The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine, presents an unusual stress profile for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination. The benchmark data shows a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet capable of extraordinary frame rates at lower settings. This pairing, ranking 107th out of 3724 tested combinations for this game, delivers a playable experience across the board, but the margin between the GPU's raw power and the game's demands creates a wide performance envelope that shifts dramatically with settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates reveal a classic resolution scaling curve, but with an unusually steep drop as pixel count increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 173 FPS. Stepping up to 2560x1440 at the same settings drops the average to 163 FPS, a modest 6% reduction. However, the jump to 3840x2160 at Low settings yields 140 FPS, representing a 19% decline from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that even at 4K, the RTX 4090 has substantial headroom with the Ryzen 5 7600X providing sufficient instruction throughput.

The more telling data emerges when examining the High and Ultra presets. At High settings, the frame rate falls from 95 FPS at 1080p to 80 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 63 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure represents a 34% drop from the 1080p baseline, showing that the game's higher-fidelity assets and effects begin to saturate the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth. The Ultra preset tells an even more dramatic story: 75 FPS at 1080p, 63 FPS at 1440p, and 50 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K delta of 33% at Ultra is nearly identical to the High preset's scaling, suggesting a consistent load profile across these quality levels.

The limiting component shifts based on resolution. At 1080p, the gap between Low (173 FPS) and Ultra (75 FPS) is a massive 98 FPS, indicating that the game's settings are heavily impacting the render workload. At 4K, the same Low-to-Ultra gap narrows to 90 FPS (140 vs 50), but the absolute numbers suggest the GPU is still the primary constraint. The Ryzen 5 7600X, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, never appears to bottleneck the RTX 4090 in this title, as even the lowest settings at 1080p exceed 170 FPS, a figure that would expose CPU limitations in most other engines.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average is 173 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K with maximum settings?

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the measured average FPS is 50, which falls short of the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 111, with a minimum of 95 and a maximum of 128, showing a 33 FPS variance.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, High yields 95 FPS average while Ultra yields 75 FPS, a 20 FPS penalty for the highest quality settings.

Q: Is there a significant performance difference between Low and Medium at 4K?

A: Yes. Low at 3840x2160 averages 140 FPS, while Medium averages 87 FPS, a 53 FPS drop for the quality increase.

Q: What is the performance spread between the lowest and highest settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 163 FPS and Ultra averages 63 FPS, representing a 100 FPS difference across the settings spectrum.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination holds a rank of 107 out of 3,724 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the top 3% of all systems benchmarked for this title. This is a strong showing, but not a top-tier position, which reflects the game's modest hardware demands. The RTX 4090's percentile versus all GPUs is 88, while the Ryzen 5 7600X sits at the 79th percentile versus all CPUs. The combo's ranking suggests that while the GPU is exceptionally powerful, the game's engine and fixed-camera perspective do not fully utilize its capabilities.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks—the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X and Intel Core i5-12600K, both with average scores within 0.2% of the 7600X—would likely produce nearly identical results in this title. The GPU's nearest rival, the Intel Arc Pro A60, matches the RTX 4090's average benchmark score within 0.0%, though the RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth provide a substantial advantage in texture-heavy scenes. The ranking data indicates that this combination is overkill for The Medium, as the game's requirements are far below what this hardware can deliver.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rate data spans three resolutions and four quality presets, providing a complete picture of performance. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 173 FPS, the highest of any configuration tested. Medium settings at this resolution produce 132 FPS, with a minimum of 112 and a maximum of 152 FPS, showing a 40 FPS spread. High settings drop the average to 95 FPS, while Ultra reduces it further to 75 FPS. The 1080p results demonstrate that this combo is never CPU-limited, as even the most demanding preset maintains a 75 FPS average.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 163 FPS, which is only 10 FPS lower than the 1080p result. Medium at 1440p averages 111 FPS, with a minimum of 95 and a maximum of 128 FPS. High settings at this resolution yield 80 FPS, while Ultra produces 63 FPS. The 1440p results show a more pronounced gap between Medium and High (31 FPS) compared to the 1080p gap (37 FPS), indicating that the higher resolution amplifies the cost of quality improvements.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset still manages 140 FPS, a figure that would be impressive for most games at this resolution. Medium at 4K averages 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 and a maximum of 101 FPS. High settings drop to 63 FPS, and Ultra falls to 50 FPS. The 4K data reveals that the RTX 4090's 24 GB memory buffer and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle the game's assets without any signs of texture thrashing or memory pressure.

Settings Recommendations

For players seeking the smoothest experience, the Low preset at any resolution provides frame rates well above 140 FPS, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. At 1080p Low, the 173 FPS average exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors, ensuring no wasted frames. The Medium preset offers a more balanced approach, with 132 FPS at 1080p, 111 FPS at 1440p, and 87 FPS at 4K, all of which are playable on standard 60 Hz displays and most high-refresh panels.

The High preset is the recommended choice for visual fidelity without sacrificing playability. At 1080p, it delivers 95 FPS, which is smooth on 144 Hz monitors. At 1440p, the 80 FPS average is acceptable for most users, though those with 144 Hz panels may notice the drop. At 4K, High settings produce 63 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced sequences. The Ultra preset should be avoided at 4K, as the 50 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS threshold that most players consider the minimum for a good experience. At 1080p and 1440p, Ultra provides 75 FPS and 63 FPS respectively, making it viable only for players prioritizing image quality over frame rate.

The data suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and quality across all resolutions. The measured minimums for Medium (112 FPS at 1080p, 95 FPS at 1440p, 74 FPS at 4K) remain above 60 FPS, ensuring no dips below the playability threshold. Players with 4K displays should consider Medium as the sweet spot, as the 87 FPS average is significantly higher than High's 63 FPS, while the visual difference is often subtle in a game with fixed camera angles.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, built on a 5 nm process. Its base clock of 4.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz provide exceptional single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1060 and Geekbench single-core score of 2603. In The Medium, these characteristics are more than sufficient, as the game's fixed-camera perspective and linear level design likely do not require extensive multi-threaded physics or AI calculations.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark scores—15,236 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,965 in single-core—place it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 5700X and Core i5-12600K, have average scores within 0.2%, yet the 7600X's higher boost clock and newer architecture give it a slight edge in gaming workloads. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for games that rely on frequent data access.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (173 FPS) is the highest data point, and this figure is likely constrained by the game engine's frame rate limit rather than the CPU. The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 1,290.2 GTexel/s texture rate are the dominant factors in this title's performance. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration of the 7600X is adequate for the game's requirements, and the data shows no evidence of a CPU bottleneck, as frame rates scale consistently with GPU load across resolutions.