of 223 and a maximum of 302. High settings produce an average of 164 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 156 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 20.1% reduction, while the step from High to Ultra is only 4.9%, indicating diminishing returns from the Ultra preset.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low settings produce an average of 236 FPS, which is still exceptionally high. Medium settings average 189 FPS, with a minimum of 160 and a maximum of 217. High settings average 118 FPS, and Ultra settings average 112 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is only 5.1%, similar to the 1080p results, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects (likely more complex shadows or post-processing) have a consistent small impact on the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the system shows its most balanced performance. Low settings average 148 FPS, which is still above the refresh rate of most standard monitors. Medium settings average 118 FPS, with a minimum of 101 and a maximum of 136. High settings average 74 FPS, and Ultra settings average 71 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 20.3%, consistent with other resolutions, but the drop from High to Ultra is only 4.1%, the smallest relative change in the data set. This indicates that at 4K, the GPU is the primary constraint, and the extra visual fidelity of Ultra settings has a negligible impact on the already low frame rate.

The minimum FPS data, available only for Medium settings, shows that the system maintains stable performance. At 1080p, the minimum of 223 is 85.1% of the average, while at 1440p, the minimum of 160 is 84.7% of the average. At 4K, the minimum of 101 is 85.6% of the average. These ratios are consistent, indicating that the game does not introduce stutters or frame time spikes when running at Medium settings across all resolutions. The max FPS values also follow a predictable pattern, with the highest recorded maximum at 1080p Medium (302 FPS) and the lowest at 4K Medium (136 FPS). This data paints a picture of a system that is more than capable of running Inside smoothly at any resolution, with the only caveat being that 4K Ultra requires a display with adaptive sync to fully hide the 71 FPS average.