Inside

# Inside Performance Analysis: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D + AMD Radeon RX 9070

The benchmark data for Inside with this AMD combination reveals a puzzle platformer that is remarkably forgiving on modern hardware, yet the scaling patterns expose interesting bottlenecks. This 2016 release, running on a 2025 flagship CPU and a current-generation GPU, delivers playable frame rates at every tested configuration, from 93 FPS at 4K Ultra to 425 FPS at 1080p Low. The measured results across 12 distinct resolution-settings combinations show a game that scales predictably with resolution, but the relationship between CPU and GPU workload suggests this title's simple 2D side-scrolling visuals place unusual demands on the system. The data raises questions about whether modern high-refresh displays can be saturated at lower resolutions, and whether the massive CPU cache and high core count actually matter for this genre.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but consistent across settings, revealing where the GPU becomes the limiting factor. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 425 FPS at 1920x1080 to 311 FPS at 2560x1440 — a 26.8% reduction — and then to 196 FPS at 3840x2160, another 37.0% drop from the 1440p figure. This pattern indicates that even at Low settings, the Radeon RX 9070 is doing meaningful work per frame, though the absolute numbers remain far above display refresh rates. The High preset shows a similar trajectory: 217 FPS at 1080p, 156 FPS at 1440p (a 28.1% decrease), and 98 FPS at 4K (a 37.2% decrease from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings — roughly 27-28% from 1080p to 1440p and 37-38% from 1440p to 4K — suggests a purely pixel-driven workload with no unexpected memory or bandwidth constraints emerging at higher resolutions.

The Medium preset offers the only complete min/max data in the measurements, providing insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the average is 346 FPS with a minimum of 294 and maximum of 398, representing a spread of 104 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 249 FPS with a range from 212 to 287 (75 FPS spread), and at 4K Medium, the average is 157 FPS with a range from 133 to 180 (47 FPS spread). The shrinking variance at higher resolutions is notable — as the GPU becomes more loaded, frame times become more consistent, suggesting that at lower resolutions, some other component (likely the CPU) introduces frame pacing irregularities. The 4K Medium minimum of 133 FPS still exceeds the refresh rate of most standard displays, but the narrowing range implies the system is moving from a CPU-limited regime at 1080p toward a GPU-limited regime at 4K.

Comparing Ultra across resolutions, the data shows 206 FPS at 1080p, 148 FPS at 1440p, and 93 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the only measured configuration below 100 FPS, yet it remains perfectly playable. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Ultra (a 37.2% drop) mirrors the Low and High presets almost exactly, which is surprising — typically, higher settings increase the resolution scaling penalty. This uniformity suggests that Inside's visual effects, even at Ultra, do not introduce additional per-pixel complexity that would amplify the resolution transition. The game appears to be fundamentally fill-rate limited at higher resolutions, with the setting level affecting the baseline performance more than the scaling behavior.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 9070's specifications provide context for these results, though the game's modest demands mean the GPU is rarely stressed to its limits. The card features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 644.6 GB/s bandwidth, which is far more than a 2D puzzle platformer requires. The memory clock runs at 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective), and the boost clock reaches 2520 MHz with a game clock of 2070 MHz. These numbers suggest the GPU has substantial headroom, and the measured frame rates at 1080p — exceeding 400 FPS at Low — indicate the card is nowhere near its architectural ceiling. The GPU's RDNA 4.0 architecture, built on TSMC's 4 nm process with 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die, delivers 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. For Inside, this compute capability is almost entirely irrelevant; the game's simple shading and lighting models do not exercise the shader array or the 56 ray tracing cores in any meaningful way.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 69th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23877. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (0.6% lower score), the AMD Radeon RX 6800S (0.8% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile (1.1% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (1.2% higher). These close margins — all within 1.2% — indicate that the RX 9070 sits in a tightly contested performance band, at least in the synthetic benchmarks recorded. However, for Inside specifically, these rivalries are moot; the game's frame rates are so high that any of these cards would likely produce similar results. The GPU's pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s are the specifications most relevant to this game, as the 2D side-scrolling perspective with layered sprites and lighting effects primarily stresses pixel throughput. The 128 ROPs and 224 TMUs are ample for the game's resolution demands, and the measured 4K Ultra result of 93 FPS suggests the card maintains acceptable throughput even at the highest pixel count with maximum settings.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 9900X3D presents an interesting case for a game like Inside, which is unlikely to use more than a few threads. The CPU features 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge codename), with base and boost clocks of 4.40 GHz and 5.50 GHz respectively. The 128 MB of L3 cache is the headline feature of the X3D series, and while it benefits many modern games, its impact on a 2016 puzzle platformer is questionable. The CPU's benchmark results show strong single-thread and multi-thread performance: a 3DMark single-thread score of 1269, a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6739, and a multi-core score of 47737. The Geekbench scores of 3041 single-core and 22884 multi-core reinforce this picture. For Inside, the single-thread performance is what matters most, as the game's physics and logic likely run on a primary thread. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 2512 suggests the CPU can handle the light threading demands of this title with ease.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 91 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54762, places it near the top of the database. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (0.6% lower average score), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K (1.3% higher), the Intel Xeon 6505P (2.0% higher), and the Intel Core i7-14700F (2.1% higher). These tight margins indicate that the 9900X3D is competitive with mid-range Intel offerings in aggregate benchmarks, though the X3D's cache advantage might show differently in gaming workloads. The measured frame rates in Inside — particularly the 425 FPS at 1080p Low — suggest the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at very high rates, but the game's simplicity means even a substantially weaker processor would likely achieve similar results. The CPU's 80 KB L1 and 1 MB L2 per core, combined with the 128 MB L3, provide ample cache for the game's assets, but whether this translates to observable frame rate benefits over a smaller cache CPU is not discernible from the data alone.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 9900X3D and Radeon RX 9070 ranks 569th out of 2887 tested combos for Inside, placing it in the top 20% of all system configurations in the database. This ranking is surprisingly modest given the high-end nature of both components, but it reflects the reality that Inside is not a demanding title — many older or mid-range systems likely achieve similar frame rates because the game's requirements are so low. The rank of 569 suggests that a significant number of combinations with weaker CPUs or GPUs produce comparable or better results in this specific game, which speaks to the title's optimization and modest hardware demands. The combo rank is a game-specific metric, and for Inside, the bottleneck is rarely the hardware itself but rather the game engine's ability to utilize available resources.

The fact that this combo does not rank higher — despite the CPU being in the 91st percentile and the GPU in the 69th — highlights a crucial insight: for games with low graphical complexity, the ceiling is often the game's own engine limitations rather than the hardware. The measured frame rates, reaching 425 FPS at 1080p Low, are already far beyond what most displays can show, so any additional hardware headroom is wasted. The combo's rank of 569 out of 2887 means that 2318 other combinations rank lower, but it also means 568 rank higher, likely including systems with faster single-thread performance or better GPU optimization for this specific engine. The data suggests that for Inside, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's multi-core prowess is largely irrelevant, and the RX 9070's raw power exceeds the game's requirements by a wide margin.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 425 FPS, Medium averages 346 FPS with a minimum of 294 and maximum of 398, High averages 217 FPS, and Ultra averages 206 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium (79 FPS) is larger than the gap between High and Ultra (11 FPS), suggesting that the Medium preset introduces significant visual effects that cost performance, while the jump from High to Ultra is comparatively minor. At 2560x1440, the numbers are 311 FPS for Low, 249 FPS for Medium (with min/max of 212/287), 156 FPS for High, and 148 FPS for Ultra. The same pattern holds: the Low-to-Medium drop is 62 FPS, while the High-to-Ultra drop is only 8 FPS. At 3840x2160, Low averages 196 FPS, Medium averages 157 FPS (with min/max of 133/180), High averages 98 FPS, and Ultra averages 93 FPS. The Low-to-Medium gap narrows to 39 FPS at 4K, while High-to-Ultra remains a small 5 FPS difference.

The Medium preset's complete min/max data reveals interesting consistency patterns. At 1080p, the minimum of 294 FPS is 85% of the average, while at 1440p, the minimum of 212 FPS is 85% of the 249 average, and at 4K, the minimum of 133 FPS is 85% of the 157 average. This consistent 85% ratio across resolutions suggests the frame time variance is proportional to the average, indicating a stable performance profile regardless of resolution. The maximum values also scale consistently: 398, 287, and 180 FPS at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively, each representing roughly 115% of the average. This tight clustering of min/max around the average — within ±15% — demonstrates that Inside does not exhibit the frame pacing stutters that can plague more complex games, even when the hardware is pushed to different resolution points.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance headroom. At 1080p Medium, the 346 FPS average with a 294 FPS minimum provides a comfortable margin above any consumer display's refresh rate, while the visual improvements over Low are significant given the 79 FPS cost. At 1440p Medium, the 249 FPS average and 212 FPS minimum still exceed the refresh rates of all but the most extreme gaming monitors, making this the recommended configuration for high-refresh displays. Even at 4K Medium, the 157 FPS average with a 133 FPS minimum is sufficient for 120 Hz displays, though users with 144 Hz or higher panels might need to consider the Ultra preset's trade-offs.

The Ultra preset, while offering the highest visual fidelity, provides diminishing returns over High — only 11 FPS at 1080p, 8 FPS at 1440p, and 5 FPS at 4K. The High preset at 4K (98 FPS average) is nearly indistinguishable from Ultra (93 FPS) in performance but might offer slightly reduced visual effects. For users targeting 4K at 60 Hz, both High and Ultra are viable, but the 5 FPS difference makes High the more efficient choice. At 1440p, the High preset's 156 FPS average is sufficient for 144 Hz displays, and the Ultra preset's 148 FPS also qualifies, making the choice purely aesthetic. The Low preset, while delivering the highest frame rates (425 FPS at 1080p), sacrifices too much visual quality for a game that already runs smoothly at higher settings. The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot for most users, providing a significant visual upgrade over Low while maintaining frame rates well above display capabilities across all resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for a 60 Hz display?

A: All tested configurations exceed 60 FPS, with the lowest measured result being 93 FPS at 4K Ultra. For maximum visual quality, 4K Ultra is viable, but 4K High (98 FPS) offers nearly identical performance with slightly reduced settings. At 1440p, even Ultra (148 FPS) provides more than double the refresh rate of a 60 Hz display.

Q: Can this system achieve 144 FPS at 4K?

A: No, at 4K the highest measured average is 196 FPS at Low settings, but Medium drops to 157 FPS, High to 98 FPS, and Ultra to 93 FPS. None of the 4K configurations reach 144 FPS at the higher settings, and even Medium's 157 FPS is close but falls short of a 144 Hz target with no headroom.

Q: How much performance is lost going from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings?

A: At Low settings, the drop is from 425 to 311 FPS (a 26.8% decrease). At Medium, it's from 346 to 249 FPS (28.1% decrease). At High, it's from 217 to 156 FPS (28.1% decrease). At Ultra, it's from 206 to 148 FPS (28.2% decrease). The consistency across settings indicates a uniform resolution scaling factor.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's 128 MB L3 cache beneficial for this game?

A: The measured frame rates are extremely high (up to 425 FPS at 1080p Low), but the game's simple 2D visuals likely do not require massive cache. The CPU's single-thread performance (3DMark single-thread score of 1269) is more relevant, and the cache advantage would be difficult to isolate from the overall system performance in this title.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at Medium settings across resolutions?

A: At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 294 FPS and maximum is 398 FPS, a spread of 104 FPS. At 1440p, the range is 212 to 287 FPS (75 FPS spread). At 4K, the range narrows to 133 to 180 FPS (47 FPS spread). The shrinking variance at higher resolutions indicates more consistent frame pacing as the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck.

*Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems for Inside?*

A: The combination ranks 569th out of 2887 tested combos, placing it in the top 20% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the game's low hardware demands — many mid-range systems achieve comparable frame rates because Inside does not heavily stress either the CPU or GPU.