The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination ranks 84th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 5% of all configurations. This is a formidable pairing for this horror title, though the data reveals that the RTX 4090's immense graphics horsepower is frequently held back by the CPU, particularly at lower resolutions and settings. The benchmark results indicate a system that can deliver extremely high frame rates but which exhibits a clear performance ceiling at 1080p that is not present at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 84 out of 1689, this configuration sits comfortably in the upper echelon of tested systems for The Medium. The ranking reflects a strong overall experience, but it is not the absolute top combination. The primary limiting factor preventing a higher rank is the CPU's inability to keep pace with the GPU at lower resolutions. The data shows that the RTX 4090 is capable of far higher frame rates than the Ryzen 5 5600X can feed it, creating a bottleneck. While the 5600X is a capable processor, its performance in this pairing is the deciding factor between an excellent and a transcendent experience. The combo's top-5% status confirms the GPU's raw power, but the rank also highlights that pairing this GPU with a stronger processor would yield even better results.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the undisputed star of this configuration. Its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, ensuring that texture streaming and high-resolution assets are never a limiting factor in The Medium. The GPU's specifications are staggering: 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, driven by a boost clock of 2520 MHz. This hardware translates to a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s, allowing it to process the game's dual-reality rendering at exceptional speeds. The data shows that at 4K with Medium settings, the combo achieves 85.5 FPS, and at Low settings, it hits 122.9 FPS. These figures demonstrate that the GPU is rarely the bottleneck, even at the highest resolutions. The RTX 4090's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 compute provides ample headroom for the game's graphical demands, making it the component that defines the system's high-end potential.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a classic CPU bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 138.3 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops modestly to 134.4 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls to 122.9 FPS. This relatively small decline from 1080p to 4K suggests that the CPU is hitting its limit around the 140 FPS mark, preventing the GPU from stretching its legs. The pattern is more pronounced at higher settings. At Ultra, the frame rates are 74.4 FPS at 1080p, 61.9 FPS at 1440p, and 52.2 FPS at 4K. Here, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as the workload increases substantially. The data indicates that for this combo, 1080p is entirely CPU-bound, while 4K is primarily GPU-bound. The sweet spot for balancing both components is at 1440p, where the GPU is meaningfully engaged without being overwhelmed.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combination. At 1440p Medium, the system delivers 113.5 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay. At 4K Medium, the combo still manages a very playable 85.5 FPS. In contrast, the Ultra preset is demanding, yielding 74.4 FPS at 1080p and dropping to 52.2 FPS at 4K. While these are playable, the performance hit from Medium to Ultra is significant. The High preset provides a moderate step, with 95.9 FPS at 1080p and 78.1 FPS at 1440p. The data clearly shows that Medium is the most efficient setting for this hardware, providing a large performance boost over High and Ultra with only a modest reduction in visual quality. For players with high refresh rate monitors at 1440p, Medium is the definitive choice to maximize frame rates.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo handle The Medium at 4K?

A: Yes. The data shows playable frame rates at 4K across all settings, with 52.2 FPS on Ultra, 63.5 FPS on High, 85.5 FPS on Medium, and 122.9 FPS on Low.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X holding back the RTX 4090?

A: Yes, particularly at 1080p. The frame rate difference between 1080p Low (138.3 FPS) and 4K Low (122.9 FPS) is only 15.4 FPS, indicating the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the best setting to use for competitive frame rates?

A: The Medium preset offers the best performance-per-visual-quality ratio. At 1080p, it delivers 118.2 FPS, and at 1440p, it achieves 113.5 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 84th out of 1689 tested combinations for The Medium, placing it in the top 5% of all configurations tested.

Q: How much VRAM does the RTX 4090 have?

A: The RTX 4090 features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K on High settings?

A: The frame rate drops from 95.9 FPS at 1080p to 63.5 FPS at 4K, a decrease of 32.4 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, with base and boost clocks of 3.70 GHz and 4.60 GHz respectively. Its 32 MB of L3 cache helps with gaming performance, and its benchmark scores are respectable. However, in this pairing, it is the bottleneck. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18578 and single-core score of 2622 are solid, but they are not sufficient to fully saturate the RTX 4090. The data shows this clearly: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 138.3 FPS, but at 4K Low, it still manages 122.9 FPS. This indicates that the CPU is reaching its maximum frame output around 140 FPS, regardless of the resolution. The GPU is capable of far more, as evidenced by the 4K Low result being only 15.4 FPS lower than the 1080p result. The 5600X's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-10700, has an average benchmark score that is only 0.3% higher, confirming that this is a mid-range processor that is outclassed by the GPU it is paired with.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across all settings and resolutions.

1080p: At 1920x1080, the frame rates are consistently high. The Low preset yields 138.3 FPS, which is the maximum observed for this combo. The Medium preset delivers 118.2 FPS, High provides 95.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 74.4 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline as graphical workload increases.

1440p: At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong. The Low preset produces 134.4 FPS, only 3.9 FPS less than at 1080p, reinforcing the CPU bottleneck. The Medium preset achieves 113.5 FPS, which is a marginal 4.7 FPS drop from 1080p. High yields 78.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 61.9 FPS. The drop from High to Ultra is 16.2 FPS, demonstrating the significant cost of the highest settings.

4K: At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to take over as the limiting factor. The Low preset still manages an impressive 122.9 FPS. Medium provides 85.5 FPS, which is a substantial 28 FPS drop from 1440p Medium, showing the GPU is now fully engaged. High delivers 63.5 FPS, and Ultra produces 52.2 FPS. The 4K results show that even at this demanding resolution, the combo is capable of playable frame rates on most presets, with only Ultra dipping below 60 FPS. The data confirms that this system is best utilized at 1440p Medium or High, where it can leverage both CPU and GPU performance without hitting a hard bottleneck.