The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers a distinctly GPU-limited experience in The Medium, with average frame rates that scale predictably with resolution and settings. Across all measured configurations, the data shows a clear pattern: the RX 7900 XTX’s substantial memory bandwidth and raw throughput are the primary drivers of performance, while the Ryzen 5 7400F provides sufficient headroom to avoid becoming a bottleneck at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, indicating that the RX 7900 XTX is the limiting component across all tested settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 154 FPS at 1080p to 145 FPS at 1440p, a modest 5.8% reduction, but then drops sharply to 115 FPS at 4K, representing a 25.3% decline from 1080p. This pattern suggests that at 1080p and 1440p Low, the system is partially CPU-bound, as the GPU has ample headroom, but at 4K the workload shifts decisively to the graphics card.

The Medium preset shows similar scaling behavior. At 1080p, the average is 109 FPS, dropping to 92 FPS at 1440p (a 15.6% decrease) and then to 72 FPS at 4K (a 33.9% decrease from 1080p). The High preset follows the same trajectory: 78 FPS at 1080p, 66 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with averages of 62 FPS at 1080p, 52 FPS at 1440p, and 41 FPS at 4K.

The scaling curve indicates that The Medium is heavily dependent on fill rate and memory bandwidth. The RX 7900 XTX’s 960.0 GB/s bandwidth and 479.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are the resources being taxed as pixel count increases. The fact that 4K performance at Low (115 FPS) is still far above 1080p Ultra (62 FPS) confirms that the GPU is not the bottleneck at Low settings, but the gap between 1440p and 4K at every preset suggests the card’s compute units are saturated once resolution climbs. The most severe drop occurs between 1440p and 4K across all settings, which is consistent with a 2.25x increase in pixel count overwhelming the RDNA 3.0 architecture’s shading units.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the dominant factor in this configuration’s performance. With 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, the card provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for The Medium’s high-resolution textures and streaming environments. The GPU’s boost clock of 2498 MHz and game clock of 2365 MHz allow it to maintain high throughput, while its 6144 shading units and 384 TMUs handle the game’s complex lighting and shadow calculations.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU’s role becomes more pronounced at higher presets. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 41 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, indicating that the card’s 61.39 TFLOPS FP32 compute is being fully utilized. The 96 RT cores are also relevant, though The Medium does not heavily rely on ray tracing; the primary load comes from traditional rasterization. The 192 ROPs are sufficient for the game’s resolution needs, as evidenced by the 52 FPS average at 4K High.

Memory capacity is not a limiting factor here—24 GB far exceeds the game’s requirements—but bandwidth is. The 20 Gbps effective memory speed and 384-bit interface provide the headroom needed to avoid stutter in the game’s dual-reality mechanics, where two scenes are rendered simultaneously. The fact that the RX 7900 XTX’s percentile rank is 64th among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19410, places it in the upper mid-range, but its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and NVIDIA TITAN Xp, which are older architectures. This indicates that while the card is capable, it is not at the absolute top of the performance hierarchy.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and playability. At 1080p Medium, the average of 109 FPS with a minimum of 93 FPS and maximum of 125 FPS is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, providing a smooth experience with room for occasional frame-time spikes. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 92 FPS (minimum 78 FPS), which remains highly playable and is the recommended target for high-refresh-rate monitors.

For 4K gaming, the High preset at 52 FPS average is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action; the Medium preset at 72 FPS is the better choice, offering a more consistent experience with a minimum of 61 FPS. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it drops below 60 FPS even at 1080p (62 FPS average) and falls to 41 FPS at 4K, which would result in noticeable judder. The Low preset, while achieving 154 FPS at 1080p and 115 FPS at 4K, sacrifices too much visual fidelity for this horror title, where atmosphere and lighting are critical.

The data suggests that Medium is the sweet spot: it delivers a 40.7% improvement over High at 1080p (109 vs 78 FPS) and a 38.5% improvement at 4K (72 vs 52 FPS), while retaining enough graphical features to maintain the game’s intended mood. Players with 144Hz displays should target 1440p Medium, where the 92 FPS average is within reach of the refresh rate, while 60Hz displays can comfortably run 4K Medium at 72 FPS.

FAQ

Q: What average frame rate does this combo achieve at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The measured average is 41 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which is below the standard 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 7400F bottlenecking the RX 7900 XTX at 1080p?

A: The data indicates partial CPU limitation at Low settings, where the 1080p average of 154 FPS is only 6.2% higher than the 1440p result of 145 FPS, suggesting the GPU is not fully utilized at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the Medium preset compare to High in terms of frame rate at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 92 FPS, which is 39.4% higher than the High preset’s 66 FPS average, demonstrating a significant performance gain for a moderate visual quality reduction.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this configuration?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 61 FPS at 4K Medium settings, with the 1440p Medium preset showing a minimum of 78 FPS and 1080p Medium showing 93 FPS.

Q: Does the RX 7900 XTX’s 24 GB VRAM provide enough headroom for this game?

A: Yes, the 24 GB GDDR6 memory is more than sufficient for The Medium, as the game’s requirements are far below this capacity, and the bottleneck is bandwidth rather than capacity.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of the RX 7900 XTX among all GPUs?

A: The GPU is in the 64th percentile, with an average benchmark score of 19410, placing it above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB by 0.4% and 1.2% above the NVIDIA TITAN Xp.

How This Combo Ranks

This configuration ranks 345th out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 11.8% of all combinations. This rank is driven primarily by the GPU’s strong performance, as the RX 7900 XTX’s percentile rank of 64 is respectable, but the CPU’s rank of 83rd percentile provides solid support. The combo’s position in the leaderboard suggests that it outperforms the majority of tested systems, though it is far from the top tier.

The CPU’s nearest rivals are the Intel Core i5-14600T (0.1% higher average score), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H (0.2% higher), Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (0.2% higher), and AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (0.3% higher). These deltaPct values are negligible, indicating that the Ryzen 5 7400F is well-matched with similarly performing CPUs in the benchmark database. The GPU’s nearest rivals, however, show a wider spread: the AMD FirePro D300 is 1.2% lower, the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 is 1% lower, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB is 0.4% higher and the NVIDIA TITAN Xp is 1.2% higher. This suggests that the RX 7900 XTX sits in a performance band with older high-end cards, which is consistent with its end-of-life production status.

The combo rank of 345 indicates that while the GPU is not a top-tier performer in absolute terms, the combination with the Ryzen 5 7400F yields a system that is well above average for this specific title. The data shows that the GPU is the primary contributor to this ranking, as its 64th percentile is lower than the CPU’s 83rd percentile, meaning the graphics card is the weaker link in this pairing.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F plays a supporting role in this configuration, providing 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture. With a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, the CPU delivers strong single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3072 and PassMark single-thread score of 3689. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth ensure that the CPU can feed the GPU without creating a bottleneck in most scenarios.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is most apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the average of 154 FPS is the highest recorded across all configurations, indicating that the CPU is capable of driving the GPU to its limits. However, the fact that 1440p Low only drops to 145 FPS (a 5.8% decrease) while 4K Low drops to 115 FPS (a 25.3% decrease) suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor once resolution increases. The 12 threads are sufficient for the game’s threading model, which is not heavily multi-threaded, and the 65W TDP indicates efficient operation.

The CPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average score of 32750. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600T, scores 32707, a delta of just 0.1%, confirming that the Ryzen 5 7400F is a solid mid-range performer. The PassMark multithread score of 25645 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21765 indicate that the CPU can handle background tasks and game logic without impacting frame rates. The 5 nm process node and TSMC foundry contribute to its efficiency, but the key takeaway is that the CPU is not the constraining factor in this combo’s The Medium performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this configuration is as follows:

1920x1080:

• Low: 154 FPS average
• Medium: 109 FPS average, 93 FPS minimum, 125 FPS maximum
• High: 78 FPS average
• Ultra: 62 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 145 FPS average
• Medium: 92 FPS average, 78 FPS minimum, 106 FPS maximum
• High: 66 FPS average
• Ultra: 52 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 115 FPS average
• Medium: 72 FPS average, 61 FPS minimum, 83 FPS maximum
• High: 52 FPS average
• Ultra: 41 FPS average

The data reveals several key trends. First, the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens with resolution: at 1080p, the difference is 92 FPS (154 vs 62), at 1440p it is 93 FPS (145 vs 52), and at 4K it is 74 FPS (115 vs 41). This indicates that the GPU’s compute resources are being taxed more heavily at higher resolutions, reducing the relative impact of settings changes. Second, the minimum FPS values for Medium settings show a consistent pattern: 93 FPS at 1080p, 78 FPS at 1440p, and 61 FPS at 4K, all of which are above 60 FPS, making Medium the only preset that maintains playable minimums at every resolution.

The transition from 1080p to 1440p results in an average FPS drop of 5.8% at Low, 15.6% at Medium, 15.4% at High, and 16.1% at Ultra. The transition from 1440p to 4K is more severe: 20.7% at Low, 21.7% at Medium, 21.2% at High, and 21.2% at Ultra. This consistent ~21% drop at the 4K transition suggests that memory bandwidth is the limiting factor, as the RX 7900 XTX’s 960.0 GB/s bandwidth is saturated by the 8.3 million pixel count. The 1080p to 1440p drop is milder, indicating that the GPU has more headroom at lower pixel counts. Overall, the measured data confirms that this combo is well-suited for 1440p gaming at Medium to High settings, with 4K being viable only at Medium settings for a consistent 60+ FPS experience.