The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and Radeon RX 5700 XT combination delivers playable frame rates in The Medium only when settings are managed carefully, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions and quality presets. The data shows a clear performance hierarchy where Low settings provide the only consistently smooth experience, while Ultra presets fall below acceptable thresholds across all tested resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 88.6 FPS at 1920x1080 to 58.5 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 34% reduction. This scaling pattern indicates that the RX 5700 XT's rendering throughput, not the CPU, is the limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The gap between resolutions narrows dramatically at higher quality presets. At Ultra settings, the system delivers 34.8 FPS at 1080p but only 21.6 FPS at 4K, a 38% drop. The High preset shows similar behavior: 37.9 FPS at 1080p versus 26.9 FPS at 4K. These results suggest that the game's demanding visual effects at Ultra and High settings saturate the GPU's capabilities even at 1080p, leaving little headroom for resolution scaling.

Medium settings provide the most interesting scaling pattern. The system achieves 58.9 FPS at 1080p, 50.1 FPS at 1440p, and 40.1 FPS at 4K. The incremental drops of 15% and 20% respectively indicate a balanced workload that scales predictably with pixel count. This suggests that Medium preset is where the RX 5700 XT operates most efficiently, avoiding the bottlenecks seen at both extremes of the quality spectrum.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 5900X brings substantial processing power to this pairing, with 12 cores and 24 threads running at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.80 GHz. The CPU's benchmark results demonstrate exceptional multi-threaded capability, scoring 33,150 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 11,877 in Geekbench multi-core. These figures place it at the 90th percentile among all CPUs, indicating it is far more capable than what The Medium's gameplay demands.

The 5900X's single-thread performance is equally strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,680 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2,202. The game's reliance on consistent frame pacing benefits from this strong single-thread showing. However, the measured FPS data shows that even at 1080p Low settings (88.6 FPS), the CPU is not the limiting factor, as the frame rates scale almost entirely with GPU workload changes across presets.

The CPU's 64 MB of L3 cache and Zen 3 architecture provide ample bandwidth for game logic and asset streaming. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 9,075 and max-thread score of 10,075 indicate strong scaling across cores, though The Medium appears to be a title that primarily stresses the GPU. The 5900X's performance headroom means it could support a more powerful GPU without becoming a bottleneck in this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Low settings as the only preset that delivers a consistently smooth experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, Low achieves 88.6 FPS, which drops to 76.9 FPS at 1440p and 58.5 FPS at 4K. This preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, with the 4K result still exceeding the 50 FPS threshold that many players consider acceptable for a horror title.

Medium settings offer a viable alternative for players prioritizing visual fidelity over frame rate. The 1080p result of 58.9 FPS is playable, and the 1440p result of 50.1 FPS remains above 50 FPS. However, the 4K Medium result of 40.1 FPS dips below the smoothness threshold, suggesting that 1440p Medium is the highest quality preset that maintains playable frame rates at that resolution.

High and Ultra presets are not recommended for this combination. The High preset delivers 37.9 FPS at 1080p and 26.9 FPS at 4K, while Ultra drops to 34.8 FPS at 1080p and 21.6 FPS at 4K. These frame rates fall below the minimum acceptable range for a game that relies on atmospheric tension and smooth camera movement. Players seeking higher quality should consider reducing resolution to 1080p with Medium settings rather than using High or Ultra at any resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Ryzen 9 5900X and RX 5700 XT ranks 1,229 out of 1,689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the lower 27% of all tested configurations, indicating that this pairing is not well-suited to the game's demanding visual requirements. The rank reflects the GPU's limitations at higher settings, as the CPU's strong benchmark scores do not translate into top-tier gaming performance when paired with this mid-range graphics card.

The RX 5700 XT's percentile ranking of 68 among all GPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 24,731, places it in the upper-mid tier of graphics hardware. However, The Medium's particularly demanding rendering pipeline exposes the GPU's weaknesses, especially at Ultra settings where even 1080p fails to reach 35 FPS. The combo's rank suggests that players using this setup will need to compromise on visual quality to achieve smooth gameplay.

The Ryzen 9 5900X's 90th percentile CPU ranking contrasts sharply with the combo's overall game rank, underscoring that the GPU is the limiting factor. In games less demanding than The Medium, this CPU would likely push the combo to a much higher relative position, but the measured data here clearly shows the GPU holding back the system's potential.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 5700 XT, built on the Navi 10 chip with RDNA 1.0 architecture, provides 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GPU's boost clock of 1905 MHz and game clock of 1755 MHz deliver 9.754 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power. These specifications place the GPU at the 68th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24,731.

The GPU's limitations become apparent in The Medium's Ultra preset, where the 4K result of 21.6 FPS and 1080p result of 34.8 FPS indicate that the 8 GB frame buffer and compute capabilities are insufficient for the game's highest quality settings. The 64 ROPs and 160 TMUs provide adequate pixel and texture throughput for mid-range settings, but the game's advanced lighting and shadow effects at Ultra overwhelm the GPU.

The memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s proves sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K results show the GPU struggling to maintain playable frame rates even at Low settings (58.5 FPS). The performance gap between Low and Ultra presets at 4K (58.5 vs 21.6 FPS) highlights how the GPU's shading units and memory subsystem are taxed by the game's higher-quality effects.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the system delivers 88.6 FPS on Low, 58.9 FPS on Medium, 37.9 FPS on High, and 34.8 FPS on Ultra. The 2.5x performance difference between Low and Ultra demonstrates the GPU's sensitivity to quality settings. The 1440p results show 76.9 FPS on Low, 50.1 FPS on Medium, 35.5 FPS on High, and 24.4 FPS on Ultra. At 4K, the system achieves 58.5 FPS on Low, 40.1 FPS on Medium, 26.9 FPS on High, and 21.6 FPS on Ultra.

The scaling from Low to Medium settings costs roughly 33% performance at all resolutions, while the jump from Medium to High costs an additional 24-36%. The transition from High to Ultra provides the smallest performance penalty, suggesting that Ultra adds marginal visual improvements over High for this GPU. The data shows that the RX 5700 XT's sweet spot is Low to Medium settings, where frame rates remain above playable thresholds at 1080p and 1440p.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this system in The Medium?

A: The data shows 1080p Low settings delivers 88.6 FPS, and 1440p Low delivers 76.9 FPS. The highest quality preset that maintains playable frame rates is 1440p Medium at 50.1 FPS.

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

A: Only at Low settings, where it achieves 58.5 FPS. Medium settings at 4K drop to 40.1 FPS, and High/Ultra fall to 26.9 and 21.6 FPS respectively, making them unplayable.

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

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The Ryzen 9 5900X scores at the 90th CPU percentile, while the RX 5700 XT sits at the 68th GPU percentile. The FPS drops with resolution scaling confirm GPU limitation.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems?

A: It ranks 1,229 out of 1,689 tested combos, placing it in the lower 27% of configurations for The Medium specifically.

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

A: At 1080p, Low delivers 88.6 FPS versus 34.8 FPS on Ultra, a 2.5x difference. At 4K, the gap narrows to 58.5 FPS versus 21.6 FPS, a 2.7x difference.

Q: Does the GPU's 8 GB VRAM cause issues in this game?

A: The memory configuration provides 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, which sustains playable frame rates at Low and Medium settings across all resolutions. The Ultra preset results suggest VRAM capacity or bandwidth limits at the highest quality settings.