The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 produces a highly capable configuration for The Medium, a horror title that demands both strong rasterization and substantial memory bandwidth. This analysis examines the measured frame rates across resolutions and settings, contextualizes the component roles using their architectural specifications, and places the combination within the broader tested hardware pool.

FAQ

Q: What is the best performance this combo achieves in The Medium?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 127.5 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This drops to a still-playable 93.3 FPS at Medium and 67.3 FPS at High for the same resolution.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the average frame rates range from 34.5 FPS on Ultra settings to 98 FPS on Low settings. The Medium setting yields 64.4 FPS, while High produces 43.5 FPS.

Q: What is the most demanding setting tested?

A: The Ultra preset is the most demanding across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, it averages 52.5 FPS; at 2560x1440, it averages 44.1 FPS; and at 3840x2160, it averages 34.5 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck for this GPU?

A: The Ryzen 5 5500 has an average benchmark score of 20875, placing it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, scores 20897, a delta of -0.1%. This indicates the CPU is well-matched for the GPU, as the data shows no single-core or multi-core deficiency that would limit the RTX 4070.

Q: What is the GPU's standing among all tested graphics cards?

A: The RTX 4070 has an average benchmark score of 37283, placing it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival is the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 with a score of 37507, which is -0.6% different, showing near-parity in synthetic tests.

Q: How does this specific combo rank against all other tested CPU/GPU pairings?

A: This configuration ranks 472nd out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 28% of all pairings. This rank reflects the balance between the 6-core CPU and the 12 GB GPU.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the primary driver of frame rates in The Medium, particularly at higher resolutions. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s, which is crucial for the game's high-resolution textures and complex scenes. The GPU's base clock is 1920 MHz, boosting to 2475 MHz, and it contains 5888 shading units. This hardware configuration supports a pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s.

Benchmark results show the GPU's capabilities scale with resolution. At 1920x1080, the frame rate drops significantly from 127.5 FPS on Low to 52.5 FPS on Ultra, indicating that the game's visual effects and shadow quality are heavily dependent on the GPU's raw compute and memory throughput. The RTX 4070's 184 texture mapping units and 64 raster output pipelines handle the game's fixed-function work, while its 46 ray tracing cores provide additional geometry processing for the horror game's dynamic lighting.

The GPU's performance percentile of 81% against all GPUs is reflected in its frame rates. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 78.4 FPS, which is a 22% reduction from the Low setting's 123.7 FPS. This trend continues at 3840x2160, where the GPU's 504.2 GB/s bandwidth becomes a limiting factor. The gap between Low (98 FPS) and Ultra (34.5 FPS) at 4K is 64.5 FPS, showing that the RTX 4070's capacity is best utilized at lower settings for 4K displays, while it is fully capable of high refresh rates at 1080p.

The GPU's 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is substantial, but The Medium's workload appears to be memory-latency and fill-rate bound at higher presets. The passmark G3D score of 26927 and DirectX 12 score of 103 indicate strong DirectX 12 support, which the game likely uses for its rendering pipeline. The RTX 4070's 200 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest it is a power-efficient solution that maintains consistent clocks without thermal throttling, as evidenced by the stable FPS averages across multiple runs.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 provides the compute foundation for the RTX 4070 in this configuration. With 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, this CPU has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and a 16 MB shared L3 cache, which is sufficient to feed the GPU's frame buffer without creating a bottleneck.

The CPU's benchmark scores show balanced performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 16429 points in multi-core and 2319 points in single-core tests. This multi-core result is important for The Medium, which may utilize multiple threads for AI, physics, and scene streaming. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5386 and max-thread score of 5411 indicate that the CPU's threading capability scales well up to 12 threads, which is typical for modern games.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and 7 nm process node from TSMC allow for efficient power delivery, ensuring sustained boost clocks during gaming sessions. The PassMark multithread score of 19330 and single-thread score of 3058 show that the CPU can handle both heavily threaded tasks and latency-sensitive single-threaded game logic. Its memory support for DDR4 dual-channel provides 51.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which matches the GPU's pcie Gen 3 interface for data transfer.

In the context of the measured FPS, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are higher (127.5 FPS on Low), which increases the CPU's responsibility for submitting draw calls and processing game logic. The Ryzen 5 5500's single-thread performance of 836 in 3DMark single-thread and 233 in Cinebench R15 single-core ensures that it can keep up with the GPU's output at these frame rates. The CPU's average benchmark score of 20875 places it in the 79th percentile, and its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE, scores 20900 with a delta of -0.1%, showing that the 5500 is a standard performer in its class.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 achieves a rank of 472 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the 72nd percentile of all configurations tested, meaning it outperforms roughly 72% of all CPU/GPU pairings evaluated by the database. This rank is influenced by both the CPU's mid-range standing and the GPU's upper-mid-range performance.

The RTX 4070's 81st percentile GPU ranking is higher than the combo's overall rank, suggesting that the CPU may slightly hold back the GPU in certain scenarios, particularly at lower resolutions where CPU overhead is more significant. However, the CPU's 79th percentile ranking is close to the GPU's, indicating a well-balanced pairing. The combo's rank is also affected by the game's specific requirements, which favor systems with high memory bandwidth and strong multi-threaded performance.

Compared to the GPU's nearest rivals, the RTX 4070 is nearly identical in benchmark scores to the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (delta of -0.6%), but the combo's rank is determined by the full system, not just the GPU. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, has a delta of -0.1%, showing that the Ryzen 5 5500 is a comparable performer. This balance is reflected in the measured FPS, which show that the combo is capable of smooth gameplay at 1080p and 1440p, with 4K performance dependent on settings.

The rank of 472 out of 1689 combos means that there are 1217 configurations that perform worse and 471 that perform better. This places the combo in a competitive position, offering strong performance for the hardware components involved. The data does not indicate any major imbalances between the CPU and GPU, as the FPS numbers scale predictably with resolution and settings changes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo in The Medium are organized by resolution and settings, providing a clear picture of performance scaling.

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the combo delivers high frame rates across all settings. Low settings average 127.5 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium settings reduce this to 93.3 FPS, a 27% decrease, while High settings average 67.3 FPS. Ultra settings are the most demanding, averaging 52.5 FPS. This shows that the RTX 4070 is well-suited for 1080p gaming, with even the highest preset remaining above 50 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops are more pronounced. Low settings average 123.7 FPS, which is slightly lower than the 1080p result due to increased pixel count. Medium settings average 78.4 FPS, a 37% reduction from Low. High settings produce 58.4 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 44.1 FPS. This resolution is a sweet spot for the combo, with Medium settings providing a smooth experience and High settings still playable.

At 3840x2160, the highest resolution, the GPU's limits become apparent. Low settings average 98 FPS, which is still very smooth. Medium settings average 64.4 FPS, providing a good balance between visuals and performance. High settings drop to 43.5 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold but still playable for slower-paced horror gameplay. Ultra settings average 34.5 FPS, which is demanding and may require adjustments for a consistent experience.

The scaling from Low to Ultra settings shows a consistent pattern across all resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 75 FPS; at 1440p, it is 79.6 FPS; and at 4K, it is 63.5 FPS. This indicates that the GPU's performance headroom is best utilized at lower resolutions, where settings changes have a larger impact on frame rates. The data confirms that this combo is most effective for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K requiring Medium settings or lower for optimal smoothness.