The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 delivers a performance profile in The Medium that is dictated heavily by resolution. At 1920x1080, the combo averages 123 FPS on Low settings, but this drops to 77 FPS on Medium, 55 FPS on High, and 44 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages fall to 104 FPS on Low, 65 FPS on Medium, 46 FPS on High, and 37 FPS on Ultra. At 4K (3840x2160), the scene changes dramatically: Low settings still produce a playable 81 FPS, but Medium drops to 51 FPS, High to 36 FPS, and Ultra to 29 FPS.

The scaling pattern reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher presets. From 1080p Low to 4K Low, the frame rate falls from 123 FPS to 81 FPS, a reduction of roughly 34%. However, from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra, the drop is steeper, going from 44 FPS to 29 FPS, a 34% decline as well, but the absolute numbers are much lower. The interesting data point is the gap between Medium and High at 4K: 51 FPS versus 36 FPS, a 15 FPS difference that suggests High settings impose a significant rendering cost. At 1080p, the gap between Medium and High is 22 FPS (77 vs 55), indicating that the CPU can still feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but the GPU’s limits become the bottleneck as pixel count rises.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frames per second for this combo show a clear hierarchy where resolution scaling is not linear. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 123 FPS, which is the highest average recorded for this configuration. This suggests that at this resolution, the Ryzen 7 9700F’s 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to keep the RTX 3070 fed, and the GPU has headroom to push high frame rates. Dropping to 1440p Low reduces the average to 104 FPS, a 15% decrease, while 4K Low yields 81 FPS, a further 22% drop from 1440p. The progression shows that even on Low settings, the GPU’s workload increases substantially with each resolution step.

The Medium preset tells a similar story with more pronounced drops. At 1080p Medium, the average is 77 FPS, with reported minimums of 65 FPS and maximums of 88 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average falls to 65 FPS (min 55, max 74), and at 4K Medium, it drops to 51 FPS (min 43, max 58). The minimum frame rates are crucial here; at 4K Medium, the 43 FPS minimum indicates that while the average is playable, there are moments of stutter that could affect the horror experience. The High preset shows a steeper curve: 55 FPS at 1080p, 46 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K. This is the first preset where 4K dips below 40 FPS, suggesting that High is the threshold where the RTX 3070’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth start to feel constrained.

Ultra settings are the most demanding, with averages of 44 FPS at 1080p, 37 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K. The jump from High to Ultra at 1080p costs 11 FPS, while at 4K it costs only 7 FPS, but the latter is already below 30 FPS, making it effectively unplayable for smooth motion. The data indicates that resolution scaling is the primary factor in performance degradation, with the GPU being the limiting component at 1440p and above. At 1080p, the combo can handle all presets, but even there, Ultra dips to 44 FPS, showing that the game’s highest settings are demanding regardless of resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a Zen 5 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, base clock of 3.80 GHz, and boost clock of 5.50 GHz. It sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 69,996. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (average score 69,875, delta 0.2%), Intel Core i7-14700KF (70,163, delta -0.2%), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515, delta 0.7%), and Intel Core i7-14700K (69,355, delta 0.9%). These deltas are minuscule, indicating that the 9700F is squarely in the high-end desktop CPU tier, with performance nearly identical to those heavy hitters.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is most visible at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed. At 1080p Low, the 123 FPS result demonstrates that the CPU is not a bottleneck; the 8-core, 16-thread configuration handles the game’s logic and draw calls without issue. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,691 and multithread score of 36,470 suggest strong per-core performance, which is critical for games that rely on a few main threads. The boost clock of 5.50 GHz provides the necessary headroom for sustained high frame rates.

However, the CPU’s influence wanes as resolution increases. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 29 FPS, which is clearly a GPU limitation, not a CPU one. The data shows that the 9700F can deliver high FPS at 1080p, but it cannot rescue frame rates when the GPU is overwhelmed. The 65W TDP and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for gaming, but the CPU’s performance in this title is secondary to the GPU’s capabilities. The combo’s rank of 1,194 out of 2,911 tested combos (top 41%) indicates that while the CPU is strong, the overall system performance is dragged down by the GPU at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is an Ampere architecture card with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1500 MHz with a boost of 1725 MHz, and it has 5888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The GPU sits in the 61st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17,208. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17,083, delta 0.7%), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17,037, delta 1%), AMD Radeon HD 7970M (17,019, delta 1.1%), and NVIDIA Tesla K40c (17,468, delta -1.5%). These deltas are small, meaning the 3070 is competitive with these cards, but its 8 GB VRAM is a limiting factor in modern titles.

In The Medium, the GPU is the primary determinant of performance. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p on most presets, but at 4K Ultra, the 29 FPS average suggests the card is running out of memory bandwidth or capacity. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for 1080p, but as resolution climbs, the demand for texture data increases, and the card struggles to keep pace. The RTX 3070’s FP32 performance of 20.31 TFLOPS is high, but the game’s rendering engine appears to be memory-bound at higher resolutions.

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: the GPU’s performance scales inversely with resolution and settings. At 1080p Low, the 123 FPS is a strong result, but at 4K Ultra, the 29 FPS is a 76% reduction. The gap between Medium and High at 4K (51 vs 36 FPS) suggests that High settings require more memory bandwidth than the card can provide, leading to a significant performance hit. The 8 GB VRAM is the likely culprit; at 4K, textures and shadows consume more memory, causing the card to hit its limit. The RTX 3070’s 96 ROPs and 165.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are also factors, but the memory subsystem is the bottleneck in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 9700F and RTX 3070 ranks 1,194 out of 2,911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the 41st percentile of all configurations. This rank reflects a system that is above average but not top-tier. The CPU’s 94th percentile standing is offset by the GPU’s 61st percentile, resulting in a mid-pack overall position. The data suggests that the pairing is balanced for 1080p gaming, where the CPU can push high frame rates, but it falls short at 4K, where the GPU’s limitations are exposed.

Compared to other combos, this setup is likely outperformed by systems with higher-end GPUs like the RTX 3080 or RX 6800 XT, but it would beat configurations with weaker CPUs. The rank of 1,194 indicates that there are many combos that achieve higher average FPS in this game, primarily due to more powerful GPUs. The 9700F’s performance is nearly identical to the Ryzen 9 7940HX and Intel Core i7-14700KF, so the CPU is not the drag; the RTX 3070 is the limiting factor. At 1440p Medium, the 65 FPS average is respectable, but at 4K High, the 36 FPS average is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play, which many rival combos likely exceed.

The combo’s rank also reflects the game’s demanding nature. The Medium is a horror title with a fixed camera angle, but it uses dual-world rendering, which can be heavy on the GPU. The data shows that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K requiring significant settings reductions. The 51 FPS at 4K Medium is playable, but the 43 FPS minimum suggests occasional stutters that could break immersion. Overall, the rank indicates a capable mid-range system that can handle the game at lower resolutions but is not built for 4K Ultra.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows the strongest performance at 1920x1080, where all presets average above 44 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low and Medium presets stay above 60 FPS, while at 3840x2160, only Low settings reach 81 FPS, making 1080p the most consistent choice for high frame rates.

Q: Can this combo run the game at 4K?

A: Yes, but only on Low settings, which achieve 81 FPS. Medium settings drop to 51 FPS, High to 36 FPS, and Ultra to 29 FPS, meaning 4K playability is limited to Low or Medium with compromises.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69,996, which is 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, 0.2% below the Intel Core i7-14700KF, 0.7% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, and 0.9% above the Intel Core i7-14700K. In practice, these differences are negligible.

Q: Is the RTX 3070’s 8 GB VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: At 1080p and 1440p, the 8 GB capacity appears adequate, as evidenced by playable frame rates across presets. At 4K, the performance drop suggests VRAM or bandwidth limitations, especially on High and Ultra settings.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Medium averages 65 FPS (min 55, max 74), while High averages 46 FPS. This 19 FPS gap indicates that High settings impose a significant extra load on the GPU.

Q: How does this combo rank overall in the database?

A: It ranks 1,194 out of 2,911 tested combos, placing it in the 41st percentile. This suggests it is a mid-range performer, with the CPU being stronger than the GPU in relative terms.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the data points to the Medium preset at 1920x1080 or 2560x1440. At 1080p Medium, the combo averages 77 FPS with a minimum of 65 FPS, which is smooth and responsive. At 1440p Medium, the average is 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS, which is still playable but with a slightly higher risk of stutter. These settings provide a substantial improvement over Low without the steep cost of High or Ultra.

If the goal is maximum frame rate, Low settings at 1080p deliver 123 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play or if the user has a high-refresh-rate monitor. However, Low settings sacrifice visual fidelity in a horror game that relies on atmosphere. The High preset is not recommended at 1440p or 4K, as the frame rates (46 FPS and 36 FPS, respectively) fall below the 60 FPS target. Ultra settings should be avoided entirely, as even 1080p Ultra only averages 44 FPS.

The sweet spot for this combo is 1080p Medium or 1440p Medium. The former offers higher average FPS (77 vs 65) and higher minimums (65 vs 55), making it the safer choice for consistent performance. For users with a 1440p monitor, Medium is the highest preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS. At 4K, the only viable option is Low settings, which achieve 81 FPS, but this represents a significant downgrade in detail. In summary, the measured data suggests sticking to Medium at 1080p or 1440p to get the best experience, with 4K reserved for Low settings only if necessary.