The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title from 2021, presents a distinctive load profile when paired with the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. The measured frame rates across resolutions and presets reveal a system that is heavily influenced by the graphics card's memory capacity and the game's engine demands, rather than by the CPU's substantial thread count. The data suggests that while the Ryzen 7 5700G provides ample processing headroom, the RTX 3070 Ti's 8 GB of GDDR6X memory becomes a defining constraint at higher fidelity settings, creating a performance curve that rewards careful settings selection.

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

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 exposes a classic GPU-bound scenario, but with an unusual twist in the scaling magnitude. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 129.5 FPS at 1080p to 84.6 FPS at 4K, a drop of 34.7% that indicates a strong dependency on pixel throughput. This is expected behavior for a horror game with complex lighting and volumetric effects, but the scaling becomes more aggressive when moving to higher presets. The High preset shows a decline from 60.8 FPS at 1080p to 40 FPS at 4K, a 34.2% reduction, while the Medium preset falls from 81.3 FPS to 53.9 FPS, a 33.7% drop.

The most telling data point is the Ultra preset, where the frame rate plummets from 43.4 FPS at 1080p to 31.5 FPS at 4K, a 27.4% decrease. This smaller relative drop at Ultra is not a sign of CPU limitation; rather, it indicates that the system is already struggling at 1080p due to the extreme memory and bandwidth demands of the Ultra preset. The absolute numbers at 4K Ultra are low enough to suggest that the RTX 3070 Ti is hitting a hard wall, likely related to its 8 GB memory buffer, as the game’s high-resolution textures and shadow maps consume available VRAM rapidly. The fact that the Low preset at 4K (84.6 FPS) is more than double the Ultra preset at 1080p (43.4 FPS) highlights how much of the performance envelope is dictated by settings rather than resolution alone.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, featuring 6144 shading units and 48 RT cores. Its boost clock of 1770 MHz and memory clock of 1188 MHz (19 Gbps effective) provide a theoretical bandwidth of 608.3 GB/s across a 256-bit bus. In The Medium, these specifications should be sufficient for high frame rates, yet the measured results tell a more nuanced story. The 8 GB of GDDR6X memory appears to be the primary bottleneck at Medium, High, and Ultra presets, especially at 1440p and 4K.

Consider the 2560x1440 results: Low settings deliver 106.6 FPS, but Medium drops to 69.9 FPS, High to 49.7 FPS, and Ultra to 37.7 FPS. The steep decline from Low to Medium (34.4% reduction) suggests that the moment the game starts loading higher-resolution assets, the memory subsystem becomes saturated. This is corroborated by the 4K results, where Medium (53.9 FPS) is only 63.7% of the Low preset’s performance (84.6 FPS). The GPU’s raw compute power, estimated at 21.75 TFLOPS FP32, is not the limiting factor; instead, the data implies that texture streaming and memory allocation are causing the RTX 3070 Ti to throttle its shader throughput to avoid exceeding the 8 GB cap.

The GPU’s percentile ranking of 74 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30849, places it in a mid-to-high tier, but its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6700 (deltaPct -0.8) and the NVIDIA Quadro M5000 (deltaPct -0.9). These rivals have similar average scores, yet the RTX 3070 Ti’s performance in this specific game is likely hampered by its memory configuration. The data shows that at no point does the GPU’s clock speed become a limiting factor; rather, the game’s engine seems to prioritize memory capacity over raw throughput, making the 8 GB buffer a liability at Ultra settings.

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

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G is a Zen 3 (Cezanne) processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, base clock of 3.80 GHz, and boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (51.2 GB/s bandwidth) are robust for gaming, and its benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20755 and a single-core score of 2930. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 83 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25626, places it well above the 74th percentile of the GPU, indicating that the processor is not the bottleneck in this pairing.

Looking at the measured FPS, there is no evidence of CPU limitation even at 1080p Low, where the frame rate reaches 129.5 FPS. If the Ryzen 7 5700G were struggling, we would expect to see a plateau across resolutions at Low settings, but instead we see a consistent scaling from 129.5 FPS (1080p) to 106.6 FPS (1440p) to 84.6 FPS (4K). This pattern is purely GPU-driven. The 3DMark scores for the CPU, such as 6629 for 16 threads and 899 for single-thread, suggest that the processor can handle the game’s fixed-camera rendering logic and AI computations without breaking a sweat. The Ryzen 7 5700G’s nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (deltaPct -0.3) and Intel Xeon D-2752TER (deltaPct 0.4), have similar average scores, reinforcing that the CPU is more than adequate for this title.

FAQ

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so significantly from Low to Medium settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the average FPS falls from 84.6 (Low) to 53.9 (Medium), a 36.3% reduction. This steep drop indicates that the Medium preset starts utilizing higher-resolution textures that exceed the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB memory capacity, causing the GPU to spend cycles on memory management rather than rendering.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700G holding back the RTX 3070 Ti in this game?

A: No. The CPU’s benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20755, are far above what The Medium requires. The measured FPS scaling across resolutions is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, not a CPU bottleneck.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo if I want to stay above 60 FPS on High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with High settings, the average FPS is 60.8, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440 High, the FPS drops to 49.7, so 1080p is the only resolution where High settings maintain playable smoothness.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in terms of raw GPU score?

A: The RTX 3070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 30849, while the AMD Radeon RX 6700 scores 31112 (deltaPct -0.8) and the NVIDIA Quadro M5000 scores 31142 (deltaPct -0.9). These differences are less than 1%, indicating similar raw performance, but the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB memory may cause it to underperform in VRAM-heavy games like The Medium.

Q: Can I achieve 4K gaming with this setup?

A: Yes, but only on Low settings, where the average FPS is 84.6. On Medium, the FPS drops to 53.9, and on Ultra it falls to 31.5, which is below the 60 FPS target for most players.

Q: What does the combo rank of 654 out of 1689 mean for this pairing?

A: This rank places the Ryzen 7 5700G + RTX 3070 Ti combo in the 61st percentile of all tested configurations for The Medium. It indicates that while the combo is above average, many other pairings achieve higher frame rates, likely due to GPUs with larger memory buffers.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 654th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places the pairing in the upper-middle tier of all configurations, but the ranking is somewhat deceptive given the CPU’s strength. The Ryzen 7 5700G’s percentile of 83 suggests it is a top-tier processor, while the RTX 3070 Ti’s percentile of 74 is slightly lower. The combo’s rank of 654 indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, dragging the overall performance below what the CPU could otherwise support.

The data shows that the combo’s performance is heavily dependent on settings. At 1080p Low, the 129.5 FPS average would likely rank much higher, but at 4K Ultra, the 31.5 FPS average would rank near the bottom. This variability suggests that the combo’s rank is not a fixed attribute but rather a function of the user’s chosen settings. The nearest rivals for the GPU, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6700, have similar raw scores, but combos using those GPUs might rank higher if they have more VRAM. The rank of 654 out of 1689 is a mid-pack result, reflecting the RTX 3070 Ti’s struggle with memory-intensive presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings deliver 129.5 FPS, Medium delivers 81.3 FPS, High delivers 60.8 FPS, and Ultra delivers 43.4 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 66.5% reduction in performance, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium (37.2% reduction). This suggests that the Medium preset introduces significant graphical enhancements that tax the GPU’s memory subsystem.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS values are: Low at 106.6 FPS, Medium at 69.9 FPS, High at 49.7 FPS, and Ultra at 37.7 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is a 17.7% decrease, while at Ultra settings it is a 13.1% decrease. This indicates that at higher presets, the GPU is already constrained at 1080p, so the resolution increase has a smaller relative impact.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS values are: Low at 84.6 FPS, Medium at 53.9 FPS, High at 40 FPS, and Ultra at 31.5 FPS. The 4K Low result is the only preset that remains above 60 FPS, while all other presets fall below that threshold. The drop from 1440p to 4K at High settings is 19.5%, and at Ultra settings it is 16.4%, further confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor at all resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS or higher, the only viable options are Low settings at any resolution, or Medium settings at 1080p. The 1080p Medium result of 81.3 FPS offers a good balance between visual fidelity and smoothness, but it is still far below the Low preset’s 129.5 FPS. If the user prioritizes frame rate, Low settings at 1080p is the clear choice, providing the highest headroom for action sequences.

For a more visually rich experience without sacrificing playability, 1080p High at 60.8 FPS is the best compromise, as it sits just above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p, the High preset’s 49.7 FPS is likely too choppy for a horror game that relies on tension and atmosphere, so Medium at 1440p (69.9 FPS) is the recommended sweet spot for this resolution. At 4K, only Low settings (84.6 FPS) are acceptable; any higher preset will result in sub-60 FPS performance, with Ultra dropping to 31.5 FPS, which is not recommended for this title. The data suggests that the RTX 3070 Ti’s 8 GB memory is the primary constraint, so users should avoid Ultra presets entirely to maintain a stable experience.