The Medium

# The Medium: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a top-tier experience in The Medium, placing 15th out of 1,689 tested combos. The data shows a system that consistently produces high frame rates across all tested resolutions, though the gap between quality settings reveals where the game's rendering demands concentrate.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 15 out of 1,689 tested configurations places it in the top 1% of all systems evaluated for The Medium. This is a strong result, though not the absolute ceiling — several other CPU/GPU pairings achieve higher average frame rates in this title. The ranking reflects the synergy between the Ryzen 7 9700X's eight-core Zen 5 architecture and the RTX 4090's raw compute throughput. In practical terms, this means the system is positioned to handle the game's fixed-camera horror sequences with consistent fluidity, but it is not the definitive fastest configuration available.

Relative to the broader benchmark database, the CPU holds an 89th percentile ranking among all processors, while the GPU sits at the 91st percentile among all graphics cards. These individual standings align with the combo's overall placement — both components are high performers, but neither is the absolute top part in their respective categories. The measured FPS data confirms that the pairing is well-balanced for this game, with no single component creating an obvious bottleneck at any tested resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant force in this pairing, and its specifications explain why it performs so strongly in The Medium. With 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, the card offers 1.01 TB/s of memory bandwidth — ample for the game's high-resolution textures and the dual-reality rendering sequences that define The Medium's visual identity. The GPU's 16,384 shading units and 128 RT cores provide substantial compute headroom, while the 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance ensures that even the most demanding scenes are processed with minimal delay.

The boost clock of 2520 MHz, paired with a base clock of 2235 MHz, allows the card to sustain high throughput during extended play sessions. The 512 tensor cores further enhance performance in workloads that leverage AI-assisted upscaling or denoising, though the measured FPS data does not specify whether such features were enabled. The GPU's 91st percentile ranking among all graphics cards underscores its elite status, and its average benchmark score of 66,473 places it ahead of most rivals — the nearest comparison shows a delta of just -0.4% against the NVIDIA Tesla T4, a professional-grade card.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X, built on the Zen 5 architecture with a 4 nm process, provides the computational backbone for this system. Its 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boosting to 5.50 GHz, deliver robust single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. The 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core help reduce memory latency, which is critical for the game's frequently loading new areas and maintaining consistent frame pacing.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 31,588 and a single-core score of 4,459, placing it in the 89th percentile among all CPUs. The 3DMark results show scalability from 2,525 in the 2-thread test to 9,824 in the 16-thread test, indicating that the processor scales well with increased thread utilization. Compared to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 9700X sits within a narrow band — it outperforms the Intel Core i5-14500HX by 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 by 0.6%, while trailing the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H by 0.4% and the Intel Core Ultra 5 225H by 0.8%. These margins are negligible in gaming scenarios, meaning the CPU's impact on The Medium's frame rates is secondary to the GPU's performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates reveal a clear pattern across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system ranges from 75.7 FPS on Ultra to 193.4 FPS on Low, with High achieving 94.3 FPS and Medium reaching 130.1 FPS. The jump from Ultra to High is substantial — 18.6 FPS — while the leap from High to Medium adds 35.8 FPS, demonstrating that the game's Ultra preset imposes significant overhead.

Moving to 2560x1440, the scores shift downward as expected. Ultra delivers 66 FPS, High 82 FPS, Medium 111.1 FPS, and Low 178.4 FPS. The relationship between settings remains consistent: Ultra demands roughly 20% more than High, while Medium offers a 35.5% improvement over High. The 1440p results are particularly relevant for players with high-refresh-rate monitors, as the system sustains above 60 FPS at every preset except Ultra, and even Ultra clears the 60 FPS threshold with room to spare.

At 3840x2160, the system's limits become apparent. Ultra drops to 53.1 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target many players consider ideal. High recovers to 61.5 FPS, just clearing that bar, while Medium reaches 85.6 FPS and Low hits 139.2 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only configuration in the entire dataset that falls short of 60 FPS, indicating that this is the most demanding scenario for the combo. Still, the ability to maintain playable frame rates at 4K with High settings reflects the RTX 4090's power.

Across all resolutions, the scaling from Low to Ultra is consistent: Low is roughly 2.5x faster than Ultra at 1080p, 2.7x at 1440p, and 2.6x at 4K. This suggests that the game's quality presets have a uniform impact on performance regardless of resolution, with the GPU remaining the primary factor in frame rate variation.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for a 60 FPS target?

A: At 3840x2160, High settings deliver 61.5 FPS, just above the target. For a more comfortable margin, Medium at 4K produces 85.6 FPS. At 2560x1440, all settings including Ultra exceed 60 FPS, with the lowest being 66 FPS at Ultra.

Q: How does the system perform at 1080p for competitive or high-refresh-rate play?

A: At 1920x1080, the system achieves 130.1 FPS on Medium and 94.3 FPS on High. Low settings reach 193.4 FPS, which is suitable for 144Hz displays, though the game's horror pacing may not require such high frame rates.

Q: Is the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM necessary for The Medium?

A: The game does not report VRAM usage in the provided data, but the 24 GB capacity on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming and dual-reality rendering at 4K Ultra settings face no memory-related bottlenecks.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700X has an average benchmark score of 36,029, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i5-14500HX and 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845. It trails the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H by 0.4% and the Intel Core Ultra 5 225H by 0.8%.

Q: Can the system handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but with a caveat. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS is 53.1, which is below 60 FPS. This is the only tested configuration that does not reach 60 FPS, so players seeking a locked 60 FPS at 4K should use High settings, which deliver 61.5 FPS.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking compared to all tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 15th out of 1,689 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the top 1% of all configurations evaluated. The CPU ranks in the 89th percentile among all processors, and the GPU ranks in the 91st percentile among all graphics cards.