The Medium

The Medium is a horror title that stresses both the CPU and GPU heavily, and the combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 produces a distinctive performance profile. The data shows a system that is capable of high refresh rates at lower resolutions but becomes firmly GPU-bound as resolution increases, with the scaling pattern revealing where each component’s headroom runs out.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and tells a clear story about the limiting component in this system. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 142 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 134 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls further to 124 FPS. This represents a 12.7% decrease from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which is relatively modest and suggests that at lower graphical loads, the CPU is still able to feed the GPU adequately.

The scaling picture changes dramatically when looking at Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS is 118, which drops to 101 FPS at 1440p and then plunges to 79 FPS at 4K. That is a 33.1% reduction from 1080p to 4K, showing that as the GPU workload increases, the RTX 4080 begins to hit its limits. The minimum FPS figures reinforce this: at 1080p Medium the minimum is 100 FPS, at 1440p it is 86 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 67 FPS. The spread between average and minimum FPS widens at higher resolutions, indicating more frame time variance under heavier load.

High settings show an even steeper curve. The 1080p High average of 86 FPS falls to 72 FPS at 1440p and then to 57 FPS at 4K. The 33.7% drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings confirms that the GPU is becoming the dominant constraint. At Ultra settings, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute numbers: 68 FPS at 1080p, 57 FPS at 1440p, and 45 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 45 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold that many players target, which indicates that this settings preset is too demanding for smooth gameplay at that resolution.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU has sufficient headroom to keep the GPU well-fed, as evidenced by the relatively small FPS differences between Low and Medium settings. At 4K, however, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, with the FPS deltas between settings presets becoming much more pronounced. The RTX 4080’s 16 GB of VRAM is not the bottleneck here—the raw compute throughput is what determines the frame rate at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC’s 5 nm process, with a die size of 379 mm² and 45,900 million transistors. It has a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz, with memory running at 1400 MHz (22.4 Gbps effective). The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for The Medium’s texture-heavy scenes.

The GPU’s compute specifications include 9728 shading units, 304 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. The pixel rate is 280.6 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 761.5 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance rated at 48.74 TFLOPS. These numbers explain the scaling behavior observed in the benchmarks. At 4K Ultra, the 45 FPS result indicates that the GPU is being pushed to its limits, particularly with ray tracing and other advanced effects that The Medium employs.

The RTX 4080’s benchmark scores place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54247. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER, which scores 54209 with a deltaPct of 0.1—essentially a dead heat. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 (deltaPct -1.1), and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698 (deltaPct -2.6), meaning the RTX 4080 trails these two AMD cards by small margins in synthetic benchmarks. In practical gaming terms, these differences are negligible.

The GPU’s TDP is 320 W, and it requires a 700 W suggested PSU with a single 16-pin power connector. The triple-slot cooler is 310 mm long, which is something to consider for case compatibility. The RTX 4080 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, all of which are relevant for The Medium’s rendering pipeline.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination ranks 342nd out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 9.2% of all systems tested. This is a strong showing, though not at the very top of the leaderboard. The rank reflects the balance between the 5700X’s 8-core/16-thread configuration and the RTX 4080’s high-end GPU performance.

The CPU itself sits in the 79th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27578. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core i5-12600K (same score, 0% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X (27636, deltaPct -0.2), the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (27535, deltaPct 0.2), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (27507, deltaPct 0.3). These rival CPUs are all within 0.3% of each other, indicating that the 5700X is competitive with modern mid-range processors but does not offer a significant advantage in raw compute.

The combo’s 342nd rank out of 3724 suggests that while the RTX 4080 is a top-tier GPU, the 5700X holds it back slightly in CPU-bound scenarios. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 142 FPS, which is respectable but not exceptional for a system with an RTX 4080. Systems with newer, faster CPUs likely achieve higher FPS at lower resolutions where CPU performance matters more.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 142 FPS, Medium yields 118 FPS (minimum 100, maximum 136), High drops to 86 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 68 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium is 24 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High is 32 FPS, showing that the Medium-to-High transition is more demanding. The Ultra preset at 1080p is still playable at 68 FPS, but the headroom for high refresh rate monitors is limited.

At 2560x1440, the results are as follows: Low averages 134 FPS, Medium averages 101 FPS (minimum 86, maximum 116), High averages 72 FPS, and Ultra averages 57 FPS. The 1440p Medium result of 101 FPS is strong, but the drop to 57 FPS at Ultra shows that the most demanding settings require compromises at this resolution. The minimum FPS of 86 at Medium suggests that even at this setting, there are occasional frame drops that could be noticeable in fast-moving scenes.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck. Low settings average 124 FPS, which is still smooth, but Medium drops to 79 FPS (minimum 67, maximum 91), High falls to 57 FPS, and Ultra yields just 45 FPS. The 4K Medium result of 79 FPS is the highest playable setting for a consistent 60+ FPS experience, while 4K High and Ultra require either a lower resolution or reduced settings to maintain smooth gameplay. The minimum FPS of 67 at 4K Medium indicates that even at that setting, there are dips below the 60 FPS threshold during demanding scenes.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Medium?

A: At 1440p Medium, the combo averages 101 FPS with a minimum of 86 FPS, making it the sweet spot for high refresh rate gaming. At 4K, Medium settings produce 79 FPS average and 67 FPS minimum, which is playable but leaves less headroom for frame drops.

Q: Can this system handle 4K Ultra settings in The Medium?

A: No, the data shows 4K Ultra averages 45 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The minimum FPS is not listed, but the average suggests that 4K Ultra would be too demanding for consistent performance.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 scores 54247 in average benchmark score, while the RTX 4080 SUPER scores 54209 with a deltaPct of 0.1, meaning they are effectively identical in performance. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X scores 54828 (deltaPct -1.1) and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scores 55698 (deltaPct -2.6), so the RTX 4080 trails these two cards by small margins.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700X holding back the RTX 4080 in this game?

A: The data suggests some CPU limitation at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 142 FPS, which is strong but not exceptional for an RTX 4080. The CPU’s 8-core/16-thread configuration with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz is sufficient for The Medium, but a faster CPU could push higher frame rates at 1080p.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Medium settings at 4K?

A: At 4K, Low settings average 124 FPS while Medium averages 79 FPS, a difference of 45 FPS. This indicates that Medium settings introduce significantly more GPU workload, likely through improved textures, lighting, and shadow quality.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested systems in The Medium?

A: The combo ranks 342nd out of 3724 tested combos, placing it in the top 9.2% of all systems. This reflects the RTX 4080’s high-end GPU performance combined with the 5700X’s mid-range CPU capability.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor from the 5000 series, built on the Zen 3 architecture with the Vermeer codename. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. Its cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 5700X scores 13184 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1499 in single-core. Its 3DMark scores include 6858 for 16 threads, 1821 for 2 threads, 3512 for 4 threads, 5768 for 8 threads, and 6850 for max threads. The PassMark multi-thread score is 26612, and the single-thread score is 3385. These numbers indicate a solid mid-range CPU that can handle modern games, but it is not at the top of the performance hierarchy.

The CPU’s influence on The Medium’s frame rates is most apparent at 1080p. At Low settings, the combo achieves 142 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU enough frames to reach high refresh rates. However, the fact that the RTX 4080 is capable of much higher frame rates in other systems indicates that the 5700X is the limiting factor at lower resolutions and settings. At 4K, the GPU workload dominates, and the CPU’s performance becomes less relevant.

The 5700X’s nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks are all within 0.3% of its average score of 27578. The Intel Core i5-12600K matches it exactly, while the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is 0.2% faster, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 is 0.2% slower, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is 0.3% slower. This tight grouping means that swapping the 5700X for any of these alternatives would produce negligible performance changes in The Medium. The CPU’s 79th percentile ranking confirms that it is a competent processor for gaming, but it does not provide the extra headroom that a higher-tier CPU might offer in CPU-bound scenarios.