The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 combination delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, with performance scaling that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The data shows that this combo ranks in the 46th percentile (785th of 1689 tested combos) for this title, indicating a mid-pack standing that is heavily influenced by settings choices.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and reveals a system that is firmly GPU-limited at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 109.9 at 1080p to 83.3 at 4K, a reduction of 26.6 FPS or approximately 24%. At Medium settings, the drop is from 76.8 at 1080p to 52 at 4K, a 32% decrease. The most severe scaling occurs at High and Ultra presets, where the 4K results (37.6 and 30.4 FPS respectively) are roughly 31% and 34% lower than their 1080p counterparts (54.8 and 46.3 FPS).

This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 3070's 8 GB of VRAM and its memory bandwidth become increasingly strained as pixel count rises. The gap between 1440p and 4K is particularly telling: at High settings, moving from 2560x1440 (45 FPS) to 3840x2160 (37.6 FPS) costs only 7.4 FPS, while the jump from 1080p to 1440p at the same preset costs 9.8 FPS. The diminishing returns between 1440p and 4K suggest that the GPU is already near its effective ceiling at 1440p in this title, with the 4K results representing the absolute limits of what this combination can achieve.

GPU Role

The RTX 3070's specifications directly explain the measured results. With a boost clock of 1725 MHz and 5888 shading units, the card produces 20.31 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves adequate for 1080p and 1440p play but becomes a limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The 30.4 FPS average at 3840x2160 Ultra shows that the card's 96 ROPs and 184 TMUs cannot sustain the fill rate demands of this horror title at maximum settings.

The GPU's benchmark percentiles reinforce this analysis. With a percentileVsAllGpus of 72, the RTX 3070 sits comfortably above the median GPU, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (0.9% slower) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (1% faster). The data shows that the GTX 980 Ti, despite being an older architecture, edges out the RTX 3070 in aggregate benchmark scores, though the RTX 3070's ray tracing capabilities and modern feature set are not reflected in those raw numbers. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3162 and Passmark G3D score of 22214 place the card in a performance tier that aligns with the measured 1080p and 1440p results in this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 785 out of 1689 tested combinations places it in the lower-middle of the distribution for The Medium. This positioning is somewhat surprising given the RTX 3070's individual GPU percentile of 72, but it reflects the game's demanding nature and the CPU's 85th percentile standing. The Ryzen 7 3700X's aggregate benchmark score of 28631 puts it within 0.1% of the Intel Core i5-12600 (28654) and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (28591), showing that the processor is not the limiting factor in most scenarios.

The rank suggests that many other combinations in the database achieve higher frame rates, likely due to more recent GPU architectures or higher-end processors. However, the measured FPS data shows that this combo can still deliver smooth gameplay at appropriate settings, particularly at 1080p Medium where it averages 76.8 FPS. The gap between the combo's rank and its individual component percentiles indicates that The Medium is particularly sensitive to the balance between CPU and GPU, and this pairing sits in a zone where the GPU's 8 GB VRAM capacity becomes a constraint at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience balances visual quality with frame rate stability. At 1080p, Medium settings (76.8 FPS) offer a significant improvement over High (54.8 FPS) while maintaining visual fidelity, and the jump to Low (109.9 FPS) provides diminishing returns for most users. The 1440p Medium result of 66 FPS is the best resolution-to-performance tradeoff for this combo, delivering smooth gameplay that is 46% faster than High settings at the same resolution (45 FPS).

At 4K, the data strongly recommends against Ultra (30.4 FPS) or High (37.6 FPS) presets, as both fall below the 40 FPS threshold that most players consider playable. The 4K Medium result of 52 FPS is the only 4K option that approaches playability, but it still requires a 31% performance sacrifice compared to 1440p Medium. For users prioritizing frame rate over resolution, 1080p Low at 109.9 FPS provides the highest measured performance, while 1440p Medium at 66 FPS offers the best balance of resolution and smoothness.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured data reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 46.3 at Ultra to 109.9 at Low, with Medium (76.8) and High (54.8) filling the middle. The 2560x1440 results show a similar hierarchy: Low achieves 103.9 FPS, Medium drops to 66, High reaches 45, and Ultra falls to 36.2. At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more compressed: Low produces 83.3 FPS, Medium drops to 52, High manages 37.6, and Ultra bottoms out at 30.4.

The performance delta between Low and Ultra settings is consistent across resolutions: approximately 63 FPS at 1080p, 67.7 FPS at 1440p, and 52.9 FPS at 4K. This indicates that the settings presets have a proportional impact on frame rate regardless of resolution, with the absolute differences shrinking at 4K due to overall lower performance. The 1440p Low result (103.9 FPS) is particularly notable, as it nearly matches the 1080p Low figure (109.9 FPS), suggesting that the GPU is not fully utilized at 1080p Low and has headroom to handle higher resolutions at the same settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gameplay?

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 produce an average of 66 FPS, which is the best balance of resolution and performance. High settings drop to 45 FPS, while Low reaches 103.9 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: No. The measured 4K Ultra result is 30.4 FPS, which is below the typically playable threshold. Even 4K High (37.6 FPS) and 4K Medium (52 FPS) require significant compromises.

Q: How much faster is Low compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings average 109.9 FPS, which is 63.6 FPS faster than Ultra's 46.3 FPS, representing a 137% performance increase.

Q: Does the GPU or CPU limit performance in this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Ryzen 7 3700X's benchmark score of 28631 puts it within 0.1% of comparable CPUs, while the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth constrain high-resolution performance.

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

A: The maximum measured average is 109.9 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest is 30.4 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

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

A: It ranks 785th out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the 46th percentile for The Medium performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X provides a solid foundation for this combination, though its influence on the measured results is secondary to the GPU. With 8 cores and 16 threads, the processor offers sufficient parallelism for the game's demanding scenes, and its 3.60 GHz base clock with 4.40 GHz boost ensures responsive single-threaded performance. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 19087 and single-core score of 2694 indicate strong all-around capability, while the Passmark multithread score of 22458 confirms its ability to handle concurrent workloads.

The CPU's 85th percentile ranking versus all CPUs places it ahead of the GPU's 72nd percentile, meaning the processor is relatively stronger in the broader benchmark landscape. However, in The Medium, the measured FPS scaling shows that the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the 31% performance drop from 1080p High to 4K High. The Ryzen 7 3700X's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i5-12600 (0.1% faster) and AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (0.1% slower) — show that the processor is competitive with modern mid-range options, and its 65 W TDP with 7 nm process node makes it an efficient partner for the RTX 3070.

The CPU's 32 MB L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth provide adequate data throughput for the game's streaming requirements. The 3,800 million transistors on a 74 mm² die represent a dense design that delivers strong performance per watt, though this efficiency is not directly reflected in the game's frame rates. Ultimately, the Ryzen 7 3700X does not constrain the combo's performance at any resolution, as the GPU's limitations become apparent first. The data shows that upgrading the CPU alone would not meaningfully improve The Medium results, whereas the GPU's VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth are the key bottlenecks at 1440p and 4K.