The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and AMD Radeon RX 580 combination delivers playable performance in The Medium only at the Low preset, where the data shows a clear path to a consistent experience. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves an average of 49 FPS, which is the only configuration in the measured set that approaches standard display refresh rates. The Medium preset drops to 31 FPS at 1080p, which is borderline, while High and Ultra presets fall to 22 FPS and 17 FPS respectively, making them unsuitable for smooth gameplay. The evidence is unambiguous: for this hardware pairing, the Low preset is the recommended choice across all resolutions, as it is the sole tier that keeps the average frame rate above 30 FPS at 1440p (41 FPS) and provides a usable 32 FPS at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance cliff as settings increase, making the Low preset the only viable option for a stable experience. At 1920x1080, the frame rate drops from 49 FPS at Low to 31 FPS at Medium, a reduction of 18 FPS that represents a 37% performance loss. Moving to High at the same resolution yields 22 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 17 FPS, rendering the latter two presets effectively unplayable for anything beyond static scenes. The pattern holds at 2560x1440, where Low delivers 41 FPS, Medium drops to 26 FPS, High falls to 18 FPS, and Ultra reaches just 15 FPS. At 3840x2160, the situation is more dire: Low produces 32 FPS, Medium 20 FPS, High 14 FPS, and Ultra 11 FPS.

Benchmark results indicate that the jump from Low to Medium incurs a disproportionate FPS penalty relative to the visual quality gain, suggesting that the RX 580's available bandwidth and shading resources are the bottleneck. The Medium preset does include measured minimum FPS values (26 FPS at 1080p, 22 FPS at 1440p, 17 FPS at 4K), which indicate frame pacing issues that would manifest as stutter during the game's fixed-camera transitions. In contrast, Low preset measurements lack minimum FPS data, implying a more stable frame delivery. For users prioritizing a consistent frame rate, Low is the only setting that avoids the sub-30 FPS territory that characterizes the higher presets. The data does not support any argument for Medium or above, as the average FPS at those settings falls below the threshold where horror game timing and camera movement remain fluid.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580, built on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, provides 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. This bandwidth figure is critical for The Medium, a game that relies on heavy texture streaming and dual-reality rendering, where the GPU must simultaneously manage two distinct scenes. The card's 2304 shading units and 32 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 6.175 TFLOPS. These specifications explain why the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher settings: the rendering load doubles when both realities are on screen, and the RX 580's raw compute throughput is insufficient to maintain high frame rates.

The clock behavior shows a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz, with memory running at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective). The relatively modest boost clock relative to the core's thermal design power of 185 W suggests that sustained loads in The Medium may cause the card to operate near its base clock, further reducing performance. The GPU's benchmark percentile of 53 places it in the middle of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (avg score 12986, deltaPct -0.4) and the AMD Radeon 740M (avg score 12870, deltaPct 0.5). This positioning confirms that the RX 580 is a mid-range part that cannot handle the game's demanding preset scaling. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is adequate for the game's assets at 1080p and 1440p, but the measured FPS drops suggest that memory bandwidth, not capacity, is the primary constraint, as the 256.0 GB/s figure is insufficient for the game's high-resolution texture loads at Medium and above.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS degradation from 1080p to 4K follows a predictable pattern dictated by the GPU's fillrate limits. At the Low preset, performance scales from 49 FPS at 1080p to 41 FPS at 1440p (a 16% drop) and then to 32 FPS at 4K (a 35% drop from 1440p). This scaling is relatively graceful, indicating that at Low settings, the RX 580 is not completely overwhelmed by the resolution increase. However, at the Medium preset, the drop is more pronounced: 31 FPS at 1080p falls to 26 FPS at 1440p (a 16% drop) and then to 20 FPS at 4K (a 23% drop from 1440p). The High preset shows even steeper declines, from 22 FPS at 1080p to 18 FPS at 1440p (an 18% drop) and 14 FPS at 4K (a 22% drop from 1440p). Ultra settings collapse from 17 FPS at 1080p to 15 FPS at 1440p and 11 FPS at 4K.

The data reveals that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU (AMD Ryzen 7 5700) has enough headroom with its 8 cores and 16 threads, but the GPU's 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 performance becomes the bottleneck as pixel count increases. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings (41 to 32 FPS) shows a 22% performance hit, which is less than the 4x pixel count increase would suggest, indicating that the game is not purely pixel-bound at Low settings. At Medium and above, the 4K results (20 FPS and below) fall into unplayable territory, confirming that the RX 580's memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s cannot sustain the data throughput required for higher resolutions and settings simultaneously. The Ryzen 7 5700's 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s are sufficient for the game's CPU demands, as evidenced by the fact that even at 1080p Low (49 FPS), the system does not appear CPU-limited.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for The Medium, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 3394 out of 3724 total combos, placing it in the bottom 9% of all systems tested. This poor ranking is consistent with the measured FPS data, which shows that the combo cannot exceed 49 FPS even at the lowest settings and resolution. The CPU itself is not the weak link; the Ryzen 7 5700 holds a percentile rank of 78 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25517. Its nearest CPU rivals include the Intel Xeon D-2752TER (avg score 25530, deltaPct -0.1) and the AMD Ryzen 5 6600H (avg score 25550, deltaPct -0.1), indicating that the processor is competitive with other mid-range parts.

The GPU, however, drags the combo down significantly. The RX 580 has a percentile rank of 53 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 12928. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (avg score 12940, deltaPct -0.1) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (avg score 12986, deltaPct -0.4). The combo's rank of 3394 out of 3724 suggests that the vast majority of other tested systems include either faster GPUs or more balanced pairings. The fact that the CPU's performance percentile (78) far exceeds the GPU's (53) highlights a significant imbalance: the Ryzen 7 5700 is capable of feeding a much more powerful GPU, but the RX 580's Polaris 20 chip cannot translate that CPU headroom into higher frame rates in The Medium. This ranking should be interpreted as a warning to users that this combination is only suitable for low-resolution, low-detail play, and that any upgrade path would require replacing the GPU first.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo in The Medium?*

A: The Low preset is the only viable option, delivering 49 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset drops to 31 FPS at 1080p, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RX 580's memory configuration affect performance in this game?

A: The 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for Low settings but becomes a bottleneck at Medium and above, where the FPS drops below 30 at all resolutions.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700 or the RX 580 the limiting factor?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Ryzen 7 5700 has a CPU percentile of 78, while the RX 580 has a GPU percentile of 53. The CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are not the constraint, as frame rates scale with resolution and settings in a way that points to GPU limits.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking for this game?

A: The combo ranks 3394 out of 3724 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 9% of systems. This reflects the GPU's mid-range performance rather than any CPU deficiency.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gameplay in The Medium?*

A: Only at Low settings, where it achieves 32 FPS. At Medium, High, or Ultra, 4K performance falls to 20 FPS, 14 FPS, and 11 FPS respectively, which are all unplayable.

Q: What are the measured minimum FPS values for the Medium preset?

A: The Medium preset shows minimum FPS of 26 at 1080p, 22 at 1440p, and 17 at 4K. These low minimums indicate frame pacing issues that would cause noticeable stutter during gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values across presets are as follows: Low achieves 49 FPS, Medium achieves 31 FPS with a minimum of 26 FPS and a maximum of 35 FPS, High achieves 22 FPS, and Ultra achieves 17 FPS. The 1080p results show the widest gap between Low and Medium (18 FPS), suggesting that the game's visual complexity increases substantially at the Medium tier.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values decrease across all presets: Low delivers 41 FPS, Medium delivers 26 FPS with a minimum of 22 FPS and a maximum of 30 FPS, High delivers 18 FPS, and Ultra delivers 15 FPS. The 1440p results show that only Low settings maintain an average above 30 FPS, while Medium falls to 26 FPS, which is marginal for playable performance.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are significantly lower: Low achieves 32 FPS, Medium achieves 20 FPS with a minimum of 17 FPS and a maximum of 23 FPS, High achieves 14 FPS, and Ultra achieves 11 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate that this resolution is only feasible at Low settings, and even then, the 32 FPS average is below the standard 60 FPS target, indicating a compromised experience. The data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: Low settings provide the only playable frame rates, with a 49 FPS ceiling at 1080p that drops to 32 FPS at 4K, while all higher settings fall below 31 FPS at any resolution.