The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 presents a specific performance profile in The Medium, a horror title that stresses both the CPU’s thread management and the GPU’s memory bandwidth. The measured FPS data shows a clear hierarchy across resolutions and settings, with the combo ranking in the 74th percentile of tested configurations (rank 443 out of 1689). The Ryzen 7 5700X, a Zen 3 Vermeer chip with 8 cores and 16 threads, posts an average benchmark score of 26214, placing it 0.1% above the Intel Core i9-11900KF and 0.2% below the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X in synthetic tests. The RTX 4070, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivers a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s, which becomes a critical factor as resolution increases.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo if targeting 60 FPS?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset achieves 76.4 FPS, while the High preset drops to 58.6 FPS. For a solid 60 FPS target, 1440p Medium is the highest quality setting that clears the threshold, as 4K Medium only reaches 61.4 FPS but 4K High falls to 44.7 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070’s average benchmark score is 37283. It sits 0.6% above the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (score 37507) and 1.9% below the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A (score 38008). The delta against the RTX 4080 Mobile is -2.2%, meaning the desktop 4070 trails that mobile part by that margin in aggregate scoring.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at 1080p?

A: The data suggests the CPU becomes a limiting factor at lower resolutions. From 1080p Low (140.1 FPS) to 1440p Low (124.4 FPS), the drop is 15.7 FPS, but from 1080p Ultra (55.2 FPS) to 1440p Ultra (47.2 FPS), the drop is only 8 FPS. The larger absolute gap at Low settings indicates the CPU’s 16 threads are saturated before the GPU’s 12 GB frame buffer becomes the constraint.

Q: What is the FPS cost of moving from Medium to High settings?

A: Across all resolutions, the penalty is consistent. At 1080p, Medium (91.4 FPS) to High (68.5 FPS) costs 22.9 FPS. At 1440p, the same transition costs 18.2 FPS (76.4 to 58.6). At 4K, the cost is 16.7 FPS (61.4 to 44.7). The relative percentage drop grows with resolution, from 25% at 1080p to 27% at 4K.

Q: Is the 8-core CPU sufficient for this game’s multi-threaded load?

A: Yes. The Ryzen 7 5700X scores 22620 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 9500 in R20 multi-core. Its 3DMark multi-thread score is 6858, and the single-thread score is 921. Given that The Medium shows diminishing returns past 1440p, the CPU’s 32 MB shared L3 cache and 16 threads provide adequate headroom, though the 3DMark 2-thread score of 1821 indicates the game does not rely solely on two cores.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested systems for this game?

A: The combo ranks 443rd out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the top 26.2% of configurations. This rank reflects the balance between the CPU’s 83rd percentile standing among all CPUs and the GPU’s 81st percentile among all GPUs.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070’s 12 GB GDDR6X memory operates at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective), yielding 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth across a 192-bit bus. This bandwidth is the primary driver of performance scaling in The Medium, as the game’s fixed-camera horror scenes rely on high-resolution textures and volumetric effects. The GPU’s 5888 shading units and 184 texture mapping units produce a texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s, while the 64 ROPs deliver 158.4 GPixel/s. In practice, the 4K Ultra preset (32.5 FPS) demonstrates that the GPU’s 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 compute is insufficient to maintain playable frame rates at maximum fidelity, but the 4K Low preset (102 FPS) shows the same silicon can handle the load when shading complexity is reduced.

The memory clock of 1313 MHz is fixed across all measured rows, meaning the GPU’s bandwidth headroom does not change with settings. This explains why the FPS delta between Low and Medium is smaller at 4K (40.6 FPS) than at 1080p (48.7 FPS). At lower resolutions, the CPU can feed frames faster, but the GPU’s pixel fill rate becomes the bottleneck at higher settings. The RTX 4070’s 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores are present but not explicitly tested in the measured FPS data, as the game’s preset changes do not isolate ray tracing effects. The GPU’s launch MSRP is 599 USD, and it was released on 2023-04-11.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the Medium preset provides the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate for this combo. At 1080p, Medium (91.4 FPS) offers a 22.9 FPS advantage over High (68.5 FPS) while remaining 48.7 FPS below Low (140.1 FPS). The Medium preset at 1440p (76.4 FPS) is the only 1440p setting that exceeds the 60 FPS threshold, making it the practical choice for users with 1440p monitors. At 4K, Medium (61.4 FPS) barely clears 60 FPS, but the drop from 1440p Medium to 4K Medium is 15 FPS, indicating a steep resolution penalty.

For users prioritizing frame rate over visual quality, Low settings at 1440p (124.4 FPS) or 1080p (140.1 FPS) are the only options that approach high-refresh-rate territory. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it drops below 60 FPS even at 1080p (55.2 FPS) and falls to 32.5 FPS at 4K. The High preset sits in an awkward middle ground: it is playable at 1080p (68.5 FPS) but sub-60 at 1440p (58.6 FPS) and severely compromised at 4K (44.7 FPS). The data indicates that the Medium preset is the intended sweet spot, as it provides a 23-25% FPS uplift over High across all resolutions while maintaining a consistent visual baseline.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 443 out of 1689 tested configurations places it in the 73.8th percentile of all tested systems. This ranking is driven by the CPU’s synthetic performance: the Ryzen 7 5700X’s average benchmark score of 26214 puts it 0.1% above the Intel Core i9-11900KF and 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT, while trailing the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U by 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X by 0.2%. The GPU’s average score of 37283 is 2.5% above the AMD Radeon RX 5300M and 0.6% below the RX Vega 56.

In The Medium specifically, the rank reflects the combined workload. The CPU’s 3DMark multi-thread score of 6858 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22620 suggest it can handle the game’s asset streaming, but the GPU’s 4K performance ceiling (102 FPS on Low) caps the overall experience. Against the nearest rivals, the combo’s rank indicates it outperforms roughly 74% of tested systems, which is consistent with the GPU’s 81st percentile and CPU’s 83rd percentile standings. The rank of 443 out of 1689 means there are 1246 slower combos, but the 442 faster ones likely combine higher-tier GPUs or CPUs with higher multi-thread scores.

Resolution Scaling

Scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU as the dominant limiting component. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 140.1 (1080p) to 124.4 (1440p) to 102 (4K), representing a 27.2% total reduction from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the drop is from 91.4 to 76.4 to 61.4, a 32.8% reduction. At High settings, the drop is from 68.5 to 58.6 to 44.7, a 34.7% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 55.2 to 47.2 to 32.5, a 41.1% reduction. The increasing percentage loss at higher settings is characteristic of GPU-bound workloads, where pixel shading and memory bandwidth become more critical.

The CPU’s contribution is visible in the absolute FPS differences. From 1080p to 1440p at Low settings (15.7 FPS drop), the CPU still has headroom to feed the GPU. From 1440p to 4K at Low settings (22.4 FPS drop), the GPU’s fill rate takes over. The gap between 1080p and 1440p at Ultra settings (8 FPS drop) is smaller than the gap at Low settings (15.7 FPS), confirming that the CPU is not the primary constraint at higher quality presets. The 4K Ultra result of 32.5 FPS is 29.5% of the 1080p Low result, showing that the GPU’s 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is saturated by the combination of resolution and shading complexity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS ranges from 140.1 (Low) to 55.2 (Ultra). The Medium preset delivers 91.4 FPS, which is 65.2% of the Low result and 165.6% of the Ultra result. High settings produce 68.5 FPS, a 22.9 FPS reduction from Medium and a 13.3 FPS increase over Ultra. The step pattern is: Low (140.1), Medium (91.4), High (68.5), Ultra (55.2). The largest absolute gap is between Low and Medium (48.7 FPS), while the smallest gap is between High and Ultra (13.3 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the same ordering applies: Low (124.4), Medium (76.4), High (58.6), Ultra (47.2). The gap between Low and Medium is 48 FPS, nearly identical to the 1080p gap of 48.7 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is 11.4 FPS. The Medium preset at 76.4 FPS is the only 1440p setting above 60 FPS, while High at 58.6 FPS is just below the threshold. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a 11.2% reduction for Low (140.1 to 124.4), a 16.4% reduction for Medium (91.4 to 76.4), a 14.5% reduction for High (68.5 to 58.6), and a 14.5% reduction for Ultra (55.2 to 47.2).

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low (102), Medium (61.4), High (44.7), Ultra (32.5). The 4K Medium result is 60.2% of the 1440p Medium result and 67.2% of the 1080p Medium result. The 4K Low result is 82% of the 1440p Low result and 72.8% of the 1080p Low result. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 40.6 FPS, which is smaller than the 48 FPS gap at 1440p, indicating that the GPU’s bandwidth becomes a tighter constraint at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 32.5 FPS is the lowest measured value, and it represents 58.9% of the 1440p Ultra result (47.2 FPS). The data shows a consistent pattern: the GPU’s 12 GB frame buffer and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p Medium/High, but 4K requires dropping to Low settings for fluid gameplay, as Medium at 61.4 FPS is marginal and High at 44.7 FPS is not.