The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT combination produces a highly variable experience in The Medium, one that is strictly dictated by resolution and graphics preset. The measured data shows a system capable of smooth performance at lower resolutions but one that quickly becomes overwhelmed as pixel count and visual fidelity increase, revealing a clear performance bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe and non-linear, indicating that the Radeon RX 6650 XT is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 95 FPS at 1920x1080 to 80 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 15 FPS, and then to 63 FPS at 3840x2160, a further drop of 17 FPS. This scaling pattern suggests that while the GPU is stressed at 1440p, it is not yet saturated, but the jump to 4K forces a significant increase in pixel shading workload.

The trend is more pronounced at Medium settings. The average FPS at 1080p is 59, which drops to 50 FPS at 1440p (a 9 FPS loss) and then to 39 FPS at 4K (an 11 FPS loss from 1440p). The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is approximately 34%, which is substantial. At High settings, the 4K average of 28 FPS is a 35% reduction from the 1080p average of 43 FPS. This demonstrates that the GPU's 8 GB memory and 128-bit bus are insufficient for the demands of 4K rendering in this title, even at lower quality presets.

The most telling data point is the Ultra preset, where the 4K average of 22 FPS is nearly unplayable, and the 1440p average of 28 FPS is also below the 30 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The 1080p Ultra average of 34 FPS is barely playable. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra yields a 6 FPS drop, and from 1440p to 4K yields another 6 FPS drop. This linear degradation confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck, as the CPU (AMD Ryzen 7 9700F) has ample headroom with its 8 cores and 16 threads.

The data indicates that the game is heavily GPU-bound at all resolutions above 1080p. The CPU's performance, which ranks in the 94th percentile, is not the limiting factor, as even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would be most likely to bottleneck, the frame rate reaches 95 FPS. The sharp decline in FPS as resolution increases is a classic symptom of a GPU that is running out of fillrate and memory bandwidth, rather than a CPU that is running out of processing power.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT can maintain a consistently playable frame rate across multiple presets. At 2560x1440, only the Low preset achieves a high average FPS of 80, while Medium and High fall to 50 and 36 FPS respectively.

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

A: According to the measured FPS, 4K gaming is not viable. The highest 4K average is 63 FPS at Low settings, but this drops to 39 FPS at Medium, 28 FPS at High, and 22 FPS at Ultra. The 4K Medium, High, and Ultra results are all below the 60 FPS target and would result in a stuttering experience.

Q: How does the GPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Radeon RX 6650 XT has an average benchmark score of 19765. It is 0.7% faster than the AMD FirePro D300 and 0.8% faster than the NVIDIA Quadro K5200, but it is 0.6% slower than the NVIDIA Tesla K40m and 0.7% slower than the AMD FirePro W7000.

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

A: The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The CPU's performance is robust, ranking in the 94th percentile, and it is only 0.2% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and 0.7% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. The FPS scaling shows a steep drop from 1080p to 4K, which is characteristic of a GPU bottleneck.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values for this combo?

A: Minimum FPS data is only provided for the Medium preset. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 51 FPS; at 2560x1440, it is 43 FPS; and at 3840x2160, it is 33 FPS. These values show that even at Medium settings, frame pacing can dip below the average, especially at higher resolutions.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT combination ranks 1886 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the lower-middle tier of all tested systems, suggesting that while it is not a low-end setup, it is not optimized for this particular title's high demands.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data clearly shows that the Ultra preset is not recommended for any resolution with this hardware. The 1080p Ultra average of 34 FPS is below the 60 FPS target, and the 1440p and 4K averages of 28 and 22 FPS are unplayable. The High preset is only marginally better, with a 1080p average of 43 FPS, which is still not ideal for a smooth experience.

The Medium preset at 1920x1080 provides the best balance between visual quality and performance, with an average of 59 FPS and a minimum of 51 FPS. This is the only preset/resolution combination that consistently stays above the 50 FPS threshold, making it the recommended choice for a playable experience. The Medium preset at 1440p yields an average of 50 FPS, which is playable but has a lower minimum of 43 FPS, indicating potential stutters.

For users who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity, the Low preset at 1920x1080 offers the highest average FPS of 95, and at 1440p it still achieves a very playable 80 FPS. The Low preset at 4K, with an average of 63 FPS, is the only way to reach a 60 FPS experience at that resolution, but it does so by sacrificing significant visual details.

The data suggests that the optimal experience is at 1080p with Medium settings. This configuration respects the GPU's 8 GB memory capacity and 128-bit bus, avoiding the heavy memory pressure that causes frame rate drops at higher resolutions. The 1440p Medium setting is a viable alternative for those with a 1440p monitor, but it requires accepting a lower minimum FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT combination is ranked 1886 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This rank places it in the 35th percentile of all tested systems, indicating that a significant majority of other combinations deliver higher average frame rates in this specific game. The low rank is primarily attributable to the GPU's performance ceiling, as the CPU is a high-performing component.

The GPU's percentile versus all GPUs is 65, meaning it performs better than 65% of all GPUs in general benchmarks. However, its rank in this game is much lower, suggesting that The Medium is particularly demanding on the GPU's specific architecture or memory configuration. The GPU's average benchmark score of 19765 places it in a similar tier to professional workstation cards like the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 and AMD FirePro W7000, which are not designed for high-end gaming.

The CPU's rank is much more favorable. The Ryzen 7 9700F is in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, and its average benchmark score of 69996 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, which has an average score of 69875. This indicates that the CPU is not a weak point in the system, and its performance is comparable to other high-end desktop processors. The low overall combo rank is therefore a direct result of the GPU's inability to keep up with the game's rendering demands, not a deficiency in the CPU.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT plays the dominant role in determining the performance of this combo in The Medium. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 280.3 GB/s. This configuration is a significant limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the game's textures and frame buffers require more memory capacity and bandwidth than the GPU can provide, leading to the sharp FPS drops observed at 1440p and 4K.

The GPU's clock speeds are high, with a base clock of 2055 MHz and a boost clock of 2635 MHz. The game clock is listed at 2410 MHz, which is the expected sustained clock during gaming workloads. The GPU also has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, which contribute to its raw compute power. The FP32 performance is 10.79 TFLOPS, which is respectable but not sufficient for the most demanding titles at high resolutions.

The GPU's benchmark results show a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1859 and a Passmark G3D score of 17166. These scores are consistent with its performance in The Medium, where it struggles to maintain high frame rates. The GPU's transistor count of 11,060 million on a 7 nm process node indicates a moderately complex design, but the 128-bit memory interface is a clear bottleneck for a game like The Medium that heavily utilizes high-resolution textures.

The data shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the FPS scales inversely with resolution in a predictable manner. The 8 GB VRAM is likely being exceeded at 4K with High and Ultra settings, causing the GPU to spill over into system memory, which drastically reduces performance. The 280.3 GB/s of bandwidth is also insufficient for the data throughput required at 4K, resulting in the low average FPS of 28 at High and 22 at Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the performance envelope for this combo. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 95 at Low settings to 34 at Ultra settings. The Medium setting is the most balanced, with an average of 59 FPS and a minimum of 51 FPS, while the High setting averages 43 FPS. The Ultra setting is not playable, with an average of 34 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS drops significantly. The Low setting still achieves a high average of 80 FPS, but the Medium setting falls to an average of 50 FPS with a minimum of 43 FPS. The High setting averages 36 FPS, and the Ultra setting averages 28 FPS. None of these results meet the 60 FPS target, and only the Low setting is consistently smooth.

At 3840x2160, the performance is severely constrained. The Low setting is the only one that reaches a playable average of 63 FPS. The Medium setting averages 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 FPS, which is below the 40 FPS threshold for acceptable gameplay. The High setting averages 28 FPS, and the Ultra setting averages 22 FPS. The 4K results clearly show that this GPU is not suitable for high-resolution gaming in The Medium.

The minimum FPS values, which are only available for the Medium preset, show the frame pacing consistency. At 1080p, the minimum of 51 FPS is close to the average of 59 FPS, indicating stable performance. At 1440p, the minimum of 43 FPS is 7 FPS below the average of 50 FPS, showing slightly more variance. At 4K, the minimum of 33 FPS is 6 FPS below the average of 39 FPS, highlighting the increased frame time spikes at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F plays a secondary but important role in this combination. The CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. Its architecture is Zen 5, built on a 4 nm process node, which provides high single-thread and multi-thread performance. The CPU's average benchmark score is 69996, placing it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs.

In The Medium, the CPU is not the bottleneck. The game's performance is heavily GPU-bound, as evidenced by the FPS scaling with resolution. The CPU's multi-threaded score of 36470 and single-thread score of 4691 are more than sufficient to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. The CPU is only 0.2% slower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and 0.2% faster than the Intel Core i7-14700KF, showing that it is on par with other high-end processors.

The CPU's 32 MB of L3 cache and 16 threads ensure that it can handle the game's background streaming and AI tasks without causing frame drops. The fact that the 1080p Low preset achieves 95 FPS, which is a high frame rate, confirms that the CPU is not limiting the system. If the CPU were a bottleneck, the FPS would not increase as significantly from 4K to 1080p; it would plateau at a certain point.

The CPU's high boost clock of 5.50 GHz is particularly beneficial for the game's single-threaded tasks, such as physics calculations and game logic. The benchmark data shows that the CPU is a high-performing component that will not hinder the GPU in most gaming scenarios. The performance gap between the CPU and GPU is significant, with the CPU ranking in the 94th percentile and the GPU ranking in the 65th percentile, which means the GPU is the limiting factor in this combo.