The Medium

The benchmark data for The Medium with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 reveals a system that is heavily constrained by graphics settings, with performance collapsing at 4K Ultra while remaining highly playable at lower presets. The measured results indicate that this combo ranks in the 56th percentile (953rd out of 1689 tested combinations), positioning it as a mid-pack performer for this specific horror title. The data shows a clear pattern: the RTX 4060 is the dominant factor in frame rate outcomes, while the Ryzen 5 5600G provides sufficient headroom to avoid becoming the primary bottleneck at most settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all quality presets, pointing to the GPU as the limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 107.6 at 1920x1080 to 74.5 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 30.8%. This scaling is far from linear, indicating that pixel count stresses the RTX 4060’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus heavily as resolution increases.

The gap widens dramatically at higher presets. Medium settings show a drop from 69.6 FPS at 1080p to 45.7 FPS at 4K, a 34.3% decline. High settings go from 48.9 FPS at 1080p to 34.8 FPS at 4K, a 28.9% reduction. Ultra is the most punishing: 36.6 FPS at 1080p falls to 24 FPS at 4K, a 34.4% loss. These percentages suggest that the game’s rendering load scales nearly proportionally with pixel count, with no evidence of CPU limiting at higher resolutions—the Ryzen 5 5600G’s 6 cores and 12 threads are not the constraint here.

Notably, the delta between 1080p and 1440p is smaller than between 1440p and 4K. For example, High settings produce 48.9 FPS at 1080p and 44.1 FPS at 1440p (a 9.8% drop), but fall to 34.8 FPS at 4K (a further 21.1% drop). This pattern indicates that the RTX 4060 handles the transition to 1440p gracefully but begins to saturate its memory bandwidth and shading capacity at 4K, particularly with effects-heavy presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 953 out of 1689 tested combinations places it squarely in the middle of the database, with roughly 56% of tested systems performing better. This is a modest outcome for a GPU that sits at the 66th percentile among all GPUs, suggesting that The Medium’s specific optimization profile does not favor this pairing as much as synthetic benchmarks might imply.

The RTX 4060’s average benchmark score of 23181 is within 0.7% of the Intel Arc B580 (23021) and 0.8% of the AMD Radeon 760M (22999), yet the game’s measured FPS does not reflect a clear advantage over these rivals in this title. The nearest GPU rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23321), is only 0.6% faster in synthetic tests, but the real-world gap in The Medium could be larger due to driver-level differences and the game’s reliance on ray tracing features.

On the CPU side, the Ryzen 5 5600G’s average score of 19983 places it within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX (19928) and 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-11600H (19949). This indicates that the 5600G’s single-threaded and multi-threaded performance is competitive with much more expensive processors, but its integrated Radeon Vega 7 graphics are irrelevant here since the RTX 4060 handles all rendering. The combo rank suggests that while each component is individually competent, the pairing does not unlock exceptional performance in this specific game.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060’s specifications directly explain its behavior in The Medium. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus delivering 272.0 GB/s, the card has sufficient bandwidth for 1080p and 1440p gaming but struggles at 4K Ultra where texture streaming and shadow maps demand more capacity. The boost clock of 2460 MHz and 3072 shading units provide solid raw compute, evidenced by the 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, but the game’s visual complexity at Ultra settings overwhelms these resources.

The GPU’s 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores are present but underutilized in the measured results, as The Medium’s default presets likely do not enable full ray tracing at these settings. The pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s are adequate for 1080p but become limiting factors at 4K, where the fill rate requirements quadruple. The 66th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms that the RTX 4060 is a mid-range part, and the measured FPS data aligns with this positioning—playable at 1440p High, but not a 4K powerhouse.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4060 delivers excellent performance across most presets. Low settings produce an average of 107.6 FPS, which is smooth for any display. Medium settings drop to 69.6 FPS, still well above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings yield 48.9 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced sequences. Ultra settings fall to 36.6 FPS, indicating that the game’s maximum quality preset is too demanding for consistent 60 FPS at 1080p on this hardware.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results show a predictable decline. Low settings average 90.8 FPS, maintaining high refresh rate viability. Medium settings produce 55.5 FPS, which is acceptable for slower gameplay. High settings drop to 44.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 29.9 FPS—both below the 60 FPS target and approaching the edge of playability.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly overmatched. Low settings average 74.5 FPS, which is surprising but indicates that the game scales well when effects are reduced. Medium settings produce 45.7 FPS, High settings drop to 34.8 FPS, and Ultra falls to 24 FPS—effectively unplayable for a smooth experience. The jump from Low to Medium at 4K costs 28.8 FPS, highlighting the game’s sensitivity to shadow quality and post-processing effects.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1920x1080 with Medium settings (69.6 FPS) or Low settings (107.6 FPS) as the most fluid options. At 2560x1440, Low settings (90.8 FPS) are viable, but High settings (44.1 FPS) begin to strain the system.

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings (74.5 FPS). Medium (45.7 FPS), High (34.8 FPS), and Ultra (24 FPS) all fall below 60 FPS, making them less suitable for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4060 scores 23181 on average, which is 0.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23321) and 0.7% higher than the Intel Arc B580 (23021).

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5600G a bottleneck for the RTX 4060 in this game?

A: The CPU scores within 0.2% of the Intel Core i7-11800H (20024) in average benchmarks, and the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K suggests the GPU is the limiting factor, not the 5600G.

Q: What is the highest playable preset at 1080p?

A: Medium settings (69.6 FPS) provide the best balance of quality and performance. High settings (48.9 FPS) are playable but may exhibit stutter in demanding scenes.

Q: Why does Ultra perform so poorly at all resolutions?

A: Ultra settings at 1920x1080 (36.6 FPS), 2560x1440 (29.9 FPS), and 3840x2160 (24 FPS) consistently tax the 8 GB VRAM and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth, causing significant frame rate penalties.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data strongly favors Medium settings as the optimal choice for this combo. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 69.6 FPS, providing a 42.3% improvement over High (48.9 FPS) while maintaining acceptable visual fidelity. At 2560x1440, Medium (55.5 FPS) is the only preset above 50 FPS, making it the recommended choice for that resolution. For 4K, Low settings (74.5 FPS) are the only viable option for smooth gameplay.

High settings offer diminishing returns: at 1080p, High (48.9 FPS) is only 10.6 FPS faster than Ultra (36.6 FPS) but 20.7 FPS slower than Medium. The data indicates that Medium preset avoids the most demanding lighting and shadow computations that cripple High and Ultra. Players prioritizing frame rate should select Medium at 1080p or 1440p, while those with 4K displays should accept Low settings to maintain playability.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G’s contribution to these results is indirect but non-trivial. With 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture (Cezanne), the CPU provides a solid foundation for the RTX 4060. The boost clock of 4.40 GHz and 16 MB of L3 cache ensure that the GPU is not starved of data, particularly in the game’s dual-reality rendering sequences that require simultaneous scene processing.

The CPU’s synthetic scores confirm its capability: Cinebench R23 multi-core (16758) and single-core (2365) results place it comfortably above the threshold needed for modern games. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5451 and max-thread score of 5455 indicate that the CPU’s performance scales well with thread count, though The Medium appears to be more GPU-bound based on the FPS scaling patterns.

The 65W TDP and 7nm process node (TSMC) contribute to efficient operation, but the integrated Radeon Vega 7 graphics are unused in this configuration. The PCIe Gen 3 interface with 16 lanes provides adequate bandwidth for the RTX 4060’s PCIe 4.0 x8 connection, though the older standard may slightly limit data transfer in texture-heavy scenes. Overall, the 5600G’s performance is sufficient to avoid becoming a bottleneck, with the measured FPS drops across resolutions attributed almost entirely to GPU limitations.