The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and Radeon RX 5700 XT combination produces a highly variable frame rate experience in The Medium, one that is dictated almost entirely by the graphics preset and resolution. The data indicates this is a pairing where the GPU’s 8 GB of VRAM and raw compute are the primary bottlenecks at higher settings, while the CPU’s six cores provide sufficient headroom at lower settings. The overall ranking of this combo is poor, sitting near the bottom of all tested configurations, but the measured FPS reveals specific, usable configurations for playable performance.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and non-linear, revealing a system that is heavily taxed by pixel count. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 89 at 1920x1080 to 75 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 14 frames, and then plummets to 59 at 3840x2160, another 16-frame drop. This scaling shows that even at the lowest graphical fidelity, the RX 5700 XT’s compute throughput is the limiting factor as resolution increases, with the 4K result representing a 33% performance loss compared to 1080p.

The scaling becomes more punishing at higher presets. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 56 at 1080p to 47 at 1440p (a 9-frame loss) and then to 37 at 4K (a further 10-frame loss). The pattern continues at High settings, where the frame rate falls from 40 at 1080p to 34 at 1440p and finally to 26 at 4K. The most dramatic scaling occurs at Ultra, where the 1080p average of 32 FPS is already below playable thresholds, and the 4K average collapses to 21 FPS. This data suggests that the gap between 1080p and 1440p is consistently around 6 to 9 frames across all settings, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is larger, ranging from 7 to 16 frames, indicating that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and pixel fill rate are being saturated at higher resolutions.

The limiting component is unambiguously the GPU. The CPU’s performance, as measured by its benchmarks, is consistent regardless of resolution, yet the FPS drops uniformly as pixel count rises. This is classic GPU-bound behavior. The fact that the Low preset at 4K (59 FPS) outperforms the Ultra preset at 1080p (32 FPS) by 27 frames is particularly telling: the game’s settings have a more profound impact on performance than a 2x resolution increase, but the resolution scaling still demonstrates that the RX 5700 XT is the primary constraint for achieving high frame rates at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 5700 XT is the dominant factor in this combo’s results, and its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is a key differentiator. The data shows that the card’s performance is heavily influenced by the game’s settings, which likely adjust texture detail and shadow quality to fit within the VRAM budget. At Low settings, the card achieves its best results, with an 89 FPS average at 1080p, suggesting that the reduced memory pressure allows the GPU’s 2560 shading units to operate at full capacity.

The card’s clock speeds, with a base of 1605 MHz and a boost of 1905 MHz, are consistent with its RDNA 1.0 architecture. The game clock of 1755 MHz represents the typical sustained frequency under load. The benchmark results show that the GPU’s compute power, rated at 9.754 TFLOPS FP32, is sufficient for 1080p gaming at Medium settings (56 FPS) but struggles to maintain playable rates at higher presets. The transition from Medium to High at 1080p results in a 16 FPS drop, indicating that the more demanding shaders and lighting effects are taxing the GPU’s texture units (160 TMUs) and render output units (64 ROPs).

The VRAM capacity becomes a critical factor at higher resolutions and settings. With 8 GB of memory, the card likely hits a capacity wall at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS drops to 21. The data suggests that at 4K High (26 FPS) and 4K Medium (37 FPS), the card is not only compute-bound but also potentially memory-bandwidth-limited, as the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient for the high-resolution textures. The card’s percentile ranking of 59 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16361, places it in the mid-range, but its performance in The Medium is notably weaker, suggesting that this particular game is not optimized for the RDNA 1.0 architecture. The nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M, scores nearly identically (16351, a 0.1% delta), confirming that the RX 5700 XT is performing as expected for its class.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s standing in the database is poor. With a rank of 2776 out of 3724 tested combinations, this pairing falls into the bottom 25% of all configurations. This low rank is not surprising given the measured FPS, which shows that the combo cannot achieve a consistent 60 FPS at any resolution above 1080p Low. The rank reflects the overall experience across all tested settings, and the data indicates that the RX 5700 XT, while a capable mid-range card, is outclassed by more modern GPUs in this specific title.

The CPU’s relative performance does little to improve the ranking. The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 21484, placing it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (21440, 0.2% delta) and the Intel Core i9-11900H (21367, 0.5% delta), are all within 1% of its score, indicating that the CPU is not a weak link in general. However, the combo’s rank of 2776 suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor, as a stronger GPU paired with this CPU would likely score much higher. The fact that the combo ranks below 74.6% of all tested pairs, despite the CPU being in the top 25%, confirms that the RX 5700 XT’s performance in The Medium is the primary drag on the overall rating.

The data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can achieve playable frame rates at Low and Medium settings. At 1440p and 4K, the performance is marginal at best, with only the Low preset reaching above 60 FPS (75 at 1440p, 59 at 4K). The gap between this combo and top-tier configurations is substantial, but the measured results provide a clear picture of what users can expect: a mid-range experience that requires careful settings management.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a wide spread of performance across the four presets. The Low preset delivers an average of 89 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire dataset. The Medium preset averages 56 FPS, with a minimum of 48 FPS and a maximum of 64 FPS, indicating a playable but not entirely smooth experience. The High preset drops to 40 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 32 FPS. These numbers reveal that the RX 5700 XT is most comfortable at 1080p with reduced graphical fidelity, and that stepping up to High or Ultra incurs significant performance penalties.

At 2560x1440, the performance degrades predictably. The Low preset averages 75 FPS, which is still smooth, but the Medium preset drops to 47 FPS (with a min of 40 and max of 54). The High preset averages 34 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 27 FPS. The 1440p results show that the card can handle Low settings comfortably, but Medium settings are borderline, and High and Ultra are not recommended for a consistent experience. The minimum FPS of 40 at Medium settings suggests that there are moments of stutter, but the average is acceptable for a slow-paced horror game.

At 3840x2160, the performance is largely unplayable except at the lowest settings. The Low preset averages 59 FPS, which is technically playable but with a narrow margin. The Medium preset averages 37 FPS, with a minimum of 31 FPS, indicating noticeable drops. The High preset averages 26 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 21 FPS. The 4K data confirms that this combo is not suited for high-resolution gaming, as even the Low preset is only barely above the 60 FPS threshold, and any increase in settings results in a sub-30 FPS experience.

Across all resolutions, the jump from Low to Medium is the most significant performance hit, with an average drop of 33 frames at 1080p, 28 frames at 1440p, and 22 frames at 4K. The jump from Medium to High is consistently around 9 to 16 frames, and the jump from High to Ultra is slightly smaller, around 8 to 5 frames. This pattern suggests that the Low preset is a special case, likely disabling many of the game’s heavy rendering features, while the higher presets scale more linearly with GPU load.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal configuration for this combo is the Low preset at 1920x1080, which delivers an average of 89 FPS. This is the only setting that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay throughout. For users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, the Medium preset at 1080p, with an average of 56 FPS and a minimum of 48 FPS, is the highest preset that remains consistently playable. The minimum FPS of 48 is acceptable for a game like The Medium, which does not require fast reflexes.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset is the only recommended option, with an average of 75 FPS. The Medium preset, at 47 FPS, is borderline, and the minimum of 40 FPS may cause noticeable stutter in cutscenes or during camera transitions. The High and Ultra presets at 1440p, with averages of 34 and 27 FPS respectively, are not recommended for a playable experience. At 3840x2160, the Low preset is the only option that approaches playability, with an average of 59 FPS, but the lack of a minimum FPS value in the data makes it a risky choice. The Medium preset at 4K, with an average of 37 FPS and a minimum of 31 FPS, is not recommended.

The data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance, but only at 1080p. The jump from Low to Medium provides a substantial improvement in graphical fidelity, while the frame rate remains above 50 FPS. For users with a 1080p monitor, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation. For those with higher-resolution displays, the Low preset is the only viable choice, and even then, the 4K result is marginal. The Ultra preset is effectively unplayable at any resolution, with the highest average being 32 FPS at 1080p, making it a setting to avoid entirely.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, plays a supporting role in this combo’s performance. The CPU’s benchmark results, such as a Cinebench R15 multicore score of 1248 and a Geekbench multicore score of 5648, indicate that it is a capable mid-range processor. Its single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R15 single-core score of 157.3 and a Geekbench single-core score of 1154, is modest by modern standards, but sufficient for this game. The data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck, as the FPS scales with resolution and settings in a manner consistent with GPU-bound performance.

The CPU’s base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 3.90 GHz provide adequate processing power for the game’s logic and AI. The 12 threads allow for efficient multitasking, but The Medium is not a heavily threaded game, and the CPU’s 16 MB of shared L3 cache is sufficient for its needs. The Passmark multithread score of 13160, with a single-thread score of 2239, further confirms that the CPU is well-balanced. The data indicates that even at Low settings, where the GPU is less taxed, the CPU is able to keep up, as evidenced by the 89 FPS average at 1080p Low.

However, the CPU’s performance is not without limits. Its average benchmark score of 21484 places it in the 75th percentile, but its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Xeon D-1746TER (21635, -0.7% delta) and the AMD EPYC 9454 (21223, 1.2% delta), show that it is not an exceptional performer. In this combo, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with enough data to avoid stalling, and the measured FPS suggests it does so effectively. The fact that the FPS drops from 89 at 1080p Low to 59 at 4K Low, while the CPU’s workload remains constant, confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain flat across resolutions, which is not the case.

The CPU’s 65 W TDP and 12 nm process node are irrelevant to the game’s performance, but its memory support for DDR4 at dual-channel speeds, with a bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s, is sufficient for the GPU’s needs. The data shows that the Ryzen 5 2600 is a competent partner for the RX 5700 XT, but it is not the star of the show. The combo’s low rank is due to the GPU’s limitations in this title, not the CPU. A stronger GPU would likely yield significantly higher FPS with this same CPU, as the processor has headroom to spare.