Inside

Inside is a 2016 puzzle platformer, and the measured performance of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 shows a combination that is heavily influenced by resolution and graphics settings. The data indicates a system capable of very high frame rates, but the scaling behavior reveals distinct bottlenecks depending on the workload. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings, contextualizes the results against rival hardware, and examines the specific roles of the CPU and GPU in this game.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data for Inside reveals a clear trend: frame rates are exceptionally high at 1080p and remain more than playable at 4K. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 178 at 1920x1080 to 128 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 50 FPS or roughly 28%. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average FPS falls to 80, which is another 48 FPS drop from 1440p. This progression shows that while the game is not overly demanding, the GPU is still the primary scaling factor as pixel count increases.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly telling. The drop from 128 FPS to 80 FPS at High settings represents a 37.5% decrease in performance. This is a significant penalty that points directly to the GPU's rendering limits at higher resolutions. The RTX 5060, with its 8 GB of VRAM and 128-bit memory bus, begins to show its constraints when pushing 8.3 million pixels, but the absolute frame rates are still solid for this title.

Comparing Low and Ultra settings provides further insight into the limiting component. At 1080p, the difference between Low (355 FPS) and Ultra (169 FPS) is 186 FPS, indicating that the GPU is doing substantially more work at higher settings. However, at 4K, the gap narrows slightly in relative terms: Low produces 161 FPS while Ultra produces 76 FPS, a difference of 85 FPS. The fact that even at 4K Low settings the system achieves 161 FPS suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor at this resolution; the GPU is always the bottleneck when settings are maxed out.

The data suggests that the CPU is powerful enough to feed the GPU at all resolutions tested. At 1080p Low, the 355 FPS average confirms the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's single-thread performance, which is more than adequate for this game's engine. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings (355 to 255 FPS) and from 1440p to 4K (255 to 161 FPS) shows a consistent decline that aligns with GPU fill-rate limits. The limiting component at 4K Ultra is definitively the GPU, as the 76 FPS average indicates a heavy render load that the RTX 5060's 19.18 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 119.9 GPixel/s pixel rate must handle.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings is 128 FPS, which is a smooth experience for this puzzle platformer.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 perform at 4K Ultra settings in this game?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 76. While this is not as high as lower resolutions, it remains fluid for the game's genre.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X3D a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: No. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system reaches an average of 355 FPS, indicating the CPU's single-thread performance is not limiting the GPU in this scenario.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Medium settings yield an average of 204 FPS, while Ultra settings yield 122 FPS. This represents a 82 FPS difference, showing the impact of higher quality presets.

Q: Does the GPU's VRAM capacity affect 4K performance?

A: The RTX 5060 has 8 GB of GDDR7 memory. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 76, which is the lowest measured in the data, suggesting that the GPU's memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s and capacity are stressed at this configuration.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded in the measured data?

A: The highest average FPS is 355, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This highlights the CPU's ability to handle high refresh rate scenarios when the GPU load is light.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 plays a central role in the measured results, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. Its memory configuration includes 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K results suggest that the memory subsystem is a contributing factor to the performance drop. The chip, GB206, is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC and contains 21,900 million transistors on a 181 mm² die.

Clock speeds for the RTX 5060 are listed with a base of 2280 MHz and a boost of 2497 MHz. The boost clock is the maximum advertised frequency, and the performance at 4K Ultra (76 FPS) versus 1080p Ultra (169 FPS) shows how the GPU's compute units scale with load. The card has 3840 shading units and 48 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s. These specifications translate directly to the measured frame rates, as the game's simple geometry and lighting are likely fill-rate limited at higher resolutions.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide context for its overall capability. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 20891 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3628. Its percentile rank is 72, meaning it outperforms 72% of all GPUs in the database. Compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 5060 is nearly identical in average benchmark score to the AMD Radeon 860M, with a deltaPct of -0.3%, and slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT by 1.2%. This positioning suggests that while the GPU is mid-range in the broader market, its performance in Inside is more than adequate.

The data shows that the GPU is the main bottleneck at 4K Ultra, as the average FPS of 76 is the lowest in the measured set. At 1440p Ultra, the 122 FPS average indicates that the GPU is still heavily loaded, but the CPU is capable of keeping up. The RTX 5060's 8 GB VRAM is a point of consideration, as the game's textures at Ultra settings may approach this limit at 4K, but the measured data does not include VRAM usage, only the resulting frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance: Low settings produce an average of 355 FPS, Medium 284 FPS, High 178 FPS, and Ultra 169 FPS. The Medium preset has a recorded minimum of 242 FPS and maximum of 327 FPS, showing a tight frame time distribution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but scale down as expected. Low settings average 255 FPS, Medium 204 FPS, High 128 FPS, and Ultra 122 FPS. The Medium preset at this resolution shows a minimum of 174 FPS and a maximum of 235 FPS, maintaining a smooth experience. The gap between High and Ultra at 1440p is only 6 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset adds visual fidelity without a significant performance cost at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings average 161 FPS, Medium 128 FPS, High 80 FPS, and Ultra 76 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 109 FPS and a maximum of 148 FPS, which is still a playable experience. The drop from High to Ultra at 4K is minimal (80 to 76 FPS), indicating that the game is hitting a hard GPU limit. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings (169 to 76 FPS) is a 55% reduction, which is consistent with the increased pixel count requiring more GPU resources.

The data shows that the RTX 5060 is capable of delivering high refresh rates at 1080p, with all presets exceeding 169 FPS. At 1440p, the system is still capable of 120+ FPS at High and Ultra, making it ideal for high refresh rate monitors. At 4K, the frame rates are lower but remain above 60 FPS at all settings, ensuring a fluid experience for this puzzle platformer. The measured data is marked as "dataIsMeasured": true, confirming these are real benchmark results rather than estimates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 ranks 1125 out of 2887 tested combos in Inside. This places the pairing in the 61st percentile of all tested systems, which is a solid mid-pack result. This ranking reflects the balance between a high-end CPU and a mid-range GPU, where the CPU's strength is not fully utilized in a game that is not heavily threaded.

The CPU's percentile rank is 91, meaning it outperforms 91% of all CPUs in the database, while the GPU's percentile is 72. The combo rank of 1125 suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing, as the CPU is capable of much more. The system's performance in Inside is therefore constrained by the RTX 5060, particularly at higher resolutions and settings.

The nearest rivals for the CPU include the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF with an average score of 55093 and a deltaPct of -0.6%, meaning the Ryzen 9 9900X3D is slightly behind it. The Intel Core i7-14700F is 2.1% ahead, while the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K is 1.3% behind. These small deltas show that the CPU is competitive with other high-end desktop processors. For the GPU, the nearest rival is the AMD Radeon 860M with a deltaPct of -0.3%, and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary is 0.8% behind, while the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is 1.2% ahead. These margins are tiny, indicating that the RTX 5060 sits in a crowded performance bracket.

The combo rank of 1125 out of 2887 is a direct result of the GPU's mid-range positioning. Systems with higher-ranked GPUs will naturally perform better in this game, but the Ryzen 9 9900X3D ensures that the CPU never becomes a bottleneck. The data suggests that this combo is well-suited for high-refresh-rate gaming at 1080p and 1440p, with playable 4K performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It has a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a TDP of 120 W. The processor features a large 128 MB L3 cache, which is beneficial for gaming workloads. Its benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 47737 and a single-core score of 6739. The Geekbench multicore score is 22884, and the single-core score is 3041.

In Inside, the CPU's role is to maintain high frame rates, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is less burdened. The measured 355 FPS at 1080p Low settings is a direct result of the CPU's high single-thread performance. The game's engine likely relies on a single primary thread for game logic, and the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's boost clock of 5.50 GHz ensures that this thread is processed quickly.

The CPU's nearest rivals show that it is marginally behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF by 0.6% in average benchmark score, but ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K by 1.3%. This performance level means that the CPU is never the limiting factor in this game. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough frames to achieve the 76 FPS average.

The large 128 MB L3 cache is a notable feature that can improve gaming performance by reducing memory latency. In a game like Inside, which may have repetitive data access patterns, this cache can help maintain consistent frame times. The CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads are overkill for this title, but they ensure that any background tasks or additional game features do not cause frame drops. The data shows that the CPU's percentile rank of 91 indicates it is a high-end part, and its performance in this game is more than sufficient.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the best experience for this combo depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, all settings presets deliver high frame rates, but the Ultra preset at 169 FPS is the recommended choice for maximum visual quality without sacrificing smoothness. The High preset at 178 FPS offers nearly identical performance with a slight reduction in visual fidelity.

For 2560x1440, the Ultra preset at 122 FPS is the optimal choice if the display supports it, as it provides the best visuals while maintaining a frame rate above 60 FPS. The High preset at 128 FPS is nearly identical, so users can choose between the two based on preference. The Medium preset at 204 FPS is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors (240Hz), as it maintains a very high frame rate while still offering decent visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the High preset at 80 FPS is the recommended balance between visual quality and performance. The Ultra preset at 76 FPS is a marginal improvement in visuals but a slight drop in frame rate, which may not be worth it on a 60Hz display. The Medium preset at 128 FPS is the best option for 4K high-refresh-rate displays, as it provides a significant frame rate boost over High while still looking good.

For the best overall experience, the Medium preset at 1440p offers a 204 FPS average, which is a good balance of smoothness and fidelity. If the user has a 144Hz monitor, the High preset at 1440p (128 FPS) or Ultra preset at 1440p (122 FPS) are both excellent choices. The data indicates that the system is versatile, capable of handling both high-refresh-rate competitive play and high-fidelity single-player experiences. The 4K Ultra setting at 76 FPS is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action, making Medium or High the preferred choices for that resolution.