The Medium

The Medium presents a uniquely demanding workload, and the pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti produces a dataset that clearly illustrates the boundaries of this hardware combination. The measured results show a component stack that is capable but consistently constrained by the graphics card, particularly as resolution and visual fidelity increase. The data indicates that this system is best suited for specific settings that balance the GPU's 8 GB memory capacity and its compute throughput against the game's fixed-camera rendering style.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain a playable frame rate above 60 FPS?

A: The only resolution where the system consistently exceeds 60 FPS is 1920x1080, and only on the Low preset, which achieves an average of 89.2 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Low preset drops to 75.7 FPS, which is still above 60, but the 3840x2160 Low preset falls to 57.6 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700 has an average benchmark score of 40468, placing it 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H and 0.5% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365. It trails the Intel Core i9-13905H by 0.6% and is 1.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235T.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between the High and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset yields an average of 34.5 FPS, while the Ultra preset yields 25 FPS. This represents a significant 9.5 FPS drop for the increased settings, indicating that the Ultra preset is not viable at this resolution.

Q: Given the GPU's memory configuration, what is a potential limiting factor at higher resolutions?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The data shows a steep performance cliff when moving from Low to Medium settings at 4K, suggesting that memory capacity or bandwidth becomes a critical constraint as texture data increases.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck in this game at 1080p?

A: The CPU's single-thread score is 1049 in 3dmark_single_thread and it has a 91st percentile ranking vs all CPUs. Given that the frame rate drops from 89.2 FPS at Low to 40.1 FPS at High at 1080p, the data implies the GPU is the primary limiting factor, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed frames.

Q: How does the GPU's raw compute score translate to the game's performance?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti has an average benchmark score of 25120 and a passmark_g3d score of 20349. The game data shows that even at 1080p High, the system only manages 40.1 FPS, indicating that The Medium's rendering engine is more demanding than general 3D benchmark suites suggest.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a clear hierarchy for playability. For a consistent 60+ FPS experience, the only option is 1920x1080 with the Low preset, which delivers 89.2 FPS. This setting is the sole configuration that provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 75.7 FPS, which is still playable for most users, but the Medium preset drops to 49.9 FPS, indicating a significant performance penalty for the next tier of visual quality.

For users seeking higher visual fidelity, the High preset is not a viable option at any resolution, as it only achieves 40.1 FPS at 1080p and 34.5 FPS at 1440p. The Ultra preset is similarly problematic, with 32.1 FPS at 1080p and 25 FPS at 1440p. The sweet spot for a quality experience appears to be 1080p Medium at 55.9 FPS, which offers a balanced trade-off between frame rate and visual detail, though it still falls short of the 60 FPS target. The data suggests that players should prioritize resolution over settings, as dropping to Low at 1440p provides a better frame rate than High at 1080p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, and its characteristics dictate the system's overall performance envelope. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory is a primary concern, as The Medium's settings scaling shows a non-linear response. For instance, at 3840x2160, the transition from Low (57.6 FPS) to Medium (37.2 FPS) represents a 20.4 FPS drop, which is far more severe than the transition from High (27.6 FPS) to Ultra (20.6 FPS). This pattern suggests that the game's Medium preset likely introduces texture or buffer requirements that strain the 8 GB memory pool.

The GPU's clock speeds are modest, with a base of 1410 MHz and a boost of 1665 MHz, but its 4864 shading units and 152 texture units provide substantial compute throughput. The measured FP32 performance of 16.20 TFLOPS is respectable, yet the game's results show that this raw power is not sufficient for high-end settings. The GPU's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6700M, has a near-identical average benchmark score (25180 vs 25120), yet the RTX 3060 Ti's performance in this game appears to be constrained by its memory subsystem rather than its raw compute power. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is the theoretical peak, but the data implies that the 8 GB capacity is the more pressing limitation.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 7700 and RTX 3060 Ti ranks 1290 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the lower 24th percentile of all systems benchmarked. This ranking is surprisingly low for a modern 8-core CPU and a discrete Ampere GPU, indicating that the game's specific workloads are particularly punishing for this hardware configuration. The rank suggests that many older or less powerful GPUs, when paired with faster CPUs, may achieve better results due to the game's apparent sensitivity to certain GPU features.

The data reveals that this combo is positioned well below what the individual component benchmarks would suggest. The CPU's 91st percentile ranking and the GPU's 69th percentile ranking would imply a mid-to-high-tier system, yet the in-game rank tells a different story. This discrepancy highlights that The Medium's rendering engine, likely due to its fixed-camera angles and pre-rendered elements, does not scale favorably with the RTX 3060 Ti's architecture. The combo's rank of 1290 means that 399 other configurations in the database produce higher average frame rates, emphasizing that this pairing is not optimized for this particular title.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 provides a strong foundation for this system, but its role in The Medium is largely supportive rather than performance-defining. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, the CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are substantial, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29302. However, the game's frame rates are consistently low across all settings, suggesting that the CPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 89.2 FPS, which is a reasonable result that allows the GPU to stretch its legs, but the CPU has much more headroom.

The CPU's single-thread performance, measured at 1049 in 3dmark_single_thread, is robust and should not impede frame delivery in a game like The Medium, which likely relies on a few primary threads for rendering logic. The 5.30 GHz boost clock is high, and the 32 MB of shared L3 cache provides ample on-die storage for game data. The data shows that when the GPU is not the limiting factor, such as at 1080p Low, the system can achieve decent frame rates. This indicates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU effectively, but the GPU's performance ceiling is reached before the CPU's capabilities are fully utilized. The CPU's nearest rival, the Ryzen 9 7940H, is nearly identical in average score, but the desktop 7700's higher power envelope (65W TDP vs mobile) does not translate to a significant in-game advantage.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the results range from a high of 89.2 FPS on Low to a low of 32.1 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset achieves 55.9 FPS, while High reaches 40.1 FPS. This resolution shows the widest spread between presets, with a 57.1 FPS difference between Low and Ultra, indicating that the GPU has the bandwidth to process more frames when the visual load is reduced.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates drop across the board. Low yields 75.7 FPS, Medium drops to 49.9 FPS, High falls to 34.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 25 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra here is 50.7 FPS, showing that the resolution increase disproportionately affects the higher settings. At 3840x2160, the system struggles significantly. Low manages 57.6 FPS, Medium drops to 37.2 FPS, High is at 27.6 FPS, and Ultra is nearly unplayable at 20.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra shrinks to 37 FPS, but the absolute numbers are so low that only the Low preset approaches a playable frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the GPU-bound nature of this system. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 89.2 FPS at 1080p to 75.7 FPS at 1440p (a 15.1% drop) and then to 57.6 FPS at 4K (a 23.9% drop from 1440p). This scaling is relatively gentle, suggesting that at Low settings, the GPU's memory bandwidth is sufficient, and the pixel fill rate is the primary constraint.

However, at Medium settings, the scaling becomes more erratic. The drop from 1080p (55.9 FPS) to 1440p (49.9 FPS) is only 10.7%, but the drop from 1440p to 4K (37.2 FPS) is 25.4%. This accelerated decline at 4K Medium indicates that the GPU is hitting a memory capacity or bandwidth wall. At High settings, the scaling is more consistent: 40.1 FPS at 1080p, 34.5 FPS at 1440p (13.9% drop), and 27.6 FPS at 4K (20% drop). The Ultra preset shows a similar pattern, with 32.1 FPS at 1080p, 25 FPS at 1440p, and 20.6 FPS at 4K.

The data suggests that the GPU's 8 GB memory is the limiting factor at higher resolutions and settings. The transition from Low to Medium at 4K causes a disproportionate frame rate loss, which is a classic symptom of exceeding the video memory capacity. The CPU's role in this scaling is minimal, as the Ryzen 7 7700's compute and cache resources are not being fully utilized at these lower frame rates. The system is clearly GPU-limited, and the RTX 3060 Ti's 8 GB capacity is the primary obstacle to achieving higher resolutions with acceptable performance.