The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 is a severely mismatched combination for The Medium, landing in the bottom percentile of all tested systems. The benchmark data shows this combo ranks 1607th out of 1689 tested combos, placing it near the very bottom of the database. This is not a playable configuration for the game at standard settings, and the data suggests the GPU is the overwhelming bottleneck at every resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals a GPU that is completely overwhelmed by the game's rendering demands. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (46.9 FPS) to 2560x1440 (38.8 FPS) represents a 17% performance loss, and the further drop to 3840x2160 (30.8 FPS) is another 21% reduction. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU that is running out of raw throughput, not a CPU-limited scenario where resolution would have minimal impact.

The High settings preset shows an even steeper cliff. At 1080p the combo achieves 18.5 FPS, which falls to 18 FPS at 1440p and then collapses to 11 FPS at 4K. The near-identical scores at 1080p and 1440p High suggest that the RX 570 is hitting a hard computational wall — the additional pixels at 1440p barely matter because the GPU is already saturated. The 4K result of 11 FPS is effectively a slideshow, confirming that this card cannot handle the game's fixed-function workload at higher resolutions.

The Ultra preset tells the same story with even worse absolute numbers. From 13.7 FPS at 1080p to 14.7 FPS at 1440p (a slight anomaly likely due to driver scheduling), then down to 10.9 FPS at 4K. These numbers are all below playable thresholds, and the fact that 1080p Ultra is barely faster than 4K High indicates that the GPU's compute units are the limiting factor, not memory bandwidth or fillrate. The data strongly suggests that resolution scaling is entirely GPU-bound, with the Ryzen 5 7600's capabilities never being tested.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a 14nm Polaris 20 chip with 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. Its base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz are modest by modern standards, and the 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 5.095 TFLOPS, and the pixel rate is 39.81 GPixel/s with a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s.

These specifications directly explain the measured results. The Medium is a visually dense horror title, and the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM capacity is a critical constraint. At 1080p Low, the combo manages 46.9 FPS, which is the only playable result in the entire dataset. But the moment settings rise to Medium, the average drops to 30.1 FPS at 1080p — a 36% penalty that points to both shading complexity and memory pressure. The 4 GB frame buffer is likely spilling into system memory at Medium settings and above, which would explain the disproportionate performance collapse compared to the Low preset.

The GPU's 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs in the database is misleading in this context. That percentile is based on synthetic benchmarks like Geekbench OpenCL (32084) and Vulkan (42752), but The Medium's real-world workload is far more punishing. The nearest rivals in synthetic tests — the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (avg score 30109, deltaPct 0.2) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (avg score 30097, deltaPct 0.2) — are dramatically faster in gaming, but the benchmark data shows the RX 570 cannot translate its synthetic standing into playable frame rates here. The GPU's boost clock of 1244 MHz is simply too low to sustain the game's shader complexity at any resolution above 1080p Low.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a Zen 4 Raphael chip with 6 cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. It features 32 MB of shared L3 cache, 1 MB L2 per core, and 64 KB L1 per core. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth, and it connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes. Its TDP is rated at 65 watts.

On paper, this is a strong processor. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22992 and single-core score of 3246 place it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs. The 3DMark results show solid scaling from 2 threads (1938) to max threads (6503), and PassMark multithread score of 27058 confirms strong multi-threaded capability. The nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (avg score 26574, deltaPct 0.2) and Intel Core i9-12900HK (avg score 26672, deltaPct -0.2), showing the 7600 is competitive with much more expensive parts.

However, in The Medium, the CPU's role is minimal. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (46.9 FPS) is the highest result in the entire dataset, and even that is far below what the Ryzen 5 7600 could deliver with a more capable GPU. The CPU's 5.10 GHz boost clock and 6 fast Zen 4 cores are more than sufficient to feed the RX 570, but the GPU cannot process frames fast enough to utilize this headroom. The data shows no CPU bottleneck — the FPS scales almost entirely with GPU load, dropping as resolution and settings increase. Had the CPU been the limiting factor, we would expect to see similar FPS across resolutions at the same settings, which is not the case.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset reveals a configuration that is only viable at the lowest settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 46.9 FPS average, which is the sole playable result. Medium at 1080p drops to 30.1 FPS, which is borderline for a horror game that benefits from smooth motion. High at 1080p falls to 18.5 FPS, and Ultra is an unplayable 13.7 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the situation worsens. Low settings produce 38.8 FPS, which is still technically playable but far from ideal. Medium drops to 23 FPS, High to 18 FPS, and Ultra to 14.7 FPS. The 1440p results are consistently about 17-20% lower than their 1080p counterparts at the same settings, confirming that the GPU's pixel throughput is the limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the combo fails entirely. Low settings yield 30.8 FPS, which is the only 4K result above 30 FPS, but it is still below the smoothness threshold for a horror title. Medium drops to 17.5 FPS, High to 11 FPS, and Ultra to 10.9 FPS. These numbers are all in slideshow territory and indicate that the RX 570's 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 5.095 TFLOPS compute are nowhere near sufficient for 4K rendering in this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 1607th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the bottom 5% of all configurations, a dire result that reflects the GPU's age and limitations rather than the CPU's capabilities. The Ryzen 5 7600's 83rd percentile CPU ranking stands in stark contrast to the combo's overall position, highlighting the massive performance gap between the two components.

The data indicates that this combo is held back entirely by the RX 570. The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (deltaPct 0.2) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (deltaPct 0.2), both of which are modern parts that would deliver vastly better gaming performance. The fact that the RX 570 scores similarly in synthetic tests but fails so badly in real gaming shows that The Medium's workload is particularly punishing for older GCN architecture. The combo's rank of 1607 out of 1689 means that virtually any other GPU pairing would yield better results, making this a configuration to avoid for this specific title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best playable setting for this combo?

A: The only playable setting is 1920x1080 with the Low preset, which delivers 46.9 FPS average. All other settings and resolutions fall below 40 FPS, with most well below 30 FPS.

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

A: At 4K, the best result is 30.8 FPS on Low settings. Ultra at 4K drops to 10.9 FPS, making the resolution effectively unplayable except at the lowest settings.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The CPU's performance is far above what the RX 570 can utilize, as evidenced by the FPS dropping dramatically with resolution increases while CPU-bound scenarios would show less scaling.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested configurations?

A: It ranks 1607th out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 5%. The GPU's synthetic benchmark percentile of 74 does not translate to gaming performance in this title.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low delivers 46.9 FPS while Ultra delivers 13.7 FPS. This represents a 71% performance loss from Low to Ultra at the same resolution.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 7600's performance relevant to these results?

A: No. The CPU's capabilities (Cinebench R23 multicore 22992, single-core 3246) far exceed what the GPU can feed, so the CPU has no meaningful impact on the measured FPS in this game.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the only viable configuration for The Medium with this combo is 1920x1080 with the Low preset, which achieves 46.9 FPS. This is the sole result above 40 FPS in the entire dataset and represents the only setting that provides a playable experience for a horror game where timing and atmosphere matter. The Medium at 1080p Low leaves enough headroom that the game's fixed camera angles and scripted scenes should remain responsive.

The Medium preset at 1080p produces 30.1 FPS, which is technically playable but sits right at the edge of smoothness. For players who value visual fidelity over frame rate, this could be acceptable, but the data shows it is a 36% performance drop from Low. The High preset at 1080p (18.5 FPS) and Ultra (13.7 FPS) are not recommended under any circumstances — they fall below the threshold for playable frame rates and would result in a frustrating experience.

At 1440p and 4K, the data shows no setting is truly playable. The best 1440p result is 38.8 FPS on Low, which is borderline, but the step down to Medium (23 FPS) is too severe. At 4K, even Low (30.8 FPS) is marginal, and every other setting falls below 20 FPS. The recommendation is clear: if this combo must be used for The Medium, play at 1080p Low. Any other setting sacrifices too much performance for visual gains that the RX 570 cannot deliver.