The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT delivers a capable but not class-leading experience in The Medium. Measured data shows the combination ranks 578th out of 1,689 tested combos, placing it in the upper third of all systems. At 1080p, medium settings produce 88.9 FPS, while 4K ultra drops to 34.2 FPS, revealing a GPU-bound workload at higher resolutions. The CPU’s strong single-thread performance and the GPU’s ample VRAM make this a balanced pairing for horror titles, though 4K enthusiasts will need to lower settings to maintain smooth frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and frame rate across most resolutions. At 1080p, medium delivers 88.9 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, while high still holds at 62 FPS. For 1440p, medium is the clear choice at 70.5 FPS; high falls to 52.1 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced scenes. At 4K, only low exceeds 60 FPS with 94.5 FPS, while medium sits at 55.7 FPS—close but not quite there. Ultra settings are only viable at 1080p, where 50.2 FPS is borderline. Therefore, the recommended preset is medium for 1080p and 1440p, and low for 4K if a consistent 60+ FPS experience is the priority. Users willing to accept slightly lower frame rates can use medium at 4K for improved visuals.

FAQ

Q: What is the CPU’s core and thread count?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X has 8 cores and 16 threads.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 578th out of 1,689 tested combos, placing it in the upper third.

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p Ultra?

A: At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 50.2.

Q: What is the CPU’s boost clock?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700X boosts up to 5.50 GHz.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth?

A: The RX 6800 XT has a memory bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a consistent drop when moving from 1080p to 4K across all settings. For Low, the average FPS falls from 137.1 at 1080p to 94.5 at 4K, a 31% reduction. Medium drops from 88.9 to 55.7, a 37% decrease. High goes from 62 to 39.1, also a 37% drop, and Ultra from 50.2 to 34.2, a 32% decline. This uniform scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. The CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU at all settings, as evidenced by the high 1080p Low result of 137.1 FPS. The game’s rendering load scales directly with pixel count, and the RX 6800 XT’s performance degrades predictably as resolution increases. This behavior is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the graphics card’s fill rate and memory bandwidth become the bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 578 out of 1,689 tested systems places it in the 65.8th percentile of performance—meaning it outperforms roughly two-thirds of all tested combinations. The CPU itself holds an 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs, while the GPU sits at the 87th percentile, indicating both components are individually strong. The slightly lower combo rank relative to these percentiles suggests that The Medium’s specific workload does not fully leverage the CPU’s multi-threaded capabilities, or that the GPU’s performance is the limiting factor in this title. The nearest CPU rival, the Intel Core i5-14500HX, has an average benchmark score 0.2% higher, while the nearest GPU rival, the Intel Arc A550M, is 0.5% higher. These small deltas confirm that the 9700X and RX 6800 XT are competitive with their immediate peers, but the overall combo rank reflects the game’s demands rather than raw component potential.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. Its single-thread performance is exceptional, as shown by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,459 and a Geekbench single-core score of 3,353. In The Medium, which is a horror game with moderate CPU demands, this strong single-thread capability ensures smooth game logic, physics, and AI processing. The multi-threaded score of 31,588 in Cinebench R23 indicates ample headroom for background tasks, but the game does not appear to be heavily multi-threaded. The 1080p Low result of 137.1 FPS demonstrates that the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower settings; the frame rate is limited by the GPU even at 1080p. The CPU’s 32 MB of L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth further support fast data access, though these are not directly measured in the game. The CPU’s launch MSRP is $359, and it sits in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14500HX, being only 0.2% faster on average.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table lists all measured average FPS values for The Medium across resolutions and settings. Minimum and maximum FPS were not recorded.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 39.1 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 94.5 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 55.7 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 34.2 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 52.1 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 115.7 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 70.5 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 40.4 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 62 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 137.1 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 88.9 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 50.2 |

These numbers show a clear progression: at 1080p, even Ultra stays above 50 FPS, while at 4K, only Low exceeds 60 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra widens with resolution, from a 63% difference at 1080p (137.1 vs 50.2) to a 64% difference at 4K (94.5 vs 34.2), indicating that the GPU’s compute and memory resources are heavily taxed at higher settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a high-end graphics card based on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, featuring 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 512.0 GB/s bandwidth. Its boost clock reaches 2250 MHz, with a game clock of 2015 MHz and a base clock of 1825 MHz. The card has 4,608 shading units and 72 ray-tracing cores, making it well-suited for modern titles. In The Medium, the GPU is the primary performance limiter at 4K, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for the game’s textures at 4K, and the high memory bandwidth helps maintain frame rates in complex scenes. The GPU’s percentile ranking is 87, and its nearest rival, the Intel Arc A550M, is only 0.5% faster on average. The RX 6800 XT’s launch MSRP is 649 USD. The card’s performance in this game is strong at 1080p and 1440p, but 4K Ultra demands more than it can deliver, with an average of 34.2 FPS. This suggests that for 4K gaming, users should opt for lower settings or consider a more powerful GPU. The GPU’s 300 W TDP and dual-slot design are typical for this class, but the measured FPS data is the most direct indicator of its gaming capability.