The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and Radeon RX 7700 XT combination delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, with performance that shifts dramatically based on resolution and quality settings. The data shows a configuration that is firmly mid-pack for this title, ranking 774 out of 1689 tested combinations, meaning it sits slightly above the median for all hardware pairings in this game.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling pattern across resolutions reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher pixel counts, yet surprisingly CPU-influenced at the lower end. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 54.7 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops this to 46.4 FPS, a reduction of 8.3 frames, while 4K further reduces output to 35.4 FPS. This steady decline of roughly 15-20% per resolution step indicates that the RX 7700 XT is the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases, a typical characteristic for a horror title with heavy volumetric effects.

The Low preset tells a different story. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 126.2 FPS, but at 1440p Low it still manages 103.7 FPS, and even 4K Low holds at 81.7 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 1440p Low is only 22.5 FPS, whereas the gap between 1440p and 4K Low is 22 FPS. This consistent spacing suggests that while the GPU is stressed, the 6-core/12-thread Ryzen 5 5500 is not completely idle at lower resolutions. The CPU’s 3DMark scores, particularly the 16-thread result of 5386 and max-thread score of 5411, show it has sufficient headroom, but the game’s fixed camera angles and layered rendering still create CPU-bound moments at 1080p.

The most telling data point is the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 44.4 FPS, which falls to 35.4 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and bottoms out at 26.9 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is nearly identical to the 1440p High result of 35.4 FPS, suggesting that the game’s Ultra preset introduces effects that scale almost linearly with resolution. The gap between Medium and High at each resolution is consistent—roughly 12 FPS at 1080p, 20 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K—indicating that High settings add meaningful visual complexity without a disproportionate performance penalty compared to the jump from Medium to Ultra.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5500 brings six Zen 3 cores with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost up to 4.20 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16429 places it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs, while the single-core score of 2319 is more modest. In The Medium, this translates to a processor that can feed the GPU adequately at 1080p but becomes less relevant as resolution climbs. The benchmark data shows that at 4K, the CPU’s influence on frame rate is minimal—the difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 54.8 FPS, which is almost entirely attributable to GPU workload.

The 12 threads are fully utilized in this game, as evidenced by the 3DMark 16-thread score of 5386 being nearly identical to the max-thread score of 5411. This indicates the game can scale beyond eight threads, and the 5500’s multithreaded PassMark score of 19330 supports this. However, the single-thread performance remains critical for the game’s logic and audio processing. A score of 836 in 3DMark single-thread places it below many modern rivals, which explains why 1080p Low at 126.2 FPS does not approach the 240 Hz territory that some higher-clocked CPUs could achieve.

Comparing to nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 5500 sits within 0.2% of the Intel Core i5-12500 and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE in average benchmark score. This means that swapping to those CPUs would yield virtually identical frame rates in The Medium. The 5500’s L3 cache of 16 MB is adequate for this game’s streaming environments, though the dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s is a potential bottleneck in scenes with heavy texture streaming. The game’s release date of 2021-01-27 means it was designed for the previous console generation, so the 5500’s architecture is well-matched to its threading model.

Settings Recommendations

The data clearly shows that Medium settings offer the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate for this configuration. At 1080p Medium, the system produces 78.5 FPS, which is 23.8 FPS higher than High and only 33 FPS lower than Low. The jump from Medium to High costs 23.8 FPS at 1080p, but the visual difference in a horror game with fixed cameras is often subtle. At 1440p Medium, the 66.7 FPS result is smooth enough for most displays, while 4K Medium at 49.6 FPS is borderline for a genre that benefits from consistent frame pacing.

Ultra settings are not recommended for any resolution. Even at 1080p, the 44.4 FPS average is below the 60 FPS threshold that most players prefer, and the 26.9 FPS at 4K Ultra is nearly unplayable. The performance gap between Medium and Ultra at 4K is 22.7 FPS, which suggests that the Ultra preset enables ray-traced or high-cost volumetric effects that the RX 7700 XT’s 54 RT cores cannot handle efficiently in this title. The GPU’s PassMark DirectX 12 score of 79 is notably low compared to its DirectX 11 score of 232, indicating that the game’s DX12 path is not well optimized for this architecture.

For players with 144Hz monitors, Low settings at 1080p (126.2 FPS) or 1440p (103.7 FPS) are the only options that fully utilize the refresh rate. The data suggests that this pairing is best suited for 1440p Medium, where it delivers 66.7 FPS—a playable frame rate that still allows the game’s atmospheric lighting to shine. The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory is sufficient for Medium textures at all resolutions, as the measured results show no signs of VRAM-related stuttering.

FAQ

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 4K with this CPU and GPU combo?

A: The measured data shows 35.4 FPS at 4K High, 49.6 FPS at 4K Medium, and 81.7 FPS at 4K Low. Ultra settings drop to 26.9 FPS, which is below playable thresholds.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 a bottleneck for the RX 7700 XT in The Medium?

A: At 1080p, the CPU has some influence, as shown by the 126.2 FPS Low result versus 103.7 FPS at 1440p Low. At 4K, the GPU is the clear limiter, with performance scaling almost entirely with resolution rather than CPU capability.

Q: How does this combo compare to other hardware in the database?

A: This pairing ranks 774 out of 1689 tested combinations, placing it slightly above the median. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 20875 is within 0.2% of the Intel Core i5-12500 and AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 60 FPS target?

A: Medium settings at 1440p produce 66.7 FPS, which is the only preset/resolution combination above 60 FPS that also includes Medium quality. At 1080p, Medium delivers 78.5 FPS.

Q: Does the RX 7700 XT’s 12 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The data shows no VRAM-related frame drops. The 4K Low result of 81.7 FPS and 4K Medium result of 49.6 FPS indicate that memory capacity is sufficient for these settings, though Ultra at 26.9 FPS suggests compute limitations rather than memory exhaustion.

Q: Is this game more CPU-intensive or GPU-intensive?

A: The scaling pattern shows GPU dominance. Dropping from Ultra to Low at 1080p improves performance by 81.8 FPS, while the same change at 4K improves it by 54.8 FPS. The CPU’s 79th percentile ranking and 16-thread score of 5386 show it handles the game’s threading well.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7700 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, and its characteristics explain the measured results. With a boost clock of 2544 MHz and a game clock of 2171 MHz, the RDNA 3.0 architecture delivers 35.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the game’s texture-heavy environments but not excessive. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3316 places it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 30097 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, which shows a delta of 0%.

The GPU’s memory subsystem plays a significant role in The Medium’s performance. The 432.0 GB/s bandwidth is tested heavily by the game’s dual-reality mechanic, which renders two synchronized worlds. This is evident in the frame rate differences between presets. At 1080p, the gap between Low and Medium is 47.7 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 23.8 FPS. The larger drop when enabling Medium suggests that texture streaming begins to tax the memory bus at that quality level.

The GPU’s DirectX 12 performance is notably weak in PassMark, scoring only 79, which is less than half of its DirectX 11 score of 232. This is unusual and suggests that The Medium’s DX12 implementation may not be fully optimized for RDNA 3.0. The 54 RT cores are present, but the game’s use of ray tracing appears limited, as the performance penalty from High to Ultra (which often enables RT features) is only 10.3 FPS at 1080p. The GPU’s pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s are adequate for 1440p rendering, which is likely why Medium at 1440p (66.7 FPS) is the sweet spot for this configuration.