The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine, presents a unique challenge for the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and Radeon RX 9070 pairing. The data reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet shows surprising scaling behavior that suggests the CPU has more headroom than expected. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across three resolutions and four quality presets, offering a clear picture of what this combination can deliver for players navigating the spirit world.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K with this hardware configuration shows a predictable pattern of GPU limitation, but the magnitude of the performance drop varies significantly depending on the selected preset. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 136 FPS at 1920x1080 to 119 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of approximately 12.5%, and then to 93 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 31.6% drop from the 1080p baseline. This indicates that even at the lowest graphical load, the Radeon RX 9070's rendering capabilities become the limiting factor as pixel count increases, though the CPU is still able to feed frames efficiently at 1440p.

The scaling pattern becomes more pronounced at Medium settings, where the average frame rate drops from 88 FPS at 1080p to 74 FPS at 1440p, a 15.9% decrease, and then to 58 FPS at 4K, a 34.1% reduction from the 1080p result. The measured minimum and maximum frames at this preset also show a corresponding shift, with the 4K range spanning 50 to 67 FPS compared to the 1080p range of 75 to 101 FPS. This data suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at all resolutions above 1080p, as the frame rate scales almost linearly with the number of pixels being rendered.

High settings exhibit a similar trend, with performance dropping from 63 FPS at 1080p to 53 FPS at 1440p (a 15.9% reduction) and then to 42 FPS at 4K (a 33.3% reduction). The Ultra preset shows the steepest absolute decline, moving from 50 FPS at 1080p to 42 FPS at 1440p and finally to 33 FPS at 4K. This represents a 34% overall decrease from the highest to lowest resolution tested. The consistency of these percentage drops across presets—all hovering near the 30-34% range for the 1080p to 4K transition—strongly indicates that the Radeon RX 9070's pixel throughput is the sole constraint, with the Ryzen 5 5600's six cores and twelve threads never becoming the primary limiter even at 1080p.

What makes this scaling notable is that the frame rate deficit from 1080p to 4K is not as severe as it might be with a less capable GPU. The RX 9070's 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, appears sufficient to handle the increased memory pressure at 4K without causing a collapse in performance. The data shows that the GPU's compute resources, rather than its memory subsystem, are what limit frame rates at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the smooth, consistent scaling across all presets.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for selecting the optimal quality preset at each resolution, balancing visual fidelity against playable frame rates. For 1080p displays, the Medium preset at 88 FPS is the recommended starting point, as it offers a substantial improvement over the 63 FPS High setting while maintaining a frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Players seeking maximum visual quality at 1080p can still use High settings, but the 63 FPS average leaves little headroom for demanding scenes, and the 50 FPS Ultra preset is likely to feel stuttery during camera transitions common in fixed-camera horror games.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again proves to be the sweet spot, delivering 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 FPS. This combination provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS target, and the measured minimum suggests that even the most demanding moments in the game will remain playable. The High preset at 53 FPS is borderline; it will be acceptable for players who prioritize visual detail over frame rate consistency, but the 42 FPS Ultra result is too low for comfortable play. The Low preset at 119 FPS is viable for competitive play or for players who prefer maximum responsiveness, though the visual compromises are significant.

For 4K resolution, the choices become more constrained. The Medium preset at 58 FPS is the only option that approaches playable performance, and even this result is below the ideal 60 FPS target. The minimum of 50 FPS at this setting suggests that some scenes will dip below the threshold for smooth motion, but this is likely the best balance of visual quality and performance that the RX 9070 can achieve at 4K. The High preset at 42 FPS and Ultra at 33 FPS are not recommended for general play, as the frame rates will be noticeably choppy. The Low preset at 93 FPS is technically playable but undermines the visual fidelity that makes the game's atmospheric horror effective.

The data indicates that the CPU and GPU combination is well-matched for Medium settings across all resolutions, with the Ryzen 5 5600 providing sufficient processing power to avoid bottlenecking the RX 9070. The consistent performance scaling suggests that players should prioritize the Medium preset as their default, only stepping up to High at 1080p if they have a high refresh rate monitor and can tolerate occasional frame rate dips.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 bottlenecking the Radeon RX 9070 in The Medium?

A: No, the data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. The frame rates scale consistently with resolution across all presets, dropping from 1080p to 4K by roughly 30-34% regardless of settings. This pattern is characteristic of GPU-limited performance, meaning the Ryzen 5 5600's six cores and twelve threads are sufficient to keep up with the RX 9070's rendering output.

Q: What is the highest playable setting at 4K resolution?

A: The Medium preset at 4K provides an average of 58 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS, making it the only setting that approaches playable performance at this resolution. The High preset drops to 42 FPS and Ultra to 33 FPS, both of which are too low for a smooth experience in a game that relies on atmospheric tension.

Q: How does the RX 9070's performance compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 9070 has an average benchmark score of 23877, which places it 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z (23736), 1.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile (23628), 0.8% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6800S (24063), and 1.2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (24170). This places it in the 69th percentile among all GPUs.

Q: Does the CPU's cache configuration affect gaming performance in this title?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600 features a 32 MB shared L3 cache with 512 KB of L2 per core and 64 KB of L1 per core. The benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 18309 and a single-core score of 2584, which supports the conclusion that the CPU is not the limiting factor in The Medium's measured frame rates.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings is 53 frames per second. This is below the 60 FPS target, so players seeking a smoother experience should consider the Medium preset, which delivers 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations for this game?

A: This combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 1112 out of 3724 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the top 29.9% of all configurations. This indicates that the pairing performs better than the majority of systems tested for this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The Ryzen 5 5600 and Radeon RX 9070 combination achieves a rank of 1112 out of 3724 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the 70th percentile of all systems evaluated. This is a strong result, particularly considering the game's release date of January 2021 and the age of the CPU. The rank suggests that this pairing delivers performance that outperforms nearly 70% of all tested configurations, though it is not at the very top tier of systems.

The CPU's own benchmark standing supports this ranking. The Ryzen 5 5600 sits in the 74th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 20468, placing it just 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (20454) and 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 8500G (20425). This competitive position in synthetic benchmarks translates to real-world performance in The Medium, where the CPU does not appear to constrain the GPU at any tested resolution.

The GPU's ranking is slightly lower, at the 69th percentile among all GPUs with an average score of 23877. This places the RX 9070 in a tight cluster of competitors, all within 1.2% of each other in average benchmark scores. The fact that the combo ranks higher than either component's individual percentile suggests that the pairing is particularly well-suited for this game, with the CPU's strong single-threaded performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2584) complementing the GPU's raw rendering power effectively.

The rank of 1112 out of 3724 means that over 2600 other combinations performed worse than this setup in The Medium. This is a meaningful data point for builders who want to know if this pairing can handle a demanding horror title without requiring a more expensive CPU or GPU. The data suggests that the combination is well-balanced, with neither component dragging down the overall result.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 9070's role in The Medium's performance is defined by its memory configuration and clock speeds. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory capacity is more than sufficient for the game's requirements, even at 4K resolution, which helps explain why the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K remains consistent rather than collapsing due to memory pressure.

The clock speeds show a base of 1330 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz and a game clock of 2070 MHz. The memory operates at 2518 MHz, which translates to 20.1 Gbps effective. These clocks are indicative of a GPU that can sustain high throughput, and the measured frame rates in The Medium reflect this capability. The GPU's 56 ray tracing cores and 3584 shading units provide the compute resources necessary to handle the game's fixed-camera perspectives and layered reality rendering, though the data does not isolate ray tracing performance specifically.

The RX 9070's 128 ROPs and 224 TMUs contribute to the pixel and texture fill rates of 322.6 GPixel/s and 564.5 GTexel/s respectively. These specifications are relevant to The Medium's performance at 4K, where the GPU must process over 8 million pixels per frame. The fact that the 4K Medium preset achieves 58 FPS indicates that the GPU's fill rate capabilities are adequate for this resolution, though not excessive, as evidenced by the drop to 42 FPS at High settings.

The GPU's position relative to its rivals—0.6% ahead of the GTX TITAN Z, 1.1% ahead of the RTX 3080 Mobile, 0.8% behind the RX 6800S, and 1.2% behind the RTX 2080 SUPER—suggests that it is a solid mid-to-high tier performer. In The Medium specifically, this translates to playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p across all presets, with 4K limited to Medium settings for acceptable performance. The GPU's 220 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate it is a power-hungry component, but the measured performance justifies this requirement.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates for this combination reveals a clear performance hierarchy across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 136 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at this resolution delivers 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS and a maximum of 101 FPS, providing a solid 60+ FPS experience. High settings at 1080p yield 63 FPS, while Ultra drops to 50 FPS, which is at the threshold of playability for most users.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset still delivers a high 119 FPS, indicating that the CPU and GPU combination has substantial headroom at this resolution when graphical load is minimized. The Medium preset at 1440p produces 74 FPS with a minimum of 63 FPS and a maximum of 85 FPS, which is the most balanced result in the dataset. High settings at 1440p drop to 53 FPS, and Ultra falls further to 42 FPS, making these presets marginal for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope tightens considerably. The Low preset achieves 93 FPS, which is still playable but represents a significant drop from the 136 FPS seen at 1080p. Medium settings at 4K produce 58 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS, making this the only preset at this resolution that approaches the 60 FPS target. High settings at 4K drop to 42 FPS, and Ultra falls to 33 FPS, both of which are below the threshold for comfortable play.

The data shows a consistent pattern where the Medium preset provides the best balance of performance and visual quality at every resolution. The measured minimum and maximum frame rates at Medium settings—75-101 FPS at 1080p, 63-85 FPS at 1440p, and 50-67 FPS at 4K—indicate that the frame delivery is stable, with no severe dips that would cause visible stuttering. This consistency is a positive indicator for a horror game where smooth camera movement is essential for maintaining atmosphere. The overall dataset confirms that this CPU and GPU pairing is capable of handling The Medium at playable frame rates up to 1440p with high settings, with 4K requiring Medium settings for the best experience.