The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers a broad performance envelope in The Medium, ranging from a highly playable 141.4 FPS average at 1080p Low to a demanding 34.4 FPS average at 4K Ultra. This combination sits at rank 465 out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the top 28% of all systems tested for this horror title. The data reveals a system where the GPU’s 16 GB of VRAM and high bandwidth are critical, while the CPU’s 8-core/16-thread configuration provides a stable foundation that never becomes the primary bottleneck.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best average FPS this combo achieves in The Medium?*

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 141.4, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest is 34.4 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested combinations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 465th out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all systems tested for The Medium.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the limiting factor at 4K?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at 4K. At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops sharply from 60.5 at Medium to 42 at High, showing a clear scaling pattern tied to GPU workload.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce an average of 127.9 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 45.8 FPS. This represents a 64% reduction in average FPS when moving from the lowest to the highest preset.

Q: Does the CPU’s benchmark performance compare favorably to its direct rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 5800X has an average benchmark score of 27606, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (27535) and 0.8% higher than the Intel Core i5-12600KF (27827). It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE by 0.4% in average score.

Q: What GPU memory configuration does this combo use?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the dominant component in this pairing for The Medium. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is substantial for a horror title known for its dual-reality rendering, which can demand significant frame buffer capacity. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s, enabled by a 256-bit bus, ensures that texture streaming and high-resolution assets can be fed to the processor without stalling. This is reflected in the FPS scaling: at 1080p, the difference between Low (141.4 FPS) and High (65.1 FPS) is a drop of 54%, which is a direct consequence of the GPU’s shading workload increasing with settings.

The RDNA 4.0 architecture, with its boost clock of 2970 MHz, provides the raw compute power needed for the game’s fixed-camera angles and complex lighting. The GPU’s 4096 shading units and 128 ROPs are heavily utilized when moving from Medium to Ultra presets. At 1440p, the average FPS falls from 77.1 at Medium to 45.8 at Ultra, a 40% performance hit. This pattern underscores that the GPU is the limiting component across most settings, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to feed the graphics card. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 82nd versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 39647, confirms it is a high-end part, but the measured FPS in The Medium shows it is still challenged by the game’s higher presets, particularly at 4K where Ultra yields only 34.4 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X provides a solid computational base, but its role in The Medium is secondary to the GPU. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, the CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities are robust, as indicated by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23571 and a 3DMark max-thread score of 7578. The game’s engine does not appear to be heavily multi-threaded, as the FPS differences across resolutions are more pronounced than what a CPU bottleneck would produce. For instance, at 1080p High, the system achieves 65.1 FPS, but at 1440p High, it drops to 57.8 FPS. This 11% decrease is smaller than the 27% decrease seen when moving from 1440p High to 4K High (42 FPS), which points to the GPU becoming progressively more saturated.

The CPU’s single-thread performance, with a 3DMark single-thread score of 943 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2194, is adequate to avoid becoming the primary constraint in most scenarios. The boost clock of 4.70 GHz ensures responsive frame pacing in the game’s slower, more atmospheric moments. However, the data suggests that even at 1080p Low (141.4 FPS), the CPU is not the limiting factor, as the GPU is still capable of producing high frame rates. The CPU’s 32 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support (51.2 GB/s bandwidth) provide sufficient data throughput for the game’s CPU-side logic, but the measured FPS deltas between settings are primarily driven by the GPU’s workload, not the CPU’s processing power.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all 1689 tested combinations for The Medium, this pairing of the Ryzen 7 5800X and RX 9070 XT achieves rank 465. This places it in the top 27.5% of all tested systems, indicating a strong, upper-mid-range performance tier. The rank is notable because the GPU’s individual average benchmark score (39647) and the CPU’s average score (27606) are both respectable, but the combination does not crack the top 400. This suggests that The Medium is particularly demanding on the GPU, and the CPU’s contributions are more about maintaining consistency rather than pushing into elite FPS territory.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (39703, delta -0.1%) and the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568, delta 0.2%). These are professional and mobile parts, respectively, and the RX 9070 XT’s delta values are tiny, showing that the GPU’s raw compute score is tightly clustered. The CPU’s nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (27535, delta 0.3%) and the Intel Core i7-13700H (27716, delta -0.4%), with the 5800X performing essentially on par. The combo rank of 465 versus 1689 is therefore a result of the game’s specific engine characteristics, which favor the GPU’s memory bandwidth and shading power over the CPU’s multi-threaded throughput. The rank indicates a capable system, but not one that dominates the leaderboard for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 141.4 at 1920x1080 to 127.9 at 2560x1440, a 9.5% decrease, and then to 96.6 at 3840x2160, a further 24.5% decrease from 1440p. This gradual decline is consistent with the GPU’s pixel throughput limits. At Medium settings, the drop is more pronounced: 91.9 FPS at 1080p, 77.1 at 1440p (a 16% decrease), and 60.5 at 4K (a 21.5% decrease from 1440p). The scaling becomes steeper at higher settings, where the GPU’s shading units and ROPs are more heavily taxed.

The most dramatic scaling occurs at Ultra settings. From 52 FPS at 1080p to 45.8 FPS at 1440p (a 12% drop), and then to 34.4 FPS at 4K (a 25% drop from 1440p), the data shows that the GPU’s workload grows non-linearly with resolution. This pattern indicates that the limiting component is unequivocally the GPU, as the CPU’s frame generation rate would not degrade so significantly across resolutions if it were the bottleneck. The 4K Ultra result of 34.4 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while 4K Medium (60.5 FPS) barely hits it. This suggests that for 4K play, users must reduce settings to Medium, while 1440p offers a wider range of playable presets, from High (57.8 FPS) to Ultra (45.8 FPS), with Low (127.9 FPS) providing a high-refresh-rate experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 141.4 FPS on Low, 91.9 FPS on Medium, 65.1 FPS on High, and 52 FPS on Ultra. The 1080p Low result is the highest recorded for this combo, suggesting that the CPU and GPU are well-balanced for low-resolution, high-frame-rate gaming, but the Ultra preset’s 52 FPS shows that even at 1080p, the game’s maximum visual fidelity taxes the GPU significantly.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 127.9 FPS on Low, 77.1 FPS on Medium, 57.8 FPS on High, and 45.8 FPS on Ultra. The transition from 1080p to 1440p results in FPS reductions of 9.5% for Low, 16.1% for Medium, 11.2% for High, and 11.9% for Ultra. The relatively consistent percentage drops across settings indicate that the GPU is handling the increased pixel count uniformly, without a sudden spike in memory pressure or shader complexity. At 3840x2160, the averages fall to 96.6 FPS on Low, 60.5 FPS on Medium, 42 FPS on High, and 34.4 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Low result of 96.6 FPS is still highly playable, but the 4K High and Ultra results (42 and 34.4 FPS) fall below the 60 FPS threshold, making them less suitable for smooth gameplay. The full data set shows that the combo is most effective at 1080p and 1440p, where all presets except 4K Ultra and 4K High are capable of exceeding 45 FPS averages.