The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX pairing delivers a highly playable experience in The Medium, but the data reveals a clear performance hierarchy dictated by resolution and settings. The combination ranks 255th out of 1689 tested configs, placing it in the top 15% of all systems. Across the 12 measured data points, the system shows a significant range—from a demanding 43.3 FPS at 4K Ultra to a fluid 137.5 FPS at 1080p Low.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep, but the pattern is not uniform across settings. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (137.5 FPS) to 3840x2160 (113.8 FPS) represents a 17.2% performance loss. This relatively modest decline suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is still a limiting factor, preventing the GPU from being fully taxed at lower resolutions. The gap widens considerably at Medium settings, where 1080p yields 109.6 FPS but 4K drops to 73.3 FPS—a 33.1% reduction. This indicates the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck as pixel count increases.

The most dramatic scaling occurs at High and Ultra presets. At High, 1080p produces 80.9 FPS, while 4K falls to 51.6 FPS, a 36.2% drop. At Ultra, the system manages 65.1 FPS at 1080p but only 43.3 FPS at 4K, a 33.5% decline. The 1440p results sit predictably between these extremes, with High at 65.2 FPS and Ultra at exactly 50 FPS. The data shows that this system is most balanced at 1440p, where the RX 7900 XTX's massive 24 GB VRAM buffer and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth are utilized without the CPU holding back frame rates. At 4K, the GPU's raw compute—61.39 TFLOPS FP32 and 479.6 GPixel/s pixel rate—is the clear limiting factor, especially at Ultra where the game's demanding effects overwhelm even this flagship card.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K smoothly?*

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 43.3, which is below the 60 FPS threshold most consider smooth. Dropping to 4K High brings the average to 51.6 FPS, still not fully smooth. However, 4K Medium hits 73.3 FPS, and 4K Low reaches 113.8 FPS, so smooth play is achievable with reduced visual fidelity.

Q: What is the best resolution for a 60 FPS target?

A: At 1440p, the system exceeds 60 FPS on Medium (88.7 FPS) and High (65.2 FPS), but falls short on Ultra (50 FPS). At 1080p, all settings except Ultra (65.1 FPS) comfortably exceed 60 FPS, with Low hitting 137.5 FPS and Medium at 109.6 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 5700 perform relative to similar CPUs?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 27220 places it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. It is 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core i9-9900K and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700H and Intel Core i7-1370P, making it statistically equivalent to these rivals in synthetic tests.

Q: Is the RX 7900 XTX's 24 GB VRAM necessary for this game?

A: The Medium is a horror game with a dual-reality mechanic that can be memory-intensive. While the exact VRAM usage is not measured, the 24 GB GDDR6 buffer on a 384-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. This headroom ensures that even at 4K Ultra, memory capacity is unlikely to be a limiting factor.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the system produces 137.5 FPS on Low and 65.1 FPS on Ultra. This 52.6% performance gap highlights the significant cost of the game's highest graphical features, which include advanced lighting and shadow effects typical of the horror genre.

Q: How does the system's overall rank translate to real-world performance?

A: Ranking 255th out of 1689 combinations (top 15%) indicates the system is well above average. The measured data confirms it can handle 1440p High at 65.2 FPS, which is the sweet spot for a balance between visual quality and frame rate.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the undisputed performance driver in this configuration, and its specifications explain the measured results. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1929 MHz, a game clock of 2365 MHz, and a boost clock of 2498 MHz. These high frequencies, combined with 6144 shading units, 384 TMUs, and 192 ROPs, produce a pixel rate of 479.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 959.2 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute of 61.39 TFLOPS provides the raw power needed for the game's complex shaders.

The memory subsystem is equally impressive: 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus delivers 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is critical for The Medium, which often renders two simultaneous worlds—the real and the spirit realm—doubling the memory pressure. The GPU's 85th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44019, places it slightly behind the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (by 0.4%) and 2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, but 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile. In practice, the GPU demonstrates its strength: at 1440p Medium, it achieves 88.7 FPS, and at 1080p Low, it pushes 137.5 FPS, showing that it is not the bottleneck at lower resolutions.

At 4K Ultra, the GPU hits its limit at 43.3 FPS. This is not a memory issue—24 GB is ample—but rather a compute limitation. The game's Ultra preset likely enables ray-traced effects and high-resolution shadows that stress the 96 RT cores and the overall shader throughput. The 5 nm process node and 57,700 million transistors provide the efficiency needed to sustain these clocks, but the 355 W TDP indicates the card is drawing heavily under load. The 2x 8-pin power connectors and 750 W suggested PSU confirm this is a high-power design, but the performance at 1440p High (65.2 FPS) shows the architecture is well-suited for this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture across four resolutions and four settings levels. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 137.5 FPS on Low, 109.6 FPS on Medium, 80.9 FPS on High, and 65.1 FPS on Ultra. The 1080p Low result is the highest FPS recorded in the entire dataset, indicating that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately when graphical load is minimized. The step from Medium to High at 1080p costs 28.7 FPS, while High to Ultra costs only 15.8 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns on the highest preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates are 129.8 FPS (Low), 88.7 FPS (Medium), 65.2 FPS (High), and 50 FPS (Ultra). The 1440p Ultra result of exactly 50 FPS is a notable benchmark, representing a 23.2% drop from 1080p Ultra. This resolution appears to be the practical ceiling for Ultra settings if a smooth 60 FPS is desired, as the system falls just short. The 1440p Medium result of 88.7 FPS is strong, offering a high refresh rate experience on most 1440p monitors.

At 3840x2160, the performance is 113.8 FPS (Low), 73.3 FPS (Medium), 51.6 FPS (High), and 43.3 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Low result of 113.8 FPS is surprisingly high, showing the GPU's bandwidth advantage even at extreme resolutions. However, the 4K High and Ultra results are the only sub-60 FPS averages in the entire dataset, confirming that 4K is the domain for lower presets. The difference between 4K Medium (73.3 FPS) and 4K High (51.6 FPS) is a significant 21.7 FPS, making the settings choice critical at this resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 provides the processing foundation for this system, and its 8-core, 16-thread configuration with Zen 3 architecture (Cezanne) is well-matched to the GPU. The CPU operates with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, which is sufficient to keep the RX 7900 XTX fed at 1080p. The 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (51.2 GB/s bandwidth) provide adequate data flow for game logic and physics.

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU's strength: it scores 20655 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 2916 in single-core. The 3DMark results are telling—6617 for max threads and 901 for single thread—indicating that multi-threaded performance is strong but single-thread performance is modest. This matters in The Medium, which may not fully utilize 16 threads. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking, with an average benchmark score of 27220, places it 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core i9-9900K and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700H, making it a competitive mid-range option.

The measured FPS data reveals the CPU's influence at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system hits 137.5 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's practical frame rate ceiling for this game. The scaling from 1080p Low to 1440p Low (129.8 FPS) is only a 5.6% drop, while 4K Low (113.8 FPS) is a 17.2% drop from 1080p. This pattern suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor at Low settings, as the GPU has ample headroom. Conversely, at Ultra settings, the CPU is less relevant; the 1080p Ultra (65.1 FPS) to 4K Ultra (43.3 FPS) drop of 33.5% shows the GPU is fully saturated. The CPU's 65 W TDP and PCIe Gen 3 interface (20 lanes) are adequate for this GPU, though PCIe 4.0 on the GPU side ensures no bandwidth bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal settings depend on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 4K displays, the data clearly points to Medium settings as the best compromise. At 3840x2160, Medium yields 73.3 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a significant visual upgrade over Low (113.8 FPS). High at 4K (51.6 FPS) is playable but not smooth, while Ultra (43.3 FPS) is best reserved for screenshots rather than gameplay. The 21.7 FPS difference between Medium and High at 4K makes Medium the clear choice for maintaining fluid motion in this horror title, where responsiveness is critical.

At 2560x1440, High settings (65.2 FPS) offer the best experience for most users, providing a strong balance of visual quality and frame rate. For those with high-refresh-rate monitors, Medium (88.7 FPS) is an excellent option that sacrifices some shadow detail for a much smoother frame delivery. Ultra at 1440p (50 FPS) is not recommended for active play, as the frame rate drops below the 60 FPS target. At 1920x1080, the system is powerful enough to run High (80.9 FPS) or even Ultra (65.1 FPS) comfortably. The 1080p Low (137.5 FPS) and Medium (109.6 FPS) results are useful for competitive or high-refresh-rate play, but the visual fidelity loss is noticeable.

The data suggests a simple rule: prioritize Medium settings at 4K, High at 1440p, and Ultra at 1080p. This maximizes the visual experience while maintaining a playable frame rate. The 24 GB VRAM means there is no concern about memory capacity at any settings, so the choice is purely about compute load. Given that the system ranks 255th out of 1689 combos, this configuration is well above average, and the settings recommendations above allow it to deliver a consistently smooth experience across all resolutions.