The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers a performance profile in The Medium that is heavily dictated by the graphics card, but the CPU ensures the system never becomes the bottleneck. The data shows a clear scaling pattern across resolutions and settings, with the GPU’s 20 GB of memory and RDNA 3.0 architecture playing the dominant role in frame rate outcomes.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable yet steep decline as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 162.9 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 133.4 FPS, a reduction of roughly 18%. At 4K Low, the frame rate falls to 104.2 FPS, which is a further 22% drop from 1440p. This scaling indicates that the RX 7900 XT still has ample headroom at lower resolutions, and the Ryzen 7 7700 is feeding it efficiently.

The pattern becomes more pronounced at higher settings. At Ultra, the 1080p result is 54.9 FPS, 1440p yields 49.8 FPS, and 4K drops to 38.3 FPS. The delta between 1080p and 4K at Ultra is about 30%, which is smaller in relative terms than the Low preset’s 36% drop. This suggests that at Ultra, the game is pushing the GPU to its limits regardless of resolution, and the memory bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s becomes a critical factor. The 4K High result of 48.6 FPS versus 4K Medium’s 69 FPS shows a 30% performance penalty for moving up one preset, highlighting how much computational weight the High and Ultra settings carry.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU. The CPU’s 8 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient for this horror title, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates scale almost linearly with resolution and settings. If the CPU were a constraint, we would expect to see a plateau at 1080p where the GPU is less taxed, but the data shows no such plateau. The 1080p Low result of 162.9 FPS is the highest in the dataset, but the drop to 133.4 FPS at 1440p Low confirms the GPU is still the primary driver of performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 315 out of 1689 tested combinations places it in the top 19% of all systems measured for The Medium. This is a strong showing, though not an elite one. The RX 7900 XT’s percentile of 82 against all GPUs suggests that while it is a high-end card, there are faster options available. The CPU’s percentile of 91 is higher, indicating that the processor is less of a limiting factor in this pairing.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the RX 7900 XT’s average benchmark score of 38358 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile’s 38349, with a deltaPct of 0. The NVIDIA CMP 70HX is 0.3% ahead, and the GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile is 0.6% behind. This means the GPU is performance-neutral against these competitors in synthetic tests, but in The Medium specifically, the measured FPS will depend on driver optimizations and the game’s engine. The Ryzen 7 7700’s average score of 40468 puts it 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H and 0.5% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, with the Intel Core i9-13905H trailing by 0.6%. These margins are negligible, meaning the CPU is not a differentiator in this combo’s ranking.

The rank of 315 is respectable for a system running a 65 W TDP CPU and a 300 W TDP GPU. The data suggests that many of the 1374 combos ranked ahead of it likely feature more powerful GPUs, such as NVIDIA’s top-tier RTX 40-series cards or AMD’s flagship RX 7900 XTX, which are not present in this dataset. The combo’s position is therefore a reflection of the GPU’s mid-to-high-end standing rather than any CPU deficiency.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the star of this show, and its specifications directly explain the measured results. With 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, the card has a bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s. This is crucial for The Medium, which uses heavy texture streaming and split-screen rendering mechanics that can consume VRAM aggressively. At 4K Ultra, the game demands substantial memory, and the 20 GB capacity ensures there is no stuttering due to memory overflow, even if the average FPS of 38.3 is low.

The GPU’s clock speeds are equally telling. The base clock is 1387 MHz, with a game clock of 2025 MHz and a boost clock of 2394 MHz. The boost clock is what the card sustains under load, and it is high enough to drive the 51.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s are both substantial, but The Medium is not a pixel-pushing shooter; it is a slow-paced horror game with complex lighting and volumetric effects. This means the GPU’s raw compute is less important than its memory subsystem and ray tracing capabilities, which are handled by 84 RT cores.

The measured FPS at 4K High (48.6) versus 4K Medium (69) shows a 30% gap, which indicates that the High preset likely enables effects that the Medium preset disables, such as higher shadow resolution or ambient occlusion. The GPU’s RDNA 3.0 architecture handles these effects competently, but the card is clearly not overpowered for this title at 4K. At 1080p, the GPU’s headroom is evident, with the Low preset hitting 162.9 FPS, but even at this resolution, the Ultra preset only manages 54.9 FPS, suggesting that the game’s Ultra settings are exceptionally demanding.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset provides a clear picture of what to expect at each resolution and settings combination. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are as follows: Low produces 162.9 FPS, Medium yields 99.1 FPS, High reaches 69.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 54.9 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 39% reduction, which is substantial, but the step from High to Ultra is only 21%. This suggests that the Medium preset is a sweet spot for 1080p if you want to stay above 60 FPS, while High is the highest preset that maintains a playable frame rate.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results are: Low at 133.4 FPS, Medium at 86.3 FPS, High at 59.5 FPS, and Ultra at 49.8 FPS. The High preset barely stays above 60 FPS, which is marginal for a smooth experience. The Medium preset provides a comfortable 86.3 FPS, which is ideal for high refresh rate monitors. At 1440p, the drop from Low to Medium is 35%, and from High to Ultra is 16%, showing that the GPU’s scaling is less punishing at higher resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the data shows: Low at 104.2 FPS, Medium at 69 FPS, High at 48.6 FPS, and Ultra at 38.3 FPS. The Low preset is surprisingly playable at 4K, but the Medium preset is the best balance of visual quality and performance, staying just above 60 FPS. The High and Ultra presets are below 50 FPS, which is not ideal for a game that relies on atmospheric tension, where frame pacing is critical. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 34%, and the gap between High and Ultra is 21%, mirroring the 1080p scaling pattern.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal settings depend on your target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p, the Medium preset at 99.1 FPS is the clear choice if you have a 100 Hz or 144 Hz monitor, as it offers a massive improvement over Low’s 162.9 FPS in visual fidelity while still being well above 60 FPS. If you have a 60 Hz display, High at 69.8 FPS is acceptable, but Ultra at 54.9 FPS introduces frame drops that could harm the game’s horror atmosphere.

For 1440p, the Medium preset at 86.3 FPS is the standout pick. It provides smooth gameplay and should look significantly better than Low, which hits 133.4 FPS but sacrifices too much visual detail. High at 59.5 FPS is borderline, and we would only recommend it if you are willing to accept occasional dips below 60 FPS. Ultra at 49.8 FPS is not worth the visual gains for the performance hit.

For 4K, the Medium preset at 69 FPS is the only sensible choice. Low at 104.2 FPS is too visually compromised for a game that relies on environmental storytelling, while High at 48.6 FPS and Ultra at 38.3 FPS are too slow for a genre where smooth camera movement is essential. The data clearly supports Medium as the best experience per the measured rows, offering a 42% improvement over High while maintaining a frame rate that is 15% above the 60 FPS threshold.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is a Zen 4 part built on a 5 nm process, featuring 8 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz are high for a 65 W TDP processor, and the 32 MB of shared L3 cache helps with game asset streaming. The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29302 and a single-core score of 4136 indicate that it can handle both heavily threaded workloads and the light single-threaded tasks that The Medium uses for game logic.

In this game, the CPU’s role is secondary but not negligible. The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows that the GPU is the bottleneck, but the CPU’s performance ensures that there are no frame time spikes or stutters. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 8484 and the max-thread score of 8479 are nearly identical, which suggests the CPU scales well with multi-threading, but The Medium is unlikely to use all 16 threads optimally. The PassMark multithread score of 34470 further confirms the CPU’s capability.

The CPU’s nearest rivals show that it is well-matched within its class. The Ryzen 9 7940H is 0.1% ahead in average score, and the Ryzen AI 9 365 is 0.5% behind. These differences are within noise, meaning that swapping the 7700 for any of these chips would not change the game’s performance. The CPU’s 91st percentile ranking against all CPUs is higher than the GPU’s 82nd percentile, indicating that the processor has more headroom for future GPU upgrades. If you were to pair this CPU with a faster graphics card, the 7700 would not hold it back, given its 5.30 GHz boost clock and 16 threads.

The memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s from dual-channel DDR5 is sufficient for this game, as the GPU’s 800.0 GB/s bandwidth is the primary driver of texture streaming. The CPU’s 65 W TDP also means it runs cool and leaves thermal headroom for the GPU to boost to its 2394 MHz maximum. In summary, the Ryzen 7 7700 is a quiet, efficient partner that allows the RX 7900 XT to operate at its full potential, but it is not the reason the combo ranks at 315. The GPU’s performance ceiling is what defines this system’s experience, particularly at higher resolutions and settings.