Inside

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination delivers a robust experience in Inside, a Puzzle Platformer released on 2016-07-06. The measured data shows this pairing is capable of high frame rates across all tested resolutions, with performance scaling predictably from 1080p to 4K. The following analysis breaks down the measured FPS data, component roles, and how this specific configuration ranks against other tested combinations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience for this hardware pairing. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset achieves an average of 147 FPS, which is excellent for a puzzle platformer. However, the Medium preset delivers a significantly higher average of 247 FPS, with minimum and maximum values of 210 and 284 FPS respectively. The High preset sits between these at 155 FPS average. Given that the genre does not demand extreme visual fidelity, the Medium preset at 1080p provides the most balanced experience, offering a frame rate nearly 70% higher than Ultra while maintaining smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges. The Medium preset reaches an average of 178 FPS, with a minimum of 151 FPS and maximum of 204 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 106 FPS average, while High achieves 111 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is the recommended choice here, as it keeps the frame rate well above the 150 FPS threshold for the entire measured duration, ensuring consistent fluidity. The jump from High to Medium yields a 60% performance increase, which is substantial.

For 3840x2160, the Medium preset is again the standout option. It produces an average of 112 FPS, with minimum and maximum values of 95 and 128 FPS respectively. This is the only preset at 4K where the minimum frame rate remains above 90 FPS, providing a stable experience. The High preset at 4K averages 70 FPS, and Ultra falls to 66 FPS. The Low preset at 4K reaches 140 FPS average, but this sacrifices visual quality unnecessarily. The data indicates that Medium settings at 4K offer the best compromise, delivering 70% more performance than High while maintaining visual coherence.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently provides the highest frame rates with a documented minimum FPS, which is a key indicator of stability. The Low preset, while faster, lacks the visual polish that Medium provides. The Ultra preset, while visually superior, drops frame rates by roughly 40-50% compared to Medium, which is a significant cost for a game of this genre. Therefore, the Medium preset is the optimal choice for all three tested resolutions, balancing speed and visual quality.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060, based on the Navi 44 chip with RDNA 4.0 architecture, plays a central role in the frame rates observed. Its memory configuration includes 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz. These specifications directly influence the measured performance.

The data shows that the GPU is the primary driver of performance scaling across settings. At 1920x1080, the difference between Low and Ultra presets is 162 FPS (from 309 to 147 FPS), indicating that the GPU's shading units and pixel rate are heavily taxed by higher settings. The RX 9060 has 1792 shading units, 112 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s. These specifications explain why the GPU can handle the lower presets with such ease, but the Ultra preset at 1080p still maintains a playable 147 FPS.

At 4K, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth become more critical. The Medium preset at 3840x2160 achieves 112 FPS, but the Ultra preset drops to 66 FPS. This suggests that the GPU is approaching its limits with higher settings at this resolution, likely due to the increased memory pressure and computational load. The fact that the Low preset at 4K reaches 140 FPS shows that the 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for lower settings, but the higher presets require more memory bandwidth and processing power than the GPU can sustain at full speed.

The GPU's percentile ranking versus all GPUs is 59, and its average benchmark score is 16014. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which has a similar average score of 16129 (0.7% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 with a score of 15852 (1% lower). This places the RX 9060 in a competitive mid-range position, which aligns with the observed frame rates: capable of high-refresh 1080p and 1440p gaming, but requiring settings compromises at 4K to maintain high frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X provides substantial processing power that ensures the GPU is not bottlenecked in this title. The CPU features 12 cores and 24 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It has a 64 MB L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. Its benchmark scores are strong, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32172 and a single-core score of 2253.

In Inside, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The measured frame rates at 1920x1080 Low, which reach 309 FPS average, demonstrate that the CPU can handle extremely high frame rates without becoming a limiting factor. The single-thread performance, as shown by the 3DMark single-thread score of 1286 and PassMark single-thread score of 4672, is crucial for games that rely on a primary rendering thread. The data suggests that the 9900X's single-core performance is more than sufficient for this game, as the frame rates scale almost entirely with GPU settings.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities, reflected in its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32172 and PassMark multithread score of 54643, are likely underutilized in Inside, which is a puzzle platformer with modest CPU demands. However, the high core count ensures that any background processes or additional game logic do not interfere with frame pacing. The CPU's percentile ranking versus all CPUs is 92, indicating it is in the top 8% of processors, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-14900, which has a similar average benchmark score (58115 vs 57498, a 1.1% difference). This performance headroom means the CPU is never the bottleneck, allowing the GPU to be the sole determinant of the observed FPS differences across settings and resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve high frame rates?

A: The data shows that at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the combo achieves an average of 247 FPS, while at 2560x1440 Medium it achieves 178 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Medium it achieves 112 FPS. The 1080p Medium preset offers the highest frame rates with a documented minimum of 210 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, has a score of 16129, which is 0.7% higher. The AMD Radeon RX 7700 has a score of 15852, which is 1% lower than the RX 9060.

Q: Does the CPU limit performance at any settings?

A: No, the CPU does not appear to be a limiting factor. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo reaches 309 FPS average, and at 4K Low it reaches 140 FPS. The Ryzen 9 9900X's single-thread score of 1286 in 3DMark and 4672 in PassMark indicates it can keep up with the GPU's output.

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K gaming?

A: Yes, the data shows that 4K Medium settings achieve an average of 112 FPS with a minimum of 95 FPS. The 4K Ultra preset drops to 66 FPS, suggesting that while 8 GB is sufficient for medium settings, the higher presets may be limited by memory capacity or bandwidth.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average of 222 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 106 FPS. This represents a 116 FPS difference, or approximately 109% higher frame rate on Low compared to Ultra.

Q: How does the combo rank relative to all other tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 1615 out of 2887 tested combos in this game, placing it in the 56th percentile of all configurations tested.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a clear scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 247 at 1080p to 178 at 1440p, and further to 112 at 4K. This represents a 28% decrease from 1080p to 1440p, and a 55% decrease from 1080p to 4K. The frame rate scaling is not linear, indicating that the GPU is the limiting component.

At High settings, the average FPS is 155 at 1080p, 111 at 1440p, and 70 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 28%, and from 1080p to 4K is 55%. This is very similar to the Medium preset scaling, suggesting that the GPU's load increases proportionally with resolution regardless of the specific settings. The Ultra preset shows a similar pattern: 147 FPS at 1080p, 106 FPS at 1440p, and 66 FPS at 4K, with drops of 28% and 55% respectively.

The Low preset demonstrates the most extreme scaling. At 1080p, it achieves 309 FPS, which drops to 222 FPS at 1440p (a 28% decrease) and 140 FPS at 4K (a 55% decrease). This consistent 28%/55% scaling pattern across all presets strongly indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor, as the CPU's performance is not affected by resolution changes. The pixel throughput requirement increases quadratically with resolution (from 2.1 million pixels at 1080p to 8.3 million at 4K, a 4x increase), and the observed FPS drops align with this GPU-bound scenario.

The minimum FPS data at Medium settings reinforces this analysis. At 1080p, the minimum is 210 FPS; at 1440p, it is 151 FPS; and at 4K, it is 95 FPS. The scaling of minimum FPS follows the same pattern as average FPS, confirming that the GPU's rendering pipeline is the bottleneck. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see similar FPS across different resolutions at the same settings, which is not the case.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings achieve 309 FPS, Medium settings achieve 247 FPS (with a minimum of 210 and maximum of 284), High settings achieve 155 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 147 FPS. The Large gap between Low and Medium (62 FPS) and between Medium and High (92 FPS) indicates that the Medium preset is a sweet spot, as the jump from Medium to High is more costly than the jump from Low to Medium.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are: Low settings achieve 222 FPS, Medium settings achieve 178 FPS (with a minimum of 151 and maximum of 204), High settings achieve 111 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 106 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 67 FPS, which is larger than the 44 FPS gap between Low and Medium. This suggests that the High preset introduces a significant rendering load increase over Medium.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are: Low settings achieve 140 FPS, Medium settings achieve 112 FPS (with a minimum of 95 and maximum of 128), High settings achieve 70 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 66 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 42 FPS, which is substantial, while the drop from High to Ultra is only 4 FPS. This suggests that at 4K, the High and Ultra presets are both heavily taxing the GPU, and the difference between them is minimal.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset is the only one with complete data (including min and max FPS) for every resolution. The minimum FPS values at Medium settings (210 at 1080p, 151 at 1440p, 95 at 4K) are all above 90 FPS, indicating smooth performance. The maximum FPS values (284 at 1080p, 204 at 1440p, 128 at 4K) show headroom for occasional higher frame rates. The Low preset consistently offers the highest average FPS, but lacks the visual detail of Medium. The High and Ultra presets offer similar average FPS, with Ultra being only slightly slower, suggesting that the Ultra preset is not worth the extra cost in this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X + AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination ranks 1615 out of 2887 tested combos in Inside. This places the combo in the 56th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning it performs better than 56% of all other CPU-GPU pairings tested in this game. The rank indicates a solid mid-tier performance, which aligns with the component specifications.

The GPU's individual percentile ranking is 59, while the CPU's is 92. The combo's in-game rank of 1615 is lower than what the CPU's percentile might suggest, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor for the overall ranking. The GPU's average benchmark score of 16014 is comparable to its nearest rivals, such as the RTX 3060 Ti (16129, 0.7% higher) and the RX 7700 (15852, 1% lower). This places the RX 9060 in a competitive position, and the combo's performance in Inside reflects this.

The ranking of 1615 out of 2887 means there are 1272 combos that perform better and 1614 that perform worse. Given the game's release date of 2016-07-06 and its puzzle platformer genre, this combo delivers more than enough performance for a satisfying experience. The measured FPS data shows that the combo can achieve 147 FPS at 1080p Ultra, which is well beyond the typical 60 FPS target. The combo's rank is likely influenced by combos with higher-end GPUs, but the data confirms that this specific pairing offers a balanced experience for the game, with the CPU providing ample headroom and the GPU delivering solid frame rates across all tested settings and resolutions.