The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT combination ranks 1112th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. This pairing sits in the 34th percentile of all tested configurations, a position that reflects the significant demands of this horror title. The CPU holds a 79th percentile ranking among all processors, indicating the Ryzen 5 5600 is a strong performer, yet the system's overall standing is dragged down by the GPU, which sits at the 72nd percentile among all graphics cards. The data suggests a bottleneck at the graphics stage, as the CPU's relative strength is not fully utilized at higher settings where the GPU struggles to maintain frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1112 out of 1689 places it in the lower 34% of all tested configurations for The Medium. This is a demanding title, and the measured results show the pairing is better suited for lower graphical presets. The Ryzen 5 5600's average benchmark score of 21765 puts it within 0.9% of the Intel Core i7-11700F, which scores 21957, and it is 0.6% ahead of the Intel Xeon D-1746TER's 21635. This indicates the CPU is more than capable of feeding the GPU, as its multi-threaded performance is competitive with other mid-range desktop processors.

However, the RX 6650 XT's average benchmark score of 29024 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 6800M, which scores 29011, and it is only 0.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 470's 28996. The GPU's relative standing in the benchmark hierarchy is the limiting factor. The measured FPS data in The Medium confirms this, as the system cannot achieve high frame rates at demanding settings. The gap between the CPU's strong percentile ranking and the GPU's mid-pack ranking is the defining characteristic of this combo, leading to a performance ceiling that is set by the graphics card.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests a clear preference for the Low preset across all resolutions to achieve playable frame rates. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers an average of 94.3 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate for this combo. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 61.9 FPS, which is still playable, but represents a 34% reduction in performance. The High preset at 1080p yields 44.9 FPS, which is noticeably less fluid, and the Ultra preset falls to 36.6 FPS.

For a smoother experience at higher resolutions, the Low preset remains the only viable option. At 1440p, Low produces 78.4 FPS, which is good, while Medium drops to 50.2 FPS. At 4K, the Low preset yields 61.2 FPS, which is acceptable, but Medium falls to 37.7 FPS, and High is at 29.8 FPS. The data indicates that the Ultra preset is not a reasonable choice at any resolution, as it produces the lowest scores, ranging from 20 FPS at 4K to 36.6 FPS at 1080p. The best experience, balancing visual quality and frame rate, is the Medium preset at 1080p, providing a comfortable 61.9 FPS, while the Low preset is the only way to maintain high refresh rates or play at 1440p or 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a significant dependency on the GPU. Moving from 1080p to 1440p with the High preset, the average FPS drops from 44.9 to 34.2, a 24% decrease. From 1440p to 4K, the High preset further drops to 29.8 FPS, a 13% reduction. This pattern shows that the performance hit is more severe when moving from 1080p to 1440p than from 1440p to 4K, which is a typical sign of a GPU that is already near its limits at lower resolutions.

The scaling at the Low preset is more dramatic. At 1080p, Low produces 94.3 FPS, but this falls to 78.4 FPS at 1440p, a 17% drop. At 4K, the Low preset yields 61.2 FPS, a 22% reduction from 1440p. This steeper decline at lower settings indicates that the CPU is less of a factor, and the GPU's rendering load is the primary constraint. The data suggests that the limiting component is the RX 6650 XT, as the frame rate consistently falls with resolution increases, even when the CPU has less work to do. The Ryzen 5 5600's strong single-thread and multi-thread scores are not the bottleneck; the GPU's pixel and texture fill rates are the ceiling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the best result with an average of 94.3 FPS. The Medium preset achieves 61.9 FPS, which is a substantial drop. High settings yield 44.9 FPS, and Ultra is the lowest at 36.6 FPS. This resolution shows a wide spread of 57.7 FPS between the lowest and highest settings, indicating a highly scalable workload.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset is still the top performer at 78.4 FPS. Medium drops to 50.2 FPS, while High falls to 34.2 FPS. Ultra is the slowest at 26.2 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 52.2 FPS. At 3840x2160, the Low preset produces 61.2 FPS, which is the only preset to approach a playable level. Medium drops to 37.7 FPS, and High is at 29.8 FPS. The Ultra preset is nearly unplayable at 20 FPS. The data shows a consistent pattern: the Low preset is the only one that can maintain a frame rate above 60 FPS, and only at 1080p. The Medium preset is a viable option only at 1080p, while higher resolutions require the Low preset for any semblance of smoothness.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 280.3 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 2055 MHz and a boost clock of 2635 MHz, with a game clock of 2410 MHz. These specifications are directly reflected in the measured results. The GPU's 10.79 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and its 337.3 GTexel/s texture rate are put under heavy strain by The Medium's high-resolution textures and effects, which explains the steep performance drops at higher settings.

The GPU's 64 ROPs and 2048 shading units are not sufficient for the demands of the Ultra preset, which consistently produces the lowest frame rates. The data indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute throughput are the limiting factors, as the CPU is not the cause of the low scores. The RX 6650 XT's percentile ranking of 72 versus the CPU's 79 confirms this, and the measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the component that dictates the performance envelope. The card's performance is closest to the RX 6800M, with a delta of 0%, meaning the two are virtually identical in benchmark scores, yet both struggle with this game's most demanding settings.