The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT delivers a revealing performance profile in The Medium, a horror title released on 2021-01-27. The data shows a system that is heavily influenced by graphics settings, with frame rates swinging dramatically between presets. Across all resolutions, the gap between Low and Ultra settings is substantial, indicating that the GPU’s workload scaling dominates the experience, while the CPU’s 6-core, 12-thread configuration appears sufficient to avoid becoming the primary bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the average frame rate drops consistently across every settings preset. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 141 FPS on Low, but this falls to 116.8 FPS at 2560x1440, and further to 91.1 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 35.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which suggests the GPU is the limiting factor even at the lowest quality preset.

Moving to High settings, the scaling becomes more aggressive: 62.7 FPS at 1080p drops to 54.8 FPS at 1440p, then to 39.8 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure is 36.5% lower than the 1080p result, indicating that the Radeon RX 6800 XT’s compute resources are being taxed heavily by the higher pixel count. At Ultra settings, the trend intensifies, with 49 FPS at 1080p falling to 38.4 FPS at 1440p and 32 FPS at 4K — a drop of 34.7% from 1080p to 4K.

The data implies that the GPU is the primary constraint across all resolutions, since the FPS decline scales roughly with pixel count rather than showing a plateau that would indicate CPU limitation. The 4K Ultra result of 32 FPS is particularly telling, as it falls below the 30 FPS threshold that many consider playable, highlighting that this combination struggles at the highest fidelity settings. Notably, the 1440p to 4K transition at Medium settings (73.3 to 55.2 FPS) shows a 24.7% drop, which is less severe than the Low preset drop, suggesting that memory bandwidth or ROP throughput becomes more relevant at higher settings.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 6800 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 21 chip, featuring 4608 shading units and 128 ROPs. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for The Medium’s asset streaming. The GPU’s boost clock of 2250 MHz and game clock of 2015 MHz drive performance, but the measured data shows that settings changes have a disproportionate impact compared to resolution changes.

At 1080p, the difference between Low (141 FPS) and Ultra (49 FPS) is 65.2%, demonstrating that the game’s visual effects — likely including volumetric lighting and shadow quality — heavily tax the GPU’s shader and texture units. The RX 6800 XT’s FP32 throughput of 20.74 TFLOPS appears insufficient to maintain high frame rates at Ultra settings, even at 1080p, where the CPU should be less of a factor. The 4K Low result of 91.1 FPS suggests that the GPU can handle the pixel count when effects are minimal, but enabling High settings at 4K (39.8 FPS) cuts performance by more than half, indicating a sharp rise in per-pixel work.

The memory configuration is notable: 16 GB of VRAM is ample for this title, but the 512.0 GB/s bandwidth may be a limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where the GPU’s 288 TMUs and 128 ROPs are likely saturated. The data shows that the GPU’s percentile rank of 87 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49982, positions it as a strong performer, yet The Medium’s specific demands push it to its limits at high settings. The nearest rival, the Intel Arc A550M, scores 49737 (0.5% lower), while the NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti SUPER scores 48704 (2.6% lower), but these synthetic benchmarks do not translate directly to this game’s measured FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600, with 6 cores and 12 threads, operates at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz. This Zen 4 architecture CPU, built on a 5 nm process, has 32 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth. The CPU’s benchmark scores — including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22992 and single-core score of 3246 — indicate strong computational capability, but the game’s FPS data suggests the CPU is rarely the bottleneck.

At 1080p Low, the 141 FPS result is high enough that the CPU must be delivering frames efficiently, but the drop to 49 FPS at Ultra settings at the same resolution points to GPU limitation rather than CPU constraint. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect FPS to remain relatively flat across settings at a fixed resolution. Instead, the 65.2% drop from Low to Ultra at 1080p indicates the GPU is the primary constraint.

The CPU’s 12 threads are likely sufficient for The Medium’s threading model, as the game’s horror genre typically does not scale beyond 8 cores. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 6499 and max-thread score of 6503 show consistent scaling, but the single-thread score of 999 suggests that per-core performance is adequate. The CPU’s percentile rank of 83 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26617, places it slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D (26574, 0.2% higher) and behind the Intel Core i9-12900HK (26672, -0.2%). These differences are negligible, implying that CPU choice has minimal impact on this game’s performance relative to GPU settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for the best experience. At 1920x1080, Medium settings deliver 87.4 FPS, which is 39.4% higher than High (62.7 FPS) and 78.4% higher than Ultra (49 FPS). Given that Medium offers a substantial frame rate advantage over High while presumably retaining most visual quality, it appears to be the optimal balance at 1080p. Low settings at 141 FPS are available for competitive play, but the jump from Low to Medium costs 38% performance, suggesting Medium is the sweet spot.

At 2560x1440, Medium settings achieve 73.3 FPS, which is comfortably above 60 FPS, while High drops to 54.8 FPS and Ultra falls to 38.4 FPS. The data indicates that Medium at 1440p provides a smooth experience, while High is borderline and Ultra requires a compromise on fluidity. For 4K, Medium settings (55.2 FPS) are the highest playable option, as High (39.8 FPS) dips below 40 FPS and Ultra (32 FPS) approaches unplayable territory. Low settings at 4K (91.1 FPS) are viable for players prioritizing frame rate over visuals.

The overall recommendation based on the measured rows is to use Medium settings at any resolution, as it offers the best frame rate per visual quality trade-off. High settings are acceptable at 1080p (62.7 FPS) and 1440p (54.8 FPS) but not at 4K. Ultra settings should only be used at 1080p if 49 FPS is acceptable, as the frame rate drops sharply at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest playable settings preset at 4K?

A: Medium settings at 3840x2160 yield 55.2 FPS, which is the highest preset that stays above 50 FPS. High settings drop to 39.8 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when switching from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 62.7 at 1920x1080 to 39.8 at 3840x2160, a reduction of 36.5%.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data does not indicate CPU limitation, as FPS scales consistently with resolution and settings. The Ryzen 5 7600’s 6-core, 12-thread configuration appears sufficient, with the GPU being the primary constraint.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings achieve 116.8 FPS while Ultra drops to 38.4 FPS, a difference of 67.1%.

Q: Is 16 GB of VRAM necessary for this game?

A: The RX 6800 XT’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is more than adequate, but the 512.0 GB/s bandwidth appears to be a limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where performance drops to 32 FPS.

Q: How does this GPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 6800 XT scores 49982 on average, which is 0.5% higher than the Intel Arc A550M (49737) and 2.6% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER (48704).

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 141 FPS on Low, 87.4 FPS on Medium, 62.7 FPS on High, and 49 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Medium costs 38% performance, while Medium to High costs 28.3%, and High to Ultra costs 21.8%. This indicates diminishing returns as settings increase, with the largest relative drop occurring at the lowest quality tier.

At 2560x1440, the results are 116.8 FPS on Low, 73.3 FPS on Medium, 54.8 FPS on High, and 38.4 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Medium is 37.2%, from Medium to High is 25.2%, and from High to Ultra is 29.9%. The High to Ultra drop is more severe than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU’s resources are increasingly strained at higher pixel counts.

At 3840x2160, the measured averages are 91.1 FPS on Low, 55.2 FPS on Medium, 39.8 FPS on High, and 32 FPS on Ultra. The Low to Medium drop is 39.4%, Medium to High is 27.9%, and High to Ultra is 19.6%. The 4K Ultra result of 32 FPS is the lowest in the entire dataset, and even 4K High falls below 40 FPS. Across all resolutions, Medium settings provide the most consistent frame rates relative to visual quality, with 4K being the only resolution where High settings drop below 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ranks 575th out of 1689 tested combinations in The Medium, placing it in the 66th percentile of all tested systems. This rank reflects the GPU’s strong synthetic performance (87th percentile among GPUs) but also indicates that the game’s demanding settings prevent this combo from reaching the top tier. The CPU’s 83rd percentile ranking suggests that the processor is not the limiting factor, as many higher-ranked combinations likely feature more powerful GPUs.

The rank of 575 out of 1689 means that 1114 other combinations perform better in this specific game, which is surprising given the RX 6800 XT’s capabilities. This suggests that The Medium is particularly demanding on GPU resources, and the 32 FPS 4K Ultra result drags down the overall ranking. The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it delivers playable frame rates at Medium settings, but struggles at 4K with high visual fidelity. The close synthetic scores of the nearest GPU rivals — with the Intel Arc A550M just 0.5% lower and the NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 2.6% lower — do not translate into similar in-game performance, highlighting the game’s unique optimization characteristics.