The Medium

The Medium, a horror title released in 2021, presents a demanding workload for the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combination. The CPU has a launch MSRP of $299, and the GPU has a launch MSRP of 799 USD. Measured frame rates across three resolutions and four presets show a system that is capable of high refresh rates at 1080p and playable performance at 4K, with the combo ranking 248th out of 1,689 tested configurations. The CPU, an 8-core/16-thread Zen 3 part with a 3.40 GHz base and 4.60 GHz boost, and the GPU, an Ada Lovelace chip with 12 GB GDDR6X memory, together deliver a balanced profile for this title.

Resolution Scaling

At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 140.2 FPS, Medium 109.3, High 78.1, and Ultra 60.8. Moving to 2560x1440, these figures become 134.2, 92, 67.2, and 49.3 respectively. At 3840x2160, the averages are 118.5, 70.3, 49.6, and 42.3. The pattern shows that the Low preset remains above 118 FPS even at 4K, while the Ultra preset falls below 50 FPS at 1440p and below 45 at 4K. The Medium preset at 4K is 70.3 FPS, compared to 109.3 at 1080p, a reduction of 39 FPS. The Low preset at 4K is 118.5 FPS, versus 140.2 at 1080p, a drop of 21.7 FPS. These differences indicate that the scaling penalty is not uniform across presets; the heavier Ultra and High presets lose a larger absolute number of frames when moving from 1080p to 4K.

The scaling behavior suggests that the GPU becomes the primary limiter as resolution increases, since the frame rate drops consistently across all presets. The Low preset's 4K result of 118.5 FPS is still higher than the 1080p High result of 78.1, implying that the Low preset is not resolution-bound at 4K. In contrast, the Ultra preset at 4K (42.3 FPS) is less than half the 1080p Low figure (140.2 FPS). This steep decline for Ultra points to the heavy shading and texture demands that scale with pixel count. The CPU's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,193, ensures that the frame rate at 1080p is not CPU-limited, as the 140.2 FPS Low result demonstrates. The multi-threaded score of 22,620 in Cinebench R23 further confirms that the 8-core/16-thread processor has ample headroom for this title's workload.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 5700X and RTX 4070 Ti achieves a rank of 248 out of 1,689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 15% of configurations. The CPU itself sits at the 83rd percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 26,214. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i9-11900KF (26,196, delta 0.1%) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X (26,272, delta -0.2%), showing that the 5700X is effectively tied with those parts in synthetic workloads. The GPU ranks at the 85th percentile, with an average score of 44,900. It is 0.6% below the RTX 5090 Mobile (45,152) and 1.6% above the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (44,195). These percentile positions suggest that both components are well above average, and the combo's rank reflects a balanced pairing. The CPU's average score of 26,214 is within 0.1% of the Intel Core i9-11900KF's 26,196 and within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X's 26,272, indicating that the 5700X offers comparable synthetic performance to those chips. The GPU's average score of 44,900 is 1.6% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 580's 44,195 and 0.6% lower than the RTX 5090 Mobile's 45,152, placing it in a tight competitive band.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070 Ti features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. Its base clock is 2310 MHz with a boost of 2610 MHz, and the memory runs at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). In The Medium, the measured frame rates at 4K Ultra (42.3 FPS) and 4K High (49.6 FPS) suggest that the GPU's compute and memory resources are sufficient to maintain playable performance, though the Ultra preset at 4K falls below 60 FPS. The 12 GB frame buffer is likely adequate for the game's texture loads, as the Low preset at 4K still achieves 118.5 FPS, indicating that memory capacity is not a bottleneck at lower settings. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 31,624 and its 85th percentile ranking support its position as a high-end part. The GPU is built on TSMC's 5 nm process with 35,800 million transistors, and its Ada Lovelace architecture includes 7,680 shading units and 60 RT cores. The memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s is sufficient to feed the 7,680 shading units at the measured resolutions, as evidenced by the consistent scaling from 1080p to 4K. The boost clock of 2610 MHz, combined with the 12 GB GDDR6X memory, allows the card to maintain high frame rates in the Low and Medium presets even at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured average FPS, the Medium preset offers the best balance across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 109.3 FPS, while High is 78.1 and Ultra is 60.8. At 2560x1440, Medium reaches 92 FPS, High drops to 67.2, and Ultra to 49.3. At 3840x2160, Medium maintains 70.3 FPS, whereas High falls to 49.6 and Ultra to 42.3. The Low preset provides the highest frame rates (140.2 at 1080p, 134.2 at 1440p, 118.5 at 4K) but sacrifices visual fidelity. For users targeting 60 FPS, Medium is the only preset that stays above that threshold at 4K, while High also exceeds 60 at 1440p and 1080p. Ultra is only viable at 1080p, where it averages 60.8 FPS. The data indicates that Medium is the highest preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS at 4K, and it also keeps the frame rate above 90 at 1440p and above 100 at 1080p. For those who prioritize frame rate over visual detail, Low is the only preset that stays above 118 FPS at all resolutions, but the visual trade-off is substantial. The High preset is a reasonable choice for 1440p, where it averages 67.2 FPS, but it falls below 60 at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS |

|------------|----------|------------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 49.6 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 118.5 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 70.3 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 42.3 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 67.2 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 134.2 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 92 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 49.3 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 78.1 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 140.2 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 109.3 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 60.8 |

The table shows that the Low preset is the only one that maintains an average above 100 FPS at all resolutions, with 140.2 at 1080p, 134.2 at 1440p, and 118.5 at 4K. The Medium preset stays above 70 FPS everywhere, while High falls below 60 at 4K. Ultra is below 50 at 1440p and 4K. The data is measured, not estimated. The 4K Ultra result of 42.3 FPS is the lowest figure in the set, while the 1080p Low result of 140.2 FPS is the highest. The spread between the best and worst measured results is 97.9 FPS, but the more relevant comparison is the gap between Medium and Ultra at each resolution: at 1080p, Medium is 109.3 versus Ultra's 60.8; at 1440p, 92 versus 49.3; at 4K, 70.3 versus 42.3. This consistent gap of roughly 30 to 40 FPS across resolutions indicates that the Ultra preset imposes a significant performance cost that is not offset by a proportional visual gain in this title. The Medium preset, by contrast, offers a frame rate that is more than double the Ultra preset at 4K (70.3 vs 42.3) while still providing a high level of detail.