Inside

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 paired with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 delivers a remarkably consistent experience in Inside, a 2016 Puzzle Platformer that is far more demanding than its minimalist visuals suggest. The benchmark data shows a configuration that is overwhelmingly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, yet still possesses enough raw CPU power to push frame rates far beyond what most displays can show at 1080p. This is a pairing where the processor is effectively a non-factor in the final frame count, leaving the graphics card to dictate the performance ceiling across all tested settings.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K in Inside is sharp and decisive, clearly identifying the Radeon RX 7600 as the primary bottleneck. At the High preset, the average frame rate falls from 141 FPS at 1920x1080 to 101 FPS at 2560x1440, a 28% reduction. Pushing further to 3840x2160 yields just 64 FPS, which represents a 55% decline from the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario; the Core Ultra 7 265 is not the limiting factor, as the workload scales almost linearly with pixel count.

The trend is even more pronounced at the Ultra settings. The average FPS drops from 134 at 1080p to 97 at 1440p, and then plummets to 61 at 4K. This 73 FPS swing across the three resolutions is substantial, but the relative consistency of the drop (roughly 27-37% at each step) confirms that the rendering pipeline is saturated. The data indicates that moving from 1440p to 4K nearly halves the frame rate at both High and Ultra presets, reinforcing that the RX 7600's compute and memory subsystems are working at their limit.

Interestingly, the Low preset shows the least relative degradation, going from 282 FPS at 1080p to 203 FPS at 1440p and finally 127 FPS at 4K. While the absolute numbers are much higher, the 4K figure is still only 45% of the 1080p result. This suggests that even with minimal graphical load, the GPU's pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth become the deciding factors. The CPU is never exposed as a bottleneck, as the Core Ultra 7 265's 20 cores and 5.30 GHz boost clock are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at any resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a heavyweight processor, and its capabilities are far beyond what Inside requires. With 20 cores and 20 threads, a base clock of 2.40 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, this chip is designed for high-end productivity and multi-threaded workloads, not just gaming. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 42216 and single-core score of 5960 place it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, indicating top-tier performance. However, the benchmark results show that this power is largely untapped in this specific game.

The data reveals that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution or settings level. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 282 FPS, which is a frame rate that would be CPU-limited in many other titles. Yet, the fact that the frame rate increases substantially when moving to Medium (226 FPS) and then decreases at High (141 FPS) and Ultra (134 FPS) proves that the GPU is the sole arbiter of performance. The Ultra 7 265 is simply waiting for the RX 7600 to send it more work.

The processor's 30 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth ensure that data can be fed to the GPU without hiccups. In a game like Inside, which is a 2D puzzle platformer with a dark, atmospheric art style, the geometry and physics calculations are trivial for a CPU of this caliber. The benchmark scores show the CPU is operating at a fraction of its potential, making it a future-proof choice for this combo, but it does not contribute to the performance differences seen in the measured FPS rows.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for the best experience in Inside. The Medium preset at 2560x1440 stands out as the sweet spot for this hardware combination. It delivers an average of 162 FPS with a minimum of 138 FPS and a maximum of 186 FPS. This is an excellent result, offering smooth, tear-free gameplay on high refresh rate monitors while maintaining visual fidelity that is only a step below the High and Ultra presets.

At 1920x1080, the Medium preset is also exceptional, hitting 226 FPS on average with a minimum of 192 FPS. This is more than enough for any 240Hz or even 360Hz display. For users with a 4K display, the Low preset at 3840x2160 is the only viable option for high refresh rate play, as it achieves 127 FPS. The High and Medium presets at 4K, delivering 64 FPS and 102 FPS respectively, are playable but do not fully utilize high refresh rate panels. The Ultra preset at 4K, at 61 FPS, is the least attractive option, offering only a marginal visual improvement over High for a significant performance cost.

For the majority of users, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point. It provides a 60% performance uplift over the High preset at 1440p (162 FPS vs 101 FPS) and a 60% uplift at 1080p (226 FPS vs 141 FPS), while the visual differences in a game like Inside are unlikely to be dramatic. The data suggests that the jump from Medium to High costs roughly 37-38% of the average frame rate at both 1080p and 1440p, which is a steep price for what is likely a subtle increase in shadow and texture quality.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested hardware combinations, this pairing of the Core Ultra 7 265 and RX 7600 lands in the lower-middle tier of the database. The combo rank is 1930 out of 2887 tested combinations, placing it in the 33rd percentile. This ranking is primarily dragged down by the GPU, which has a percentile rank of 57 (meaning it performs better than 57% of all GPUs), while the CPU is in the 93rd percentile. The imbalance is clear: a top-tier processor is being held back by a mid-range graphics card.

The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD EPYC 4464P (with a delta of -0.3%) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (with a delta of 0.3%), show that the processor is statistically tied with other high-end chips. However, the GPU's rivals tell a different story. The RX 7600 is closely matched with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (delta of -0.2%) and the AMD Radeon 680M (delta of -0.7%), which are both considered entry-level to mid-range parts. This analysis confirms that the combo's overall ranking is a direct result of the GPU's performance ceiling, not the CPU's capabilities.

For users considering this combination, the ranking suggests that the system is well-suited for 1080p gaming at high refresh rates, but it will struggle to maintain high frame rates at 4K with demanding settings. The CPU has enormous headroom for future GPU upgrades, meaning that if a more powerful graphics card were installed later, the Core Ultra 7 265 would not become a bottleneck. However, as measured, this combo is balanced around the RX 7600's abilities.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is the definitive performance driver in this configuration. Built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 33 chip, it features 2048 shading units, 32 ray tracing cores, and 64 ROPs. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical factor in Inside's resolution scaling. The GPU's boost clock of 2655 MHz and game clock of 2250 MHz allow it to reach a peak FP32 throughput of 21.75 TFLOPS.

The benchmark data shows that the RX 7600's performance is directly tied to its memory bandwidth and pixel throughput. The pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s are moderate figures, which explains why the frame rate drops so significantly at 4K. The game's minimalist art style, which often features large, dark areas and simple geometry, is not particularly taxing on shader units, but it does require consistent fill rate to maintain smooth motion. This is why the 4K Ultra preset, at 61 FPS, is essentially the GPU's practical limit.

The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 16634 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2310 place it in the 57th percentile of all GPUs, just above the likes of the RTX 3050 OEM. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon 680M, shows a delta of -0.7%, indicating that the RX 7600 is only marginally faster than an integrated graphics solution in synthetic benchmarks. However, in Inside, the discrete GPU's dedicated memory and higher clock speeds provide a significant advantage, as evidenced by the playable frame rates at 4K Low. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is not challenged in this game, but its bandwidth is the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 282 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire set. The Medium preset follows at 226 FPS, with a minimum of 192 FPS and a maximum of 259 FPS. High and Ultra presets are nearly identical, with averages of 141 FPS and 134 FPS, respectively.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops are linear. Low achieves 203 FPS, Medium hits 162 FPS (with a 138 FPS minimum and 186 FPS maximum), High manages 101 FPS, and Ultra falls to 97 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to just 4 FPS at this resolution, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not fully rendered due to GPU limitations.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly overburdened by the higher pixel count. Low is the only preset that breaks the 120 FPS barrier, averaging 127 FPS. Medium is the next best at 102 FPS, with a minimum of 87 FPS and a maximum of 117 FPS. High and Ultra presets are nearly identical, with averages of 64 FPS and 61 FPS, respectively. The data shows that the Medium preset at 4K, with a 87 FPS minimum, is the only setting that guarantees a stable 60+ FPS experience without dropping to Low. For users with VRR displays, the High and Ultra presets are technically playable, but the low averages leave little headroom for demanding scenes.