Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer with a deliberately minimalist aesthetic, yet the measured frame rates for the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination reveal a hardware pairing that is anything but minimal in its capability. The data shows a system that is overwhelmingly powerful for this title, but the scaling patterns across resolutions and settings offer a clear picture of where the workload sits and what the components are doing.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression across the three tested resolutions tells a compelling story about performance headroom and the shifting bottleneck. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo produces an average of 294 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, that average drops to 211 FPS, a reduction of approximately 28%. Pushing further to 3840x2160, the average falls to 133 FPS, which is another 37% drop from the 1440p figure. This pattern of decreasing returns as resolution climbs is classic behavior for a scenario where the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at higher pixel counts.

The Low preset data emphasizes this GPU-bound trend even more starkly. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 428 FPS, which suggests the CPU is doing the heavy lifting to feed the frames. At 1440p Low, the average is 384 FPS, a modest 10% decline, and at 4K Low, it still manages 265 FPS, a 31% decline from the 1440p result. The relatively small gap between 1080p and 1440p Low (428 vs 384 FPS) indicates that at these lower settings, the CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads are keeping up easily, and the frame rate is only slightly constrained by the GPU's fill rate and shading capabilities.

The Medium preset data points to a similar conclusion, with 395 FPS at 1080p, 338 FPS at 1440p, and 212 FPS at 4K. The scaling between 1080p and 1440p is again a gentle 14% drop, while the jump to 4K creates a 37% decrease. This suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute throughput become significantly more taxed as the pixel count quadruples from 1440p to 4K. The RTX 4080's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are clearly sufficient, but the sheer pixel workload at 4K is what drives the larger performance delta.

The Ultra preset mirrors the High preset's behavior, with 280 FPS at 1080p, 201 FPS at 1440p, and 126 FPS at 4K. The scaling factors are nearly identical to High, which implies that the additional visual effects in Ultra do not disproportionately penalize the GPU compared to High; the resolution is the dominant variable. Overall, the data implies that at 1080p and 1440p, the CPU is comfortably ahead of the GPU's needs, while at 4K, the RTX 4080 becomes the clear limiting component, though it still delivers a very high average frame rate.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the workhorse in this pairing, and its specifications align well with the measured results. The GPU features 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units, with a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz. This compute configuration, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process, delivers a massive FP32 throughput of 48.74 TFLOPS. For a game like Inside, which is not visually demanding by modern standards, this level of raw compute power is almost excessive, yet it explains the very high frame rates even at 4K.

The memory subsystem is also a key factor. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, the RTX 4080 offers 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. This is more than sufficient for the textures and effects in Inside, even at 4K Ultra settings, where the game's assets are unlikely to challenge the memory capacity. The data shows that the GPU never dips below an average of 126 FPS in any tested configuration, which indicates that memory bandwidth is not a bottleneck. The 1400 MHz memory clock, which translates to 22.4 Gbps effective, provides the necessary speed to keep the shading units fed.

The GPU's role becomes more pronounced as settings increase. The delta between Low and Ultra at 4K is from 265 FPS down to 126 FPS, a 52% reduction. This shows that the Ultra preset does add significant shading and pixel work for the GPU to process. At 1080p, the same Low-to-Ultra comparison shows a drop from 428 FPS to 280 FPS, a 35% reduction. The larger relative drop at 4K underscores that the GPU is doing proportionally more work at higher resolutions, as expected. The RTX 4080's 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores are present, but for this particular game, the standard rasterization pipeline is what drives the performance, and it excels at that task.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo in Inside?

A: The highest average frame rate is 428 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K with the High preset compared to 1080p?

A: At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average frame rate is 133 FPS, which is approximately 55% lower than the 294 FPS average seen at 1920x1080 with the same settings.

Q: Is there a significant performance difference between the Medium and Ultra presets?

A: Yes, the data shows a consistent gap. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 338 FPS while Ultra averages 201 FPS. At 3840x2160, Medium averages 212 FPS and Ultra drops to 126 FPS.

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate recorded in the entire dataset?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 126 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with the Ultra settings preset.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU appear to be the limiting factor at 1080p Low settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system reaches 428 FPS. Given that the Ryzen 9 9900X has a high single-thread score of 2253 in Cinebench R23 and a Geekbench single-core score of 3010, the CPU is likely hitting its limits in frame generation, but the extremely high FPS suggests the GPU is still capable of more.

Q: Are there any frame rate consistency metrics, like minimum FPS, for the High and Ultra presets?

A: The fact pack only provides minimum and maximum FPS data for the Medium preset at each resolution. For example, at 3840x2160 Medium, the minimum is 181 FPS and the maximum is 244 FPS. No min/max data is listed for High, Low, or Ultra presets.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Inside, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 holds a rank of 105 out of 3716 total combos. This places the setup in the top 2.8% of all tested configurations for this game. The percentile ranking is a strong indicator of exceptional performance, and given the measured frame rates, it is clear that this hardware is at the high end of the spectrum for Inside.

The rank reflects the overall capability of the system across all tested settings and resolutions. While the game is not graphically intensive, the combination of a high-end 2024 CPU and a 2022 flagship GPU ensures that nearly every other pairing will produce lower average frame rates. The GPU's percentile of 86 against all GPUs and the CPU's percentile of 92 against all CPUs further contextualize the hardware's standing. The CPU is particularly strong, with an average benchmark score of 57498, placing it just 0.1% behind the AMD EPYC 9015 in the nearest rivals list, and 1.1% ahead of the Intel Core i9-14900.

The fact that this combo sits at rank 105 suggests that there are 104 other configurations that perform better, likely involving even newer or more specialized hardware. The data does not specify what those combos are, but the deltaPct values from the CPU and GPU rivals indicate that the performance headroom is small. The RTX 4080's average benchmark score of 54247 is only 0.1% behind the RTX 4080 SUPER, showing that this specific GPU model is nearly at the top of its class. For a game like Inside, the rank of 105 is effectively a top-tier result, as the frame rates are already well beyond what any display can refresh.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It operates with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, which provides exceptional single-thread and multi-thread performance. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 2253 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 32172 in multi-core, along with a Geekbench single-core score of 3010 and a multi-core score of 22174. These scores place the CPU in the 92nd percentile against all CPUs, indicating that it is a top-tier processor for any workload.

For Inside, the CPU's role is primarily to process game logic, physics, and draw calls. The game is not heavily threaded, so the 12 cores are likely underutilized, but the high boost clock ensures that the single-thread performance is more than adequate. The measured frame rates at lower resolutions and settings confirm this. At 1080p Low, the system hits 428 FPS, which suggests the CPU can generate frames faster than the GPU can render them at that resolution. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1286 and 2-thread score of 2519 further underscore the CPU's strength in lightly threaded scenarios.

The L3 cache of 64 MB is a substantial pool that helps keep frequently accessed data close to the cores, reducing latency. This is beneficial for games that have unpredictable data access patterns, but for Inside, the impact is likely minimal given the simple geometry and textures. The CPU's memory support for DDR5 with a dual-channel bus and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth provides ample data throughput to the GPU. The data implies that the CPU is never a bottleneck in this pairing, as the frame rates are consistently high across all resolutions, and the drops in FPS are directly correlated with increases in resolution, which is a GPU-bound trait.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full measured FPS dataset provides a granular view of performance across all nine resolution and settings combinations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 428 FPS, while Medium averages 395 FPS with a minimum of 336 FPS and a maximum of 455 FPS. High settings reduce the average to 294 FPS, and Ultra brings it down further to 280 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 1080p is relatively small, only 14 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not particularly taxing at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 384 FPS, which is a 10% drop from the 1080p Low result. Medium averages 338 FPS, with a minimum of 287 FPS and a maximum of 389 FPS. High settings average 211 FPS, and Ultra averages 201 FPS. The delta between High and Ultra at 1440p is 10 FPS, again a modest difference. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p for the High and Ultra presets shows a reduction of about 28%, which is consistent with the increase in pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 265 FPS, which is a 31% drop from 1440p Low. Medium averages 212 FPS, with a minimum of 181 FPS and a maximum of 244 FPS. High settings average 133 FPS, and Ultra averages 126 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is only 7 FPS, indicating that the GPU is nearing its limits in terms of pixel shading, but the overall performance remains exceptionally playable. The Medium preset data is the only one with min/max figures, and those show a consistency range of 63 FPS at 4K, 102 FPS at 1440p, and 119 FPS at 1080p, which suggests tighter frame pacing at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For a 1080p display with a 240 Hz or 360 Hz refresh rate, the High preset at 294 FPS is a solid choice, as it maintains an average above the refresh rate while offering better visual fidelity than Low or Medium. The Ultra preset at 280 FPS is nearly as fast and provides the maximum visual quality, so it is recommended for users who prioritize image quality and have a high-refresh-rate monitor.

At 1440p, the situation is similar, with High and Ultra presets delivering 211 FPS and 201 FPS, respectively. Both are well above the standard 144 Hz refresh rate, so either preset works well. The Medium preset at 338 FPS is overkill for most displays, but it offers the highest frame rates with a minimum of 287 FPS, ensuring absolute smoothness. For competitive play or maximum fluidity, Medium is the best choice, but for a balanced experience, High provides a 211 FPS average with better shadows and effects.

At 4K, the Ultra preset averages 126 FPS, which is just above the 120 Hz threshold for many high-end TVs and monitors. This makes Ultra a viable option for a cinematic experience, though the High preset at 133 FPS offers a slight performance margin. The Medium preset at 212 FPS is the recommended choice for 4K if the display supports a 144 Hz or higher refresh rate, as it provides a 68% performance boost over High while still looking substantially better than Low. The Low preset at 265 FPS is only recommended for users with a 240 Hz 4K display, which is a rare hardware combination. In all cases, the data shows that the system can easily handle the game, and the choice of preset should be dictated by the display's refresh rate and the user's preference for visual fidelity over raw FPS.