The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 achieves a rank of 1194 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places the configuration in the upper tier of results, but the data suggests a notable imbalance: the CPU sits at the 85th percentile among all processors, while the GPU’s benchmark percentile is 61. The gap between the components’ relative strengths is a recurring theme in the measured frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1194 out of 2911 tested combinations indicates it outperforms roughly 59% of all recorded systems in this specific title. This is a solid mid-to-high tier result for a horror game known for demanding fixed-camera angles and heavy post-processing. The ranking becomes more informative when broken down by component strength. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D’s average benchmark score of 37018 places it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, a strong showing that suggests the processor is rarely the bottleneck. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (0.2% ahead) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (0.2% behind), indicating the 5500X3D is squarely in a competitive performance cluster.

Meanwhile, the RTX 3070’s average benchmark score of 17208 puts it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (0.7% ahead). The GPU’s percentile is notably lower than the CPU’s, hinting that in The Medium, the graphics card may be the limiting factor at higher settings. The data supports this: at 1080p Ultra the combo delivers 44 FPS, while at 1080p Low it hits 123 FPS—a 79 FPS swing that is far larger than what a CPU-bound scenario would produce. The rank of 1194 is therefore a reflection of a system where the CPU has headroom to spare, but the GPU’s capabilities cap the experience at higher quality presets.

GPU Role

The RTX 3070’s specifications directly explain its behavior in The Medium. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The GPU’s base clock is 1500 MHz with a boost clock of 1725 MHz. These figures are relevant because The Medium’s fixed-camera scenes can be memory-hungry due to high-resolution textures and lighting effects. The 8 GB frame buffer appears sufficient at 1080p and 1440p, but the data shows a steep drop at 4K Ultra, where the combo manages only 29 FPS.

The GPU’s compute capabilities are substantial: 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation units. It also has 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores, supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate. The FP32 performance is 20.31 TFLOPS. In practice, these numbers translate to a card that can handle The Medium’s horror atmosphere with ray-traced reflections at lower resolutions, but the measured FPS at 4K High (36 FPS) and 4K Ultra (29 FPS) reveal that the GPU is overwhelmed when pixel count and settings both scale up. The 4K Low result of 81 FPS is telling—it shows the GPU can push frames at 4K if the quality presets are reduced significantly, but the gap between Low and High at 4K (45 FPS) is far larger than at 1080p (68 FPS), confirming that the RTX 3070’s raw throughput is the chief constraint.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the system scales across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 123 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 104 FPS, a 15% reduction. At 4K Low, the frame rate falls to 81 FPS, another 22% drop. This scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU-bound workload: as the pixel count increases, the GPU must do more work, and the frame rate falls proportionally. At 1080p Medium, the average is 77 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it drops to 65 FPS; at 4K Medium, it falls to 51 FPS. The delta between 1080p and 4K at Medium is 26 FPS, which is a 34% reduction.

The High preset shows a similar trend: 55 FPS at 1080p, 46 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most punishing: 44 FPS at 1080p, 37 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K. Across all presets, the drop from 1080p to 4K is roughly 30-35% in terms of average FPS. This consistency suggests that the limiting component is the GPU, not the CPU, because a CPU bottleneck would show diminishing differences at higher resolutions. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D’s high percentile (85) and its 6 cores and 12 threads are more than enough to feed the RTX 3070 at any resolution tested. The data implies that for 4K gaming, the RTX 3070 is the primary constraint, while at 1080p Low, the system is nearly capable of hitting 120+ FPS, indicating the CPU can drive high frame rates when the GPU is not the bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

Examining the measured rows, the most balanced experience appears to be at 1440p Medium. This preset delivers 65 FPS average, with a minimum of 55 FPS and a maximum of 74 FPS. The minimum FPS above 60 ensures smoother playback during intense horror sequences. At 1080p, the Medium preset hits 77 FPS (min 65, max 88), which is excellent for competitive play or high-refresh monitors, but the 1440p Medium result offers a better visual quality-to-performance ratio for a horror game where atmosphere matters. The 4K Medium preset produces 51 FPS with a minimum of 43 FPS, which is playable but may dip below the 60 FPS threshold in fast-moving scenes.

For users prioritizing frame rate, 1080p Low yields 123 FPS, but the visual downgrade is significant for a game that relies on lighting and shadows. The High preset at 1080p (55 FPS) is a middle ground, but the Medium preset at 1440p (65 FPS) provides a better experience because the resolution increase offsets the settings reduction. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution: it delivers 44 FPS at 1080p, 37 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K, all of which are below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. The data suggests that Medium settings are the sweet spot for this combo, with 1440p being the ideal resolution for a balanced experience, while 1080p Medium is preferable if higher frame rates are desired.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo’s performance across all tested configurations.

1920x1080:

• Low: 123 FPS average
• Medium: 77 FPS average (min 65, max 88)
• High: 55 FPS average
• Ultra: 44 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 104 FPS average
• Medium: 65 FPS average (min 55, max 74)
• High: 46 FPS average
• Ultra: 37 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 81 FPS average
• Medium: 51 FPS average (min 43, max 58)
• High: 36 FPS average
• Ultra: 29 FPS average

The data shows a clear pattern: at every resolution, the Low preset is dramatically faster than the next step up. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium is 46 FPS (123 to 77), which is a 37% reduction. At 1440p, the same jump is 39 FPS (104 to 65), a 38% reduction. At 4K, the drop is 30 FPS (81 to 51), a 37% reduction. This consistency indicates that the Low preset reduces the GPU workload by a similar proportion across all resolutions. The Medium to High transition is also steep: at 1080p, the drop is 22 FPS (28%), at 1440p it is 19 FPS (29%), and at 4K it is 15 FPS (29%). The High to Ultra transition is less steep: 11 FPS at 1080p (20%), 9 FPS at 1440p (20%), and 7 FPS at 4K (19%). This suggests that Ultra adds expensive effects that impact performance uniformly, but the GPU is already struggling at High, so the relative impact diminishes.

The minimum and maximum FPS values for the Medium preset are only recorded across all resolutions: at 1080p (65-88), 1440p (55-74), and 4K (43-58). The spread of roughly 23-25 FPS between min and max indicates some scene-to-scene variance, which is typical for a horror game with scripted events. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (43) is close to the 4K High average (36), implying that even at Medium settings, the game can push the GPU to its limits during heavy sequences.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture (Vermeer). It operates at a base clock of 3.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.00 GHz. The CPU has 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and a shared 96 MB L3 cache. This large L3 cache is a defining feature of the X3D series and is designed to improve gaming performance by reducing memory latency. The CPU’s TDP is 105 W, and it supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus and a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU’s performance is strong but underutilized relative to the GPU. The PassMark multithread score is 20363, and the single-thread score is 2941. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 37018 places it at the 85th percentile, with its nearest rival being the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (0.2% ahead). The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 123 FPS, which is a frame rate that would be difficult to reach if the CPU were the bottleneck. The fact that the frame rate scales down as resolution increases—while the CPU’s load remains relatively constant—confirms that the RTX 3070 is the limiting factor.

The CPU’s 96 MB L3 cache likely helps in The Medium’s fixed-camera scenes, where large amounts of level data may be streamed. However, the benchmark results do not show a specific advantage in this game’s measured FPS beyond what a similarly performing CPU would deliver. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (0.2% ahead in average score), would likely produce nearly identical results in this title, as the GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU’s high percentile (85) versus the GPU’s 61st percentile suggests that users upgrading from a weaker CPU would see no meaningful improvement in The Medium with this GPU, as the graphics card is the primary constraint.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution and settings combo for this hardware in The Medium?*

A: Based on the measured data, 1440p Medium delivers 65 FPS average with a minimum of 55 FPS, offering the best balance of visual quality and smoothness. 1080p Medium is faster at 77 FPS, but the resolution increase at 1440p enhances the horror atmosphere.

Q: Why is the 4K Ultra result so low at 29 FPS?

A: The RTX 3070’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for 4K Ultra settings, which demand high texture and shading workloads. The GPU’s 61st percentile performance relative to other GPUs indicates it is not designed for 4K gaming at maximum quality.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 5500X3D a bottleneck in this game?

A: No. The CPU’s 85th percentile ranking and scores like 20363 in multithread and 2941 in single-thread are strong. The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a GPU-bound pattern, meaning the CPU has headroom to spare.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 compare to its closest rival in this context?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is the nearest rival with an average score 0.7% higher. This small delta means performance in The Medium would be nearly identical, with the RTX 3070’s 8 GB memory and 1725 MHz boost clock being the key specs.

Q: What explains the large FPS difference between Low and Medium settings?

A: At 1080p, Low produces 123 FPS while Medium drops to 77 FPS, a 37% reduction. This indicates that Medium enables settings that significantly increase GPU load, likely including higher-resolution textures and more detailed lighting.

*Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 4K in The Medium?*

A: No. The highest 4K result is on Low settings at 81 FPS, but Medium drops to 51 FPS. To reach 60 FPS at 4K, users would need to use Low settings, which defeats the purpose of 4K visual fidelity. The GPU’s compute power (20.31 TFLOPS) is not sufficient for 4K Medium or higher in this title.