Inside

Inside is a puzzle platformer from 2016 that places minimal stress on modern hardware, and the measured data for the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT confirms this. The combination delivers high frame rates across all tested resolutions, with even the most demanding settings at 4K remaining comfortably playable. The following analysis breaks down the measured results, focusing on how the preset, resolution, and individual components influence the final experience.

Settings Recommendations

The data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across four presets at each resolution, with the Medium preset emerging as the most balanced experience for this specific combination. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset averages 236 FPS, which is 59 FPS higher than High and 96 FPS higher than Ultra, while remaining only 59 FPS below the Low preset's 295 FPS. This indicates that Medium captures most of the available performance headroom without sacrificing the visual quality that High and Ultra offer. The frame time data for Medium at 1080p shows a minimum of 201 FPS and a maximum of 271 FPS, suggesting a stable experience with no significant drops below the refresh rate of typical high-Hz monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 170 FPS on average, with a minimum of 144 FPS and a maximum of 195 FPS. This is particularly notable because the 144 FPS minimum aligns perfectly with common 144 Hz displays, meaning the experience will remain fluid even during the most demanding scenes. The High preset at 1440p drops to 106 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for frame time spikes. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 101 FPS, nearly matching High, which suggests diminishing returns in visual quality versus the performance cost.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is again the strongest recommendation, averaging 107 FPS with a minimum of 91 FPS and a maximum of 123 FPS. This is the only 4K preset that maintains an average above 100 FPS, and the 91 FPS minimum is still well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 4K drops to 67 FPS, while Ultra falls to 63 FPS, both of which are playable but noticeably less fluid than Medium. The Low preset at 4K reaches 133 FPS, but the visual degradation is likely too severe for a game that relies on atmospheric puzzle-solving.

Overall, the Medium preset provides the best experience per the measured rows because it consistently delivers frame rates that are either at or above 100 FPS across all resolutions while maintaining a minimum that never falls below 91 FPS. The High and Ultra presets are viable on lower resolution displays, but Medium is the only choice that guarantees a high-refresh experience at 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. This large frame buffer is significant for a game like Inside, which, despite its minimalist art style, can still benefit from higher resolution textures and effects. The GPU's clock speeds are listed with a base of 1980 MHz, a game clock of 2470 MHz, and a boost clock of 2755 MHz, with memory running at 2250 MHz or 18 Gbps effective. These specifications place the card in the 60th percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 17083 positions it close to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, which scores 17208 and is listed as a nearest rival with a deltaPct of -0.7.

In the measured results, the GPU's role is most evident when comparing the Low and Ultra presets. At 1080p, the Low preset averages 295 FPS, while Ultra averages 140 FPS, a difference of 155 FPS. This gap of over 50% demonstrates that the GPU is heavily utilized when the settings are increased, even in a game with simple geometry. The VRAM capacity of 16 GB is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any resolution tested, as the highest memory pressure would occur at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS is still 63. The 128-bit bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for this workload, as evidenced by the consistent scaling from 1080p to 4K.

The GPU's compute capabilities, listed as 22.57 TFLOPS for FP32, are more than adequate for a puzzle platformer. The data indicates that the RX 7600 XT is not the bottleneck at lower resolutions, as the FPS scales significantly with reduced settings. However, at 4K Ultra, the GPU becomes the primary constraint, as the CPU is likely waiting for the GPU to complete each frame. The 32 RT cores and RDNA 3.0 architecture are present, but Inside does not utilize ray tracing, so these features have no measurable impact on the results.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a predictable scaling pattern that identifies the limiting component at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 236, which drops to 170 at 1440p Medium, a reduction of 66 FPS or approximately 28%. Moving from 1440p to 4K Medium, the average falls from 170 to 107 FPS, a reduction of 63 FPS or approximately 37%. This steeper decline at higher resolutions is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering workload increases with pixel count.

For the High preset, the scaling is more linear: 147 FPS at 1080p, 106 FPS at 1440p, and 67 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 28% from 1080p to 1440p and 37% from 1440p to 4K, mirroring the Medium preset's pattern. The Low preset shows even larger absolute drops: 295 FPS at 1080p, 212 FPS at 1440p, and 133 FPS at 4K, with reductions of 28% and 37% respectively. This consistency across presets suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor at all resolutions, but the CPU's influence becomes more apparent at 1080p.

The data indicates that at 1080p Low, the 295 FPS average is likely approaching the CPU's maximum frame delivery capability, as the GPU has less work to do. The Intel Core Ultra 5 225, with its boost clock of 4.90 GHz, is capable of high single-threaded performance, but the game's engine may be limited by its single-threaded nature. At 4K, the GPU's rendering load increases by a factor of four compared to 1080p, yet the FPS does not decrease by a factor of four, which confirms that the GPU is not fully saturated even at the highest resolution. This indicates that the combination is well-balanced, with the CPU providing enough throughput to keep the GPU busy at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a wide performance envelope across settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 295 FPS, making it the fastest option, while Medium delivers 236 FPS with a minimum of 201 and a maximum of 271. High averages 147 FPS, and Ultra trails at 140 FPS, a difference of only 7 FPS between these two presets. This narrow gap between High and Ultra at 1080p suggests that the visual quality improvements from High to Ultra have minimal impact on performance, making either choice viable for players with high refresh rate monitors.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 212 FPS, which is still exceptionally high for a puzzle platformer. Medium averages 170 FPS with a minimum of 144 and a maximum of 195, providing a smooth experience on 144 Hz displays. High drops to 106 FPS, and Ultra averages 101 FPS, with a difference of only 5 FPS between them. This pattern repeats at 4K, where High and Ultra are separated by just 4 FPS (67 versus 63). The consistency of this small delta between High and Ultra across all resolutions indicates that the Ultra preset is not meaningfully more demanding than High for this game, likely due to the simple rendering pipeline.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 133 FPS, while Medium averages 107 FPS with a minimum of 91 and a maximum of 123. High averages 67 FPS, and Ultra averages 63 FPS. The 4K Medium result is particularly noteworthy, as the 91 FPS minimum is the highest minimum recorded for any 4K preset, indicating excellent frame pacing. In contrast, the High and Ultra presets at 4K have no reported minimum or maximum values, but their lower averages suggest that they are operating closer to the GPU's limit. The data shows that the RX 7600 XT can handle 4K Medium with ease, but the High and Ultra presets are better suited to 1440p or 1080p displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT combination ranks 1767 out of 2887 tested combos for Inside, placing it in the 61st percentile of all configurations. This ranking is modest for a game that does not push modern hardware, indicating that the combination is not optimized for this specific title. The CPU alone is in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36938, while the GPU is in the 60th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 17083. The discrepancy between these two percentiles suggests that the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing for Inside, which is consistent with the resolution scaling analysis.

The combo rank of 1767 out of 2887 means that approximately 61% of tested configurations perform better than this one in Inside. This is a surprising result given the high absolute frame rates, but it likely reflects the fact that many other combinations with more powerful GPUs or CPUs can achieve even higher FPS at lower settings. The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, which scores 36945 with a deltaPct of 0, and the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D, which scores 37018 with a deltaPct of -0.2. These rivals offer nearly identical CPU performance, so the GPU choice is the primary differentiator.

The GPU's nearest rivals are more telling: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 scores 17208 with a deltaPct of -0.7, meaning the RX 7600 XT is only 0.7% slower on average. This close competition places the RX 7600 XT in a similar performance tier as the RTX 3070, but the ranking in Inside suggests that the game favors NVIDIA hardware, as the RTX 3070's higher score likely translates to better frame rates in this title. The combination's rank of 1767 indicates that while the hardware is capable, it is not delivering top-tier performance in Inside relative to other tested setups.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use with this combo at 4K?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice at 3840x2160, as it averages 107 FPS with a minimum of 91 FPS, while High averages 67 FPS and Ultra averages 63 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one that maintains an average above 100 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the RX 7600 XT compare to the RTX 3070 in terms of overall benchmark score?

A: The RX 7600 XT has an average benchmark score of 17083, while the RTX 3070 scores 17208. This gives the RTX 3070 a slight lead of 0.7%, as indicated by the deltaPct of -0.7 for the RX 7600 XT.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck in this game?

A: At 1080p Low, the CPU becomes a limiting factor, as the average FPS of 295 is likely near the maximum the processor can deliver. At 4K, the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as shown by the significant FPS drops when increasing settings.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for Medium settings at 1440p?

A: The minimum FPS for Medium settings at 2560x1440 is 144 FPS, with an average of 170 FPS and a maximum of 195 FPS. This minimum aligns with the refresh rate of common 144 Hz monitors.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: The Low preset averages 295 FPS, while Ultra averages 140 FPS, making Low 155 FPS faster. This represents a performance advantage of over 110% for the Low preset.

Q: What percentile does this GPU rank in compared to all GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is in the 60th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17083. This places it above the median but below top-tier graphics cards.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process node by TSMC. It has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with a thermal design power of 65 W. The processor features a 20 MB shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core, along with 192 KB of L1 cache per core. Its memory support includes dual-channel DDR5 with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, and it uses the Intel Socket 1851 interface.

In Inside, the CPU's role is primarily to maintain a high frame rate at lower resolutions where the GPU is not fully saturated. The single-threaded performance is strong, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3655, which contributes to the processor's 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs. The multi-threaded score of 25891 in Cinebench R23 shows that the 10 cores are not heavily utilized by this game, which is typical for a puzzle platformer that relies on a single primary game logic thread.

The CPU's nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F and AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D, have nearly identical average benchmark scores, with deltas of 0 and -0.2 respectively. This indicates that the Core Ultra 5 225 performs on par with these competing processors in general benchmarks. However, in Inside, the CPU's performance is more than sufficient, as even at 1080p Low, the combination achieves 295 FPS, suggesting that the processor is not a limiting factor until the GPU is tasked with lighter loads. The 4.90 GHz boost clock ensures that the processor can respond quickly to frame requests, and the 10 threads provide enough parallelism for any background tasks, but the game's design means that the CPU will rarely be the reason for lower frame rates.