The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title from 2021, presents a unique challenge for the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT combination. This pairing ranks at 951 out of 3724 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top 26% of all systems benchmarked. That is a respectable position, but the data reveals that the experience is highly dependent on the settings and resolution you choose, with a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate smoothness.

The measured results show a system that is more than capable of handling the game at 1080p and 1440p, but which requires careful settings management to achieve a consistent 60 FPS experience. At 4K, the GPU is pushed to its limits, and even then, the highest visual presets are not playable at a smooth frame rate. The data suggests that this is a solid pairing for high-refresh-rate 1080p gaming and good 1440p gaming, but it is not a 4K powerhouse for this specific title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 5700 and the RX 9070 XT achieves a rank of 951 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, which places it in the 74th percentile of all systems tested. This is a strong showing, indicating that the pairing is well-balanced for this game's engine. The CPU, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, provides a solid foundation, while the GPU does the heavy lifting for rendering the game's dual-world mechanic.

Looking at the individual component benchmarks, the CPU's average benchmark score of 25517 places it right in line with its nearest rivals. It is effectively tied with the Intel Xeon D-2752TER, which has a score of 25530 and a delta of -0.1%, and the AMD Ryzen 5 7640U, which scores 25485 with a delta of 0.1%. This indicates that the Ryzen 7 5700 offers performance that is statistically identical to these alternatives, making it a very consistent performer. The GPU, with an average benchmark score of 13543, also performs in line with its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13515, delta 0.2%) and the AMD Radeon Pro 555 (13407, delta 1%). While these are older cards, the benchmark data shows the RX 9070 XT's raw compute performance is in this range.

The in-game rank of 951 is a more useful metric than the synthetic benchmarks alone. It shows that when combined, this CPU and GPU produce a frame rate experience that beats the majority of other tested systems. The high rank is likely due to the fact that The Medium is a demanding title, and this combo provides enough horsepower to handle it, but the specific settings and resolution still significantly alter the outcome.

Settings Recommendations

Benchmark results clearly indicate that the "Ultra" preset is not a viable option for this combination at any resolution if you are targeting a smooth 60 FPS experience. At 1080p, Ultra yields an average of 53 FPS, which drops to 45 FPS at 1440p and 35 FPS at 4K. These numbers are below the threshold for a fluid horror game, where consistent frame pacing is crucial for atmosphere and responsiveness.

The "High" preset offers a better balance but still struggles to maintain 60 FPS at higher resolutions. At 1080p, High settings produce an average of 67 FPS, which is playable. However, at 1440p this drops to 56 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 44 FPS. The data suggests that High settings are only suitable for 1080p gaming with this combo.

The sweet spot for this system is the "Medium" preset. At 1080p, Medium settings deliver an excellent average of 93 FPS, with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 107 FPS. This provides a large headroom above 60 FPS, ensuring a very smooth experience. At 1440p, Medium settings still provide a very playable average of 79 FPS, with a minimum of 67 FPS. This makes 1440p Medium the best overall experience for this combination. At 4K, Medium settings drop to 62 FPS average, which is still playable but gets close to the limit. For the best experience, the data indicates that using Medium settings at 1440p is the optimal choice, offering a good balance between visual quality and performance that stays well within the playable range.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals that the RX 9070 XT is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 93 at 1080p to 79 at 1440p, a 15% decrease. When moving from 1440p to 4K, the average FPS drops further to 62, another 21.5% decrease. This pattern indicates that the GPU is becoming increasingly saturated as the pixel count rises.

The scaling pattern is more dramatic at High settings, where the average FPS drops from 67 at 1080p to 56 at 1440p (a 16.4% decrease) and then to 44 at 4K (a 21.4% decrease from 1440p). This shows that as the settings increase, the GPU's workload becomes much more demanding, and the frame rate suffers proportionally more at higher resolutions. The CPU, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, is not showing signs of bottlenecking in this data; the consistent frame rate drops are directly tied to the GPU's rendering load.

The most telling data point is the performance at 4K Low settings, which produces an average of 99 FPS. This is nearly identical to the 1080p High setting average of 67 FPS, but it shows that when the GPU is not heavily burdened, the system can produce high frame rates even at 4K. This confirms that the CPU is not a limiting factor; the GPU is the bottleneck at higher resolutions and settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combination provides a detailed look at its performance envelope across the three most common resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its peak performance. Low settings yield a very high average of 138 FPS. Medium settings produce an excellent average of 93 FPS, with a minimum of 79 and a maximum of 107, showing good frame consistency. High settings drop to an average of 67 FPS, which is still smooth for most players. Ultra settings are the only preset that fails to hit 60 FPS, with an average of 53 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down as expected. Low settings still provide a high average of 126 FPS. Medium settings are the recommended sweet spot, delivering a strong 79 FPS average, with a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS. High settings produce a playable but less consistent 56 FPS average. Ultra settings are not recommended for smooth gameplay, as the average drops to 45 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is heavily taxed. Low settings are surprisingly effective, producing an average of 99 FPS. Medium settings yield a playable average of 62 FPS, with a minimum of 53 FPS and a maximum of 71 FPS, indicating some slight frame dips. High settings drop to an average of 44 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 35 FPS, making both of these presets unsuitable for a smooth experience at this resolution.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT plays the central role in determining frame rates in The Medium, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a substantial 644.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The game's dual-world mechanic, which renders two separate environments simultaneously, is likely to be memory-intensive, and this large frame buffer and high bandwidth are crucial for maintaining performance.

The GPU's high boost clock of 2970 MHz and its 4096 shading units provide the raw computational power needed to render the game's complex scenes. However, the benchmark data shows that this power is finite. The significant frame rate drops when moving from Medium to High, and from High to Ultra, indicate that the GPU's shader units and texture processors are being pushed to their limits. The pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s are substantial, but the game's rendering load at 4K Ultra is simply too much to maintain a high frame rate.

The GPU's 64 RT cores are present, but the measured data does not specify if ray tracing is enabled in these tests. The performance numbers suggest that the game is being run in its standard rasterized mode. The fact that the GPU drops to an average of 35 FPS at 4K Ultra is a clear indication that this is a very demanding title for the graphics card, and that users will need to moderate settings to achieve their target frame rate.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 provides a robust foundation for this gaming system. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, it offers more than enough processing power to feed the RX 9070 XT in The Medium. Its boost clock of 4.60 GHz and a substantial 16 MB of L3 cache ensure that the CPU can handle the game's logic, AI, and the overhead of rendering two worlds at once.

The CPU's benchmark scores support its capability. For instance, its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20655 and single-core score of 2916 are strong indicators of its performance. The Passmark single-thread score of 3296 also shows good single-core performance, which is often critical for game physics and frame pacing. The CPU's performance is effectively tied with its nearest rivals, showing that it is a consistent and dependable choice.

Crucially, the measured FPS data shows no signs of a CPU bottleneck. The frame rates scale predictably with resolution and settings, which would not be the case if the CPU were struggling to keep up. Even at 1080p Low settings, where the CPU would have the most influence on the maximum frame rate, the system achieves 138 FPS. This indicates that the Ryzen 7 5700 has ample headroom and is not the limiting factor in this configuration. Its performance is sufficient to allow the GPU to be the sole determinant of frame rate, which is the ideal scenario for a gaming PC.