Inside

Inside pairs a 16-core Zen 5 flagship with a mid-range RDNA 3 GPU, and the measured frame rates show a combo that is heavily GPU-bound at every resolution and settings level tested. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s 128 MB of L3 cache and 5.70 GHz boost clock are effectively irrelevant to this puzzle platformer’s rendering load; instead, the Radeon RX 7700’s 16 GB frame buffer and 624.1 GB/s memory bandwidth become the decisive factors. At 4K Ultra, the combo delivers 76 FPS average, which is playable but far from the headroom seen at lower settings. The data reveals a clear pattern: this is a graphics-limited pairing where the CPU sits largely idle, and the GPU’s performance ceiling defines the experience.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and consistent across all settings, confirming that the Radeon RX 7700 is the limiting component in every scenario. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 353 FPS at 1920x1080 to 254 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 160 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 55% reduction from 1080p to 4K, with the largest single-step decline occurring between 1440p and 4K (a 37% drop). At High settings, the same pattern holds: 177 FPS at 1080p, 127 FPS at 1440p, and 80 FPS at 4K—a 55% total decline from the lowest to highest resolution. The scaling is nearly linear with pixel count, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound workload.

Medium settings show the only complete min/max data in the pack, providing additional insight. At 1920x1080 Medium, the combo averages 282 FPS with a minimum of 240 FPS and maximum of 325 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Medium drops the average to 203 FPS (min 173, max 234), and at 3840x2160 Medium, the average falls to 128 FPS (min 108, max 147). The minimum frame rates scale proportionally with averages, indicating no CPU-induced stutters or frame-time spikes—the processor is never the bottleneck. Even the 108 FPS minimum at 4K Medium is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Ultra settings produce the lowest numbers but follow the identical trend. The combo hits 168 FPS at 1080p Ultra, 121 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and 76 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the most demanding scenario tested, and the 76 FPS average suggests the GPU is nearing its practical limit. Interestingly, the gap between High and Ultra at each resolution is modest—177 vs 168 FPS at 1080p, 127 vs 121 FPS at 1440p, and 80 vs 76 FPS at 4K. This indicates Ultra settings add only marginal visual overhead in this title, with the GPU’s raw throughput being the primary constraint.

The scaling behavior also reveals that Low settings at 4K (160 FPS) outperform High settings at 1080p (177 FPS) by a slim margin, but the resolution penalty is steeper than the settings penalty. Going from 1080p Low to 4K Low costs 193 FPS, while going from 1080p Low to 1080p Ultra costs 185 FPS. This suggests that for players targeting high refresh rates, lowering resolution offers slightly better returns than reducing quality settings, though both approaches yield playable results across the board.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1161 out of 2887 tested combinations in Inside, placing it in the 60th percentile of all CPU-GPU pairings in the database. This is a respectable mid-pack position, but it reflects the RX 7700’s modest standing rather than the CPU’s strength. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D alone sits in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, while the Radeon RX 7700 lands in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. The combo’s rank is therefore dragged down by the graphics card, which is the expected outcome for a pairing that pairs a top-tier processor with a mid-range GPU.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database illustrate its positioning. The RX 7700 has an average benchmark score of 15852, which is 0.1% below the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862) and 1% below the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (16014). It also trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129) by 1.7%, while sitting 1.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679). These are all closely matched scores, indicating that the RX 7700 competes in a dense performance band where small differences separate products. In Inside specifically, the combo’s rank suggests that many other pairings—likely those with faster GPUs—achieve higher frame rates, but the 1161 position still represents a playable experience at all tested settings.

The CPU’s nearest rivals tell a different story. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D has an average benchmark score of 75779, which is 0.1% above both the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (75738) and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D (75716). It leads the AMD EPYC 8224P (75582) by 0.3% and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (75488) by 0.4%. These negligible deltas mean the CPU is effectively tied with its closest competitors in synthetic benchmarks, and in a game like Inside—which is not CPU-intensive—any of these processors would deliver identical frame rates. The combo’s rank is therefore almost entirely determined by the GPU, and the 1161 position out of 2887 combos reflects the RX 7700’s mid-tier placement.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7700 is built on the Navi 32 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 28,100 million transistors across a 346 mm² die, with 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1900 MHz, a game clock of 2041 MHz, and a boost clock of 2459 MHz, delivering 25.18 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. These specifications position it as a capable 1440p card, and the measured FPS in Inside confirm that assessment.

Memory is a key differentiator. The RX 7700 features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 2438 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective). This large frame buffer is more than sufficient for Inside, a game from 2016 with modest texture requirements, but the bandwidth becomes relevant at 4K where the GPU must push more pixels through the pipeline. The 624.1 GB/s figure is the highest memory bandwidth among the GPU’s nearest rivals, yet the actual frame rates suggest that raw compute throughput, not memory, is the limiting factor.

The GPU’s benchmark scores provide context for its gaming performance. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 2865; in Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 106028. The PassMark suite shows 20974 in G3D, 10963 in GPU compute, and 1206 in G2D. The DirectX tests reveal a peculiar pattern: DirectX 9 scores 261, DirectX 11 scores 186, DirectX 12 scores 96, and DirectX 10 scores 92. The RX 7700 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but Inside likely uses an older API given its release date, which could explain why the measured FPS are not higher. The GPU’s 58th percentile ranking among all GPUs aligns with its mid-range positioning.

The RX 7700’s power delivery includes a 200 W TDP, two 8-pin power connectors, and a recommended 550 W power supply. It uses a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface and occupies a dual-slot form factor measuring 267 mm in length. Display outputs include one HDMI 2.1a, two DisplayPort 2.1, and one USB Type-C. These physical attributes are standard for the segment, but the 200 W TDP means it draws less power than higher-tier cards, which could be a factor in sustained performance. The GPU’s pixel rate is 236.1 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 393.4 GTexel/s, both of which contribute to the frame rates observed in Inside.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings levels (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), with average frame rates reported for every combination and min/max values for Medium settings only. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 353 FPS on Low, 282 FPS on Medium (min 240, max 325), 177 FPS on High, and 168 FPS on Ultra. These numbers indicate that the GPU is never stressed at 1080p, even at Ultra settings—the 168 FPS average is far above any display refresh rate below 165 Hz.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are still high but show more differentiation. Low settings produce 254 FPS, Medium delivers 203 FPS (min 173, max 234), High drops to 127 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 121 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 51 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 6 FPS. This suggests that the settings presets in Inside have a non-linear impact on performance: the jump from Low to Medium is substantial, but High and Ultra are nearly identical in cost. For 1440p gaming, the combo easily handles 120+ FPS at any settings level.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits. Low settings yield 160 FPS, Medium produces 128 FPS (min 108, max 147), High drops to 80 FPS, and Ultra falls to 76 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only scenario where the average dips below 80 FPS, and even then, the 76 FPS average is playable on most displays. The delta between 1440p and 4K is steepest at High settings (47 FPS difference) and narrowest at Ultra (45 FPS difference), reinforcing that resolution, not settings, is the primary performance driver.

The full dataset reveals that this combo can max out a 144 Hz monitor at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, only Low and Medium settings exceed that threshold. For players with a 60 Hz 4K display, all settings levels are viable, with the lowest result (76 FPS at Ultra) still clearing 60 FPS comfortably. The Medium settings min/max data shows tight frame time consistency: at 1080p, the spread is 85 FPS (240 to 325); at 1440p, it is 61 FPS (173 to 234); and at 4K, it is 39 FPS (108 to 147). This narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is becoming the sole bottleneck, with no CPU-related hitches.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Inside?

A: At 1920x1080, the combo averages 353 FPS on Low and 168 FPS on Ultra. At 2560x1440, it averages 254 FPS on Low and 121 FPS on Ultra. Both resolutions deliver playable frame rates at all settings, but 1440p Ultra (121 FPS) is the highest quality setting that still exceeds 120 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 7700 compare to its closest rivals?

A: The RX 7700 has an average benchmark score of 15852, which is 0.1% below the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862), 1% below the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (16014), and 1.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129). It is 1.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D has a 95th percentile CPU ranking, while the RX 7700 sits in the 58th percentile. Frame rates scale almost linearly with resolution (353 FPS at 1080p Low to 160 FPS at 4K Low), which is characteristic of GPU-bound workloads.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 4K Ultra?

A: The measured average is 76 FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra. This is the lowest result in the dataset, but it remains above 60 FPS, making it suitable for standard 60 Hz 4K displays.

Q: How much performance does the combo lose going from 1080p to 4K?

A: At Low settings, the average drops from 353 FPS at 1080p to 160 FPS at 4K, a 55% reduction. At High settings, it drops from 177 FPS to 80 FPS, also a 55% reduction. The scaling is consistent across settings.

Q: Does the CPU’s 128 MB L3 cache affect gaming performance here?

A: The data shows no evidence of CPU impact. The combo’s 1161 rank out of 2887 is driven by the GPU’s 58th percentile placement. Frame rates are exclusively limited by the RX 7700, with no CPU-related minimum frame drops in the Medium settings data.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge codename), built on a 4 nm process at TSMC with 16,630 million transistors across two 70.6 mm² dies. It has a base clock of 4.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, with a 170 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 128 MB of L3 cache. This large L3 cache is a hallmark of the X3D line, but in Inside, it provides no measurable benefit—the game’s workload is not cache-sensitive.

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU’s strength. It scores 42018 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2259 in single-core, 6536 in Cinebench R15 multi-core and 350 in single-core, and 26736 in Geekbench multi-core with 3064 in single-core. PassMark results include 70255 in multi-thread, 4737 in single-thread, 243209 in integer math, 159724 in floating point math, and 908421 in data compression. The 3DMark scores are 17184 at max threads, 16374 at 16 threads, 9259 at 8 threads, 4963 at 4 threads, 2549 at 2 threads, and 1292 at single thread. These figures place the CPU in the 95th percentile of all processors.

The CPU’s nearest rivals are all within 0.4% in average benchmark score. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (75738) trails by 0.1%, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D (75716) also trails by 0.1%, the AMD EPYC 8224P (75582) trails by 0.3%, and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (75488) trails by 0.4%. In Inside, any of these processors would produce identical frame rates because the game is GPU-bound. The CPU’s memory support includes DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, plus ECC memory support. It uses an AMD Socket AM5 with PCIe Gen 5 (24 lanes from the CPU) and includes integrated Radeon Graphics.

The measured FPS data shows no CPU-related limitations. The minimum frame rates at Medium settings—240 FPS at 1080p, 173 FPS at 1440p, and 108 FPS at 4K—are all within 10-15% of the averages, indicating consistent frame pacing. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see larger gaps between minimum and average, especially at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work. Instead, the frame rates scale purely with pixel count and settings, confirming that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is effectively idle in this title. The 16 cores and 32 threads are overkill for a puzzle platformer, but they ensure zero CPU-induced stutter even at the highest frame rates.

The CPU’s 5.70 GHz boost clock and 4.30 GHz base clock are high for a desktop processor, but they do not translate into higher FPS in this game. The 128 MB L3 cache, which benefits cache-sensitive workloads in other titles, has no observable effect here. The combo’s overall rank of 1161 out of 2887 is determined by the GPU, and upgrading the CPU alone would not change the measured frame rates. For Inside, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a spectator, providing ample headroom for future GPU upgrades but contributing nothing to the current performance profile.