The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER pairing is a classic mid-range setup from the late 2010s, and its performance in The Medium reflects both the strengths and the limitations of that era. The data shows a system that can handle the game comfortably at lower presets and resolutions, but which buckles under the weight of maxed-out settings at higher resolutions. Below is a detailed breakdown of what the measured frame rates mean for your experience.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 4K?*

A: Only at Low settings. The 3840x2160 Low preset delivers an average of 62 FPS, which is playable. However, at Medium settings, the average drops to 35.8 FPS, and at High it falls to 24.6 FPS, making those presets largely unplayable at that resolution.

Q: What is the best resolution for a smooth experience?

A: 1920x1080 offers the most headroom. At Low settings, the average FPS is 92.6. Even at Medium, it maintains a solid 57.7 FPS average, which is generally considered smooth for a horror title.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 sits at the 77th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 19616 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, with deltas of only -0.4% to 0.7% compared to the Intel Core i5-1345U, AMD Ryzen 5 7530U, Intel Core i5-11600KF, and Intel Core i7-10700F. It is effectively a performance dead heat.

Q: Is the GPU the limiting factor at 1440p?

A: Yes. The RTX 2060 SUPER, which ranks in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, sees its average frame rate drop from 48.5 FPS at Medium settings to 36.1 FPS at High settings at 2560x1440. This indicates that the GPU is struggling to keep up with the increased shading and texture loads.

Q: What is the jump in performance from Ultra to Low at 1080p?

A: The difference is massive. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset averages 33 FPS, while the Low preset averages 92.6 FPS. This represents a 59.6 FPS increase, or roughly a 180% improvement in frame rate, highlighting the high cost of the game's Ultra settings.

Q: How common is this specific hardware combination?

A: The combo ranks 1236 out of 1689 tested combinations in this game. This places it in the lower-performing half of the database, suggesting that while it's a functional pairing, many other systems will offer better performance in The Medium.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the engine driving the visuals, and its capabilities are the primary determinant of frame rates in The Medium. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, it has a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This is sufficient for the game’s assets at 1080p and 1440p, but the data suggests it starts to become a bottleneck at higher settings.

The GPU's boost clock of 1650 MHz and its 2176 shading units are the workhorses. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 92.6 FPS, showing that the card has plenty of raw compute power for the game's basic rendering. However, as you increase the preset to Medium (57.7 FPS) and High (38.7 FPS), the average frame rate plummets. This steep decline points to the GPU's TMUs and ROPs (136 and 64, respectively) being saturated by the increased texture detail and post-processing effects. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p is particularly punishing, with a drop from 38.7 FPS to 33 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset’s demands exceed what the 2060 SUPER can comfortably deliver.

The RTX 2060 SUPER is a DirectX 12 Ultimate part, but the game’s performance scaling suggests that ray tracing and other advanced features are likely not the primary cost here. Instead, the frame rate scaling is consistent with a traditional rasterization load that grows exponentially with each preset tier. The 8 GB VRAM buffer is likely a factor at 4K Ultra, where the average FPS falls to 22.8, as texture data may be spilling over, but the 62 FPS result at 4K Low shows that the GPU is not fundamentally incapable of high pixel counts when the workload is reduced.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data is clear: the "Ultra" preset is not a viable option for this combination. Across all three resolutions, the average FPS is below 34, which is well under the threshold for a smooth experience. The "High" preset is also problematic. It offers a playable, if not perfect, 38.7 FPS at 1080p, but this drops to 36.1 FPS at 1440p and 24.6 FPS at 4K.

The "Medium" preset is the sweet spot for this hardware. At 1920x1080, it delivers a solid 57.7 FPS, which is a good balance of visual fidelity and performance. At 2560x1440, it manages 48.5 FPS, which is acceptable for a slower-paced horror game. The "Low" preset is the only way to achieve high refresh rates, with 92.6 FPS at 1080p and 75.8 FPS at 1440p.

For the best experience, the data recommends Medium settings at 1080p. This provides a stable frame rate that is well within the playable range and retains more visual detail than the Low preset. If you prioritize a higher resolution, then Medium at 1440p is also a reasonable choice, though you will notice the lower average FPS. Avoid High and Ultra entirely, as they do not provide a consistent experience on this hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific pairing of an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1236th out of 1689 tested combinations in The Medium. This places it in the bottom 27% of all tested systems, which is a significant finding. The CPU itself is not the weak link; it performs within 0.6% of its nearest rivals, indicating that the processor is not a performance outlier. The GPU, however, is a different story.

The RTX 2060 SUPER, while a capable card, is more than a generation old and its performance is now firmly in the mid-range. The rank suggests that the overall experience is limited by the GPU, which is working hard to maintain even moderate frame rates. The 1236th rank means that the majority of other systems tested, which likely include newer CPUs and GPUs, will outperform this combo in The Medium. This is not a system for maxing out the game, but rather one that needs to be tuned to its strengths. The data shows that the combo is functional, but its position in the rankings is a clear indicator that it is at the lower end of the performance spectrum for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a clear pattern of GPU limitation. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 57.7 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 48.5 FPS, a decrease of 9.2 FPS. Moving further to 4K Medium, the average plummets to 35.8 FPS. This scaling is not linear; the drop from 1440p to 4K is proportionally larger than the drop from 1080p to 1440p.

This non-linear decline is a classic sign of the GPU hitting its memory bandwidth and fill rate limits. The RTX 2060 SUPER has a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s, and at 4K, the sheer number of pixels being processed overwhelms this resource. The trend is even more pronounced at the High preset, where FPS drops from 38.7 (1080p) to 36.1 (1440p) to 24.6 (4K). The 4K High result is a 36% reduction from the 1440p result, showing the dramatic cost of rendering four times the pixels.

Conversely, at the Low preset, the system scales much better: 92.6 FPS at 1080p, 75.8 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 4K. This indicates that when the workload is light, the GPU has enough headroom to handle the resolution increase, but the gap between 1440p and 4K remains significant. The data suggests the limiting component is unequivocally the GPU, as the CPU’s performance is steady across all tests. The 2600 is providing the frames, but the 2060 SUPER is the component that determines the ceiling at each resolution and preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Here is the complete set of measured average frame rates for this combination in The Medium:

• 3840x2160 (4K): At Ultra, the average FPS is 22.8. At High, it is 24.6. At Medium, it rises to 35.8. At Low, it reaches 62.

• 2560x1440 (1440p): At Ultra, the average FPS is 25.6. At High, it is 36.1. At Medium, it improves to 48.5. At Low, it jumps to 75.8.

• 1920x1080 (1080p): At Ultra, the average FPS is 33. At High, it is 38.7. At Medium, it climbs to 57.7. At Low, it peaks at 92.6.

The data reveals a consistent pattern. The Ultra preset is consistently below 34 FPS at every resolution, making it unusable. The High preset is only marginally better, staying below 39 FPS. The Medium preset is the highest playable tier, with all results above 35 FPS, and it offers a solid 57.7 FPS at 1080p. The Low preset is the only way to achieve high frame rates, with all results above 60 FPS. The spread between the Low and Ultra presets is extreme, ranging from a 59.6 FPS difference at 1080p to a 39.2 FPS difference at 4K, demonstrating the massive performance cost of the game's higher visual fidelity settings.