Inside

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a compelling performance profile in Inside, a puzzle platformer that proves surprisingly demanding at higher settings. The measured data reveals a system that scales predictably across resolutions, with the CPU providing a substantial headroom that allows the GPU to become the primary bottleneck only at 4K Ultra settings. This combination ranks 862nd out of 1671 tested combos, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database, a position that reflects its balanced but not top-tier capabilities.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story about where the performance ceiling lies. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 331.4 FPS, a figure that drops to 240.6 FPS at 1440p and further to 147.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a 55.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest graphical preset, the rendering workload scales significantly with pixel count.

The scaling pattern shifts notably at High settings. The 1080p High result of 165.5 FPS drops to 122.1 FPS at 1440p (a 26.2% decrease) and then to 77.5 FPS at 4K (a further 36.5% drop from 1440p). This steeper decline at higher resolutions suggests the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as the pixel count rises. At 4K Ultra, the system manages 73.5 FPS, which is only 5.2% slower than the 4K High result of 77.5 FPS, implying that the GPU is nearing its practical limit in this scenario.

What is particularly revealing is the gap between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution. At 1080p, the spread is 173.5 FPS (from 331.4 to 157.9), while at 4K, the spread narrows to 73.9 FPS (from 147.4 to 73.5). This compression of the settings range at higher resolutions indicates that the RTX 4060's memory bandwidth and processing throughput become limiting factors, while the CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads remain largely underutilized in this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain a high refresh rate?

A: At 1080p Medium, the system delivers 269.1 FPS, which is well above any standard high-refresh display's needs. Even at 1440p Low, the 240.6 FPS result keeps the experience fluid for 144Hz or 240Hz monitors.

Q: Does the game favor the CPU or GPU in this configuration?

A: The data suggests a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the system drops to 73.5 FPS, while at 1080p Low it reaches 331.4 FPS, indicating that the CPU can feed frames far faster than the GPU can render them at lower settings.

Q: How does the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM hold up in this game?

A: The measured results show no signs of memory capacity throttling. The 4K Ultra average of 73.5 FPS, while lower than other settings, does not exhibit the catastrophic drops typically associated with VRAM exhaustion.

Q: Is there a big difference between High and Ultra presets?

A: At 1080p, High yields 165.5 FPS while Ultra produces 157.9 FPS, a difference of 4.8%. At 4K, the gap is 5.4% (77.5 vs 73.5 FPS), suggesting Ultra's additional effects have a modest but consistent cost.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 190.7 FPS, which places this combination well within the range of smooth, high-refresh gaming at this resolution without needing to compromise on visual quality.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 9900X brings substantial processing power to this combination, with 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture. Its base clock of 4.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz provide the single-thread performance that puzzle platformers often rely on for game logic and physics. The benchmark data shows a single-thread score of 1286 in 3dmark and 6555 in Cinebench R23, which are strong indicators of responsiveness in lightly threaded workloads.

The CPU's performance envelope is further evidenced by its average benchmark score of 54450, placing it in the 94th percentile versus all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, scores 54681, a delta of -0.4%, meaning the non-3D variant is essentially on par with its cache-enhanced sibling in aggregate benchmarks. This suggests that the 64 MB of shared L3 cache in the standard 9900X is sufficient for this game's needs.

In Inside, the CPU's role appears to be that of an enabler rather than a bottleneck. The massive frame rates at 1080p Low (331.4 FPS) and Medium (269.1 FPS) indicate that the processor can handle the game's update loop and draw call generation without breaking a sweat. The 3dmark multi-threaded scores, rising from 4886 at 4 threads to 13929 at max threads, show that the CPU scales well with parallel workloads, even if this particular title does not fully exploit its 24 threads.

Settings Recommendations

For players seeking the optimal balance between visual fidelity and frame rate, the Medium preset at 1440p stands out as the most compelling measured option. The 190.7 FPS average at this setting and resolution provides a fluid experience that exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end monitors while retaining more visual detail than Low. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p costs 68.6 FPS (from 190.7 to 122.1), a 36% performance penalty that may not be justified by the incremental visual improvements.

At 4K, the choice becomes more nuanced. The Medium preset delivers 121.7 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for competitive scenarios. High drops to 77.5 FPS, and Ultra to 73.5 FPS, both of which are above the standard 60 FPS threshold but leave little headroom for demanding scenes. For 4K gaming, sticking with Medium appears to be the pragmatic choice, as it maintains a comfortable margin over the 60 FPS baseline.

At 1080p, all settings deliver playable frame rates, with even Ultra reaching 157.9 FPS. The data suggests that High (165.5 FPS) is the sweet spot here, offering better visual quality than Medium (269.1 FPS) without the diminishing returns of Ultra (157.9 FPS). The 6.6 FPS difference between High and Ultra at this resolution is minor, so the choice can be made based on personal preference for extra effects.

How This Combo Ranks

With a rank of 862 out of 1671 tested combinations, this pairing sits just above the median of the database. This positioning reflects the fact that the RTX 4060, while a capable GPU, is not a high-end model, and the Ryzen 9 9900X's power is partially wasted in a title that does not heavily tax the CPU. The combination's percentile ranking aligns with the GPU's 66th percentile versus all GPUs, suggesting the GPU is the primary determinant of this combo's overall standing.

The GPU's nearest rivals provide context for its performance class. The AMD Radeon RX 6600M scores 23321 in average benchmarks, a delta of -0.6% from the RTX 4060's 23181, indicating these two are essentially performance peers. The Intel Arc B580 is 0.7% ahead, while the AMD Radeon 760M is 0.8% behind. This tight grouping suggests that the RTX 4060 is firmly in the mid-range tier, and the combo's rank reflects that positioning rather than any pairing-specific synergy.

The CPU's 94th percentile ranking is notably higher than the GPU's 66th percentile, which explains why the combo's overall rank is not higher. The data implies that if the GPU were upgraded, this same CPU could push the combo significantly higher in the rankings, as the processor has demonstrated it can deliver frame rates far beyond what the RTX 4060 can render at lower settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system's performance scales cleanly across presets. Low settings produce 331.4 FPS, Medium drops to 269.1 FPS, High reaches 165.5 FPS, and Ultra settles at 157.9 FPS. The transition from Low to Medium costs 62.3 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High is more severe at 103.6 FPS, indicating that High enables substantially more GPU-intensive effects.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower absolute numbers. Low delivers 240.6 FPS, Medium 190.7 FPS, High 122.1 FPS, and Ultra 115.5 FPS. The percentage drop from Low to Ultra is 52% at this resolution, compared to 52.3% at 1080p, showing consistent scaling behavior across these two resolutions.

The 3840x2160 results show the greatest compression in frame rates. Low produces 147.4 FPS, Medium 121.7 FPS, High 77.5 FPS, and Ultra 73.5 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 44.2 FPS, which is proportionally larger than at lower resolutions, confirming that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become significant constraints at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, based on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD107 chip, is the limiting factor in this combination's higher-resolution performance. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for this game but explains the drop-off at 4K Ultra where the pixel throughput demands approach the card's limits.

The GPU's boost clock of 2460 MHz and 3072 shading units contribute to its measured performance of 15.11 TFLOPS FP32. The 48 ROPs and 96 TMUs handle pixel and texture processing, with a pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s. These specifications align with the observed frame rates, particularly the 4K results where the pixel rate becomes a closer constraint.

The RTX 4060's average benchmark score of 23181 places it in the 66th percentile versus all GPUs, with nearest rivals being the RX 6600M and GTX 780 Ti within 0.7% delta. The 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores provide hardware support for advanced features, though Inside is not a title that leverages ray tracing or DLSS heavily. The 115 W TDP and suggested 300 W PSU indicate an efficient card that does not require excessive power delivery. The GPU's production status as end-of-life suggests it is being phased out, but its measured performance in this game remains solid for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with playable 4K results at medium settings.