The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT combination delivers its most balanced experience at 1440p Medium, where the 80.9 FPS average provides smooth gameplay without the steep performance tax of higher presets. At 1080p, the Medium preset’s 91.4 FPS is also strong, but the 1440p result offers a better balance of visual fidelity and headroom. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it drops to 53.7 FPS at 1080p and a marginal 32.7 FPS at 4K. Low settings are viable for competitive play, hitting 151.1 FPS at 1080p, but the visual compromise is substantial for a horror title that relies on atmosphere.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium as the optimal preset for this combo across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 91.4 FPS, which is 42% higher than High’s 64.3 FPS and 70% higher than Ultra’s 53.7 FPS. The gap narrows at 1440p, where Medium’s 80.9 FPS remains comfortably playable, while High drops to 55 FPS and Ultra falls to 45.3 FPS. At 4K, Medium’s 62 FPS is the only preset that stays above the 60 FPS threshold, making it the clear choice for UHD displays.

High presents a reasonable middle ground for users prioritizing image quality over frame rate, but the data shows diminishing returns. At 1080p, High’s 64.3 FPS is 29% slower than Medium, yet the visual difference between these presets is typically less dramatic than the performance cost. Ultra is uniformly poor, with all three resolutions below 54 FPS, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay. Low settings are only recommended for users chasing maximum refresh rates, as the 151.1 FPS at 1080p and 122.7 FPS at 1440p show the combo’s ceiling when graphical load is minimized.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 9070 XT’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for The Medium’s texture-heavy scenes. The GPU’s boost clock of 2970 MHz and game clock of 2400 MHz drive its 48.66 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, and the benchmark results show this hardware is the primary bottleneck at higher settings. The transition from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 59.7 FPS (151.1 to 91.4), a 40% drop that reflects the GPU’s increased workload. Moving from Medium to High costs another 27.1 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 10.6 FPS, showing that the GPU’s headroom shrinks as settings rise.

At 4K, the GPU’s limits are stark. Low settings yield 99.7 FPS, but Medium drops to 62 FPS, High to 42.9 FPS, and Ultra to 32.7 FPS. This steep curve—a 67% reduction from Low to Ultra—indicates the RX 9070 XT is well-suited for 1440p Medium/High but struggles with 4K Ultra. The GPU’s 82nd percentile ranking among all GPUs and its passmark G3D score of 26795 place it in the upper tier, yet The Medium’s demanding rendering at 4K exposes its limitations. The 16 GB VRAM is not the constraint here; rather, the raw compute throughput at higher presets is the deciding factor.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Medium?

A: 1440p with Medium settings provides the best overall experience, delivering 80.9 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS playability threshold while maintaining higher visual quality than 1080p Medium’s 91.4 FPS.

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

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, which hits 62 FPS. Low settings reach 99.7 FPS, while High and Ultra fall to 42.9 FPS and 32.7 FPS respectively, making them less suitable for smooth play.

Q: How much performance is lost going from Low to Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p, the drop is from 151.1 FPS to 53.7 FPS, a 64% reduction. At 1440p, it goes from 122.7 FPS to 45.3 FPS, a 63% loss. At 4K, the decline is from 99.7 FPS to 32.7 FPS, a 67% reduction.

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

A: The GPU is the primary limiter at higher settings. Evidence shows the FPS drops more sharply with resolution increases (e.g., 1080p Medium at 91.4 FPS vs 4K Medium at 62 FPS) than with CPU-bound scenarios, and the CPU’s 91st percentile ranking suggests it has ample headroom.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 64.3 FPS. This is playable but notably lower than Medium’s 91.4 FPS, making High a trade-off between fidelity and smoothness at this resolution.

Q: Does the combo rank well among tested systems?

A: It ranks 447th out of 1689 total combos, placing it in the top 26.5% of tested configurations for The Medium, which is a solid mid-to-upper tier position.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo shows a wide performance spread. Low settings produce 151.1 FPS, which is the highest measured result across all resolutions and settings. Medium drops to 91.4 FPS, High to 64.3 FPS, and Ultra to 53.7 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is the largest single drop at 59.7 FPS, while Medium to High costs 27.1 FPS and High to Ultra costs 10.6 FPS. This pattern shows diminishing returns in performance cost as settings climb.

At 2560x1440, all presets shift downward by roughly 20-30% compared to 1080p. Low yields 122.7 FPS, Medium 80.9 FPS, High 55 FPS, and Ultra 45.3 FPS. The Medium result remains well above the 60 FPS target, while High dips below it and Ultra falls to 45.3 FPS, which is borderline for playable frame pacing. The relative performance gaps between presets are consistent with 1080p, indicating a uniform GPU load scaling.

At 3840x2160, the GPU’s limits become pronounced. Low still achieves 99.7 FPS, but Medium drops to 62 FPS, High to 42.9 FPS, and Ultra to 32.7 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest measured, representing a 78% reduction from 1080p Low. Interestingly, 4K Low (99.7 FPS) outperforms 1080p High (64.3 FPS), showing that resolution scaling is less punishing than preset scaling at the low end of settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 7700 and RX 9070 XT holds the 447th rank out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the 73.5th percentile of all configurations. This is a strong showing, though not elite, given the GPU’s 82nd percentile ranking and the CPU’s 91st percentile ranking. The gap between the GPU percentile and the combo’s in-game percentile suggests The Medium’s specific workload does not fully leverage the RX 9070 XT’s strengths, likely due to its engine’s rendering characteristics.

In the broader context, the CPU’s nearest rivals—the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H (0.1% higher average score), AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 (0.5% higher), Intel Core i9-13905H (0.6% lower), and Intel Core Ultra 5 235T (1.2% higher)—show that the 7700’s compute performance is tightly clustered with these parts. The GPU’s nearest rivals, including the AMD Radeon Pro 575 (0.1% lower), NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (0.2% higher), and AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (0.6% lower), similarly indicate the RX 9070 XT sits in a competitive tier. This mid-pack ranking for both components explains the 447th position, as the combo does not exceed expectations set by its individual parts.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 provides 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its Zen 4 architecture on a 5 nm process delivers strong multithreaded performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29302 and a single-core score of 4136. The CPU’s 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth on DDR5 support are ample for feeding the GPU, and its 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms it is not a bottleneck in most gaming scenarios.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role appears secondary to the GPU. At 1080p Low, where GPU load is minimal, the combo achieves 151.1 FPS, suggesting the CPU can drive high frame rates without issue. However, the FPS drops consistently across all resolutions as settings increase, which is a GPU-bound pattern. The CPU’s passmark multithread score of 34470 and data compression score of 405084 indicate strong general compute, but The Medium’s horror-focused rendering likely relies more on GPU shader and texture work than CPU physics or AI. The 8-core/16-thread configuration is sufficient for this title, as no measured result indicates a CPU-imposed ceiling.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear resolution scaling pattern. Moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces FPS by an average of 19% across all settings (e.g., Medium from 91.4 to 80.9 FPS, High from 64.3 to 55 FPS). Moving from 1440p to 4K reduces FPS by another 23% on average (e.g., Medium from 80.9 to 62 FPS, Ultra from 45.3 to 32.7 FPS). The total drop from 1080p to 4K ranges from 34% for Low (151.1 to 99.7 FPS) to 39% for Ultra (53.7 to 32.7 FPS).

This scaling behavior indicates a GPU-bound system. If the CPU were the limiter, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions, but the consistent decline with increasing pixel count points to the RX 9070 XT’s fill rate and compute capacity as the primary constraint. The smallest percentage drop from 1080p to 4K occurs at Low settings (34%), where the GPU is less stressed, while the largest drop is at Ultra (39%), where the GPU is fully saturated. This gradient confirms that the GPU’s performance ceiling is the deciding factor, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom at all tested resolutions. For users targeting 4K, Medium settings are the viable ceiling, while 1440p offers the best balance of quality and frame rate.