The Medium

# CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X brings eight physical cores and sixteen threads to this pairing, built on the Zen 2 architecture at TSMC's 7 nm process node. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz position it as a solid mid-range desktop processor from the 3000 series, with a 65 W TDP and support for DDR4 memory through a dual-channel interface delivering 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The processor's cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a shared 32 MB L3 pool, which helps feed the GPU with scene data in a game like The Medium, a horror title that relies on continuous streaming of environmental assets.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 3700X demonstrates balanced throughput. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19087 and single-core score of 2694 indicate strong multi-threaded capabilities, while Geekbench results show 8083 multi-core and 1672 single-core. The PassMark multi-thread score of 22458 and single-thread score of 2656 reinforce this profile. The processor's percentile ranking against all CPUs sits at 85, meaning it outperforms a substantial majority of desktop processors in general compute workloads. Its nearest rivals in the average benchmark score are the Intel Core i5-12600 at 28654 (delta -0.1%), the Intel Core i5-12600H at 28666 (delta -0.1%), the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT at 28591 (delta 0.1%), and the AMD EPYC 7203P at 28583 (delta 0.2%). These deltas are marginal, indicating the 3700X sits in a tightly contested performance band.

For The Medium specifically, the CPU's role is secondary but not negligible. The game's measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings show that the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck, but the 3700X's eight cores ensure that background tasks, asset decompression, and the game's fixed camera transitions do not introduce stutter. At 1080p Low, where the GPU load is lightest, the average FPS reaches 44.9, and the CPU's single-thread performance of 271 in Cinebench R15 single-core and 1131 in R20 single-core is sufficient to keep the render thread fed. The processor's 85th percentile standing suggests headroom exists, but the measured results indicate that the GTX 1650, not the CPU, defines the playable ceiling.

# GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is a Turing-architecture part built on TSMC's 12 nm process, with a chip designated TU117 containing 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. Its memory configuration is 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, yielding 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth — a modest allocation for a horror game that frequently renders dense, texture-heavy environments. The GPU's base clock of 1485 MHz and boost clock of 1665 MHz drive 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, producing a pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 93.24 GTexel/s. Floating-point throughput is rated at 2.984 TFLOPS for FP32, with FP16 at 5.967 TFLOPS via a 2:1 ratio. The card draws up to 75 W and requires no external power connectors, with a suggested 250 W PSU.

In benchmark terms, the GTX 1650's percentile ranking against all GPUs is 43, placing it below the median. Its PassMark G3D score of 7880 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 305 reflect its entry-level positioning. The nearest rivals show tight clustering: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile scores 8746 (delta -0.4%), the AMD Radeon 550X scores 8749 (delta -0.4%), the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 scores 8671 (delta 0.5%), and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 scores 8761 (delta -0.5%). The GTX 1650's average benchmark score of 8713 sits within half a percentage point of these competitors, indicating that no meaningful performance separation exists among them.

The measured FPS in The Medium tells a clear story about the GTX 1650's limitations. At 1080p Low, the average frame rate is 44.9, which is playable but far from smooth. At 1080p Medium, it drops to 28.8, and at High it falls to 23.1. The 4 GB VRAM capacity becomes a critical factor at higher settings and resolutions, as the game's texture streaming and shadow maps likely exceed the available memory, causing the steep declines observed. The GPU's 43rd percentile ranking corroborates that this is a below-average part for modern titles, and The Medium's measured data reflects that reality.

# How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 ranks 1640 out of 1689 tested combinations in The Medium. This places the pairing in the bottom 3% of all tested hardware configurations, a position that is unsurprising given the GPU's entry-level specifications. The rank of 1640 means only 49 combinations perform worse, and the overwhelming majority of systems deliver higher frame rates in this title. The data indicates that this combo is suited only for the lowest fidelity settings, and even then, the experience is marginal.

The gap between this combo and more capable systems is not subtle. The GTX 1650's 43rd percentile GPU ranking and the 3700X's 85th percentile CPU ranking create a lopsided pairing: the processor has ample headroom, but the graphics card cannot translate that into playable performance. In the context of The Medium, which appears to be GPU-bound in nearly all scenarios, the combo rank of 1640 reflects the GPU's inability to handle the game's visual demands. The CPU's strong synthetic scores (e.g., Cinebench R23 multi-core of 19087 and PassMark multi-thread of 22458) do not compensate for the GPU's constraints, as the measured FPS data confirms.

# Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the GTX 1650 produces its best results. With Low settings, the average FPS is 44.9, which is the highest figure recorded for this combo in any configuration. Medium settings yield 28.8 FPS, High settings drop to 23.1 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 16.7 FPS. The step from Low to Medium represents a 36% reduction in frame rate, while the step from Medium to High is a 20% reduction, and from High to Ultra a 28% reduction. These declines are steep but consistent with a GPU that has limited shading units and memory bandwidth.

At 2560x1440, the performance degrades further. Low settings produce 38.5 FPS, which is still technically playable but below the 1080p Low result. Medium settings yield 21.6 FPS, High settings 14.0 FPS, and Ultra settings 11.2 FPS. The drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low is 14%, but the drop from 1080p Medium to 1440p Medium is 25%, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth and fill rate are increasingly stressed as resolution rises.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely unplayable. Low settings average 27.1 FPS, Medium settings 18.7 FPS, High settings 11.5 FPS, and Ultra settings 9.7 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the worst measured, and even the best 4K configuration (Low) fails to reach 30 FPS. The pattern across all resolutions is clear: the GTX 1650 cannot maintain playable frame rates at higher settings, and 4K is only viable at Low with significant compromises.

# Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The scaling behavior from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound system. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 44.9 at 1080p to 38.5 at 1440p and 27.1 at 4K. This represents a 14% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 30% drop from 1440p to 4K. At Medium settings, the progression is 28.8 to 21.6 to 18.7, with drops of 25% and 13% respectively. At High settings, the values are 23.1 to 14.0 to 11.5, showing a 39% drop from 1080p to 1440p and an 18% drop from 1440p to 4K. At Ultra settings, the results are 16.7 to 11.2 to 9.7, with drops of 33% and 13%.

The non-linear nature of these drops — with the largest percentage declines occurring between 1080p and 1440p rather than between 1440p and 4K — suggests that the GPU's memory bus and pixel fill rate are overwhelmed once the pixel count exceeds 1080p. The 128-bit memory bus and 128.1 GB/s bandwidth become the limiting factor, as higher resolutions require more texture fetches and fill operations per frame. The 4 GB VRAM also likely spills over at 1440p and 4K with higher settings, causing additional performance degradation.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck in any configuration. The 3700X's eight cores and 16 threads provide ample compute headroom, and the consistent FPS drops with resolution scaling confirm that the GTX 1650 is the sole limiting component. The combo rank of 1640 out of 1689 corroborates this: the pairing is only suitable for 1080p Low, where it delivers 44.9 FPS, and even that is borderline for a horror game that benefits from smooth motion. At any higher resolution or setting, the experience falls below acceptable thresholds, and the GTX 1650's 43rd percentile GPU ranking makes it clear that this is an entry-level part ill-suited to The Medium's demands.