The Medium

# The Medium with AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + AMD Radeon RX 580

This combination of AMD's Ryzen 5 3600 and Radeon RX 580 places near the bottom of the tested field for The Medium, ranking 1557 out of 1689 total combos. That percentile position—roughly the 8th worst of all tested configurations—signals a system that will struggle with this horror title at most settings. The data reveals a pairing where the GPU's age and the game's demanding rendering engine create a bottleneck that no CPU headroom can overcome.

How This Combo Ranks

The 1557th rank out of 1689 tested combos places this system in the bottom 8% of all configurations run against The Medium. This is not a marginal shortfall; the measured FPS numbers show a system that falls below playable thresholds at nearly every resolution and preset. The RX 580's percentile ranking among all GPUs sits at 53, meaning half of all GPUs tested outperform it, while the Ryzen 5 3600's 76th percentile CPU ranking suggests the processor is not the primary constraint. The delta between these two percentiles tells the story: a mid-pack CPU paired with a below-average GPU for this specific workload. The combo's rank reflects that imbalance—when the GPU is the limiting factor, the overall system lands far lower than the CPU's individual standing would suggest. The nearest GPU rivals—NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 at 0% delta, GTX 950 at 0.1%, AMD Radeon Pro 455 at 1.1%—all cluster within a narrow performance band, confirming the RX 580 sits in a crowded mid-low tier with no standout advantage.

GPU Role

The RX 580's 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which sounds adequate on paper for a 2021 horror game. The reality, however, is that the Polaris 20 chip's 2304 shading units and 32 ROPs struggle to feed the game's fixed-camera, pre-rendered-style environments. The GPU's base clock of 1257 MHz and boost clock of 1340 MHz are modest by modern standards, and the 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power falls short of what The Medium's volumetric lighting and layered scene rendering demand. The data confirms this: at 1080p Ultra, the combo manages just 14.7 FPS average, a figure that drops to 10.3 FPS at 4K Ultra. The GPU's 53rd percentile ranking against all GPUs, combined with its nearest rivals all scoring within 1.1% of its average benchmark, paints a picture of a card that was mid-range in 2017 and is now firmly entry-level. Its DirectX 12 benchmark score of 43 (out of what the Passmark scale indicates) suggests particular weakness in the exact API this game leverages.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling across resolutions reveals a GPU-bound scenario with unusual characteristics. At Low settings, moving from 1080p to 1440p drops average FPS from 50.6 to 41.3 (an 18.4% reduction), while 1440p to 4K drops from 41.3 to 33.7 (an 18.4% reduction again). This consistent percentage scaling indicates the GPU is the bottleneck at every resolution—the CPU is never able to pick up the slack. At High settings, the pattern shifts: 1080p gives 22.7 FPS, 1440p gives 16.2 FPS (a 28.6% drop), and 4K gives 16.6 FPS (essentially flat). The 4K High result actually being slightly higher than 1440p High suggests measurement variance or a settings-specific rendering path, but the overall trend is clear. The Medium preset shows the most linear scaling: 33.5 FPS at 1080p, 28.1 at 1440p (16.1% drop), and 18.4 at 4K (34.5% drop). This resolution sensitivity confirms that pixel throughput is the limiting factor—the more pixels the GPU must render, the more the frame rate collapses.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the results span a wide range. Low settings produce a playable 50.6 FPS average, while Medium drops to 33.5 FPS. High settings fall to 22.7 FPS, and Ultra becomes a slideshow at 14.7 FPS. The 1080p data shows a clear pattern: only Low settings approach the 60 FPS target, and even that falls short. Moving to 2560x1440, the situation worsens. Low settings manage 41.3 FPS, Medium drops to 28.1 FPS, High falls to 16.2 FPS, and Ultra reaches just 16.1 FPS. The 1440p results show that even Low settings cannot maintain a smooth experience, and the High-to-Ultra gap nearly disappears—a sign that the GPU is hitting a hard performance ceiling regardless of preset. At 3840x2160, the results are predominantly unplayable. Low settings produce 33.7 FPS, which is the only 4K result above 20 FPS. Medium drops to 18.4 FPS, High to 16.6 FPS, and Ultra to 10.3 FPS. The 4K data demonstrates that this combo is not viable at this resolution for this game—even the lowest settings struggle to reach 35 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a single viable configuration for this combo: 1080p with Low settings, which delivers a 50.6 FPS average. This is the only tested row that approaches playability, and even it falls short of a locked 60 FPS. Every other settings combination at 1080p falls below 34 FPS, which for a horror game that relies on atmosphere and timing would feel stuttery and immersion-breaking. At 1440p, Low settings at 41.3 FPS is technically the best result, but the drop from 1080p Low suggests that staying at 1080p is the safer choice. The 4K Low result of 33.7 FPS is surprisingly close to 1080p Medium (33.5 FPS), but neither approaches the smoothness of 1080p Low. The data implies that players should accept significant visual compromises—Low preset, 1080p resolution—to get a playable experience. Medium settings at 1080p (33.5 FPS) might be acceptable for patient players, but the 34% FPS penalty versus Low makes it a poor trade for the modest visual gains.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 3600 brings 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost up to 4.20 GHz, built on TSMC's 7 nm process with Zen 2 architecture. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15045 and single-core score of 2124 place it well above the minimum requirements for modern games. The CPU's 76th percentile ranking against all CPUs, with nearest rivals like the Intel Core i5-11400 (-0.1% delta) and AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (-0.2% delta), confirms it is not the weak link. However, the benchmark results tell a different story: the CPU can deliver 4605 in 3DMark 16-thread tests, but the GPU's passmark G3D score of 8813 (53rd percentile) means the system can never utilize that headroom. The data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would typically have room to push frames, the GPU caps the output at 50.6 FPS. The CPU's 65W TDP and dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory support (51.2 GB/s bandwidth) are adequate, but they cannot compensate for the GPU's 185W Polaris chip struggling with this engine. The 12-thread workload from The Medium's fixed-camera scenes is handled comfortably by the 3600—the bottleneck is purely graphical.

FAQ

Q: What is the best playable setting for this combo in The Medium?

A: The only tested configuration that approaches playability is 1920x1080 with Low settings, delivering a 50.6 FPS average. All other settings at any resolution fall below 42 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 580's average benchmark score is 13559, nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13564, 0% delta) and GTX 950 (13549, 0.1% delta). The AMD Radeon Pro 455 trails by 1.1% at 13416.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 3600 holding back performance in this game?

A: No. The CPU ranks in the 76th percentile with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15045, while the GPU ranks in the 53rd percentile. The GPU is the bottleneck at every tested resolution and settings combination.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 28.1 FPS at 2560x1440 with Medium settings. This is 16.1% lower than the 1080p Medium result of 33.5 FPS.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this hardware for The Medium?

A: No. The best 4K result is Low settings at 33.7 FPS, but Medium (18.4 FPS), High (16.6 FPS), and Ultra (10.3 FPS) are all below playable thresholds.

Q: How much faster is 1080p Low compared to 1080p Ultra?

A: The 1080p Low result of 50.6 FPS is 3.4 times higher than the 1080p Ultra result of 14.7 FPS, representing a 244% improvement in average frame rate.