The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combination delivers its strongest performance at 1080p, where it achieves a 146 FPS average on Low settings, but the data shows a clear shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution increases, with the 4K Ultra preset dropping to 41 FPS. This pairing ranks 511th out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 14% of all configurations, a position driven primarily by the GPU's substantial rendering capabilities rather than the CPU's processing headroom.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable but steep performance curve across the three tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the combo produces an average of 146 FPS on Low settings, which represents the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset. Moving to 2560x1440, that same Low preset drops to 138 FPS, a reduction of only 5.5%, while at 3840x2160 the average falls to 116 FPS, representing an additional 15.9% decline from the 1440p figure. This pattern indicates that at lower resolutions, the system retains substantial headroom, with the CPU able to feed frames faster than the GPU can render them.

The scaling behavior changes dramatically when examining the High and Ultra presets. At 1080p High, the average is 79 FPS; at 1440p High it drops to 66 FPS (a 16.5% reduction); and at 4K High it falls to 52 FPS (a 21.2% reduction from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows even more aggressive scaling: 62 FPS at 1080p, 52 FPS at 1440p (16.1% lower), and 41 FPS at 4K (21.2% lower than 1440p). This widening gap between resolution steps as settings increase points to the GPU becoming the primary limiting factor, since the pixel throughput demand grows faster than the rendering pipeline can accommodate.

The Medium preset offers the most complete picture, with minimum and maximum frame times recorded at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the average is 110 FPS with a range of 93 to 126 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 92 FPS (16.4% lower) with a range of 79 to 106 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 73 FPS (20.7% lower than 1440p) with a range of 62 to 83 FPS. The consistent 16-21% reduction between each resolution step across Medium, High, and Ultra settings strongly suggests that the RTX 4070 Ti's rendering throughput is the constraining resource, as the CPU's workload remains relatively constant while the GPU's pixel and shader workload expands with resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the observed scaling pattern. The GPU features 7680 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output pipelines, which together provide the raw compute capacity for the frame rates seen in the data. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for all tested settings, as evidenced by the absence of any catastrophic frame rate collapses at 4K Ultra, where memory pressure would typically manifest.

The clock behavior of the RTX 4070 Ti is noteworthy: a base clock of 2310 MHz and a boost clock of 2610 MHz. The boost clock represents a 13% increase over base, and this dynamic range allows the GPU to scale its performance based on thermal and power headroom. The fact that 4K Low produces 116 FPS while 4K High produces 52 FPS — a 55% reduction — indicates that the GPU is heavily tasked by the quality preset changes, with the additional shader complexity and texture work consuming the available compute resources.

Comparing the RTX 4070 Ti to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the data shows it sits within 1.7% of several competing GPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile scores 45152 on the average benchmark, which is 0.8% higher than the RTX 4070 Ti's 44795. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT scores 45384, 1.3% higher, while the Intel Arc A730M scores 45592, 1.7% higher. The NVIDIA RTX A6000 scores 44075, which is 1.6% lower. These narrow deltas place the RTX 4070 Ti in a competitive position, though its 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates that a significant portion of the GPU population outperforms it.

The GPU's 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 626.4 GTexel/s texture rate are the architectural features that drive its measured results. The pixel rate of 208.8 GPixel/s directly influences how quickly the rasterizer can fill the screen, and this becomes the binding constraint at 4K Ultra, where the 41 FPS average reflects the GPU's inability to keep up with the combined demands of resolution and quality settings. The 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are present in the specification, though their impact on The Medium's fixed-camera horror presentation is minimal, as the game's rendering workload is dominated by traditional rasterization.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D plays a supporting role in this configuration, and its specifications explain why it does not become a bottleneck until lower resolutions. The CPU features 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 4.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. The 96 MB of shared L3 cache is the standout feature, providing a large pool of fast-access memory that benefits games with large working sets, though The Medium's measured results suggest this advantage is not heavily utilized.

The CPU's benchmark scores place it in the 89th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44573. Its nearest rivals show remarkably tight competition: the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H scores 44466 (0.2% lower), the Intel Core i9-13950HX scores 44342 (0.5% lower), and the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 scores 44309 (0.6% lower). The Intel Core i5-14600 scores 44889, which is 0.7% higher. These sub-1% deltas indicate that the 7500X3D's performance is squarely in the middle of a cluster of high-end processors, and its 65 W TDP makes it an efficient choice among them.

The multithreaded performance of the 7500X3D, as measured by the PassMark multithread score of 25047, provides ample capability for feeding the GPU. At 1080p Low, where the CPU's role is most prominent, the system achieves 146 FPS, and the fact that this is only 5.5% higher than the 1440p result suggests the CPU is nearing its practical limit for frame generation in this game. However, the single-thread score of 3494 indicates strong per-core performance, which is critical for games that rely on a primary rendering thread. The CPU's 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, paired with DDR5 support, ensures that data can flow to the GPU without creating a starvation scenario.

The 7500X3D's 4.50 GHz boost clock is the key driver for its 1080p performance ceiling. At higher resolutions, the GPU's rendering time per frame increases, giving the CPU more time to prepare the next frame, which is why the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K on Low settings is only 20.5% (146 to 116 FPS) — the CPU is no longer the limiting factor. The data shows that the CPU's contribution is most visible at 1080p, where the difference between Low (146 FPS) and Ultra (62 FPS) is 57.5%, a larger relative gap than at 4K, where Low (116 FPS) to Ultra (41 FPS) represents a 64.7% drop. This indicates that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that even the CPU's full capabilities cannot mitigate the rendering bottleneck.

FAQ

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

A: The highest recorded average is 146 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This drops to 138 FPS at 2560x1440 and 116 FPS at 3840x2160 on the same preset.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 41, which is the lowest recorded value in the dataset. For comparison, the same settings at 1920x1080 produce 62 FPS, and at 2560x1440 they produce 52 FPS.

Q: Which component is the primary bottleneck at 4K?

A: The benchmark data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. The frame rate drops by 20-21% between each resolution step on Medium, High, and Ultra presets, which aligns with the GPU's rendering workload scaling, while the CPU's workload remains relatively constant.

Q: Does the CPU's 96 MB L3 cache provide a measurable benefit in this game?

A: The data does not isolate the cache's specific contribution, but the CPU's overall performance is competitive, ranking in the 89th percentile. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600, scores 0.7% higher, suggesting the cache advantage does not translate into a dominant lead in this title.

Q: What is the difference between the lowest and highest settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 146 on Low to 62 on Ultra, a difference of 84 FPS or 57.5%. The Medium preset averages 110 FPS, and High averages 79 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 511th out of 3724 total combinations, placing it in the top 14% of all configurations tested. This ranking reflects the balanced performance of the RTX 4070 Ti's 84th percentile GPU score and the 7500X3D's 89th percentile CPU score.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti achieves a rank of 511 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places the configuration in the 86.3rd percentile of all tested pairings, meaning only 13.7% of combinations perform better. The rank is driven by the GPU's strong rendering capabilities, as the RTX 4070 Ti's 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs is the primary contributor to the combo's overall position.

The CPU's 89th percentile ranking is slightly higher than the GPU's, which suggests that the processor has more headroom relative to its peers than the graphics card does. However, the game's rendering demands are such that the GPU's performance ceiling determines the combo's final rank. The gap between the CPU's percentile and the combo's rank indicates that the 7500X3D is not the limiting factor; a stronger GPU would likely push this combo higher in the rankings, while a weaker CPU would have a minimal impact on the overall score.

Within the context of the 3724 tested combos, the 511th rank represents a high-performing configuration that can handle The Medium at playable frame rates across all tested settings. The 4K Medium result of 73 FPS is notably strong, as it exceeds common 60 FPS thresholds while maintaining a minimum of 62 FPS. The 4K High result of 52 FPS is below that threshold, suggesting that users targeting smooth 4K gameplay would need to select Medium settings or accept a lower frame rate. The 1080p results, ranging from 62 to 146 FPS, demonstrate that this combo is fully capable of high-refresh-rate gaming at lower resolutions, with the Ultra preset still delivering above 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combo in The Medium is as follows, organized by resolution and settings:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces an average of 146 FPS, which is the highest recorded value across all tests. The Medium preset averages 110 FPS, with a minimum of 93 FPS and a maximum of 126 FPS. The High preset averages 79 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 62 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 84 FPS, demonstrating the significant impact of quality settings on performance at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 138 FPS, a 5.5% reduction from the 1080p result. The Medium preset averages 92 FPS, with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. The High preset averages 66 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 52 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets, ranging from 5.5% on Low to 16.5% on High.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 116 FPS, representing a 15.9% reduction from the 1440p result and a 20.5% reduction from 1080p. The Medium preset averages 73 FPS, with a minimum of 62 FPS and a maximum of 83 FPS. The High preset averages 52 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 41 FPS, which is the lowest recorded value in the entire dataset.

The Medium preset is the only setting with complete min/max data at all three resolutions. The frame time ranges are 93-126 FPS at 1080p, 79-106 FPS at 1440p, and 62-83 FPS at 4K. The width of these ranges, approximately 33 FPS at 1080p and 21 FPS at 4K, indicates that frame pacing becomes more consistent at higher resolutions, likely because the GPU's longer render times smooth out CPU-side variability. The minimum FPS values at each resolution — 93, 79, and 62 — all remain above playable thresholds, suggesting that this combo does not experience severe frame drops in The Medium, even at 4K Medium settings.