The Medium

Resolution Scaling

The Medium presents an unusually steep resolution scaling curve for the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and Radeon RX 6700 XT combination. At 1080p with Low settings, the system delivers 107.4 FPS, but moving to 1440p drops that to 94 FPS, and 4K further reduces it to 74.9 FPS. That represents a 30.3% performance loss from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which suggests the GPU is the limiting factor even at the lowest quality preset.

The picture changes dramatically when settings are raised. At High settings, the frame rate falls from 50.3 FPS at 1080p to 41.4 FPS at 1440p, then to 29.7 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is barely playable, while the 1080p High result is smooth. This 40.9% drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings indicates that the combination of resolution and quality settings quickly overwhelms the GPU's capabilities.

Ultra settings show the most extreme scaling. The system manages 38 FPS at 1080p, drops to 34.6 FPS at 1440p, and falls to 23.4 FPS at 4K. The 1440p Ultra result is borderline playable, but the 4K Ultra result is not. Interestingly, the scaling from 1440p to 4K at Ultra is a 32.4% reduction, which is less severe than the 41.4% drop seen between 1080p and 1440p at High settings. This suggests that at Ultra settings, the game is already so demanding that the GPU is saturated even at lower resolutions.

The data shows that the 5950X is not the bottleneck in any of these scenarios. The 16-core processor with a 4.90 GHz boost clock provides ample headroom, and the consistent frame rate drops with increasing resolution point directly at the RX 6700 XT as the limiting component. The GPU's 12 GB of VRAM and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra result of 23.4 FPS indicates the card simply cannot handle the pixel throughput required at that resolution with maximum quality settings.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X powerful enough for The Medium?

A: Yes. The 16-core, 32-thread processor with a 3.40 GHz base clock and 4.90 GHz boost clock provides far more computational headroom than the game requires. Benchmark results show the CPU scores 38,607 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 5,450 in single-core, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. The frame rate drops are consistently tied to resolution and settings changes, not CPU limitations.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming?

A: At 4K, Low settings deliver 74.9 FPS, which is smooth and playable. Medium settings drop to 47 FPS, which is acceptable for a horror game with slower pacing. High settings at 29.7 FPS and Ultra at 23.4 FPS are not recommended for a playable experience, as both fall below the 30 FPS threshold that most players consider minimum for comfortable gameplay.

Q: How does the RX 6700 XT compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 33,721 puts it in the 77th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest competitor is the AMD Radeon RX 6800, which scores 33,493, meaning the 6700 XT is 0.7% ahead. The RX 480 scores 34,059, putting the 6700 XT 1% behind, and the RTX A5000 scores 33,294, which the 6700 XT leads by 1.3%.

Q: Can this system handle 1080p gaming at maximum settings?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the system delivers 38 FPS. This is playable but not ideal for a smooth experience. Dropping to High settings at 1080p yields 50.3 FPS, which is a more comfortable margin. For the best balance of visual quality and performance, 1080p High or Medium (67.8 FPS) are the recommended presets.

Q: Is the 16-core processor overkill for this game?

A: The 5950X with its 16 cores and 32 threads is far more powerful than The Medium requires, but it ensures the GPU is always the limiting factor. The CPU's 3DMark scores show strong scaling from 1,856 in the 2-thread test to 11,597 in the max-thread test, indicating it can handle any multitasking or background workload while gaming without affecting frame rates.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, the difference is 69.4 FPS (107.4 vs 38). At 1440p, the difference is 59.4 FPS (94 vs 34.6). At 4K, the difference is 51.5 FPS (74.9 vs 23.4). The narrowing gap at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU becomes increasingly saturated as pixel count rises, reducing the relative impact of quality settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is a Zen 3 architecture processor built on TSMC's 7 nm process node, featuring 16 cores and 32 threads. Its 3.40 GHz base clock and 4.90 GHz boost clock provide substantial single-thread performance, while the 64 MB of L3 cache helps with memory-intensive workloads. The processor supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for The Medium's requirements.

Benchmark results place the 5950X in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49,062. Its nearest rival is the Intel Core i5-14600K, which scores 49,166, putting the AMD chip 0.2% behind. The i5-14600KF scores 49,367, a 0.6% advantage for Intel, while the Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48,698, giving the 5950X a 0.7% lead. The EPYC 4345P scores 49,595, which is 1.1% ahead of the 5950X.

The Cinebench R23 results demonstrate the processor's capability: 38,607 in multicore and 5,450 in single-core. The single-core result is particularly important for gaming, as most games, including The Medium, rely heavily on a few threads for game logic and physics. The 3DMark single-thread score of 944 and 2-thread score of 1,856 indicate that even lightly threaded workloads are handled with ease.

For The Medium specifically, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with data and handle the game's simulation. The measured FPS data shows no signs of CPU bottlenecking — the frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings changes, which is the expected behavior when the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU's 105 W TDP and active production status suggest it remains a relevant choice for gaming systems, even though The Medium's horror genre typically prioritizes atmosphere over raw computational demands.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the RX 6700 XT delivers 107.4 FPS on Low settings, 67.8 FPS on Medium, 50.3 FPS on High, and 38 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Medium is a 36.9% reduction in frame rate, while Medium to High costs another 25.8%, and High to Ultra costs 24.5%. This consistent degradation suggests each quality tier adds a similar computational burden, with the Low to Medium jump being the most significant.

Moving to 1440p, the results are 94 FPS on Low, 57.6 FPS on Medium, 41.4 FPS on High, and 34.6 FPS on Ultra. The Low to Medium drop is 38.7%, which is slightly larger than at 1080p. The Medium to High drop is 28.1%, and High to Ultra is 16.4%. The diminishing penalty from High to Ultra at 1440p suggests that Ultra settings introduce effects that are more resolution-dependent than quality-dependent.

At 4K, the system produces 74.9 FPS on Low, 47 FPS on Medium, 29.7 FPS on High, and 23.4 FPS on Ultra. The Low to Medium penalty is 37.3%, similar to the other resolutions. Medium to High costs 36.8%, which is notably steeper than at 1440p. High to Ultra costs 21.2%, again showing a reduced penalty at the highest quality tier.

The overall range across all settings and resolutions spans from 23.4 FPS (4K Ultra) to 107.4 FPS (1080p Low). This represents a 4.6x difference between the most demanding and least demanding configurations. The data shows that the system is capable of playable frame rates at most settings combinations, with the notable exceptions being 4K High (29.7 FPS) and 4K Ultra (23.4 FPS), which fall below the 30 FPS threshold.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 22 chip, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process. It features 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 40 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2,321 MHz, a game clock of 2,424 MHz, and a boost clock of 2,581 MHz, with memory running at 2,000 MHz (16 Gbps effective).

The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K Ultra result of 23.4 FPS suggests that capacity and bandwidth constraints begin to impact performance at higher resolutions. The GPU's pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s are respectable for its class, but The Medium's fixed camera angles and dense environments place heavy demands on fill rate.

The GPU's benchmark scores show it in the 77th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 33,721. Its nearest rival is the RX 6800 at 33,493, which the 6700 XT leads by 0.7%. However, the RX 480 scores 34,059, putting the 6700 XT 1% behind, and the RX 480 is a much older card. The RTX A5000 scores 33,294, giving the 6700 XT a 1.3% advantage. This competitive positioning means the 6700 XT offers performance in line with its peers, though it does not dominate any of them.

In The Medium, the GPU is clearly the limiting component across all tested configurations. The frame rate differences between resolutions at the same settings are consistent with a GPU-bound scenario: 1080p Low produces 107.4 FPS, while 4K Low produces 74.9 FPS, a 30.3% reduction that scales roughly with pixel count. The GPU's 230 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate it is a mid-range to upper-mid-range card, and the measured results confirm this positioning — capable of excellent 1080p performance and acceptable 1440p performance, but struggling at 4K with high quality settings.