Inside

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination delivers exceptional performance in Inside, placing 11th out of 2,887 tested combos. This pairing produces frame rates that far exceed display refresh rate capabilities at every resolution tested, with the lowest average being 153 FPS at 4K Ultra settings. The data indicates a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions but reveals interesting CPU scaling behavior at 1080p, where the processor's 12 cores and 24 threads demonstrate their capability to feed even the most demanding graphics card without becoming a bottleneck.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor built on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge, and fabricated on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and boosts up to 5.60 GHz, which positions it strongly for gaming workloads that favor both multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. The processor's 64 MB of L3 cache and 80 KB L1 cache per core provide substantial on-die storage for game assets and instructions. In the context of Inside, a puzzle platformer with relatively modest computational demands compared to AAA titles, this CPU configuration is far more powerful than necessary for achieving playable frame rates.

Benchmark data for the Ryzen 9 9900X shows a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,172 and a single-core score of 2,253, along with a Geekbench multi-core score of 22,174 and single-core score of 3,010. These results indicate that the processor excels at both heavily parallelized workloads and lightly-threaded tasks, which is directly relevant to game performance. The 3DMark tests reveal scaling from 2,519 with 2 threads to 13,929 with max threads, demonstrating excellent multi-threading efficiency that benefits games which can utilize additional cores. The processor's PassMark multi-thread score of 54,643 and single-thread score of 4,672 further confirm its balanced capability profile.

In Inside, the measured frame rates across all settings and resolutions suggest that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 428 FPS average, which represents the highest frame rate in the entire dataset. This figure indicates that even at the lowest graphical settings where GPU load is minimized, the processor can sustain extremely high frame rates. The 1080p Medium and High settings produce 395 FPS and 330 FPS respectively, showing that the CPU maintains consistent performance as GPU load increases. The Ryzen 9 9900X's percentile ranking of 92 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 57,498, places it in the upper echelon of processors, and its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 9015 at 57,555 (0.1% ahead) and the Intel Core i9-14900 at 58,115 (1.1% ahead), demonstrating that it competes favorably with top-tier server and desktop chips.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured frame rate data provides clear guidance on which settings preset delivers the optimal experience for this hardware combination. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves an average of 428 FPS, while Medium reaches 395 FPS, High reaches 330 FPS, and Ultra reaches 324 FPS. The difference between Medium and Ultra at 1080p is only 71 FPS (395 vs 324), which is a relatively small penalty for the visual quality improvement that Ultra settings typically provide. However, the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance, with a minimum frame rate of 336 FPS and a maximum of 455 FPS, ensuring no perceptible stuttering or frame pacing issues.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 354 FPS average with a minimum of 301 FPS and maximum of 407 FPS, while High achieves 255 FPS and Ultra achieves 243 FPS. The gap between Medium and Ultra at 1440p is 111 FPS (354 vs 243), which is more substantial than at 1080p. For users with high-refresh-rate monitors (144Hz or 240Hz), the Medium preset at 1440p provides more than sufficient headroom above any practical refresh rate, making it the recommended choice for this resolution. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 384 FPS, but this setting likely sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a game that already runs at extremely high frame rates with Medium settings.

At 4K resolution, the Medium preset achieves 256 FPS average with a minimum of 218 FPS and maximum of 295 FPS, which is the only 4K preset with complete frame time data available. The High preset at 4K produces 160 FPS, and Ultra produces 153 FPS, both of which remain above 144Hz refresh rate thresholds. The Low preset at 4K reaches 321 FPS, showing that even at maximum resolution, the system can deliver extraordinarily high frame rates when graphical settings are reduced. For 4K gaming, the Medium preset at 256 FPS is the clear recommendation, as it provides a substantial safety margin above any current display refresh rate while maintaining reasonable visual quality for a puzzle platformer.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals important insights about which component limits performance in Inside. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 428 FPS at 1080p to 384 FPS at 1440p (a 10.3% decrease) and then to 321 FPS at 4K (a 16.4% decrease from 1440p). This relatively modest scaling suggests that at Low settings, the bottleneck shifts from the CPU at 1080p toward the GPU as resolution increases, but neither component is being pushed to its absolute limit. The 107 FPS difference between 1080p and 4K at Low settings indicates that the GPU handles the increased pixel count with substantial headroom remaining.

At Medium settings, the frame rate drops from 395 FPS at 1080p to 354 FPS at 1440p (10.4% decrease) and then to 256 FPS at 4K (27.7% decrease from 1440p). The larger percentage drop from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings compared to Low settings suggests that the GPU is becoming increasingly saturated as both resolution and graphical complexity increase. The minimum frame rates at Medium settings tell a similar story: 336 FPS at 1080p, 301 FPS at 1440p, and 218 FPS at 4K, with the 4K minimum being 35.1% lower than the 1080p minimum.

The High settings data shows frame rates of 330 FPS at 1080p, 255 FPS at 1440p (22.7% decrease), and 160 FPS at 4K (37.3% decrease from 1440p). This accelerating decline at High settings indicates that the RTX 5090 D is the primary limiting factor at this preset, as the GPU's rendering workload scales super-linearly with resolution. At Ultra settings, the pattern continues with 324 FPS at 1080p, 243 FPS at 1440p (25% decrease), and 153 FPS at 4K (37% decrease from 1440p). The consistent pattern across High and Ultra settings—where 4K performance is roughly half of 1080p performance—strongly indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck at these higher settings, while the CPU maintains sufficient headroom to feed the graphics card.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 11th out of 2,887 tested combos in Inside, placing it in the top 0.4% of all configurations evaluated. This exceptional ranking reflects the synergistic performance of pairing a top-tier 12-core processor with a flagship 32 GB graphics card, resulting in frame rates that are among the highest measured in the database. The rank of 11 indicates that only 10 other combinations of CPU and GPU produce higher average frame rates in this game, which is particularly notable given the already extreme performance levels achieved.

The combo's ranking is supported by the individual component rankings. The Ryzen 9 9900X holds a percentile ranking of 92 among all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 92% of processors in the database. The RTX 5090 D also holds a percentile ranking of 92 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712. The GPU's nearest rivals in the overall benchmark database include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT at 76,904 (1.1% lower) and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 78,940 (1.6% higher), which places the RTX 5090 D in a competitive position among high-end graphics cards despite the unusual "D" variant designation.

Given that Inside is a puzzle platformer with relatively modest graphical requirements, the 11th place ranking is particularly impressive. The measured frame rates at 4K Ultra (153 FPS) are more than sufficient for smooth gameplay, and the fact that this combo achieves such high performance in a game that does not heavily tax either component suggests that the ranking is driven by the sheer computational headroom of both parts. The data indicates that the combo would likely rank even higher in more demanding games where the GPU's 32 GB of VRAM and 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth would be more fully utilized, but within Inside's specific workload, this pairing demonstrates near-top-tier performance.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a flagship graphics card based on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, featuring the GB202 chip manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It comes equipped with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth—an enormous amount of bandwidth that ensures the GPU never starves for data, even at 4K resolution with demanding settings. The card operates with a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). Its 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 render output units deliver substantial raw compute capability, with FP32 performance rated at 104.8 TFLOPS.

In the context of Inside, the RTX 5090 D's massive memory capacity and bandwidth are far beyond what this game requires. The 32 GB VRAM allocation is particularly notable because Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer with relatively simple 2.5D visuals that do not demand large texture sets or complex geometry. The measured frame rates reflect this over-provisioning: even at 4K Ultra settings, the game runs at 153 FPS average, which is likely limited more by the game engine's frame rate ceiling or the CPU rather than the GPU's actual rendering capacity. The card's pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s provide more than enough fill rate to handle the game's rendering requirements at any resolution.

The GPU's benchmark scores further illustrate its capabilities. Its PassMark G3D score of 44,065 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326 indicate strong DirectX 12 performance, while Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan scores of 310,674 and 376,915 respectively demonstrate excellent compute capabilities. The DirectX 11 score of 371 and DirectX 10 score of 231 in PassMark show that even legacy API performance is robust, which is relevant for a game like Inside that may utilize older rendering paths. The GPU's percentile ranking of 92 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712, places it in the upper tier of graphics cards, though its nearest rivals in the benchmark database (the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and RX 6850M XT) are notably mobile GPUs, suggesting that the RTX 5090 D's unique positioning in the database reflects its specialized "D" variant designation.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured frame rate data for this combo covers three resolutions (1080p, 1440p, 4K) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), providing a comprehensive picture of performance scaling.

At 1920x1080, the system achieves an average of 428 FPS at Low settings, 395 FPS at Medium, 330 FPS at High, and 324 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset provides the only complete frame time data at this resolution, with a minimum of 336 FPS and maximum of 455 FPS, indicating excellent frame pacing with no significant drops. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 104 FPS (428 vs 324), which represents a 24.3% performance penalty for the highest visual quality settings. This relatively small penalty suggests that at 1080p, the GPU has substantial headroom even at Ultra settings, and the CPU is capable of maintaining high frame rates regardless of graphical load.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are 384 FPS for Low, 354 FPS for Medium, 255 FPS for High, and 243 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset again provides complete frame time data with a minimum of 301 FPS and maximum of 407 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 141 FPS (384 vs 243), representing a 36.7% performance penalty—larger than at 1080p, which indicates the GPU is becoming more load-sensitive at this resolution. The drop from Medium to High at 1440p is particularly steep at 99 FPS (354 vs 255), suggesting that the High preset introduces rendering features that disproportionately impact performance.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are 321 FPS for Low, 256 FPS for Medium, 160 FPS for High, and 153 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset provides the only complete frame time data at 4K, with a minimum of 218 FPS and maximum of 295 FPS. The performance penalty from Low to Ultra at 4K is 168 FPS (321 vs 153), representing a 52.3% decrease—the largest relative drop across all resolutions. This pattern confirms that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at 4K, with the gap between Medium and High (96 FPS) and Medium and Ultra (103 FPS) being particularly pronounced. Despite this scaling, even the lowest measured frame rate (153 FPS at 4K Ultra) remains far above the 60 FPS standard, and the 4K Medium preset's minimum of 218 FPS ensures a consistently smooth experience for any current display technology.