The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a playable experience in The Medium, but the data shows that settings management is critical due to a steep performance cliff at higher presets. This combination ranks 958th out of 1689 tested combos, placing it firmly in the mid-range tier for this specific title. The measured results indicate that the game is highly sensitive to both resolution and quality settings, with frame rates ranging from a fluid 111 FPS at 1080p Low to a slideshow-like 26.3 FPS at 4K Ultra. The following analysis breaks down exactly where this combo excels and where it falls short, providing actionable guidance for tuning the experience.

Settings Recommendations

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this hardware configuration across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 68.6 FPS, which is a 46.6% improvement over High's 46.8 FPS while still looking substantially better than Low's 111 FPS. At 1440p, Medium hits 61.1 FPS, clearing the 60 FPS threshold that many consider the baseline for smooth gameplay. This is particularly notable because High at 1440p drops to 38.7 FPS, which is a significant step down in playability.

For 4K, the Medium preset provides 44.8 FPS, which is borderline but workable for a slower-paced horror title. Pushing to High at 4K results in 29.3 FPS, which is a noticeable degradation in smoothness. The Ultra preset is essentially unusable at 4K, delivering only 26.3 FPS. Even at 1080p, Ultra only manages 41.7 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. The performance gap between Medium and Ultra is substantial: at 1080p, the difference is 26.9 FPS (68.6 vs 41.7), while at 1440p, it's a 28 FPS drop (61.1 vs 33.1). This indicates that the Ultra preset's additional graphical features carry a disproportionately high cost on this GPU.

The Low preset offers the highest frame rates at every resolution, but the visual compromise is likely too severe for a game that relies on atmosphere and environmental storytelling. The Medium preset appears to be the optimal balance, providing a 46.8% performance uplift over High at 1080p and a 58% uplift at 1440p, while retaining enough visual fidelity for the horror genre's moody lighting.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is the primary performance determinant in this pairing, as evidenced by the wide variance in frame rates across settings. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 384.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for the game's asset streaming, as the frame rate drops are more closely tied to compute load than memory capacity. The RDNA 2.0 architecture with 2560 shading units and 40 ray tracing cores operates at a game clock of 2424 MHz and a boost clock of 2581 MHz.

The data shows that the GPU's rendering load scales dramatically with settings. At 4K, the difference between Low (70.7 FPS) and Ultra (26.3 FPS) is 44.4 FPS, a 62.8% reduction in performance. This suggests that the Ultra preset's effects, likely including volumetric lighting and shadow quality, are extremely taxing on the 13.21 TFLOPS FP32 compute capacity. The 64 ROPs and 160 TMUs handle pixel throughput well at lower settings, but the shader workload at Ultra overwhelms the GPU.

The RX 6700 XT's position in the market is reinforced by its benchmark scores: it achieves a percentile rank of 77 versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 33721. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6800, scores 33493, which is 0.7% lower, indicating that this GPU is positioned competitively in its class. However, the measured game performance shows that The Medium is particularly demanding, as even the 1080p Ultra result of 41.7 FPS is well below what many other titles would achieve on this hardware.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT + RX 6700 XT combo capable of 60 FPS in The Medium?

A: Yes, but only at specific settings. The Medium preset achieves 68.6 FPS at 1080p and 61.1 FPS at 1440p. The Low preset hits 111 FPS at 1080p and 89.4 FPS at 1440p. High and Ultra presets fall below 60 FPS at all resolutions.

Q: What is the best resolution to play at with this hardware?

A: 1440p with Medium settings provides the best balance, delivering 61.1 FPS. At 1080p Medium reaches 68.6 FPS, while 4K Medium only manages 44.8 FPS. For a smoother 4K experience, Low settings achieve 70.7 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from Medium to High settings?

A: The performance drop is substantial. At 1080p, High delivers 46.8 FPS versus Medium's 68.6 FPS, a 21.8 FPS reduction. At 1440p, High drops to 38.7 FPS from Medium's 61.1 FPS, a 22.4 FPS loss. At 4K, High falls to 29.3 FPS from 44.8 FPS.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth using on this system?

A: No. Ultra results in only 41.7 FPS at 1080p, 33.1 FPS at 1440p, and 26.3 FPS at 4K. These frame rates are below the threshold for smooth gameplay, making the visual upgrade not worth the performance sacrifice.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: It ranks 958th out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This indicates that while it can run the game, many other systems deliver higher frame rates.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. The Ryzen 7 5800XT has 8 cores and 16 threads with a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. The frame rate variations across settings point to GPU-bound performance, as the CPU's multi-threaded capabilities (Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23794) are sufficient for this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (Full HD):

• Low: 111 FPS — this is the only configuration exceeding 100 FPS, offering maximum smoothness for competitive or fast-paced sections
• Medium: 68.6 FPS — the recommended setting, providing a 38.2% reduction in frame rate versus Low but with significantly improved visuals
• High: 46.8 FPS — a 31.7% drop from Medium, showing that High's enhancements are costly
• Ultra: 41.7 FPS — only 5.1 FPS below High, suggesting diminishing returns at the top end

2560x1440 (Quad HD):

• Low: 89.4 FPS — still highly playable, with a 19.4% reduction versus 1080p Low
• Medium: 61.1 FPS — just above the 60 FPS target, acceptable for a horror game's deliberate pacing
• High: 38.7 FPS — a 36.7% drop from Medium, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay
• Ultra: 33.1 FPS — close to High's performance, further confirming the GPU's struggle at this tier

3840x2160 (4K UHD):

• Low: 70.7 FPS — surprisingly strong, showing the GPU can handle 4K when effects are minimized
• Medium: 44.8 FPS — playable but noticeably less smooth than 60 FPS
• High: 29.3 FPS — a 34.6% drop from Medium, making it borderline unplayable
• Ultra: 26.3 FPS — the worst result in the dataset, only 3 FPS below High

The pattern across all resolutions shows that the Medium preset offers the best performance-per-visual-quality trade-off. The difference between Medium and High is consistently around 21-22 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is much smaller (5.1 FPS at 1080p, 5.6 FPS at 1440p, 3 FPS at 4K), indicating that Ultra's extra features provide minimal visual benefit at a disproportionate cost.

How This Combo Ranks

This configuration holds the 958th position out of 1689 tested combinations in The Medium, placing it in the 43rd percentile of all tested systems. This rank suggests that while the hardware is competent, it is not optimized for this specific game's demands. The combo's performance is better suited to less graphically intensive titles, as The Medium's fixed camera angles and detailed environments create a consistent load that this GPU struggles to handle at higher settings.

The CPU's performance relative to its peers reinforces that the GPU is the limiting factor. The Ryzen 7 5800XT achieves an 86th percentile rank versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29774. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE, scores 29740, a negligible 0.1% difference. This high CPU standing contrasts sharply with the combo's mid-pack game rank, confirming that the RX 6700 XT's 77th percentile GPU rank (with an average score of 33721) is the primary constraint in this pairing.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT provides ample processing headroom for The Medium, as evidenced by the game's scaling with GPU settings rather than CPU load. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture (Vermeer), this CPU delivers strong multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23794 and single-core score of 3359 indicate that it can handle both the game's main thread and background tasks without becoming a bottleneck.

The CPU's 3.80 GHz base clock and 4.80 GHz boost clock ensure responsive frame pacing, while the 32 MB L3 cache helps with asset loading. The benchmark results show a 3dmark_max_threads score of 7680, which is nearly identical to the 16-thread score of 7683, indicating that the CPU scales well with the game's thread utilization. However, the data suggests that The Medium does not heavily stress the CPU, as the frame rate differences across resolutions and settings are consistent with GPU-bound behavior.

The CPU's high percentile rank (86) versus its 43rd percentile game combo rank demonstrates that upgrading the GPU would yield significantly better results. The Ryzen 7 5800XT is more than capable of supporting a faster graphics card, as its processing power (Passmark multithread score of 27988) far exceeds what The Medium appears to require. For users considering upgrades, the data clearly points to the GPU as the component holding back performance in this title.