The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and AMD Radeon RX 570 pairing sits at rank 1619 out of 1689 tested combinations for The Medium. This places the combo in the bottom 4% of all tested systems, a position that reflects the significant age gap between the modern CPU and the 2017-era graphics card. The data suggests a system where the central processor has substantial headroom, but the visual output is severely constrained by the GPU's legacy architecture.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1619 out of 1689 combinations is a stark indicator of its overall performance ceiling in this horror title. Benchmark results show a system that lands far below the median tested configuration, with only 70 combinations performing worse. This positioning is particularly telling given the CPU's own percentile rank of 89 among all processors, which indicates the Ryzen 7 9700X is a high-tier component. The disconnect between CPU potential and overall combo ranking points directly to the GPU as the bottleneck. When examining the GPU's standalone percentile of 74, it becomes clear that the RX 570 is not a bottom-tier part in isolation, yet its pairing with a top-tier CPU creates an imbalance that drags the entire combo down. The data implies that this system would rank dramatically higher if paired with a more modern graphics solution, but as configured, it struggles to compete with even mid-range alternatives from the same era.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 brings 4 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its Polaris 20 chip runs at a base clock of 1168 MHz with a boost of 1244 MHz, while the memory operates at 1750 MHz with 7 Gbps effective speed. These specifications, combined with 2048 shading units and 32 ROPs, produce a theoretical pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s. For The Medium, a game known for its fixed-camera angles and dual-reality rendering, these figures translate into measurable but limited capability. The GPU's FP32 performance of 5.095 TFLOPS is modest by modern standards, yet the data shows it can still produce playable frame rates at lower settings. The fact that the RX 570's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 with a deltaPct of 0.2 and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT also at 0.2 suggests that in synthetic benchmarks, this older card is surprisingly competitive, though real-world gaming results tell a different story due to architectural differences.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 46.5 average FPS, which is the only setting that approaches smooth gameplay. The Medium preset drops to 26 FPS, High falls to 21.7 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 14.6 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 37.9 FPS, which remains technically playable but marginal. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only manages 27.9 FPS, making 4K gaming impractical. The data strongly indicates that the Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration that provides a consistently playable experience. Users seeking higher visual fidelity would need to accept significant frame rate penalties, with Medium at 1080p costing nearly 44% of the Low preset's performance. The Ultra preset across all resolutions produces frame rates below 16 FPS, rendering it unusable for actual gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Examining the resolution-by-resolution data reveals consistent patterns. At 1920x1080, the progression from Low to Medium to High to Ultra shows average FPS of 46.5, 26, 21.7, and 14.6 respectively. The jump from Low to Medium represents a 44% performance drop, while the transition from High to Ultra costs another 33%. At 2560x1440, the same settings produce 37.9, 22.8, 17.7, and 15.9 FPS. Interestingly, the gap between High and Ultra narrows at this resolution, suggesting the GPU is becoming saturated. At 3840x2160, the results are 27.9, 17.8, 14.2, and 8.1 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 8.1 FPS is particularly telling, as it represents a 83% reduction from the 1080p Low result. The data shows a clear ceiling: this combo cannot sustain 30 FPS at any resolution above 1080p with Medium or higher settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals important characteristics about the limiting component. At Low settings, performance falls from 46.5 FPS at 1080p to 37.9 FPS at 1440p (an 18.5% reduction) and then to 27.9 FPS at 4K (a further 26% reduction). This scaling pattern is relatively gentle, suggesting that at Low settings, the system is not purely GPU-bound. However, at Ultra settings, the drop is more severe: from 14.6 FPS at 1080p to 15.9 FPS at 1440p (actually increasing slightly, which could indicate measurement variance) and then to 8.1 FPS at 4K (a 45% reduction). The fact that Ultra at 1440p outperforms Ultra at 1080p is anomalous and suggests the GPU is operating at its limits regardless of resolution. The data implies that at higher settings, the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM capacity becomes a limiting factor, as the game's texture requirements exceed available memory. The scaling analysis points to a GPU that is fully saturated at Ultra settings even at 1080p, with resolution having minimal impact until 4K overwhelms the memory subsystem.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X provides substantial computational resources that remain largely untapped in this configuration. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, this CPU operates at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boosts to 5.50 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth support DDR5 memory, and the CPU's 3DMark scores show strong performance: 9824 in 16-thread tests and 1280 in single-thread tests. Cinebench R23 results of 31588 multicore and 4459 single-core further demonstrate the CPU's capability. In The Medium, benchmark results indicate the CPU is never the limiting factor. The game's fixed-camera design and relatively modest CPU demands mean the 9700X can easily feed frames to the GPU. The CPU's percentile rank of 89 and average benchmark score of 36029 place it among the top tier, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core i5-14500HX (deltaPct 0.2) and Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (deltaPct -0.4). The data suggests that upgrading the GPU while keeping this CPU would yield massive performance gains, as the processor has ample headroom to support a much more powerful graphics card.

FAQ

Q: What is the best playable configuration for this combo?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 yields 46.5 average FPS, which is the only setting that provides smooth gameplay. Medium at 1080p drops to 26 FPS, making it borderline playable but not recommended.

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

A: No. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only achieves 27.9 FPS, while Medium produces 17.8 FPS and Ultra falls to 8.1 FPS. These results are below acceptable playability thresholds.

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

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The CPU ranks in the 89th percentile among all processors, while the overall combo ranks in the bottom 4%, indicating the RX 570 cannot utilize the 9700X's capabilities.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to modern GPUs in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 570's average benchmark score of 30158 places it within 0.2% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, though its real-world gaming performance is limited by its 4 GB VRAM and older GCN architecture.

Q: What happens to performance when increasing from Low to Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: Average FPS drops from 46.5 at Low to 26 at Medium, 21.7 at High, and 14.6 at Ultra. This represents a 69% reduction from the lowest to highest preset.

Q: Is this combo suitable for the game's minimum requirements?

A: While the system can run the game, it only achieves playable frame rates at the lowest settings and resolution. The data shows that only the 1080p Low preset exceeds 30 FPS, indicating the hardware is at the edge of viability for this title.