The Medium

# The Medium with AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The Medium presents a demanding fixed-camera horror experience, and this particular pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 produces a wide spread of performance depending on how the user configures resolution and quality. The data shows a system that can handle the game at playable frame rates in most configurations, but with clear trade-offs between visual fidelity and smoothness as the resolution climbs. This analysis walks through the measured FPS data, component roles, and the ranking of this combo against other tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a significant and consistent impact from resolution scaling across all four quality settings. At 1080p, the game delivers an average of 135 FPS on Low settings, which drops to 126 FPS at 1440p and further to 99 FPS at 4K. This represents a 26.7% drop from 1080p to 4K on Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest quality preset, the GPU is being pushed harder as pixel count increases. The scaling pattern changes when moving to Medium settings: 1080p produces 93 FPS, 1440p drops to 79 FPS, and 4K falls to 62 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K here is 33.3%, showing that the Medium preset places even more load on the graphics pipeline.

High settings show the steepest relative decline. At 1080p, the average is 67 FPS; at 1440p, it drops to 56 FPS; and at 4K, it falls to 44 FPS. The percentage loss from 1080p to 4K reaches 34.3%, making High settings the most resolution-sensitive preset in this dataset. Ultra settings follow a similar pattern but start from a lower base: 53 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and 35 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 4K decline is 34%, nearly identical to High. This consistency across High and Ultra suggests that the game's rendering workload scales almost linearly with pixel count once the settings exceed Medium, pointing toward the GPU as the primary limiting component at higher resolutions.

The frame rate behavior at 4K is particularly telling. The gap between Low (99 FPS) and Medium (62 FPS) is 37 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High (44 FPS) is 18 FPS, and between High and Ultra (35 FPS) is 9 FPS. This narrowing gap at higher settings indicates that the GPU is becoming saturated as more effects and shading work are enabled, with each additional quality tier delivering diminishing returns in terms of frame rate headroom. At 1080p, the same progression shows gaps of 42 FPS (Low to Medium), 26 FPS (Medium to High), and 14 FPS (High to Ultra), suggesting that at lower resolutions, the system has more spare capacity before hitting GPU limits.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. Its 96 MB of shared L3 cache is a defining feature for this chip, and the benchmark data shows strong multi-threaded performance. In Cinebench R23, the processor scores 14,317 in multi-core and 1,452 in single-core, while Geekbench reports 11,765 multi-core and 2,017 single-core. The 3DMark results further illustrate the thread scaling: 1,746 for 2 threads, 3,392 for 4 threads, 5,906 for 8 threads, and 7,285 for max threads, which closely mirrors the 7,299 score for 16 threads.

For The Medium, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU based on the measured FPS data. The fact that frame rates drop consistently as resolution increases — even on Low settings where the GPU workload is lighter — suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in most configurations. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 135 FPS, which is well within the range where CPU overhead could become relevant, but the 5800X3D's strong single-thread performance (884 in 3DMark single-thread) and high L3 cache capacity likely prevent the CPU from limiting frame rates in this horror title. The processor's percentile rank of 80 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27,896, places it in the upper tier of desktop processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (average score 27,887, 0% delta), Intel Core i9-10900K (27,872, 0.1% delta), and AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (27,932, -0.1% delta), showing that the 5800X3D sits right at the boundary of its performance class.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 achieves a rank of 965 out of 3,724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the upper quartile of all tested systems. The percentile position of roughly 74% (965/3,724) indicates that this pairing outperforms about three-quarters of all configurations in the database for this game, which aligns with the strong individual component rankings — the CPU at the 80th percentile and the GPU at the 81st percentile among their respective categories.

The combo's rank reflects the balance between the two components. The RTX 4070's average benchmark score of 37,648 places it near the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37,628, 0.1% delta) and AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37,507, 0.4% delta), while the 5800X3D's average of 27,896 is nearly identical to the Ryzen 7 6800U (27,887). Neither component is drastically ahead of its nearest rivals, but both are strong performers in absolute terms. The measured FPS data shows that this system can push The Medium to 135 FPS at 1080p Low, which is higher than many combinations would achieve, yet the 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS indicates that even this capable pairing struggles with the most demanding settings. The rank of 965 suggests that while many systems fall behind, a notable number of configurations — likely those with higher-end GPUs like the RTX 4080 or 4090 — achieve better results in this specific game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides average FPS for all twelve resolution-settings combinations, with minimum and maximum values available only for the Medium preset. Starting at 1920x1080, the system delivers 135 FPS on Low, 93 FPS on Medium (with a minimum of 79 and maximum of 108), 67 FPS on High, and 53 FPS on Ultra. At 2560x1440, the averages are 126 FPS on Low, 79 FPS on Medium (minimum 67, maximum 91), 56 FPS on High, and 45 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 3840x2160, the system produces 99 FPS on Low, 62 FPS on Medium (minimum 53, maximum 71), 44 FPS on High, and 35 FPS on Ultra.

The Medium preset's min-max data provides insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p, the range from 79 to 108 FPS represents a 36.7% spread relative to the average, while at 1440p the range of 67 to 91 FPS shows a 30.4% spread, and at 4K the 53 to 71 FPS range indicates a 29% spread. This tightening of the frame rate range as resolution increases suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently loaded at higher resolutions, reducing the variability that might come from scene complexity changes. The fact that the minimum FPS stays above 53 even at 4K Medium means the system never drops below a playable threshold in this configuration, though the 35 FPS average at 4K Ultra would likely present noticeable stutter in a horror game where smooth camera movement matters.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process, featuring 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus with a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 1920 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). Its 5,888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s, while FP32 performance reaches 29.15 TFLOPS. The 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores provide hardware support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, which the game can leverage.

In The Medium, the GPU's role as the primary performance driver is evident from the resolution scaling data. The consistent frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K across all settings — 26.7% on Low, 33.3% on Medium, 34.3% on High, and 34% on Ultra — indicate that the rendering workload scales directly with pixel count. The RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM buffer is sufficient for the game's textures at all tested settings, as there is no evidence of memory-related stutters or crashes in the data. The GPU's percentile rank of 81 among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 37,648, places it near the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37,628) and AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37,507), though the RTX 4080 Mobile (38,135, -1.3% delta) shows slightly higher performance. The 200 W TDP and dual-slot design make this a mainstream high-end card, and the measured results show it handles The Medium at 1080p Low with 135 FPS, but the 4K Ultra average of 35 FPS demonstrates the game's demanding nature at maximum settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium with this hardware?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 on Medium settings provides 79 FPS average with a minimum of 67 FPS, offering a strong balance between visual quality and smooth performance. At 4K, the Medium preset drops to 62 FPS, which is still playable but with less headroom.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: The loss varies by settings: 26.7% on Low (135 to 99 FPS), 33.3% on Medium (93 to 62 FPS), 34.3% on High (67 to 44 FPS), and 34% on Ultra (53 to 35 FPS).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary limiting component, particularly at higher resolutions. The consistent frame rate declines with resolution across all settings indicate GPU-bound behavior, while the CPU's strong single-thread and multi-thread scores (1,452 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 14,317 multi-core) are sufficient to avoid limiting frame rates.

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Only on Low settings, where it averages 99 FPS. On Medium, it drops to 62 FPS, which is barely above 60, but High and Ultra fall to 44 and 35 FPS respectively, indicating 4K 60 FPS is only achievable at the lowest quality preset.

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

A: The RTX 4070 has an average benchmark score of 37,648, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37,628), 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37,507), and 1.3% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38,135).

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the dataset?

A: The lowest minimum FPS recorded is 53 FPS, which occurs at 4K Medium settings. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 67 FPS, and at 1080p Medium, the minimum is 79 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the user's target resolution and preference for smoothness versus visual fidelity. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers 93 FPS average with a minimum of 79 FPS, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. High settings at 1080p drop to 67 FPS, which is still playable, while Ultra at 53 FPS may be acceptable for those prioritizing graphics over frame rate. For users with 1440p displays, Medium at 79 FPS (minimum 67) represents the best balance, while High at 56 FPS is borderline and Ultra at 45 FPS is likely too choppy for a horror game that relies on atmosphere and movement. At 4K, the Medium preset at 62 FPS (minimum 53) is the only configuration that approaches 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for 4K play; Low at 99 FPS offers higher performance but with reduced visual quality, while High (44 FPS) and Ultra (35 FPS) fall below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

The data suggests that Medium settings provide the most consistent experience across all resolutions, with the narrowest relative frame time spread and acceptable average FPS even at 4K. For users who prioritize frame rate maximization, Low settings at 1080p yield 135 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial. The Ultra preset, while offering the highest fidelity, produces frame rates below 60 FPS at every resolution, making it suitable only for users who value image quality over smoothness and are willing to tolerate 35-53 FPS. The High preset sits between Medium and Ultra, offering 67 FPS at 1080p and 44 FPS at 4K, which may be a reasonable middle ground for users with 1080p or 1440p displays who want improved visuals without dropping below 60 FPS. Ultimately, the Medium preset at 1440p (79 FPS) or 4K (62 FPS) delivers the most balanced experience for this hardware configuration.