The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination delivers a robust experience in The Medium, with benchmark data indicating the system is firmly positioned to handle the game's demands across a range of settings and resolutions. The measured frame rates show a clear performance hierarchy that favors lower settings for maximum fluidity, while higher presets at 4K push the hardware to its limits.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, built on a 5 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, supported by a 32 MB shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, the processor achieves a single-thread score of 974 in 3DMark and 3218 in Cinebench R23, alongside a multi-thread score of 6379 in 3DMark and 22799 in Cinebench R23. These numbers place the CPU in the 82nd percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 24993.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing for The Medium. At 1080p with Low settings, the system produces 162.8 FPS, which is the highest measured average across all configurations. This high frame rate at a resolution where the GPU has less work indicates the processor can feed the graphics card efficiently. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1902 and 4-thread score of 3621 suggest strong single-core performance, which is relevant for a horror game that typically relies on a few primary threads for game logic and rendering commands. Compared to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 7500F is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-11850H, showing only a 0.1% delta, and sits 0.3% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and AMD Ryzen 5 8400F. This parity indicates that the CPU's performance headroom is sufficient for the GPU to reach its potential, as evidenced by the scaling of frame rates when settings are lowered.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process and features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. Its base clock is 1980 MHz with a boost clock of 2475 MHz, and it houses 7168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units. The GPU's raw compute capability is rated at 35.48 TFLOPS for FP32 operations. In benchmark tests, it scores 29995 in Passmark G3D and 4627 in 3DMark Steel Nomad, placing it in the 84th percentile among all GPUs with an average score of 42576.

The GPU is clearly the dominant component in this system's performance profile for The Medium. The measured frame rates show a significant drop when moving from Low to Ultra settings at any resolution, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering. At 1080p Low, the card delivers 162.8 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra, it drops to 62.2 FPS. This 100 FPS reduction is primarily due to the increased shading and texture work required by higher presets. The 12 GB of VRAM is likely sufficient for the game's assets, as there is no indication of a memory-related bottleneck in the data. The RTX 4070 SUPER's performance relative to its nearest rivals is marginal, with a 0.2% delta against the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and a 0.3% delta against the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE, confirming it sits in a competitive performance band where small changes in workload can shift the balance.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data provides a clear guide for selecting settings based on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For a smooth 60 FPS experience, the Medium preset is the most consistent choice across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium produces 104.8 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold, while at 1440p it delivers 86.5 FPS, and at 4K it still achieves 69.8 FPS. This preset offers a balanced experience with only a modest frame rate penalty compared to Low, while providing better visual quality.

The High preset is viable for users prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rate, but it requires careful resolution management. At 1080p, High yields 73.8 FPS, which is playable, but at 1440p it drops to 65.7 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 47 FPS, which may be below the comfort zone for some users. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with only 62.2 FPS at 1080p, 47.7 FPS at 1440p, and 39.7 FPS at 4K. These numbers indicate that Ultra is best reserved for 1080p gaming or for users who prioritize visual quality over frame rate. The Low preset offers the highest performance, with 162.8 FPS at 1080p and 140.9 FPS at 1440p, making it suitable for high-refresh-rate displays, though the visual compromise may be significant for a horror title that relies on atmosphere.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this hardware at 1080p?

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 162.8 FPS, achieved with the Low preset at 1920x1080 resolution.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 42576, which is 0.3% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE's score of 42723.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 7500F a bottleneck for the RTX 4070 SUPER in this game?

A: No, the data indicates the CPU is not the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 162.8 FPS, suggesting the processor can keep up with the GPU's output.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 4K with the Medium preset?

A: The measured average frame rate at 3840x2160 with the Medium preset is 69.8 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS target.

Q: Which preset provides the most consistent performance above 60 FPS across all resolutions?

A: The Medium preset is the only one that maintains an average frame rate above 60 FPS at all three tested resolutions, with 104.8 FPS at 1080p, 86.5 FPS at 1440p, and 69.8 FPS at 4K.

Q: How much performance is lost when switching from Low to Ultra at 1440p?

A: The frame rate drops from 140.9 FPS on Low to 47.7 FPS on Ultra at 2560x1440, representing a reduction of 93.2 FPS.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a predictable pattern that confirms the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At the Low preset, the system produces 162.8 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 140.9 FPS at 1440p and further to 107.5 FPS at 4K. This represents a 34% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is relatively modest and indicates that even at 4K, the CPU is still able to feed the GPU adequately at lower settings. The scaling is more pronounced at higher presets, where the GPU's shading and memory bandwidth are stressed more heavily. At the Ultra preset, the frame rate falls from 62.2 FPS at 1080p to 47.7 FPS at 1440p and finally to 39.7 FPS at 4K, a 36% drop from 1080p to 4K.

The pattern of diminishing returns at higher resolutions is classic GPU-bound behavior. At 1080p, the GPU has fewer pixels to process, allowing it to reach higher frame rates, but as resolution increases, the pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth become the limiting factors. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth and 198.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at most settings, but at 4K Ultra, the workload becomes too heavy, resulting in sub-40 FPS performance. The fact that the Low preset at 4K still achieves 107.5 FPS suggests that the GPU can handle the resolution when the visual effects are reduced, but the CPU's performance ceiling is not reached until frame rates exceed 160 FPS, which only occurs at 1080p Low. This data collectively indicates that for this system, the RTX 4070 SUPER is the component that determines the playable settings ceiling, while the Ryzen 5 7500F provides ample headroom for the GPU to operate without artificial limits.