The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title from 2021, presents an interesting stress profile for the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination. The measured data reveals a system that is heavily influenced by graphics settings, yet shows distinct signs of CPU limitation at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the benchmark results to understand where the bottlenecks lie and how to best configure this hardware for the game.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is not uniform, revealing a shift in the bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 106.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 102.3 FPS, a modest 3.8% decline. However, the jump to 4K Low results in 95.3 FPS, which is a more significant 6.8% drop from 1440p. This pattern suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is a primary limiter, even at higher resolutions, as the GPU has ample headroom.

The story changes dramatically when we examine the High and Ultra presets. At High settings, the frame rate falls from 80.5 FPS at 1080p to 70.5 FPS at 1440p (a 12.4% drop), and then to 58.1 FPS at 4K (a 17.6% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows an even steeper curve: 66.2 FPS at 1080p, 57.5 FPS at 1440p, and 48.1 FPS at 4K. This increasing rate of decline as resolution rises indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER is becoming the limiting factor. The data implies that at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 3600 is holding the GPU back, but as pixel count increases, the GPU's workload grows to the point where it dominates performance. The 4K Ultra result of 48.1 FPS is particularly telling, showing the GPU is fully saturated.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for visual fidelity versus performance. The Ultra preset is demanding, yielding 66.2 FPS at 1080p and dropping to 48.1 FPS at 4K. While playable at 1080p, the 4K result falls below the 60 FPS threshold. The High preset offers a significant performance uplift, delivering 80.5 FPS at 1080p and 58.1 FPS at 4K. This setting appears to be the sweet spot for a 60 FPS target at 1440p, with a 70.5 FPS result.

Interestingly, the Medium preset provides a substantial boost over High, with scores of 86.6 FPS at 1080p and 77.4 FPS at 4K. The gap between High and Medium is larger than the gap between Medium and Low, suggesting that High includes some expensive effects. For a smooth 4K experience, the data points to the Medium preset, which is the only setting that achieves a comfortable margin above 60 FPS at that resolution. The Low preset, while hitting 106.4 FPS at 1080p, sacrifices too much visual quality for a marginal gain over Medium, which already sits at 86.6 FPS at 1080p. The recommendation is clear: use Medium for 4K and High for 1440p or 1080p if you prefer higher fidelity.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its benchmark data shows a single-thread score of 696 in 3dmark and a multi-thread score of 4605 in 3dmark_16_threads. In Cinebench R23, it scores 2124 single-core and 15045 multi-core. These figures place it at the 76th percentile among all CPUs, indicating it is a solid mid-range performer.

In The Medium, the CPU's role becomes evident when comparing the 1080p Low result of 106.4 FPS to the 4K Low result of 95.3 FPS. The relatively small difference (approximately 10%) suggests that even at 4K, the CPU is still a contributing factor to the final frame rate. If the GPU were the sole bottleneck at 4K, we would expect a much larger drop from the 1080p result. The 3dmark_2_threads score of 1361 and the passmark_single_thread score of 2562 are moderate, suggesting that the game's engine is not heavily dependent on a single core, but the 12 threads are likely utilized. The data implies that the Ryzen 5 3600 is sufficient to keep the RTX 4080 SUPER from being completely idle at lower settings, but it does prevent the GPU from reaching its full potential, particularly at 1080p where the CPU is likely the primary limiter.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific configuration of the Ryzen 5 3600 and RTX 4080 SUPER is ranked 368th out of 1689 tested combos in this game. This places it in the top 21.8% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing. The rank suggests that while the CPU is older, the powerful GPU compensates to place this combo well above average. The CPU's average benchmark score is 18129, which is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. For example, the Intel Core i5-11400 scores 18150, a delta of -0.1%, and the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS scores 18101, a delta of 0.2%.

This near-identical CPU performance means that the ranking is almost entirely determined by the GPU's capabilities. The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 53610, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT and 2.9% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. The data indicates that this combo is competitive, but the 368th rank out of 1689 combinations shows that many other pairings, likely with newer CPUs, achieve higher frame rates in this specific title. The CPU's 76th percentile ranking is notably lower than the GPU's 88th percentile, creating an imbalance that likely prevents this combo from climbing higher in the rankings.

FAQ

Q: At which resolution and settings does the combo fail to reach 60 FPS?

A: The 4K Ultra preset is the only measured configuration that falls below 60 FPS, with an average of 48.1 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival, 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.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 102.3 FPS, which is 31.8 FPS higher than the High preset's 70.5 FPS.

Q: Is the 1080p performance limited by the CPU or GPU?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p, as the frame rate only increases from 80.5 FPS at High to 106.4 FPS at Low, showing a limited range of performance.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 SUPER have more memory bandwidth than its rival, the RX 6900 XT?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has a memory bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, and the data shows its average benchmark score is 0.2% higher than the RX 6900 XT.

Q: What is the best setting for a 4K experience based on the data?

A: The Medium preset at 3840x2160 yields 77.4 FPS, making it the only 4K setting that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance scales as follows: the Low preset achieves 106.4 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this resolution. The Medium preset delivers 86.6 FPS, while the High preset produces 80.5 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with an average of 66.2 FPS. This shows a performance gap of 40.2 FPS between the lowest and highest quality settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset remains the fastest at 102.3 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 86.4 FPS, and the High preset drops to 70.5 FPS. The Ultra preset is the only one to fall below 60 FPS at this resolution, with a 57.5 FPS average. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows an average decrease of about 10 FPS across all settings, except for Ultra, which only drops by 8.7 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset still leads with 95.3 FPS. The Medium preset is next at 77.4 FPS, followed by the High preset at 58.1 FPS. The Ultra preset is the only configuration to dip below 50 FPS, with a 48.1 FPS average. The drop from 1440p to 4K is more pronounced on the higher settings: High loses 12.4 FPS, and Ultra loses 9.4 FPS. This data confirms that the GPU workload increases significantly at 4K, making the higher presets less viable.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a high-end graphics card with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s. Its boost clock is 2550 MHz, and it has a substantial 10240 shading units. The GPU's benchmark results are strong, with a passmark_g3d score of 34245 and a 3dmark_steel_nomad_dx12 score of 6600. These figures place it at the 88th percentile among all GPUs.

In The Medium, the GPU's role becomes clear at higher resolutions and settings. The passmark_directx_11 score of 301 and passmark_directx_12 score of 134 indicate the card's capability in modern APIs. The 4K Ultra result of 48.1 FPS is a direct reflection of the GPU's workload, as the CPU is unlikely to be the limiting factor at such high pixel counts. The data shows that while the GPU is powerful, it is not immune to the demands of The Medium at 4K with maximum settings. The card's performance is 2.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 7700S in average benchmark scores, but the frame rate data shows that even this top-tier GPU needs a CPU that can keep up to achieve its full potential at lower resolutions. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is likely sufficient for this game, as the measured performance is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at 4K.