The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding workload for this pairing of AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, with benchmark results showing a system that is consistently bound by the graphics card. The data across all resolutions and settings indicates that the RTX 2060 is the primary limiting factor, as the CPU's capabilities are not fully utilized in this title. This analysis examines the measured frame rates to determine optimal configurations and the specific roles of each component.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a predictable and steep decline as resolution increases, confirming that the RTX 2060 is the bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 84.8 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 68.7 FPS, a 19% decrease, and at 4K Low the average falls further to 58.1 FPS. This scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU that is being pushed harder at higher pixel counts.

The gap between 1080p and 4K becomes more pronounced at higher quality presets. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 39.9 FPS at 1080p to 31.2 FPS at 1440p, and then to 27.6 FPS at 4K. This represents a 31% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is a typical curve for a mid-range graphics card struggling with the game's fixed camera angles and heavy post-processing. The results indicate that the RTX 2060's 6 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus are adequate for 1080p but become increasingly strained as resolution increases.

The most telling data point for CPU involvement comes from the scaling between 1080p and 4K at Low settings. The 84.8 FPS at 1080p is the highest recorded score, but it still shows a significant drop to 58.1 FPS at 4K. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rates at 1080p would be much higher and the drop to 4K would be less severe. Since the RTX 2060 maintains a consistent performance curve, the data shows that the graphics card is the decisive component at every resolution tested.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience on this hardware, the benchmark results point to Low settings as the only playable option for smooth gameplay. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 84.8 FPS, which is well above the threshold for responsive play. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 51.9 FPS, which is acceptable for a slower-paced horror title, but the drop from Low to Medium is a substantial 39% reduction in frame rate.

The data suggests that High and Ultra presets are not viable for this GPU. At 1080p High, the average frame rate falls to 39.9 FPS, and at Ultra it drops to 29.6 FPS. These scores are below the 60 FPS target and would result in noticeable stutter in a game that relies on atmospheric tension. At 1440p, only Low settings remain playable with 68.7 FPS, while Medium drops to 44.9 FPS and High falls to 31.2 FPS.

At 4K resolution, the situation becomes critical. The Low preset delivers 58.1 FPS, which is just under the 60 FPS mark and may be acceptable for some users. However, Medium drops to 36.1 FPS, High to 27.6 FPS, and Ultra to 22.1 FPS. These results make it clear that the RTX 2060 is not suited for 4K gaming in this title, as even the lowest settings barely reach playable frame rates. The recommendation from the data is to prioritize Low settings at 1080p for the best balance of visual clarity and performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, based on the Zen 4 architecture. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with 32 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU scores 22,799 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,218 in single-core, placing it in the 82nd percentile against all CPUs. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-11850H, has an average score of 24,974, which is only 0.1% different from the Ryzen's 24,993 average.

In The Medium, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The measured frame rates show no signs of CPU bottlenecking, as the scores scale consistently with resolution changes. The Ryzen 5 7500F's high single-thread performance, evidenced by its 3,218 Cinebench R23 score, is more than sufficient for this game's requirements. The game is not heavily multithreaded, and the CPU's 12 threads are unlikely to be fully utilized.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any setting or resolution. Even at 1080p Low with 84.8 FPS, the CPU is not holding back the system. This is likely due to the game's design, which uses fixed camera angles and limited draw distances, reducing the load on the processor. The Ryzen 5 7500F's 5.00 GHz boost clock provides ample headroom, and the 65W TDP suggests it operates efficiently without thermal throttling. The benchmark results confirm that the CPU is a solid match for the RTX 2060, providing enough performance to avoid becoming a bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 ranks 1333 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the bottom 21% of all configurations, which is a low ranking that reflects the GPU's limitations rather than the CPU's capabilities. The ranking is heavily influenced by the RTX 2060's performance, which is in the 58th percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, which scores 15,996 with a 0.5% delta, and the AMD Radeon Pro 5700, which scores 16,351 with a -1.7% delta. These similar scores indicate that the RTX 2060 is roughly on par with these mid-range options. The combo's low ranking in this specific game suggests that The Medium is particularly demanding on GPU resources, likely due to its heavy use of volumetric lighting and screen-space reflections.

The data shows that the CPU's high percentile ranking is not enough to boost the combo's overall position. The Ryzen 5 7500F's 82nd percentile CPU score is negated by the GPU's lower standing. The 1333rd rank out of 1689 combos indicates that there are 356 configurations that perform better, many of which likely feature more powerful graphics cards with the same or similar CPUs. This ranking is a clear indicator that the RTX 2060 is the weak link in this pairing for this particular game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is a Turing architecture GPU with 1920 shading units, 30 RT cores, and 240 tensor cores. It has a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1680 MHz, with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores show it in the 58th percentile, with an average score of 16,074.

In The Medium, the GPU is the dominant factor in determining frame rates. The measured FPS data shows that the RTX 2060 struggles to maintain high frame rates even at 1080p, with the High preset delivering only 39.9 FPS. The GPU's 6 GB of VRAM is likely a limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings, as the game's textures and effects can exceed this capacity. The 4K Ultra result of 22.1 FPS is particularly telling, as it shows the GPU being overwhelmed by the workload.

The RTX 2060's performance in this game is consistent with its mid-range positioning. The 12 nm process node and 160W TDP suggest it is not a high-end part, and the benchmark results confirm this. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, scores 15,996, which is only 0.5% different from the RTX 2060's average of 16,074. This close competition means that users should not expect significant differences between these cards in this title. The data clearly shows that the RTX 2060 is the primary constraint on performance, and any attempts to improve frame rates must involve reducing the GPU load through lower settings or resolution.