The Medium

The Medium presents a uniquely stressful workload for PC hardware, and the pairing of the Intel Core i3-12100F with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 offers a clear case study in how fixed-function rendering and CPU simulation interact. The data shows a combo that is positioned near the bottom of the database’s tested configurations, ranking 1385th out of 1689 combos, yet its behavior across resolutions and presets reveals a system that is heavily constrained by its graphics processor at higher quality settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best overall average frame rate this combo achieves in The Medium?

A: The highest measured average is 82.2 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the dataset that approaches high-refresh-rate territory.

Q: How does the RX 6600 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 6600’s average benchmark score of 25235 places it statistically level with the AMD Radeon 890M, which scores 25246 (a 0% delta). It is also nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 6700M, which scores 25180, putting the RX 6600 just 0.2% ahead.

Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F a bottleneck for this game?

A: The data suggests it is not the primary limiter at higher settings. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 22.9, which is nearly identical to the 4K High result of 22.7 FPS. This indicates the GPU is saturated, as raising the preset from High to Ultra yields almost no performance penalty.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 82.2 FPS, while Ultra produces 32.8 FPS. This represents a drop of 49.4 FPS, or roughly 60% lower performance when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Q: How does the CPU’s multi-threaded performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i3-12100F’s average benchmark score of 13516 is 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534) and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462). It is also 1.8% faster than the Intel Core i7-7700K, which scores 13280.

Q: Does the GPU’s memory bandwidth appear to be a limiting factor at any resolution?

A: The RX 6600 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The data shows that at 2560x1440 Ultra, the average FPS is 22.8, which is nearly identical to the 4K Ultra score of 22.9 FPS. This plateau suggests that beyond a certain load, the GPU’s compute or bandwidth limits are reached, preventing any further scaling with resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 23 chip. Its clock behavior is notable: a base clock of 1626 MHz, a game clock of 2044 MHz, and a boost clock of 2491 MHz. This wide frequency range allows the card to ramp up under load, but the benchmark results indicate that The Medium’s rendering demands are significant. The card’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p, but the measured FPS at 4K High (22.7 FPS) versus 4K Low (55.3 FPS) shows a massive sensitivity to quality settings.

The data reveals a clear pattern: the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at high and ultra presets across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, moving from Medium (51.2 FPS) to High (37.8 FPS) costs 13.4 FPS, while moving from High to Ultra (32.8 FPS) costs another 5 FPS. This non-linear scaling suggests that the RX 6600’s 1792 shading units and 64 ROPs are being pushed to their limits, with the pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s becoming a constraint at higher resolutions. The 4K results are particularly telling: High and Ultra produce nearly identical scores (22.7 and 22.9 FPS), implying the GPU has hit a hard computational ceiling regardless of the extra visual fidelity Ultra attempts to add.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its synthetic benchmarks show strong single-thread performance, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 893 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681. In contrast, its multi-threaded scores (Cinebench R23 multicore of 11912) are modest due to the limited core count. The CPU’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4/DDR5 memory indicate it is a modern, capable budget chip, but it is not a high-core-count powerhouse.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role appears secondary to the GPU. The evidence lies in the scaling behavior: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 82.2 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at lower settings. However, at 1080p Medium (51.2 FPS) and High (37.8 FPS), the frame rate drops are directly proportional to the increased GPU load, not CPU limits. The CPU’s 3DMark 8-thread score of 4026 and 16-thread score of 4051 are nearly identical, indicating that the 4-core/8-thread design is fully utilized but not a bottleneck. The data implies that the i3-12100F provides sufficient headroom for the RX 6600, as the GPU becomes the limiting factor before the CPU is overwhelmed.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers a balance of visual quality and performance, delivering 51.2 FPS. This is the best choice for most players, as it is above the 30 FPS threshold while still providing enhanced detail over Low. High settings at 1080p produce 37.8 FPS, which is playable but leaves little room for frame drops in demanding scenes. Ultra at 1080p (32.8 FPS) is only marginally faster than the 4K High result, making it a poor trade-off for the resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset (45.3 FPS) is the only viable option for a smooth experience. Low settings (71.6 FPS) are ideal for competitive play, but they sacrifice the game’s atmospheric visuals. High (29.4 FPS) and Ultra (22.8 FPS) fall below the 30 FPS standard and are not recommended. For 4K, the data shows that only Low settings (55.3 FPS) provide a playable frame rate. Medium (33.1 FPS) is borderline, while High (22.7 FPS) and Ultra (22.9 FPS) are effectively unplayable. The recommendation is clear: prioritize Medium at 1080p, Medium at 1440p, and Low at 4K for the best balance of fidelity and performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 6600 ranks 1385th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the bottom 20% of all configurations, which is surprising given the GPU’s 69th percentile ranking among all GPUs and the CPU’s 72nd percentile ranking among all CPUs. The discrepancy suggests that The Medium is particularly demanding on the graphics subsystem, and the RX 6600’s 8 GB of VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the game’s high-resolution textures and effects.

The combo’s low rank is not due to a weak CPU, as the i3-12100F’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-7700K, which it outperforms by 1.8% in average benchmark score. Instead, the data indicates that the RX 6600 is the limiting factor. At 4K, the GPU’s performance is nearly flat across High and Ultra presets (22.7 and 22.9 FPS), confirming that it cannot handle the game’s highest quality settings at higher resolutions. This rank is a reflection of the GPU’s limitations, not a sign of an imbalanced pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides 12 distinct measurements across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 82.2 (Low) to 32.8 (Ultra), with Medium at 51.2 and High at 37.8. At 2560x1440, the results are 71.6 (Low), 45.3 (Medium), 29.4 (High), and 22.8 (Ultra). At 3840x2160, the scores drop to 55.3 (Low), 33.1 (Medium), 22.7 (High), and 22.9 (Ultra).

The most striking observation is the minimal difference between High and Ultra at 4K (0.2 FPS) and the fact that Ultra at 1440p (22.8 FPS) is almost identical to High at 4K (22.7 FPS). This suggests that the game’s Ultra preset introduces additional GPU load that the RX 6600 cannot process, regardless of resolution, once the base quality exceeds a certain threshold. The 1080p Low result of 82.2 FPS is the only measurement that suggests a fully fluid experience, while all other configurations fall below 60 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic but non-uniform. At Low settings, the 1080p score of 82.2 FPS falls to 55.3 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 26.9 FPS (32.7%). At Medium, the 1080p score of 51.2 FPS drops to 33.1 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 18.1 FPS (35.4%). At High, the 1080p score of 37.8 FPS drops to 22.7 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 15.1 FPS (39.9%). At Ultra, the 1080p score of 32.8 FPS drops to 22.9 FPS at 4K, a reduction of only 9.9 FPS (30.2%).

The scaling pattern reveals that the GPU is the limiting component. As resolution increases, the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth of the RX 6600 become the primary constraints. The fact that Ultra settings show the smallest absolute FPS drop (9.9 FPS) between 1080p and 4K indicates that the GPU is already saturated at 1080p Ultra, and additional pixels have less impact because the rendering pipeline is already maxed out. Conversely, Low settings show the largest absolute drop (26.9 FPS), suggesting that at lower quality, the GPU has more headroom to scale with resolution before hitting its limits. This data confirms that for this combo, the GPU is the bottleneck at all resolutions above 1080p Low, and the CPU plays a minimal role in limiting performance.