The Medium

The Medium is a demanding horror title, and the data for this AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + Radeon RX 7900 XTX combination shows a system that is heavily influenced by graphics settings and resolution. The measured frame rates reveal a clear hierarchy: the RX 7900 XTX provides substantial raw power, but the Ryzen 5 5500 can become a limiting factor at lower resolutions. This pairing delivers playable performance across most configurations, but requires careful settings management to achieve a smooth experience at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly indicates where the bottleneck lies in this system. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 127.7 FPS, which drops to 120 FPS at 1440p and then to 113.4 FPS at 4K. This relatively small drop of 14.3 FPS from 1080p to 4K at Low settings suggests the CPU is the primary constraint, as the GPU has enough headroom to handle the resolution increase without a significant performance penalty. The Ryzen 5 5500, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears to be the limiting factor in this scenario.

When moving to High settings, the scaling pattern changes dramatically. At 1080p High, the system delivers 77.5 FPS. This drops to 63.3 FPS at 1440p and further to 51.8 FPS at 4K. The larger percentage drop here indicates the GPU is becoming more involved, but the CPU is still holding back the system from achieving higher frame rates. The gap between 1080p and 4K at High settings is 25.7 FPS, showing a more pronounced resolution dependence compared to Low settings.

At Ultra settings, the GPU becomes the dominant factor. The system produces 64.6 FPS at 1080p, 51 FPS at 1440p, and 38.7 FPS at 4K. This represents a 25.9 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K, which is the largest absolute difference across all settings. The 4K Ultra result of 38.7 FPS is notably low, suggesting that the RX 7900 XTX is being pushed to its limits with this game's Ultra preset, even with its 24 GB of VRAM and 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth. The benchmark results indicate that resolution scaling is moderate at Low and Medium settings, but becomes significant at High and Ultra, where the GPU workload increases substantially.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At High settings, the system achieves 63.3 FPS at 1440p, which is playable, while 1080p High delivers 77.5 FPS. The 4K High result of 51.8 FPS is borderline, making 1440p the recommended resolution for a consistent experience.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XTX perform against its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The RX 7900 XTX has an average benchmark score of 44019, which places it 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile and 1.6% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M6000. It trails the AMD Radeon Pro 580 by 0.4% and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti by 2%. These deltas are small, indicating the RX 7900 XTX is competitive with these alternatives.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500 sufficient for this game?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500 has a percentile rank of 79 against all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 20875. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, scores 20897, a delta of -0.1%. The data suggests the CPU is capable, but the scaling at Low settings indicates it may limit maximum frame rates in less graphically demanding scenarios.

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

A: At 1080p, the system delivers 127.7 FPS on Low and 64.6 FPS on Ultra. This represents a 63.1 FPS difference, showing that the Ultra preset nearly halves the frame rate compared to Low. The Medium preset at 108.8 FPS offers a more moderate step, while High at 77.5 FPS is a significant drop from Medium.

Q: Does the 24 GB VRAM on the RX 7900 XTX help in The Medium?

A: The RX 7900 XTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 384-bit bus width and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. The 4K Ultra result of 38.7 FPS suggests the GPU is compute-limited rather than VRAM-limited, as the memory capacity is ample for this title. The performance drop from High to Ultra at 4K is 13.1 FPS, indicating the Ultra preset increases GPU workload beyond what the memory size can compensate for.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data shows that the Medium preset provides the most efficient balance between visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the system achieves 108.8 FPS, which is smooth and responsive. Moving to 1440p Medium yields 91.1 FPS, still well above the 60 FPS threshold for comfortable play. Even at 4K Medium, the system produces 73.7 FPS, which is playable and significantly better than the High preset's 51.8 FPS at that resolution.

For users with high refresh rate monitors at 1080p, the Low preset at 127.7 FPS is the only option that approaches the refresh ceiling of typical 144Hz displays. The High preset at 77.5 FPS is acceptable but leaves performance on the table. At 1440p, the Medium preset at 91.1 FPS is the recommended choice, as it provides a substantial improvement over High (63.3 FPS) without the steep performance cost of Ultra (51 FPS). The Ultra preset should be avoided at all resolutions, as it delivers only 64.6 FPS at 1080p and drops to 38.7 FPS at 4K, which is below playable thresholds for most users.

Benchmark results indicate that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this hardware combination, offering a 40% improvement over High at 1080p (108.8 vs 77.5 FPS) and a 19% improvement at 1440p (91.1 vs 63.3 FPS). The visual difference between Medium and High is typically less noticeable than the frame rate impact, making Medium the practical choice for this system.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the system shows a clear performance hierarchy across settings. Low delivers 127.7 FPS, Medium produces 108.8 FPS, High reaches 77.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 64.6 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium costs 18.9 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High costs 31.3 FPS, indicating that High is a significant step up in GPU workload. The Ultra preset further reduces performance by 12.9 FPS from High.

At 1440p, the frame rates are more compressed. Low achieves 120 FPS, Medium hits 91.1 FPS, High manages 63.3 FPS, and Ultra drops to 51 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 28.9 FPS, while the difference between Medium and High is 27.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 51 FPS is just below the 60 FPS target, making it marginal for smooth gameplay.

At 4K, the performance drops are more pronounced. Low produces 113.4 FPS, Medium delivers 73.7 FPS, High reaches 51.8 FPS, and Ultra falls to 38.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 39.7 FPS, showing a substantial increase in GPU load. The High preset at 51.8 FPS is borderline playable, while Ultra at 38.7 FPS is not recommended for a consistent experience. The data shows that 4K Medium at 73.7 FPS is the only viable option for maintaining smooth frame rates at this resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a high-end graphics card with 24 GB of GDDR6 memory, a 384-bit bus, and 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock of 2498 MHz and game clock of 2365 MHz contribute to its FP32 performance of 61.39 TFLOPS. The card has 6144 shading units, 384 TMUs, and 192 ROPs, with 96 ray tracing cores. These specifications place it in the 85th percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44019.

In The Medium, the GPU's role becomes more pronounced as settings increase. At 1080p Low, the RX 7900 XTX is not fully utilized, allowing the CPU to limit performance. However, at 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, producing only 38.7 FPS. The 24 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, as the memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s ensures smooth texture streaming. The performance drop from High to Ultra at 4K (13.1 FPS) indicates that the Ultra preset introduces effects that heavily tax the GPU's compute units rather than its memory subsystem.

The RX 7900 XTX's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, has an average score of 44900, which is 2% higher. This places the RX 7900 XTX slightly behind in raw compute, but its higher memory capacity may provide advantages in other titles. In this specific game, the benchmark results show the GPU is capable of delivering playable frame rates at 4K High (51.8 FPS), but the Ultra preset pushes it beyond its comfort zone.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, manufactured on a 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with 16 MB of L3 cache. Its TDP is 65 W, and it supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel configuration. The CPU has a percentile rank of 79 against all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 20875.

The CPU's influence on The Medium is evident at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 127.7 FPS, which is likely close to the CPU's maximum frame rate capability. The 3dmark single-thread score of 836 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2319 indicate modest single-thread performance, which can limit frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios. The 6 cores and 12 threads handle the game's multi-threaded workload adequately, as shown by the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16429.

The nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, has an average score of 20897, a delta of -0.1%, making the two CPUs virtually identical in performance. This means the Ryzen 5 5500 is not a weak link compared to its direct competition, but it does lack the higher core counts of more expensive processors. In The Medium, the CPU's role is to maintain consistent frame rates at lower settings, while at higher settings and resolutions, the GPU workload takes over. The 3dmark multi-thread score of 5411 suggests the CPU can sustain the game's processing demands without major frame drops, though it may not reach the highest possible frame rates at 1080p Low.