The Medium

The Medium pairs a 6-core AMD Ryzen 5 4600G with a 20 GB AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, a combination that lands at rank 503 out of 1689 tested configurations for this horror title. The data shows a system capable of smooth 1080p play at most settings, but one where the CPU’s Zen 2 architecture becomes a clear limiting factor as resolution drops. The measured FPS across three resolutions and four quality presets reveals a consistent pattern: the GPU’s raw horsepower is held back by the processor in lighter loads, while heavier settings shift the bottleneck back to the graphics card.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems in The Medium?

A: The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT ranks 503rd out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the upper third of all configurations.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this pairing?

A: The best result is 110 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The same resolution at High settings drops to 72.3 FPS, showing a significant gap between the lowest and highest quality presets.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XT compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 38358 places it within 0.6% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38135) and essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (38349, 0% delta).

Q: What is the CPU’s multi-core performance relative to its closest competitors?

A: The Ryzen 5 4600G scores 13593 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. It sits within 1% of the Intel Core i3-14100T (17636, -0.8% delta) and Intel Core i3-13100F (17665, -1% delta), though those rivals have higher average scores.

Q: Is there a resolution where the system fails to maintain 60 FPS on High settings?

A: Yes. At 2560x1440 High, the average FPS is 59.5, just below the 60 FPS threshold. At 3840x2160 High, the average drops further to 47.2 FPS.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and what is its memory bandwidth?

A: The RX 7900 XT features 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, providing 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is paired with a game clock of 2025 MHz and a boost clock of 2394 MHz.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a 5 nm process. Its 20 GB of GDDR6 memory and 800.0 GB/s bandwidth provide substantial headroom for The Medium’s detailed environments, which often load large textures. The GPU’s 5376 shading units and 84 ray tracing cores deliver a peak FP32 performance of 51.48 TFLOPS, making it a high-end part that ranks in the 82nd percentile among all GPUs.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RX 7900 XT posts an average score of 38358, placing it just 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA CMP 70HX (38225) and 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38135). This GPU is clearly capable of far more than the measured FPS suggests at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 1920x1080 Low, the system reaches 110 FPS, but the gap between Low and Ultra at that resolution is 54.7 FPS (from 110 to 55.3). At 4K, the Ultra preset yields only 38.4 FPS, indicating the GPU is fully saturated by the combination of high resolution and maximum quality settings.

The 20 GB VRAM is particularly relevant for The Medium, a game known for its dual-reality rendering that can simultaneously show two perspectives. While the measured FPS does not explicitly test VRAM capacity, the memory size ensures that texture streaming is unlikely to be a bottleneck even at 3840x2160 Ultra, where the GPU’s compute limits become the primary constraint.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 4000 series, built on the Zen 2 architecture with a 7 nm process. It operates at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with 8 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU’s average benchmark score is 17489, placing it in the 75th percentile of all processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (17482, 0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-12450H (17475, 0.1% delta), showing that the 4600G is competitive with these parts in overall synthetic performance.

In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 13593 multi-core and 1919 single-core. The single-core score is modest by modern standards, and this becomes evident in The Medium’s measured results. At 1920x1080 Low, the system hits 110 FPS, but the jump from Low to Medium at that resolution is only from 110 to 91.2 FPS, and High drops to 72.3 FPS. This non-linear scaling suggests that the CPU is not the sole limiting factor even at low settings, as the GPU still has significant headroom.

Looking at resolution scaling, the CPU’s 3.70 GHz base clock and 4.20 GHz boost clock are sufficient to push frame rates at 1080p, but the Zen 2 architecture’s lower instructions-per-clock compared to newer designs means it cannot fully feed the RX 7900 XT. The 3DMark single-thread score of 726 and Geekbench single-core score of 1575 underline this limitation. At 2560x1440 Low, the FPS rises to 104.9, which is only 5.1 FPS lower than 1080p Low, indicating that the CPU is still keeping pace at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 110 FPS on Low, 91.2 FPS on Medium, 72.3 FPS on High, and 55.3 FPS on Ultra. This represents a smooth progression, with each step up in quality costing roughly 15-20 FPS. The 1080p Low result is the highest frame rate recorded for any configuration, confirming that the CPU can handle light loads without dragging down the GPU.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers shift. Low settings yield 104.9 FPS, a decline of only 5.1 FPS from 1080p. Medium drops to 85.6 FPS, High to 59.5 FPS, and Ultra to 45.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 59.6 FPS, wider than the 54.7 FPS gap at 1080p, showing that the GPU is becoming more involved as resolution increases. Notably, High at 1440p falls just below the 60 FPS mark at 59.5, making it a borderline experience for smooth play.

At 3840x2160, the GPU takes over as the clear bottleneck. Low settings produce 97.7 FPS, which is remarkably close to the 1080p Low result of 110 FPS, suggesting the CPU is still capable at this resolution. Medium drops to 63.3 FPS, High to 47.2 FPS, and Ultra to 38.4 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest in the entire dataset, and the spread from Low to Ultra at 4K is 59.3 FPS, nearly identical to the 1440p spread. This indicates that at 4K, the GPU’s rendering load dominates the performance equation.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K reveal where the bottleneck shifts. At Low settings, the system goes from 110 FPS at 1080p to 104.9 FPS at 1440p (a 4.6% drop) and then to 97.7 FPS at 4K (an additional 6.9% drop). This mild scaling suggests that the CPU is still the limiting factor at Low settings, as the GPU has ample headroom to render higher resolutions without a proportional FPS penalty.

At Medium settings, the scaling becomes more pronounced: 91.2 FPS at 1080p, 85.6 FPS at 1440p (a 6.1% drop), and 63.3 FPS at 4K (a 26% drop from 1440p). This steeper decline at 4K indicates the GPU is starting to hit its limits, though the CPU is still contributing to the overall frame time.

High settings show a different pattern: 72.3 FPS at 1080p, 59.5 FPS at 1440p (a 17.7% drop), and 47.2 FPS at 4K (a 20.7% drop from 1440p). The consistent ~20% drops from 1440p to 4K suggest a balanced load where neither component dominates. Ultra settings follow a similar trend: 55.3 FPS at 1080p, 45.3 FPS at 1440p (an 18.1% drop), and 38.4 FPS at 4K (a 15.2% drop from 1440p). The smaller drop from 1440p to 4K at Ultra (15.2%) compared to High (20.7%) hints that at Ultra, the GPU is already near saturation at 1440p, so the added resolution has less relative impact.

The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p with Low or Medium settings, the Ryzen 5 4600G is the primary limiting component, as evidenced by the small FPS differences between resolutions. At 4K, or with High and Ultra settings, the RX 7900 XT becomes the dominant constraint, with resolution scaling having a more pronounced effect.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience at 1920x1080, Medium settings provide a strong balance with 91.2 FPS, offering a significant improvement over High’s 72.3 FPS while maintaining visual quality. The jump from Low to Medium costs 18.8 FPS, but the visual upgrade is substantial for a horror game where atmosphere matters. Ultra at 1080p drops to 55.3 FPS, which is still playable but begins to compromise smoothness.

At 2560x1440, Medium is the recommended preset at 85.6 FPS, staying well above the 60 FPS threshold. High at 59.5 FPS is borderline, and players seeking a consistent 60 FPS should avoid it. Ultra at 45.3 FPS is only suitable for slower-paced segments, as the frame rate is below the smoothness target. Low at 104.9 FPS is viable for competitive play, but the visual downgrade is noticeable in The Medium’s dark, detailed scenes.

For 3840x2160, Medium at 63.3 FPS is the only preset that clears the 60 FPS mark, making it the clear choice for 4K displays. Low at 97.7 FPS offers a high frame rate but sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a horror title that relies on lighting and shadow. High at 47.2 FPS and Ultra at 38.4 FPS are both below the smoothness threshold, so they should be avoided unless the player prioritizes image quality over frame rate. The data shows that this system is best suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming, with 4K requiring Medium settings to achieve playable performance.