The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination delivers a highly capable experience in The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title known for its dual-reality rendering demands. The measured data shows a configuration that is firmly in the upper tier of tested hardware, with performance scaling predictably across resolutions and presets. The benchmark results indicate that this pairing offers a strong balance between the CPU's Zen 5 architecture and the GPU's Ada Lovelace core, though the specific bottlenecks shift depending on the target resolution and quality settings.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across four presets at three resolutions. For players prioritizing a consistent frame rate, the Medium preset stands out as the optimal balance point. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 93 FPS with minimum and maximum figures of 79 and 108 FPS, respectively. This represents a substantial 26 FPS improvement over High settings at the same resolution, while maintaining a frame time variance that is well within acceptable bounds for smooth gameplay.

Stepping up to 2560x1440, the Medium preset again proves its worth, yielding an average of 79 FPS with a minimum of 67 FPS. This is a 23 FPS advantage over the High preset and a 34 FPS lead over Ultra. The data suggests that Medium is the highest quality setting that reliably keeps frame rates above the 60 FPS threshold at this resolution, making it the recommended choice for a responsive experience without sacrificing too much visual fidelity.

At 4K (3840x2160), the Medium preset drops to an average of 62 FPS, with a minimum of 53 FPS and a maximum of 71 FPS. While this is below the 60 FPS average target, it remains the most playable high-fidelity option. High settings at 4K yield only 44 FPS, and Ultra falls to 35 FPS, both of which are likely to introduce noticeable stutter in a game that relies on atmospheric tension. Low settings, while reaching 99 FPS at 4K, fundamentally alter the game's visual presentation. Therefore, for a balanced experience that respects the game's horror aesthetics, Medium is the recommended preset across all tested resolutions, with the understanding that 4K will require some tolerance for sub-60 FPS averages.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 achieves a rank of 614 out of 2911 tested combos for The Medium. This places the pairing in the top 21% of all tested configurations, indicating a high-performance tier. The percentile data for the individual components corroborates this position; the CPU sits in the 94th percentile among all tested processors, and the GPU is in the 81st percentile among all tested graphics cards.

The combo rank suggests that while each component is individually strong, the pairing is not at the absolute apex of performance for this specific title. The gap between the CPU's very high percentile and the GPU's slightly lower percentile hints that the graphics card is the more limiting factor in this duo. The data shows a system that is well-balanced but leans on the CPU to feed the GPU, a dynamic that becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where the frame rate ceiling is higher. This rank of 614 out of 2911 serves as a robust indicator that users can expect a high-refresh-rate experience at 1080p and a solid 1440p experience, with 4K being possible at lower settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the primary driver of visual output in this configuration, and its specifications align with the measured performance. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. This capacity is sufficient for the game's high-resolution textures and dual-world rendering, though the data shows performance degrades significantly at 4K Ultra, suggesting the memory bandwidth or compute throughput is stressed at that extreme.

The GPU's clock speeds, a base of 1920 MHz and a boost of 2475 MHz, are standard for the Ada Lovelace architecture. The benchmark results show a clear pattern: the RTX 4070 scales from an average of 150 FPS at 1080p Low to 35 FPS at 4K Ultra. This 115 FPS drop underscores the GPU's role as the performance limiter at higher resolutions and settings. The GPU's compute capabilities, with 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput, are substantial, but The Medium's rendering load at 4K proves to be a significant challenge. The data indicates that the GPU is the dominant factor in determining frame rates, especially when moving from 1440p to 4K, where the average FPS drops by nearly half across all presets.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 with the Medium preset offers the best combination of visual quality and performance, delivering an average of 79 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS target and provides a 23 FPS advantage over High settings.

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

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K with the Medium preset, the system achieves an average of 62 FPS, which is playable. However, the High and Ultra presets drop to 44 FPS and 35 FPS, respectively, which may be less desirable for a smooth experience.

Q: How does the Medium preset compare to Low at 1080p?

A: The Low preset yields an average of 150 FPS, while Medium delivers 93 FPS. The 57 FPS difference represents the cost of higher visual fidelity. The Medium preset's minimum of 79 FPS is still well above typical display refresh rates.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra settings?

A: At 1440p, High averages 56 FPS while Ultra averages 45 FPS, an 11 FPS difference. At 1080p, the gap is 14 FPS (67 FPS vs. 53 FPS). The Ultra preset is the most demanding and provides diminishing returns over High.

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

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary limiter. Evidence is the significant frame rate drop when increasing resolution; from 1080p to 4K, the average FPS at Medium settings drops from 93 to 62, a 31 FPS decrease. This scaling is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario.

Q: What kind of performance can be expected at 1440p on High?

A: The measured average FPS for 2560x1440 High is 56 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS mark, indicating that while playable, the High preset at this resolution may not provide the smoothest experience for all users.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at the Medium preset, the average frame rate drops from 93 FPS to 79 FPS, a 15% reduction. The subsequent step to 3840x2160 sees a more pronounced drop to 62 FPS, a 21.5% reduction from 1440p. This increasing rate of performance loss with higher resolutions points directly to the GPU as the constraining component.

This trend is consistent across all settings. For instance, at High settings, the average FPS sequence is 67 (1080p), 56 (1440p), and 44 (4K). The delta between 1080p and 1440p is 11 FPS, while the delta between 1440p and 4K is 12 FPS. This linear progression in frame rate loss suggests that the RTX 4070's pixel processing throughput is the limiting factor. The CPU, with its high benchmark scores, is clearly capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions, but as the pixel count increases, the GPU's workload becomes the bottleneck. The fact that the 4K Ultra setting yields only 35 FPS, a 62% drop from 1080p Ultra's 53 FPS, reinforces this conclusion. The data shows that for this title, users seeking higher resolutions must be prepared to make significant compromises in quality settings to maintain playable frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, provides a robust foundation for gaming. Its high single-thread performance, evidenced by a Passmark single-thread score of 4691, is crucial for game logic and frame pacing. The CPU's boost clock of 5.50 GHz and 32 MB of shared L3 cache ensure that the GPU is supplied with a consistent stream of draw calls and geometry data.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is to facilitate the GPU's work. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 150 FPS, a score that is likely approaching the CPU's limit for frame generation in this engine. However, the CPU does not appear to be the primary bottleneck, as the frame rate scales significantly with resolution changes. The processor's Passmark multithread score of 36470 and its average benchmark score of 69996 place it in the 94th percentile, indicating it has ample headroom for the game's multi-threaded tasks, such as loading the dual realities.

The CPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals is also telling. It sits within a 1% performance delta of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, Intel Core i7-14700KF, AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, and Intel Core i7-14700K. This indicates that the 9700F is a top-tier gaming processor, and its capabilities are not a limiting factor in this game's performance. The measured FPS data confirms that the CPU is more than adequate to support the RTX 4070, allowing the GPU to be the sole determinant of frame rates as resolution and settings increase.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following sections detail the exact measured average frame rates for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 configuration in The Medium.

1920x1080: At the native 1080p resolution, the system demonstrates high performance. The Low preset averages 150 FPS. The Medium preset, which has min/max values of 79 and 108 FPS, averages 93 FPS. High settings yield an average of 67 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 53 FPS. The data shows a 97 FPS spread between Low and Ultra, with the most significant single-step drop being the 57 FPS difference between Low and Medium.

2560x1440: At 1440p, the performance scales down predictably. The Low preset averages 126 FPS. The Medium preset averages 79 FPS, with min/max values of 67 and 91 FPS. High settings produce an average of 56 FPS, and Ultra drops to 45 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 81 FPS, indicating that the higher resolution compresses the performance envelope.

3840x2160: At 4K, the GPU workload becomes severe. The Low preset averages 99 FPS, which is the only setting at this resolution to stay above the 60 FPS mark. The Medium preset averages 62 FPS, with min/max values of 53 and 71 FPS. High settings average 44 FPS, and Ultra averages 35 FPS. The 64 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K highlights the immense pressure on the RTX 4070. The Medium preset's minimum of 53 FPS indicates that frame pacing may be inconsistent, but the overall average remains playable.