The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 produces a combination that is positioned at the very bottom of the performance spectrum for The Medium, ranking 1643rd out of 1689 tested combinations. This places the system in the 3rd percentile of all tested hardware, indicating that it is not capable of delivering a smooth experience at most settings. The data shows a hardware pairing that is heavily constrained by the GPU, which holds an average benchmark score of 8713 and ranks in the 43rd percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU’s average score of 19983 places it in the 78th percentile. The result is a system where the processor has ample headroom, but the graphics card becomes the definitive bottleneck, particularly at higher resolutions and quality presets.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best average frame rate this combination can achieve in The Medium?*

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 44.8 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration that approaches playability, as the next highest average is 35 FPS at 2560x1440 with Low settings.

Q: How does the GTX 1650 compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 has an average benchmark score of 8713, which is 0.4% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile’s score of 8746. It also trails the AMD Radeon 550X, which scores 8749, by a similar margin of 0.4%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor for this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The GTX 1650 ranks in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 5600G ranks in the 78th percentile of all CPUs. This disparity indicates that the graphics card cannot keep pace with the processor’s capabilities in this title.

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

A: At 1920x1080, the average frame rate drops from 44.8 FPS on Low settings to 18.9 FPS on Ultra settings. This represents a decrease of 25.9 FPS, or roughly 58%, when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Q: What is the performance delta between the Ryzen 5 5600G and the Intel Core i7-11600H?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600G has an average benchmark score of 19983, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i7-11600H’s score of 19949. This makes the two processors effectively equivalent in overall synthetic performance.

Q: Does the GTX 1650 support modern graphics APIs relevant to this game?

A: Yes, the GTX 1650 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. This allows the game to run using its intended API paths, although the hardware’s raw performance still limits the outcome.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1643 out of 1689 tested combinations places it in the bottom 2.7% of all systems tested for The Medium. This is a definitive indicator of a severely underpowered configuration for this specific title. The data suggests that the system is only suitable for the lowest possible settings and resolutions, and even then, it barely achieves a playable frame rate. The ranking is consistent with the GPU’s low percentile standing; the GTX 1650’s 43rd percentile rank among all GPUs directly correlates with the poor in-game results, as the CPU’s 78th percentile rank shows it is not the primary source of the bottleneck.

The performance gap between this combo and the top-tier systems is vast, given that it sits at the 1643rd position out of 1689. The average frame rates across all tested configurations, which range from 8.9 FPS to 44.8 FPS, highlight a system that is only capable of rendering the game at a slideshow pace on higher settings. The data indicates that this pairing is fundamentally mismatched for a demanding horror title like The Medium, which requires substantial GPU resources. The combination’s rank is a direct consequence of the GTX 1650’s limited memory bandwidth and processing power, which will be explored further in the GPU Role section.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured data, the only viable configuration for this hardware is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which yields an average of 44.8 FPS. This is the sole preset that approaches a fluid experience, though it still falls short of a solid 60 FPS target. Benchmark results indicate that all other settings at this resolution produce averages below 30 FPS, which is generally considered the minimum for a playable experience in a slow-paced horror game, but still represents a significant compromise.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers an average of 35 FPS, which might be acceptable for users prioritizing resolution over visual fidelity, but it is a 22% reduction in frame rate compared to 1080p Low. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 27.2 FPS, which is a 39% decrease from Low settings, and the High preset drops further to 19.4 FPS. For a game that relies on atmospheric tension, the visual quality improvements from Low to Medium are not worth the substantial frame rate cost. The data strongly suggests that users should stick to the Low preset at 1920x1080 to maintain the best possible performance, as any increase in quality results in a disproportionately large drop in frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the GTX 1650 produces an average of 44.8 FPS on Low settings, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this combination. Moving to Medium settings reduces the average to 27.2 FPS, a drop of 17.6 FPS. High settings further reduce the average to 19.4 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 18.9 FPS. The progression shows that the largest performance hit occurs when moving from Low to Medium, which represents a 39% reduction in frame rate, while the difference between High and Ultra is minimal at only 0.5 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the results follow a similar pattern but with lower overall performance. The Low preset yields an average of 35 FPS, which is 9.8 FPS lower than the same settings at 1080p. Medium settings produce 21.9 FPS, High settings drop to 15.8 FPS, and Ultra settings deliver 15.4 FPS. The data shows that increasing the resolution from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings incurs a 22% performance penalty, while at Ultra settings the penalty is 18.5%.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes largely unplayable. The Low preset averages 29.4 FPS, which is the only configuration above 20 FPS at this resolution. Medium settings average 17.5 FPS, High settings drop to 11 FPS, and Ultra settings produce a mere 8.9 FPS. The data indicates that 4K resolution is not a viable option for this hardware, even at the lowest quality settings, as the frame rate drops below 30 FPS consistently. The scaling from 1440p to 2160p at Low settings shows a 16% decrease in performance, which is less severe than the 1080p to 1440p drop, but the absolute numbers are too low to be usable.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the primary determinant of performance in The Medium for this combination. The GPU features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 128.1 GB/s. This memory configuration is a significant limitation for a game that loads high-resolution textures and complex scenes, as the 4 GB capacity is likely to be a bottleneck at higher settings. The card’s base clock is 1485 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, and it contains 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. The pixel rate is 53.28 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 93.24 GTexel/s, with a FP32 performance of 2.984 TFLOPS.

These specifications place the GTX 1650 in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 8713 is within 0.5% of its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon 550X and the NVIDIA Quadro P2200. The card’s performance in synthetic tests, such as a Passmark G3D score of 7880, aligns with its modest in-game results. The GPU’s limited memory bandwidth and processing power are directly reflected in the measured frame rates, which show a steep decline as resolution and settings increase. The data suggests that the GPU is operating near its absolute limits, as even the lowest settings at 1080p do not achieve a 60 FPS average, confirming that the graphics card is the bottleneck in this pairing rather than the CPU.