The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT combination delivers a demanding but playable experience in The Medium, a horror title that stresses both the CPU and GPU. The data shows this pairing ranks 915th out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the middle of the pack. While the RX 6700 XT holds its own in raw compute, the game’s performance scaling across resolutions and settings reveals a system that is often bottlenecked by the processor, particularly at lower resolutions and higher frame rates.

FAQ

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

A: At 1920x1080 with High settings, the system achieves an average of 52.1 FPS. This is a solid baseline, though it falls short of the 60 FPS mark that many players target for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RX 6700 XT compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The RX 6700 XT has an average benchmark score of 33721. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6800, scores 33493, which is 0.7% lower. The data indicates the 6700 XT is slightly ahead of the RX 6800 in this aggregate metric.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 3600 a bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: The data suggests the CPU is less of a limiting factor at 4K. At 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average FPS is 73.5, while at 1080p with Low settings, it only reaches 104.7 FPS. This smaller performance gap at higher resolutions indicates the GPU is the primary constraint at 4K.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: The gap is substantial. At 2560x1440, Low settings yield an average of 90.9 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 36.1 FPS. This represents a significant 60% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 3600's multi-core performance compare to the Intel Core i5-11400?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 has an average benchmark score of 18129, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i5-11400's score of 18150. The two processors are effectively neck-and-neck in this aggregate benchmark.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT ranks in the 77th percentile of all GPUs. This places it in the upper tier of graphics cards, indicating strong overall performance relative to the broader market.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is the primary driver of visual fidelity in The Medium. It features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s. This capacity is crucial for the game’s high-resolution textures and complex scenes, preventing stutter from memory swapping at 4K. The GPU’s clocks are notably high, with a base of 2321 MHz, a game clock of 2424 MHz, and a boost clock of 2581 MHz, allowing for rapid shader execution.

The RX 6700 XT’s raw compute power is substantial, with an FP32 performance of 13.21 TFLOPS and 2560 shading units. In The Medium, this translates to a significant difference between Low and High settings. At 1080p, the average FPS drops from 104.7 on Low to 52.1 on High, showcasing how the GPU’s workload increases with more complex lighting and shadow effects. The GPU’s 40 ray tracing cores are present, but the game’s implementation appears to be heavily taxing, as the performance drop to Ultra settings is severe. The 77th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms that the 6700 XT is a capable part, but the data shows it struggles to maintain high frame rates at maximum settings in this specific title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions reveals a classic scaling pattern that points to the CPU as a limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 104.7 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low yields 90.9 FPS, a drop of 13.8 FPS. At 4K Low, the average is 73.5 FPS, a further decline of 17.4 FPS. This consistent decrease indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU becomes more saturated, and the CPU has more time to feed it frames.

However, the scaling is more dramatic at higher settings. With High settings, the FPS drops from 52.1 at 1080p to 38.6 at 1440p (a 13.5 FPS loss) and then to 34.8 at 4K (a 3.8 FPS loss). The small difference between 1440p and 4K at High settings suggests that the game becomes heavily GPU-bound at this point. The CPU’s role is less prominent at 4K, as the GPU is working near its limit. The data indicates that the Ryzen 5 3600 is more of a bottleneck at 1080p, where its single-thread performance limits the maximum achievable frame rate, while at 4K, the RX 6700 XT is the clear constraint.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the system's performance. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings average 104.7 FPS, Medium settings average 71.8 FPS, High settings average 52.1 FPS, and Ultra settings average 38.4 FPS. This shows a linear degradation in performance as settings increase, with a 66.3 FPS difference between Low and Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 90.9 FPS for Low, 61.2 FPS for Medium, 38.6 FPS for High, and 36.1 FPS for Ultra. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p is particularly steep, with a 22.6 FPS loss, indicating a significant increase in GPU workload. At 3840x2160, the system manages 73.5 FPS on Low, 44 FPS on Medium, 34.8 FPS on High, and 29.1 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest in the entire dataset, showing that this combination is not viable for maximum settings at this resolution. The data clearly shows that to achieve a consistent 60 FPS experience, players must use Medium settings at 1080p or Low settings at 1440p. For 4K, only the Low preset provides a playable frame rate.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. In The Medium, the CPU’s role is most evident at lower resolutions and settings, where it can become the bottleneck. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 104.7 FPS, which is a high frame rate but not exceptional. This suggests that the CPU’s single-thread performance is limiting the frame rate from going higher.

The Ryzen 5 3600’s benchmark scores show a strong multi-threaded capability, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15045 and a single-core score of 2124. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4605 is nearly identical to the max-thread score of 4603, indicating that the processor scales well with all cores utilized. However, the game’s engine may not be fully utilizing all 12 threads, making the single-thread performance more critical. The CPU’s 76th percentile ranking and its average benchmark score of 18129, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core i5-11400, show it is a balanced performer. The data indicates that while the CPU can handle the game’s logic, it may not be fast enough to push frame rates beyond the 100 FPS mark at lower settings, making the GPU the more influential component in most scenarios.