The Medium

Settings Recommendations

The measured frame rates for The Medium with the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and AMD Radeon RX 9070 show a clear hierarchy across presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 141.2 FPS, while Medium drops to 91.1 FPS, High to 63.1 FPS, and Ultra to 51.1 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 50.1 FPS, which is a 35.5% reduction, indicating a heavy GPU load shift. For smooth gameplay on high-refresh displays, Medium at 1080p is the sweet spot: it remains above 90 FPS while providing a substantial visual upgrade over Low.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset yields 72.2 FPS, which is comfortably playable, while High drops to 51.8 FPS and Ultra falls to 41.6 FPS. Given that the game is a slower-paced horror title, 72 FPS is more than adequate for a responsive experience. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 118.2 FPS, but the jump to Medium only costs 46 FPS, making Medium the recommended choice for 1440p users who want a balance of fidelity and headroom.

At 3840x2160, the situation tightens. Medium produces 59.5 FPS, just under a 60 FPS target, while High yields 41.2 FPS and Ultra drops to 34.2 FPS. Low at 4K achieves 91.6 FPS, but the visual compromise is severe for a horror game that relies on atmosphere. The data suggests that 4K users should either accept Medium at near-60 FPS or step down to 1440p for higher quality presets. Ultra is not viable at any resolution for consistent frame pacing, as even at 1080p it only reaches 51.1 FPS.

The best experience across the board is Medium at 1440p or Medium at 1080p depending on display capability. Medium at 1440p offers 72.2 FPS, which is 13 FPS higher than High at 1080p, showing that resolution scaling favors this preset. For those with 4K displays, Medium at 2160p at 59.5 FPS is the only preset that approaches a standard refresh rate without dipping into the 30s.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers 141.2 FPS, which is the maximum measured. Medium follows at 91.1 FPS, High at 63.1 FPS, and Ultra at 51.1 FPS.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Only the Low preset at 3840x2160 exceeds 60 FPS, reaching 91.6 FPS. Medium at 4K falls just short at 59.5 FPS, while High and Ultra drop to 41.2 FPS and 34.2 FPS respectively.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p on Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 91.1 at 1080p to 72.2 at 1440p, a reduction of 18.9 FPS. This is a 20.7% performance penalty for the resolution increase.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever recommended for this game?

A: No. Even at 1080p, Ultra only achieves 51.1 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p it drops to 41.6 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 34.2 FPS. The visual gains do not justify the frame rate cost.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: Low at 2560x1440 produces 118.2 FPS, while Ultra produces 41.6 FPS. That is a 76.6 FPS difference, meaning Ultra delivers only 35.2% of the frame rate of Low.

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

A: This pair ranks 528th out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the upper 31.2% of all configurations for The Medium.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the primary driver of frame rate differences across settings. It carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's boost clock reaches 2520 MHz, with a game clock of 2070 MHz. These specifications translate to a 79th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34780.

The memory configuration is particularly relevant for The Medium, a game that loads large, detailed environments. The 16 GB frame buffer prevents capacity-related stutters even at 4K, as evidenced by the consistent scaling from Low to Ultra. The GPU's 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 128 ROPs handle the game's rendering load, but the measured results show that Ultra settings push the GPU to its limits across all resolutions.

The nearest rival comparisons place the RX 9070 close to the NVIDIA A2, with the A2 scoring 34866 against the RX 9070's 34780, a deltaPct of -0.2%. The Quadro GV100 is 0.3% ahead, while the Radeon HD 7970 and Radeon PRO W6400 trail by 0.7% and 0.8% respectively. These are marginal differences, confirming the RX 9070 sits in a tight performance cluster. The GPU's 220 W TDP and 2x 8-pin power connectors indicate it is a mainstream high-end part, not a flagship, which aligns with its mid-pack rasterization performance in this title.

The data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck at Ultra settings. At 1080p Ultra, the frame rate is 51.1 FPS, which is only 13.6 FPS higher than 4K Ultra's 34.2 FPS. This modest uplift suggests the GPU is saturated even at lower resolutions when the highest quality preset is active. In contrast, the Low preset scales more linearly with resolution, moving from 141.2 FPS at 1080p to 91.6 FPS at 4K, indicating that the GPU has headroom when settings are reduced.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings sweep shows: Low at 141.2 FPS, Medium at 91.1 FPS, High at 63.1 FPS, and Ultra at 51.1 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 90.1 FPS drop, or 63.8% of the Low value. The largest single-step decline is from Low to Medium, losing 50.1 FPS. The step from Medium to High loses 28 FPS, and High to Ultra loses 12 FPS. This pattern suggests diminishing returns: each higher preset costs less absolute performance, but the base frame rate is already dropping.

At 2560x1440, the numbers are: Low at 118.2 FPS, Medium at 72.2 FPS, High at 51.8 FPS, and Ultra at 41.6 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 46 FPS, which is the largest step. High to Ultra loses 10.2 FPS, the smallest step across all resolutions. The 1440p results show that High preset falls below 60 FPS, making it borderline for smooth gameplay on standard refresh monitors.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 91.6 FPS, Medium at 59.5 FPS, High at 41.2 FPS, and Ultra at 34.2 FPS. This is the only resolution where Low remains above 90 FPS, and the only one where Medium falls below 60 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra at 4K is only 7 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional effects are heavily GPU-bound. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently delivers between 59.5 and 91.1 FPS, making it the most predictable choice for a stable experience.

Resolution Scaling

Moving from 1080p to 1440p to 4K reveals how the system scales. At Low settings, the frame rates are 141.2, 118.2, and 91.6 FPS respectively. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 23 FPS (16.3%), and from 1440p to 4K is 26.6 FPS (22.5%). This relatively gentle scaling indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is able to feed the GPU adequately, and the GPU has enough headroom to absorb the resolution increase.

At Medium settings, the progression is 91.1, 72.2, and 59.5 FPS. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 18.9 FPS (20.7%), while the 1440p to 4K drop is 12.7 FPS (17.6%). The percentage drops are more uniform, but the absolute frame rates are lower. This suggests that Medium settings impose a more balanced load across the GPU, with neither resolution being a clear outlier.

At High settings, the numbers are 63.1, 51.8, and 41.2 FPS. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 11.3 FPS (17.9%), and the 1440p to 4K drop is 10.6 FPS (20.5%). At Ultra, the progression is 51.1, 41.6, and 34.2 FPS. The drops are 9.5 FPS (18.6%) and 7.4 FPS (17.8%). The consistent percentage drops across High and Ultra indicate that the GPU is the limiting component; as resolution increases, the same relative workload is added, and the GPU responds linearly.

The key insight is that the resolution scaling is remarkably consistent, with each step up costing roughly 17-22% of the previous frame rate. This uniformity points to a GPU-bound scenario across all settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the 1080p results would show smaller drops when moving to 1440p, as the CPU would cap the absolute frame rate. Instead, the data shows the RX 9070 scaling predictably with pixel count, confirming the GPU is the primary constraint in this title.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X provides 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. It is built on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) using a 4 nm process, and it supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. The CPU's benchmark scores include a Cinebench R23 multicore result of 25525 and a single-core score of 3603. Its 3DMark max threads score is 7590, and the single-thread score is 1253.

The CPU ranks in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28246. Its nearest rivals are tightly grouped: the Intel Core i5-13490F is 0.3% ahead, the AMD Ryzen 5 230 is 0.3% ahead, the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS trails by 0.4%, and the Intel Core i5-14500T trails by 0.5%. These deltas are within noise, placing the 9600X in a strong mid-range performance tier.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, but it must be sufficient to avoid bottlenecking. The measured frame rates at Low settings, which are less GPU-intensive, show the CPU's capability. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 141.2 FPS. If the CPU were weak, this number would be capped lower. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is adequate for the game's threading model, which does not appear to scale beyond 12 threads given the consistent GPU-bound behavior.

The single-thread performance is particularly relevant for horror games that often have physics and AI running on a primary thread. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3603 is strong, and the Geekbench single-core result of 3363 confirms this. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache also helps with data locality, reducing memory latency for game logic. However, the data shows no evidence of CPU limiting: the FPS scales smoothly with resolution, which would not happen if the CPU were the bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 528th out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium. This places the setup in the 68.8th percentile of all configurations, meaning roughly 31% of tested combos perform better. Given that this is a high-end CPU paired with a mid-to-high-end GPU, the ranking reflects the game's demanding Ultra settings, which push the RX 9070 to its limits.

The rank is more a function of the GPU's position than the CPU. The RX 9070 sits at the 79th GPU percentile, while the CPU is at the 85th percentile. The combo's rank is lower than either component's individual percentile, indicating that The Medium is particularly sensitive to GPU throughput. Combos that rank higher likely pair the RX 9070 with a faster GPU, or use lower settings that allow the CPU to shine.

Compared to the CPU's nearest rivals, the 9600X's performance is effectively tied with the i5-13490F and Ryzen 5 230, so swapping the CPU would not materially change the combo's rank. The GPU's nearest rivals are mostly older or professional cards, and the RX 9070's 0.3% delta from the Quadro GV100 means that any of these GPUs would produce nearly identical results in this game.

The 528th rank out of 1689 is a solid mid-pack position. It indicates that this combo is capable of playing The Medium well at Medium settings across all resolutions, but it will not top leaderboards at Ultra. For a horror game that prioritizes atmosphere over competitive frame rates, this is a respectable showing. The data suggests that users should not chase Ultra settings with this hardware; the rank is achieved through sensible preset selection rather than brute force.