The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built around atmospheric tension, presents a unique challenge for the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination. Analysis of the measured frame rates reveals a system that is heavily dependent on graphical settings to maintain playable performance, particularly at higher resolutions. The data indicates that this combo is capable of delivering smooth experiences at lower presets, but struggles to maintain high frame rates when visual fidelity is prioritized.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and clearly shows the GPU becoming the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. At the Low preset, the system achieves 107.9 FPS at 1920x1080, which drops to 91.4 FPS at 2560x1440, and then falls to 72.8 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 32.5% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, showing that even at the lowest graphical load, the RTX 4060 is not entirely free from resolution-based pressure.

The scaling pattern becomes more pronounced at higher presets. With the Medium preset, the frame rate drops from 68.6 FPS at 1080p to 57.1 FPS at 1440p, and then to 45.6 FPS at 4K. The High preset follows a similar trajectory: 49.5 FPS at 1080p, 42.7 FPS at 1440p, and 32.3 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic falloff, starting at 41.5 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 32.1 FPS at 1440p, and bottoming out at 27.3 FPS at 4K.

What this data reveals is that the RTX 4060's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit memory bus become increasingly stressed as resolution climbs. The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens significantly at 4K, with a 45.5 FPS difference, compared to a 66.4 FPS difference at 1080p. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU has more headroom to feed the GPU, but at 4K, the GPU's raw throughput and memory bandwidth are the deciding factors. The 272.0 GB/s bandwidth appears insufficient for maintaining high frame rates at Ultra settings in this title, as the game's fixed-camera angles and detailed environments demand substantial fill rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 932 out of 1689 tested combinations for The Medium, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This ranking reflects the RTX 4060's position in the GPU hierarchy, where it currently sits at the 66th percentile against all GPUs. The GPU's average benchmark score of 23181 puts it in close competition with the AMD Radeon RX 6600M, which scores 23321, a delta of -0.6%. It also trades blows with the Intel Arc B580, which scores 23021, a delta of 0.7% in favor of the RTX 4060.

The CPU side of this pairing is notably stronger. The Ryzen 7 5700X sits at the 83rd percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26214. This places it in a tight cluster with the Intel Core i9-11900KF (26196, 0.1% delta), AMD Ryzen 5 7600X (26272, -0.2% delta), and AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT (26161, 0.2% delta). The CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads provide ample processing power for The Medium's dual-world rendering mechanic, which requires simultaneous scene rendering.

The discrepancy between the CPU's high percentile ranking and the combo's middling overall rank suggests that the RTX 4060 is the bottleneck in this pairing. While the Ryzen 7 5700X is capable of keeping up with much faster GPUs, the RTX 4060's performance ceiling in this specific title limits the overall combo ranking. This is not a poorly balanced system, but rather a combination where the CPU has significant headroom for future GPU upgrades.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 offers the most balanced experience, delivering 68.6 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and provides a significant visual upgrade over the Low preset, which runs at 107.9 FPS. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs 19.1 FPS, bringing the average down to 49.5 FPS, which may still be playable for some but introduces noticeable stutter in a game that relies on atmospheric pacing.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset is the only option that maintains a high frame rate, hitting 91.4 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 57.1 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a horror game where consistent frame pacing matters. The High preset at 1440p falls to 42.7 FPS, which is below the recommended threshold for a smooth experience. The Ultra preset at 1440p, at 32.1 FPS, should be avoided.

For 3840x2160, the data suggests that only the Low preset is viable, producing 72.8 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 45.6 FPS, and the High preset at 32.3 FPS is borderline unplayable. The Ultra preset at 27.3 FPS is not recommended under any circumstances. Users targeting 4K should accept the Low preset or consider lowering the resolution to 1440p for a better visual experience.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only at the Low preset, which achieves 72.8 FPS at 3840x2160. The Medium preset drops to 45.6 FPS, and the High preset falls to 32.3 FPS, both of which are below the ideal smoothness threshold.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 provides the highest frame rates across all presets. At 1080p, even the Ultra preset achieves 41.5 FPS, which is more playable than the High preset at 1440p (42.7 FPS) due to the lower resolution requiring less GPU memory bandwidth.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its closest rivals in this game?

A: The RTX 4060's average benchmark score of 23181 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23321, -0.6% delta) and Intel Arc B580 (23021, 0.7% delta). This indicates near-parity performance among these cards in general compute workloads.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700X holding back the RTX 4060?

A: No. The CPU ranks at the 83rd percentile and scores 26214 average, which is higher than the GPU's 66th percentile ranking. The CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient for this title, leaving the GPU as the primary performance limiter.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured data shows 42.7 FPS at 2560x1440 with the High preset. This is below the 60 FPS target and may result in noticeable frame pacing issues during the game's dual-world sequences.

Q: Does the Low preset provide a massive boost over Ultra?

A: Yes. At 1080p, the Low preset runs at 107.9 FPS, which is 66.4 FPS higher than the Ultra preset's 41.5 FPS. At 4K, the difference is even more pronounced, with Low at 72.8 FPS versus Ultra at 27.3 FPS, a 45.5 FPS gap.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The card's base clock is 1830 MHz, with a boost clock of 2460 MHz. These specifications directly correlate with the observed performance scaling in The Medium. The game's requirement for rendering two simultaneous worlds, a core mechanic where the protagonist exists in both the real world and the spirit world, places significant demands on memory bandwidth and fill rate.

The GPU's 3072 shading units and 48 ROPs are responsible for the pixel throughput, rated at 118.1 GPixel/s. The texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s, driven by 96 TMUs, handles the detailed environmental textures. The 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores are present but are not heavily utilized in this title, as The Medium does not feature prominent ray tracing effects. The FP32 performance of 15.11 TFLOPS provides the raw compute power, but the data shows that the memory subsystem is the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

At 4K Ultra, the GPU produces only 27.3 FPS, which indicates that the 272.0 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient for the game's high-resolution texture streaming. The drop from Medium (45.6 FPS) to High (32.3 FPS) at 4K is a 13.3 FPS penalty, suggesting that the High preset introduces additional memory pressure that the 8 GB frame buffer struggles to accommodate. The RTX 4060's 66th percentile ranking against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23181, places it as a mid-range performer that excels at 1080p but requires significant settings compromises at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X provides 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache is crucial for The Medium's engine, which handles complex scripting and AI routines alongside the dual-world rendering. The 7 nm process node and 65 W TDP make this an efficient processor, but the performance data shows that it is not the bottleneck in this pairing.

The CPU's benchmark results demonstrate strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22620 and a Geekbench multicore score of 9720. The single-thread performance is also respectable, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3193 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3385. These scores indicate that the CPU can handle the game's physics calculations and AI pathfinding without introducing frame rate drops.

The 83rd percentile ranking against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26214, places the 5700X in the upper tier of processors. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i9-11900KF, scores 26196, a delta of only 0.1%, showing that the 5700X is competitive with Intel's high-end offerings from the same era. The CPU's 16 threads are particularly beneficial for The Medium, as the game's dual-world mechanic requires simultaneous processing of two distinct scenes. The data confirms that the CPU maintains consistent frame delivery across all presets, as the frame rate differences between settings are entirely attributable to GPU load. The 65 W TDP and 4.60 GHz boost clock allow the CPU to sustain high clocks under gaming loads without thermal throttling, ensuring stable minimum frame rates.