The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 in The Medium presents a stark study in component imbalance. The data reveals a system where a top-tier modern processor is completely hamstrung by a legacy graphics card, resulting in performance that ranks near the very bottom of all tested combinations. The benchmark results are measured, not theoretical, and they paint a clear picture of a GPU-bound bottleneck at every turn.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a desktop processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.20 GHz. The chip has a substantial 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is a significant asset for gaming workloads that rely on data locality. Its benchmark scores are exceptional; for instance, it achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 34004 and a single-core score of 4800, alongside a Geekbench multicore score of 18413.

In the context of The Medium, however, the CPU's role is almost entirely negated by the GPU. The measured frame rates are so low that the processor never becomes the limiting factor. Even at 1080p with Low settings, where the CPU typically has the most influence, the average frame rate is just 46.1 FPS. This is a low figure for a processor that sits in the 90th percentile versus all CPUs. The data suggests that the game's rendering pipeline is stalling long before the 9800X3D’s capabilities are taxed. The CPU’s high scores in synthetic tests like Passmark's multithread (40009) and floating-point math (79456) do not translate into higher frame rates here because the system is never waiting on the processor to complete its work. The processor’s nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the Intel Xeon 6353P with a deltaPct of -0.1 and the Intel Core i9-13900HK with a deltaPct of -0.6, indicating that the 9800X3D is performing exactly as expected at the compute level, but that performance is simply irrelevant to the final FPS output in this specific configuration.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a much older component, based on the Polaris 20 chip and the GCN 4.0 architecture. It operates with a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz. Its memory configuration is 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. This is the component that dictates the entire experience in The Medium. The GPU’s compute capabilities, rated at 5.095 TFLOPS for FP32, are simply insufficient for the game’s demands at higher settings. The RX 570 is positioned in the 74th percentile versus all GPUs, and its average benchmark score places it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (deltaPct 0.2) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (deltaPct 0.2). However, these scores reflect synthetic workloads, not real-world gaming performance in this title.

The most telling data point is the catastrophic drop in performance when moving from Low to Ultra settings. At 1080p, the average FPS falls from 46.1 on Low to just 18 on Ultra. This is a clear indication that the GPU's pixel and texture processing units are overwhelmed. The RX 570's 4 GB VRAM is likely a major contributor, as The Medium at higher presets will exceed this capacity, forcing the system to use slower system memory. The data implies that the GPU is not just slow, but it is fundamentally out of its depth, struggling to maintain playable frame rates even at the lowest settings at 1080p.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling data provides definitive proof that the GPU is the sole limiting component. The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is not linear, but the trend is consistent. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 46.1 at 1920x1080 to 34.5 at 2560x1440, and then plummets to 28.2 at 3840x2160. This is a 39% reduction in FPS from 1080p to 4K. The pattern is similar across other settings, where the frame rate is halved or worse when moving to 4K.

This behavior is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck. When the resolution increases, the number of pixels the GPU must render grows exponentially. The CPU’s workload remains relatively constant as resolution changes, as it still has to process the same game logic and draw calls. Because the frame rate drops so dramatically with resolution, it confirms that the RX 570 is working at its absolute maximum capacity at all times. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, with a drop only at 4K. Instead, the data shows a steady decline from the lowest to the highest resolution, indicating that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are saturated at every tested setting. The 9800X3D is waiting idly for the GPU to finish each frame.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

In the grand scheme of all tested hardware combinations for The Medium, this pairing of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RX 570 ranks at 1609 out of 1689 combos. This places it in the bottom 5% of all systems tested. This low ranking is entirely attributable to the graphics card. The CPU is a top-tier part, but the GPU is a legacy entry-level component, and the combination is severely mismatched. The data shows that the overall system performance is dragged down to the level of the weakest component.

This ranking highlights the futility of pairing a high-end CPU with a low-end GPU for this specific game. While the 9800X3D might be beneficial in CPU-intensive simulations or other titles, it offers no advantage here because the RX 570 cannot feed it enough frames. The benchmark results show that this combo is not just slow for a high-end system; it is slow compared to nearly every other system that has been tested, regardless of the components used. This suggests that the RX 570 is so weak in The Medium that it negates any potential benefit from the rest of the system. The combo's rank is a function of the GPU's absolute performance limits, not the CPU's.

FAQ

Q: Why is the frame rate so low despite having a powerful CPU?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the limiting component. The benchmark data shows that frame rates drop significantly with resolution and settings, which is a clear indicator of a GPU bottleneck. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D’s high compute scores do not help because the system is always waiting for the GPU to render frames.

Q: What is the best performance I can get with this setup?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded in the data is 46.1 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration that approaches a playable frame rate.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 30158. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 with a score of 30109 and a deltaPct of 0.2, and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT with a score of 30097 and a deltaPct of 0.2. This means the RX 570 is performing slightly above its closest competitors in synthetic tests.

Q: Is the CPU's performance affecting the results at all?

A: No, the data indicates the CPU is not the bottleneck. The frame rates are consistently low across all resolutions, which would not happen if the CPU were limiting performance. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 34004, are excellent, but they have no bearing on the final FPS in this configuration.

Q: What is the impact of increasing the resolution to 4K?

A: The impact is severe. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 46.1 at 1080p to 28.2 at 4K. At Ultra settings, the frame rate falls to an unplayable 7.6 FPS at 4K. This confirms that the GPU is completely overwhelmed by the higher pixel count.

Q: How does this system rank among all tested combinations?

A: This specific combination of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RX 570 ranks 1609 out of 1689 tested combos. This places it in the bottom 5% of all systems, a position that is almost entirely due to the performance of the graphics card.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data for The Medium with this hardware is as follows:

• 3840x2160: At Ultra settings, the average FPS is 7.6. At High settings, it is 14.2. At Medium settings, it is 21.1. At Low settings, it is 28.2.
• 2560x1440: At Ultra settings, the average FPS is 15.2. At High settings, it is 16.8. At Medium settings, it is 24.5. At Low settings, it is 34.5.
• 1920x1080: At Ultra settings, the average FPS is 18. At High settings, it is 17.6. At Medium settings, it is 29.8. At Low settings, it is 46.1.

The data reveals a few interesting anomalies. At 1440p, the High setting (16.8 FPS) performs nearly identically to the Ultra setting at 1080p (18 FPS), showing that the resolution increase has a more significant impact than the graphical preset change. Also, the difference between High and Ultra at 1080p is marginal (17.6 vs 18 FPS), suggesting that the Ultra preset is not significantly more demanding than High, or that the GPU is already at its limit. The most significant jump in performance is always from Medium to Low, which provides a substantial FPS increase at every resolution.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured data, the only viable way to play The Medium with this hardware is to use the Low preset. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 46.1 FPS, which is the only configuration that approaches a smooth experience. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 29.8 FPS, which is noticeably less fluid and may introduce stutter. The High and Ultra presets at 1080p are essentially unplayable, with frame rates in the high teens.

If a user insists on a higher resolution, the situation is dire. At 2560x1440, even the Low preset only manages 34.5 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p falls to 24.5 FPS, which is a poor experience. At 3840x2160, no setting is playable, with the Low preset only achieving 28.2 FPS and the Ultra preset collapsing to 7.6 FPS. The data strongly suggests that the best experience, defined as the highest frame rate, is achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. Any attempt to increase visual fidelity or resolution results in a disproportionate loss of performance, confirming that the RX 570 is the hard limit of this system. The results suggest that for a playable experience, one must accept the lowest visual quality and the native 1080p resolution.