The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers a broad spectrum of performance in The Medium, but the data reveals a system that is heavily constrained by graphics settings and resolution. The measured FPS figures show a clear hierarchy: the game scales dramatically with both resolution and quality presets, making the choice of settings more impactful than the hardware itself in determining playability.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K produces a severe and consistent performance drop across all settings. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 175 at 1920x1080 to 147 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 28 FPS, and then further down to 115 at 3840x2160. This represents a 34% decrease from 1080p to 4K at Low, indicating that even at the lowest quality preset, the GPU is being pushed hard by the higher pixel count.

The pattern intensifies at higher settings. At Medium, the average FPS drops from 109 at 1080p to 92 at 1440p, and then sharply to 72 at 4K. The gap between 1440p and 4K at Medium is 20 FPS, which is larger than the gap between 1080p and 1440p (17 FPS). This suggests that the transition to 4K disproportionately taxes the GPU, as the pixel count increase from 1440p to 4K is more demanding than the step from 1080p to 1440p.

At High settings, the scaling is even more punishing. The average FPS starts at 78 at 1080p, drops to 66 at 1440p, and bottoms out at 52 at 4K. The 4K figure is only 67% of the 1080p result, showing a substantial loss. Ultra settings follow suit with 62 FPS at 1080p, 52 at 1440p, and 41 at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 41 FPS is below the threshold for smooth gameplay on many displays, highlighting that this combination is not suited for maximum quality at 4K.

The scaling data indicates that the limiting component at 4K is the GPU. The RX 7900 XTX, despite its high compute capabilities, cannot maintain high frame rates at 4K with this game’s demanding rendering. The CPU’s role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions, where the frame rates are high enough to potentially expose a CPU bottleneck, but the consistent FPS drops with resolution point to a primarily GPU-bound scenario across the board.

GPU Role

The RX 7900 XTX is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 31 chip. Its memory configuration is substantial: 24 GB of GDDR6 on a 384-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. This large memory pool is relevant for The Medium, which is known for its dual-reality rendering technique that can consume significant video memory. The data shows that at 4K Medium, the GPU maintains an average of 72 FPS with a minimum of 61 and maximum of 83, suggesting that the 24 GB buffer is not a limiting factor at these settings.

The clocks are notable: a base of 1929 MHz, a game clock of 2365 MHz, and a boost of 2498 MHz. The memory runs at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). These frequencies allow the GPU to deliver 61.39 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. However, the benchmark results show a percentile rank of only 64 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19410. The nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB with a deltaPct of 0.4, which is a much older and less powerful card. This surprising comparison suggests that the RX 7900 XTX’s synthetic benchmark scores do not fully reflect its gaming prowess, or that the benchmark suite weights certain workloads differently.

In The Medium, the GPU’s performance is strong at lower settings but falls off at Ultra. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 62, which is playable but not high refresh rate territory. At 4K Ultra, the average drops to 41 FPS, which is marginal. The GPU’s 96 ray accelerators and 192 ROPs contribute to its raw throughput, but the game’s engine appears to be more sensitive to pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth than to raw compute, given the steep drops at 4K. The 960.0 GB/s bandwidth is ample, yet the card still struggles to maintain 60 FPS at 4K High, indicating that the game’s rendering path is extremely demanding on the GPU’s shading units and texture units.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a Zen 5 architecture part on the Granite Ridge codename, built on a 4 nm process. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The 65 W TDP is modest, but the CPU’s PassMark multithread score of 36470 and single-thread score of 4691 place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score is 69996, with nearest rivals including the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX at a 0.2% delta, the Intel Core i7-14700KF at -0.2%, and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 0.7%. These margins are tiny, indicating that the 9700F is statistically on par with these high-end parts in synthetic tests.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is less prominent than the GPU’s, but it still matters. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 175, which is high enough that the CPU must keep up with the GPU’s output. The 5.50 GHz boost clock helps in this scenario. However, the game is not heavily multithreaded, as the 8 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient for the workload. The L3 cache is 32 MB shared, which aids in data access, but the game’s performance is not cache-sensitive in a way that would show a bottleneck.

The data shows that at 1440p Low, the average FPS is 147, which is still high. The CPU’s single-thread performance, reflected in the 4691 PassMark score, is adequate for maintaining these frame rates. At 4K Low, the FPS drops to 115, but this is likely due to GPU limitations rather than the CPU. The CPU’s 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth and DDR5 support are not limiting factors here, as the game’s memory access patterns are not extreme. Overall, the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution or setting in this dataset; the GPU is the primary constraint, especially at higher resolutions.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 4K smoothly?*

A: At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 72, with a minimum of 61 and maximum of 83, which is smooth. At 4K High, the average drops to 52 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 41 FPS. For consistent 60 FPS gameplay, Medium settings at 4K are the ceiling.

Q: What is the best resolution for high refresh rate play?

A: At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 175, and at 1440p Low, it is 147. These are the only settings that exceed 144 FPS. For 120+ FPS, 1080p Medium (109 FPS) is close, but 1440p Medium (92 FPS) does not reach that threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69996. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX is 0.2% higher, the Intel Core i7-14700KF is 0.2% lower, and the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X is 0.7% higher. These are negligible differences.

Q: Is the GPU’s 24 GB of VRAM necessary for this game?

A: The data shows that at 4K Medium, the game runs at 72 FPS, and the 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. There is no indication of VRAM limitations at these settings, so the memory capacity is sufficient, but the game’s performance is more tied to other GPU factors.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p, Low yields 175 FPS while Ultra yields 62 FPS, a difference of 113 FPS. At 1440p, Low yields 147 FPS and Ultra yields 52 FPS, a difference of 95 FPS. At 4K, Low yields 115 FPS and Ultra yields 41 FPS, a difference of 74 FPS. The gap narrows as resolution increases.

Q: Is the GPU’s benchmark score indicative of its gaming performance?

A: The RX 7900 XTX has a percentile rank of 64 against all GPUs and an average benchmark score of 19410. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB at a 0.4% delta, which is a much older card. This suggests synthetic scores may not align with gaming results, as the card performs well in The Medium at lower settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The Ryzen 7 9700F + RX 7900 XTX combination is ranked 288 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the top 10% of all configurations, which is a strong showing. The rank reflects the GPU’s ability to push high frame rates at lower settings, but it also accounts for the steep falloff at Ultra and 4K.

The combo’s position is likely driven by the GPU’s raw power, as the CPU’s benchmark performance is on par with top-tier rivals. The 288th rank out of 2911 means there are 287 combos that perform better, which are presumably built around even more powerful GPUs or more balanced configurations. However, the data shows that this combo is not at the absolute top, and the GPU’s percentile rank of 64 suggests that many other GPUs outperform it in synthetic tests, even if they may not in this specific game.

The rank also indicates that the combo is better suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming than 4K, as the average FPS at 4K Ultra is below 60. The combination of an 8-core CPU and a high-end GPU is typical for a gaming rig, but the specific pairing yields diminishing returns at 4K, where the GPU becomes the sole limiting factor. The rank of 288 is respectable, but it does not place this combo in the elite tier, which would likely require a GPU with higher 4K performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the performance spans a wide range. Low settings produce an average FPS of 175, with no minimum or maximum recorded. Medium settings yield an average of 109 FPS, with a minimum of 93 and maximum of 125. High settings drop to an average of 78 FPS. Ultra settings are the lowest at 62 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 113 FPS, showing that the GPU has ample headroom at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the averages are lower across the board. Low settings average 147 FPS. Medium settings average 92 FPS, with a minimum of 78 and maximum of 106. High settings average 66 FPS. Ultra settings average 52 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra here is 95 FPS. The Medium setting’s minimum of 78 FPS indicates that even at 1440p, there are moments of lower performance, but the average remains playable.

At 3840x2160, the performance is significantly reduced. Low settings average 115 FPS. Medium settings average 72 FPS, with a minimum of 61 and maximum of 83. High settings average 52 FPS. Ultra settings average 41 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 74 FPS. The 4K Medium result is the only one that maintains an average above 60 FPS, making it the recommended setting for 4K play. The 4K Ultra average of 41 FPS is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, and even 4K High at 52 FPS is borderline. The data shows that the combo is capable at 1080p and 1440p across most settings, but at 4K, only Low and Medium settings provide acceptable frame rates.