The Medium

The Medium presents a particularly interesting stress test for the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 pairing. This combination of a budget-oriented 6-core processor with a flagship 24 GB graphics card creates a bottleneck dynamic that shifts dramatically depending on resolution. The measured frames per second (FPS) data reveals a system that is almost entirely GPU-limited at 4K, but progressively becomes more dependent on the CPU’s Zen 2 architecture as resolution drops. The results indicate that while the RTX 4090 is capable of delivering high frame rates, the overall experience is frequently constrained by the processor’s single-thread performance, which ranks in the 75th percentile among all CPUs.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is the clearest indicator of where the performance bottleneck lies. At the Ultra preset, the system delivers 72.8 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 61.7 FPS at 1440p, and further to 49.6 FPS at 4K. This represents a 31.9% performance loss from 1080p to 4K, a substantial drop that points directly at the graphics card as the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The RTX 4090, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, is being tasked with rendering the game’s fixed camera angles and heavy post-processing at increasingly demanding pixel counts.

However, the scaling pattern at lower settings tells a different story. When the preset is set to Low, the frame rate only falls from 113.8 FPS at 1080p to 103.6 FPS at 1440p, and then to 98.3 FPS at 4K. The difference between 1080p and 4K at Low settings is a mere 13.6%, which is far smaller than the drop seen at Ultra. This suggests that at Low settings, the GPU has enough headroom to handle the resolution increase without significant strain, and the performance is instead capped by the CPU’s ability to feed the graphics card. The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G, with its 3.70 GHz base and 4.20 GHz boost clock, appears to be the ceiling in this scenario, preventing the RTX 4090 from fully stretching its legs even at 4K.

The Medium’s engine seems to scale poorly with resolution when effects are maxed out, as evidenced by the 49.6 FPS result at 4K Ultra. This is a demanding configuration that leverages the GPU’s full feature set, including ray tracing and high-resolution textures. In contrast, the 98.3 FPS at 4K Low shows that the game can run smoothly on this hardware if visual fidelity is sacrificed, but the CPU’s 8 MB of shared L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are likely the reasons why the frame rate does not scale higher.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global database of tested combinations for The Medium, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a combo rank of 276 out of 1,689 total combos. This places it in the top 16.4% of all systems tested, which is a respectable position given the CPU’s modest specifications. The rank is heavily influenced by the GPU’s raw power, as the RTX 4090 sits in the 91st percentile for all graphics cards, but the processor’s 75th percentile standing drags the overall combo down from what a top-tier CPU would achieve.

The nearest rivals for the CPU in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE, which scores nearly identically with a 0% delta, and the Intel Core i5-12450H, which is only 0.1% faster. This indicates that the Ryzen 5 4600G is competitive with other entry-level and mid-range processors, but it is not in the same league as high-end desktop chips that would typically be paired with an RTX 4090. The combo rank of 276 suggests that while the system is powerful, it is not maximizing the potential of the graphics card in this specific title, likely due to the CPU’s limitations in single-threaded scenarios.

The data shows that in a game like The Medium, which relies on consistent frame pacing for its horror atmosphere, this combo delivers playable performance at most settings. The rank is a reflection of the average FPS across all tested resolutions, and the system’s ability to maintain over 60 FPS at 1440p High and Medium settings contributes positively to its standing. However, the gap between this combo and those with newer, faster processors is evident in the 1080p results, where the CPU bottleneck becomes more pronounced.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance for this combo is the Medium preset at 2560x1440. This configuration yields an average of 89.5 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and maintains a high level of graphical fidelity. The High preset at the same resolution produces 77.3 FPS, which is still playable, but the Medium preset offers a significant 15.8% performance increase with only a minor visual downgrade.

For users with 4K displays, the Low preset is the only viable option for a consistently smooth experience, delivering 98.3 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 79.8 FPS, which is acceptable, but the High preset at 66.1 FPS and Ultra at 49.6 FPS are below the ideal threshold for a game that benefits from stable frame rates. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution for this pairing, as it only achieves 72.8 FPS at 1080p, which is a poor trade-off for the extra visual effects.

At 1920x1080, the High preset offers 83.8 FPS, which is a solid choice for competitive play or for users who prefer higher frame rates. The Medium preset at 95.1 FPS is also excellent, and the Low preset’s 113.8 FPS is the maximum achievable, but the visual degradation is noticeable. The sweet spot for this game on this hardware is clearly 1080p or 1440p with Medium or High settings, as these configurations provide a balance that leverages the RTX 4090’s power without being held back excessively by the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete FPS data for this combo shows a consistent pattern across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset achieves 72.8 FPS, High achieves 83.8 FPS, Medium achieves 95.1 FPS, and Low achieves 113.8 FPS. The step from Ultra to High is a 15.1% improvement, while moving from High to Medium adds another 13.5%, and dropping to Low provides a further 19.7% gain. This scaling suggests that the Ultra preset includes several expensive effects that have a disproportionate impact on performance relative to their visual benefit.

At 2560x1440, the results are 61.7 FPS for Ultra, 77.3 FPS for High, 89.5 FPS for Medium, and 103.6 FPS for Low. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is most severe at the Ultra preset, with a 15.3% reduction, while the Low preset only loses 9.0%. This reinforces the idea that the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions and settings, but the CPU begins to limit the Low preset’s performance.

The 3840x2160 results show 49.6 FPS at Ultra, 66.1 FPS at High, 79.8 FPS at Medium, and 98.3 FPS at Low. The gap between Ultra and Low at 4K is 98.2%, meaning the Low preset is nearly twice as fast. This is an unusual scaling pattern that indicates the Ultra preset is pushing the RTX 4090 to its absolute limits, while the Low preset is likely hitting a CPU-imposed ceiling around the 98-100 FPS mark, as evidenced by the small difference between 1440p and 4K at this setting.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications clearly influence the game’s performance at higher resolutions. The GPU’s 24 GB of GDDR6X memory, running at 21 Gbps effective speed on a 384-bit bus, provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. This is more than sufficient for The Medium’s texture-heavy environments, even at 4K with High settings, where the card maintains 66.1 FPS. The 128 ray tracing cores and 512 tensor cores are also leveraged by the game’s lighting effects, which contribute to the significant performance drop at the Ultra preset.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2520 MHz and base clock of 2235 MHz are high for a graphics card, and the data shows that the card is capable of delivering 113.8 FPS at 1080p Low, which is a clear indication of its raw compute power. However, the benchmark results also show that the card’s 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is not fully utilized in this game due to the CPU bottleneck. The RTX 4090’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the NVIDIA Tesla T4, which is 0.4% slower, and the NVIDIA Tesla P40, which is 0.5% faster, but these are data center cards that are not relevant to gaming performance.

The GPU’s role in this combo is to provide the visual fidelity and resolution headroom that the CPU cannot. At 4K Ultra, the card is the clear limiting factor, with the frame rate dropping to 49.6 FPS. The 450 W TDP and triple-slot cooler design are necessary to maintain these clock speeds under load, and the 1x 16-pin power connector is a requirement for the card’s power delivery. The data indicates that the RTX 4090 is a massively capable card, but its potential is only partially realized when paired with the Ryzen 5 4600G, particularly at lower resolutions where the CPU’s single-thread performance becomes the primary constraint.