The Medium

The Medium presents an interesting stress profile for the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER. This combination sits at a notable intersection: a six-core processor from 2018 driving a modern Ada Lovelace GPU. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher loads, but the data also hints at CPU constraints that emerge at lower settings and resolutions. This analysis explores what those numbers mean for the overall experience, how the components interact, and which settings provide the most stable performance.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings provides a clear view of how this system scales with pixel count. At 1920x1080 Medium, the average is 78 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Medium drops that to 74 FPS, a modest 5% reduction. At 3840x2160 Medium, the average falls to 68 FPS, another 8% drop from 1440p. The scaling from 1080p to 4K represents a 13% total reduction in average frame rate, which is relatively shallow for a 4x increase in pixel count. This suggests that at Medium settings, the RTX 4070 SUPER has enough headroom that even 4K does not fully saturate its capabilities, or that the CPU is beginning to limit performance at the lower resolutions.

The story changes when examining High and Ultra settings. At High, the drop from 1080p (69 FPS) to 1440p (63 FPS) is 9%, and then from 1440p to 4K (49 FPS) is 22%. The larger relative drop from 1440p to 4K indicates that the GPU is now the primary constraint, as the increased shading and texture work at 4K High pushes the RTX 4070 SUPER harder. At Ultra, the pattern is even more pronounced: 1080p delivers 59 FPS, 1440p drops to 50 FPS (15% reduction), and 4K falls to 39 FPS (22% reduction from 1440p). The Ultra preset clearly demands the most from the GPU, and the scaling reflects that the RTX 4070 SUPER is working near its limits at 4K Ultra.

The Low setting offers a contrasting picture. At 1080p Low, the average is 94 FPS. At 1440p Low, it is 88 FPS (6% drop). At 4K Low, it is 82 FPS (7% drop from 1440p). The scaling from 1080p to 4K Low is only a 13% reduction, very similar to the Medium preset. This flat scaling pattern across Low and Medium settings suggests that at lower graphical loads, the frame rate is not purely dictated by pixel count. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, may be reaching a performance ceiling around 90-95 FPS, preventing larger gains at 1080p and making the resolution scaling appear artificially shallow. The data implies that for this game, the RTX 4070 SUPER is the limiting component at High and Ultra presets, while the Ryzen 5 2600 becomes more relevant at Low and Medium settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 78 FPS, with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average is 39 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it reaches 59 FPS. This represents a 34% reduction in average frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K at the Ultra preset.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 SUPER capable of running The Medium at 1440p High?

A: Yes, the measured average at 2560x1440 High is 63 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, though it does not reach the higher refresh rates that the GPU could theoretically support at lower settings.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo?

A: The highest measured average is 94 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the CPU’s performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 21484. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V, scores 21440, a 0.2% difference. The Intel Core i9-11900H scores 21367, which is 0.5% lower. The AMD EPYC 9454 scores 21223, which is 1.2% lower than the Ryzen 5 2600.

Q: Does the GPU show a significant advantage over its closest competitor?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 43223. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB, scores 43262, which is 0.1% higher. The RTX 4070 SUPER is effectively tied with the Quadro M6000 in aggregate benchmarks.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process. Its specifications include 7168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. These resources translate to a pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 35.48 TFLOPS.

In The Medium, the GPU’s role is clearly dominant at higher settings. At 4K High, the average FPS is 49, while at 4K Medium it rises to 68 FPS, and at 4K Low it jumps to 82 FPS. The difference between High and Low at 4K is 33 FPS, a 67% improvement. This indicates that the game’s High preset includes effects that heavily tax the GPU, such as increased shadow resolution, volumetric lighting, or texture filtering. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s 12 GB of VRAM is sufficient for 4K, as the game does not appear to hit memory limits—the frame rates drop consistently with increased settings rather than showing sudden stutters or crashes.

The GPU’s base clock is 1980 MHz, with a boost clock of 2475 MHz. Memory runs at 1313 MHz, effective 21 Gbps. These clocks are relatively high, and the boost behavior helps maintain performance under load. The measured results show that the GPU can handle 1440p High at 63 FPS and 1080p High at 69 FPS, which are playable but not exceptional. At 1080p Low, the 94 FPS average suggests the GPU is not the bottleneck—the CPU’s single-thread performance likely caps the frame rate. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s nearest rival, the Quadro M6000, has a 0.1% higher average benchmark score, but in this game, the RTX 4070 SUPER’s modern architecture and higher memory bandwidth likely provide better real-world scaling.

The GPU’s 80 ROPs and 224 TMUs are adequate for The Medium’s fixed camera angles and pre-rendered environments, but the game’s use of dual-reality rendering (showing two worlds simultaneously) can create high fill-rate demands. The 198.0 GPixel/s pixel rate helps mitigate this, but at 4K Ultra, the 39 FPS result shows that even this GPU cannot maintain 60 FPS at the highest settings. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, users should stick to Medium or Low presets, where the RTX 4070 SUPER delivers 68 and 82 FPS respectively.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates across presets are as follows: Low yields 94 FPS, Medium yields 78 FPS (with a minimum of 66 and maximum of 90), High yields 69 FPS, and Ultra yields 59 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 35 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High (9 FPS). This suggests that the High preset introduces a significant graphical feature that costs performance, while Ultra adds another layer of demand.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 88 FPS, Medium 74 FPS (min 63, max 85), High 63 FPS, and Ultra 50 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 14 FPS, and between Medium and High is 11 FPS. The progression is more linear than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is handling the additional pixel load consistently. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops below 60 FPS, making it less ideal for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 82 FPS, Medium 68 FPS (min 58, max 78), High 49 FPS, and Ultra 39 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 19 FPS, which is the steepest single-preset drop across all resolutions. This indicates that the High preset at 4K is particularly demanding. The Medium preset at 4K maintains a playable average of 68 FPS, with the minimum still above 58 FPS. Low at 4K achieves 82 FPS, which is surprisingly close to the 1440p Low result of 88 FPS, reinforcing the idea that CPU limits are affecting lower presets.

The minimum FPS values are only recorded for the Medium settings: 66 FPS at 1080p, 63 FPS at 1440p, and 58 FPS at 4K. These minimums are relatively close to the averages, suggesting that frame pacing is stable and there are no severe stutters. The absence of minimum values for other presets does not imply they are better, but the data available shows that Medium offers the most consistent experience.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 2000 series, based on the Zen+ architecture. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. The processor’s cache hierarchy includes 96 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. Its memory support is DDR4 with a dual-channel bus, providing a theoretical bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s. The CPU’s TDP is 65 W, and it uses the AMD Socket AM4.

In benchmark tests, the Ryzen 5 2600 scores 1248 in Cinebench R15 multi-core and 157.3 in single-core. Geekbench scores are 5648 for multi-core and 1154 for single-core. PassMark results include a multi-thread score of 13160 and a single-thread score of 2239. The CPU’s percentile ranking is 75, meaning it outperforms 75% of all CPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score is 21484, which places it close to the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i9-11900H (0.5% higher), and the AMD EPYC 9454 (1.2% lower).

In The Medium, the CPU’s role becomes apparent when examining the frame rate scaling at Low settings. At 1080p Low, the average is 94 FPS. At 1440p Low, it is 88 FPS, and at 4K Low, it is 82 FPS. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is only 12 FPS, which is small compared to the 4x pixel increase. This indicates that at Low settings, the Ryzen 5 2600 is likely the limiting factor. The CPU’s single-thread score of 2239 in PassMark is modest, and The Medium’s engine may rely heavily on a few threads for game logic and camera control. The 12 threads help with background tasks, but the fixed-camera horror style does not require massive multi-threading.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s could also be a constraint. The RTX 4070 SUPER has a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s, so data transfers between CPU and GPU over the PCIe Gen 3 interface (16 lanes) might cause bottlenecks in certain scenes. However, the measured frame rates at Medium and High settings show that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at those presets. At 4K High, the CPU’s performance is less relevant because the GPU is fully utilized. The data suggests that for this game, the Ryzen 5 2600 can push an RTX 4070 SUPER up to about 90-95 FPS in lighter scenes, but it prevents the GPU from reaching its full potential at lower resolutions and settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and visual fidelity for this combo. At 1080p Medium, the average is 78 FPS with a minimum of 66 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay without drops below the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p Medium, the average is 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 FPS, still comfortably above 60 FPS. Even at 4K Medium, the average is 68 FPS with a minimum of 58 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced horror games where frame drops are less noticeable. The Medium preset provides stable frame times across all three resolutions, as evidenced by the recorded minimum and maximum values.

The High preset is playable at 1080p and 1440p, with averages of 69 and 63 FPS respectively, but at 4K, the average drops to 49 FPS, which may feel sluggish. The Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p, where it averages 59 FPS, but even there, it barely misses the 60 FPS target. At 1440p Ultra, the average is 50 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it is 39 FPS, making these settings unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

For users with a 1440p monitor, Medium is the recommended choice, as it delivers 74 FPS and retains the game’s atmospheric effects without the performance penalty of High. For 1080p displays, Medium at 78 FPS is ideal, but High at 69 FPS is also acceptable if users prefer better shadows and textures. At 4K, Medium is the only preset that maintains a playable average above 60 FPS, so it is the clear winner. Low settings are not recommended because they provide only marginal FPS gains over Medium at 1080p (94 vs 78 FPS) and 1440p (88 vs 74 FPS), while significantly reducing visual quality. The Medium preset’s consistency, with minimums above 58 FPS even at 4K, makes it the safest and most enjoyable option across all resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination ranks 1260 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the 66th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it performs better than roughly two-thirds of the combinations in the database. The rank reflects the measured FPS data, which shows solid performance at 1080p and 1440p, but a significant drop at 4K Ultra.

The combo’s ranking is influenced by the CPU’s age. The Ryzen 5 2600, while still competitive in multi-threaded workloads, has a single-thread score that lags behind newer processors. The nearest CPU rivals, such as the Intel Core i9-11900H and Intel Core Ultra 5 228V, have similar average benchmark scores (within 0.5%), but they may have different performance characteristics in gaming. The GPU, on the other hand, is a modern high-end card that ranks in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the Quadro M6000, has a nearly identical average benchmark score, but the RTX 4070 SUPER’s features like ray tracing and DLSS are not necessarily leveraged in this game.

Given that the combo ranks 1260 out of 3724, it is clear that the RTX 4070 SUPER is carrying the performance. The CPU likely holds the system back in CPU-bound scenarios, such as the Low preset at 1080p, where the frame rate peaks at 94 FPS. If the CPU were more modern, the combo might rank higher, as the GPU has headroom to push higher frame rates at lower resolutions. However, for a game like The Medium, which is not exceptionally demanding on CPU cores, the 6-core Ryzen 5 2600 is sufficient to maintain playable frame rates at Medium and High settings. The rank of 1260 suggests that this is a mid-to-high tier combo, capable of delivering a good experience, but not at the top tier due to the CPU’s limitations in single-threaded performance.