The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on heavily pre-rendered backgrounds, presents an unusual load profile that shifts dramatically between resolutions. The pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D produces measured results that range from a highly playable 141 FPS at 1080p Low to a demanding 54 FPS at 4K Ultra. This data set reveals a configuration where the GPU’s raw power becomes the primary variable, while the six-core CPU provides a stable platform that rarely becomes the bottleneck.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for a smooth experience?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset delivers an average of 95 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS, making it the most balanced option for 4K. The High preset drops to 68 FPS, while Ultra falls to 54 FPS, so Medium is the only 4K preset that keeps the average above 90 FPS.

Q: How much performance does the RTX 5090 D lose when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 141 FPS at 1920x1080 to 123 FPS at 3840x2160, a 12.8% reduction. At the High preset, the drop is steeper, from 103 FPS at 1080p to 68 FPS at 4K, representing a 34% decrease in average performance.

Q: Which preset offers the highest minimum frame rate across all resolutions?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum FPS data. It provides a minimum of 100 FPS at 1920x1080, 94 FPS at 2560x1440, and 81 FPS at 3840x2160. This consistency makes Medium the safest choice for avoiding stutter.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5600X a limiting factor for this GPU in The Medium?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not the primary constraint. The 5600X has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, and its benchmark scores place it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K follows GPU workload patterns, indicating the RTX 5090 D is the dominant performance driver.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest rival in raw GPU compute?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, which is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904). It also sits 1.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). This places it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average of 133 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 69 FPS. This represents a 48% reduction in average frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest visual quality settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to the Medium preset as the optimal balance for this hardware configuration. At 3840x2160, Medium delivers 95 FPS average with an 81 FPS minimum, which is the only 4K setting that maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. The High preset at 4K drops to 68 FPS, which is still playable but offers less headroom for demanding scenes, while Ultra at 54 FPS falls below the ideal threshold for smooth motion.

For users prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity, the Low preset provides the highest performance at every resolution. At 1920x1080, Low reaches 141 FPS, and at 2560x1440 it hits 133 FPS, making it the choice for high-refresh-rate displays. However, the jump from Low to Medium at 1080p is only 24 FPS (from 141 to 117), while the jump from Medium to High costs 14 FPS (from 117 to 103). This suggests Medium offers the most efficient quality-per-frame-rate trade-off.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset produces 111 FPS average with a 94 FPS minimum, which is ideal for 1440p gaming on standard 60Hz or 144Hz monitors. The Ultra preset at 69 FPS is viable for cinematic play, but the 42 FPS gap between Medium and Ultra indicates a significant visual cost that may not be justified. The data consistently shows that Medium is the sweet spot, providing the best combination of high averages and stable minimums across all three resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, based on the Zen 3 architecture, provides the computational foundation for this build. Its 6 cores and 12 threads operate at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, which is sufficient to feed the RTX 5090 D in The Medium. The CPU’s benchmark performance, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11,838 and a single-core score of 1,541, places it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, indicating solid mid-range capability.

The nearest rivals to the 5600X, based on average benchmark scores, include the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H with a delta of 0.1%, and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U with a delta of -0.5%. This puts the 5600X in a tight competitive band where its 32 MB of L3 cache and 7 nm process node help maintain strong single-threaded performance. In The Medium, the CPU’s role appears secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate scaling across resolutions.

The 5600X’s memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s over a dual-channel DDR4 interface, combined with its PCIe Gen 4 support, ensures data can flow to the GPU without creating a bottleneck. The CPU’s thread utilization is not directly measured in the game data, but the fact that frame rates scale predictably with GPU settings suggests that the 5600X is not struggling to keep up. Its 65W TDP also indicates headroom for sustained operation without thermal throttling.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is ranked 159th out of 3,724 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the top 4.3% of all configurations, which is a strong showing given the game’s fixed-camera design that often relies more on GPU memory bandwidth than raw compute.

The high rank is primarily driven by the RTX 5090 D’s massive 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory subsystem is well-suited for The Medium’s pre-rendered backgrounds and high-resolution textures, which can consume significant VRAM. The combo’s rank reflects that the GPU’s strengths align well with the game’s requirements, even if the CPU is not top-tier.

Compared to other combos, this pairing benefits from the RTX 5090 D’s 92nd percentile overall GPU ranking. The CPU’s 75th percentile ranking is lower, but the game does not appear to penalize this disparity significantly. The result is a rank that is more reflective of the GPU’s capabilities than the CPU’s, suggesting that users with this setup are getting close to the maximum possible performance for The Medium without a more powerful processor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this configuration, and its specifications explain the measured performance. Built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process, this GPU features 21,760 shading units, 170 RT cores, and 680 tensor cores. Its boost clock of 2407 MHz and 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus deliver a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is critical for a game like The Medium that uses high-resolution static backgrounds.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reinforce its high-end status. It achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,915, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% slower) and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.6% slower), showing that the RTX 5090 D holds a slight edge over comparable mobile parts.

In The Medium, the GPU’s role is evident in the frame rate scaling. At 1080p Low, the average is 141 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 54 FPS. This 61.7% reduction in performance across the resolution and settings spectrum indicates that the game is heavily GPU-bound. The GPU’s 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate ensure that even at 4K, the game remains playable, though the data suggests that the Ultra preset is too demanding for a consistent 60 FPS experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 5090 D delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 141 FPS, which is the peak performance measured in this data set. Medium drops to 117 FPS with a minimum of 100 FPS, while High averages 103 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 82 FPS, which is still smooth but represents a 41.8% drop from Low. The gap between Medium and High is 14 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 21 FPS, showing diminishing returns at the highest quality settings.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low averages 133 FPS, a 5.7% drop from 1080p. Medium averages 111 FPS with a minimum of 94 FPS, which remains highly playable. High averages 87 FPS, and Ultra drops to 69 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 64 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset costs nearly half the performance of Low. The minimum FPS for Medium (94) is still above 90, ensuring a stable experience.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is pushed to its limits. Low averages 123 FPS, which is still excellent for 4K. Medium averages 95 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS, making it the recommended preset for 4K gaming. High drops to 68 FPS, which is playable but close to the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra averages 54 FPS, which falls below 60 and may result in noticeable stutter during intense scenes. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Medium is a 14.4% drop (from 111 to 95 FPS), while at Ultra, the drop is 21.7% (from 69 to 54 FPS), showing that 4K Ultra is the most demanding configuration tested.