The Medium

FAQ

Q: What is the overall ranking of this CPU and GPU combination in The Medium?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 1563 out of 1689 tested combos in this game. That places it in the bottom 7% of all tested configurations, indicating a very challenging pairing for this title.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600X has an average benchmark score of 26272, which is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U (26262, 0% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 7 7735U (26305, -0.1% delta). It is slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (26214, +0.2% delta) but marginally behind the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5655GE (26320, -0.2% delta).

Q: What is the GPU's synthetic benchmark standing relative to its closest competitors?

A: The RX 580 scores 13559 on average, matching the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13564, 0% delta). It is slightly behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 (13549, +0.1% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro 455 (13416, +1.1% delta), but ahead of the NVIDIA P106-090 (13716, -1.1% delta).

Q: Which settings preset delivers the highest average FPS at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 produces the highest measured average FPS of 50.7. This is the only preset that breaks the 50 FPS threshold across all tested resolutions and settings.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 38.4 FPS while the Ultra preset averages 17 FPS. This represents a 55.7% drop in average FPS when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

Q: How severe is the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS falls from 33.6 at 1920x1080 to 22.6 at 3840x2160. This is a 32.7% reduction in average FPS when quadrupling the pixel count.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, built on the Zen 4 architecture (codename Raphael) using TSMC's 5 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a 105 W TDP. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache, totaling 6,570 million transistors on a 71 mm² die.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's synthetic performance suggests it is not the limiting factor. The 7600X achieves a 3DMark single-thread score of 1060 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3406, with multi-core scores of 6845 (3DMark max threads) and 24128 (Cinebench R23). Its percentile rank of 83 among all CPUs indicates strong processing capability relative to the broader market.

The game's measured FPS results, however, show a stark contrast to the CPU's theoretical strength. At 1080p Low, the combination reaches 50.7 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra it drops to 16.2 FPS. This pattern suggests that while the CPU can handle the game's logic and rendering commands, the GPU's age (released in 2017 with a 14 nm process) becomes the bottleneck as graphical load increases. The 7600X's high single-thread performance—evidenced by its 1430 Cinebench R20 single-core score—should theoretically support high frame rates, but the measured data shows the system struggles to exceed 50 FPS even at the lowest settings, pointing to the GPU as the primary constraint.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is a Polaris 20 chip built on GCN 4.0 architecture using GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process. It features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, with a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz. The 8 GB of GDDR5 memory runs at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's pixel rate is 42.88 GPixel/s and texture rate is 193.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 6.175 TFLOPS.

The RX 580's benchmark scores reveal its position in the market: a PassMark G3D score of 8813 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1005. Its percentile rank of 53 among all GPUs places it near the median, with the Geekbench Vulkan score of 45173 indicating moderate API support. The GPU's 185 W TDP and PCIe 3.0 x16 interface reflect its 2017-era design, and its end-of-life production status suggests limited future optimization.

In The Medium, the GPU's role is decisive. The measured FPS data shows a clear ceiling: at 1080p Low, the system hits 50.7 FPS, but this drops to 20.1 FPS at High and 16.2 FPS at Ultra. The pattern across resolutions—where 4K Low (33.1 FPS) outperforms 1080p Ultra (16.2 FPS)—demonstrates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are overwhelmed by the game's higher-quality settings. The 8 GB VRAM is likely sufficient for texture storage, but the Polaris architecture's raw compute power (6.175 TFLOPS) is insufficient for The Medium's rendering demands at higher presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 7600X and RX 580 ranks 1563 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 7.5% of all configurations. This ranking is particularly striking given the CPU's strong synthetic performance—the 7600X sits in the 83rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26272. The GPU, however, sits in the 53rd percentile with an average score of 13559, which aligns more closely with the combo's overall in-game ranking.

The data suggests a significant mismatch between the two components. The CPU's nearest rivals—the Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U and Ryzen 7 7735U—show nearly identical average scores (26262 and 26305), yet none of these processors are typically paired with a GPU of the RX 580's vintage. The GPU's nearest rivals include the GTX 570 and GTX 950, both from the early-to-mid 2010s era, which reinforces the notion that the RX 580 is the bottleneck.

This ranking implies that for The Medium, the 7600X's processing power is largely wasted. The game's measured FPS at 1080p Low (50.7) is the only playable result, and even that is below the 60 FPS threshold many players expect. The combo's position in the bottom 7% suggests that users upgrading from an older CPU to the 7600X would need to also upgrade their GPU to see meaningful improvements in this title, as the CPU alone cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the only viable preset for the RX 580 in The Medium is Low quality. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 50.7 FPS average, which is the sole configuration that approaches playability. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 33.6 FPS, while High falls to 20.1 FPS and Ultra to 16.2 FPS. At 1440p, even the Low preset (38.4 FPS) hovers near the edge of playability, and at 4K, Low drops to 33.1 FPS.

For a smoother experience, players should consider reducing the resolution alongside the Low preset. The 1440p Low setting (38.4 FPS) offers a middle ground, while 1080p Low is the only setting that maintains an average above 50 FPS. The data indicates that the gap between Low and Medium is substantial—at 1080p, the difference is 17.1 FPS (50.7 vs 33.6), and at 1440p, it is 10.4 FPS (38.4 vs 28). This suggests that the game's quality settings have a steep performance cost on the Polaris GPU.

Ultra settings are effectively unplayable at all resolutions, with the best Ultra result being 17 FPS at 1440p. Even at 1080p, Ultra averages just 16.2 FPS, which is below the threshold for a cinematic 24 FPS. The recommendation is clear: use Low settings at 1080p for the best measured experience, or accept a significant FPS penalty for higher visual fidelity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 50.7 FPS, Medium averages 33.6 FPS, High averages 20.1 FPS, and Ultra averages 16.2 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 68% reduction in average FPS (from 50.7 to 16.2).

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low at 38.4 FPS, Medium at 28 FPS, High at 17.6 FPS, and Ultra at 17 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 55.7% (from 38.4 to 17). At 3840x2160, the data shows: Low at 33.1 FPS, Medium at 22.6 FPS, High at 13.6 FPS, and Ultra at 8.3 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra at 4K is 74.9% (from 33.1 to 8.3).

The most striking observation is the diminishing returns at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Medium and High is 13.5 FPS (33.6 vs 20.1), but at 4K, the difference between Medium and High is only 9 FPS (22.6 vs 13.6). This suggests that the GPU's limitations become more pronounced at higher pixel counts, where the rendering load overwhelms the Polaris architecture's capabilities. The fact that 4K Low (33.1 FPS) outperforms 1080p Ultra (16.2 FPS) by more than double underscores how sensitive this GPU is to quality settings relative to resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K provides insight into the system's limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 50.7 at 1080p to 38.4 at 1440p (a 24.3% reduction) and then to 33.1 at 4K (a further 13.8% reduction from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low is 34.7%. At Medium settings, the drop is from 33.6 at 1080p to 28 at 1440p (a 16.7% reduction) and then to 22.6 at 4K (a 19.3% reduction from 1440p), totaling 32.7% from 1080p to 4K.

At High settings, the FPS drops from 20.1 at 1080p to 17.6 at 1440p (a 12.4% reduction) and then to 13.6 at 4K (a 22.7% reduction from 1440p), totaling 32.3% from 1080p to 4K. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 16.2 at 1080p to 17 at 1440p (an increase of 4.9%) and then to 8.3 at 4K (a 51.2% reduction from 1440p), totaling 48.8% from 1080p to 4K.

These scaling patterns indicate that the GPU is the limiting component. At lower settings, the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is relatively moderate (around 33-35%), suggesting that the GPU's memory bandwidth (256.0 GB/s) can partially keep up with the increased pixel count. However, at Ultra settings, the dramatic 48.8% drop from 1080p to 4K—and the anomalous increase from 1080p to 1440p—points to the GPU being saturated at even 1080p Ultra. The CPU's high single-thread performance (1060 in 3DMark single-thread) cannot compensate for the GPU's fill rate limitations, as evidenced by the fact that 4K Low (33.1 FPS) nearly matches 1080p Medium (33.6 FPS), highlighting that resolution has a smaller impact than quality settings on this hardware.