The Medium

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior of this combo in The Medium reveals a workload that shifts dramatically between CPU and GPU limitation depending on the preset. At 1080p with Low settings, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and Radeon RX 7900 XT deliver 145 FPS average, which is the highest measured result across all resolutions and settings. Dropping to 1440p Low reduces that to 135.2 FPS, a modest 6.8% decline, while 4K Low still manages 103.9 FPS. This pattern indicates that at Low settings, the fixed-function GPU load is light enough for the CPU to remain a meaningful contributor even at higher resolutions, though the gap from 1440p to 4K (a 23.1% drop) shows the GPU beginning to assert dominance.

The scaling picture changes markedly when moving to Medium settings. At 1080p Medium, the combo produces 103.1 FPS, which is nearly identical to the 4K Low result of 103.9 FPS. This near-parity suggests that the Medium preset introduces enough additional shading and texture work that the GPU becomes the primary limiter even at 1080p, and the resolution scaling from 1080p to 1440p (85.2 FPS) represents a 17.4% reduction. The 4K Medium figure of 65.5 FPS represents another 23.1% drop from 1440p, a consistent scaling slope that points to a GPU-bound scenario across all Medium resolutions.

High settings exhibit the steepest relative degradation between 1080p and 4K among the presets. From 69.6 FPS at 1080p to 62.1 FPS at 1440p (a 10.8% drop) and then to 45.6 FPS at 4K (a 26.6% drop from 1440p), the High preset amplifies the GPU load disproportionately. The 4K High result sits at only 45.6 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold commonly considered necessary for smooth gameplay, indicating that this preset at 4K pushes the RX 7900 XT beyond its comfortable operating range in The Medium.

Ultra settings tell the clearest story about the limiting component. From 1080p Ultra at 57.6 FPS to 1440p Ultra at 45.4 FPS is a 21.2% decline, and the 4K Ultra result of 39 FPS represents a further 14.1% drop. The diminishing percentage losses at higher resolutions with Ultra settings confirm that the GPU is saturated; the frame rate is governed almost entirely by the Radeon RX 7900 XT's rendering throughput rather than any CPU constraint. The data shows that the Ryzen 7 5800X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on Zen 3 architecture, provides sufficient headroom across all presets, as evidenced by the relatively small FPS gaps at lower resolutions where CPU load would typically manifest.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT achieves a rank of 350 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places the pairing in the top 20.7% of all configurations tested, which is a strong showing for a system built around a CPU that launched in 2020 and a GPU that has since been marked end-of-life. The rank reflects the aggregate performance across all measured settings and resolutions, and the data indicates that this combo outperforms roughly four out of every five tested configurations in this specific horror title.

The CPU's individual standing provides context for the combo's rank. The Ryzen 7 5800X holds an 84th percentile position against all CPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 27606. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800, scores 27535, representing a 0.3% delta in favor of the 5800X. The Intel Core i7-13700H and AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE both score slightly higher at 27716 and 27708 respectively, putting them 0.4% ahead, while the Intel Core i5-12600KF leads by 0.8% with a score of 27827. These narrow margins demonstrate that the 5800X remains competitive with much newer processors in synthetic benchmarks, though the game-specific rank shows that The Medium's workload is not purely CPU-driven.

On the GPU side, the Radeon RX 7900 XT sits at the 82nd percentile against all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 38358. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile at 38349 (a 0% delta), the NVIDIA CMP 70HX at 38225 (0.3% behind), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile at 38135 (0.6% behind). The NVIDIA GeForce MX570 scores 38494, which is 0.4% ahead, though this comparison spans very different market segments. The close clustering of these scores suggests that the RX 7900 XT's raw compute capabilities are well-matched to its contemporaries, and the combo's game-specific rank of 350 reflects a balanced pairing where neither component dramatically bottlenecks the other in The Medium.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7900 XT's specifications directly inform its behavior in The Medium. The GPU features 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, yielding 800.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This large memory allocation is more than sufficient for the game's texture and geometry requirements, and the bandwidth figure ensures that data delivery to the 5376 shading units does not become a limiting factor even at 4K resolution where memory pressure is highest. The 192 ROPs and 336 TMUs provide the pixel and texture throughput necessary to sustain the measured frame rates, while the 84 ray accelerators contribute to the game's lighting effects, though The Medium's horror aesthetic relies more heavily on fixed-function rasterization than on ray tracing workloads.

Clock behavior plays a notable role in the performance profile. The GPU's base clock of 1387 MHz boosts to 2394 MHz, with a game clock rated at 2025 MHz. The substantial difference between base and boost clocks indicates that the card can dynamically adjust its frequency based on thermal headroom and workload demands. In The Medium, the measured FPS figures suggest that the card sustains boost clocks across all but the most demanding 4K Ultra scenarios, where the 39 FPS result indicates the GPU is operating at its maximum sustained capability. The memory clock of 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) provides the bandwidth headroom noted earlier, and the 300 W TDP with dual 8-pin power connectors allows for sustained high-frequency operation without power delivery constraints.

The GPU's architectural foundation in RDNA 3.0, built on a 5 nm process with 57,700 million transistors, contributes to its efficiency in this title. The 51.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 103.0 TFLOPS of FP16 performance (at a 2:1 ratio) provide ample arithmetic throughput for the game's shader complexity. The measured FPS deltas between Low and Ultra settings at each resolution show the GPU's scaling behavior: at 1080p, the spread from 145 FPS (Low) to 57.6 FPS (Ultra) represents a 60.3% reduction, while at 4K, the spread from 103.9 FPS to 39 FPS represents a 62.5% reduction. The consistency of this scaling across resolutions indicates that the GPU's compute resources are being utilized proportionally as settings increase, with no single architectural component creating a disproportionate bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 145 FPS on Low, 103.1 FPS on Medium, 69.6 FPS on High, and 57.6 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Medium represents a 28.9% reduction, from Medium to High a 32.5% reduction, and from High to Ultra a 17.2% reduction. The diminishing percentage drops at higher presets suggest that the GPU's pixel throughput becomes increasingly dominant, while the CPU remains capable of feeding the render pipeline even at the lowest settings where 145 FPS approaches the practical upper limit for this title's engine.

At 2560x1440, the results are 135.2 FPS on Low, 85.2 FPS on Medium, 62.1 FPS on High, and 45.4 FPS on Ultra. The 1080p to 1440p transition costs 6.8% at Low, 17.4% at Medium, 10.8% at High, and 21.2% at Ultra. The larger percentage drops at Medium and Ultra compared to Low and High indicate that these presets introduce resolution-sensitive effects that scale non-linearly. The 1440p Ultra result of 45.4 FPS is functionally playable but falls below the 60 FPS target, and the data shows that users seeking a locked 60 FPS experience at this resolution would need to select High settings or lower.

At 3840x2160, the measured averages are 103.9 FPS on Low, 65.5 FPS on Medium, 45.6 FPS on High, and 39 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p to 4K transition costs 23.1% at Low, 23.1% at Medium, 26.6% at High, and 14.1% at Ultra. The consistent 23.1% drops at Low and Medium suggest these presets scale predictably with pixel count, while the larger drop at High indicates a specific effect or texture setting that disproportionately impacts 4K rendering. The Ultra preset's smaller relative drop from 1440p (14.1%) implies that at this maximum quality level, the GPU is already saturated at 1440p and the additional pixel count of 4K does not proportionally increase the workload because the render time is dominated by per-pixel shading complexity rather than raw pixel throughput.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset at 1440p provides the most balanced experience, delivering 85.2 FPS average. This comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining visual quality that represents a substantial improvement over Low settings. At 1080p, the Medium preset achieves 103.1 FPS, which provides headroom for users with high-refresh-rate displays, while the High preset at 1080p (69.6 FPS) offers a moderate visual upgrade at the cost of 32.5% performance compared to Medium.

For 4K displays, the Low preset is the only option that maintains a consistently playable frame rate, with 103.9 FPS average. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 65.5 FPS, which is playable but leaves little margin for demanding scenes, while the High preset at 45.6 FPS and Ultra at 39 FPS fall below acceptable smoothness thresholds. The data indicates that 4K users should prioritize Low settings for the most consistent experience, or accept Medium settings if they can tolerate occasional dips below 60 FPS during the game's more intense horror sequences.

The Ultra preset delivers 57.6 FPS at 1080p, which is the only resolution where it approaches playability. Given that the step from High to Ultra at 1080p costs only 17.2% performance (from 69.6 to 57.6 FPS), users with 1080p displays who prioritize visual fidelity may find Ultra acceptable, though the sub-60 FPS average suggests that frame pacing could suffer during action sequences. The High preset at 1440p (62.1 FPS) represents the most demanding configuration that still maintains a 60 FPS average, making it the recommended maximum quality setting for users with 1440p displays who require smooth gameplay. The measured data consistently shows that the combo performs best when the GPU is not pushed beyond its comfortable operating range, and the settings ladder of Low at 4K, Medium at 1440p, and Medium or High at 1080p provides the most efficient use of the hardware's capabilities.