Inside

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a remarkably fluid experience in Inside, a puzzle platformer that clearly favors high frame rates over graphical fidelity. The data shows this combination is capable of extreme performance, with the measured results indicating that the GPU becomes the primary scaling factor as resolution increases, while the 12-core CPU provides ample headroom even at lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The performance trajectory from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario, though the magnitude of the drop is steep due to the game's modest CPU requirements. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces an average of 168 FPS. Moving to 1440p, the average falls to 121 FPS, a 28% reduction that points directly at the rendering pipeline. At 4K, the average plummets to 76 FPS, representing a 55% drop from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern is consistent with the RX 6700 XT's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus, which become increasingly taxed as pixel count quadruples.

The Low settings preset offers a clearer picture of the CPU's contribution. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 337 FPS, which drops to 242 FPS at 1440p and 152 FPS at 4K. These figures suggest that even at the lowest quality, the GPU still has to work hard to push frames, but the 1080p result demonstrates that the Ryzen 9 9900X is far from a bottleneck. The gap between Low and Ultra at each resolution is telling: at 1080p, the difference between 337 FPS (Low) and 160 FPS (Ultra) is 177 FPS, while at 4K the gap narrows to just 80 FPS (152 vs 72). This compression indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors, whereas at 1080p, the CPU can still feed the GPU enough data to keep it busy.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves?

A: The peak measured average is 337 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This demonstrates the CPU's ability to handle extreme frame rates when the GPU load is minimized.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this setup?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High, the average is 76 FPS, which is playable but not high-refresh territory. For smoother 4K performance, dropping to Medium yields 122 FPS, while Low pushes to 152 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High?

A: The Ultra preset consistently delivers lower frame rates than High across all resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra averages 160 FPS versus 168 FPS on High, a modest 8 FPS difference. At 4K, the gap widens to 4 FPS (72 vs 76), suggesting diminishing returns from the Ultra settings.

Q: Which resolution offers the best balance of quality and speed?

A: 1440p Medium stands out with an average of 194 FPS and a minimum of 165 FPS. This provides a significant visual upgrade over 1080p while maintaining frame rates well above the 144 Hz threshold.

Q: Does the game utilize the CPU's multi-threading capabilities?

A: The benchmark data shows the combo ranks 1806 out of 3716 tested combinations, which is a mid-pack placement. However, the 1080p Low result of 337 FPS indicates that even with minimal GPU load, the CPU does not become a limiting factor, suggesting the game is not heavily multi-threaded.

Q: Are the frame times stable at lower settings?

A: The data includes minimum FPS figures only for Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 229 FPS against a 269 FPS average, indicating stable frame pacing. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 103 FPS against a 122 FPS average, which still shows consistency.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 6700 XT, built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 22 chip, carries the bulk of the rendering load in Inside. Its 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs are responsible for the pixel throughput that drives the resolution scaling observed. The GPU's boost clock of 2581 MHz and game clock of 2424 MHz provide the raw compute power, while the 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration appears sufficient for the game's assets, as even at 4K Ultra the system maintains a 72 FPS average, indicating no memory capacity-related stutters.

The GPU's percentile ranking of 72 among all GPUs places it above average, and its nearest rival comparisons show it trading blows with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, which has a deltaPct of -0.5, meaning the RX 6700 XT is marginally slower in average benchmark scores. In Inside, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions. At 4K, the difference between Low (152 FPS) and Ultra (72 FPS) is 80 FPS, highlighting how the shading workload and memory pressure escalate with quality settings. The GPU's FP32 performance of 13.21 TFLOPS is what drives the pixel and texture rates, with the texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s ensuring that surface details are processed efficiently.

The GPU's 40 ray accelerators are present but irrelevant for this title, as Inside uses a stylized 2D silhouette aesthetic that does not employ ray-traced effects. The measured data confirms that the GPU's traditional rasterization strength is what matters here, with the 165.2 GPixel/s pixel rate directly correlating to the frame rates observed. At 1080p, the GPU is often underutilized, as evidenced by the 337 FPS Low result, but at 4K, it becomes the definitive bottleneck, with frame rates dropping to a level that suggests the card is operating near its maximum throughput.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance across all settings. The Low preset achieves 337 FPS, which is an extraordinary result for a modern system. Medium averages 269 FPS with a minimum of 229 FPS and a maximum of 310 FPS, showing tight frame pacing. High averages 168 FPS, while Ultra averages 160 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is minimal, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds visual effects that have a marginal impact on GPU load at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains high but shows the expected drop. Low averages 242 FPS, which is still far above any display refresh rate. Medium averages 194 FPS with a minimum of 165 FPS and a maximum of 223 FPS, making it the sweet spot for high-refresh 1440p monitors. High averages 121 FPS, and Ultra averages 115 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to just 6 FPS, indicating that the GPU is beginning to feel the pressure of the additional pixels.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes more moderate. Low averages 152 FPS, which is still playable on 4K displays. Medium averages 122 FPS with a minimum of 103 FPS and a maximum of 140 FPS, providing a solid experience. High averages 76 FPS, and Ultra averages 72 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is only 4 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's extra effects are nearly free in terms of GPU cost at this resolution, but the overall frame rate is constrained by the card's compute capabilities.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT achieves a rank of 1806 out of 3716 combos for Inside. This places it in the 48th percentile, which is a mid-pack result. The ranking reflects the balance between the CPU's high single-threaded performance and the GPU's mid-range positioning. The Ryzen 9 9900X has a percentileVsAllCpus of 92, indicating it outperforms 92% of all CPUs in general benchmarks. However, its nearest CPU rivals, such as the AMD EPYC 9015 with a deltaPct of -0.1 and the Intel Core i9-14900 with a deltaPct of -1.1, show that the CPU is not the limiting factor.

The GPU's percentileVsAllGpus is 72, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile with a 0% deltaPct and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 with a -0.5% deltaPct. This means the RX 6700 XT performs similarly to those cards in synthetic benchmarks. In Inside, the combo's rank of 1806 suggests that many other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher frame rates, likely due to more powerful GPUs. The data indicates that the CPU is overqualified for this title, as even the 1080p Low result of 337 FPS does not stress the 12-core processor. The rank is therefore driven by the GPU's absolute performance, which is competent but not top-tier.

Settings Recommendations

For the best overall experience, the Medium preset at 1440p provides the most compelling combination of visual quality and performance. The measured 194 FPS average with a minimum of 165 FPS ensures that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate does not dip below the 144 Hz refresh rate commonly found on gaming monitors. This preset offers a 73 FPS improvement over High at the same resolution while maintaining a smooth experience.

At 1080p, Ultra is the recommended choice for users with high-refresh displays, as it delivers 160 FPS, which is sufficient for 144 Hz panels. The 8 FPS difference between Ultra and High is negligible, so enabling the highest quality settings is essentially free at this resolution. For those with 240 Hz monitors, Medium at 1080p offers 269 FPS, which is closer to the refresh ceiling, but the visual compromise may not be worth the extra 109 FPS over Ultra.

At 4K, Medium is the optimal setting, delivering 122 FPS with a minimum of 103 FPS. This provides a playable experience that exceeds 60 FPS comfortably. High and Ultra at 4K both fall below 80 FPS, which may cause judder on standard 60 Hz displays but are acceptable for slower-paced puzzle gameplay. Low at 4K achieves 152 FPS, but the visual quality reduction is significant for a game that relies on atmospheric lighting and shadow. The data supports Medium as the best compromise, balancing the GPU's workload with the game's aesthetic requirements.