The Medium

The Medium presents a significant challenge for the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination. The measured frame rates show that this pairing is capable of delivering playable performance, but only when settings are managed carefully. The data indicates a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and smoothness, with the RTX 2060 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM and Turing architecture being the primary limiting factors at higher presets.

Settings Recommendations

For a consistently smooth experience, the Low preset is the only reliable option across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, Low delivers an average of 88.9 FPS, which is more than double the 43.7 FPS achieved at High. This headroom makes Low the sensible choice for maintaining high frame rates, especially in a horror title where responsiveness matters. At 2560x1440, Low still provides a strong 80 FPS average, making it viable for users with higher-resolution monitors. Even at 3840x2160, Low manages a playable 58.2 FPS, though this is the absolute ceiling for 4K.

The Medium preset is a middle ground for those who want better visuals without sacrificing too much performance. At 1080p, Medium yields 57 FPS, which is acceptable, but it drops to 46.1 FPS at 1440p and 37.5 FPS at 4K. The step from Low to Medium costs roughly 36% performance at 1080p, which is a steep price for moderate graphical improvements. For 1440p, Medium is borderline, and for 4K it falls below the 60 FPS threshold that many consider ideal.

High and Ultra presets are not recommended for this combo. At 1080p, High produces 43.7 FPS and Ultra drops to 31 FPS, both of which are suboptimal for a game that relies on atmosphere and timing. At 1440p, High (31.7 FPS) and Ultra (24.9 FPS) are clearly unplayable for smooth action. The 4K results are worse, with High at 29 FPS and Ultra at 21.2 FPS. The performance gap between Low and Ultra is massive—at 1080p, Ultra is 65% slower than Low—indicating that the settings scale poorly with this hardware.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the dominant factor in these results. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for Low and Medium presets but becomes strained at higher settings. The GPU's 2176 shading units and 64 ROPs, with a boost clock of 1650 MHz, deliver a FP32 performance of 7.181 TFLOPS. This places it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19774.

The data shows that the RTX 2060 SUPER is closely matched with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070, which scores 0.5% lower on average. This suggests that the 2060 SUPER is a capable 1080p card, but the 4K results confirm it is not designed for high-resolution gaming. The 175 W TDP and dual-slot design are typical for this class, but the PCIe 3.0 x16 interface may limit performance in some scenarios, though the measured FPS does not explicitly confirm this.

The VRAM capacity is a critical constraint. At High and Ultra presets, the game likely exceeds the 8 GB buffer, causing the steep performance drops. For example, at 1080p, moving from Medium (57 FPS) to High (43.7 FPS) costs 23% performance, while moving from High to Ultra (31 FPS) costs another 29%. This pattern is consistent at all resolutions, indicating that the GPU is hitting a memory or compute bottleneck that cannot be overcome by the CPU.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only at the Low preset. At 1920x1080, Low achieves 88.9 FPS, and at 2560x1440, it reaches 80 FPS. At 3840x2160, Low drops to 58.2 FPS, which is just below 60.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p?

A: Low is the only preset that provides a smooth experience at 2560x1440, with an average of 80 FPS. Medium (46.1 FPS) and High (31.7 FPS) are too slow for consistent gameplay.

Q: Why is the Ultra preset so much slower than Low?

A: The Ultra preset at 1920x1080 yields 31 FPS, which is 65% lower than the 88.9 FPS at Low. This large delta suggests that Ultra settings place excessive demands on the RTX 2060 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM and compute resources, causing a significant performance penalty.

Q: Is this GPU better than an RTX 2070 for this game?

A: The benchmark data shows the RTX 2060 SUPER has an average score of 19774, while the RTX 2070 scores 19680, making the 2060 SUPER 0.5% faster on average. In practice, this difference is negligible for game performance.

Q: How does the CPU affect the FPS in this game?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700X is powerful enough to avoid being a bottleneck at most settings. Its single-thread score of 1280 in 3dMark and multi-thread score of 9771 indicate strong performance, but the GPU is the limiting factor, as shown by the consistent FPS drops with higher settings.

Q: What is the expected performance at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, only Low is playable at 58.2 FPS. Medium (37.5 FPS) and High (29 FPS) are too slow, and Ultra (21.2 FPS) is unplayable. This combo is not suited for 4K gaming in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1264 out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the bottom 25% of all configurations, which is a poor result for a system with a modern 8-core CPU. The ranking reflects that the GPU is the weak link, as the CPU is capable of much higher performance. The Ryzen 7 9700X sits in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 36029, while the GPU is only in the 63rd percentile.

The CPU's nearest rivals—the Intel Core i5-14500HX (0.2% higher), Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (0.4% lower), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (0.6% higher), and Intel Core Ultra 5 225H (0.8% lower)—are all within 1% of its average score. This indicates that the processor is not the issue. The GPU's rivals, including the GTX TITAN (0.3% higher) and RTX 2070 (0.5% higher), are similarly close, but the overall combo ranking is dragged down by the GPU's inability to handle higher presets. For a 1080p gaming setup, this rank is acceptable, but for higher resolutions, it is a poor match.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is a Zen 5 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support provide ample bandwidth for gaming. The CPU's benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 31588 and a single-core score of 4459, placing it well above the 89th percentile of all processors.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics data, but the measured FPS shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the 88.9 FPS is likely near the CPU's limit for this game, but the drop to 57 FPS at Medium suggests the GPU is being saturated. The CPU's 3dMark single-thread score of 1280 and 2-thread score of 2525 indicate it can handle the game's logic, but it cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations at higher settings. The 65 W TDP and 4 nm process node make it an efficient chip, but its performance is wasted if paired with a GPU that cannot keep up.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the best result with an average of 88.9 FPS. Medium drops to 57 FPS, High to 43.7 FPS, and Ultra to 31 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra is non-linear, with the largest drop occurring between Low and Medium (36% reduction).

At 2560x1440, Low achieves 80 FPS, which is excellent for a 1440p display. Medium falls to 46.1 FPS, High to 31.7 FPS, and Ultra to 24.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 42%, indicating that the GPU struggles with the increased pixel count and settings.

At 3840x2160, Low is the only playable option at 58.2 FPS. Medium drops to 37.5 FPS, High to 29 FPS, and Ultra to 21.2 FPS. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with even Low barely hitting 60 FPS. The data shows that this combo is best used at 1080p with Low or Medium settings, or 1440p with Low settings. Higher presets should be avoided entirely, as the performance penalty is too severe for the visual benefit.