The Medium

# The Medium: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

This combination of AMD's six-core Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA's RTX 4070 lands at rank 1350 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the 64th percentile of all systems evaluated — a solidly mid-to-upper tier result for a horror title that clearly rewards GPU horsepower. The pairing of a 2018-era CPU with a 2023 GPU creates an interesting bottleneck dynamic, and the measured FPS data reveals where each component's strengths and limitations surface across resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1350 out of 3724 in The Medium indicates that roughly two-thirds of tested configurations deliver higher average frame rates, yet this placement still puts the system well above the median experience. The RTX 4070, with its 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 12 GB of GDDR6X memory, provides the primary driving force here, while the Ryzen 5 2600's six cores and twelve threads at up to 3.90 GHz boost clock handle the game's CPU demands.

Benchmark data shows the RTX 4070 sits in the 81st percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37648 — nearly identical to the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37628, just 0.1% ahead) and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507, 0.4% ahead), while trailing the RTX 4080 Mobile by 1.3% (38135). This GPU performance class explains why the combo achieves playable frame rates even at demanding 4K Ultra settings, though the 35 FPS average at that extreme suggests the CPU may be holding back the GPU from fully stretching its legs.

The Ryzen 5 2600's own benchmark profile reveals a processor that, while older, remains competitive: it scores 1248 in Cinebench R15 multi-core, 5648 in Geekbench multi-core, and 13160 in Passmark multi-thread, placing it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals — the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (0.2% ahead), Intel Core i9-11900H (0.5% ahead), and AMD EPYC 9454 (1.2% behind) — show that this CPU's overall compute capability hasn't fallen as far behind modern parts as its release date might suggest, which helps explain why the combo still ranks respectably in a GPU-bound title like The Medium.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows paint a clear picture: Medium settings offer the most balanced experience across all three resolutions, and the data strongly supports this as the sweet spot for this combo. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 78 FPS average with a minimum of 66 and maximum of 90 — the only settings level at that resolution where all three metrics are recorded, suggesting consistent frame pacing. At 2560x1440, Medium drops to 74 FPS average (63 min, 85 max), and at 3840x2160 it still holds 62 FPS (53 min, 71 max).

High settings, by contrast, show a steeper performance cliff: 67 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p, and 44 FPS at 4K. While these are all technically playable, the jump from Medium to High at 4K costs 18 FPS (29% reduction), which is a significant visual-to-performance trade-off for what The Medium's horror atmosphere might offer in increased detail. Ultra settings push the combo to its limits — 53 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and just 35 FPS at 4K — making Ultra viable only for players who prioritize maximum visual fidelity over smooth motion.

Low settings provide the highest frame rates (94 FPS at 1080p, 88 FPS at 1440p, 82 FPS at 4K) but at the cost of the atmospheric detail that defines the horror genre. The data suggests that Medium represents the optimal compromise for this hardware pairing, particularly because the recorded min/max range at Medium (66-90 at 1080p, 63-85 at 1440p, 53-71 at 4K) indicates more stable frame delivery than other settings, which lack min/max data and may exhibit wider variance.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck shifts between CPU and GPU. At Medium settings, frame rates scale from 78 FPS at 1080p to 74 FPS at 1440p (a 5% drop) and then to 62 FPS at 4K (a 21% drop from 1080p). This pattern — modest decline at 1440p followed by a steeper drop at 4K — suggests the RTX 4070 remains the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the Ryzen 5 2600 can keep up with the game's demands at lower pixel counts.

High settings tell a similar story: 67 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p (16% drop), and 44 FPS at 4K (34% drop from 1080p). The larger percentage losses at High compared to Medium indicate that as settings increase, the GPU's workload grows disproportionately, and the 4070's 192-bit memory bus with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth begins to feel the pressure of 4K texture streaming.

Low settings reveal the CPU's potential ceiling: 94 FPS at 1080p, 88 FPS at 1440p (6% drop), and 82 FPS at 4K (13% drop). The relatively small degradation across resolutions at Low settings — especially the mere 6% loss from 1080p to 1440p — strongly implies that the Ryzen 5 2600 is the limiting factor here, as the GPU has ample headroom and the CPU's six cores become the constraining element. This is classic behavior for a CPU-bound scenario at lower graphical loads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results: Low averages 94 FPS, Medium 78 FPS with a 66-90 range, High 67 FPS, and Ultra 53 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra (41 FPS) demonstrates the full performance envelope of this pairing at the most common gaming resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates compress slightly: Low 88 FPS, Medium 74 FPS (63-85 range), High 56 FPS, and Ultra 45 FPS. The 14 FPS difference between Low and Medium at 1440p is smaller than the 16 FPS gap at 1080p, hinting that the GPU's workload scaling is beginning to flatten the settings-based differences.

At 3840x2160, the resolution demands become apparent: Low 82 FPS, Medium 62 FPS (53-71 range), High 44 FPS, and Ultra 35 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold many players consider the minimum for smooth gameplay, while 4K Medium's 62 FPS average with a 53 FPS minimum shows this combo can handle 4K with adjusted settings.

The only settings level with complete min/max data across all three resolutions is Medium, which shows the frame time consistency improving as resolution decreases: 53-71 at 4K, 63-85 at 1440p, and 66-90 at 1080p. This suggests Medium settings produce the most predictable frame delivery, which is crucial for a horror game where sudden frame hitches can break immersion.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, proves adequate for The Medium's demands across all tested settings and resolutions. The GPU's 5888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, combined with 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores, provide the raw throughput needed for the game's fixed-camera horror rendering.

Clock speeds of 1920 MHz base and 2475 MHz boost enable the 4070 to reach 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, which the benchmark data shows is sufficient to push frame rates well above playable thresholds at 1080p and 1440p across most settings. The GPU's 158.4 GPixel/s pixel rate and 455.4 GTexel/s texture rate directly support the game's visual effects, and the 4K results — 62 FPS at Medium, 44 FPS at High — indicate the 4070's capabilities scale predictably with resolution.

The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 26927 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3854 place it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals' scores (Tesla P4 at 37628, RX Vega 56 at 37507, RTX 4080 Mobile at 38135) confirm it sits in a competitive performance band. The fact that the RTX 4070's average benchmark score of 37648 closely matches these rivals suggests that the GPU's real-world game performance in The Medium is consistent with its synthetic benchmark standing.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 60 FPS in 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, which average 62 FPS (53 min, 71 max). High settings drop to 44 FPS and Ultra to 35 FPS, both below the 60 FPS target.

Q: What is the best settings level for this CPU-GPU pairing?

A: Medium settings provide the most balanced experience, with the only complete min/max FPS data in the measurements: 78 FPS (66-90) at 1080p, 74 FPS (63-85) at 1440p, and 62 FPS (53-71) at 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The 4070's average benchmark score of 37648 is essentially tied with the Tesla P4 (37628, 0.1% ahead), slightly ahead of the RX Vega 56 (37507, 0.4% ahead), and 1.3% behind the RTX 4080 Mobile (38135).

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 2600 bottlenecking the RTX 4070 in this game?

A: The data suggests yes at lower settings and resolutions — Low settings show only a 6% FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p (94 to 88 FPS), indicating CPU limitation, while higher settings show larger drops that shift the bottleneck to the GPU.

Q: What CPU benchmark scores does the Ryzen 5 2600 achieve?

A: It scores 1248 in Cinebench R15 multi-core, 157.3 in single-core, 5648 in Geekbench multi-core, 1154 in single-core, and 13160 in Passmark multi-thread, placing it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs.

Q: Does this combo achieve 4K Ultra settings at playable frame rates?

A: No — 4K Ultra averages 35 FPS, which is below smooth-playability thresholds. 4K Medium at 62 FPS is the highest settings level that maintains playable performance at that resolution.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 2600's six cores and twelve threads, based on the Zen+ architecture on a 12 nm process, provide the computational foundation for this combo. With a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost up to 3.90 GHz, the CPU delivers single-thread performance that scores 157.3 in Cinebench R15 and 1154 in Geekbench — figures that, while modest by modern standards, prove sufficient for The Medium's horror gameplay, which typically doesn't demand extreme CPU throughput.

The CPU's 16 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 46.9 GB/s bandwidth contribute to its overall capability, and its Passmark single-thread score of 2239 and multithread score of 13160 place it in the 75th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals — the Core Ultra 5 228V (0.2% ahead), Core i9-11900H (0.5% ahead), and Xeon D-1746TER (0.7% behind) — demonstrate that the 2600's compute performance remains competitive despite its 2018 release date.

The key insight from the measured FPS data is that the CPU becomes the limiting factor specifically at Low settings and lower resolutions, where the GPU has spare capacity. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 94 FPS, but the minimal frame rate drop to 88 FPS at 1440p Low (6%) and 82 FPS at 4K Low (13%) suggests the CPU's six cores are maxed out regardless of resolution. This is consistent with the CPU's Passmark physics score of 673 and data compression score of 187062, which reflect moderate compute capability that can't fully feed a GPU as fast as the RTX 4070 when graphical load is light.

However, the combo's overall rank of 1350 out of 3724 shows that this CPU limitation doesn't cripple the experience — the GPU's raw power carries the system through higher settings where the bottleneck shifts back to the graphics card. The 45 FPS at 1440p Ultra and 35 FPS at 4K Ultra are GPU-bound results, indicating that for players who prioritize visual quality, the RTX 4070's strengths dominate, while the Ryzen 5 2600's weaknesses only surface in the pursuit of maximum frame rates at minimum graphical load.