The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D and AMD Radeon RX 7600 combination delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, with performance varying dramatically across its four quality presets. The measured frame rates show a system that is heavily constrained by graphics load, particularly at higher resolutions, though the CPU’s substantial cache architecture provides a solid foundation for the game's engine. This analysis breaks down the component roles, optimal settings, and scaling behavior based strictly on the benchmark data.

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

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer, and built on a 7 nm process. Its base clock is 3.00 GHz with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, and it carries a 105 W TDP. The defining feature is its 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is exceptionally large and beneficial for gaming workloads that reuse data sets. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22366 and a single-core score of 3157, placing it in the 82nd percentile among all CPUs.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the 5700X3D is essentially tied at the top of its performance tier. Its average benchmark score of 24673 is a mere 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i7-1360P (24627) and 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D (24605). It also sits 0.5% above the Intel Core i5-11600 (24559) and 0.6% above the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 (24811). These sub-1% deltas indicate that the CPU is not a differentiating factor in this configuration; any of these processors would deliver nearly identical frame rates in The Medium.

The game's engine appears sensitive to memory latency and cache, given that the 5700X3D’s 96 MB L3 cache is its primary advantage. In the measured results, the CPU never appears as a bottleneck, as frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings changes. For instance, at 1080p Low, the system produces 95 FPS, which is the highest measured average. If the CPU were the limiting factor, that number would plateau regardless of lower GPU load. The fact that it rises from 42.3 FPS at 1080p High to 95 FPS at 1080p Low confirms that the GPU is the primary constraint, leaving the 5700X3D with ample headroom. The single-thread score of 3157 in Cinebench R23 is adequate for the game’s logic and AI, while the multi-thread capability ensures no frame drops from background tasks or streaming assets.

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

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is a RDNA 3.0 architecture GPU with a Navi 33 chip, built on a 6 nm process. It operates at a base clock of 1720 MHz, a game clock of 2250 MHz, and a boost clock of 2655 MHz. The card features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its compute capabilities include 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, with 32 ray accelerators. The FP32 performance is rated at 21.75 TFLOPS, and the GPU sits in the 63rd percentile among all GPUs.

This GPU is the decisive factor in The Medium’s performance, as evidenced by the wide spread of frame rates across settings. At 4K Ultra, the RX 7600 produces only 19.5 FPS, while at 4K Low it jumps to 63.7 FPS—a 3.3x improvement from a single settings change. The 8 GB VRAM is likely a limiting factor at higher resolutions and presets, as the game’s texture requirements exceed capacity, causing severe drops. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 20258 is 0.6% higher than the RX 7600 XT (20146) and 0.8% higher than the RX 460 (20088), but it trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) by 1.3% and the Intel Arc B570 (20556) by 1.5%.

In practical terms, the RX 7600’s 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is insufficient for 4K Ultra textures, but it handles 1080p Low with ease, hitting 95 FPS. The pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s are moderate, explaining why the card struggles to maintain 60 FPS at 1440p Medium (46.4 FPS). The GPU’s 128-bit bus and 8 GB capacity are the clear ceiling, as the performance cliff between Medium and High presets at every resolution is steep. For example, at 1440p, dropping from High (32.4 FPS) to Medium (46.4 FPS) yields a 43% increase, indicating the GPU is overwhelmed by higher-quality shaders and shadows.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Given the measured data, the optimal preset for this configuration is Medium at 1080p, which delivers 57.6 FPS. This is the only preset that provides a playable frame rate above 55 FPS without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. At 1080p, the High preset drops to 42.3 FPS, which is noticeably less smooth, while Low hits 95 FPS but likely reduces the game’s atmospheric lighting and shadow quality significantly. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 33.9 FPS, which is below the threshold for a horror game that requires responsive camera movement.

For users with 1440p displays, the recommendation is Low at 78.2 FPS, as the Medium preset at 46.4 FPS is borderline and High at 32.4 FPS is unplayable. The data shows that the RX 7600 cannot maintain a consistent 60 FPS at 1440p Medium, so prioritizing frame rate over quality is necessary. At 4K, the only viable option is Low at 63.7 FPS, though the visual compromise is severe; Medium at 38.8 FPS and High at 25 FPS are not recommended for any interactive session. The Ultra preset is effectively a slideshow at all resolutions, with 19.5 FPS at 4K being the worst measured result.

The pattern across resolutions is clear: the gap between Low and Medium is smaller than the gap between Medium and High. At 1080p, Low is 95 FPS, Medium is 57.6 FPS (a 39% drop), and High is 42.3 FPS (a 27% drop from Medium). This suggests that the Medium preset balances GPU load and visual quality best, but only at 1080p. At higher resolutions, the Low preset is the only way to approach 60 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s VRAM and bandwidth are the primary bottlenecks rather than raw compute.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run The Medium at 60 FPS on High settings?*

A: No. The highest measured average FPS on High settings is 42.3 at 1080p. At 1440p and 4K, High settings yield 32.4 FPS and 25 FPS respectively, which are well below 60 FPS.

*Q: What is the best resolution for this configuration in The Medium?*

A: The data indicates 1080p is the only resolution where Medium settings achieve a playable 57.6 FPS. At 1440p and 4K, only Low settings exceed 60 FPS, with 78.2 FPS and 63.7 FPS respectively.

Q: How much faster is Low compared to Ultra at the same resolution?

A: At 1080p, Low (95 FPS) is 2.8x faster than Ultra (33.9 FPS). The ratio grows with resolution: at 1440p, Low (78.2 FPS) is 2.97x faster than Ultra (26.3 FPS), and at 4K, Low (63.7 FPS) is 3.27x faster than Ultra (19.5 FPS).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The CPU’s average benchmark score is within 0.6% of its nearest rivals, but the GPU’s frame rates vary by over 3x across settings, proving that graphics load determines performance. The CPU’s 96 MB L3 cache and 16 threads are more than sufficient for the game.

*Q: Does the RX 7600’s 8 GB VRAM cause issues in The Medium?*

A: Yes, likely. The sharp performance drop from Medium to High at every resolution—for instance, from 57.6 FPS to 42.3 FPS at 1080p—suggests that higher presets exceed the 8 GB capacity, forcing slower memory paging. The 288.0 GB/s bandwidth cannot compensate at 4K Ultra, where FPS falls to 19.5.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems in this game?

A: This combination ranks 1188 out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 30% of systems. This is consistent with the GPU’s 63rd percentile and the CPU’s 82nd percentile, indicating that the GPU drags down the overall standing.

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

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound system with significant bandwidth constraints. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 42.3 at 1080p to 32.4 at 1440p (a 23.4% reduction) and then to 25 at 4K (a 22.8% reduction from 1440p). This scaling is not linear, as the pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the FPS only drops by 40.9% (from 42.3 to 25). This non-linear relationship indicates that the GPU is not purely pixel-limited; instead, memory bandwidth and VRAM capacity become more critical at higher resolutions.

At Low settings, the scaling is more pronounced: 95 FPS at 1080p drops to 78.2 FPS at 1440p (a 17.7% drop) and then to 63.7 FPS at 4K (an 18.5% drop from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 33%, which is closer to the pixel-count scaling, suggesting that at Low settings, the GPU has enough bandwidth to feed the shader cores more efficiently. The difference in scaling between Low and High is telling: at High, the 4K-to-1080p ratio is 0.59 (25/42.3), while at Low, it is 0.67 (63.7/95). This means High settings suffer more at 4K, confirming that the VRAM is overwhelmed by high-resolution textures.

The Medium preset shows the steepest relative drop: from 57.6 FPS at 1080p to 46.4 at 1440p (a 19.4% drop) and then to 38.8 at 4K (a 16.4% drop from 1440p). This pattern suggests that Medium is the transitional point where the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM is just enough at 1080p but becomes strained at higher resolutions. The Ultra preset is the worst case, with 33.9 FPS at 1080p falling to 26.3 at 1440p and 19.5 at 4K, representing a 42.5% total drop. The fact that Ultra manages only 19.5 FPS at 4K—barely above a slideshow—indicates that the RX 7600’s 128-bit memory bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are fundamentally insufficient for the game’s most demanding settings.

Ultimately, the resolution scaling data proves that the RX 7600 is the limiting component. The CPU, with its high percentile rank and near-identical performance to rivals, is not the issue. The GPU’s performance degrades predictably with resolution, but the degradation is steeper at higher presets, highlighting that VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth, not raw compute, are the primary bottlenecks in The Medium. For this system, the data recommends 1080p Medium as the sweet spot, with 4K Low as the only acceptable 4K experience.