The Medium

The Medium presents a particularly heavy load for the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination, with benchmark results showing a system that is consistently pushed toward its limits. The data reveals a configuration where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher settings, but the CPU's capabilities become increasingly relevant as resolution drops. This analysis examines the measured frames per second across three resolutions and four quality presets, interpreting what the numbers indicate about the balance of this pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and expected pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, but the magnitude of the drop is substantial. At 1080p with High settings, the system produces 46.9 FPS, which falls to 39.8 FPS at 1440p and further to 29.8 FPS at 4K. This represents a 36% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at High settings. The scaling pattern suggests that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are increasingly taxed by the pixel count.

The Low preset tells a different story, with 1080p delivering 98.4 FPS, 1440p at 86.9 FPS, and 4K still maintaining 67.8 FPS. The relatively smaller drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings (31% reduction) indicates that when the GPU load is reduced, the system has more headroom. However, the Ultra preset shows the steepest cliff, with 37.2 FPS at 1080p dropping to 33 FPS at 1440p and just 23.6 FPS at 4K, a 37% decline from the lowest to highest resolution. This suggests that at Ultra settings, the GPU is thoroughly saturated, and the 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute cannot keep pace with the demands of The Medium's fixed camera angles and volumetric effects.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER's specifications directly explain its performance envelope in this title. With a base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz, the GPU's 2560 shading units are working hard across all tested settings. The 8 GB VRAM capacity, paired with a 256-bit bus and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, appears sufficient for 1080p and 1440p but becomes a constraint at 4K, particularly at High and Ultra presets where texture detail increases.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 22206. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A400, scores 22307, a mere 0.5% difference, while the AMD Radeon RX 5700 trails by 2.5% with a score of 21670. The measured FPS data aligns with this mid-range positioning: the card delivers playable frame rates at 1080p on Medium and Low, but struggles to maintain 30 FPS at 4K on High settings. The 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present, but The Medium's use of ray-traced reflections and shadows appears to be a significant load, as evidenced by the sharp FPS drop when transitioning from High to Ultra settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 provides a solid foundation with 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boosting to 4.60 GHz. This Zen 3 architecture processor, built on TSMC's 7 nm process, delivers strong multicore performance with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20655 and a single-core score of 2916. The 16 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth help feed the GPU, though the PCIe Gen 3 interface with 20 lanes may slightly constrain data transfer compared to newer platforms.

The CPU's percentile ranking sits at 84, with an average benchmark score of 27220, placing it just 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core i9-9900K and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700H. In The Medium, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 98.4 FPS, and the gap between 1080p and 1440p Low (98.4 vs 86.9 FPS) suggests the CPU is still capable of driving the GPU at these settings. However, the fact that even at 1080p Ultra the system only reaches 37.2 FPS indicates that the GPU is the primary limiter, not the CPU. The 8-core, 16-thread configuration is well-suited for The Medium's dual-reality rendering mechanics, which can leverage multiple threads, but the data shows the RTX 2070 SUPER cannot fully exploit this CPU's headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database's tested combinations, this pairing of CPU and GPU ranks 1018 out of 1689 combos, placing it in the bottom 40% of tested systems. This ranking reflects the GPU's 65th percentile standing against the CPU's stronger 84th percentile, creating an imbalance where the CPU has more headroom than the GPU can utilize in this specific title. The combo's position suggests that while the Ryzen 7 5700 is a capable processor, the RTX 2070 SUPER holds back overall performance in The Medium.

The ranking is particularly telling when considering the GPU's nearest rivals. The RTX 2070 SUPER scores 2.3% lower than the GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile and 0.9% higher than the GTX TITAN Z, yet the combination with this CPU does not boost the system into higher percentiles. This indicates that The Medium is heavily GPU-bound at most settings, and the CPU's strong benchmark scores — including a Passmark multithread score of 24303 and 3DMark max threads score of 6617 — cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations in this horror title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The data provides a comprehensive matrix of performance across all resolution and setting combinations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 98.4 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate in the entire dataset. Medium settings at 1080p produce 62 FPS, High drops to 46.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 37.2 FPS. This 62% reduction from Low to Ultra at 1080p illustrates the massive impact of the game's graphical features, including ray tracing and high-resolution textures.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern continues with Low delivering 86.9 FPS, Medium at 52.2 FPS, High at 39.8 FPS, and Ultra at 33 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 1440p narrows at Ultra settings (37.2 vs 33 FPS) compared to Low settings (98.4 vs 86.9 FPS), confirming that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as settings increase. At 3840x2160, the system manages 67.8 FPS on Low, 44.5 FPS on Medium, 29.8 FPS on High, and only 23.6 FPS on Ultra, with the latter being the only setting that dips below 30 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal balance between visual quality and playable frame rates occurs at 1080p with Medium settings, delivering 62 FPS. This provides a smooth experience while still offering improved visual fidelity over Low settings. At 1440p, Medium settings at 52.2 FPS offer the best compromise, though users prioritizing frame rate could select Low for 86.9 FPS. For 4K, the data suggests that only Low settings (67.8 FPS) are viable for consistent playability, as High settings at 29.8 FPS fall below the 30 FPS threshold and Ultra at 23.6 FPS is noticeably stutter-prone.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as even at 1080p it only achieves 37.2 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. High settings at 1080p (46.9 FPS) are acceptable for slower-paced horror gameplay, but the 31% improvement from High to Medium (62 FPS) makes Medium the superior choice for most users. The data clearly shows that this hardware combination is best served by Medium settings at 1080p or 1440p, with Low settings reserved for 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest frame rate achieved by this system in The Medium?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 98.4 at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Can this system play The Medium at 4K Ultra settings?

A: No, the measured average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 23.6, which is below the 30 FPS threshold for acceptable playability.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 scores 0.7% higher than the Intel Core i9-9900K and 0.8% higher than the Intel Core i7-12700H in average benchmark scores.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile among all tested GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER sits in the 65th percentile, with an average benchmark score of 22206.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU ranks in the 84th percentile while the GPU ranks in the 65th, and frame rates drop dramatically with increased settings.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gaming?

A: Medium settings at 1920x1080 deliver 62 FPS, which provides the best balance of visual quality and smooth gameplay, compared to 46.9 FPS on High and 98.4 FPS on Low.