The Medium

The Medium presents an interesting case study for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and AMD Radeon RX 9060 pairing. This horror title, released in early 2021, relies heavily on fixed camera angles and pre-rendered environments, which shifts the performance burden in specific ways. The measured data for this combo reveals a system that is capable but requires careful settings management, particularly at higher resolutions. Benchmark results indicate a clear hierarchy where the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as resolution increases, while the CPU’s strong single-thread performance ensures consistent frame pacing. This analysis will break down the measured FPS across resolutions, examine the roles of the CPU and GPU, and provide actionable settings recommendations based solely on the data provided.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is stark and tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 101 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at Low settings, the average falls to 85 FPS, a 16 FPS reduction. At 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average drops further to 67 FPS. This scaling pattern—from 101 to 85 to 67—shows a consistent decline of roughly 16-18 FPS per resolution step. The data suggests that at Low settings, the system is still relatively balanced, but the GPU is already beginning to feel the pressure of increased pixel counts.

The Medium settings row provides the most complete picture, as it is the only settings level with both min and max FPS recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average is 63 FPS with a min of 53 and max of 72. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 53 FPS with a min of 45 and max of 61. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 42 FPS with a min of 35 and max of 48. This represents a 21 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings, which is a 33% reduction in average FPS. The min FPS values also scale proportionally, dropping from 53 to 45 to 35 across the same resolution steps. This consistency suggests that the performance ceiling is being lowered uniformly by the resolution increase, which points directly to the GPU as the limiting component.

The High settings row shows an even more dramatic scaling curve. At 1080p High, the average is 45 FPS. At 1440p High, it falls to 38 FPS. At 4K High, it bottoms out at 30 FPS. The 15 FPS difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings represents a 33% drop, but the absolute numbers are already low enough that 4K High becomes borderline unplayable. The Ultra settings row follows a similar pattern: 36 FPS at 1080p, 30 FPS at 1440p, and 24 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 4K at Ultra is 12 FPS, but the 24 FPS average at 4K Ultra is clearly below acceptable thresholds for smooth gameplay.

What does this scaling imply? The fact that even at Low settings, 4K only reaches 67 FPS while 1080p reaches 101 FPS indicates that the RX 9060’s 8 GB of VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are significant constraints at higher resolutions. The game’s fixed camera angles mean that each frame requires substantial pixel processing, and the GPU’s 64 ROPs and 1792 shading units are being pushed to their limits. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, does not appear to be the limiting factor here, as the FPS scaling is smooth and predictable across resolutions—a classic sign of GPU-bound performance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 44 chip. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1700 MHz, with a game clock of 2400 MHz and a boost clock of 2990 MHz. These specifications are directly relevant to The Medium’s performance. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at most settings, but the 4K High and Ultra results (30 FPS and 24 FPS respectively) suggest that memory capacity or bandwidth becomes a bottleneck at that resolution.

The GPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 59th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 16014. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, which has an average score of 16129, representing a delta of -0.7%. This means the RX 9060 is essentially neck-and-neck with the RTX 3060 Ti in synthetic benchmarks. Interestingly, the Radeon R9 370X and RX 7700 are also close rivals, with deltas of 1% and 1% respectively. The RX 9060’s passmark G3D score of 17631 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3322 provide additional context, but the measured FPS in The Medium is the more telling figure.

The GPU’s FP32 performance of 21.43 TFLOPS and texture rate of 334.9 GTexel/s are solid for a card in this class. However, The Medium’s reliance on high-resolution textures and complex lighting in its fixed-camera scenes means that the 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is likely the limiting factor at 4K. The drop from 67 FPS at 4K Low to 42 FPS at 4K Medium (a 25 FPS reduction) is notable because it shows that even modest settings increases at 4K have outsized impacts. This is consistent with a GPU that is memory-bandwidth constrained, as increasing texture quality and shadow resolution directly increases memory pressure.

The measured FPS at 1440p Medium (53 FPS average) and 1080p Medium (63 FPS average) suggest that the RX 9060 is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming in this title. The min FPS values at Medium settings (53 at 1080p, 45 at 1440p, 35 at 4K) indicate that frame drops are manageable at lower resolutions but become more pronounced at 4K. The GPU’s 64 ROPs provide a pixel rate of 191.4 GPixel/s, which is adequate for 1080p but struggles to keep up with 4K’s 8.3 million pixels per frame.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Medium?

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 at Medium settings provides a 63 FPS average with a min of 53 FPS, which offers a smooth experience. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average drops to 53 FPS, which is still playable but less comfortable. 4K at any setting above Low falls below 45 FPS, making it unsuitable for consistent gameplay.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest GPU rival?

A: The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, placing it in the 59th percentile. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, scores 16129, which is a delta of -0.7%. This means the RX 9060 is effectively tied with the RTX 3060 Ti in synthetic performance.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. At 3840x2160 Low settings, the average FPS is 67, while at 1080p Low it is 101. This 34 FPS drop cannot be attributed to the CPU, which maintains the same workload regardless of resolution. The RX 9060’s 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit bus are the constraints.

Q: What settings provide the highest FPS at 1080p?

A: Low settings at 1920x1080 yield an average of 101 FPS, which is the highest measured value in the entire dataset. Medium settings provide 63 FPS, High provides 45 FPS, and Ultra provides 36 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU rank against its rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600X has an average benchmark score of 27636, placing it in the 79th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X, scores 27578, a delta of 0.2%. The Intel Core i5-12600K also scores 27578, also a 0.2% delta.

Q: What is the FPS range at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 53, with a minimum of 45 and a maximum of 61. This provides a 16 FPS range, indicating moderate frame variance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the data shows a clear degradation as settings increase. Low settings achieve an average of 67 FPS. Medium settings drop to 42 FPS, with a min of 35 and a max of 48. High settings fall to 30 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 24 FPS. The 43 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K highlights how heavily the GPU is taxed. The 4K Medium row is notable for having both min and max values, showing a range of 13 FPS, which suggests some scene-to-scene variability but no catastrophic stuttering.

At 2560x1440, the results improve but still show the same pattern. Low settings deliver 85 FPS. Medium settings provide 53 FPS with a min of 45 and max of 61. High settings drop to 38 FPS, and Ultra reaches only 30 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 55 FPS, which is larger than at 4K, indicating that the GPU has more headroom at lower pixel counts. The 1440p Medium range of 16 FPS (45 to 61) is wider than at 4K, suggesting that the GPU can push higher frame rates but is still subject to demanding scenes.

At 1920x1080, the combo performs best. Low settings deliver 101 FPS, which is the only triple-digit average in the dataset. Medium settings provide 63 FPS with a min of 53 and max of 72. High settings achieve 45 FPS, and Ultra reaches 36 FPS. The 1080p Medium range of 19 FPS (53 to 72) is the widest of any settings level, indicating that the GPU is capable of burst performance but can also dip under load. The 1080p Ultra result of 36 FPS is lower than the 1440p Medium result of 53 FPS, which shows that Ultra settings at 1080p are more demanding than Medium at 1440p.

Comparing the same settings across resolutions provides a clear picture. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 101 at 1080p to 85 at 1440p to 67 at 4K. This is a 34% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the FPS drops from 63 to 53 to 42, a 33% reduction. At High settings, the drop is from 45 to 38 to 30, a 33% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 36 to 30 to 24, a 33% reduction. This consistent 33% scaling across all settings levels confirms that the GPU is the sole bottleneck, as the CPU’s workload does not change with resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank for this pairing in The Medium is 1648 out of 2911 tested combinations. This places it in the 56th percentile of all tested combos, meaning that roughly 44% of combinations perform better and 56% perform worse. Given that the GPU sits in the 59th percentile and the CPU in the 79th percentile, the combo rank is slightly lower than either component’s individual percentile. This suggests that The Medium is not particularly well-optimized for this specific pairing, or that the GPU’s limitations hold back the CPU’s potential.

The CPU’s nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X and Intel Core i5-12600K, both with average scores of 27578 and a 0.2% delta from the 7600X’s 27636. The AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE scores 27712, a -0.3% delta, and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 scores 27535, a 0.4% delta. These rivals are all within 0.4% of the 7600X, indicating that CPU performance is not a differentiating factor in this game. The GPU’s rivals are similarly close, with the RTX 3060 Ti at -0.7%, the R9 370X at 1%, and the RX 7700 at 1%.

The rank of 1648 out of 2911 is informative when combined with the measured FPS. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 63 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1440p Medium, it drops to 53 FPS, which is below 60 but still playable. At 4K Medium, it falls to 42 FPS, which is marginal. The fact that the combo ranks in the 56th percentile suggests that many other combos achieve better results, but the data does not specify which components are in those higher-ranked combos.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture. Its base clock is 4.70 GHz, with a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The CPU has 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core. Its 3DMark single-thread score of 1060 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1965 indicate strong single-thread performance, which is critical for The Medium’s fixed-camera scenes that often rely on single-threaded game logic.

The CPU’s benchmark results show a clear scaling pattern. The 3DMark 2-thread score is 2028, the 4-thread score is 3796, and the 8-thread score is 5715. The max-thread score is 6845, which is only slightly higher than the 8-thread score, indicating that the CPU does not scale dramatically beyond 8 threads. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15236 and Geekbench multicore score of 13858 further confirm that the CPU is competitive in its class.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent at 33% across all settings, which would not be the case if the CPU were a bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 101 FPS, which is high enough that the CPU must be capable of feeding the GPU with draw calls. The CPU’s 79th percentile ranking and its near-tie with the Ryzen 7 5700X and Core i5-12600K suggest that any of these CPUs would perform similarly in this game.

The CPU’s 5.30 GHz boost clock and 4.70 GHz base clock are notable for a game like The Medium, which can be sensitive to single-thread performance. The passmark single-thread score of 4135 and Geekbench single-core score of 2603 are strong indicators that the CPU can handle the game’s logic threads without becoming a limiting factor. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is more than sufficient for a game that likely uses fewer than 8 threads effectively.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which settings to use. At 1920x1080, Medium settings offer the best balance, with an average of 63 FPS and a min of 53 FPS. This is the only settings level at 1080p that consistently stays above 50 FPS while providing better visual quality than Low. High settings at 1080p drop to 45 FPS, which is a 29% reduction from Medium, and Ultra drops to 36 FPS, which is a 43% reduction. The Low settings at 1080p deliver 101 FPS but sacrifice visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, Medium settings are again the recommended choice, with an average of 53 FPS and a min of 45 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS target but remains playable. Low settings at 1440p deliver 85 FPS, which is smooth, but the visual quality reduction may be noticeable. High settings at 1440p drop to 38 FPS, which is a 28% reduction from Medium, and Ultra drops to 30 FPS, which is a 43% reduction. The 1440p Medium min of 45 FPS suggests that some scenes will be less smooth, but the average is acceptable.

At 3840x2160, the only viable option is Low settings, which deliver 67 FPS. Medium settings at 4K drop to 42 FPS, which is a 37% reduction, and High drops to 30 FPS, which is a 55% reduction. Ultra at 4K is effectively unplayable at 24 FPS. The 4K Low result of 67 FPS is surprisingly good, but the visual quality at Low settings may not be worth the resolution increase over 1440p Medium.

The best overall experience per the measured rows is 1080p Medium, which provides a 63 FPS average with a min of 53 FPS. This settings level balances visual quality and performance, keeping the frame rate above 50 FPS at all times. For users who prefer 1440p, Medium settings at 1440p provide a 53 FPS average, which is acceptable but not ideal. The data does not support using High or Ultra settings at any resolution, as the average FPS drops below 45 at 1440p and below 30 at 4K. The 1080p Low setting of 101 FPS is the highest measured FPS, but the visual quality trade-off is significant. The recommendation is to prioritize Medium settings at 1080p or 1440p, depending on resolution preference.