Inside

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers a surprisingly robust experience in Inside (2016), a Puzzle Platformer. This pairing ranks 1001st out of 1671 tested combos in this game, placing it in the middle of the pack. That mid-tier ranking is deceptive for a game this light; the measured frame rates are generally excellent, with the real bottleneck emerging only at the highest settings and resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1001 out of 1671 tested combinations places it in the 40th percentile of all tested systems for Inside. This ranking is likely held back by the GPU’s age relative to modern hardware. The RTX 2070 SUPER sits at the 65th percentile against all GPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 22206. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA RTX A400 (avg score 22307, which is 0.5% faster), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (avg score 22006, 0.9% slower), and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (avg score 21670, 2.5% slower). The data shows the RTX 2070 SUPER is effectively a middle-of-the-road card, trading blows with these peers.

Meanwhile, the CPU is a powerhouse. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D ranks in the 96th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 71660. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (avg score 70420, 1.8% slower), the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (avg score 71056, 0.9% slower), and the Intel Core i7-14700KF (avg score 70104, 2.2% slower). The substantial CPU horsepower is the reason this combo can push high frame rates even when the GPU is stressed; the 9950X3D is rarely the limiting factor.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo overkill for a 2D puzzle platformer like Inside?*

A: The CPU is definitely overkill. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s 16 cores and 32 threads are far beyond what a game like Inside needs. However, the GPU pairing creates a balanced system for this title, as the RTX 2070 SUPER is still the primary driver of the performance differences seen across settings.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Yes. The data shows an average of 67.4 FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings. At Ultra settings, it still manages an average of 64.6 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold, though with less headroom.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a competitive advantage?

A: At 1080p, Low settings yield an average of 309.8 FPS. This is the highest frame rate available and provides the absolute smoothest experience for fast reaction times, though the visual differences between Low and High in this game are not massive.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its closest rival, the RTX A400?

A: According to benchmark scores, the RTX A400 is 0.5% faster on average. This is a negligible difference in practice, meaning the two GPUs should perform nearly identically in most gaming scenarios.

*Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for Inside?*

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The data shows a massive drop in FPS when moving from Low to Ultra settings at the same resolution, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance. The CPU’s high multithreaded scores (e.g., 59712 in Cinebench R23) are not fully utilized by this title.

Q: Does this system support high refresh rate gaming at 1440p?

A: Yes. At 2560x1440 with High settings, the average FPS is 111.1. Even at Ultra, it maintains an average of 103.9 FPS, which is sufficient for most 100Hz+ monitors.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 309.8 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, the FPS drops to 219.8, a 29% reduction. At 4K Low, the FPS falls to 139, a 55% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline is typical of a GPU-limited scenario.

The pattern persists across all settings. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 154.9 FPS at 1080p to 111.1 FPS at 1440p (a 28% drop) and then to 67.4 FPS at 4K (a 56% drop from 1080p). The consistent ~28% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~55% drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings indicates the GPU is the primary constraint. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D, with its high boost clock of 5.70 GHz and massive 128 MB of shared L3 cache, is more than capable of feeding the GPU at all resolutions. The data suggests that the GPU’s pixel throughput (113.3 GPixel/s) and memory bandwidth (448.0 GB/s) are the factors dictating these limits, not the CPU’s processing power.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the data points to a clear sweet spot. At 1080p, High settings provide 154.9 FPS, which is a 6.8% drop from Medium (249.8 FPS) but a significant visual upgrade. The difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is minimal in frame rate (154.9 vs 145), but Ultra offers diminishing returns for the performance cost.

At 1440p, High settings (111.1 FPS) are the best balance. Medium yields 175.5 FPS, but the jump to High is worth it for the visual fidelity, and the frame rate is still well above 100 FPS. Ultra at 1440p is still playable at 103.9 FPS, but the performance cost from High is an 6.5% reduction for marginal visual gains.

At 4K, the choice is more critical. High settings (67.4 FPS) are the recommended target, as they stay comfortably above 60 FPS. Medium (113.6 FPS) is smoother but sacrifices visual quality. Ultra (64.6 FPS) is playable but leaves no headroom for demanding scenes. Low settings (139 FPS) are only recommended for competitive play at 1080p, as the visual downgrade is significant.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured results across all resolutions and settings show a consistent pattern:

• 1920x1080: Low averages 309.8 FPS; Medium averages 249.8 FPS; High averages 154.9 FPS; Ultra averages 145 FPS.
• 2560x1440: Low averages 219.8 FPS; Medium averages 175.5 FPS; High averages 111.1 FPS; Ultra averages 103.9 FPS.
• 3840x2160: Low averages 139 FPS; Medium averages 113.6 FPS; High averages 67.4 FPS; Ultra averages 64.6 FPS.

The scaling is consistent: moving from Low to Medium costs roughly 20% of the frame rate at each resolution. Moving from Medium to High costs an additional 35-40%. The jump from High to Ultra is small, typically a 6-7% reduction. This indicates that the High preset is the point of diminishing returns for this GPU. The data also shows that the RTX 2070 SUPER can handle 4K in this game, but only with settings at High or below. At 1080p, the combo is massively overqualified, with even Ultra settings producing 145 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) on a 4 nm process. Its base clock is 4.30 GHz, and it boosts up to 5.70 GHz. This CPU has a 128 MB shared L3 cache and supports PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes. Its benchmark scores are exceptional: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 59712 and a single-core score of 8430. In 3DMark, it scores 17184 with max threads and 1292 with a single thread.

For Inside, this CPU is vastly more powerful than necessary. The game’s 2D side-scrolling nature and light physics load do not leverage the 16 cores or 32 threads. The single-thread performance (1292 in 3DMark single-thread) is sufficient to avoid any CPU bottleneck, but the game’s performance is clearly dictated by the GPU. The evidence is in the FPS scaling: a more powerful CPU would not yield higher frame rates in this title. The RTX 2070 SUPER, with its 2560 shading units and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, is the limiting component. The CPU’s role is to provide a stable platform that never holds the GPU back, which it does with ease. The data suggests that for Inside, even a much weaker CPU would produce identical results with this GPU. The 9950X3D’s high memory bandwidth (89.6 GB/s) and fast L3 cache help ensure that frame times are consistent, but the average FPS numbers are almost entirely dependent on the GPU’s fill rate and shader performance.