The Medium

The Medium with the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER presents a fascinating case study in how a high-end graphics card interacts with a modern mid-range processor. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a configuration that is heavily defined by GPU load, yet the CPU’s capabilities ensure it never becomes a bottleneck. This analysis breaks down the benchmark data to show exactly where this combo excels and where its limits lie.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 clearly demonstrates the increasing dominance of the GPU as pixel count rises. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 165.9 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 147.7 FPS, a reduction of roughly 11%. However, the jump to 4K Low is far more severe, landing at 114.6 FPS, which is a 31% drop from the 1080p figure. This pattern indicates that even at Low settings, the resolution scaling is beginning to tax the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER significantly.

The trend becomes more pronounced at higher graphical presets. With High settings, the average frame rate falls from 80.5 FPS at 1080p to 66.7 FPS at 1440p (a 17% drop), and then to 50.3 FPS at 4K (a 38% drop from 1080p). The Ultra preset shows the steepest curve: 63.5 FPS at 1080p, 55.9 FPS at 1440p, and 44 FPS at 4K. This steep decline at 4K, particularly when moving from Medium (74 FPS) to High (50.3 FPS), points to the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute capacity becoming the primary limiting factor. The data suggests that the Ryzen 5 7600 has ample headroom; the performance cliff at higher resolutions is a direct consequence of the graphics card working harder, not the processor struggling to keep up.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. Its performance in synthetic benchmarks underscores its strength. In Cinebench R23, it scores 22992 points in the multi-core test and 3246 points in the single-core test. This strong single-thread performance is crucial for gaming, as it directly translates to faster frame generation in scenarios where the CPU is the primary driver.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU’s role appears to be supportive rather than dominant. The game is not known for being CPU-intensive, and the benchmark results confirm this. At 1080p Low, where the CPU load is relatively higher compared to the GPU’s workload, the 165.9 FPS average indicates that the Ryzen 5 7600 is more than capable of feeding frames to the graphics card. Its PassMark single-thread score of 3910 suggests efficient per-core performance, ensuring that even in less optimized scenes, the processor can maintain high frame pacing. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce latency, but the overall picture is that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this configuration; it provides a stable foundation for the GPU to deliver its full potential, even at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 7600 and RTX 4070 Ti SUPER holds a rank of 156 out of 1689 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 10% of all configurations. This is a strong showing, but it is not at the very top, suggesting that other pairings with more powerful CPUs or GPUs can extract higher frame rates. The rank reflects a balanced system that performs well across the board, yet it is not the ultimate enthusiast setup.

The GPU’s synthetic benchmark average of 48704 places it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database, while having similar average scores, show varying performance deltas: the NVIDIA CMP 50HX is 0.7% behind, while the Intel Arc A550M is 2.1% ahead. This indicates that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is a solid performer, but there are other cards in its vicinity that can edge it out. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 26617 puts it in the 83rd percentile, with its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, being essentially tied with a 0.2% delta. This shows that the Ryzen 5 7600 is a highly competitive processor, punching above its weight.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed view of performance across four settings presets and three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 63.5 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The High preset improves this to 80.5 FPS, while Medium and Low reach 111.1 FPS and 165.9 FPS, respectively. This shows that at 1080p, the GPU has enough power to push well beyond 60 FPS at Medium and High settings, making it suitable for 144Hz displays with some graphical compromises.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Ultra preset drops to 55.9 FPS, while High maintains a solid 66.7 FPS. Medium and Low provide 96 FPS and 147.7 FPS, respectively. The 1440p results are excellent, with High settings hitting a sweet spot for a smooth 60 FPS experience, and Medium offering a significant boost for higher refresh rates. At 3840x2160, the demands become steep. Ultra averages just 44 FPS, and High is only marginally better at 50.3 FPS. Medium offers a more playable 74 FPS, while Low reaches 114.6 FPS. This indicates that 4K gaming requires dropping to Medium settings or lower to achieve a consistently smooth frame rate, as the Ultra and High presets are too demanding for this GPU.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s. This substantial memory allocation is a key asset for The Medium, which can be demanding on VRAM. The card’s boost clock of 2610 MHz and 8448 shading units allow for high compute throughput, as evidenced by its 44.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

The GPU’s role as the primary performance limiter is clearest at 4K resolution. The drop in average FPS from 74 at Medium to 50.3 at High, and further to 44 at Ultra, highlights how the card’s raw compute power and memory bandwidth are saturated by the higher-fidelity effects and textures. The 16 GB VRAM is sufficient to hold the game’s assets at 4K, but the processing power is insufficient to maintain high frame rates at the Ultra preset. The data shows that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is a capable 1440p powerhouse and a competent 1080p performer, but it is not a true 4K Ultra card for a game like The Medium. Its 86th percentile ranking against all GPUs confirms it is a high-end part, yet the frame rates at 4K Ultra suggest that users seeking that experience would need to consider more powerful options or be prepared to lower settings.