The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination delivers a highly playable experience in The Medium, but the data reveals a clear performance hierarchy driven by both resolution and preset. At 1080p, the combo achieves a maximum average of 167 FPS on Low settings, while the 4K Ultra preset drops to just 39 FPS. This spread of 128 FPS between the lowest and highest graphical loads indicates that the system scales broadly, but the nature of that scaling changes character as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows that The Medium responds dramatically to resolution changes, but the magnitude of that response is heavily influenced by the selected preset. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 167 FPS at 1920x1080 to 140 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 27 FPS, and then further to 110 FPS at 3840x2160, another 30 FPS drop. This pattern—a 16% decline from 1080p to 1440p and a 21% decline from 1440p to 4K—suggests that even at Low settings, the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as pixel count rises.

The Medium preset tells a similar story with steeper absolute declines. At 1080p Medium, the average is 104 FPS, which falls to 88 FPS at 1440p (a 16 FPS drop) and then to 69 FPS at 4K (a 19 FPS drop). The 4K Medium result also includes the only complete min/max data in the entire set: a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 79 FPS. This 20 FPS variance at 4K Medium highlights that while the average remains playable, frame pacing can become inconsistent under higher resolution loads.

The High and Ultra presets exhibit the most severe resolution scaling. High settings produce 75 FPS at 1080p, 63 FPS at 1440p, and 49 FPS at 4K—a steady, linear decline of roughly 12-14 FPS per step. Ultra settings follow a similar trajectory but start lower: 59 FPS at 1080p, 50 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K. The fact that Ultra at 1080p (59 FPS) performs nearly identically to High at 1440p (63 FPS) and Medium at 4K (69 FPS) indicates that the preset and resolution interact in a way that roughly balances total GPU workload.

What this scaling reveals is that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the dominant bottleneck across all measured configurations. The CPU, an 8-core Zen 5 part with a 5.50 GHz boost clock, is unlikely to constrain frame rates in this horror title, particularly at higher resolutions where pixel throughput dominates. The consistent FPS declines with each resolution step—regardless of preset—point to the GPU's rendering pipeline as the limiting component, not the processor's 16 threads or 32 MB of L3 cache.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific CPU-GPU pairing achieves a combo rank of 380 out of 2,911 tested combinations for The Medium. This places it in the top 13% of all tested systems, a strong showing that reflects the balanced capabilities of both components. The percentile data for the individual parts corroborates this positioning: the CPU sits in the 94th percentile among all tested processors, while the GPU ranks in the 83rd percentile among all tested graphics cards.

The gap between the CPU's 94th percentile and the GPU's 83rd percentile is notable. It suggests that in a game like The Medium, the graphics card is the more modest contributor to overall performance, and the system's high combo ranking is partially buoyed by the processor's exceptional synthetic scores. The CPU's average benchmark score of 69,996 places it within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875) and 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515), while trailing the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70,163) by just 0.2%. These near-identical scores mean that swapping the 9700F for any of these rivals would produce virtually indistinguishable frame rates in The Medium.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the database are less flattering. The RTX 4070 SUPER's average benchmark score of 43,223 is 0.1% lower than the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43,262) and 0.2% lower than the standard Quadro M6000 (43,301). It also trails the RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667) by 1%. These are professional and mobile parts, respectively, so the comparison is somewhat unusual, but it underscores that the desktop RTX 4070 SUPER is positioned at the upper-mid range of GPU performance rather than the top tier.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 104 FPS, which is 29 FPS higher than High (75 FPS) and 45 FPS higher than Ultra (59 FPS). The step from Low (167 FPS) to Medium (104 FPS) costs 63 FPS, but the visual improvement from Low to Medium is typically substantial in a game like The Medium, making the trade-off worthwhile for most users.

At 1440p, the Medium preset produces 88 FPS, which remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 1440p drops to 63 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. Ultra at 1440p falls to 50 FPS, which may introduce noticeable stutter in a horror game where atmosphere and pacing are critical. The 4K Medium result of 69 FPS is the only 4K preset that stays above 60 FPS, making it the recommended choice for users with 4K displays.

The data suggests avoiding Ultra settings entirely unless the user prioritizes maximum visual quality over frame rate. Ultra at 1080p (59 FPS), 1440p (50 FPS), and 4K (39 FPS) all fall below or barely at the 60 FPS mark, and the min FPS data for Medium presets—88 FPS at 1080p, 75 FPS at 1440p, and 59 FPS at 4K—indicates that even Medium can experience drops that approach the playability boundary. For the smoothest experience, Medium at 1080p or 1440p is the clear winner; for 4K users, Medium is the only viable preset that maintains an acceptable average frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combo in The Medium is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 167 FPS, the highest frame rate recorded in the entire test suite. Medium produces 104 FPS average with a minimum of 88 FPS and a maximum of 120 FPS. High yields 75 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 59 FPS average. The spread between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 108 FPS, demonstrating the significant performance cost of higher graphical presets.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 140 FPS, followed by Medium at 88 FPS (minimum 75 FPS, maximum 101 FPS), High at 63 FPS, and Ultra at 50 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra here is 90 FPS, a slightly narrower gap than at 1080p due to the increased pixel load affecting all presets proportionally.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 110 FPS, Medium averages 69 FPS (minimum 59 FPS, maximum 79 FPS), High averages 49 FPS, and Ultra averages 39 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra gap at 4K is 71 FPS, the smallest absolute spread across all resolutions, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary constraint at this resolution regardless of preset selection.

Notably, the min/max FPS data is only provided for the Medium preset at each resolution. This suggests that Medium is the benchmark's "reference" setting, and the variance data shows that frame pacing becomes more variable as resolution increases: the 1080p Medium range is 32 FPS (88-120), the 1440p range is 26 FPS (75-101), and the 4K range is 20 FPS (59-79). The narrowing range at higher resolutions is counterintuitive but may reflect that the GPU is consistently saturated at 4K, reducing the opportunity for large frame time spikes.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER serves as the primary determinant of frame rates in The Medium, as evidenced by the resolution scaling analysis. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the game's textures and geometry at 4K, but the card's raw compute capacity—35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance—sets the ceiling for pixel throughput.

The GPU's clock behavior, with a base clock of 1980 MHz and a boost clock of 2475 MHz, contributes to its performance consistency. The 495 MHz boost delta allows the card to ramp up under load, which is evident in the 4K Medium result of 69 FPS where the card maintains a playable average despite rendering over 8 million pixels per frame. The 5 nm process node and 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die give the AD104 chip a transistor density of 121.8M per mm², enabling this level of performance within a 220 W TDP.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce its mid-to-high tier positioning. Its PassMark G3D score of 29,995 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4,627 indicate strong DirectX 12 performance, which is relevant since The Medium likely leverages modern graphics APIs. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 172,795 and Vulkan score of 205,624 suggest the card handles compute-heavy workloads well, though the game's measured FPS data is the more relevant indicator of real-world performance.

The 80 ROPs and 224 TMUs on the RTX 4070 SUPER are responsible for the final pixel output and texture filtering, and the measured FPS at 4K High (49 FPS) versus 4K Low (110 FPS) shows that these fixed-function units become a bottleneck when texture quality and post-processing effects are increased. The 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores are present but likely underutilized in this title, as The Medium does not heavily emphasize ray tracing based on the available data.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 provides the highest frame rates across all presets, with Low settings reaching 167 FPS and Medium achieving 104 FPS. At 2560x1440, Medium still delivers 88 FPS, making it a viable option. 3840x2160 is playable only on Medium (69 FPS) or Low (110 FPS) settings.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 43,223, which is 0.1% lower than the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (43,262) and 0.2% lower than the standard Quadro M6000 (43,301). It trails the RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667) by 1%.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 9700F a strong processor for this game?

A: The CPU ranks in the 94th percentile of all tested processors with an average benchmark score of 69,996. This places it within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, indicating it is more than sufficient for The Medium.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among tested systems in this game?

A: This combo ranks 380 out of 2,911 tested combinations for The Medium, putting it in the top 13% of all systems in the database.

Q: Which preset provides the highest minimum FPS at 4K?

A: The 4K Medium preset is the only 4K setting with min/max data, showing a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 79 FPS. This makes Medium the only 4K preset with a confirmed playable minimum frame rate.

Q: How much performance is lost between 1080p and 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 59 at 1920x1080 to 50 at 2560x1440, and finally to 39 at 3840x2160. This represents a 20 FPS reduction from 1080p to 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, with its 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, provides ample processing headroom for The Medium. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz, combined with a 65 W TDP, make it an efficient and powerful partner for the RTX 4070 SUPER. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core, along with dual-channel DDR5 memory support delivering 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth, ensure that texture streaming and game logic are unlikely to cause CPU-bound frame drops.

The synthetic benchmark scores for the 9700F reveal its strengths: a PassMark single-thread score of 4,691 and a multithread score of 36,470. These figures indicate that the CPU can handle both the single-threaded tasks common in game logic and the multithreaded workloads of modern game engines. The data encryption score of 21,488 and extended instructions score of 33,688 suggest robust computational capabilities, though these are less directly relevant to gaming performance.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the database—the Ryzen 9 7940HX, Core i7-14700KF, Ryzen 9 7950X, and Core i7-14700K—all score within 0.9% of the 9700F's average benchmark score. This clustering indicates that the 9700F is performance-competitive with these higher-tier or newer parts, and in The Medium, the CPU is unlikely to be the differentiating factor in frame rates. Instead, the measured FPS data consistently points to the GPU as the bottleneck, particularly at higher resolutions where the RTX 4070 SUPER's pixel rendering capacity is the limiting factor.

The CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all processors, coupled with the GPU's 83rd percentile ranking, suggests that this combo is slightly CPU-overpowered relative to the GPU. This imbalance is not detrimental—it ensures that the GPU is always fully utilized—but it does mean that users seeking higher frame rates would benefit more from a GPU upgrade than a CPU upgrade. The 4 nm process node and 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die reflect a modern, efficient design that runs cool enough for a 65 W TDP, allowing the boost clock to sustain high frequencies during extended gaming sessions.