The Medium

The Medium on this platform pairing shows a clear pattern: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant factor shaping frame rates, while the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 provides ample headroom. The measured results across three resolutions and four settings presets reveal how the game's fixed-camera horror presentation scales with GPU load, and where the transition from GPU-bound to more balanced operation occurs.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating that the RTX 5080's rendering workload scales dramatically with pixel count. At Ultra settings, the average FPS falls from 72.0 at 1920x1080 to 62.5 at 2560x1440, then to 47.5 at 3840x2160. That is a 34% reduction from 1080p to 4K at the highest preset, a clear sign that the game's visual effects and resolution are heavily taxing the GPU's fill rate and shading units. The RTX 5080, with its 112 ROPs and 293.1 GPixel/s pixel rate, is being pushed hard at 4K Ultra, landing just below the 60 FPS threshold.

The scaling pattern is different at lower settings. At Low preset, the average FPS goes from 169.4 at 1080p to 157.3 at 1440p, then to 135.1 at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is only 14%, compared to a 24% drop from 1080p to 1440p. This suggests that at Low settings, the game becomes less dependent on raw pixel throughput and more reliant on other factors, possibly CPU draw call submission or memory bandwidth. The RTX 5080's 960.0 GB/s bandwidth and 16 GB of GDDR7 memory are sufficient to keep frame rates high even at 4K Low, but the diminishing returns between 1440p and 4K indicate a bottleneck emerging elsewhere.

Medium settings show a similar trend to High, with a 16% drop from 1080p (129.6 FPS) to 1440p (104.3 FPS), and then a further 17% drop to 4K (87.0 FPS). The consistency of these percentage drops across Medium and High presets suggests that the RTX 5080's shading and texture units are the primary constraint, as the game's art style relies heavily on detailed static scenes rather than dynamic geometry. The 4K High result of 59.4 FPS is particularly telling—it sits just below the 60 FPS target, implying that a small reduction in resolution or settings could easily push it over the line.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is a Zen 4 part with 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29302 and a single-core score of 4136. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support provide solid memory bandwidth for feeding the GPU. In The Medium, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions, but the data shows it is not idle.

At 1080p Low, the average FPS of 169.4 is likely close to the CPU's practical limit for this game's frame pacing. The Ryzen 7 7700's single-thread performance, as indicated by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1049, is sufficient to drive high frame rates, but the game's fixed-camera design may limit how many draw calls are needed per frame. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 8484 and max-thread score of 8479 show that multi-threaded scaling is nearly flat, meaning the game likely uses fewer than 8 cores effectively. The CPU's 65W TDP and 5 nm process node from TSMC ensure it does not thermally throttle during extended gaming sessions.

The comparison with nearest rivals shows the Ryzen 7 7700 is closely matched with other CPUs. It is 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H in average benchmark score, 0.5% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, and 1.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235T. It trails the Intel Core i9-13905H by 0.6%. These small deltas suggest that swapping in a comparable CPU would not meaningfully change The Medium's performance, reinforcing that the GPU is the limiting component in most configurations. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 2043 and 4-thread score of 3931 indicate that even lightly threaded workloads are handled efficiently, which is relevant for a game that may not fully utilize all 16 threads.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for balancing visual quality and frame rate. At 4K, the Ultra preset yields an average of 47.5 FPS, which is below the standard 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. Dropping to High raises this to 59.4 FPS, a 25% improvement that brings the experience much closer to playable. The Medium preset offers 87.0 FPS at 4K, which is a significant jump and likely provides a comfortable margin for most displays. For 4K users, Medium is the recommended preset—it delivers over 80 FPS while retaining a reasonable level of visual fidelity, and the jump from Medium to High costs 27.6 FPS (from 87.0 to 59.4), which is a steep penalty for the visual gain.

At 1440p, the situation is more forgiving. Ultra runs at 62.5 FPS, which is playable, but High at 77.0 FPS offers a smoother experience. Medium at 104.3 FPS is the sweet spot for high refresh rate monitors, as it provides ample headroom above 100 FPS. The Low preset at 157.3 FPS is only useful for competitive play or if the user prioritizes maximum frame rate over all else. For 1440p, High is the best balance—it stays above 60 FPS and the visual difference from Ultra is likely minor given the game's fixed camera angles.

At 1080p, all presets are playable. Ultra runs at 72.0 FPS, High at 88.7 FPS, Medium at 129.6 FPS, and Low at 169.4 FPS. The jump from Ultra to High is 16.7 FPS, while the jump from High to Medium is 40.9 FPS. This suggests that the Medium preset offers the most significant frame rate gain per visual quality reduction at 1080p. Given the game's horror genre and slower pacing, a stable 90+ FPS is preferable, making High the recommended choice at 1080p, with Medium as an option for those seeking higher refresh rates. Across all resolutions, the data indicates that the Medium preset provides the best balance of frame rate and visual quality, as it consistently delivers frame rates well above the 60 FPS target while avoiding the steep performance cliff seen when moving to High or Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 50th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. That places it in the top 3% of all tested configurations, which is a strong result for a game that is not particularly demanding on CPU resources. The high rank is driven almost entirely by the RTX 5080's raw performance, as the GPU's 89th percentile vs all GPUs is a key contributor. The CPU's 91st percentile vs all CPUs is also above average, but the GPU's impact on frame rates is more pronounced.

The rank of 50 out of 1689 means there are 49 other combos that perform better, but the vast majority of systems tested will be slower. The data shows that this combo is well-suited for high-resolution gaming, as the GPU's 16 GB of VRAM and 960.0 GB/s bandwidth prevent memory-related stutters even at 4K. The CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads ensure that no frame pacing issues arise from CPU bottlenecks, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. The combination of a high-end GPU with a mid-to-high-end CPU results in a balanced system that excels in this title.

The nearest GPU rivals, based on average benchmark scores, provide context for the RTX 5080's standing. It is 1.6% ahead of the Intel Arc A570M, 2.5% ahead of the Intel Arc A580, and 2.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X. It trails the Intel Arc Pro A60 by 1.9%. These small deltas in synthetic benchmarks do not directly translate to The Medium's performance, but they indicate that the RTX 5080 is competitive with other high-end GPUs. The combo rank of 50 suggests that no other component in the system is holding back the GPU, and the overall experience is limited only by the game's own optimization and the GPU's absolute ceiling.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the primary driver of performance in The Medium. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for the game's textures and effects at 4K. The GPU's 10752 shading units and 336 TMUs handle the game's fixed-camera scenes with ease, and the 84 RT cores suggest that any ray-traced effects, if present, would be well-supported. The boost clock of 2617 MHz and base clock of 2295 MHz are high for a 5 nm process, and the 360W TDP indicates that the card is designed for sustained high performance.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU's scaling behavior. At 1080p, the difference between Low (169.4 FPS) and Ultra (72.0 FPS) is 97.4 FPS, a 135% increase in frame rate from the lowest to highest quality. This wide spread indicates that the GPU's shading units and ROPs are heavily taxed by the Ultra preset's effects, likely including volumetric lighting and high-resolution shadows. At 4K, the same spread is 87.6 FPS (from 135.1 Low to 47.5 Ultra), which is a smaller absolute difference but a larger percentage gap—184%. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU's memory bandwidth and pixel fill rate become the limiting factors, as the resolution increases the number of pixels that must be processed per frame.

The RTX 5080's FP32 performance of 56.28 TFLOPS and texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s are high, but The Medium's performance is more constrained by fixed-function units like the ROPs. The pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s is the key metric for resolution scaling, and the data shows that at 4K Ultra, the GPU is delivering 47.5 FPS, which implies a pixel throughput of roughly 4.4 billion pixels per second (3840216047.5), well below the theoretical maximum. This indicates that the game's shader complexity, not just raw pixel output, is the bottleneck. The GPU's 89th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 59188 confirm that it is a top-tier part, and the measured results in The Medium reflect that, with playable frame rates at 4K High and excellent performance at 1440p.