The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers a compelling experience in The Medium, a horror title that scales predictably with graphical presets. Across all tested resolutions, the data shows a clear hierarchy where the Medium preset offers the most balanced performance, while Low pushes frame rates to their peak and Ultra demands a significant performance tax. This analysis breaks down the measured results for this specific CPU-GPU combination.

Settings Recommendations

Benchmark results indicate that the Medium preset provides the best overall experience for this hardware combination, striking an optimal balance between visual fidelity and frame rate stability. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 136 FPS with a minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 157 FPS, which is a strong, fluid performance envelope. Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset yields 122 FPS average (103 min, 140 max), and even at the demanding 3840x2160 resolution, it holds an average of 95 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS, ensuring the game remains playable without severe stutters.

For players prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset is the clear choice. The data shows a substantial jump from Medium: 164 FPS at 1080p, 155 FPS at 1440p, and 143 FPS at 4K. This preset effectively eliminates any potential bottleneck, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate displays, though it sacrifices the atmospheric details that a horror game like this relies on. The High preset offers a middle ground, but the performance drop from Medium is significant, with averages of 103 FPS at 1080p, 87 FPS at 1440p, and 68 FPS at 4K.

The Ultra preset is the most demanding, and the data suggests it is best avoided for a consistently smooth experience. At 4K, the average frame rate plummets to 54 FPS, which falls below the ideal threshold for a fluid horror experience. Even at 1080p, Ultra only achieves 82 FPS, and at 1440p it drops to 69 FPS. Given the substantial performance cost, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, as it provides a stable platform with min FPS values that suggest no major frame pacing issues, whereas the lack of min/max data for High and Ultra makes their stability less certain.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly correlate with the measured performance. The GPU features a massive 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This high memory capacity and bandwidth are sufficient to handle the high-resolution textures and complex scenes in The Medium without any memory-related bottlenecks, allowing the card to maintain consistent performance even at 4K. The GPU's clock speeds are listed with a base of 2017 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz, which, combined with its 21,760 shading units, drive the high fill rates observed in the benchmarks.

The RTX 5090 D's role is clearly evident in the scaling between resolutions. The data shows a predictable pattern where frame rates decrease as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is controlled. For example, on the Medium preset, the average FPS goes from 136 at 1080p to 122 at 1440p and finally to 95 at 4K. This indicates that the GPU has ample headroom, and the performance is more likely constrained by the CPU at lower resolutions. The GPU's compute capabilities, evidenced by its 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance, ensure that the game's rendering features are fully utilized. The card sits in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 77,712 places it competitively, with the nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, trailing by only 1.1%.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is ranked 62nd out of 3,724 tested combos for The Medium. This is a top-tier ranking, placing the system in the top 2% of all tested configurations. This high rank is unsurprising given the GPU's exceptional performance class. The data suggests that this combo is outperformed by only 61 other pairings, which likely consist of even more powerful CPU configurations or specialized hardware.

The ranking reflects the strength of the RTX 5090 D, which is the primary driver of frame rates in this title. While the CPU is capable, the GPU's raw power ensures that the system is not leaving performance on the table. The combo's position in the leaderboard reflects the GPU's ability to push high frame rates across all settings and resolutions. This rank, combined with the measured FPS data, shows a system that is well-balanced for this game, though the CPU's lower core count might limit performance in more CPU-bound scenarios, a topic explored in the CPU Role section. The percentile data for the GPU (92nd) compared to the CPU (78th) further supports the notion that the GPU is the star of this show.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive look at how this combo handles The Medium across three resolutions and four quality presets. The results are as follows:

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: Average FPS of 143.
• Medium: Average FPS of 95, with a minimum of 81 and a maximum of 110.
• High: Average FPS of 68.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 54.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average FPS of 155.
• Medium: Average FPS of 122, with a minimum of 103 and a maximum of 140.
• High: Average FPS of 87.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 69.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: Average FPS of 164.
• Medium: Average FPS of 136, with a minimum of 116 and a maximum of 157.
• High: Average FPS of 103.
• Ultra: Average FPS of 82.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: the step from Low to Medium costs roughly 15-25% of the frame rate, while the step from Medium to High costs another 25-30%. The jump from High to Ultra is even more punishing, with a 30-35% reduction in average FPS. For example, at 1440p, the average FPS drops from 122 on Medium to 87 on High, a 35 FPS difference, and then further down to 69 on Ultra. The min FPS values for the Medium preset at all resolutions are notably high (116 at 1080p, 103 at 1440p, 81 at 4K), suggesting that this preset provides the most consistent frame pacing, which is crucial for maintaining tension in a horror game. The lack of min/max data for other presets means that while their averages are lower, their stability is unverified.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium at with this hardware?*

A: Based on the data, all three tested resolutions are viable. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset achieves an average of 95 FPS. The 2560x1440 resolution offers a higher average of 122 FPS on Medium, and 1920x1080 provides the highest average of 136 FPS on the same preset.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Medium in terms of performance?

A: The Ultra preset is significantly more demanding. The data shows that at 1920x1080, Ultra averages 82 FPS compared to 136 FPS on Medium, a drop of 54 FPS. At 2560x1440, it averages 69 FPS versus 122 FPS, and at 3840x2160, it averages 54 FPS versus 95 FPS.

*Q: Is the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of VRAM necessary for The Medium?*

A: The data does not explicitly show VRAM usage, but the card's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are more than sufficient for the game's demands. The high average FPS at 4K suggests that the GPU is not bottlenecked by memory capacity or bandwidth.

Q: What is the combo's ranking compared to other tested systems?

A: This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 62nd out of 3,724 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the top 2% of all tested configurations.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: In synthetic benchmarks, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 has an average score of 26,324. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, scores 26,274, making the 7600 0.2% faster. It is also 0.3% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS, 0.4% faster than the Intel Core i9-11900KF, and 0.5% faster than the AMD Ryzen 5 8540U.

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable in the game?

A: The highest average FPS recorded in the data is 164, which is achieved at the 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600, while not the primary driver of performance in The Medium, plays a critical supporting role. The CPU is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. It features 32 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. In the context of this game, these specifications are more than adequate to feed the RTX 5090 D, especially at higher resolutions where the GPU workload is more intense.

The CPU's benchmark scores provide context for its capabilities. In Cinebench R23, it scores 12,735 in multi-core and 1,852 in single-core tests. Its single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 999 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3,910, is robust and ensures that the game's main thread is well-served. The CPU's percentile ranking of 78th among all CPUs indicates it is a strong performer, though not a flagship. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, is a mobile chip, and the 7600 edges it out by 0.2% in average benchmark scores.

The data suggests that the CPU's influence on the measured FPS is most apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rates are consistently high (e.g., 164 FPS on Low), but the scaling from 1080p to 1440p and 4K shows a less dramatic drop than one might expect from a less capable CPU. For instance, on High settings, the average FPS goes from 103 at 1080p to 87 at 1440p and 68 at 4K. This indicates that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The Ryzen 5 7600's performance is sufficient to avoid creating a significant bottleneck, allowing the RTX 5090 D to operate at its full potential. The CPU's 65W TDP and 5nm process node also contribute to efficient operation, ensuring stable performance without thermal throttling that could impact frame times in a sustained gaming session.