The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 produces a clear, hierarchical set of results in The Medium. Across all three tested resolutions, the Medium preset consistently offers the most balanced experience, delivering playable frame rates without the steep performance cost of the High and Ultra presets, while providing a substantial visual upgrade over Low. The data indicates a performance tier structure where Low is the fastest, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra being the most demanding. This hierarchy is consistent at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, making the choice of preset a straightforward question of target resolution and desired visual fidelity.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to the Medium preset as the optimal choice for this combination in The Medium. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset achieves an average of 88 FPS, which is 25 frames higher than High (63 FPS) and 20 frames lower than Low (141 FPS). This positions Medium as a significant step up from Low in visual quality while avoiding the substantial frame rate penalty associated with High. The frame time consistency at Medium is also solid, with the 1080p run showing a minimum of 75 FPS and a maximum of 101 FPS, indicating a stable experience without major stutters.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers an average of 74 FPS. This is a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold typically considered smooth for modern gaming. The High preset at this resolution drops to 53 FPS, which is a noticeable 21 FPS reduction from Medium, making High less appealing for a 1440p experience. The Medium preset retains a playable frame time range, with a minimum of 63 FPS and a maximum of 85 FPS, confirming its stability at this higher resolution.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the only preset that remains close to a playable standard, averaging 58 FPS. This is a 16 FPS improvement over High (42 FPS) and a 25 FPS improvement over Ultra (33 FPS). While the 4K Medium average of 58 FPS is not a locked 60, it is a far better experience than the alternatives. The frame time data for 4K Medium shows a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS, indicating that while there is some variance, the experience is likely to be acceptable for a slow-paced horror title. The data strongly suggests that for users prioritizing smooth gameplay, Medium is the recommended preset at all three resolutions, with the understanding that 4K will be the most demanding scenario.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the primary driver of performance in The Medium, and its specifications directly explain the measured frame rates. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. This large memory capacity and high bandwidth are crucial for a game like The Medium, which renders scenes with heavy texture usage and complex visual effects. The Very High and Ultra presets, which likely increase texture resolution and draw distances, place a greater demand on the memory subsystem, and the data shows a clear correlation between preset and performance degradation.

The GPU's clock speeds also play a role. The base clock is 1330 MHz, with a boost clock of 2520 MHz and a game clock of 2070 MHz. The game clock is the expected frequency during sustained gaming workloads, and the difference between the boost and game clocks suggests that the card will operate at the game clock in a title like The Medium, which is heavily reliant on the GPU. The RX 9070's architecture, with 3584 shading units and 128 ROPs, provides the raw compute power needed for the game's rendering. The pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s are high, but the data shows that the card is still challenged by the 4K resolution and the highest presets.

The benchmark results from the GPU confirm its general capability. It scores 25,381 in Passmark G3D and 6290 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. These scores place it in the 69th percentile of all GPUs. However, within the context of The Medium, the measured FPS reveals that even with this hardware, the Ultra preset is too demanding, with an average of only 50 FPS at 1080p and 33 FPS at 4K. The data suggests that while the RX 9070 is a capable GPU, the Ultra preset in The Medium is designed for future or higher-tier hardware, and the RX 9070's performance is best utilized with the Medium or High presets.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and RX 9070 in The Medium?

A: The benchmark data indicates that the Medium preset provides the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1080p, it averages 88 FPS; at 1440p, it averages 74 FPS; and at 4K, it averages 58 FPSft. This preset offers a substantial performance advantage over High and Ultra while providing a significant visual upgrade over Low.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in The Medium?

A: Yes, but with limitations. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the only playable option, averaging 58 FPS. The High preset drops to 42 FPS, and Ultra is not viable at 33 FPS. Users should expect to use the Medium preset for a smooth 4K experience.

Q: How much of a performance drop is there from 1080p to 4K?

A: The performance drop is significant. At the Medium preset, the average FPS drops from 88 at 1080p to 74 at 1440p, and then to 58 at 4K. This represents a 34% decrease in average FPS from 1080p to 4K, demonstrating the substantial load that higher resolutions place on the GPU.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever playable with this hardware?

A: No. The Ultra preset is the most demanding and yields the lowest frame rates. At 1080p, it averages 50 FPS, which is below the standard for smooth gameplay. At 1440p, it averages 42 FPS, and at 4K, it drops to just 33 FPS. The data suggests that this preset is not recommended for this specific hardware combination.

Q: How does the RX 9070's performance in this game relate to its overall benchmark scores?

A: The RX 9070's scores of 25,381 in Passmark G3D and 6290 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 place it in the 69th percentile of all GPUs. However, these general benchmarks do not translate to a playable experience at the Ultra preset in The Medium, highlighting that specific game optimizations and demands can vary significantly from synthetic workloads.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at the Medium preset?

A: The data for the Medium preset shows stable frame times. At 1080p, the minimum is 75 FPS and the maximum is 101 FPS. At 1440p, the range is 63 to 85 FPS, and at 4K, it is 50 to 67 FPS. This consistency indicates a smooth experience without significant stuttering or frame hitches.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset is the fastest, achieving an average of 141 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 88 FPS, with a frame time range of 75 to 101 FPS. The High preset averages 63 FPS, and the Ultra preset is the slowest at 50 FPS. This shows a clear progression of performance cost for each step up in visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the same hierarchy is observed. The Low preset averages 119 FPS, which is still very high. The Medium preset averages 74 FPS, with a minimum of 63 FPS and a maximum of 85 FPS. The High preset drops to 53 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 42 FPS. The performance difference between the Low and Medium presets is 45 FPS, while the difference between Medium and High is 21 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 11 FPScars.

At 3840x2160, the demands on the GPU become more apparent. The Low preset averages 93 FPS, which is still a playable frame rate. The Medium preset averages 58 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS. The High preset falls to 42 FPS, and the Ultra preset is the only one that is not playable, averaging just 33 FPS. The data shows that at 4K, the gap between the Low and Medium presets is 35 FPS, but the gap between Medium and High is 16 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 9 FPS. This indicates that the GPU's headroom is exhausted much more quickly at 4K, making the choice of preset even more critical.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling of frame rates from 1080p to 4K reveals that the GPU is the limiting component in this combo for The Medium. At the Medium preset, the average FPS drops from 88 at 1080p to 74 at 1440p, a decrease of 14 FPS or 15.9%. From 1440p to 4K, the average drops from 74 to 58, a further decrease of 16 FPS or 21.6%. The total decrease from 1080p to 4K is 30 FPS, or 34.1%. This consistent and significant drop with increasing resolution is a classic indicator of a GPU-bound scenario.

The data for the Low preset shows a similar trendhare. The average FPS at 1080p is 141, which drops to 119 at 1440p and then to 93 at 4K. The decrease from 1080p to 4K is 48 FPS, or 34.0%. This parallel drop confirms that the GPU is the performance bottleneck, as the CPU does not have to work harder to render at lower quality settings; it simply waits for the GPU to finish its work.

The High and Ultra presets show even steeper percentage drops. The High preset goes from 63 FPS at 1080p to 53 FPS at 1440p and then to 42 FPS at 4K, a total decrease of 21 FPS or 33.3%. The Ultra preset goes from 50 FPS at 1080p to 42 FPS at 1440p and then to 33 FPS at 4K, a total decrease of 17 FPS or 34.0%. The consistency of these percentage drops across all presets strongly suggests that the resolution scaling is a direct function of the GPU's pixel throughput limits, not a result of CPU or memory constraints.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a high-end processor with 12 cores and 24 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture. It has a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, which are high frequencies that provide excellent single-threaded performance. Its benchmark scores are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29,300 and a single-core score of 2016.5. The Geekbench scores are 19,267 for multicore and 2617 for single-core. These results place the CPU in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is a top-tier performer.

However, the measured FPS data in The Medium shows that this CPU's performance is not a limiting factor in this game. The evidence for this is the consistent frame rates and the significant drops in performance when the resolution is increased. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the performance would not scale so heavily with resolution, as the CPU's workload is largely independent of the output resolution. The fact that the FPS drops by roughly the same percentage from 1080p to 4K across all presets suggests that the CPU is fully capable of feeding the GPU with data, and the GPU is the component that determines the final frame rate.

The CPU's high single-threaded performance, as shown by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1093, is more than sufficient for the game's logic and draw call processing. The 12 cores and 24 threads are also more than enough for a modern game like The Medium, which is unlikely to scale perfectly across all of them. The data would show a CPU bottleneck if the average FPS at 1080p reached a plateau regardless of the settings, but the 141 FPS at Low settings shows that the CPU can handle high frame rates. The bottleneck is firmly with the GPU, as the FPS scales linearly with the number of pixels being rendered.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 is ranked 1075th out of 3724 tested combinations in The Medium. This places it in the top 28.9% of all tested systems for this specific game. While this is a respectable ranking, it is not in the top tier. The rank is determined by the measured average FPS across the tested settings, and the data shows that this combo's performance is held back by the GPU's inability to handle the highest presets, particularly at higher resolutions.

To understand this ranking, it is helpful to look at the individual components' standings. The CPU is in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is a very powerful processor. The GPU is in the 69th percentile of all GPUs, which is a solid, mid-to-high-tier ranking. The combo's overall rank of 1075 out of 3724 is lower than the CPU's percentile might suggest, which confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor. A combo with a top-tier GPU would likely rank much higher, as the CPU has the headroom to support more powerful graphics cards.

The measured FPS data supports this analysis. The combo cannot achieve a playable frame rate at the Ultra preset at any resolution, and at 4K, only the Medium preset is viable. The high ranking of the CPU is mitigated by the fact that it is paired with a GPU that, while capable, is not at the absolute top of the performance spectrum. The data shows that for users looking to push The Medium to its absolute limits, a stronger GPU would be necessary to achieve higher frame rates at the High and Ultra presets. The combo is a good match for 1440p and 1080p gaming at Medium settings, but it is not a top-tier contender for 4K or maximum fidelity gaming.