The Medium

# The Medium with AMD Ryzen 7 9700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The Medium presents an interesting scaling challenge for this high-end pairing. With the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X driving an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D, the measured frame rates reveal a configuration that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions but shows signs of CPU influence at 1080p. The data set includes four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) across three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160), with average FPS ranging from 54 at 4K Ultra up to 195 at 1080p Low. This combination ranks 9th out of 2,911 tested combos in this game, placing it near the top of the database despite the game's demanding fixed-camera rendering style.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not uniform across settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 195 FPS at 1920x1080 to 153 FPS at 3840x2160, a drop of 42 FPS (approximately 21.5%). At Medium settings, the decline is from 144 FPS to 95 FPS, a 49 FPS reduction (34%). High settings show 103 FPS at 1080p falling to 68 FPS at 4K, a 35 FPS drop (34%). Ultra settings are the most demanding, dropping from 82 FPS at 1080p to 54 FPS at 4K, a 28 FPS decrease (34%).

The scaling pattern suggests that pixel count is the dominant factor above 1080p. The RTX 5090 D's raw compute — 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 with 21,760 shading units — is sufficient to push massive frame rates at lower resolutions, but the 4K pixel workload (8.3 million pixels at 3840x2160 versus 2.1 million at 1920x1080) overwhelms even this GPU's 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth. Notably, the percentage drop from 1440p to 4K is roughly consistent across Medium, High, and Ultra (all around 22-24%), indicating that the GPU is the limiting component at these settings. At Low settings, the 1080p to 1440p drop is only 31 FPS (16%), while the 1440p to 4K drop is also 31 FPS (17%), suggesting a more balanced scaling curve when the render load is lighter.

The data implies that at 1080p Low, the CPU may begin to matter more. The Ryzen 7 9700X's 8 cores and 16 threads with a 5.50 GHz boost clock can deliver high frame rates, but 195 FPS at 1080p Low versus 184 FPS at 1440p Low shows only a 6% penalty for 78% more pixels. This near-flat scaling at Low settings hints that the CPU's per-thread performance — evidenced by a 3DMark single-thread score of 1,280 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,211 — may be a factor at very high frame rates. However, the game's horror genre with fixed camera angles likely doesn't demand extreme CPU throughput, so the effect is modest.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows reveal that Medium settings offer the best balance between visual fidelity and frame rate across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 144 FPS average with a minimum of 123 FPS and maximum of 166 FPS. This is 41 FPS higher than High settings (103 FPS) and only 51 FPS lower than Low (195 FPS). The minimum FPS at 1080p Medium (123 FPS) is still well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and the 144 FPS average is ideal for high-refresh-rate displays.

At 2560x1440, Medium produces 122 FPS average (min 103, max 140). This is 35 FPS higher than High (87 FPS) and 62 FPS lower than Low (184 FPS). The 103 FPS minimum ensures consistent performance even in demanding scenes. For 3840x2160, Medium averages 95 FPS (min 81, max 110). While High dips to 68 FPS and Ultra to 54 FPS, Medium maintains a playable 95 FPS with an 81 FPS floor, making it the only 4K setting that stays comfortably above 60 FPS throughout.

High settings are a reasonable choice for 1440p and 1080p, delivering 87 FPS and 103 FPS respectively. However, the jump from Medium to High costs 28-35% of average FPS while the visual improvement in a horror game with fixed cameras may not justify the loss. Ultra settings are only viable at 1080p (82 FPS average), and even then, the minimum FPS is not recorded in the data, suggesting potential dips below 60 FPS. The data strongly favors Medium as the sweet spot, with Low serving as a competitive or high-refresh option and Ultra reserved for screenshot-style viewing rather than active play.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the primary driver of this combo's performance. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for The Medium's high-resolution textures and fixed-camera scenes that load large geometry sets. The GPU's 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores support the game's use of ray-traced reflections and DLSS, though the measured FPS data reflects native rendering without upscaling. The 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712, places it in the top tier, though its nearest rivals in the database — the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT and NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB — are 1.6% and 2.4% ahead in average score respectively, which is surprising for a desktop flagship.

The VRAM capacity of 32 GB is excessive for The Medium's requirements, but it eliminates any possibility of memory-related stuttering. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is likely the key spec for 4K performance: at 3840x2160 Ultra, the GPU delivers only 54 FPS, suggesting that even this massive bandwidth is strained by the game's memory access patterns. The base clock of 2,017 MHz boosting to 2,407 MHz is modest compared to the GPU's scale, and the 575 W TDP with a 950 W suggested PSU indicates a power-hungry design that runs hot. However, the measured FPS at 4K Medium (95 FPS) and 1440p Ultra (69 FPS) show that the GPU can handle demanding loads when settings are tuned appropriately.

The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute is underutilized at lower resolutions, where the data shows diminishing returns: 195 FPS at 1080p Low versus 184 FPS at 1440p Low (6% difference) versus 153 FPS at 4K Low (17% difference from 1440p). This suggests the GPU is not the bottleneck at 1080p Low, and the CPU's role becomes more prominent. The RTX 5090 D's 176 ROPs and 680 TMUs handle texture-heavy horror scenes efficiently, but the game's fixed camera angles reduce the need for complex geometry processing, shifting the load toward fill-rate and bandwidth.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 5090 D delivers exceptional frame rates across all settings. Low averages 195 FPS, Medium averages 144 FPS (min 123, max 166), High averages 103 FPS, and Ultra averages 82 FPS. The 51 FPS gap between Low and Medium is the largest single-step difference, while the Medium-to-High drop is 41 FPS and High-to-Ultra drops 21 FPS. This pattern indicates that Medium is the last setting tier before significant performance degradation. The minimum FPS at Medium (123 FPS) is higher than the average at High (103 FPS), showing that Medium provides a more stable experience than High does on average.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down proportionally. Low averages 184 FPS, Medium averages 122 FPS (min 103, max 140), High averages 87 FPS, and Ultra averages 69 FPS. The 1440p Medium minimum of 103 FPS is still excellent, and the 87 FPS High average keeps gameplay smooth. Ultra dips to 69 FPS, which is borderline for 60 Hz displays but may cause tearing on 144 Hz panels. The 1440p to 1080p ratios are consistent: Medium drops 22 FPS (15%), High drops 16 FPS (16%), and Ultra drops 13 FPS (16%), showing a uniform pixel-count penalty.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limits become apparent. Low averages 153 FPS, Medium averages 95 FPS (min 81, max 110), High averages 68 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 81 FPS is the lowest minimum recorded across all resolutions at Medium settings, but it remains above 60 FPS. High and Ultra drop below the 60 FPS threshold for averages, with Ultra at 54 FPS being essentially unplayable for smooth motion. The 4K Low to Medium gap is 58 FPS (38%), the Medium to High gap is 27 FPS (28%), and the High to Ultra gap is 14 FPS (21%). This shows that each setting increase costs a smaller percentage at higher resolutions, as the GPU becomes more pixel-bound.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves rank 9 out of 2,911 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the top 0.3% of all configurations in the database, reflecting the strength of both components. The 9700X's 86th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 37,943, is modest compared to its GPU counterpart. The nearest CPU rivals — the Intel Core i9-14901E (0.1% ahead), AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (0.1% ahead), and Intel Core 5 211E (0.3% ahead) — show that the CPU's synthetic performance is closely matched by several alternatives, yet the combo still ranks highly due to the GPU's dominance.

The RTX 5090 D's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs is the primary driver of this combo's 9th place finish. However, the GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database — the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.6% ahead) and NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (2.4% ahead) — are mobile or datacenter parts that wouldn't typically be paired with a desktop CPU. This suggests that the combo's rank is influenced more by the GPU's raw compute than by the CPU's contribution. The 9th place out of 2,911 combos means only 8 other configurations achieve higher measured FPS in this game, which is remarkable for a game released in 2021 with fixed camera angles that don't stress modern hardware as heavily as open-world titles.

The delta between the 9700X and its rivals (0.1-0.4%) is negligible, meaning that swapping in a different CPU would likely move the combo rank by only a few positions. Conversely, the GPU's deltaPct values of -1.6% to -2.4% against its nearest rivals show that the RTX 5090 D is competitive but not the absolute fastest GPU in the database. This implies that the 9th rank is a function of the GPU's high placement rather than the CPU, and that a different top-tier GPU could push this combo into the top 5.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium with this combo?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 at Medium settings delivers 122 FPS average (min 103, max 140), which offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 4K, Medium drops to 95 FPS, which is still playable, but 1440p provides a larger margin above 60 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB VRAM necessary for this game?

A: The 32 GB GDDR7 memory is far beyond what The Medium requires, as evidenced by the 195 FPS at 1080p Low. However, the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is likely the more important spec, as 4K Ultra only achieves 54 FPS, showing that memory bandwidth rather than capacity is the limiting factor.

Q: Why does Ultra settings only reach 54 FPS at 4K?

A: The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 averages 54 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. This suggests the game's Ultra settings impose a rendering load that exceeds the GPU's effective throughput at 4K, even with 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 176 ROPs.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700X has an average benchmark score of 37,943, placing it 0.1% behind the Intel Core i9-14901E and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and 0.3% behind the Intel Core 5 211E. These differences are within noise, indicating the CPU choice has minimal impact on this game's performance.

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K with any settings?

A: Yes, at 4K Medium the average is 95 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS, and at 4K Low the average is 153 FPS. However, 4K High (68 FPS average) and 4K Ultra (54 FPS average) both risk dropping below 60 FPS in demanding scenes.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 1440p at High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 High, the average is 103 FPS, while at 2560x1440 High, the average is 87 FPS. This 16 FPS (16%) drop is consistent with the pixel count increase from 2.1 million to 3.7 million pixels.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is a Zen 5 architecture processor built on TSMC's 4 nm process, with 8 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz boosts to 5.50 GHz, and it carries 32 MB of shared L3 cache plus 1 MB L2 per core. The CPU's 65 W TDP is remarkably low for the performance it delivers, and its 86th percentile ranking among all CPUs reflects strong synthetic benchmarks: Cinebench R23 multicore of 20,485 and single-core of 2,211, Geekbench multicore of 17,906 and single-core of 3,023. The 3DMark scores show scaling from 1,280 single-thread to 9,824 at 16 threads, indicating efficient multi-threading capability.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU. The game's fixed camera angles and predictable scene loading mean that the 9700X's 5.50 GHz boost clock is more than sufficient to feed the RTX 5090 D at 1080p and 1440p. The near-flat scaling at Low settings — 195 FPS at 1080p versus 184 FPS at 1440p — suggests that the CPU can maintain high frame rates without becoming a bottleneck. The Passmark multi-thread score of 37,161 and single-thread score of 4,654 confirm that this CPU excels at both lightly-threaded and fully-loaded workloads, which is ideal for a horror game that may use a few threads for AI and physics while the GPU handles rendering.

The CPU's 89.6 GB/s dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth is adequate, though the GPU's 1.79 TB/s bandwidth dwarfs it. In scenes with heavy texture streaming, the CPU must feed data to the GPU, but the 32 MB L3 cache helps reduce memory latency. The CPU's nearest rivals are within 0.4% in average benchmark score, meaning that choosing any of these processors would yield nearly identical results in The Medium. The 9700X's 8 cores are well-suited for the game's threading model, and its 16 threads provide headroom for background tasks without impacting frame rates. The data implies that this CPU is not the limiting factor in any measured configuration — the GPU's performance ceiling determines the FPS at all settings and resolutions tested.