The Medium

The Medium is a fixed-camera horror title that stresses both GPU and CPU in unusual ways, and the data for the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 reveals a combo that scales predictably with resolution but hits a hard ceiling at 4K Ultra. The measured frames per second across three resolutions and four presets show a system that is balanced at 1080p, increasingly GPU-bound at 1440p, and clearly overmatched at 4K, though the Ryzen 7 5800XT’s 8 cores and 16 threads keep the CPU from being the primary constraint in most scenarios. This analysis breaks down the measured rows, compares the combo to other tested configurations, and explains what the numbers imply for players and for the underlying components.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, which tells a story about where the workload lands. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 55 at 1920x1080 to 46 at 2560x1440, then drops further to 36 at 3840x2160. That is a 34.5% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 34.5% reduction from 1440p to 4K, with the overall loss from 1080p to 4K being 19 frames per second, a 34.5% decrease. The pattern is nearly identical for Medium: 77 frames at 1080p, 65 at 1440p, and 51 at 4K, representing a 15.6% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 21.5% drop from 1440p to 4K. Low settings show the most dramatic scalability, with 123 frames at 1080p falling to 104 at 1440p and then to 81 at 4K—a 15.4% drop and a 22.1% drop, respectively.

Ultra settings are the most telling. At 1080p, the combo manages 44 frames, which drops to 37 at 1440p and 29 at 4K. The percentage losses are 15.9% and 21.6% for each step, but the absolute numbers are low enough to make Ultra a poor choice at any resolution. The data shows that the RTX 3070 is the dominant limiter: the performance loss between resolutions is roughly proportional to the increase in pixel count, which is classic GPU-bound behavior. The Ryzen 7 5800XT’s 8 cores and 16 threads do not appear to bottleneck at any resolution, because the frame rate differences between 1080p and 4K are largely dictated by the GPU’s rendering load. If the CPU were the constraint, we’d expect less of a gap between 1440p and 4K, but the 4K results are consistently the lowest, confirming that the GeForce RTX 3070 is the limiting component in this pairing.

GPU Role

The RTX 3070’s specifications line up with the measured behavior. The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock runs at 1500 MHz and boosts to 1725 MHz. These numbers are critical for The Medium because the game’s fixed camera angles and detailed environments demand high memory throughput and sustained shader work. The benchmark results show that at 4K Ultra, the average frame rate falls to 29, which is below the 30 FPS threshold many players consider a minimum. The 8 GB VRAM likely becomes a limiting factor at 4K with Ultra settings, where textures and geometry exceed the frame buffer’s capacity, causing the GPU to spill into system memory. This is supported by the fact that dropping to High at 4K yields 36 frames, a 24.1% improvement over Ultra, and the Medium preset yields 51 frames, a 14.3% improvement over High.

The GPU’s architectural strengths are apparent in the scaling: the RTX 3070’s 5888 shading units and 184 texture mapping units make it strong for resolutions up to 1440p, but the 8 GB VRAM and limited bandwidth relative to the 4K load are the binding constraints. At 1080p, the RTX 3070 is clearly not the bottleneck—the frame rate at High is 55, at Medium 77, and at Low 123, which indicates that the GPU has headroom even at High settings. The 4K results, however, show that the card’s 8 GB is stretched thin, and the 29 frames at Ultra is a hard floor. The measured frame times for Medium at 4K (min 43, max 58) suggest that even at Medium the GPU is delivering a near-consistent experience but with a wide variance, which points to memory pressure rather than compute limits.

The RTX 3070’s percentile standing—61st among all GPUs—places it in the mid-to-upper tier, but the nearest rivals show a tightly packed field. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT has an average benchmark score of 17083, a 0.7% delta, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 scores 17037, a 1% delta. The AMD Radeon HD 7970M is at 17019, a 1.1% delta, and the NVIDIA Tesla K40c is at 17468, a -1.5% delta. These rivalries are within 1.5% of the RTX 3070’s average benchmark score of 17208, which means the card’s raw compute is competitive with those products, but the game-specific results show how much the 8 GB capacity and bandwidth matter in a demanding title like The Medium. The GPU’s 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3162 and PassMark G3D score of 22214 underline its compute strength, but those don’t translate to high 4K frame rates in this game.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT is a refresh of the 5000-series with 8 cores and 16 threads running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. It has 32 MB of shared L3 cache, a 7 nm process node, and a TDP of 105 W. The CPU’s role in The Medium appears to be secondary to the GPU, but the benchmark data allows for some inference. At 1080p, the frame rates are high enough (up to 123 at Low) that the CPU must be delivering enough single-thread performance to avoid limiting the GPU. The 3DMark single-thread score of 959 and the Cinebench R20 single-core score of 1410 suggest strong single-threaded capability, which is important for a game that often has one main thread for rendering and another for physics.

The CPU’s multi-threaded performance is also relevant because The Medium uses multiple threads for streaming and loading. The CPU’s 3DMark 16-thread score of 7683 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23794 indicate that the 8-core/16-thread configuration can handle parallel workloads, but the game’s frame rates do not show a CPU bottleneck at any resolution. For instance, at 1080p High, the frame rate is 55, which is lower than the 77 at Medium, but the CPU is not the cause—the GPU is. At 4K, the CPU is even less of a factor, as the GPU’s rendering load dominates. The CPU’s percentile rank among all CPUs is 81, which places it in the top 20%, and its average benchmark score of 29879 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals: the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (29868, a 0% delta), the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (29955, -0.3% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X (29713, a 0.6% delta). This cluster indicates that the 5800XT’s CPU performance is on par with those chips, but the The Medium results do not show a CPU bottleneck, which means the 5800XT’s 8 cores are more than sufficient for this title.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s for DDR4 is typical for the platform, and the 32 MB L3 cache helps with the game’s asset streaming. The game’s frame rates at 1080p Low (123 FPS) and 1440p Low (104 FPS) suggest that the CPU can push high frame rates when the GPU is not overly stressed. The only concern is the 4K Low result of 81 FPS, which is higher than 4K High (36) and Ultra (29), indicating that the CPU is not a constraint even at 4K. The data does not show any scenario where the CPU’s core count or clock speed is a limiting factor, which is a positive for the 5800XT in this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows show that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for most resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 77 FPS with a minimum of 65 and a maximum of 88, which is a solid experience for a horror game where smoothness matters. At 2560x1440, Medium yields 65 FPS (min 55, max 74), which is still playable. At 4K, Medium drops to 51 FPS (min 43, max 58), which is borderline but acceptable for a single-player title. High settings at 1080p reach 55 FPS, which is 28.6% lower than Medium, and at 1440p High is 46 FPS, which is 29.2% lower. Ultra is not recommended at any resolution: it only reaches 44 FPS at 1080p, 37 at 1440p, and 29 at 4K, all of which are below the 60 FPS target and the 4K result is below 30.

Low settings offer the highest frame rates (123 at 1080p, 104 at 1440p, 81 at 4K), but the visual quality loss is likely to be significant for a horror game that relies on atmosphere and lighting. The data suggests that Medium is the best balance: it provides a 45.5% increase over High at 1080p (77 vs 55) and a 16.5% increase at 4K (51 vs 36), while maintaining a minimum frame rate above 43 across all resolutions. The only exception is 4K Ultra, which is not viable, and the 4K Medium is the highest playable setting for that resolution. For players with a 1440p monitor, the Medium preset is clearly the best choice, and for 1080p, Medium or High are viable, but Medium offers a significant frame rate advantage with only a moderate visual compromise. The recommendation from the data is: use Medium for all resolutions, with 1080p giving the highest headroom and 4K as a playable but not ideal experience.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 36 at 3840x2160 with High settings.

Q: How much faster is 1080p compared to 4K at Ultra?

A: At 1920x1080 Ultra, the average is 44 FPS; at 3840x2160 Ultra, it is 29 FPS. The difference is 15 FPS, which is a 51.7% increase in frame rate at 1080p.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM of the RTX 3070 affect 4K performance?

A: The data shows a 4K Ultra average of 29 FPS and a 4K Medium of 51 FPS, which suggests that the 8 GB frame buffer is a constraint at 4K, as lowering settings to Medium improves the frame rate by 22 FPS (a 75.9% gain).

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5800XT a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 123 FPS, and at 1080p High, 55 FPS, indicating that the CPU is not the bottleneck; the GPU is more likely the limit at higher settings.

Q: What is the minimum FPS for the Medium preset at 1440p?

A: The minimum FPS is 55, with a maximum of 74, and an average of 65 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3070’s benchmark score compare to a close rival?

A: The RTX 3070’s average benchmark score is 17208, while the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT has an average score of 17083, a 0.7% difference.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Resolution by resolution, the measured FPS values are as follows:

• 3840x2160 (4K):
• Low: 81 FPS average (no min/max recorded)
• Medium: 51 FPS average (min 43, max 58)
• High: 36 FPS average (no min/max)
• Ultra: 29 FPS average (no min/max)

• 2560x1440 (1440p):
• Low: 104 FPS average
• Medium: 65 FPS average (min 55, max 74)
• High: 46 FPS average
• Ultra: 37 FPS average

• 1920x1080 (1080p):
• Low: 123 FPS average
• Medium: 77 FPS average (min 65, max 88)
• High: 55 FPS average
• Ultra: 44 FPS average

The pattern is consistent: Low settings give the highest FPS, Medium is the next, High is third, and Ultra is the lowest. At 4K, the differences are 81 (Low), 51 (Medium), 36 (High), and 29 (Ultra). At 1440p, the values are 104, 65, 46, and 37. At 1080p, 123, 77, 55, and 44. The minimum and maximum for Medium are the only ones recorded, and they show a 15-18 frame variance at 4K (43-58) and 1440p (55-74) and a 23-frame variance at 1080p (65-88). This suggests that Medium has the most consistent frame times relative to its average, while the other settings lack recorded min/max data.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is ranked 1570 out of 3724 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the 42nd percentile of all tested combos, which means it performs better than about 42% of the systems tested. The rank is a composite of the CPU and GPU’s suitability for the game, and the measured FPS at the tested settings show that the combo is not a top-tier performer for this title, especially at 4K where the frame rates are low. The CPU’s percentile is 81, and the GPU’s percentile is 61, but the combo’s ranking is lower than either component’s individual percentile, which suggests that the pairing is not as effective for this game as the components’ averages would imply. The high CPU performance does not translate to high frame rates in The Medium because the game is clearly GPU-bound, and the RTX 3070’s 8 VRAM and bandwidth are not enough for the highest settings at 4K. The combo’s ranking of 1570 out of 3,724 indicates that there are many other combinations that produce better results, likely those with more powerful GPUs. For players targeting 1440p or 1080p, the combo is adequate, but for 4K Ultra, it falls short, as evidenced by the 29 FPS average. The data suggests that the 5800XT is a strong CPU, but the RTX 3070 is the limiting factor in this game, and users seeking higher frame rates at 4K would need a GPU with more VRAM or higher bandwidth. The combo’s rank is a useful reference for comparing it to other systems tested for The Medium, and it shows that while the components are individually solid, their pairing is only average for this specific title.

The results also show that the combo is more competitive at lower resolutions: the 123 FPS at 1080p Low is a strong result, and the 77 FPS at 1080p Medium is respectable. However, the 4K results (29-81 FPS) and the 1440p Ultra (37 FPS) are less impressive, pulling the overall rank down. The nearest rivals for the CPU (Ryzen 7 7840H, 8845HS, 7840HS, and Ryzen 5 9600X) are all within 0.6% of the 5800XT’s average score, but the game’s frame rates do not vary much with CPU changes, so the GPU remains the deciding factor. The RTX 3070’s nearest rivals are all within 1.5% of its average score, but again, the game’s results are more about the GPU’s VRAM and memory bandwidth than its raw compute. In summary, the combo ranks 1570th out of 3724, which is below the median, and the data indicates that the RTX 3070 is the main performance limiter for The Medium, particularly at 4K, with the CPU playing a supporting role that does not bottleneck the system.