The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, a horror title that stresses both the CPU and GPU depending on the resolution and settings chosen. Across the measured rows, the combination shows a clear pattern: the RTX 4060 is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the Ryzen 7 7700’s 8-core, 16-thread configuration provides ample headroom at lower settings. The data reveals a system that is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at 4K Ultra.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating that the GPU is the limiting component as pixel count rises. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 108 at 1920x1080 to 91 at 2560x1440, a 15.7% reduction, and then to 72 at 3840x2160, a further 20.9% drop from 1440p. This scaling is typical for a GPU with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and a 128-bit bus, as the RTX 4060’s 272.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes increasingly taxed at higher resolutions.

Moving to Medium settings, the pattern intensifies. The average FPS at 1080p is 68, which drops to 57 at 1440p (a 16.2% decline) and then to 45 at 4K (a 21.1% decline from 1440p). The minimum FPS at Medium settings tells a similar story: 58 at 1080p, 49 at 1440p, and 38 at 4K. This suggests that while the GPU is handling the load, it is running out of headroom as resolution increases.

At High settings, the scaling becomes more pronounced. The average FPS is 49 at 1080p, 41 at 1440p (a 16.3% drop), and 32 at 4K (a 22.0% drop from 1440p). The gap between 1080p and 4K at High settings is 34.7%, which is larger than the 33.3% gap at Low settings. This indicates that the RTX 4060’s compute resources, including its 3072 shading units and 48 ROPs, are being saturated more quickly at higher quality presets.

Ultra settings show the most severe scaling, with average FPS at 39 at 1080p, 32 at 1440p (a 17.9% drop), and 25 at 4K (a 21.9% drop from 1440p). The 4K Ultra result of 25 FPS is below playable thresholds, and the 1080p Ultra result of 39 FPS is marginal. The data shows that the RTX 4060’s 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is insufficient for 4K Ultra in this title, and even 1440p High requires a compromise.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 brings substantial processing power to this pairing, with 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz provide strong single-threaded performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1930 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2525. In a horror game like The Medium, which relies on consistent frame pacing, this CPU headroom is critical, and the data suggests it is not the bottleneck in most scenarios.

At 1080p Low, the system achieves 108 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s throughput limit for this game, but still well above playable. The Ryzen 7 7700’s multi-threaded capabilities, shown by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18760 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 15371, ensure that background tasks and game logic do not interfere with rendering. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache is also beneficial for keeping frequently accessed data close to the cores.

Benchmark results place the Ryzen 7 7700 in the 87th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40081. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, which scores 40048 (a 0.1% delta), and the Intel Core 5 221E, which scores 40144 (a -0.2% delta). This indicates that the Ryzen 7 7700 is well within the expected performance range for a modern desktop CPU, and its 65 W TDP makes it an efficient choice for sustained gaming loads.

The CPU’s role becomes more apparent when examining the FPS gaps between settings at the same resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (108 FPS) and Ultra (39 FPS) is 69 FPS, which is a 63.9% reduction. This large gap is primarily driven by GPU load, but the CPU must still feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The Ryzen 7 7700’s 5.30 GHz boost clock ensures that it can keep up, even at lower settings where the GPU is less stressed.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for this combination. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 68 FPS with a minimum of 58 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay without the significant frame rate penalty of High or Ultra. The minimum FPS of 58 at 1080p Medium is above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays, making it the recommended preset for a consistent experience.

At 2560x1440, Medium is also the optimal choice, yielding an average of 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS. While the average is slightly below 60 FPS, the minimum of 49 FPS is still playable for a horror title that does not require fast reaction times. The High preset at 1440p drops the average to 41 FPS, which may feel less fluid, while Low at 91 FPS sacrifices too much visual fidelity for the modest gain.

For 4K resolution, the data shows that Medium is the only viable option, with an average of 45 FPS and a minimum of 38 FPS. The Low preset at 4K achieves 72 FPS, but the visual compromise is significant, and the Ultra preset at 25 FPS is unplayable. Therefore, 4K users should stick to Medium settings, accepting the 38 FPS minimum as the cost of running this GPU at high resolution.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as even at 1080p it only achieves 39 FPS on average, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. The High preset is a reasonable alternative for users with 1080p displays who prioritize visuals, offering 49 FPS, but the Medium preset’s higher minimum FPS makes it the safer choice for maintaining frame consistency.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 1999 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the lower-middle tier of all combinations, reflecting the RTX 4060’s position as a mainstream GPU rather than a high-end performer. The combo rank of 1999 indicates that roughly 46% of tested configurations perform better, while 54% perform worse, suggesting that this pairing is adequate but not exceptional for this game.

The RTX 4060 itself ranks in the 61st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17639. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (scoring 17666, a -0.2% delta) and the AMD Radeon 780M (scoring 17588, a 0.3% delta). This narrow margin shows that the RTX 4060 is closely matched with older and integrated solutions in synthetic benchmarks, but in The Medium, its 8 GB VRAM and Ada Lovelace architecture provide a tangible advantage.

The Ryzen 7 7700’s 87th percentile ranking among CPUs is significantly higher than the GPU’s 61st percentile, confirming that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo. The data indicates that pairing this CPU with a stronger GPU would yield better results, as the Ryzen 7 7700 has the headroom to support higher frame rates. The combo’s rank of 1999 out of 3724 is a direct reflection of the GPU’s mid-range positioning.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is the decisive component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured FPS results. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, the GPU’s 272.0 GB/s bandwidth is a limiting factor at 4K, where the demand for texture data and frame buffer memory increases exponentially. The GPU’s base clock of 1830 MHz and boost clock of 2460 MHz, combined with its 3072 shading units, provide adequate compute for 1080p and 1440p gaming.

The RTX 4060’s 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores support ray tracing and DLSS features, but the measured data does not include these features enabled. In standard rasterization, the GPU’s 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is sufficient for medium settings at most resolutions. The pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s are moderate for a 40-series card, and the data reflects this in the scaling from 1080p to 4K.

The GPU’s 5 nm process node and 18,900 million transistors are packed into a 159 mm² die, making it a compact and efficient design. However, the 115 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU indicate that this is not a high-power card, and its performance ceiling is reached quickly under heavy load. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra of 25 FPS is a clear indication that the RTX 4060 is not designed for extreme resolutions, despite its modern architecture.

The RTX 4060’s average benchmark score of 17639 and 61st percentile ranking position it below many older high-end cards, but its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 780M (a 0.3% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro 560 (a 0.5% delta). This shows that while the RTX 4060 is a capable mainstream GPU, it competes closely with integrated and older mobile solutions in synthetic tests, though its real-world gaming performance is more robust.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 108 FPS on Low settings, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings at 1080p produce an average of 68 FPS with a minimum of 58 FPS and a maximum of 78 FPS, while High settings reduce the average to 49 FPS. Ultra settings at 1080p yield an average of 39 FPS, which is the lowest for this resolution but still above the 4K Ultra result.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average of 91 FPS, a decline of 17 FPS from 1080p. Medium settings at 1440p average 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 66 FPS, while High settings drop to 41 FPS. Ultra settings at 1440p average 32 FPS, which is 7 FPS lower than the 1080p Ultra result, showing a consistent scaling pattern.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 72 FPS, which is the only 4K result above 60 FPS. Medium settings at 4K average 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 FPS and a maximum of 52 FPS, making it the best 4K setting for playability. High settings at 4K average 32 FPS, and Ultra settings average 25 FPS, rendering both presets unsuitable for smooth gameplay. The measured data shows that this combo is best utilized at 1080p or 1440p with Medium settings, where it provides a balanced experience that leverages the Ryzen 7 7700’s strong CPU performance and the RTX 4060’s moderate GPU capabilities.