The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination delivers a highly variable experience in The Medium, ranging from a smooth 129 FPS at 1080p Low to a barely playable 30 FPS at 4K Ultra. The data indicates a system that is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but which hits a hard wall at 4K due to the graphics card’s 8 GB memory and the demanding rendering techniques used by the horror title. This analysis breaks down the measured performance metrics, contextualizes the hardware’s standing, and provides clear guidance on how to get the most out of this pairing.

FAQ

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

A: The most balanced experience is at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, where the combo achieves an average of 68 FPS. This provides a significant framerate improvement over High settings (49 FPS) while maintaining a visual quality uplift over Low settings (109 FPS).

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 7400F scores 32,750 on average, placing it 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600T (32,707) and 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (32,697). It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H by 0.2% (32,812) and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 by 0.3% (32,662).

Q: Is the GPU a bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, the data strongly suggests a GPU bottleneck at 3840x2160. The average framerate drops to 38 FPS on High settings and 30 FPS on Ultra, while the 8 GB VRAM capacity is likely exceeded, causing performance to plummet relative to lower resolutions.

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

A: At 1920x1080, the average framerate increases from 46 FPS on Ultra to 129 FPS on Low. This represents a 180% performance uplift, indicating that graphical settings have a massive impact on the GPU workload in this title.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti rank against other GPUs in the benchmark database?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti holds a percentile rank of 75 among all tested GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 29,945 puts it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (29,928) and 0.5% ahead of the RTX 2080 Ti (29,783), but 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (30,095).

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the 1440p Medium preset?

A: The data for 2560x1440 with Medium settings shows a minimum framerate of 58 FPS. This indicates that while the average is 68 FPS, there are dips that keep the experience just above the 60 FPS threshold.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the primary driver of frame generation in The Medium, and its specifications reveal why it struggles at higher resolutions. The card is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, featuring 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation units. It is equipped with 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s. The base clock is 1575 MHz, which boosts to 1770 MHz.

In The Medium, a game that relies on heavy post-processing and complex lighting to create its horror atmosphere, the GPU’s raw compute power is crucial. The data shows that the GPU’s performance scales almost linearly with resolution. At 1080p High, the card produces 58 FPS, but this drops to 49 FPS at 1440p High, and further to 38 FPS at 4K High. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a likely culprit for the severe drop at 4K. The jump from 1440p High (49 FPS) to 4K High (38 FPS) is a 22% reduction, but the drop from 1080p High (58 FPS) to 1440p High (49 FPS) is only a 15% reduction. This non-linear scaling suggests that at 4K, the texture data and frame buffer exceed the 8 GB allocation, forcing the card to swap data in and out of slower system memory, which severely impacts framerates. The card’s 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but the memory constraint becomes a hard wall at 2160p.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 978 out of 2,911 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the 66th percentile of all systems tested, indicating that it is a solidly mid-to-high-end configuration. The ranking reflects the GPU’s 75th percentile standing among all GPUs, which is tempered by the CPU’s 83rd percentile standing among all CPUs.

The combo’s position suggests that it outperforms a significant majority of systems, but it is not at the absolute top tier. The data implies that while the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU in most scenarios, the GPU’s 8 GB memory buffer prevents the system from reaching the upper echelons of the ranking, particularly in a VRAM-heavy title like The Medium. The ranking is a holistic score that accounts for the measured FPS across all resolutions and settings, and the low 4K performance likely drags the overall rank down compared to combos with more VRAM or newer architectures.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four quality presets.

At 1920x1080, the combo shows a wide range of performance. On Low settings, the average framerate is 129 FPS, which provides a highly responsive experience. Medium settings bring the average down to 81 FPS, with a minimum of 69 FPS and a maximum of 93 FPS. High settings yield an average of 58 FPS. Ultra settings are the most demanding, capping the average at 46 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 83 FPS, highlighting the significant GPU workload differences.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down as expected. Low settings still deliver a high average of 109 FPS. Medium settings provide a solid 68 FPS average, with a min and max of 58 and 78 FPS respectively. High settings average 49 FPS, which is a substantial drop from Medium. Ultra settings fall to an average of 39 FPS, making it a less desirable choice for smoother gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the GPU struggles to maintain playable framerates. Low settings are the only viable option, achieving an average of 85 FPS. Medium settings drop to 53 FPS (min 45, max 61), which is borderline. High settings average just 38 FPS, and Ultra settings plummet to an average of 30 FPS. The data shows a clear performance cliff between Medium and High at 4K, suggesting that the VRAM limit is reached at the High preset.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience depends on the target resolution. For 1080p, the Medium preset is the sweet spot. It provides an average of 81 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold, while the min of 69 FPS ensures there are no significant stutters. High settings at 58 FPS are playable but leave less headroom for demanding scenes.

For 1440p, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation. The 68 FPS average and 58 FPS minimum offer a smooth experience that balances visual fidelity with performance. High settings at 49 FPS are acceptable for slower-paced horror games, but the data shows that Medium provides a 38% improvement in average framerate while likely looking nearly identical in a dark, atmospheric title.

For 4K, the Low preset is the only sensible choice for a consistent experience, offering an 85 FPS average. The Medium preset’s 53 FPS average with a 45 FPS minimum might be tolerable for some, but the risk of dips below 60 FPS makes Low the safer option. Ultra and High presets are not recommended due to average framerates below 40 FPS, which can feel sluggish and detract from the horror experience.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, clocked at a base of 3.70 GHz and a boost of 4.70 GHz. It has a 32 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus, offering a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 21,765 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,072 in single-core, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is to handle game logic, AI, and scene complexity. The data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any tested resolution. This is evident because the framerate scales consistently with resolution and settings, which is a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario. For instance, at 1080p Low, the CPU must prepare frames quickly enough to feed the GPU’s 129 FPS output, which it does successfully. The single-core performance of 3,072 in R23 is strong enough to handle the game’s primary thread, while the 6 cores can manage secondary tasks. The CPU’s performance relative to its nearest rivals is nearly identical, with a 0.1% delta to the Intel Core i5-14600T, confirming that it provides a stable, high-performance foundation for the GPU.

Resolution Scaling

Examining the framerate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the nature of the system’s bottleneck. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 58 at 1080p to 49 at 1440p (a 15.5% decrease) and then to 38 at 4K (a 22.4% decrease from 1440p). At Medium settings, the drop is from 81 FPS to 68 FPS (16%) and then to 53 FPS (22%). This pattern of an increasing percentage drop at higher resolutions is characteristic of a GPU that is struggling with memory bandwidth or capacity.

The scaling at Low settings is more linear: 129 FPS to 109 FPS (15.5%) and then to 85 FPS (22%). This suggests that at Low settings, the GPU is not exceeding its VRAM limits, and the performance drop is primarily due to the increased pixel fill rate required at 4K. However, at High and Ultra settings, the 8 GB VRAM limit is likely exceeded, causing the performance to degrade more steeply than mere pixel count would suggest.

The data indicates that the limiting component at 4K is unequivocally the GPU, specifically its memory subsystem. The CPU’s performance is consistent across resolutions, as its workload does not increase with pixel count. The steep drop in FPS at 4K, coupled with the minimal difference between 1080p and 1440p, points to a scenario where the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB frame buffer is saturated, making it impossible to maintain playable framerates at higher visual presets. This makes the system ideal for 1080p and 1440p gaming but unsuitable for 4K with high fidelity in The Medium.