The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding fixed-camera horror experience, and this pairing of an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER produces a wide range of performance depending on your resolution and quality targets. The benchmark data shows that this system ranks 1217 out of 1689 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. This is not a combo for maxing out the game at high resolutions, but it can deliver playable sessions if you make the right compromises. The RTX 2060 SUPER is the clear limiting factor here, and the measured frames per second confirm that you must tailor your settings to your display's native resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The data indicates that the Low preset is the only reliable path to smooth gameplay at higher resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 91.1 FPS, which is excellent for this horror title. The Medium preset drops to 55.4 FPS at the same resolution, still playable, but the jump from Low to Medium costs a significant 35.7 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Low preset maintains a solid 79.8 FPS, while Medium falls to 50.6 FPS. The High preset at 1440p yields only 32.1 FPS, which is borderline for a game that benefits from consistent frame pacing. For 4K, the Low preset is the only viable option, producing 57.8 FPS; every other preset at 3840x2160 falls below 40 FPS, with Ultra dropping to a slideshow-like 20.5 FPS.

The most practical recommendation for a balanced experience is to use the Low preset at 1080p or 1440p. If you prefer visual fidelity, the Medium preset at 1080p is the highest quality setting that still keeps the average above 55 FPS. The High preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it only reaches 44 FPS at 1080p and falls to 24.3 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset should be avoided entirely; even at 1080p it only manages 31.4 FPS, which is below the threshold for a comfortable horror experience where reaction time matters. The measured data strongly suggests that this game is GPU-bound, so sacrificing graphical details for frame rate is the correct strategy.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the bottleneck in this configuration. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is sufficient for the game's textures at 1080p and 1440p, but the 256-bit memory bus and 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth are not enough to sustain high frame rates at higher resolutions. The GPU's boost clock of 1650 MHz and base clock of 1470 MHz are modest by modern standards, and the Turing architecture's 2176 shading units struggle with the game's rendering load when settings are raised. The data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the average FPS drops dramatically, which is a classic sign of a GPU that is running out of pixel throughput.

The GPU's benchmark scores corroborate its mid-range standing. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 16462 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 87670, placing it in the 63rd percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (0.3% ahead) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (0.5% ahead), which means this card is essentially on par with those older or lower-tier options. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores are present, but The Medium's heavy use of fixed-camera angles and pre-rendered environments does not appear to benefit from ray tracing in the measured data. The frame rates at High and Ultra presets are so low that any RT or DLSS features would likely be unusable. The practical takeaway is that the GPU's raw rasterization power, not its specialized cores, determines the outcome.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is massively overqualified for this game, and its performance headroom means it is never the limiting factor. With 12 cores and 24 threads, a base clock of 4.40 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, this Zen 5 processor provides far more compute than a horror title with fixed camera angles requires. The CPU's benchmark scores are exceptional: Cinebench R23 multi-core reaches 46438 points, and single-core hits 6555 points. The Geekbench multi-core score of 19827 and single-core of 3341 confirm its top-tier status, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D (0.4% faster) and the Intel Core i7-14700F (0.7% slower), which indicates this is a flagship-level part.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU quickly and handle the game's logic, which it does with ease. The measured FPS differences between presets are entirely attributable to GPU load. For example, at 1080p, the Low preset hits 91.1 FPS, but the CPU is not capping that number; the RTX 2060 SUPER is simply able to render more frames when the pixel shader load is reduced. The 64 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (89.6 GB/s bandwidth) are more than adequate for this workload. The CPU's 120 W TDP and 4 nm process node are irrelevant to the gaming outcome here; the data shows no scenario where a weaker CPU would produce different results. This is a pairing where the processor is a long-term investment, but for this specific game, it is effectively idle.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 1217 out of 1689 tested combos, which places it in the 28th percentile of all systems in the database. This is a low ranking, but it is not because the CPU is weak; it is because the GPU is from an older generation. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 63rd percentile GPU ranking drags the overall combo down despite the CPU's 94th percentile standing. The data shows a massive imbalance: a top-tier processor paired with a mid-range graphics card. This ranking means that most other tested systems with better GPUs will outperform this setup in The Medium, even if they have much weaker CPUs.

For context, the combo rank is not a measure of CPU or GPU quality in isolation. It reflects the measured FPS across all settings and resolutions. Since the GPU is the bottleneck, any combo with a faster GPU than the RTX 2060 SUPER will likely rank higher. The deltaPct values for the GPU's nearest rivals—0.3% to 1.3% faster—show that the card is at the bottom of its performance class. The CPU's nearest rivals are all within 1.8% of its average score, but that does not matter for this game because the CPU is never stressed. The practical implication is that this combo is suitable for 1080p gaming, but it will not compete with modern mid-range or high-end systems at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe and clearly demonstrates the GPU limitation. At the Low preset, performance goes from 91.1 FPS at 1080p to 79.8 FPS at 1440p (an 11.3 FPS drop) and then to 57.8 FPS at 4K (a 22 FPS drop from 1440p). This scaling is not linear; the 4K resolution nearly halves the 1080p frame rate. At the Medium preset, the numbers are 55.4 FPS at 1080p, 50.6 FPS at 1440p, and 39.2 FPS at 4K. The High preset shows an even steeper decline: 44 FPS at 1080p, 32.1 FPS at 1440p, and 24.3 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the worst, with 31.4 FPS at 1080p dropping to 20.5 FPS at 4K.

This pattern indicates that the GPU's pixel fill rate is the limiting factor. The RTX 2060 SUPER has a pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s, which are simply insufficient for 4K rendering with high-quality settings. The CPU's performance is constant across resolutions, so the FPS degradation is purely a GPU burden. For a 4K display, only the Low preset is playable, and even then, 57.8 FPS is not ideal for a game that uses suspenseful timing. For 1440p, the Low preset is the best option for frame rate, while 1080p allows for Medium settings without dropping below 55 FPS. The data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p or 1440p with lowered settings, and 4K should only be attempted with the Low preset.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset to use at 1920x1080 with this hardware?

A: The Low preset delivers the highest average FPS at 91.1, but the Medium preset at 55.4 FPS is the sweet spot for visual quality while staying above 50 FPS. High and Ultra presets are not recommended as they drop to 44 and 31.4 FPS, respectively.

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

A: Yes, but only with the Low preset, which achieves 57.8 FPS on average. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 39.2 FPS, while High and Ultra are unplayable at 24.3 and 20.5 FPS.

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

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The Ryzen 9 9900X ranks in the 94th percentile among CPUs, while the RTX 2060 SUPER ranks in the 63rd percentile. The FPS scales differently with resolution, which is a GPU characteristic.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its closest rivals?

A: The GPU is nearly identical in performance to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (0.3% faster) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (0.5% faster). It is slightly ahead of the Quadro K5200 by 0.8% and the Tesla K40m by 1.3%.

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo can achieve in the game?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 91.1, which occurs at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. The next best is 79.8 FPS at 2560x1440 on Low.

Q: Does the CPU's high core count help in The Medium?

A: No, the game does not benefit from the Ryzen 9 9900X's 12 cores and 24 threads. The CPU's single-core performance is strong, but the data shows no CPU-related frame rate limits, as the GPU is always the constraining component.