The Medium

# The Medium with AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D pairs with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 to deliver a mixed bag of performance across The Medium's four quality presets. The measured data shows this combination ranks 483rd out of 2911 tested configurations, placing it comfortably in the top 17% of all tested combos for this title. The pairing of a Zen 5-based 8-core processor with a Blackwell 2.0 GPU produces frame rates that range from a playable 38 FPS at 4K Ultra to a very smooth 160 FPS at 1080p Low, with the medium preset showing the most balanced behavior across all three resolutions. The following analysis breaks down exactly where the bottlenecks lie, how each component contributes, and which settings provide the most consistent experience.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution-dependent scaling that points to the GPU as the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on the Medium preset drops the average from 100 FPS to 84 FPS, a 16% reduction. Pushing further to 3840x2160 brings the average down to 66 FPS, another 21% drop from the 1440p figure. This scaling curve is characteristic of a system where the graphics card is increasingly stressed as pixel count rises, while the CPU has ample headroom to keep feeding frames.

The High preset shows even more dramatic resolution sensitivity. At 1080p the system manages 72 FPS, but at 1440p that falls to 60 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 47 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 4K on High is 25 FPS, representing a 35% performance loss. This substantial scaling penalty indicates the RTX 5070's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory and 192-bit bus are being pushed hard at higher resolutions, with the 672.0 GB/s bandwidth becoming a limiting factor.

The Low preset tells a different story. Here the system achieves 160 FPS at 1080p, 135 FPS at 1440p, and 106 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is a 15.6% drop, and from 1440p to 4K is a 21.5% drop. Even at Low settings, the resolution scaling remains consistent, suggesting that the game's rendering engine places significant load on the GPU regardless of quality level. The fact that 4K Low still manages 106 FPS indicates the RTX 5070 has substantial raw throughput, but the High and Ultra presets expose its limitations more clearly.

Ultra settings present the most constrained scenario. The system delivers 57 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K. The scaling pattern here shows a 15.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 20.8% drop from 1440p to 4K. These percentages are remarkably consistent with the Medium preset's scaling, suggesting that the relative cost of each resolution increase is stable across quality settings. However, the absolute numbers indicate that Ultra is only viable at 1080p, where 57 FPS approaches playable, while 4K Ultra falls well short of smooth gameplay.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 serves as the dominant performance factor in this configuration, particularly at higher resolutions and quality settings. Its 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Medium settings across all tested resolutions but becomes strained at Ultra. The 4K Ultra result of 38 FPS suggests the memory subsystem and the 80 ROPs are working near their limits, as the pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s is being fully utilized.

The GPU's clock behavior contributes to the performance profile. With a base clock of 2325 MHz and a boost clock of 2512 MHz, the RTX 5070 operates at a modest frequency range that prioritizes efficiency over raw speed. The 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is clearly adequate for Medium preset at 4K, where the system delivers 66 FPS, but the jump to High settings at 4K drops performance to 47 FPS. This 19 FPS penalty from Medium to High at 4K indicates that the additional shading and texture work required by High settings exceeds what the 6144 shading units can comfortably handle at that resolution.

The benchmark scores for the RTX 5070 place it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40377. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 580, scores 40318, a negligible 0.1% difference. The AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 trails by 0.8% with a score of 40063, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 leads by 1.2% at 40870. The NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile is 2% behind at 39568. These tight margins suggest the RTX 5070 sits in a crowded performance band, but in The Medium specifically, it demonstrates enough headroom for 1080p and 1440p gaming at Medium and High settings.

The GPU's 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores do not appear to provide a significant advantage in this title, as the game's horror atmosphere likely relies more on traditional rasterization than ray tracing. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) ensures full feature compatibility, and the Vulkan score of 178923 in Geekbench indicates robust driver overhead handling, but the measured FPS results show the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K Ultra rather than the API layer.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D brings substantial processing power to this pairing, and the data indicates it is rarely the limiting factor in The Medium. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on Zen 5 architecture, the processor operates at a base clock of 4.70 GHz and boosts to 5.60 GHz. The 96 MB of shared L3 cache is particularly relevant for gaming workloads, as it reduces memory latency and improves data access patterns for game engines that frequently revisit the same data sets.

The CPU's benchmark results reinforce its capability. A Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22807 and single-core score of 2228 demonstrate strong throughput, while the PassMark single-thread score of 4704 confirms excellent per-core performance. The processor's 92nd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 58386, places it just 0.1% ahead of the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M (58323) and 0.2% behind the Intel Xeon w5-2545 (58504). The Intel Core i9-14900 trails by 0.5% at 58115, while the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 leads by 0.7% at 58826.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p Low, where the system achieves 160 FPS. This high frame rate indicates the processor can deliver frames rapidly enough to keep the GPU fed even at moderate settings. The fact that 4K Low still manages 106 FPS, while 4K High drops to 47 FPS, demonstrates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as quality increases, not the CPU. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s over dual-channel DDR5 provides sufficient data throughput to avoid stalling the RTX 5070.

The processor's 120 W TDP and 4 nm process node from TSMC contribute to its efficiency, allowing sustained boost clocks without thermal throttling that could impact frame pacing. The 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die represent a dense design that maximizes performance per watt. While the game likely does not utilize all 16 threads simultaneously, the 8 physical cores provide enough parallelism for the game's background tasks, physics calculations, and audio processing to run without competing for resources with the main rendering thread.

FAQ

Q: Is this combination capable of running The Medium at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, where it achieves 66 FPS average with a minimum of 56 FPS and maximum of 76 FPS. At 4K High, performance drops to 47 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it falls to 38 FPS, both of which are below the generally accepted 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9850X3D compare to its closest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 9850X3D scores 58386 on average, placing it 0.1% ahead of the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M, 0.5% ahead of the Intel Core i9-14900, 0.2% behind the Intel Xeon w5-2545, and 0.7% behind the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470.

Q: What is the best resolution for this system in The Medium?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 at Medium settings provides the best balance, delivering 84 FPS average with a minimum of 71 FPS and maximum of 97 FPS. This resolution offers a significant visual upgrade over 1080p while maintaining frame rates well above playable thresholds.

Q: How much performance is gained by dropping from High to Medium settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 84 FPS compared to 60 FPS on High, representing a 40% improvement. The 24 FPS difference is substantial and makes the Medium preset the more practical choice for maintaining smooth gameplay.

Q: Does the RTX 5070's 12 GB VRAM cause any issues at 4K?

A: The measured data suggests the 12 GB of GDDR7 memory is sufficient at 4K Medium, where the system maintains 66 FPS, but the 4K Ultra result of 38 FPS indicates the memory bus width and bandwidth become limiting factors when higher-quality textures and effects are enabled.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combination ranks 483rd out of 2911 tested combos, placing it in the top 16.6% of all systems tested for The Medium. This ranking reflects a configuration that is well above average but not at the absolute top tier.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 achieves a rank of 483 out of 2911 tested combinations in The Medium. This places the system in the 83.4th percentile, meaning it outperforms roughly 2428 other tested configurations while being surpassed by 482. This ranking position indicates a well-balanced setup that delivers consistently strong performance across most settings and resolutions, though it is not among the elite configurations that would rank in the top 100.

The rank of 483 is particularly notable given the hardware combination's characteristics. The Ryzen 7 9850X3D's 92nd percentile CPU ranking and the RTX 5070's 82nd percentile GPU ranking combine to produce a system that exceeds the sum of its parts in this specific game. The measured FPS data shows the system performing strongly at 1080p and 1440p across most presets, with only 4K Ultra falling below comfortable playability. This suggests the game engine scales well with the available hardware resources, and the 96 MB L3 cache on the CPU may provide an advantage in maintaining consistent frame delivery.

The ranking also reflects the system's consistency. While some combinations might achieve higher peak FPS at 1080p Low, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D and RTX 5070 combination maintains competitive performance across all tested points. The minimum FPS values recorded at Medium settings (85 at 1080p, 71 at 1440p, and 56 at 4K) indicate that frame pacing remains stable, avoiding the severe dips that can make a game feel unresponsive even when average FPS is acceptable.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset achieves 160 FPS average, which represents the ceiling of what this combination can produce in The Medium. The Medium preset follows at 100 FPS with a minimum of 85 and maximum of 115, providing excellent smoothness. High settings drop to 72 FPS, still comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, while Ultra falls to 57 FPS, which is marginally below ideal smoothness but remains playable.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings deliver 135 FPS, maintaining high refresh rate capability. Medium preset averages 84 FPS with a minimum of 71 and maximum of 97, which is ideal for 1440p monitors with standard 60-75 Hz refresh rates. High settings achieve 60 FPS exactly, hitting the baseline for smooth gameplay, while Ultra drops to 48 FPS, showing the strain of maximum quality at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope tightens considerably. Low settings still manage 106 FPS, demonstrating the GPU's raw throughput. Medium preset averages 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 and maximum of 76, which is the only 4K configuration that consistently exceeds 60 FPS. High settings fall to 47 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 38 FPS, both of which would require adaptive sync or reduced expectations for smooth gameplay.

The data reveals a consistent scaling pattern across resolutions. The Medium preset shows the most balanced behavior, with its minimum frame rates staying within 85% of the average at each resolution. The Low preset shows the widest absolute range between resolutions, from 160 FPS at 1080p to 106 FPS at 4K, but maintains frame rates well above playable thresholds throughout. The High and Ultra presets show the highest sensitivity to resolution increases, with 4K performance dropping to 47 FPS and 38 FPS respectively.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset is the optimal choice for this hardware combination across all three tested resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 100 FPS average with a minimum of 85 FPS, providing a smooth experience with no frame drops below comfortable playability. At 1440p, Medium maintains 84 FPS average with an 71 FPS minimum, making it the highest quality setting that stays reliably above 60 FPS at this resolution. Even at 4K, Medium achieves 66 FPS average with a 56 FPS minimum, which is the only preset that approaches smooth gameplay at this resolution.

The High preset represents a reasonable alternative for users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate consistency. At 1080p, High delivers 72 FPS, which is still smooth, and at 1440p it hits exactly 60 FPS, which is acceptable for most players. However, at 4K, High drops to 47 FPS, which introduces perceptible stutter and reduced responsiveness. The step from Medium to High costs 28 FPS at 1080p, 24 FPS at 1440p, and 19 FPS at 4K, making it a significant trade-off for modest visual improvements.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for this configuration at any resolution above 1080p. At 1080p, Ultra achieves 57 FPS, which is only marginally playable, but the visual gains over High are likely minimal. At 1440p, Ultra falls to 48 FPS, and at 4K it drops to 38 FPS, both of which are below the threshold for comfortable gameplay. The Low preset, while delivering high frame rates (160 FPS at 1080p, 135 FPS at 1440p, 106 FPS at 4K), sacrifices too much visual quality to be a practical choice for a system of this caliber.

The optimal strategy is to select Medium settings and adjust resolution based on display capability. For 1080p displays, Medium provides exceptional headroom at 100 FPS. For 1440p displays, Medium offers the best balance of quality and performance at 84 FPS. For 4K displays, Medium is the only setting that approaches smooth gameplay at 66 FPS, though the 56 FPS minimum means some scenes may dip below 60 FPS. Users with 4K displays who require consistent 60 FPS should consider dropping to 1440p with Medium settings, which delivers 84 FPS with a higher minimum.