The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 delivers a playable, though constrained, experience in The Medium. The data shows a system where the graphics card is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides ample headroom. This analysis walks through the measured frame rates to identify the best settings and contextualize the combo's standing among all tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance gradient as resolution increases, which is a classic indicator of GPU-bound rendering. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo averages 41 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 High drops that average to 35 FPS, a 15% reduction. The jump to 3840x2160 High further reduces the average to 27 FPS, another 23% drop from the 1440p result. This consistent decline with each resolution step points directly at the Radeon RX 7600's rendering throughput as the bottleneck.

The scaling pattern becomes even clearer when examining the Low settings preset. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 92 FPS, which is a very fluid experience. At 1440p Low, the average falls to 77 FPS, a 16% decrease. At 4K Low, the system still manages 61 FPS, which is a 21% drop from the 1440p figure. The fact that even at Low settings, the frame rate drops by roughly a fifth at each resolution step strongly suggests that the GPU's pixel processing capabilities, rather than the CPU, are the limiting factor.

The Medium preset offers the most complete data, including minimum and maximum frame rates, which allows for a more nuanced interpretation. At 1080p Medium, the average is 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 66 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 48 FPS, with the minimum falling to 41 FPS and the maximum to 56 FPS. Finally, at 4K Medium, the system averages 38 FPS, with a minimum of 32 FPS and a maximum of 44 FPS. The spread between minimum and maximum frames remains relatively consistent (around 12-17 FPS) across these resolutions, indicating that the frame pacing is stable even as the overall performance degrades.

The data suggests that the CPU is not a significant constraint in this game. The Ryzen 5 5600, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears to have enough headroom to feed the RX 7600 at all tested settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see less of a performance drop when moving from 1080p to 4K, as the GPU would be waiting on the CPU at lower resolutions. Instead, the consistent and substantial drops with each resolution increase confirm that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting and is the primary component determining frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, the 57 FPS average with a 49 FPS minimum is comfortably above the threshold for smooth gameplay, and the 66 FPS maximum shows there is some headroom. The data indicates that this is the optimal choice for a 1080p display, providing a significant improvement over the 41 FPS of High while maintaining a stable frame rate.

At 1440p, the Medium preset's 48 FPS average is a more moderate result. The 41 FPS minimum is still playable, but it is approaching the edge of what most users would consider smooth. The High preset at 35 FPS and Ultra at 27 FPS are both below the 30 FPS line, making them less desirable. The Low preset at 77 FPS is very smooth, but it likely comes with a noticeable visual quality reduction. Therefore, Medium is the recommended setting for 1440p, as it provides the best compromise between visual fidelity and performance.

For 4K resolution, the situation is more challenging. The Ultra preset is unplayable at 22 FPS average. The High preset at 27 FPS is also below the playable threshold. The Medium preset at 38 FPS is the only preset that approaches a playable level, though the 32 FPS minimum is a concern for consistency. The Low preset at 61 FPS is the only one that provides a smooth experience, but it does so at the cost of visual detail. The data suggests that for a 4K display, users should either select Low for playable performance or Medium if they can tolerate occasional dips below 40 FPS.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution. The 1080p Ultra average of 33 FPS is only slightly better than the 1440p High average of 35 FPS, and the 4K Ultra average of 22 FPS is far too low. The performance cost of Ultra settings is not justified by the modest FPS gains over Medium or High. The measured data clearly shows that Medium is the sweet spot for this hardware combination.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 + AMD Radeon RX 7600 combo ranks 2571 out of 3724 tested combinations in The Medium. This places it in the lower third of all tested systems, indicating that it is not a high-end configuration for this particular game. The percentile ranking of the individual components supports this assessment: the CPU is at the 74th percentile, while the GPU is at the 57th percentile.

The combo's rank of 2571 is more indicative of the GPU's performance than the CPU's. The GPU's 57th percentile ranking is below its average benchmark score would suggest, which implies that The Medium is a demanding title for the RX 7600. The CPU's 74th percentile ranking suggests it is a more capable component relative to its peers, but it cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations in this game.

The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals are very small, ranging from 0.1% to 0.5%. This indicates that the Ryzen 5 5600 is in a very tight performance cluster with the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, AMD Ryzen 5 8500G, and the AMD EPYC 9454P. The 0.1% delta to the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V is negligible, showing they are essentially on par. The GPU's nearest rivals show slightly larger deltas, with the Radeon RX 7600 being 0.2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM and 0.7% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti. This places it in a similar performance tier, but with the Radeon Pro 560X and Radeon 680M being slightly slower.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 57, with a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 66 FPS.

Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming in The Medium?

A: The data shows that at 4K, only the Low preset achieves an average above 60 FPS (61 FPS). The Medium preset averages 38 FPS, which is marginally playable, while High and Ultra are below 30 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 7600 compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 3050 OEM?

A: The RX 7600 has an average benchmark score of 15171, which is 0.2% lower than the RTX 3050 OEM's score of 15199.

Q: What is the CPU's single-thread performance relative to its multi-thread performance?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600 scores 2584 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 18309 in multi-core. This shows a strong single-thread result, which is beneficial for games that rely on fewer cores.

Q: What is the recommended preset for a 2560x1440 display?

A: The Medium preset is recommended, as it provides a 48 FPS average with a 41 FPS minimum, which is the only preset above 40 FPS besides Low.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 2571 out of 3724 tested combinations, placing it in the lower third of all systems.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture and features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus. The memory bandwidth is 288.0 GB/s, which is a crucial specification for a game like The Medium that has to load high-resolution textures. The GPU's base clock is 1720 MHz, with a boost clock of 2655 MHz and a game clock of 2250 MHz. The boost clock is the maximum speed, while the game clock is the typical speed during gaming workloads.

The GPU's performance in The Medium, as measured by the FPS data, is the primary determinant of the combo's overall ranking. The 57th percentile ranking for the GPU versus the 74th percentile for the CPU indicates that the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing for this specific title. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the demands on memory may be higher, though the data shows that the rendering pipeline is the bottleneck rather than a clear VRAM limit.

The RX 7600's 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs are responsible for the pixel processing that drives the FPS differences between resolutions. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (22 FPS) versus 1080p Ultra (33 FPS) shows a 33% performance drop, which is a direct consequence of the GPU having to render more than four times the number of pixels. The GPU's 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is a theoretical peak, but the real-world results show that it is not sufficient for max settings at high resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The CPU's cache configuration includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a 32 MB shared L3 cache. This large L3 cache is beneficial for gaming, as it can hold frequently accessed data.

The CPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks is strong. It scores 18309 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2584 in single-core. The single-core score is particularly important for gaming, as many games still rely on a few fast cores. The Geekbench scores of 9158 multi-core and 1936 single-core confirm this pattern. The CPU's 74th percentile ranking among all CPUs shows it is a solid performer, but it is not a top-tier part.

In The Medium, the CPU's role appears to be supportive rather than limiting. The FPS data shows a clear GPU bottleneck, as evidenced by the steady FPS drops with increasing resolution. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the 1080p and 1440p results to be closer together, as the GPU would have spare capacity. The fact that the FPS drops consistently from 1080p to 4K at all settings indicates that the CPU is providing enough data to keep the GPU busy, but the GPU cannot keep up with the increased pixel load.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table summarizes the measured average FPS for all tested settings and resolutions. The data shows a clear hierarchy, with lower settings and lower resolutions producing higher frame rates.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows:

• Low: 92 FPS average.
• Medium: 57 FPS average, with a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 66 FPS.
• High: 41 FPS average.
• Ultra: 33 FPS average.

At 2560x1440, the results are:

• Low: 77 FPS average.
• Medium: 48 FPS average, with a minimum of 41 FPS and a maximum of 56 FPS.
• High: 35 FPS average.
• Ultra: 27 FPS average.

At 3840x2160, the results are:

• Low: 61 FPS average.
• Medium: 38 FPS average, with a minimum of 32 FPS and a maximum of 44 FPS.
• High: 27 FPS average.
• Ultra: 22 FPS average.

The data shows that the delta between Low and Ultra is significant at every resolution. At 1080p, the difference is 59 FPS (92 vs 33), at 1440p it is 50 FPS (77 vs 27), and at 4K it is 39 FPS (61 vs 22). This highlights the substantial impact of the Ultra preset on the RX 7600. The Medium preset consistently provides a balanced option, with the 1080p result of 57 FPS being the only resolution where it exceeds the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K Low result of 61 FPS is the only 4K setting that achieves a smooth frame rate, confirming that the GPU is not capable of high-fidelity 4K gaming in this title.