The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT delivers a highly resolution-dependent experience in The Medium. The measured frame rates span from a playable 44.3 FPS at 1080p Ultra to a demanding 30.8 FPS at 4K Ultra, with the scaling pattern clearly identifying the GPU as the primary performance limiter across most settings. This analysis examines the measured data to characterize the system's behavior, its ranking among 1,689 tested combinations, and the optimal settings for a smooth experience.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a stark and consistent drop as resolution increases, a classic indicator of GPU-bound performance. At 1080p Low, the system produces 126 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops performance to 106.8 FPS, and at 4K Low, the average falls to 83.4 FPS. This represents a 33.8% reduction from 1080p to 4K at the lowest settings, showing that even at Low, the GPU's rendering workload scales heavily with pixel count.

The scaling becomes more pronounced at higher quality presets. At Medium settings, the frame rate declines from 77.7 FPS at 1080p to 67.4 FPS at 1440p, then to 52.8 FPS at 4K. The High preset follows a similar trajectory: 54.6 FPS at 1080p, 48.5 FPS at 1440p, and 39.2 FPS at 4K. At Ultra, the most demanding preset, the drop is steepest in absolute terms, falling from 44.3 FPS at 1080p to 39.4 FPS at 1440p and finally to 30.8 FPS at 4K.

The pattern indicates that The Medium is overwhelmingly GPU-limited for this combo. The CPU, a 6-core/12-thread Zen 3 part with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, has sufficient headroom to feed the GPU at 1080p, where the 126 FPS Low result suggests the graphics card is the ceiling. The consistent percentage drops across all presets—roughly 15-20% from 1080p to 1440p and another 20-25% from 1440p to 4K—are characteristic of pixel-throughput-bound rendering, not CPU stalls. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the frame rate to plateau at higher resolutions, but the data shows no such plateau. The 4K Ultra result of 30.8 FPS confirms that the RX 7700 XT's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 432.0 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed to their limits at this resolution and quality level.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in The Medium?*

A: The highest measured average is 126 FPS, achieved at 1080p with the Low preset. This is the only setting in the measured data that exceeds 120 FPS.

Q: Can this system sustain 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: At 1440p Medium, the average is 67.4 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold. However, at 1440p High, the average drops to 48.5 FPS, indicating that the Medium preset is the highest quality setting that maintains a 60+ FPS average at this resolution.

Q: How does the 4K performance compare to 1080p performance?

A: At the same preset, 4K performance is significantly lower. For example, at Low settings, 4K produces 83.4 FPS versus 126 FPS at 1080p, a reduction of 33.8%. At Ultra, 4K yields 30.8 FPS compared to 44.3 FPS at 1080p, a 30.5% drop.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data strongly indicates a GPU bottleneck. The frame rate scales inversely with resolution across all presets, and the CPU's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18,309 and a single-core score of 2,584, suggest it has ample processing power. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 22,547 and its 73rd percentile ranking among all GPUs position it as the performance ceiling.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset averages 126 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 44.3 FPS. This represents a 64.8% performance reduction when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

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

A: The combination ranks 693rd out of 1,689 tested combos for this game, placing it in the 59th percentile of all tested configurations.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the dominant component in this pairing for The Medium. Its memory configuration—12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus with 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth—provides the data throughput necessary for the game's high-resolution textures and effects. The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 1435 MHz and a boost of 2544 MHz, are instrumental in achieving the measured frame rates. The boost clock is particularly relevant, as sustained boost behavior under load directly influences the average FPS.

The GPU's benchmark results contextualize its performance. It achieves a PassMark G3D score of 22,547, placing it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, has an average score of 30,109, a delta of 0%. This effectively puts the RX 7700 XT on par with that competitor in synthetic benchmarks. However, in The Medium, the measured FPS shows the GPU struggling at higher resolutions, with 4K Ultra producing only 30.8 FPS. This suggests that the game's rendering load, possibly including ray-traced effects given the 54 RT cores present, is particularly heavy on the GPU's shading units and memory subsystem.

The GPU's compute capabilities are strong, with an FP32 throughput of 35.17 TFLOPS and a texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s. Yet, the measured data shows that even a 4K Medium preset (52.8 FPS) is significantly slower than 1080p Medium (77.7 FPS), confirming that the GPU's raw pixel-pushing ability is the limiting factor. The VRAM capacity is not the issue at 12 GB, but the bandwidth and shading rate are challenged by the game's visual complexity at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of 1,689 tested combinations for The Medium, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT holds the 693rd position. This placement indicates that roughly 41% of tested combos perform better, while 59% perform worse. The ranking is a composite measure that likely weights performance across multiple resolutions and settings, and the data shows that this combo is mid-pack overall.

The CPU's individual standing provides context. The Ryzen 5 5600 has an average benchmark score of 21,765 and sits in the 79th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon D-1746TER, has an average score of 21,635, a delta of 0.6%, meaning the Ryzen 5 5600 is marginally faster. The GPU, at the 73rd percentile, is slightly lower-ranked than its CPU counterpart. This disparity suggests that the combo's overall rank is dragged down by the GPU's performance in this specific title. The 693rd rank out of 1,689 is a fair representation of a system where a strong mid-range CPU is paired with a capable upper-mid-range GPU, but where the game's demands at 4K Ultra exceed the GPU's comfort zone. The low FPS at 4K Ultra (30.8) and the moderate performance at 1440p High (48.5) are the primary factors pulling the rank down from what the CPU alone might suggest.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For a 1080p display, the Medium preset offers the best balance, delivering 77.7 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS threshold and only 10 FPS below the Low preset's 126 FPS, while providing substantially better visual quality. The High preset at 1080p (54.6 FPS) is acceptable if a stable 50 FPS is tolerable, but Medium is the recommended choice for a smooth experience.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is again the clear winner, producing 67.4 FPS. This is the only 1440p setting that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. The High preset (48.5 FPS) is playable but noticeably less smooth, and the Low preset (106.8 FPS) sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most 1440p monitors. For 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset provides 83.4 FPS, which is excellent for 4K, but the visual quality will be significantly reduced. The Medium preset at 52.8 FPS is the best compromise for 4K, offering a playable frame rate with moderate visual enhancements over Low. The Ultra preset at 30.8 FPS is not recommended for 4K, as it falls below the threshold for a consistent cinematic experience.

Across all resolutions, the data suggests avoiding the Ultra preset. It consistently produces the lowest frame rates—30.8 FPS at 4K, 39.4 FPS at 1440p, and 44.3 FPS at 1080p—none of which provide a smooth experience. The Medium preset emerges as the best overall choice, offering a 77.7 FPS average at 1080p and 67.4 FPS at 1440p, which are the highest frame rates that still maintain a reasonable level of graphical detail. For users prioritizing frame rate over visuals, the Low preset at 4K (83.4 FPS) is the only way to achieve high refresh rates at that resolution.