The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding fixed-camera horror experience, and this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 lands in the lower half of the benchmark database’s tested combinations. The data shows a combo rank of 1348 out of 1689 tested configurations, placing it in the 80th percentile of the worst-performing setups rather than the best. That ranking is not a verdict on either component in isolation; it reflects a balance tilted toward the GPU, but the CPU’s role in feeding that GPU becomes evident when examining frame pacing across resolutions.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor built on the Zen 3 architecture with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth are standard for the platform, but the CPU’s benchmark scores reveal a processor that is competent, though not exceptional, for gaming workloads. In synthetic tests, the 5600G achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16758 and a single-core score of 2365, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 872. These numbers place it at the 78th percentile among all CPUs, which is a solid mid-pack result.

For The Medium, the CPU’s role is less about raw core count and more about sustained single-thread performance and consistent frame delivery. The game’s fixed-camera angles and scripted sequences do not typically stress multi-threaded throughput the way strategy or simulation titles do, but the 5600G’s 12 threads still provide headroom for background tasks. The nearest rivals in the database — the Intel Core i7-11600H with an average score of 19949 (0.2% ahead) and the Intel Core i7-11800H with 20024 (0.2% behind) — show that the 5600G sits in a tightly contested performance band. The deltaPct values are negligible, meaning the CPU is unlikely to be the deciding factor in frame rate differences between these setups. Instead, the data suggests the CPU maintains adequate frame pacing at 1080p, but at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiter, as evidenced by the FPS scaling patterns.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

With a combo rank of 1348 out of 1689, this configuration sits in the bottom 20% of all tested combinations for The Medium. That ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU’s performance tier, as the RX 6600 is positioned as a mid-range card, but the CPU is not holding it back in a way that would explain the low placement. The RX 6600’s percentileVsAllGpus is 69, meaning it outperforms 69% of all GPUs in the database, yet the combo still ranks poorly because The Medium is a graphically demanding title at high settings. The nearest GPU rivals — the AMD Radeon 890M with a deltaPct of 0, the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP at -0.2%, and the AMD Radeon RX 6700M at 0.2% — all have average benchmark scores within a fraction of a percent of the RX 6600, so the GPU is not an outlier in its class. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is 0.5% ahead, which is again a marginal difference.

The low combo rank is therefore a product of the game’s settings and resolution demands, not a mismatch between CPU and GPU. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 85.5 FPS, which is playable, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 18.8 FPS. The rank reflects that the system is only capable of delivering smooth performance at lower settings, and the data shows a steep decline as resolution increases. This is not a configuration that will excel in The Medium, but the CPU’s headroom means that upgrading the GPU would yield significant gains without bottlenecking.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The FPS data reveals a clear pattern: the RX 6600 is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions, while the CPU maintains sufficient throughput to avoid becoming a bottleneck at 1080p. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 85.5 FPS, which is the highest measured result across all configurations. Moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 70.9 FPS, a 17% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls to 52.5 FPS, a further 26% drop from 1440p. This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is being pushed beyond its comfortable range, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the FPS does not drop proportionally because the CPU is still feeding frames adequately at lower settings.

At Medium settings, the pattern shifts slightly. 1080p Medium delivers 51.2 FPS, 1440p Medium drops to 46.5 FPS, and 4K Medium falls to 38.2 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 4K is 25%, which is less severe than the Low settings drop, indicating that the game’s visual effects are adding load that the GPU handles more uniformly. At High settings, the numbers are 37.1 FPS at 1080p, 32.5 FPS at 1440p, and 25.5 FPS at 4K. The 31% drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings shows that the GPU is becoming increasingly strained. At Ultra, the trend is stark: 31.3 FPS at 1080p, 26.9 FPS at 1440p, and 18.8 FPS at 4K, a 40% reduction from 1080p to 4K. This steep decline indicates that the RX 6600’s 8 GB of VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are inadequate for Ultra settings at higher resolutions, and the GPU is the clear bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured data provides a comprehensive view of the combo’s performance. At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the combo achieves 85.5 FPS at Low settings, which is smooth and playable. Medium settings reduce the average to 51.2 FPS, still acceptable for a horror title where frame pacing matters more than absolute speed. High settings yield 37.1 FPS, which is borderline, and Ultra settings drop to 31.3 FPS, which may cause noticeable stutter in demanding scenes. At 2560x1440, the numbers are 70.9 FPS at Low, 46.5 FPS at Medium, 32.5 FPS at High, and 26.9 FPS at Ultra. The Low setting remains playable, but Medium begins to show strain, and High and Ultra are below the 30 FPS threshold that many players consider the minimum for a smooth experience.

At 3840x2160, the performance is largely untenable for anything above Low settings. The combo manages 52.5 FPS at Low, which is surprising given the resolution, but Medium drops to 38.2 FPS, High to 25.5 FPS, and Ultra to 18.8 FPS. The 4K Low result is notable because it suggests the RX 6600 can handle the pixel count when the game’s shading and texture work is reduced, but the VRAM bandwidth becomes a limiting factor as settings increase. Overall, the data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming with Medium to High settings, and 1440p gaming is only viable at Low settings. 4K is not a realistic target for this configuration, even at the lowest settings, for a consistently smooth experience.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 23 chip, featuring 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. It has 28 ray tracing cores, but The Medium’s use of ray tracing is limited, so the GPU’s rasterization performance is the primary factor. The card runs at a base clock of 1626 MHz, a game clock of 2044 MHz, and a boost clock of 2491 MHz, with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is the key constraint at higher settings and resolutions, as the 128-bit bus limits the data throughput needed for high-resolution textures and effects.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reflect its mid-range positioning. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1492, and in PassMark G3D, it achieves 15096, with a PassMark GPU compute score of 6554. These numbers place the RX 6600 at the 69th percentile among all GPUs, but the nearest rivals show how tightly packed this segment is. The AMD Radeon 890M has a deltaPct of 0, meaning it is effectively identical in average benchmark score, while the RX 580 2048SP is 0.2% behind and the RX 6700M is 0.2% ahead. The RTX 3060 Ti is 0.5% ahead, which is a minor edge, but the RX 6600’s 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for The Medium at 1080p, where the game’s memory footprint is manageable. At 4K, however, the 8 GB capacity and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for Ultra settings, leading to the 18.8 FPS result. The data indicates that the GPU is the limiting component in this combo, and the CPU’s 78th percentile standing means it is not the primary cause of the low frame rates at higher resolutions.