The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT delivers a highly variable experience in The Medium, with results that hinge almost entirely on the selected preset. The measured data reveals a configuration that is capable of smooth performance at lower settings but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at the highest visual quality, particularly at higher resolutions. The combination of an 8-core Zen 4 processor with a 7 nm RDNA 2.0 GPU creates a system where the graphics card is the primary bottleneck in this title.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and clearly indicates a GPU-bound workload. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 42.0 FPS at 1920x1080 to 36.6 FPS at 2560x1440, and then further down to 25.8 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 38.6% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K, a significant penalty that reflects the immense pixel-pushing demands of the resolution.

The scaling pattern across all settings shows that the RX 6650 XT is the limiting component. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 94.8 FPS at 1080p to 77.4 FPS at 1440p and 65.6 FPS at 4K, a 30.8% decrease from 1080p to 4K. This is a smaller relative drop than at High settings, which is typical as the lower preset reduces the per-pixel workload, yet the GPU still struggles to maintain higher rates at 4K.

The most telling data point is the Ultra preset, which is essentially unplayable beyond 1080p. At 1920x1080, the card manages 33.1 FPS, but this falls to 27.5 FPS at 1440p and 24.7 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1440p and 4K is a mere 2.8 FPS, suggesting that the game is already so demanding at this preset that the GPU is hitting a hard performance ceiling regardless of resolution. The data shows that this configuration is best suited for 1080p gaming; 1440p is only viable with substantial settings reductions, and 4K is only playable with the Low preset.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows point to the Low preset as the only reliable option for a consistently smooth experience, particularly if the target is 60 FPS or higher. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 94.8 FPS, which is more than sufficient for a horror title where frame pacing is less critical than stability. At 2560x1440, Low still yields a respectable 77.4 FPS, and even at 3840x2160, it manages 65.6 FPS, making it the only preset that clears the 60 FPS threshold at 4K.

The Medium preset offers a middle ground for those prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rate. It achieves 61.1 FPS at 1080p, which is playable, but falls to 52.5 FPS at 1440p and 36.4 FPS at 4K. The High preset is not recommended for this hardware, as it only produces 42.0 FPS at 1080p and drops below 30 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset should be avoided entirely, as it fails to reach 30 FPS at any resolution. The data indicates that the best experience is either Low for high refresh rate monitors or Medium for a balance of quality and performance at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this configuration can achieve in The Medium?

A: The highest measured average is 94.8 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K resolution smoothly?

A: Only with the Low preset, which yields an average of 65.6 FPS. All other presets at 4K fall below 36.5 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform at 1440p compared to 1080p?

A: The Ultra preset delivers 27.5 FPS at 2560x1440 and 33.1 FPS at 1920x1080, a difference of 5.6 FPS in favor of the lower resolution.

Q: Which preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset is the most balanced, delivering 61.1 FPS at 1920x1080, which is comfortably above the 30 FPS threshold for playability.

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

A: The performance scaling data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. The significant frame rate drops with increased resolution and settings point to the Radeon RX 6650 XT as the bottleneck.

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate recorded in the data?

A: The lowest average is 24.7 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the configuration shows a clear hierarchy of performance. The Low preset leads with an average of 94.8 FPS, followed by Medium at 61.1 FPS. High trails significantly at 42.0 FPS, while Ultra is the least performant at 33.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 33.7 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 19.1 FPS, showing diminishing returns as settings increase.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats but with lower absolute numbers. Low achieves 77.4 FPS, which is still a strong result. Medium drops to 52.5 FPS, a 24.9 FPS deficit from Low. High falls to 36.6 FPS, and Ultra is near the bottom at 27.5 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs the Low preset 17.4 FPS, while the Medium preset loses 8.6 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the hardware begins to show its limits. Low is the only playable option at 65.6 FPS. Medium falls to 36.4 FPS, which is only slightly above the 30 FPS playability threshold. High produces 25.8 FPS, and Ultra is at 24.7 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is just 1.1 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional graphical demands yield almost no performance headroom left for this GPU.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT is the defining component in this configuration's performance profile. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, the card offers a memory bandwidth of 280.3 GB/s. This bandwidth is sufficient for the Low and Medium presets across all resolutions, but the data suggests that the higher presets place an unmanageable load on the GPU's compute resources.

The card's boost clock of 2635 MHz and game clock of 2410 MHz represent the peak operational speeds, but the measured frame rates indicate that the GPU is heavily taxed by The Medium's rendering demands. The FP32 performance of 10.79 TFLOPS is the theoretical peak, yet the actual results show that the card can only sustain high frame rates when the graphical workload is artificially reduced via the Low preset. The pixel rate of 168.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 337.3 GTexel/s are the raw throughput figures, but they do not translate into playable performance at High or Ultra settings.

The GPU's standing among its peers is modest, with a percentile rank of 72 against all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 29024 places it in close competition with the AMD Radeon RX 6800M, which scores 29011, a delta of 0.0%. This near-identical benchmark performance does not reflect the in-game results, however, as the game's specific engine demands prove too heavy for the card at higher settings. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is likely a limiting factor at 4K with higher presets, as the frame rates plummet regardless of the resolution scaling.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 provides substantial processing power that is more than adequate for The Medium. With 8 cores and 16 threads, the CPU offers a multi-threaded benchmark score of 29302 in Cinebench R23, placing it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs. This processing capability ensures that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this configuration, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate drops that track with GPU load rather than CPU load.

The processor's boost clock of 5.30 GHz and base clock of 3.80 GHz provide high single-thread performance, which is critical for game logic and frame pacing. The single-thread Cinebench R23 score of 4136 is robust, and the 3DMark single-thread score of 1049 confirms strong per-core performance. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache is another asset, providing fast access to frequently used data.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 7700 holds its own. It outperforms the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 by 0.5% in average benchmark score, and it is 1.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235T. It slightly trails the Intel Core i9-13905H by 0.6%, but these are all negligible differences in synthetic benchmarks. In this game, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with data, and the 65 W TDP processor does so without becoming a limiting factor. The data shows that the system's performance is entirely dictated by the GPU's capabilities, not the CPU's.