The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 combination ranks 1654th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places the combo in the bottom 2% of all tested configurations, indicating that this pairing is not well-suited for this particular title. The rank reflects a fundamental mismatch between the game's demands and the hardware's capabilities, particularly on the GPU side. While the CPU is a strong performer in general benchmarks, the GTX 1650's limitations dominate the gaming experience, dragging the overall combo ranking down significantly. The data shows a system that can run the game, but only under constrained settings and resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the primary bottleneck in this configuration. It features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 128.1 GB/s. This is a modest amount of VRAM by modern standards, and The Medium's high-resolution textures can easily exceed this capacity, leading to performance degradation. The GPU's base clock is 1485 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, and it has 896 shading units. Its 2.984 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is limited, which directly impacts the rendering of complex scenes.

Benchmark results confirm the GPU's position. It holds a percentile rank of 43 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 8713. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile (deltaPct -0.4) and the AMD Radeon 550X (deltaPct -0.4), indicating a performance cluster that is mid-to-low tier. In The Medium, this translates to a hard ceiling on achievable frame rates. The GPU's DirectX 12 benchmark score of 35 is particularly low, and since The Medium likely relies on modern API features, this further compounds the performance issue. The data suggests that the GTX 1650 is the limiting factor across all resolution and settings combinations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 44.2 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. Moving to 1440p Low, the average drops to 36.8 FPS, a 16.7% decrease. At 4K Low, the average falls to 28.5 FPS, which is a further 22.5% drop from the 1440p figure. This scaling trend is consistent across all settings presets.

For example, on Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 24.7 at 1080p, to 21.1 at 1440p, and then to 15.8 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K represents a 36% reduction in performance. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting component. As resolution scales up, the pixel count increases, placing a proportionally higher load on the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth. The CPU's role diminishes at higher resolutions, but the GTX 1650 is unable to keep pace, resulting in the severe FPS drops observed. The data shows that even at the lowest settings, 4K resolution is barely playable, averaging just 28.5 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear picture of the trade-offs between visual fidelity and performance. The best experience, defined as the highest average FPS, is achieved at 1080p with Low settings, yielding 44.2 FPS. This is the only configuration that approaches a generally playable frame rate. The next best option is 1440p Low, which delivers 36.8 FPS, but this is already below the 40 FPS threshold that many consider acceptable for a smooth experience.

At 1080p Medium, the average FPS drops to 24.7, which is a significant sacrifice for a modest increase in visual quality. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields only 14.1 FPS, making it unplayable. The data indicates that the High preset is not a viable option either, with 21.7 FPS at 1080p. Therefore, the recommended setting for this combo is 1080p with the Low preset. This is the only way to achieve a playable frame rate, and even then, the experience will be on the lower end of the spectrum. Any attempt to increase resolution or settings will result in the frame rate falling to a level that significantly impairs gameplay.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo can achieve in The Medium?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 44.2, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the GTX 1650 compare to its closest performance rivals?

A: The GTX 1650 has an average benchmark score of 8713. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile, has a score of 8746, a deltaPct of -0.4, indicating they are essentially equal in performance.

Q: Is this combo capable of running the game at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows that at 4K, even with Low settings, the average FPS is only 28.5. With higher settings like Medium, it drops to 15.8 FPS, and with Ultra, it is just 10.1 FPS. This indicates that 4K is not a viable resolution for this hardware.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields 44.2 FPS, while the Ultra preset yields 14.1 FPS. This represents a 68% reduction in average frame rate when switching from Low to Ultra.

Q: Which component is the primary bottleneck for this combo in The Medium?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The measured FPS drops significantly as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance. The GTX 1650's modest specifications cannot handle the game's rendering load at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the CPU's general performance rank compare to the GPU's?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X has a percentile rank of 83 among all CPUs, while the GTX 1650 has a percentile rank of 43 among all GPUs. This significant gap highlights that the GPU is far weaker relative to its peers than the CPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X is a high-performance processor that is largely underutilized in this pairing. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 7 nm Zen 3 architecture contribute to strong synthetic benchmark results. For instance, its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 22620, and its single-core score is 3193. It achieves a percentile rank of 83 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26214. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-11900KF (deltaPct 0.1) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X (deltaPct -0.2), showing it performs on par with these strong processors.

However, in The Medium, the CPU's power does not translate into higher frame rates. The measured FPS data shows that performance is almost entirely dictated by the GPU. The severe FPS drops at higher resolutions are a direct result of the GTX 1650's limitations, not the CPU. At 1080p Low, the CPU can easily feed the GPU, but the GPU is still only able to produce 44.2 FPS. In this scenario, the CPU is not the bottleneck; it is waiting on the GPU. The data suggests that the Ryzen 7 5700X provides ample headroom for a more powerful GPU, but with the GTX 1650, that headroom is never used. The combination's poor rank of 1654 out of 1689 is not a reflection of the CPU's capabilities, but rather the profound mismatch between this capable processor and an entry-level graphics card in a demanding game like The Medium.