The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding, fixed-camera horror experience where the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination demonstrates a clear performance hierarchy across resolutions and settings. The data reveals a system that scales predictably with graphical load, with the GPU becoming the dominant constraint at higher resolutions while the 16-core processor provides ample headroom at lower settings. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS results to show exactly where this pairing excels and where its limits appear.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates show a steep and consistent drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, which points directly to the GPU as the primary limiting component in this configuration. At Medium settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p costs 7 FPS, moving from 121 to 114 frames per second, while the jump from 1440p to 4K costs another 19 FPS, landing at 95 frames per second. This pattern of increasing performance loss at higher resolutions is classic GPU-bound behavior, as the RTX 5090 D must render exponentially more pixels without additional CPU assistance.

The scaling becomes even more pronounced when examining Ultra settings, where the frame rate drops from 82 FPS at 1080p to 69 FPS at 1440p, and then plummets to 54 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result represents a 34% reduction from the 1080p Ultra figure, confirming that the game's most demanding preset pushes the GPU to its limits even on a 32 GB GDDR7 card with a 512-bit memory bus. Conversely, the Low preset shows remarkable resilience, with 145 FPS at 1080p only falling to 137 FPS at 1440p and 127 FPS at 4K — a mere 12% total drop across the three resolutions. This indicates that at Low settings, the workload shifts toward CPU-bound territory, allowing the Ryzen 9 5950X’s 16 cores and 32 threads to maintain high frame rates regardless of pixel count.

The pattern across all four presets reveals that The Medium’s rendering engine scales pixel-count costs almost linearly, with no signs of a memory bandwidth bottleneck even at 4K. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth figure supports this interpretation, as the RTX 5090 D has ample headroom to feed its 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores without stalling. The data suggests that players targeting 4K should expect roughly half the frame rate of 1080p at the same settings, while those at 1440p will see approximately 80-85% of their 1080p performance — a trade-off that clearly favors lower resolutions for competitive play or higher presets for visual fidelity.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X provides substantial compute resources for The Medium, with 16 cores based on the Zen 3 architecture running at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost up to 4.90 GHz. The CPU’s benchmark results reinforce its capability, showing a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 26017 and a single-core score of 1614, with a 3DMark max-threads score of 11597 that places it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs. These figures indicate a processor that can easily feed a high-end GPU in most gaming scenarios, and the measured FPS data confirms this — even at 1080p Low, the system achieves 145 FPS, suggesting the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution or preset.

The game’s performance at 4K Low (127 FPS) versus 4K High (68 FPS) shows a 59 FPS gap that cannot be attributed to CPU limitations, as the processor’s thread count and clock speeds remain constant across settings. This divergence is entirely GPU-driven, demonstrating that the 5950X’s 64 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s are sufficient to keep the RTX 5090 D fed even when pixel counts quadruple. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 91 versus the GPU’s 92 percentile suggests a balanced pairing, but the actual game data reveals the GPU reaches its ceiling far earlier than the CPU does.

In comparison to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 9 5950X holds its ground with an average benchmark score of 51947, sitting within 0.7% of the Intel Core i7-14700 (52301) and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i9-13900F (51730). The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1856 and single-thread score of 944 indicate that even lightly threaded workloads — common in horror games with fixed cameras — are handled with ease. The data shows that this CPU contributes a stable foundation for the GPU to work from, with no measurable frame time spikes or drops that would suggest processor bottlenecks in The Medium’s measured rows.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 offers the best balance between visual quality and performance for this configuration. At 1440p Medium, the system delivers 114 FPS average with a minimum of 97 FPS and maximum of 132 FPS, providing smooth gameplay while still utilizing the RTX 5090 D’s capabilities. The 1080p Medium row shows 121 FPS with a 103 FPS minimum, which is technically higher but sacrifices resolution without a proportional gain in smoothness — the 7 FPS difference is marginal compared to the visual upgrade of 1440p.

For players prioritizing maximum visual fidelity, the 4K High preset at 68 FPS is the highest quality option that remains playable, though it sits below the 70 FPS threshold that many consider ideal for smooth horror gameplay. The Ultra preset at any resolution proves too demanding for consistent play, with 4K Ultra dropping to 54 FPS and even 1080p Ultra only reaching 82 FPS — these numbers suggest the preset is designed for showcase purposes rather than practical gaming. The Low preset, while achieving 145 FPS at 1080p and 127 FPS at 4K, strips away the atmospheric effects that define The Medium’s horror aesthetic, making it a poor choice for this genre despite the high frame rates.

The Medium preset’s measured minimum FPS values are particularly telling — at 1080p, the 103 FPS minimum versus 121 average shows only an 18 FPS variance, while at 1440p the 97 FPS minimum against 114 average shows a 17 FPS gap. This consistency indicates that the Medium preset avoids the extreme frame time spikes that could break immersion in a game where sudden camera cuts and dual-world rendering require stable performance. The data strongly supports 1440p Medium as the recommended configuration, with 1080p High (103 FPS) serving as a viable alternative for those who prefer higher settings over resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable at 4K with this hardware?

A: The measured data shows that the Low preset at 3840x2160 achieves 127 FPS, while High reaches 68 FPS and Ultra drops to 54 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K delivers 95 FPS, making it the highest quality option that stays above 90 frames per second.

Q: Does the Ryzen 9 5950X bottleneck the RTX 5090 D in The Medium?

A: No, the data indicates the CPU is not the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the system hits 145 FPS, and the performance drop from 1080p to 4K at the same settings is consistent with GPU-bound scaling, not CPU limitations. The 16-core processor’s Cinebench R23 multicore score of 26017 supports this finding.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest GPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77712, which is 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76904) and 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940). It also trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79396) by 2.1% and the 16 GB version (79605) by 2.4%.

Q: What is the frame time stability like at 1440p Medium?

A: The measured minimum FPS of 97 and maximum of 132 at 2560x1440 Medium show a spread of 35 FPS, with the average sitting at 114. This indicates moderate variance but no severe stuttering, making it suitable for a horror game where smooth camera transitions matter.

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable at any resolution with this configuration?

A: The Ultra preset achieves 82 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K. While the 1080p result is technically playable, the 4K figure falls below typical smoothness thresholds, and the data suggests this preset is better suited for screenshots than extended gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU’s single-thread performance affect The Medium?

A: The Ryzen 9 5950X’s 3DMark single-thread score of 944 and Cinebench R15 single-core score of 266.5 indicate strong per-core performance. This ensures that the game’s main thread — which often handles camera logic and scene management — does not become a bottleneck, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p Low.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing, and its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth provides extraordinary headroom for The Medium’s texture-heavy environments. The GPU’s boost clock of 2407 MHz and 21760 shading units deliver raw compute that scales directly with resolution, as shown by the measured FPS drops from 1080p to 4K. At 4K Ultra, the card still manages 54 FPS, which is respectable for a game that renders two simultaneous worlds, but the data clearly shows the GPU hitting its performance ceiling at this preset.

The RTX 5090 D’s benchmark profile further contextualizes its gaming performance — its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14326 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 376915 place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. However, its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are notably mobile-class parts like the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76904) and RX 6850M XT (78940), which the 5090 D edges out by 1.1% or trails by 1.6% respectively. This suggests that while the 5090 D excels in raw compute, The Medium’s specific rendering paths may not fully utilize its advanced features like the 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores, explaining why the Ultra preset’s performance (54-82 FPS) is less dominant than the card’s specifications would imply.

The GPU’s memory subsystem plays a critical role in the game’s performance consistency. The 32 GB capacity ensures that even at 4K Ultra, texture streaming never stalls due to VRAM pressure, and the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth prevents memory-bound frame drops. This is evident in the 4K Medium row, which shows a minimum FPS of 81 against an average of 95 — a tighter band than the 1440p Medium results (97 min, 114 avg), indicating that the GPU handles memory-intensive loads without degradation. The data suggests that the RTX 5090 D’s role is to provide a massive, stable foundation for the game’s visual effects, with the bottleneck shifting to its compute throughput at the highest resolutions rather than any memory or subsystem limitation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for The Medium with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is as follows:

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 145 FPS average, while Medium achieves 121 FPS with a minimum of 103 and maximum of 139. High settings produce 103 FPS, and Ultra drops to 82 FPS. This creates a spread of 63 FPS between the lowest and highest presets, with each step from Low to Ultra costing roughly 20 FPS on average. The 1080p Medium row shows the tightest variance relative to its average, with the 103 FPS minimum representing 85% of the average — a solid performance profile for competitive or high-refresh-rate play.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset reaches 137 FPS, Medium averages 114 FPS with a 97 FPS minimum and 132 FPS maximum, High produces 87 FPS, and Ultra drops to 69 FPS. The 1440p results show a 68 FPS spread between Low and Ultra, which is slightly wider than at 1080p, reflecting the increased pixel workload on the GPU. The Medium preset at this resolution maintains a minimum FPS of 97, which is still well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, making it the recommended sweet spot for this hardware.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 127 FPS, Medium averages 95 FPS with an 81 FPS minimum and 110 FPS maximum, High produces 68 FPS, and Ultra drops to 54 FPS. The 4K results show a 73 FPS spread between Low and Ultra, the widest of any resolution, indicating that the RTX 5090 D’s compute limits are most apparent at this pixel count. The Medium preset’s 81 FPS minimum is the lowest of any Medium row across all resolutions, but it remains playable, while the Ultra preset at 54 FPS approaches the edge of what most players would consider acceptable for a horror title requiring precise camera control.

The data reveals that the RTX 5090 D maintains a consistent performance hierarchy across all resolutions, with Low always delivering at least 127 FPS and Ultra never exceeding 82 FPS. The Medium preset stands out as the most balanced option, with its average FPS falling approximately 20% below Low and 20% above High at each resolution. This consistency makes the Medium preset the most predictable choice for players who want stable performance without sacrificing too much visual quality, while the Ultra preset’s steep performance cost suggests it should be reserved for non-gameplay moments or screenshot purposes.