The Medium

# The Medium with AMD Ryzen 5 7500F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a strikingly varied performance profile in The Medium, with average framerates ranging from 50 FPS at 4K Ultra to 160 FPS at 1080p Low. The data shows a system that is heavily GPU-limited at higher resolutions, yet reveals surprising CPU headroom at lower settings, making this combo a study in how a top-tier graphics card interacts with a mid-range processor in a horror title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, with the RTX 4090's workload becoming progressively more demanding. At 1080p High, the combo averages 95 FPS, which drops to 80 FPS at 1440p High—a 15.8% reduction—and further plummets to 63 FPS at 4K High, a 33.7% decline from the 1440p figure. This steepening curve indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions, as the 4090's raw compute is being saturated by the increasing pixel count.

The scaling from Low to Ultra settings at each resolution tells an even more revealing story about the bottleneck. At 1080p, the spread between Low (160 FPS) and Ultra (75 FPS) is 85 FPS, while at 1440p it narrows to 88 FPS (151 FPS Low vs. 63 FPS Ultra), and at 4K the spread is 90 FPS (140 FPS Low vs. 50 FPS Ultra). The near-identical absolute spreads across resolutions suggest that the settings impact is largely independent of resolution, but the average FPS at each tier drops consistently, confirming that resolution scaling is the dominant factor in performance degradation.

Looking at the Medium preset specifically—which is the only setting with full min/max FPS data—the scaling is even more pronounced. At 1080p Medium, the average is 132 FPS with a minimum of 112 FPS; at 1440p Medium, the average drops to 111 FPS (a 15.9% reduction) with a minimum of 95 FPS; at 4K Medium, the average falls to 87 FPS (a 21.6% reduction from 1440p) with a minimum of 74 FPS. This consistent degradation pattern indicates that the RTX 4090's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being taxed progressively harder as resolution climbs, with the 4K Ultra preset (50 FPS) representing the most demanding scenario in the dataset.

The fact that 1080p Low achieves 160 FPS—more than three times the 4K Ultra figure—demonstrates the GPU's headroom at lower resolutions. However, the relatively modest jump from 1080p Low (160 FPS) to 1080p High (95 FPS) suggests that even at 1080p, the settings are having a substantial impact on the GPU's workload, likely due to the game's rendering techniques rather than pure resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 3,724 tested CPU-GPU combinations in The Medium, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 124th, placing it in the top 3.3% of all tested combos. This high percentile ranking underscores the overall capability of this pairing, even though the CPU is not a top-tier part by benchmark standards—the Ryzen 5 7500F sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs in general benchmarks.

The rank of 124 out of 3,724 combos indicates that there are 123 other pairings that achieve higher framerates in The Medium specifically. Given that the RTX 4090 is among the most powerful GPUs available—ranking in the 88th percentile among all GPUs—the combo's rank is likely constrained by the CPU's performance in certain scenarios. The Ryzen 5 7500F's nearest CPU rivals show extremely tight competition: the Intel Core i7-11850H scores 0.1% higher in average benchmark, the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F scores 0.2% lower, the Intel Core i7-13620H scores 0.2% higher, and the Intel Core 5 210H scores 0.4% higher. This clustering suggests that the CPU's performance is well within a narrow band of comparable processors, and any differences in game-specific results would be marginal.

The fact that this combo ranks 124th despite the GPU's dominance implies that The Medium is not purely GPU-bound at all settings and resolutions. At 1080p Low, where the CPU has more influence on framerate, the Ryzen 5 7500F's 6 cores and 12 threads may be a limiting factor compared to higher-core-count CPUs that other top-ranking combos might employ. However, the overall rank still demonstrates that this pairing delivers excellent performance for most users, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU's massive 24 GB VRAM and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth become decisive.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this combo, with its 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 384-bit memory bus providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with 16,384 shading units, deliver an FP32 throughput of 82.58 TFLOPS, which is more than sufficient for The Medium's rendering demands. The RTX 4090's architecture, Ada Lovelace, features 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores, which are relevant for a horror game that may utilize ray tracing or DLSS features, though the measured FPS data does not specify whether these are enabled.

The GPU's 24 GB VRAM is far beyond what The Medium requires, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra the average FPS is 50, indicating that memory capacity is not a bottleneck. The 1.01 TB/s bandwidth, however, plays a critical role in maintaining framerates across resolutions; the 21 Gbps effective memory speed ensures that texture streaming and geometry data are delivered quickly to the GPU's compute units. The pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s provide the raw fill rates needed to sustain high resolution rendering, yet the data shows that at 4K Ultra, these resources are still insufficient to maintain 60 FPS.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its position: a passmark G3D score of 38,194 and an average benchmark score of 60,347 place it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in general benchmarks include the Intel Arc Pro A60 (0% delta), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (0.3% higher), AMD Radeon Pro W6600M (2.5% lower), and AMD Radeon PRO V710 (2.9% higher)—though these are workstation-class GPUs, not direct gaming competitors. The RTX 4090's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 271,631 indicate strong DirectX 12 and Vulkan performance, which aligns with The Medium's likely API usage.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in The Medium?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 160, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, at 4K Medium the average FPS is 87, and at 4K High it is 63, both above 60 FPS. However, at 4K Ultra the average drops to 50 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How much does the Ultra preset cost in performance compared to Low at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 75 FPS compared to Low's 160 FPS, representing a 53.1% reduction in average framerate.

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

A: The only minimum FPS values provided are for the Medium preset: 112 FPS at 1080p, 95 FPS at 1440p, and 74 FPS at 4K. No minimum FPS data is available for other settings.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's performance compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4090's average benchmark score of 60,347 is 0% different from the Intel Arc Pro A60, 0.3% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48, 2.5% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, and 2.9% higher than the AMD Radeon PRO V710.

Q: Is this combo ranked highly among all tested combinations?

A: Yes, this combo ranks 124th out of 3,724 tested CPU-GPU combinations in The Medium, placing it in the top 3.3% of all tested pairings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F plays a supporting but non-trivial role in this combo's performance in The Medium. With 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture (codenamed Raphael), the CPU has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, running on a 65 W TDP. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core provide adequate data locality for game workloads, while the dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures the GPU receives data without significant CPU-side stalling.

The CPU's benchmark results show a capable mid-range processor: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22,799 and single-core score of 3,218, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 12,362 and single-core of 2,374. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 6,376 and max-thread score of 6,379 indicate that the CPU's multi-threaded performance is well-balanced, though the 6-core/12-thread configuration limits absolute throughput compared to higher-core-count parts. The PassMark multi-thread score of 26,825 and single-thread score of 3,841 confirm that the CPU is strong for gaming but not exceptional.

In The Medium, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 160 FPS, which is near the upper limit of what the CPU can feed to the GPU—beyond this, the GPU would need more data than the CPU can provide. The fact that 1080p Ultra (75 FPS) is only 47% of 1080p Low (160 FPS) suggests that the settings are imposing a significant GPU workload, but the CPU is still keeping pace. However, at 4K Ultra (50 FPS), the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as the CPU's frame generation capacity far exceeds what the GPU can render at that resolution.

The Ryzen 5 7500F's nearest rivals in general benchmarks (Intel Core i7-11850H, AMD Ryzen 5 8400F, Intel Core i7-13620H, Intel Core 5 210H) all have average scores within 0.4% of the 7500F, meaning any of these CPUs would likely produce nearly identical results in The Medium. This suggests that the combo's rank of 124 is not heavily influenced by the specific CPU choice, but rather by the GPU's performance and the game's engine characteristics.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and desired framerate. At 1080p, the Medium preset offers the best balance, delivering 132 FPS with a minimum of 112 FPS—well above the 60 FPS threshold and smooth enough for high-refresh-rate displays. The High preset at 1080p (95 FPS) is also viable, but the 37 FPS drop from Medium to High may not justify the visual improvement for most users.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again provides the most favorable experience, with an average of 111 FPS and a minimum of 95 FPS. This is 48 FPS higher than the High preset (80 FPS) and 48 FPS higher than Ultra (63 FPS), making Medium the clear choice for maintaining high framerates while still enjoying improved visual fidelity over Low. The Low preset at 1440p (151 FPS) is excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much visual quality.

At 4K, the Medium preset is the only setting that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS, averaging 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS. The High preset (63 FPS) is technically playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes, while Ultra (50 FPS) falls short of the 60 FPS target. For users prioritizing a consistent 60+ FPS experience at 4K, Medium is the recommended preset. The Low preset at 4K (140 FPS) offers excellent performance but at a significant visual cost that may undermine the point of playing at 4K.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset demonstrates the most consistent performance with available min/max data, showing framerate stability (e.g., 112-152 FPS range at 1080p, 95-128 FPS at 1440p, 74-101 FPS at 4K) that indicates a well-balanced workload distribution between CPU and GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this combo in The Medium is as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: average 160 FPS
• Medium: average 132 FPS, minimum 112 FPS, maximum 152 FPS
• High: average 95 FPS
• Ultra: average 75 FPS

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: average 151 FPS
• Medium: average 111 FPS, minimum 95 FPS, maximum 128 FPS
• High: average 80 FPS
• Ultra: average 63 FPS

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: average 140 FPS
• Medium: average 87 FPS, minimum 74 FPS, maximum 101 FPS
• High: average 63 FPS
• Ultra: average 50 FPS

The data shows that the Medium preset is the only setting with complete min/max FPS information across all resolutions, providing the most detailed picture of performance stability. At 1080p Medium, the framerate ranges from 112 to 152 FPS, indicating a 40 FPS variance; at 1440p Medium, the range is 95 to 128 FPS (33 FPS variance); at 4K Medium, the range is 74 to 101 FPS (27 FPS variance). This decreasing variance with increasing resolution suggests that the GPU's workload becomes more consistent at higher resolutions, likely because the CPU is less likely to cause frametime spikes.

The scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution is consistent: at 1080p, Ultra is 46.9% of Low's performance; at 1440p, Ultra is 41.7% of Low's; at 4K, Ultra is 35.7% of Low's. This indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a progressively larger relative performance penalty at higher resolutions, reinforcing the recommendation for Medium settings at 4K to maintain playable framerates.