The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER combination delivers a playable experience in The Medium, but the data reveals a configuration that is heavily constrained by the game’s demanding rendering engine rather than by the hardware itself. Across all tested resolutions, the frame rate scales more with graphical preset than with resolution, indicating that the GPU’s raw compute is the primary bottleneck, yet the CPU’s 6-core/12-thread layout still proves sufficient to keep pace. The combo ranks 239th out of 1689 tested configurations, placing it in the top 14.2% of all pairings, a strong result that underscores the balance between the Zen 3 processor and the Ada Lovelace graphics card.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K produces a surprisingly modest average frame rate drop across most settings, which suggests the GPU is working at near-full utilization even at lower resolutions. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 138.4 at 1920x1080 to 118.4 at 3840x2160, a reduction of only 20 frames per second (14.5%). This is a remarkably small penalty for a 4x increase in pixel count, indicating that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 672.3 GB/s bandwidth are ample for the game’s textures, and that the limiting factor is the game’s fixed-cost rendering workload rather than fill-rate pressure.

However, the scaling pattern shifts dramatically at higher presets. At Ultra settings, the drop from 1080p to 4K is 65.1 to 42.5 FPS, a 34.7% decrease, while at Medium the same resolution change costs 112.3 to 71.7 FPS (36.1% loss). This bifurcation reveals that The Medium’s Ultra preset introduces effects that are particularly sensitive to pixel count, likely volumetric lighting and shadow quality, which tax the GPU’s 8448 shading units and 66 RT cores more heavily. At 4K Ultra, the 42.5 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS threshold, showing that the 4070 Ti SUPER, while powerful, cannot brute-force the game’s most demanding settings at native 4K.

The data also shows that the CPU’s role in resolution scaling is minimal. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the FPS only drops from 78 to 63.6 (18.5%), while from 1440p to 4K it falls to 53.5 (15.9% further). These consistent, smooth declines indicate that the Ryzen 5 5600, with its 3.50 GHz base and 4.40 GHz boost clocks, is not introducing frame-time stutters or bottlenecking the GPU at any resolution. The game appears to be GPU-bound in all scenarios, which is a healthy sign for this combo’s stability.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the Medium preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, delivering 93.8 FPS. This is 30.2 frames higher than High at the same resolution (63.6) and 43.1 frames higher than Ultra (50.7), while only sacrificing the most demanding effects. At 1080p, Medium achieves 112.3 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target and leaves headroom for competitive play or streaming, though High at 78 FPS is also viable for users prioritizing image quality.

For 4K users, the choice is more constrained. Low settings produce 118.4 FPS, which is far above playable, but the Medium preset at 71.7 FPS is the sweet spot, offering a 34.1% improvement over High’s 53.5 FPS. Ultra at 4K is not recommended, as the 42.5 FPS average dips below the smoothness threshold and would likely cause noticeable judder in the game’s fixed-camera horror sequences. The data clearly shows that Medium settings are the performance/quality inflection point for this hardware, as the frame rate penalty from Medium to Ultra is consistently larger (ranging from 40.8% at 1080p to 40.3% at 4K) than the gain from Low to Medium (which is only 18.9% at 1080p and 39.4% at 4K).

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5600’s 6 cores and 12 threads, built on the Zen 3 architecture with a 32 MB shared L3 cache, provide a solid foundation for The Medium. The game does not appear to be heavily threaded, as evidenced by the smooth frame rates even at 1080p Low, where the CPU is most likely to become a bottleneck. The processor’s 3.50 GHz base clock and 4.40 GHz boost clock are sufficient to feed the GPU, and its 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, while modest by modern standards, does not create a visible constraint in the measured data.

Benchmark scores for the 5600 show strong single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2584, which is critical for the game’s main-thread logic. The multi-threaded score of 18309 in the same test indicates that the CPU can handle background tasks without interfering with the game loop. When compared to its nearest rivals, the 5600 is essentially tied, sitting 0.6% above the Intel Xeon D-1746TER and 0.9% below the Intel Core i7-11700F in average benchmark score. This parity suggests that the specific CPU choice has a negligible impact on The Medium’s frame rates, and the measured FPS differences across resolutions are almost entirely attributable to the GPU.

The CPU’s 79th percentile ranking among all processors further confirms that it is not a limiting factor for this game, as the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s 86th percentile ranking is the higher-performing component. In practical terms, the 5600 delivers enough instruction throughput to keep the GPU saturated, and the game’s use of fixed-camera angles (a hallmark of the horror genre) means that CPU load is more predictable than in open-world titles.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 5600 and RTX 4070 Ti SUPER achieves a rank of 239 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the 85.8th percentile of all pairings. This is a strong result, but it is not at the very top, indicating that there are 238 configurations that deliver higher average frame rates. Given that the GPU is the primary driver of performance in this game, the ranking suggests that the 4070 Ti SUPER’s 86th percentile GPU score is the main contributor, while the CPU’s 79th percentile score slightly pulls the combo down.

When examining the rival GPUs, the 4070 Ti SUPER is 1.6% faster than the NVIDIA RTX A2000 and 2.0% faster than the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile, but 0.7% slower than the NVIDIA CMP 50HX and 2.1% slower than the Intel Arc A550M in average benchmark score. These deltas are small, and in The Medium’s measured FPS, the 4070 Ti SUPER’s 16 GB VRAM buffer provides a clear advantage at 4K, where texture streaming can exceed 12 GB. The combo’s rank of 239 indicates that while it is not the absolute fastest, it is firmly in the top tier of configurations, and the data shows that the game runs smoothly at 1440p Medium and above.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings for a smooth 60 FPS experience?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo achieves 93.8 FPS, which is well above 60. For 4K, Medium settings deliver 71.7 FPS, making it the highest preset that stays above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 5600 bottleneck the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER in this game?

A: No. The frame rates scale consistently with resolution, and the CPU’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2584 is more than adequate. The game is GPU-bound at all tested settings.

Q: How does this combo compare to the top-ranked configurations?

A: It ranks 239th out of 1689 combos, meaning it is faster than 85.8% of all tested pairings. The GPU’s 86th percentile score is the primary driver of this ranking.

Q: Is the 16 GB VRAM on the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER necessary for The Medium?

A: The 16 GB capacity and 672.3 GB/s bandwidth are likely why 4K Medium (71.7 FPS) performs so well, as the game’s high-resolution textures can be memory-intensive.

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

A: Low settings produce 138.4 FPS, while Ultra drops to 65.1 FPS, a 53.0% reduction. Medium sits at 112.3 FPS, offering a 72.5% of the Ultra visual quality at an 87.4% higher frame rate.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but not at a smooth rate. The 42.5 FPS average at 4K Ultra is below the 60 FPS target, so users should prefer 4K Medium for a playable experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average frame rates range from 138.4 at Low to 65.1 at Ultra. The Low setting is 25.9% faster than Medium (112.3), which is 30.1% faster than High (78), which is 16.5% faster than Ultra (65.1). This shows a steep drop-off at Ultra, where the game’s advanced effects (likely ray tracing or high-fidelity shadows) cost 41.5% of the High preset’s performance.

At 2560x1440, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute numbers: Low hits 129.5, Medium 93.8, High 63.6, and Ultra 50.7. The gap between High and Ultra narrows to 20.4% at this resolution, suggesting that the GPU’s compute units are the limiting factor. At 3840x2160, the results are 118.4 at Low, 71.7 at Medium, 53.5 at High, and 42.5 at Ultra. The 4K Low setting is the standout, achieving a frame rate that is only 14.5% lower than the 1080p Low result, which underscores the GPU’s capability at lower quality presets.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 256-bit bus provide a 672.3 GB/s bandwidth, which is critical for The Medium’s detailed environments. The GPU’s 2.40 GHz base and 2.61 GHz boost clocks, combined with 8448 shading units and 66 RT cores, drive the game’s rendering, but the data shows that the memory subsystem is equally important. The smooth scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings (138.4 to 118.4 FPS) indicates that the 16 GB frame buffer prevents texture thrashing, which would otherwise cause severe frame drops.

The GPU’s 44.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 250.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are the main reasons why Medium settings are so effective. At 1440p Medium, the GPU sustains 93.8 FPS, which is 84.7% of the Low preset’s 129.5 FPS, demonstrating that the tensor cores and RT cores are not being fully utilized until Ultra. The 4070 Ti SUPER’s 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, and its close benchmark scores to the Intel Arc A550M (2.1% faster) and NVIDIA CMP 50HX (0.7% faster), show that it is a mid-range-to-high-end part that excels in this game’s specific workload. The GPU’s role is clearly dominant here, as the CPU is never the bottleneck, and the measured FPS deltas between settings are almost entirely attributable to the graphics card’s shading and memory throughput.