The Medium

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 lands at rank 32 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. That places this system in the top 1.1% of all configurations tested for this title, a position that reflects the sheer compute headroom both components bring to a game that is known for its fixed-camera angles and dual-reality rendering.

The ranking is driven by the combination of a 94th-percentile CPU and a 92nd-percentile GPU. The Ryzen 7 9700F's average benchmark score of 69996 places it within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875) and 0.7% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515), while trailing the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163) by just 0.2%. The RTX 5090, meanwhile, posts an average score of 79842, which is 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79605) and 0.6% ahead of the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79396), but 1.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (80959).

What matters for The Medium specifically is that neither component becomes a bottleneck at any of the tested settings. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 197 FPS, and even at 4K Ultra it holds 51 FPS. The rank of 32 reflects that this is a system built for high-refresh 1440p and smooth 4K gaming, not a marginal performer struggling to keep pace.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 is built on the GB202 chip with Blackwell 2.0 architecture, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It packs 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 ROPs, alongside 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores. The GPU's base clock runs at 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, while memory operates at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed.

The memory subsystem is where this card separates itself: 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus delivers 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. That massive frame buffer is overkill for The Medium's requirements, but it ensures zero memory pressure even at 4K Ultra with maxed textures. The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s give the card raw throughput that scales well with the game's resolution-dependent load.

In The Medium, the GPU is the dominant factor at higher resolutions and settings. The data shows a clear pattern: at 1080p Low, the system hits 197 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 51 FPS — a 74% reduction. This scaling is typical of a GPU-bound scenario where the render resolution and quality settings directly impact the pixel pipeline. The RTX 5090's FP32 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS and FP16 performance of 104.8 TFLOPS (1:1) provide the compute headroom for the game's dual-world rendering, which requires simultaneous rendering of two perspectives.

The card's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842, reinforces that this is near the top of the stack. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests are workstation and mobile parts — the Tesla P100 variants and the RX 6850M XT — but in gaming workloads, the RTX 5090's architectural advantages in ray tracing and tensor operations give it a distinct edge that these scores don't fully capture.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is an 8-core, 16-thread processor from the 9000 series, built on Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It runs at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boosts to 5.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The chip uses 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die, manufactured on a 4 nm process at TSMC.

The cache hierarchy consists of 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The CPU connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes, and it supports ECC memory. This is a desktop part with an unlocked multiplier, released in September 2025, and it fits the AMD Socket AM5.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is secondary but not negligible. The game's fixed-camera design reduces the need for complex scene traversal, but the dual-reality mechanic still requires substantial CPU work to manage two simultaneous environments. The 9700F's PassMark multithread score of 36470 and single-thread score of 4691 indicate strong per-core performance that handles the game's logic threads efficiently.

At 1080p Low, where the GPU is less stressed, the CPU must feed frames quickly — the system hits 197 FPS, which suggests the 9700F can process the game's simulation at a pace that exceeds what most displays can show. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking, with an average benchmark score of 69996, places it among the top processors available. Its nearest rivals in synthetic tests are the Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875, +0.2%), the Core i7-14700KF (70163, -0.2%), the Ryzen 9 7950X (69515, +0.7%), and the Core i7-14700K (69355, +0.9%).

The 9700F's 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient for The Medium's requirements, and the high boost clock of 5.50 GHz ensures that single-threaded tasks — which often bottleneck in horror games — are handled with minimal latency.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). The Medium preset provides average FPS figures across all configs, with min/max data available only for Medium settings.

At 1080p, the system delivers:

• Low: 197 FPS average
• Medium: 135 FPS average (min 115, max 156)
• High: 97 FPS average
• Ultra: 77 FPS average

At 1440p, the numbers drop predictably:

• Low: 182 FPS average
• Medium: 114 FPS average (min 97, max 131)
• High: 82 FPS average
• Ultra: 65 FPS average

At 4K (3840x2160), the system still holds playable framerates:

• Low: 143 FPS average
• Medium: 90 FPS average (min 76, max 103)
• High: 64 FPS average
• Ultra: 51 FPS average

The Medium preset shows the most consistent frame pacing, with the min/max spread at 1080p being 41 FPS (115 to 156), at 1440p being 34 FPS (97 to 131), and at 4K being 27 FPS (76 to 103). This tightening of the frame time variance at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU's consistent throughput is the stabilizer, even as average FPS declines.

The jump from Low to Medium at each resolution costs roughly 31-33% of performance (197 to 135 at 1080p, 182 to 114 at 1440p, 143 to 90 at 4K). Moving from Medium to High costs another 28-29% (135 to 97, 114 to 82, 90 to 64). The step from High to Ultra costs 21-22% (97 to 77, 82 to 65, 64 to 51). This pattern shows that each preset tier imposes a meaningful but diminishing penalty, with the largest absolute drop occurring between Low and Medium.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, FPS drops from 197 at 1080p to 182 at 1440p (a 7.6% reduction) and then to 143 at 4K (a 21.4% reduction from 1080p). The relatively small drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low suggests the CPU is still the primary limiter at these lower GPU loads.

At Medium settings, the pattern shifts: 135 FPS at 1080p drops to 114 at 1440p (15.6% reduction) and then to 90 at 4K (33.3% reduction). The increasing percentage drops indicate the GPU is becoming more dominant as resolution rises. At High settings, the drops are steeper: 97 to 82 (15.5%) and then to 64 (34.0%). At Ultra, the drops are 77 to 65 (15.6%) and then to 51 (33.8%).

The consistent pattern of 15-16% drops from 1080p to 1440p and 33-34% drops from 1080p to 4K across Medium, High, and Ultra settings points to a GPU-bound scenario at those presets. The pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the FPS doesn't quarter — it falls by roughly a third. This suggests the RTX 5090 has enough bandwidth and compute to mitigate the pixel increase, but the scaling is not linear, indicating that other factors like memory latency and shader complexity come into play.

At Low settings, the much smaller drop from 1080p to 1440p (7.6%) and the 27.4% drop to 4K indicate that the CPU is still feeding frames fast enough at 1440p, but the GPU starts to limit at 4K even with minimal settings. This is characteristic of a high-end CPU paired with a high-end GPU: the CPU can keep up until the GPU's fill rate becomes the ceiling.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, the Medium preset at 1440p is the sweet spot. The data shows 114 FPS average with a min of 97 and max of 131, which provides a smooth experience on high-refresh displays. The frame pacing is consistent, with the min/max spread of 34 FPS indicating no significant hitches.

At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 135 FPS average (min 115, max 156), which is ideal for competitive play or high-refresh 240Hz monitors. The min FPS of 115 ensures that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate stays well above the 100 FPS threshold. The Low preset at 1080p hits 197 FPS, but the visual degradation in a horror game like The Medium — which relies on atmospheric lighting and shadow detail — makes this a poor tradeoff for the extra 62 FPS.

For 4K gaming, the High preset at 64 FPS average is the recommended choice. It provides a substantial visual upgrade over Medium (90 FPS) while maintaining a playable frame rate. The Ultra preset at 51 FPS is borderline for a game that benefits from smooth motion, and the 13 FPS gain from dropping to High is worth the visual fidelity loss. The Medium preset at 4K (90 FPS) is the alternative for those prioritizing frame rate, but the High preset's 64 FPS is more balanced.

The data indicates that the Medium preset offers the best consistency across all resolutions, with the min/max figures available only for that tier. At 1080p Medium, the spread is 41 FPS (115 to 156), at 1440p it's 34 FPS (97 to 131), and at 4K it's 27 FPS (76 to 103). This consistency suggests that the Medium preset is where the RTX 5090's rendering pipeline is most efficient, avoiding the shader complexity spikes that occur at High and Ultra.

For players with 1440p 144Hz monitors, the Medium preset is the clear winner: 114 FPS average with a 97 FPS floor. For 4K 60Hz displays, the High preset at 64 FPS provides the best visual quality without dropping below the refresh rate threshold. The Ultra preset is only recommended for those who prioritize image quality over smoothness and can tolerate occasional dips below 60 FPS, as the 51 FPS average leaves no headroom for demanding scenes.