The Medium

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows for The Medium with the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT show a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate across the four presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 96 FPS, Medium drops to 69.4 FPS, High falls to 47 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 39.2 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 26.6 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs only 7.8 FPS, indicating that the latter transition offers diminishing returns relative to its performance hit.

For a horror game that relies on atmosphere and steady camera movement, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 provides the best balance: 69.4 FPS is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth playback, and it retains more visual detail than Low. At 2560x1440, Medium again emerges as the sensible choice with 56.8 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced sections. The High preset at this resolution yields 42.3 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower exploration but risks noticeable judder during scene transitions. At 3840x2160, no preset achieves a consistently smooth result: Medium sits at 47 FPS, High at 30.4 FPS, and Ultra at 26.7 FPS. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this combo should stick to Low (69.4 FPS) if frame rate is the priority, though that sacrifices the game's visual atmosphere.

The Ultra preset, in particular, appears poorly optimized for this hardware combination: at 1080p it only manages 39.2 FPS, which is lower than the High preset at 1440p (42.3 FPS). This implies that Ultra settings impose a heavy rendering load that the RX 6700 XT cannot offset even at lower resolutions. For the best experience per the measured rows, Medium at 1080p or 1440p is the recommended starting point, with Low reserved for 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process from TSMC, featuring 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus. Its memory bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s and boost clock of 2581 MHz are the primary GPU-side factors influencing The Medium's results. The card's base clock sits at 2321 MHz, with a game clock of 2424 MHz, and the memory runs at 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective). With 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, the GPU delivers a pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s, which directly affect how quickly the game can fill the screen with detailed textures and lighting effects.

The benchmark data shows that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at higher resolutions. At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops from 69.4 on Low to 26.7 on Ultra, a 61.5% reduction that scales almost linearly with the increased pixel count and shader workload. The 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for The Medium's texture-heavy environments, as the game was released in 2021-01-27 and does not appear to exceed this capacity even at Ultra settings. The GPU's compute performance, measured at 9336 in Passmark GPU Compute and 19786 in Passmark G3D, supports the high-resolution rendering demands, but the data shows that Ultra settings at 4K push the card to its limits.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the RX 6700 XT's average benchmark score of 33721 places it 0.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (33493) and 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A5000 (33294). This tight grouping suggests that the card's performance in The Medium is representative of its class, though the game's specific rendering paths may favor certain architectures. The GPU's 77th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it is a mid-to-high tier part, but the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (26.7 FPS) confirms that it is not a 4K-maxing card for this title.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 2000 series, based on the Zen+ architecture (Pinnacle Ridge) on a 12 nm process. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 3.90 GHz are modest by modern standards, but the chip's 16 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (46.9 GB/s bandwidth) provide adequate data throughput for gaming workloads. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 11186 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1579 in single-core, with a Passmark multithread score of 13160 and a single-thread score of 2239.

In The Medium, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. At 1920x1080, the gap between Low (96 FPS) and Medium (69.4 FPS) is 26.6 FPS, but the gap between High (47 FPS) and Ultra (39.2 FPS) is only 7.8 FPS. This pattern suggests that the CPU can keep up with the game's logic and draw calls at 1080p, but the GPU's rendering load dominates the higher presets. However, the CPU's single-core performance (1579 in Cinebench R23) may limit frame pacing in scenes with complex scripted events, as horror games often feature dynamic lighting and AI-driven sequences.

Comparing the Ryzen 5 2600 to its nearest rivals, it scores 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U (19508 vs 19616 average) and 0.7% higher than the Intel Core i7-10700F (19485), but 0.4% lower than the Intel Core i5-1345U (19691) and 0.6% lower than the Intel Core i5-11600KF (19740). These differences are negligible in real-world gaming, and the CPU's 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms it is a capable mid-range part. The data shows that at 4K, the CPU is not the limiting factor—the FPS differences between presets are driven entirely by GPU load, as evidenced by the 30.4 FPS at High versus 69.4 FPS at Low, a gap that cannot be attributed to CPU processing.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gaming with this hardware?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 delivers 69.4 FPS, which is the highest frame rate that maintains visual fidelity above the Low preset's 96 FPS. High (47 FPS) and Ultra (39.2 FPS) are slower and offer diminishing visual returns.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: At 3840x2160, only the Low preset achieves a playable 69.4 FPS. Medium drops to 47 FPS, High to 30.4 FPS, and Ultra to 26.7 FPS, so 4K is viable only with reduced settings.

Q: How does the RX 6700 XT compare to its nearest rival, the RX 6800?

A: The RX 6700 XT has an average benchmark score of 33721, which is 0.7% higher than the RX 6800's 33493. This translates to a negligible performance difference in most games, including The Medium.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 2600 a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the CPU can deliver up to 96 FPS on Low settings, but the GPU's load at Medium (69.4 FPS) and High (47 FPS) suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck; the GPU's rendering demands drive the FPS differences.

Q: What does the combo's rank of 983 out of 1689 combos indicate?

A: This rank places the Ryzen 5 2600 + RX 6700 XT combination in the middle of all tested combos for The Medium, confirming that it is a balanced mid-range setup rather than a high-end or entry-level pairing.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM cause any issues in this game?

A: The measured FPS data shows no signs of VRAM-related stuttering or crashes, as the game's maximum VRAM usage at Ultra settings does not exceed 12 GB, given the consistent frame rates across presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how The Medium scales from 1080p to 4K with the Ryzen 5 2600 and RX 6700 XT. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 96 at 1920x1080 to 90.1 at 2560x1440 (a 6.1% reduction) and then to 69.4 at 3840x2160 (a 27.7% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern is relatively mild, suggesting that Low settings are not heavily GPU-bound at lower resolutions, allowing the CPU to maintain higher frame rates. At the Medium preset, the FPS falls from 69.4 at 1080p to 56.8 at 1440p (18.2% drop) and then to 47 at 4K (32.3% drop from 1080p). The steeper decline indicates that Medium settings increase the GPU's pixel and shading workload, making it the dominant bottleneck.

The High preset shows an even more pronounced scaling: 47 FPS at 1080p, 42.3 at 1440p (10% drop), and 30.4 at 4K (35.3% drop from 1080p). This pattern confirms that as resolution increases, the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become the limiting factors. The Ultra preset exhibits the worst scaling: 39.2 FPS at 1080p, 34.9 at 1440p (11% drop), and 26.7 at 4K (31.9% drop from 1080p). Interestingly, the percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is similar across Medium, High, and Ultra (around 32-35%), which suggests that the resolution scaling is consistent regardless of preset, but the absolute FPS values are low enough at 4K that only Low settings remain playable.

The data indicates that the limiting component shifts from the CPU at 1080p Low (where 96 FPS is achievable) to the GPU at 1440p and 4K, where the FPS differences between presets are entirely attributable to GPU rendering load. The RX 6700 XT's 384.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 165.2 GPixel/s pixel rate are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p Medium, but the 4K results show that the card's 13.21 TFLOPS FP32 compute power is stretched beyond its comfort zone at higher settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS table for The Medium with the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is as follows:

3840x2160 (4K UHD):

• Low: 69.4 FPS
• Medium: 47 FPS
• High: 30.4 FPS
• Ultra: 26.7 FPS

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 90.1 FPS
• Medium: 56.8 FPS
• High: 42.3 FPS
• Ultra: 34.9 FPS

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 96 FPS
• Medium: 69.4 FPS
• High: 47 FPS
• Ultra: 39.2 FPS

At 1080p, the Low preset outperforms the Medium preset by 26.6 FPS, but the jump from High to Ultra costs only 7.8 FPS, indicating that Ultra's additional effects (likely ray-traced reflections or shadow quality) are not worth the performance penalty. At 1440p, the Low preset achieves 90.1 FPS, which is higher than the 1080p High preset (47 FPS), demonstrating that resolution scaling is less punishing than settings scaling for this GPU. The 4K results show a wide spread of 42.7 FPS between Low and Ultra, with only Low offering a frame rate above 60 FPS.

Notably, the 1080p Medium preset (69.4 FPS) matches the 4K Low preset exactly (69.4 FPS), which suggests that the GPU's rendering workload is comparable between these two configurations. Similarly, the 1080p High preset (47 FPS) matches the 4K Medium preset (47 FPS), reinforcing the idea that the game's engine scales settings and resolution in a predictable, linear fashion. The combo's overall rank of 983 out of 1689 for this game places it in the 58th percentile of all tested combinations, meaning it outperforms a slight majority of systems but is far from top-tier. The data confirms that this hardware is best suited for 1080p Medium or 1440p Low/Medium, with 4K reserved for the Low preset only.