The Medium

The Medium pairs an 8-core, 16-thread AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with the Radeon RX 9070, a combination that lands in the 67th percentile of all tested setups for this title (rank 550 out of 1689). This is a system built around a strong GPU, and the benchmark data reflects that, but the CPU still plays a role in maintaining frame pacing. The Ryzen 7 5700G runs at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boosts to 4.60 GHz, with 16 MB of L3 cache. Its synthetic multi-threaded scores are solid, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core result of 20755 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 8970. Single-thread performance is adequate at 2930 in Cinebench R23, which matters because The Medium relies on a few heavily utilized threads for its fixed-camera scenes.

The game’s measured frames per second (FPS) show that the CPU is not the bottleneck at higher resolutions, but at 1080p the gap between settings suggests the GPU is doing most of the heavy lifting. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system hits 138.6 FPS average. That is a high number, but it is not absurdly high, meaning the CPU can feed the GPU enough data to keep it busy. The 5700G’s 3DMark 16-thread score of 6629 and max-thread score of 6627 indicate consistent multi-core throughput, which helps when the game streams in new areas. The data shows that the Ryzen 7 5700G is a capable partner for the RX 9070, though its PCIe Gen 3 interface could theoretically limit data transfer in some scenarios; the measured results here do not reveal a dramatic penalty.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear hierarchy for the four presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 138.6 FPS average, which is far above playable and suggests the GPU is not being stressed. Medium drops to 86 FPS, still smooth, while High comes in at 61 FPS. Ultra falls to 49.5 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium is a 52.6 FPS loss, but the visual quality gain in a horror title is often worth it. For a 60 Hz display, Medium at 1080p is the sweet spot: it stays above 60 FPS with a 26 FPS margin over High.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low yields 119.3 FPS, Medium 71.7 FPS, High 51.5 FPS, and Ultra 40.1 FPS. Here, Medium is the only preset that clears 60 FPS comfortably. High drops below 60, which can cause judder on standard refresh monitors. For 1440p, the recommendation is Medium if you want a locked 60 FPS experience. If you have a variable refresh rate display, High at 51.5 FPS is playable, but the data shows a 20.2 FPS drop from Medium to High, which is a steep cost for the extra detail.

At 4K (3840x2160), the situation becomes more demanding. Low is the only preset that breaks 60 FPS, hitting 92.5 FPS. Medium falls to 59.1 FPS, just under the 60 FPS line, while High manages 43.9 FPS and Ultra drops to 35.6 FPS. For 4K, the practical choice is Low if you want smooth playback, or Medium if you can tolerate occasional dips below 60. The data indicates that Medium at 4K is borderline, and most users would benefit from lowering to Low to maintain a consistent frame rate in a game that has stutter-prone scene transitions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound workload. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 138.6 at 1080p to 119.3 at 1440p, a 19.3 FPS reduction, then to 92.5 at 4K, a further 26.8 FPS drop. This is a typical curve for a GPU that has ample shading power but is limited by memory bandwidth or pixel fill rate at higher resolutions. The RX 9070 has 3584 shading units and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. That bandwidth is substantial, but the game’s fixed-camera angles with detailed textures still push the GPU hard.

At High settings, the 1080p score is 61 FPS, which drops to 51.5 FPS at 1440p (a 9.5 FPS loss) and then to 43.9 FPS at 4K (a 7.6 FPS loss). The proportional drop from 1440p to 4K is smaller than from 1080p to 1440p, which suggests the GPU is hitting a compute limit rather than a bandwidth wall. The FP32 throughput is 36.13 TFLOPS, and the data shows that the card is being pushed to its limits at 4K Ultra, where it only manages 35.6 FPS. The limiting component is clearly the GPU; the CPU’s influence is minimal at 4K, as the frame rate is dictated by the pixel and shading workload.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 5700G and RX 9070 achieves a rank of 550 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. That places it in the upper third of all systems, which is respectable for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The percentile rank of 67 means that 33% of tested combos perform better. The CPU itself sits at the 83rd percentile among all CPUs in general benchmarks, while the GPU is at the 79th percentile among all GPUs. This pairing is slightly CPU-limited in synthetic tests, but the game data shows that the GPU is the primary driver of performance.

The nearest rivals for the CPU include the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U, which scores 25706 on average, just 0.3% higher than the 5700G’s 25626 average. The Intel Xeon D-2752TER is 0.4% slower, and the Intel Core 5 210H is 0.5% faster. These differences are negligible in real-world gaming. The GPU’s nearest rivals are the NVIDIA A2 (0.2% faster), the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 (0.3% slower), and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 (0.7% slower). These are not gaming-grade competitors, but they indicate that the RX 9070’s raw compute score is well-regarded. In The Medium, the combo’s rank shows that the system is capable, but not top-tier, which aligns with the measured FPS being strong at 1080p and adequate at 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the dominant component in this pairing. Its Navi 48 chip on a 4 nm process has 53,900 million transistors and a die size of 357 mm². The GPU runs at a base clock of 1330 MHz and boosts to 2520 MHz, with a game clock of 2070 MHz. The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is a key asset for The Medium, which can use high-resolution textures without hitting VRAM limits. The memory clock is 2518 MHz, effective at 20.1 Gbps, providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. This is more than enough for the game’s data streaming.

The GPU’s benchmark scores are strong, with a PassMark G3D score of 25381 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 165532. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6290, indicating solid DirectX 12 performance. In the measured FPS, the GPU shows its strength at 1080p Low, where it hits 138.6 FPS, but the gap between Low and Ultra at 4K (92.5 vs 35.6 FPS) shows that the GPU is heavily loaded by the game’s effects. The 56 ray tracing cores and 128 ROPs help with the game’s lighting, but the data suggests that rasterization performance is the main driver. The GPU’s TDP is 220 W, and it requires a 550 W PSU, which is a reasonable ask for the performance on offer.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset provides a clear picture of performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080: Low averages 138.6 FPS, Medium 86 FPS, High 61 FPS, and Ultra 49.5 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop is 52.6 FPS, the Medium-to-High drop is 25 FPS, and the High-to-Ultra drop is 11.5 FPS. This shows diminishing returns as settings increase, with Ultra costing a significant chunk of performance for marginal visual gains.

At 2560x1440: Low averages 119.3 FPS, Medium 71.7 FPS, High 51.5 FPS, and Ultra 40.1 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop is 47.6 FPS, Medium-to-High is 20.2 FPS, and High-to-Ultra is 11.4 FPS. The 1440p numbers are roughly 15-20% lower than 1080p, which is expected for a GPU that is scaling well with resolution. The only concern is that High drops below 60 FPS, which might be a problem for locked-refresh displays.

At 3840x2160: Low averages 92.5 FPS, Medium 59.1 FPS, High 43.9 FPS, and Ultra 35.6 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop is 33.4 FPS, Medium-to-High is 15.2 FPS, and High-to-Ultra is 8.3 FPS. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, with even Low settings requiring significant GPU throughput. The Medium preset at 4K is just shy of 60 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. The data shows that for a smooth 4K experience, users should stick to Low settings, while 1080p and 1440p offer more flexibility with Medium or High presets.