The Medium

The Medium is a horror title that places heavy demands on both the processor and the graphics card, and the combination of an AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 produces a wide spread of results depending on the settings chosen. The benchmark data shows that the GPU is the primary driver of performance, but the CPU's capabilities become increasingly relevant at lower resolutions. This analysis breaks down the measured frame rates to determine the optimal configuration for this specific pairing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured frames per second across the four presets reveal a clear hierarchy, with the Medium preset offering the most balanced experience for this hardware combination. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 140.2 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth, but it comes at the cost of visual fidelity. Moving up to Medium yields 98.8 FPS, still well above the 60 FPS threshold for fluid gameplay, while High drops to 74.9 FPS. The Ultra preset, however, brings the average down to 57 FPS, which is noticeably less consistent for a horror game that relies on atmosphere and tension.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. The Low preset produces 130.5 FPS, but the Medium preset maintains a strong 85.9 FPS, and High settles at 62.3 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 47.8 FPS, which is below the ideal smoothness target. The data indicates that Medium is the sweet spot across all three resolutions, as it provides a substantial frame rate boost over High while retaining enough graphical detail to preserve the game's intended mood. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p is a 24% reduction in frame rate, while the jump from Low to Medium is a 29% reduction, suggesting that Medium captures most of the visual benefits without the steep performance penalty of High or Ultra.

For players prioritizing the highest refresh rates, the Low preset at 1080p is the only option that pushes past 140 FPS, but the Medium preset is the recommended choice for a blend of quality and responsiveness. The Ultra preset is not advisable for this combo, as it consistently produces sub-60 FPS averages at 1440p and 4K, and only barely reaches 57 FPS at 1080p. The data shows that Medium is the most efficient preset, offering a 41% improvement over High at 1440p and a 32% improvement at 1080p, making it the clear winner for this pairing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the dominant component in this configuration, and its specifications explain the performance deltas observed across the settings. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. This memory capacity is sufficient for The Medium at all tested settings, as the game does not appear to be exceeding the frame buffer at any resolution. The core clock speeds, with a base of 2325 MHz and a boost of 2512 MHz, are consistent across the benchmark rows, meaning the GPU is operating at its full potential without thermal or power throttling.

The RTX 5070's architecture, Blackwell 2.0 on a 5 nm process, delivers a substantial amount of compute power, evidenced by its FP32 throughput of 30.87 TFLOPS. This raw performance is what drives the high frame rates at lower settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the GPU achieves 140.2 FPS, and at 1440p with Low, it reaches 130.5 FPS, indicating that the GPU is not the limiting factor at these settings. However, as the preset moves to Ultra, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, with 4K Ultra dropping to 40.6 FPS. The data shows a clear correlation between the increasing graphical workload and the frame rate decline, which is expected given the GPU's role in rendering the game's detailed environments and lighting effects.

The GPU's benchmark scores, including a Passmark G3D score of 29137 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5077, place it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. This high percentile is reflected in the measured results, where the GPU manages to maintain playable frame rates at high settings in most resolutions, but the Ultra preset exposes its limits. The 12 GB memory size is a key factor here, as The Medium's high-resolution textures and effects can consume significant VRAM, but the data does not show a memory-related crash or stutter, suggesting the capacity is adequate for this game.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data shows a predictable decline as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop varies significantly by preset. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 140.2 at 1080p to 130.5 at 1440p, a reduction of 7%, and then to 109 at 4K, a further reduction of 16%. This relatively mild scaling indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is a more significant contributor to the overall performance, as the GPU has ample headroom to handle the lower graphical load. The Ryzen 5 5600GT, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is able to feed the GPU adequately at these lower resolutions.

At Medium settings, the scaling becomes more pronounced. The average FPS drops from 98.8 at 1080p to 85.9 at 1440p, an 13% reduction, and then to 69.8 at 4K, a 19% reduction. This steeper decline suggests that the GPU is starting to become more of a limiting factor, as the increased pixel count demands more from the rendering pipeline. At High settings, the trend continues, with 74.9 FPS at 1080p dropping to 62.3 at 1440p (17% reduction) and then to 45.6 at 4K (27% reduction). The 4K High result is particularly telling, as it falls below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating the GPU is struggling to maintain smooth gameplay.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, with 57 FPS at 1080p, 47.8 at 1440p, and 40.6 at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 29%, which is the largest of all presets. This pattern confirms that the RTX 5070 is the limiting component at higher resolutions and settings. The data indicates that for this combo, 1080p is the most forgiving resolution, allowing for high frame rates even at Ultra settings, while 4K requires dropping to Medium or Low to achieve playable performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 342nd out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 20% of all configurations. This ranking is impressive given the CPU's mid-range positioning, but it is largely driven by the GPU's strong performance. The RTX 5070's percentile of 83 against all GPUs is significantly higher than the CPU's percentile of 78 against all CPUs, which explains why the combo performs better than its individual components might suggest.

The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, which has a deltaPct of 0.6, meaning the RTX 5070 is slightly ahead of the older flagship in average benchmark score. This indicates that the RTX 5070 is a very capable card, and its performance in The Medium reflects this, as the measured frame rates are strong at 1080p and 1440p. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-10700, which has a deltaPct of 0, and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, which is 0.3% ahead. This shows that the 5600GT is competitive with these established processors, but it does not have a significant advantage.

The combo's rank of 342 out of 1689 is a solid result, but it is not exceptional. Higher-ranked combos likely feature more powerful CPUs, such as those with higher core counts or newer architectures, which would reduce the CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions. However, for this specific pairing, the data shows that the GPU is the primary driver of the rank, and the CPU is sufficient to avoid major performance issues at most settings. The rank suggests that this combo is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but it is not optimized for 4K Ultra, where the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its 16 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are modest by modern standards, but they are sufficient for The Medium's requirements. The CPU's benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 17272 and a single-core score of 2438, indicate that it has solid multi-threaded performance, but its single-thread performance is more moderate.

In the measured results, the CPU's role becomes apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the frame rate of 140.2 FPS is likely limited by the CPU, as the GPU has more than enough headroom to render the scene. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5523 and the Passmark multithread score of 20325 suggest that the CPU can handle the game's logic and physics, but it may not be able to keep up with the GPU at very high frame rates. This is evident in the scaling data, where the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is smaller at Low settings than at Ultra settings, indicating that the CPU is a more significant factor at lower graphical loads.

The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12490F, is 0.3% ahead in average benchmark score, which is a negligible difference. This suggests that the 5600GT is a capable gaming processor, but it is not a top-tier performer. The data shows that the CPU does not bottleneck the GPU at 1440p or 4K, as the frame rates scale consistently with the resolution increases. However, at 1080p, the CPU's limitations are more exposed, particularly at Low and Medium settings where the GPU is not the limiting factor. For this combo, the CPU is adequate for a smooth experience at most settings, but it does prevent the GPU from reaching its full potential at the lowest resolutions.