The Medium

The Medium is a fixed-camera horror title that stresses both GPU and CPU in unusual ways, and the pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT delivers a playable but uneven experience depending on resolution and quality preset. The data shows a combo that ranks 953 out of 2911 tested combinations, placing it comfortably above the median but far from top-tier. This is a system that can handle 1080p and 1440p well, but 4K Ultra is a struggle, and the measured FPS numbers reveal exactly where the bottlenecks lie.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Medium?

A: The strongest results are at 1920x1080, where every preset except Ultra stays above 60 FPS. At 2560x1440, Medium delivers 71 FPS and Low hits 111 FPS, while High drops to 51 FPS. 3840x2160 is only viable on Low (89 FPS) or Medium (56 FPS), with High at 40 FPS and Ultra at 32 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 7800 XT compare to its nearest rivals in raw GPU benchmarks?

A: The RX 7800 XT has an average benchmark score of 11627, which places it at the 51st percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, scores 11680, a delta of -0.5%, meaning the RX 7800 XT is essentially tied with that older card in aggregate synthetic tests. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500M scores 11528 (0.9% behind), and the NVIDIA Tesla K20c scores 11479 (1.3% behind).

Q: What is the CPU’s standing relative to other processors?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600F sits at the 85th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36945. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 225, scores 36938 (0% delta). The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D scores 37018 (-0.2%), and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 scores 37093 (-0.4%), showing this CPU is right in the middle of a tight pack.

Q: Does the game favor the GPU or CPU more at high settings?

A: The evidence points to GPU dominance. At 3840x2160, dropping from High (40 FPS) to Low (89 FPS) more than doubles performance, while CPU load stays constant. The RX 7800 XT’s 16 GB of VRAM and 624.1 GB/s bandwidth are the limiting factors at 4K, not the 6-core CPU.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the GPU?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT has a launch MSRP of 499 USD. The CPU has no launch MSRP in the data.

Q: Is this combo better suited for 60 FPS gaming or high-refresh monitors?

A: For 60 FPS targets, 2560x1440 Medium (71 FPS) or 1920x1080 High (61 FPS) work well. For 100+ FPS, only 1920x1080 Low (117 FPS) and 2560x1440 Low (111 FPS) achieve that. Ultra presets at any resolution fail to hit 60 FPS, with 1080p Ultra at 48 FPS and 1440p Ultra at 40 FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the primary driver of frame rates in The Medium, and its specifications explain the measured results. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a substantial amount of VRAM for a horror game with fixed cameras, which often pre-renders or streams large textures. The GPU’s boost clock is 2430 MHz, with a game clock of 2124 MHz and a base clock of 1295 MHz. The memory runs at 2438 MHz, which translates to 19.5 Gbps effective.

The RX 7800 XT has 3840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, plus 60 RT cores. Its pixel rate is 233.3 GPixel/s and texture rate is 583.2 GTexel/s. For compute, it achieves 37.32 TFLOPS FP32 and the same 37.32 TFLOPS FP16 (1:1). These are high numbers on paper, but in The Medium, the GPU’s performance at 4K Ultra (32 FPS) versus 4K Low (89 FPS) shows how much headroom exists in lower presets.

The GPU’s benchmark scores are modest relative to its specs. Passmark G3D scores 24176, while Passmark DirectX 12 scores only 93, and DirectX 11 scores 249. Geekbench Vulkan scores 54228, and OpenCL scores 18290. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 4157. This mix suggests the RX 7800 XT excels in some workloads but not others, and The Medium’s engine appears to favor lower settings to avoid hitting the GPU’s weaker DirectX paths.

The 16 GB VRAM buffer is critical for The Medium. At 4K High, the game is likely using a significant portion of that memory, but the 40 FPS average indicates the GPU’s compute units are the bottleneck, not VRAM capacity. At 4K Low, the 89 FPS result shows that reducing texture quality and effects dramatically relieves pressure, allowing the GPU to push frames faster. The 624.1 GB/s bandwidth is also a factor; fixed-camera games often stream large static scenes, and higher bandwidth helps maintain consistent frame pacing, which the data supports with the Medium preset showing min FPS of 47 at 4K and 60 at 1440p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Ryzen 5 5600F and RX 7800 XT ranks 953 out of 2911 tested combinations in The Medium. That places it in the 67th percentile of all combos, meaning roughly two-thirds of tested systems perform better. This is a mid-to-upper-mid ranking, not a top-tier result. The ranking reflects the GPU’s 51st percentile standing among all GPUs, which is surprisingly low for a card with 16 GB VRAM and 37.32 TFLOPS FP32.

The CPU’s 85th percentile ranking is much stronger, which suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor in most scenarios. The GPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks—the GTX 1660, Radeon Pro 5500M, Tesla K20c, and RX 6500 XT—are all older or lower-tier cards, yet they score within 2% of the RX 7800 XT in average benchmark scores. This is a red flag for raw performance, but The Medium’s actual measured FPS shows the GPU can deliver playable results at lower settings.

Compared to the combo’s overall rank, the measured FPS data tells a more nuanced story. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 84 FPS on Medium, which is smooth for most players. At 2560x1440, Medium hits 71 FPS, still playable. But at 4K, only Low (89 FPS) and Medium (56 FPS) are viable. Ultra is unplayable at every resolution, with 32 FPS at 4K, 40 FPS at 1440p, and 48 FPS at 1080p. This rank of 953 out of 2911 suggests that many other combos handle Ultra better, likely due to stronger GPUs.

The data indicates this combo is a 1080p/1440p machine for The Medium, not a 4K powerhouse. The 16 GB VRAM is wasted at lower settings, but it does prevent texture pop-in or stutter at 4K Medium, where min FPS is 47. The rank also reflects that the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient, as the GPU is the clear bottleneck in every scenario except possibly 1080p Low, where the CPU might start to matter more.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce 117 FPS average, Medium produces 84 FPS (with min 72 and max 97), High produces 61 FPS, and Ultra produces 48 FPS. This shows a clear scaling pattern: dropping from Ultra to Low more than doubles performance. The gap between Medium and High is 23 FPS, which is significant for gameplay smoothness.

At 2560x1440, performance drops across the board. Low settings hit 111 FPS, still excellent. Medium produces 71 FPS (min 60, max 82), which is playable but noticeably lower than 1080p. High drops to 51 FPS, and Ultra falls to 40 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is 40 FPS, the largest single-preset drop at this resolution, indicating that Medium enables heavier effects that tax the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the GPU struggles. Low settings produce 89 FPS, which is surprisingly high for 4K and suggests the game is not heavily demanding when effects are minimized. Medium produces 56 FPS (min 47, max 64), which is borderline playable but with frame dips below 50. High drops to 40 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 32 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is 57 FPS, showing that the RX 7800 XT has a wide performance envelope but cannot sustain high quality at 4K.

The Medium preset is the only one with min/max data, and it shows consistent frame pacing: 72-97 FPS at 1080p, 60-82 FPS at 1440p, and 47-64 FPS at 4K. The min FPS values are within 12-16% of the average, indicating no severe stutter. This is important for a horror game where frame hitches can ruin atmosphere.

Comparing resolutions, 1080p Low (117 FPS) is 31% faster than 1440p Low (111 FPS), and 45% faster than 4K Low (89 FPS). At Medium, 1080p (84 FPS) is 18% faster than 1440p (71 FPS) and 50% faster than 4K (56 FPS). At High, the gaps widen: 1080p (61 FPS) is 20% faster than 1440p (51 FPS) and 53% faster than 4K (40 FPS). Ultra shows the steepest drop: 1080p (48 FPS) is 20% faster than 1440p (40 FPS) and 50% faster than 4K (32 FPS).

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 5000 series, based on Zen 3 architecture (codename Vermeer). It has a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU uses AMD Socket AM4 and supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel mode, with a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. It has 64 KB L1 cache per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and 32 MB shared L3 cache. The process node is 7 nm, and it has 4,150 million transistors on a 74 mm² die.

The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong for its class. Passmark single-thread scores 2872, and multithread scores 19236. Integer math scores 59339, floating point math scores 34548, and extended instructions score 16266. Data encryption scores 13839, and data compression scores 232836. Find prime numbers scores 120, and physics scores 1043. These numbers place the CPU at the 85th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36945.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role appears secondary to the GPU. The game is a horror title with fixed camera angles, which typically means lower CPU draw calls compared to open-world games. The 6-core/12-thread configuration is sufficient to feed the RX 7800 XT at most settings. Evidence for this is the FPS scaling: at 4K, dropping from Ultra (32 FPS) to Low (89 FPS) increases performance by 178%, which is entirely GPU-driven. If the CPU were a bottleneck, we would see smaller gains from lowering GPU load.

However, at 1080p Low, the CPU might become more relevant. The 117 FPS result is high, and the CPU’s boost clock of 4.00 GHz is modest by modern standards. The nearest CPU rivals—Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (36938 score), AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37018), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093), and Intel Core i9-12900T (37112)—all score within 0.5% of the 5600F, so the CPU is not a differentiator. The 32 MB L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for The Medium, which likely loads large scenes but does not require extreme memory throughput.

The CPU’s 65 W TDP and AM4 socket make it a power-efficient choice, but the data shows no thermal or power throttling issues in the measured FPS. The min FPS values at Medium settings (72 at 1080p, 60 at 1440p, 47 at 4K) suggest the CPU maintains frame pacing without drops, which is crucial for a game that relies on atmospheric tension. The 12 threads help with background tasks, but the game itself appears to use fewer cores, as the CPU percentile (85th) is much higher than the GPU percentile (51st).

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience with this combo, the data points to Medium settings as the sweet spot. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 84 FPS with a min of 72, which is smooth and consistent. At 2560x1440, Medium hits 71 FPS with a min of 60, still playable for most users. At 3840x2160, Medium drops to 56 FPS with a min of 47, which is borderline but acceptable for a slow-paced horror game. The min FPS data for Medium is the only preset with full min/max info, showing it maintains frame pacing better than other presets.

If you prioritize 60 FPS as a hard floor, 1080p High (61 FPS) is the highest quality preset that achieves it, but it lacks min FPS data. 1440p High (51 FPS) and 4K High (40 FPS) are below 60, so Medium is the safer choice. For 100+ FPS, 1080p Low (117 FPS) and 1440p Low (111 FPS) are the only options, but Low sacrifices visual fidelity significantly.

Ultra settings are not recommended at any resolution. Even at 1080p, Ultra produces 48 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 40 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 32 FPS, making it unplayable for most. The gap between Medium and Ultra is 36 FPS at 1080p, 31 FPS at 1440p, and 24 FPS at 4K, indicating that Ultra enables effects that heavily tax the RX 7800 XT without proportional visual gains.

The best overall compromise is 1080p Medium (84 FPS) for players with standard monitors, or 1440p Medium (71 FPS) for those with higher-resolution displays. If you have a 4K screen, 4K Medium (56 FPS) is the highest playable preset, but you should be prepared for occasional dips to 47 FPS. For a locked 60 FPS experience, 1080p High (61 FPS) works, but Medium offers a larger safety margin.

The data also suggests that Low settings are viable for competitive or high-refresh play, with 1080p Low hitting 117 FPS and 1440p Low hitting 111 FPS. However, The Medium is a horror game where atmosphere matters, so the visual downgrade may not be worth the extra frames. Medium provides a balance of quality and performance, and the min/max data confirms it is the most stable preset across all resolutions.