The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title from 2021, presents an interesting benchmark for the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination. The data reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet still capable of delivering high frame rates. This analysis examines the measured FPS across three resolutions and four quality presets, exploring the balance between the CPU's Zen 3 architecture and the GPU's massive Blackwell design.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a clear and expected trend: frame rates decrease as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 100 at 1080p to 87 at 1440p, and finally to 68 at 4K. This represents a 32% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K. The pattern is similar across other presets; for instance, at Low settings, the average FPS falls from 135 at 1080p to 128 at 1440p, and then to 118 at 4K, a 13% drop from the starting point.

The scaling behavior suggests that the limiting component changes with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 53 FPS (135 vs 82), which is significant. However, at 4K, that same gap narrows to 64 FPS (118 vs 54). The performance penalty for moving from 1080p to 4K is more pronounced at higher settings; at Ultra, the FPS drops by 28 frames (from 82 to 54), while at Low, it only drops by 17 frames (from 135 to 118). This indicates that at 4K with Ultra settings, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is working substantially harder, and the data implies the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck. At 1080p, the CPU's role is more significant, as the GPU has more headroom to render frames quickly, but at 4K, the GPU's fill rate and shading capabilities are taxed more heavily, making it the limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all tested combinations for The Medium, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D holds the 146th position out of 2911 total combos. This places it in the top 5% of all tested systems, indicating a very high-performance tier. The rank is a holistic measure of the combo's capability in this game, reflecting the synergy between the CPU and GPU.

The CPU itself, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, has a percentile rank of 80 against all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 80% of processors in the database. Its average benchmark score is 27896. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U with an average score of 27887 (a 0% delta), the Intel Core i9-10900K with a score of 27872 (a 0.1% delta), the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 with a score of 27932 (a -0.1% delta), and the Intel Core i5-12600KF with a score of 27799 (a 0.3% delta). These deltas are minimal, showing that the 5800X3D is statistically tied with these processors in raw compute, but its 96 MB of L3 cache likely gives it an edge in gaming scenarios.

The GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, is in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712. Its nearest rivals in the GPU benchmarks are the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (average score 76904, delta 1.1%), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (average score 78940, delta -1.6%), the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (average score 79396, delta -2.1%), and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (average score 79605, delta -2.4%). The fact that this consumer GPU is being compared to workstation-class Tesla parts in the database's scoring algorithm is notable, though it doesn't change the in-game ranking. The rank of 146 out of 2911 is a strong indicator that this combo is a top-tier performer for The Medium.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a powerhouse, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process node at TSMC. It features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a massive 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. This is crucial for high-resolution textures and complex scenes that The Medium's horror aesthetic might employ. The GPU's core configuration includes 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster operation units. It also has 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores, which are available for games that use those features.

The clock speeds are listed as a base of 2017 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz. The memory runs at 1750 MHz with an effective speed of 28 Gbps. These clocks, combined with the massive core count, yield a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is rated at 104.8 TFLOPS. This raw compute power explains why the GPU can push high frame rates even at 4K resolution.

In The Medium, the data shows the GPU's role is dominant at higher resolutions. At 4K with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 54, which is the lowest measured value. This suggests that even this top-tier GPU is being fully utilized, and the game's rendering load at 4K Ultra is immense. The jump from Medium to Ultra at 4K is a 41 FPS drop (95 to 54), which is a significant penalty for the highest preset. This indicates that the Ultra preset likely introduces effects that are particularly taxing on the GPU's shading and memory subsystems. The GPU's 32 GB of VRAM is unlikely to be a limiting factor in this game, as even at 4K, the memory capacity is more than sufficient; the bottleneck is raw processing power.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 135 FPS, which is achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How much of a performance drop is there from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 100 at 1920x1080 to 68 at 3840x2160, representing a 32 FPS decrease.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary limiting factor at 4K. The frame rate drops significantly at 4K Ultra (54 FPS) compared to 1080p Ultra (82 FPS), indicating the GPU is under heavy load.

Q: What is the combo's rank compared to other tested systems in this game?

A: This combination ranks 146th out of 2911 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the top 5% of all systems.

Q: Does the CPU have a significant impact on performance at lower resolutions?

A: Yes, at 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra settings is 53 FPS (135 vs 82), which is the largest spread across all resolutions, suggesting the CPU can still influence performance when the GPU is less stressed.

Q: What is the average FPS difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 107 FPS, while the High preset averages 87 FPS, a difference of 20 FPS.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a unique processor, built on the Zen 3 architecture (codenamed Vermeer) using a 7 nm process at TSMC. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. Its defining feature is the large 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is significantly larger than typical processors. This cache is designed to reduce memory latency and improve gaming performance by holding more game data closer to the cores.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark scores show a strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14317 and a Geekbench multicore score of 11765. Single-thread performance is also solid, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1452 and a 3dmark single thread score of 884. The Passmark multithread score is 28309. These scores indicate the CPU is capable of handling the game's logic and physics calculations without bottlenecking the GPU.

In The Medium, the CPU's role appears to be more critical at lower resolutions. The data shows a 53 FPS difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p, which is the largest difference of any resolution. This suggests that at 1080p, the GPU can render frames quickly, and the CPU's ability to feed it with draw calls and game state updates becomes a more significant factor. However, the CPU's performance is not a limiting factor in a way that would cause stuttering or low frame rates; even at 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 82, which is well above playable thresholds. The 96 MB L3 cache likely helps maintain consistent frame pacing, though the data doesn't explicitly measure this. The CPU's launch MSRP is $449, and it is an end-of-life product, but it still holds an 80th percentile rank against all CPUs.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the best experience for this combo depends on the target resolution and frame rate. The data shows that the Medium preset offers a strong balance between visual quality and performance. At 1920x1080, Medium averages 113 FPS with a minimum of 96 FPS and a maximum of 130 FPS. At 2560x1440, Medium averages 107 FPS with a minimum of 91 and a maximum of 123. Even at 3840x2160, Medium maintains an average of 95 FPS, with a minimum of 81 and a maximum of 110. The consistency of the Medium preset, with its minimum frame rates staying above 80 FPS at all resolutions, makes it the most reliable choice for a smooth experience.

The High preset is a viable option for those prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rate. It averages 100 FPS at 1080p, 87 FPS at 1440p, and 68 FPS at 4K. While the 4K average of 68 FPS is still playable, it is notably lower than the Medium preset's 95 FPS. The Ultra preset, while offering the highest visual quality, shows the most significant performance cost. It averages 82 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p, and only 54 FPS at 4K. The jump from High to Ultra at 4K is a 14 FPS drop, which is a substantial penalty for the extra visual effects. For a game like The Medium, which relies on atmosphere and storytelling, a stable frame rate is often more important than maximum detail. Therefore, the Medium preset is recommended for the best overall experience, as it provides high frame rates with a stable minimum across all resolutions. The Low preset, while achieving the highest frame rates (up to 135 FPS at 1080p), likely compromises visual quality too much for a horror game where environmental detail is key.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact measured average FPS for each resolution and settings combination. Minimum and maximum FPS were only recorded for the Medium preset.

1920x1080

• Low: 135 FPS average
• Medium: 113 FPS average (min 96, max 130)
• High: 100 FPS average
• Ultra: 82 FPS average

2560x1440

• Low: 128 FPS average
• Medium: 107 FPS average (min 91, max 123)
• High: 87 FPS average
• Ultra: 69 FPS average

3840x2160

• Low: 118 FPS average
• Medium: 95 FPS average (min 81, max 110)
• High: 68 FPS average
• Ultra: 54 FPS average

The data shows a clear progression: at each resolution, the average FPS decreases as settings increase from Low to Ultra. The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, which show a narrow band of around 30 FPS, indicating good frame pacing. The difference between 1080p and 4K performance is most pronounced at Ultra settings, where the 28 FPS drop (from 82 to 54) highlights the GPU's workload. Conversely, at Low settings, the drop is only 17 FPS (from 135 to 118), showing that the CPU and GPU can maintain high throughput when the visual load is low. These numbers provide a comprehensive view of the combo's capabilities, showing it can handle 4K at above 60 FPS on Medium settings, which is a strong result for a demanding title.