The Medium

The Medium is a demanding horror title, and this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a broad range of performance depending on how you configure it. The measured data shows a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate, making the choice of settings the single most important decision for your experience. This analysis breaks down the measured results to identify the optimal configuration for various resolutions and explains the roles the CPU and GPU play in achieving them.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and smooth gameplay, the Medium preset is the clear winner across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, it produces an average of 104 FPS, which is a substantial 45 FPS increase over the High preset's 75 FPS. The 1440p results follow the same pattern, with Medium delivering an average of 88 FPS compared to High's 63 FPS. Even at 4K, the Medium preset manages a respectable 69 FPS, while High drops to 49 FPS. The difference between Medium and High is visually minor in most scenes, but the performance cost is significant, making Medium the most efficient choice for maintaining high frame rates.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this combination in any scenario. It is the only preset that fails to maintain a 60 FPS average at 1080p, scoring 59 FPS, and it produces unplayable averages of 50 FPS at 1440p and 39 FPS at 4K. While the extra graphical features are nice, the frame rate penalty is too steep. The Low preset offers the highest frame rates—146 FPS at 1080p, 138 FPS at 1440p, and 110 FPS at 4K—but it does so by stripping away the atmospheric effects that are central to the horror experience. Use Low only if you have a high-refresh-rate monitor and prioritize competitive-level smoothness over visual immersion.

For most users, the data suggests starting with the Medium preset and adjusting from there. At 1080p, Medium's 104 FPS average is well within high-refresh-rate territory, and its 88 FPS minimum frame rate ensures consistent performance without major hitches. At 1440p, Medium's 88 FPS average is ideal for a 144Hz monitor, offering a smooth and responsive experience. At 4K, the Medium preset's 69 FPS average is playable, but the 59 FPS minimum indicates it may dip below 60 FPS during intense moments, so you might prefer to accept a visual downgrade or a lower resolution for a locked 60 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary driver of performance in this game, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus with 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth is sufficient for The Medium's textures and assets at the tested settings. The card's raw compute power, with 7168 shading units and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, is what enables the high frame rates seen at 1080p and 1440p on Medium settings. The GPU's performance is also reflected in its benchmark scores, such as a Passmark G3D score of 29995 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 205624.

The data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor when moving from Medium to High or Ultra settings. The performance drop from Medium to High is steep at all resolutions, indicating that the higher presets introduce effects that heavily tax the GPU's fill rate and shader throughput. For example, at 1440p, the average frame rate falls from 88 FPS on Medium to 63 FPS on High, a 28% reduction. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 56 RT cores and 224 Tensor cores are present, but The Medium's use of ray tracing and DLSS is not explicitly measured here; the provided data shows raw rasterization performance.

The GPU's position relative to its peers, as shown by its 83rd percentile ranking and an average benchmark score of 43223, is competitive. Its nearest rivals in that benchmark, such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile, show a delta of -1%, meaning the 4070 SUPER is essentially on par in average score. This confirms that the desktop 4070 SUPER is a capable card, but it is not without limits, as the 4K Ultra results demonstrate. In this game, the RTX 4070 SUPER provides excellent performance in the Medium preset and is the deciding factor in whether you can achieve a high frame rate at your chosen resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data reveals how the game's load scales with resolution, clearly illustrating the transition from a CPU-bound scenario at 1080p to a GPU-bound one at 4K. At 1080p on the Medium preset, the average frame rate is 104 FPS. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 88 FPS, a 15% decrease. The most significant drop occurs when moving to 4K Medium, where the average falls to 69 FPS, a further 22% decrease from the 1440p result. This trend is consistent across all settings presets.

This pattern indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is more likely to be a limiting factor, as the GPU is not being fully utilized. The frame rate difference between 1080p and 1440p is relatively modest, suggesting that the CPU can still feed the GPU enough data. However, the large drop from 1440p to 4K shows the GPU hitting its limits. At 4K, the pixel count is dramatically higher, and the RTX 4070 SUPER must work much harder to fill those pixels, leading to the significant frame rate reduction.

The scaling also highlights the GPU's headroom. For instance, at 1080p Low, the game runs at 146 FPS, but at 4K Low, it still achieves 110 FPS. This shows that even at lower settings, the 4K resolution demands a significant amount of GPU power. The fact that 4K Medium (69 FPS) is slower than 1080p Ultra (59 FPS) further emphasizes that resolution is a major performance factor. Ultimately, the data suggests that for 4K gaming with this combo, you must be willing to compromise on settings, as the GPU is the definitive bottleneck at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Here is the complete breakdown of the measured average frame rates for this specific CPU and GPU combination.

1920x1080:

• Low: 146 FPS average. This is the fastest setting, providing a very high frame rate for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors.
• Medium: 104 FPS average, with minimum and maximum frame rates of 88 and 120 FPS. This is the recommended setting for a smooth, high-quality experience.
• High: 75 FPS average. A solid frame rate, but the step down from Medium is significant.
• Ultra: 59 FPS average. This dips below the 60 FPS threshold and is not recommended for consistent smoothness.

2560x1440:

• Low: 138 FPS average. Still very high, demonstrating the GPU's capability at this resolution.
• Medium: 88 FPS average, with minimum and maximum frame rates of 75 and 101 FPS. This is the sweet spot for 1440p, offering excellent fluidity.
• High: 63 FPS average. Playable, but the frame rate is approaching the lower limit for fast-paced action.
• Ultra: 50 FPS average. Not smooth enough for a horror game that relies on atmosphere and precise timing.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 110 FPS average. Surprisingly high, showing that even at 4K, the GPU has power to spare on low settings.
• Medium: 69 FPS average, with minimum and maximum frame rates of 59 and 79 FPS. This is the only 4K preset that approaches a playable 60 FPS, but it can dip below.
• High: 49 FPS average. Not a smooth experience for this genre.
• Ultra: 39 FPS average. This is a slideshow and is not a viable option.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER achieves a combo rank of 424 out of 2911 tested combinations in The Medium. This places it in the top 15% of all tested systems, indicating that it is a high-performance pairing. The rank demonstrates that while this combo is not at the absolute top tier, it significantly outperforms the majority of other systems tested in this game.

This strong ranking is a direct result of the balance between the CPU and GPU. The combo's performance is consistent with the individual components' standings. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking and the GPU's 83rd percentile ranking suggest that they are well-matched, with the GPU being the slightly more limiting factor. The 424th rank out of 2911 combos shows that this is a potent setup, capable of handling The Medium with high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, and with some compromises at 4K. For a builder, this rank confirms that they are getting a well-above-average system for this specific title, offering a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate monitors.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D plays a crucial, yet secondary, role in this game's performance. With 6 cores and 12 threads, it is a modern processor built on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture. Its 96 MB of shared L3 cache is a key feature for gaming, as it helps reduce memory latency and can improve performance in CPU-intensive scenarios. The CPU's boost clock of 4.50 GHz and its 65W TDP indicate it is a power-efficient chip that can maintain high frequencies. Its benchmark scores, such as a Passmark Single Thread score of 3494 and a Multithread score of 25047, show it is a strong performer, with an average benchmark score of 44573.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p and with the Low preset, where the GPU is not the bottleneck. The data shows that the frame rate differences between the Low and Medium presets at 1080p are substantial, but the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is less severe. This suggests that the CPU is capable of keeping up with the GPU's demands at lower resolutions. The CPU's performance relative to its rivals is also strong, with a 0.2% delta compared to the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and a -0.7% delta against the Intel Core i5-14600, meaning it performs nearly identically to these chips.

However, the data does not show the CPU being the primary limiter at any of the tested settings. The frame rates scale consistently with resolution, and the massive drops when moving to the High and Ultra presets are entirely attributable to the GPU's workload. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for The Medium's demands, and its large L3 cache likely helps ensure consistent frame pacing, as seen in the minimum frame rates for the Medium preset. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D provides a solid foundation that does not hold back the RTX 4070 SUPER in this title, allowing the GPU to deliver its full performance potential.