The Medium

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, with performance heavily dictated by the graphics preset and resolution. The data shows a system that is firmly GPU-limited at higher settings, while the processor’s strong single-thread and multi-thread scores provide ample headroom for the game’s fixed-camera horror presentation. The measured frame rates across the three resolutions reveal a title that scales aggressively with visual fidelity, making preset selection more critical than resolution choice for achieving smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K clearly identifies the Radeon RX 7600 XT as the primary bottleneck in this configuration. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the combo produces an average of 31.6 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops this to 27.2 FPS, and at 4K it falls further to 22.2 FPS. This represents a 30% reduction in average frame rate from 1080p to 4K at the Ultra preset, indicating that the GPU’s rendering workload scales almost linearly with pixel count.

The picture changes dramatically at the Low preset. Here, the system achieves 98 FPS at 1080p, 82.7 FPS at 1440p, and 63.4 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is still more than double the 1080p Ultra result, underscoring that the game’s visual effects, rather than resolution, are the dominant factor limiting performance. The delta between 1080p and 4K at Low settings is a 35% drop, which is proportionally similar to the Ultra preset’s drop, confirming that the RX 7600 XT is consistently the limiting component regardless of settings.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern, with a 57.7 FPS average at 1080p, 52.3 FPS at 1440p, and 42.2 FPS at 4K. The step from Medium to High is punishing at every resolution: at 1080p, High yields 41.9 FPS versus 57.7 FPS on Medium, a 27% reduction. At 1440p, the drop is from 52.3 to 34.3 FPS, a 34% reduction. At 4K, High produces 30.1 FPS compared to Medium’s 42.2 FPS, a 29% reduction. These figures suggest that the High preset introduces significant rendering costs, likely related to volumetric effects and shadow quality, which the 16 GB frame buffer cannot mitigate.

The scaling behavior indicates that the CPU, with its 3.70 GHz base and 4.90 GHz boost clocks, is never the limiting factor in these tests. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU is least stressed, the 98 FPS result does not approach the processor’s ceiling. The data shows that resolution scaling is purely a function of GPU fill rate and memory bandwidth, with the RX 7600 XT’s 288.0 GB/s bandwidth proving insufficient for the game’s heavy texture streaming at 4K Ultra.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal experience for this combo depends on the display resolution, but the measured data consistently points to the Medium preset as the best compromise between visual quality and playable frame rates. At 1080p, Medium delivers 57.7 FPS, which is comfortably above the 30 FPS threshold commonly associated with this slow-paced horror title. The step to High costs 15.8 FPS, dropping to 41.9 FPS, which is still technically playable but introduces noticeable stutter in scenes with heavy alpha effects.

At 1440p, Medium’s 52.3 FPS average is the only preset that maintains smooth motion without dipping into the low 30s. High at 1440p produces 34.3 FPS, which is borderline for a game that relies on atmospheric tension rather than fast reflexes. Ultra at 1440p is not recommended, as the 27.2 FPS average falls below the minimum standard for consistent gameplay. The Low preset at 1440p, while achieving 82.7 FPS, sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a horror game where the environment is a core narrative element.

For 4K users, the recommendation is more constrained. The Medium preset’s 42.2 FPS is the highest average that remains above 30 FPS, making it the only viable option for a smooth experience. Low at 4K achieves 63.4 FPS, but the visual downgrade is severe, rendering shadows and textures at minimum quality, which undermines the game’s atmosphere. High and Ultra at 4K produce 30.1 FPS and 22.2 FPS respectively, with the latter being effectively unplayable.

The data indicates that the Ultra preset is never a sensible choice for this combo. At 1080p Ultra, the 31.6 FPS average is barely above the 30 FPS line, and the visual uplift over High is minimal based on the frame rate cost. The gap between Medium and Ultra is 26.1 FPS at 1080p, 25.1 FPS at 1440p, and 20.0 FPS at 4K. These deltas suggest that Ultra’s additional effects, likely including ray-traced shadows or higher draw distances, are not worth the performance penalty on this GPU.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1080p gaming with this combo?

A: The Medium preset provides the best balance, with an average of 57.7 FPS. High is playable at 41.9 FPS, but Medium offers a 27% higher frame rate with a modest visual reduction.

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

A: Yes, but only at Low or Medium settings. Low averages 63.4 FPS, while Medium averages 42.2 FPS. High and Ultra are not recommended, as they fall to 30.1 FPS and 22.2 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the RX 7600 XT’s 16 GB VRAM affect performance?

A: The 16 GB frame buffer does not prevent frame rate drops at higher presets. The bottleneck is the GPU’s compute throughput and memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s, not capacity, as even at 1080p Ultra the average is only 31.6 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-12600KF holding back the GPU in this game?

A: No. The CPU’s benchmark scores, including a 23444 multi-core score in Cinebench R23 and a 3925 single-thread score in Passmark, indicate it provides sufficient headroom. The frame rate scaling with resolution confirms the GPU is the limiting component.

Q: What is the difference between 1440p High and 4K Medium?

A: They are nearly identical in performance. 1440p High averages 34.3 FPS, while 4K Medium averages 42.2 FPS. The 4K Medium result is actually 23% higher, suggesting the game’s settings have a larger impact than resolution.

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

A: It ranks 1073 out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the lower-middle tier. This ranking is consistent with the RX 7600 XT’s 63rd percentile score among all GPUs.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1073 out of 1689 tested combinations places it in the 37th percentile of all tested systems for The Medium. This position is primarily driven by the GPU’s standing, as the RX 7600 XT sits in the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, while the i5-12600KF is in the 84th percentile among all CPUs. The discrepancy between the CPU’s high percentile and the overall combo’s lower rank confirms that the graphics card is the performance ceiling.

Comparing to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RX 7600 XT’s average benchmark score is 20146, which is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 7600 at 20258, a delta of -0.6%. This indicates that the XT variant offers negligible performance improvement in this game, despite its higher memory capacity. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER scores 19774, which is 1.9% lower, while the RTX 3070 Mobile scores 20534, which is 1.9% higher. These small deltas suggest that the combo’s rank is not due to an unusually weak GPU, but rather the game’s demanding nature.

The CPU’s nearest rivals show a similar clustering. The i5-12600KF’s average benchmark score is 27827, which is within 0.4% of the Intel Core i7-13700H’s 27716. This tight grouping means that swapping the processor for a comparable model would not meaningfully change the combo’s rank. The bottleneck is unequivocally the GPU, as evidenced by the fact that the CPU’s 84th percentile ranking does not translate into a proportional improvement in game performance.

The rank also reflects the game’s release date in 2021, as The Medium was optimized for the previous generation of GPUs. The RX 7600 XT, released in 2024, does not benefit from driver optimizations for this title to the same extent as newer games. The data shows that the combo’s position is competitive for its price tier, but it is not a top performer for this specific horror title.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is the decisive component in this configuration, and its specifications directly explain the measured frame rates. The GPU has a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2755 MHz, with a game clock of 2470 MHz. These clock speeds are moderate for the RDNA 3.0 architecture, and the 13,300 million transistors on a 204 mm² die provide a raw compute throughput of 22.57 TFLOPS. However, this compute power is not sufficient for The Medium’s heavy use of screen-space reflections and volumetric lighting at high presets.

The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus yields a bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s. This is the critical limitation at higher resolutions. The game’s texture streaming requirements at 4K Ultra exceed what this bandwidth can sustain, resulting in the 22.2 FPS average. The 128-bit bus width is narrow for a card with 16 GB of VRAM, and the data suggests that the memory subsystem is a more significant constraint than the compute units. This is evident in the 30% frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra, which is proportional to the pixel count increase.

The GPU’s 64 ROPs and 128 TMUs provide a pixel rate of 176.3 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 352.6 GTexel/s. These figures are adequate for 1080p Medium (57.7 FPS) but insufficient for 1440p High (34.3 FPS). The 32 ray accelerators, while present, are not heavily utilized in this game, as the performance gap between Medium and Ultra suggests that the Ultra preset’s additional effects are not ray-traced but rather traditional pixel shader effects.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 20146 places it in the 63rd percentile, and its Passmark G3D score of 17132 confirms it is a mid-range performer. The nearest rival, the RX 7600, scores nearly identically, indicating that the XT’s 16 GB frame buffer does not provide an advantage in this game. The 190 W TDP and dual-slot design are standard for this class, but the data shows that the power budget is not the limiting factor. Instead, the combination of a 128-bit memory bus and mid-range compute density defines the GPU’s role as the primary constraint on achieving higher frame rates in The Medium.