The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 combination delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, a horror title that clearly stresses both components. The data shows a system that can handle 1080p gaming comfortably at lower presets, but struggles significantly as resolution and graphical fidelity increase. This pairing is ultimately constrained by the GPU in most scenarios, though the CPU provides a solid foundation for the 8-core, 16-thread workload this game presents.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G is a Zen 3 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. This 7 nm chip, codenamed Cezanne, sits in the 5000 series and supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel bus. Its benchmark results indicate strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20755 and a Passmark multithread score of 24419. The single-thread performance is also respectable, as shown by a Geekbench single-core score of 2016 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2930.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's 8-core layout is relevant because the game is known for loading entire levels in the background, which creates a substantial processing load. The 5700G's 16 threads ensure that background streaming tasks do not starve the main game logic of resources. With a 3DMark 16-thread score of 6629, the processor demonstrates it can handle simultaneous workloads. The CPU's percentile of 83 versus all CPUs places it in the upper tier of processors, and it is within 0.6% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7640U in average benchmark score, showing it competes with newer mobile parts. The data suggests that the 5700G is not the primary bottleneck in this combo; its compute headroom is sufficient to feed the GTX 1070 in most settings, except at the very lowest presets where the GPU becomes less stressed.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is a Pascal architecture card with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.3 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1506 MHz with a boost clock of 1683 MHz. The card features 1920 shading units and 64 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 107.7 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 202.0 GTexel/s. Its FP32 performance is 6.463 TFLOPS. In terms of raw compute, it holds a Passmark G3D score of 13498, which places it in the 51st percentile of all GPUs, a middling position that reflects its age.

The GTX 1070's 8 GB VRAM is a crucial factor in The Medium, as the game's high-resolution textures and dual-reality rendering can consume significant memory. The memory clock of 2002 MHz (8 Gbps effective) provides adequate bandwidth for 1080p gaming, but the measured FPS data shows that the card becomes overwhelmed at higher resolutions. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER, is only 1.4% faster in average benchmark score, indicating that the 1070 is still competitive with much newer budget cards. However, the 1070 lacks hardware ray tracing and has a DirectX 12 score of only 48 in Passmark, which suggests it is not optimized for the latest rendering techniques. The data clearly shows that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing, especially when settings are raised beyond Low.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

In the database of tested hardware combinations for The Medium, this specific pairing of the Ryzen 7 5700G and GTX 1070 ranks 1430 out of 1689 total combos. This places it in the bottom 15% of all tested systems, which is a sobering statistic for a card that was once considered high-end. The rank of 1430 indicates that a significant majority of other CPU-GPU pairings deliver higher frame rates in this game. This low ranking is primarily attributable to the GTX 1070's age and its inability to handle the game's demanding visual effects at higher presets.

The combo's position in the rankings is consistent with the GPU's 51st percentile standing; it is a mid-range card that is being outpaced by newer hardware in a game that is particularly heavy on shader complexity. While the CPU is in the 83rd percentile, it cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations. This suggests that for users with this exact setup, the expectation should be for a playable experience only at lower settings and resolutions. The deltaPct values from the GPU's nearest rivals show that it is only 0.7% faster than the Quadro K4200 and 1.3% slower than the GTX 880M, which are all older or workstation parts, further confirming the 1070's dated performance profile.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers an average of 75 FPS on Low settings, which is smooth and responsive. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 47.9 FPS, still acceptable for a horror game. High settings yield 33.5 FPS, and Ultra brings the average down to 28.5 FPS, which is borderline playable but with noticeable stutter in action sequences.

At 2560x1440, the performance degrades more sharply. The Low preset averages 64 FPS, which is good, but Medium drops to 36.8 FPS, High to 26.2 FPS, and Ultra to 22.7 FPS. These figures indicate that 1440p is only really viable at Low settings for a consistent experience. At 3840x2160, the results are mostly unplayable. Low averages 48.5 FPS, which is surprising, but Medium falls to 32.6 FPS, High to 19.8 FPS, and Ultra to 17.5 FPS. The 4K Low result is an outlier, suggesting that the game's Low preset reduces the rendering load significantly enough to allow the GPU to keep up, but the higher presets are clearly too demanding.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound pattern. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 75 at 1080p to 64 at 1440p and then to 48.5 at 4K. This represents a 35.3% decrease from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the drop is from 47.9 to 36.8 to 32.6, a 31.9% decrease over the same range. At High, the figures go from 33.5 to 26.2 to 19.8, a 40.9% drop. At Ultra, the averages are 28.5, 22.7, and 17.5, a 38.6% decrease.

The fact that the FPS does not scale linearly with pixel count (which would be a 4x increase in pixels from 1080p to 4K) indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. If the CPU were the limit, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions, as the CPU work per frame stays constant. Instead, the consistent FPS decline with increased resolution shows that the GTX 1070's pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are being saturated. The 4K Low result of 48.5 FPS is particularly telling; it shows that when the shader complexity is reduced, the GPU can still deliver decent frame rates, but the memory bandwidth becomes insufficient at higher presets, causing the dramatic drops.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured data, the recommended configuration for this combo is to play The Medium at 1920x1080 with the Low preset, which yields an average of 75 FPS. This provides a smooth, responsive experience that is ideal for a horror game where timing and reaction are important. The Medium preset at 1080p, with 47.9 FPS, is also viable if you prefer better visuals, as it remains above the 30 FPS threshold for playability. However, the High and Ultra presets at 1080p, averaging 33.5 and 28.5 FPS respectively, are not recommended for a consistent experience, as the frame rate dips near or below 30 FPS can cause judder.

For users with a 1440p monitor, the Low preset is the only sensible option, offering 64 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p, at 36.8 FPS, is playable but risky during intense scenes. At 4K, the Low preset at 48.5 FPS is technically playable, but the visual quality is so reduced that it undermines the purpose of the high resolution. The data suggests that the best balance of visual fidelity and performance is achieved at 1080p Medium, where the game's atmospheric lighting and shadows are still present without sacrificing smoothness. This configuration leverages the CPU's strength while acknowledging the GPU's limitations, providing a horror experience that is both immersive and responsive.