The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers a wide spread of frame rates in The Medium, and the data suggests the Ultra preset is likely too demanding for smooth play at most resolutions. Looking at the measured rows, the High preset provides the most balanced experience. At 1920x1080, High yields an average of 64.8 FPS, which is playable, while Medium offers a substantial jump to 93.7 FPS. However, at 2560x1440, the High preset drops to 55.2 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it falls to 46.2 FPS. Medium at 1440p is a solid 75.4 FPS, but at 4K it still dips to 64.1 FPS. Given that the game is a horror title where maintaining immersion is key, the Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot for 1440p, offering a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. At 1080p, players could opt for High and still stay above 60 FPS, but Medium offers a significant headroom boost to nearly 94 FPS. The Ultra preset, by contrast, only reaches 55.9 FPS at 1080p and plummets to 35.3 FPS at 4K, making it a poor choice for consistent performance. Therefore, the data recommends Medium for high refresh rate monitors and High for those prioritizing visual fidelity at 1080p, with the understanding that High at higher resolutions will require compromise.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 5800XT and the Radeon RX 9070 XT achieves a combo rank of 394 out of 1689 tested combinations in The Medium. This places the pairing comfortably in the top 23% of all tested systems, indicating a strong overall capability for this specific title. The rank suggests that while this is not an absolute top-tier configuration, it significantly outperforms the vast majority of systems that have been benchmarked for this game. This is noteworthy considering the individual component percentiles: the CPU sits in the 86th percentile against all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 82nd percentile against all GPUs. The combo rank of 394/1689 being slightly lower than what the individual percentiles might imply suggests that The Medium is particularly sensitive to the balance between the two components, and the data shows this pairing is well-matched but not the absolute best possible. The results indicate that this system will handle the game’s demands with ease, but there is still headroom for improvement if one were to pair these parts with even stronger counterparts.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the primary driver of frame rates in The Medium, as evidenced by the significant FPS swings across different settings. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a substantial 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. This large memory pool is crucial for a game like The Medium, which often renders complex, detailed environments. The card’s base clock is 1660 MHz, with a boost clock of 2970 MHz and a game clock of 2400 MHz, giving it a wide dynamic range to adapt to load. The raw compute power, listed at 48.66 TFLOPS for FP32, is substantial, but the benchmark results show that even this level of performance is challenged by the Ultra preset at 4K, where the average FPS falls to 35.3. The data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. For instance, the jump from Medium to Ultra at 1080p costs 37.8 FPS (from 93.7 to 55.9), while the jump from Low to Medium at the same resolution only costs 53.9 FPS (from 147.6 to 93.7). This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces rendering features that heavily tax the GPU’s compute and memory subsystems, and the 16 GB VRAM is likely being utilized heavily. The GPU’s performance in synthetic benchmarks, such as a Passmark G3D score of 26795, aligns with its strong 4K capability, but the in-game data reveals that The Medium’s specific demands are best met with settings below Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent hierarchy across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 147.6 FPS on Low, which drops to 93.7 FPS on Medium, 64.8 FPS on High, and finally 55.9 FPS on Ultra. This shows a steep performance cliff between Medium and Ultra, where the frame rate drops by nearly 40% in one step. Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern holds: Low produces 126.5 FPS, Medium 75.4 FPS, High 55.2 FPS, and Ultra 46.2 FPS. The drop from Medium to High at 1440p is 20.2 FPS, which is significant for a single setting tier. At 3840x2160, the system manages 100.8 FPS on Low, but this falls to 64.1 FPS on Medium, 46.2 FPS on High, and a demanding 35.3 FPS on Ultra. The data shows that the 4K resolution is only truly playable at the Low or Medium presets, with High and Ultra falling below the 60 FPS threshold that is often considered the baseline for smooth gameplay. The progression from 1080p to 4K at each setting shows a consistent loss of performance, but the percentage drop varies, indicating where the bottleneck lies. For example, at Medium settings, the FPS drops from 93.7 to 75.4 to 64.1 as resolution increases, which is a steady decline. At Ultra, the drop is from 55.9 to 46.2 to 35.3, showing a more severe relative decline at the highest setting.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K provides insight into the system’s balance. At Low settings, the FPS goes from 147.6 at 1080p to 126.5 at 1440p and then to 100.8 at 4K. This represents a drop of 14.3% from 1080p to 1440p, and another 20.3% from 1440p to 4K. The relatively modest decline suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is playing a more significant role, as the GPU is not fully saturated. At Medium settings, the FPS drops from 93.7 to 75.4 to 64.1, which is a 19.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 15% drop from 1440p to 4K. This pattern shows the GPU starting to become the limiting factor, as the total resolution pixel count increases. The most telling data is at High and Ultra settings. At High, the FPS drops from 64.8 to 55.2 to 46.2, a 14.8% and 16.3% decline respectively. At Ultra, the drop is from 55.9 to 46.2 to 35.3, which is a 17.4% and 23.6% decline. The steeper percentage drops at higher settings and resolutions confirm that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The Ryzen 7 5800XT, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, appears to be providing sufficient headroom, as the FPS does not collapse when resolution increases. Instead, the scaling follows a predictable pattern tied to the GPU’s rendering load, indicating that the CPU is not holding the system back in this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for a smooth 60 FPS experience at 1440p?

A: The data shows that the Medium preset at 2560x1440 produces an average of 75.4 FPS, which is comfortably above 60 FPS. The High preset at the same resolution drops to 55.2 FPS, so Medium is the recommended choice for maintaining smooth performance.

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

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 100.8 FPS, and the Medium preset achieves 64.1 FPS. High and Ultra settings at 4K fall to 46.2 and 35.3 FPS respectively, which are not ideal for consistent gameplay.

Q: How does the combo rank compare to other tested systems?

A: This specific combination of the Ryzen 7 5800XT and RX 9070 XT ranks 394th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the top 23% of all systems benchmarked for this game, indicating strong performance.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary limiting factor. This is evident in the large FPS drops when increasing settings from Medium to Ultra, which heavily tax the graphics card. The CPU’s performance, while strong, does not appear to be causing a bottleneck, as the FPS scales predictably with resolution.

Q: What is the difference in performance between the High and Ultra presets?

A: The Ultra preset is significantly more demanding. At 1080p, the average FPS drops from 64.8 on High to 55.9 on Ultra, a difference of 8.9 FPS. At 1440p, the difference is 9.0 FPS (55.2 to 46.2), and at 4K, it is 10.9 FPS (46.2 to 35.3). This suggests the Ultra preset adds graphical features that are not worth the performance cost.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this system?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 147.6 at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset. This shows the system’s maximum potential when graphical load is minimized.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, plays a supporting role in The Medium, but its capabilities are essential for delivering the high frame rates seen at lower settings. The CPU’s base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 4.80 GHz, combined with a 32 MB L3 cache, provide a solid foundation for game logic and physics. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 23794 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3359 in single-core, which places it in the 86th percentile of all CPUs. This strong single-thread performance is critical for games like The Medium that may not fully utilize all 16 threads. The data supports this, as the FPS at Low settings remains high even at 4K (100.8 FPS), suggesting the CPU is keeping up with the GPU’s output. However, the CPU’s role becomes less prominent as settings increase. The fact that the FPS drops significantly when moving from Medium to Ultra, regardless of resolution, points to the GPU being the main constraint. The CPU’s performance relative to its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS which is 0.3% faster on average, is competitive, but it does not appear to be the deciding factor in this game’s performance ceiling. The 105 W TDP and 7 nm process node indicate an efficient design, allowing the CPU to maintain its boost clocks without excessive power draw, which is beneficial for sustained gaming sessions. Ultimately, the 5800XT provides enough headroom to avoid being a bottleneck in this title, but it does not boost the frame rates at high graphical settings where the GPU is clearly the limiting component.