The Medium

The Medium is a demanding title, and this pairing of an AMD Ryzen 5 5600 with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER lands in a challenging spot. The measured data shows that this combo ranks 1029th out of 1689 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. This is not a setup for maxing out every visual feature, but with careful settings adjustments, it can deliver a playable experience. The following analysis breaks down exactly where the bottlenecks are and how to get the most from this hardware.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and tells a clear story about the limiting component. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 103.6 FPS, which drops to 83.8 FPS at 1440p and then falls to 66.1 FPS at 4K. This scaling pattern shows that even at lower settings, the GPU is the primary constraint, as the frame rate decreases consistently with every pixel count increase.

Moving to Medium settings reveals the same trend but with a more dramatic penalty. The 61.1 FPS at 1080p drops to 55.3 FPS at 1440p and then collapses to 41.4 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 4K at Medium settings is nearly 20 FPS, indicating that the graphics card is being pushed hard by the higher resolution workloads. This is not a CPU-bound scenario; the Ryzen 5 5600 has enough headroom to feed the GPU at these resolutions.

At High settings, the situation becomes more restrictive. The 42.7 FPS at 1080p falls to 36.2 FPS at 1440p and then to 32.8 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is relatively small (a 3.4 FPS drop), which suggests that the game is hitting a performance wall where the GPU's capabilities are maxed out regardless of resolution. This is a sign that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the definitive bottleneck at these higher quality presets.

Ultra settings confirm this analysis. The 38.9 FPS at 1080p drops to 30.4 FPS at 1440p and then to 26.2 FPS at 4K. The difference between 1080p and 4K here is 12.7 FPS, which is proportionally similar to the High preset. The data consistently shows that the GPU's raw throughput is the limiting factor across all resolutions, with the CPU rarely being the primary constraint.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus. The memory bandwidth is listed at 448.0 GB/s, which is a substantial figure for this class of card. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for The Medium at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results suggest that the card is running into both memory bandwidth and raw compute limits.

The GPU's clock speeds are 1605 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost, with a transistor count of 13,600 million on a 12 nm process. These specifications place the card at the 65th percentile among all GPUs in the database, which is respectable but not exceptional. The benchmark results show that the card's average score is 22206, with the nearest rival being the NVIDIA RTX A400 at 22307, a delta of -0.5%. This puts the RTX 2070 SUPER in a tight performance cluster with other mid-range cards.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU's performance is heavily influenced by the settings preset. At 1080p Low, the card achieves 103.6 FPS, which is a solid result for a game like this. However, at 4K Ultra, the same card drops to 26.2 FPS, a 77.4 FPS difference. This demonstrates that the card's 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is not sufficient for high-resolution, high-detail gaming in The Medium.

The card's texture rate of 283.2 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s are moderate figures that explain the performance cliff at higher settings. The game's fixed camera angles and detailed environments place a heavy load on both texture fill and pixel processing, which is why the card struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at 4K with anything above Low settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture. Its base clock is 3.50 GHz with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, and it has a 32 MB shared L3 cache. This processor ranks at the 79th percentile among all CPUs, indicating that it is a strong performer for its generation. The multi-threaded benchmark results are solid, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18309 and a single-core score of 2584.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, but it still matters for maintaining minimum frame rates and preventing stutters. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 103.6 FPS, which is well within the CPU's capability to feed the GPU. The processor's 3dmark single-thread score of 882 and passmark single-thread score of 3256 indicate that it has strong per-core performance, which is important for games that rely on a few heavily threaded tasks.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and 7 nm process node make it an efficient choice, but the game's performance is not limited by the CPU in any of the measured configurations. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 26.2 FPS, which is clearly a GPU limitation. The CPU is likely idling while waiting for the GPU to finish rendering each frame, so upgrading the processor would not yield any meaningful FPS gains in this title.

The Ryzen 5 5600's nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon D-1746TER with a delta of 0.6% and the AMD EPYC 9554P with a delta of -0.6%. These comparisons show that the CPU is well-matched to its peers in synthetic benchmarks, but in gaming, the GPU is the dominant factor. For The Medium specifically, the CPU's 12 threads are sufficient to handle the game's logic and physics, leaving the GPU as the sole bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Ryzen 5 5600 and RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1029th out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the 61st percentile of all tested systems, which is below the median. The ranking reflects the GPU's mid-tier status more than the CPU's, as the processor is relatively strong for its generation.

The combo's position suggests that it will handle the game at 1080p with medium-to-high settings, but it will struggle at higher resolutions. The measured data supports this, showing that the combo achieves playable frame rates (above 60 FPS) only at 1080p Low and 1440p Low. At 1080p Medium, the frame rate drops to 61.1 FPS, which is borderline, while 1440p Medium yields 55.3 FPS.

Compared to other tested combos, this setup is not competitive for 4K gaming. The 4K results range from 26.2 FPS at Ultra to 66.1 FPS at Low, meaning that even the best case scenario at 4K is only marginally playable. The combo's rank of 1029 indicates that there are 660 other tested systems that perform better, which is a significant portion of the database.

The ranking is not a verdict on the hardware's quality, but rather a reflection of The Medium's demanding nature. A system with a higher-tier GPU would rank much better, while a system with a weaker CPU would rank similarly, as long as the GPU is the same. This suggests that for this game, the GPU choice is the primary determinant of the combo's rank.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 103.6 FPS, which is smooth and responsive. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 61.1 FPS, which is still playable but offers diminishing returns for the visual quality increase. For a balanced experience, Medium at 1080p is the best choice, as it provides a significant visual upgrade over Low while maintaining a playable frame rate.

At 1440p, the Low preset is the only option that yields a clearly playable frame rate at 83.8 FPS. The Medium preset falls to 55.3 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold that many players prefer. For a smoother experience, Low at 1440p is recommended, as it offers a large performance margin while still looking decent on a 1440p display.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset produces 66.1 FPS, which is the only 4K configuration that breaks the 60 FPS mark. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 41.4 FPS, which is choppy for a game that relies on atmosphere and tension. For 4K gaming, Low settings are the only practical choice, and even then, the experience will be borderline.

The High and Ultra presets are not recommended for this combo at any resolution. At 1080p High, the frame rate is 42.7 FPS, which is below the playable threshold, and at 4K Ultra, it drops to 26.2 FPS. These settings are only suitable for players who prioritize visual fidelity over smoothness, but the data suggests that the visual jump from Medium to High is not worth the performance cost.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings yield 103.6 FPS, Medium settings yield 61.1 FPS, High settings yield 42.7 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 38.9 FPS. This shows a clear progression where each settings tier costs a significant number of frames. The jump from Low to Medium is a 42.5 FPS drop, while the jump from High to Ultra is only a 3.8 FPS drop, indicating that High and Ultra are less differentiated in performance.

At 2560x1440, the values are: Low at 83.8 FPS, Medium at 55.3 FPS, High at 36.2 FPS, and Ultra at 30.4 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 20 FPS at Low settings and 6 FPS at High settings. The Medium preset at 1440p is the most balanced option, offering a playable frame rate with acceptable visual quality.

At 3840x2160, the values are: Low at 66.1 FPS, Medium at 41.4 FPS, High at 32.8 FPS, and Ultra at 26.2 FPS. The 4K Low result is surprisingly strong, indicating that the GPU can handle the resolution when the graphical load is minimized. However, the Medium preset at 4K is already below 45 FPS, and the High and Ultra presets are unplayable.

The overall data shows that the combo is most effective at 1080p with Medium settings, which provides a 61.1 FPS average. For players with a 1440p monitor, Low settings at 83.8 FPS are the best choice. At 4K, only Low settings are viable, and the 66.1 FPS result is decent but not ideal for a horror game that benefits from smooth camera movement. The measured rows provide a complete picture of the combo's capabilities, and the settings recommendations above are based directly on these numbers.