The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination produces a highly variable experience in The Medium, with performance swinging dramatically based on resolution and quality settings. The data shows this pairing is positioned in the lower-midrange of tested configurations, ranking 1401st out of 1689 combos, placing it in the bottom 17% of the database. While the CPU holds its own against close rivals, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, particularly at higher resolutions where frame rates fall below playable thresholds.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware?

A: The only configuration to exceed 60 FPS is 1920x1080 with Low settings, achieving an average of 74.3 FPS. At 2560x1440 with Low settings, the average drops to 61.4 FPS, which remains playable. All other tested settings at 1080p and 1440p fall between 24.8 and 47 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5600G compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 19983 places it within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX (19928) and within 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-11600H (19949). It is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-11800H and AMD EPYC 7713P, both scoring 20024, representing a 0.2% deficit.

Q: What is the GTX 1070's standing relative to other GPUs in the database?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 12331, placing it at the 51st percentile of all GPUs. It sits extremely close to the NVIDIA Quadro K4200 (12241, 0.7% faster) and is within 1.4% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER (12504).

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in The Medium?*

A: No. At 3840x2160, the highest average frame rate is 47.9 FPS on Low settings. Medium settings yield 32.9 FPS, while High and Ultra produce 21.1 and 19.5 FPS respectively, all of which are below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the performance delta between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average frame rate drops from 74.3 FPS on Low to 30.1 FPS on Ultra, a reduction of 59.5%. The progression is 47 FPS on Medium and 36.8 FPS on High, showing a steep scaling penalty as quality increases.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this configuration?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary constraint. The Ryzen 5 5600G's multi-threaded score of 16758 in Cinebench R23 and its 78th percentile standing among all CPUs show ample processing headroom. The GTX 1070's 51st percentile ranking and the steep FPS drops with resolution increases point to the graphics card as the bottleneck.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, built on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a 16 MB L3 cache, which supports its strong synthetic performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 16758 in multi-core and 2365 in single-core tests, reflecting balanced performance for both threaded and lightly-threaded workloads.

For The Medium, a horror title that relies on scene complexity rather than extreme CPU physics, the 5600G's specifications are more than adequate. The processor's nearest rivals in average benchmark score—the Intel Core i7-11600H and Intel Core i7-11800H—show deltas of just 0.2% and -0.2% respectively, indicating this CPU is not a differentiator in this combo. The 5600G's percentile ranking of 78 among all CPUs further confirms it sits comfortably above the median, meaning it will not bottleneck the GTX 1070 in most gaming scenarios. The 12 threads handle background tasks and game logic without issue, while the 16 MB L3 cache reduces memory latency for frequently accessed data. Given that the GPU's percentile is 51, the CPU provides a significant performance buffer, ensuring that frame rates are dictated by graphics processing rather than processor limits.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is built on the Pascal architecture using the GP104 chip, manufactured on a 16 nm process. It features 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, with a base clock of 1506 MHz and a boost clock of 1683 MHz. The 8 GB of GDDR5 memory operates on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s. The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 6.463 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The card's dimensions are 267 mm in length, 112 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, requiring a dual-slot form factor and a single 8-pin power connector.

In The Medium, the GTX 1070's memory capacity and bandwidth are sufficient for the game's textures, but its raw compute power limits performance at higher settings. The GPU's average benchmark score of 12331 places it at the 51st percentile, and its nearest rivals—the Quadro K4200, GTX 880M, GTX 1650 SUPER, and Tesla K20Xm—are all within a 1.7% delta, showing it is a mid-tier card in 2021 terms. The measured FPS data reflects this: at 1080p, the card can push 74.3 FPS on Low but only 30.1 FPS on Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p and 4K shows a steep degradation, with the 4K Ultra result of 19.5 FPS indicating the GPU is overwhelmed by the pixel count and effects load. The 8 GB VRAM does not appear to be a limiting factor at these settings, as the performance drop is consistent with compute-bound workloads rather than memory capacity issues.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 ranks 1401st out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the 83rd percentile of the database (i.e., better than 17% of configurations). This rank reflects the GPU's mid-tier standing more than the CPU's strength; the 5600G's 78th percentile among all CPUs and the GTX 1070's 51st percentile among all GPUs create a mismatch where the processor is underutilized. The combo's position is consistent with the measured FPS: it can achieve playable frame rates at 1080p Low and 1440p Low, but struggles at higher settings. The rank of 1401 suggests that a large majority of tested systems outperform this pairing, likely due to more powerful GPUs paired with similar or better CPUs. The data shows that upgrading the GPU would yield a more significant shift in rank than upgrading the CPU, given the latter's already solid performance metrics.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for The Medium spans three resolutions and four settings levels, providing a clear picture of performance scaling.

At 3840x2160, the GTX 1070 cannot maintain playable frame rates. On Low settings, the average is 47.9 FPS, which is marginal for a horror game requiring smooth motion. Medium settings drop to 32.9 FPS, High to 21.1 FPS, and Ultra to 19.5 FPS. All of these are below the 60 FPS target, and even the best case (Low) is below 50 FPS, indicating 4K is not viable for this combo.

At 2560x1440, the results improve but remain limited. Low settings yield 61.4 FPS, which is the only 1440p configuration to exceed 60 FPS. Medium settings produce 42.2 FPS, High drops to 30 FPS, and Ultra falls to 24.8 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium (19.2 FPS) is substantial, and the subsequent reduction to High and Ultra shows diminishing returns as the GPU becomes increasingly saturated.

At 1920x1080, the performance is more usable. Low settings achieve 74.3 FPS, offering a smooth experience. Medium settings produce 47 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a title that benefits from consistent frame pacing. High settings yield 36.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 30.1 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 59.5% reduction in frame rate, demonstrating the heavy cost of higher quality presets on this hardware. The data suggests that 1080p Low is the only setting that fully utilizes the GPU's potential without dropping below 60 FPS, and 1080p Medium or 1440p Low are the best compromises for visual quality versus smoothness. The absence of min and max FPS values in the dataset means only average performance can be assessed, but the averages alone show a clear pattern of GPU-bound limitations.