The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a solid, if not spectacular, experience in The Medium, a horror title from 2021. The data places this combination at rank 1014 out of 3724 tested combos, putting it comfortably in the top 27% of all systems. The scores reveal a GPU-heavy workload where the 12-core processor has ample headroom, leaving the RTX 3080 as the primary variable in frame rate outcomes.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo achieves at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system reaches an average of 143 FPS. This is the highest average frame rate recorded across all tested resolutions and settings.

Q: How much faster is the CPU compared to its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700F?

A: The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X has an average benchmark score of 53288, while the Intel Core i7-14700F scores 53620. This makes the Intel chip 0.6% faster, a marginal difference that places them in the same performance class.

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset yields an average of 75 FPS, with a minimum of 64 FPS and a maximum of 87 FPS. This presents a balanced baseline for the game at that resolution.

Q: How does the GPU compare to the AMD Radeon RX 6600M in benchmark scores?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 has an average benchmark score of 23172, while the AMD Radeon RX 6600M scores 23273. The RTX 3080 is 0.4% behind the Radeon in this metric, showing near-identical aggregate performance.

Q: What is the combo's rank within the database for this game?

A: This CPU/GPU combination is ranked 1014 out of 3724 total test combinations, placing it in the 27th percentile of all measured systems for The Medium.

Q: What settings at 4K maintain at least 60 FPS on average?

A: At 3840x2160, only the Low preset achieves an average of 95 FPS. The Medium preset reaches 59 FPS, just below the 60 FPS threshold. High and Ultra presets drop to 42 and 34 FPS respectively.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is the central component in this combo's performance in The Medium. The graphics card, based on the Ampere architecture and GA102 chip, has 10 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 320-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 760.3 GB/s. The base clock runs at 1440 MHz, with a boost clock of 1710 MHz. Memory operates at 1188 MHz, translating to 19 Gbps effective speed. The GPU has 8704 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 96 ROPs, alongside 68 ray-tracing cores and 272 tensor cores.

The game’s data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor. At 1080p, the average FPS scales from 51 at Ultra to 143 at Low, showing that the GPU's render load significantly impacts performance. The RTX 3080’s high texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s are sufficient for the game’s demands, but the 10 GB VRAM capacity can become a constraint at higher resolutions. The game’s horror genre, with its fixed camera angles and heavy atmosphere effects, relies on consistent frame pacing. The GPU’s performance percentile ranks at 68, meaning it surpasses 68% of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA P106-100, has a negligible 0.3% higher average score, indicating the RTX 3080 is at the edge of a tightly clustered performance group in aggregate benchmarks.

The GPU's 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 compute power is more than adequate for the game's shader work. However, at Ultra settings, the GPU is clearly overburdened. The card's passmark G3D score of 25086 and passmark GPU compute score of 14397 point to strong compute capabilities, but the game's rendering logic still bottleneck the GPU at high settings. The GPU's 320 W TDP and 700 W suggested PSU highlight its power draw, a consequence of the performance it delivers. The RTX 3080 is the clear limiting component in this combo, especially as resolution scales upward.

How This Combo Ranks

The measured data places this combo at rank 1014 out of 3724 combinations tested in The Medium. This ranking places it in the 27th percentile, meaning it outperforms 73% of all tested systems. The high rank is notable given the CPU's 91st percentile ranking and the GPU's 68th percentile ranking. The ranking reflects a well-balanced system where the GPU is the primary driver.

The combo rank of 1014 is influenced by the game's reliance on the GPU. The CPU's high benchmark scores, such as the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29300 and Geekbench multi-core score of 19267, do not translate into a higher rank because the game is not CPU-bound. The rank is a measure of aggregate FPS across all settings and resolutions. The data indicates that the system is not a top-tier performer in this title, but it sits in the upper quantile. For comparison, the combo's rank is in the top 27% of all combos, which includes systems with superior GPUs. The RTX 3080's percentile of 68% means it is slower than 32% of all GPUs, which likely contribute to the rank being outside the top 10%. The rank is influenced by the fact that the CPU is not a bottleneck, allowing the GPU to be the sole determinant. The combo's position is well above the median, but not at the top, consistent with the mid-high-end nature of the RTX 3080.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern across resolutions and settings.

At 1920x1080, the FPS ranges from 51 to 143:

• Low: 143 FPS
• Medium: 90 FPS (min 76, max 103)
• High: 64 FPS
• Ultra: 51 FPS

The 1080p Low setting is the only preset that achieves triple-digit average FPS. The step from Low to Medium incurs a 37% FPS drop (from 143 to 90), highlighting the GPU's sensitivity to settings. The 1080p Medium has a minimum of 76 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience. High and Ultra presets are far less playable.

At 2560x1440:

• Low: 121 FPS
• Medium: 75 FPS (min 64, max 87)
• High: 54 FPS
• Ultra: 43 FPS

1440p Low maintains a high 121 FPS, only 22 FPS lower than 1080p Low, indicating the CPU is still capable. The Medium preset at 75 FPS is a solid target. High and Ultra drop to 54 and 43 FPS, showing the GPU's limitations at higher settings.

At 3840x2160:

• Low: 95 FPS
• Medium: 59 FPS (min 50, max 68)
• High: 42 FPS
• Ultra: 34 FPS

4K Low is the only 4K preset that remains above 60 FPS, at 95 FPS. Medium falls just short of 60 FPS at 59 FPS, but with a minimum of 50 FPS, it's playable. High and Ultra are below 50 FPS, making them less than ideal for a smooth experience. The data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck at high resolutions.

The measured FPS data is comprehensive, with 4K Medium providing min/max values of 50 and 68, and 1440p Medium showing 64 to 87. These ranges indicate the GPU's variability under load. The absence of min/max for other presets suggests only the Medium preset was tested with full metrics.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU as the limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 143 at 1080p to 121 at 1440p, a 15% decrease. From 1440p to 4K, it drops from 121 to 95, a 21% decrease. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is from 143 to 95, a 34% reduction. This is a moderate scaling, indicating the GPU is heavily utilized but still able to leverage its bandwidth.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar but more pronounced. 1080p Medium runs at 90 FPS, 1440p Medium at 75 FPS (a 17% drop), and 4K Medium at 59 FPS (a 21% drop from 1440p). The overall 1080p-to-4K drop is from 90 to 59, a 34% reduction. This shows the RTX 3080's performance is limited by pixel throughput.

At High settings, 1080p yields 64 FPS, 1440p 54 FPS (a 16% drop), and 4K 42 FPS (a 22% drop). The 1080p-to-4K drop is 34%, similar to other settings. At Ultra, 1080p has 51 FPS, 1440p 43 FPS (a 16% drop), and 4K 34 FPS (a 21% drop). The consistency of the scaling across settings suggests the GPU is the primary limiting component. The FPS reduction from 1080p to 4K is about 33-34% across all presets, indicating a linear scaling with pixel count.

This scaling pattern points to the GPU being the bottleneck. If the CPU were the limiter, the FPS would be more constant across resolutions, but the 34% drop from 1080p to 4K shows the GPU is the dominating factor. The CPU's high performance, with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz and 12 cores, has no trouble at 1080p, where the GPU is still the primary limit. The data suggests that the CPU's 3DMark benchmarks (e.g., 3DMark max threads 12536) do not translate into FPS gains at lower resolutions because the GPU's rendering workload is the constraint.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It has a TDP of 170 W and uses the AMD Socket AM5. The CPU has 64 MB of L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 per core. Its multi-threaded capabilities are reflected in its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29300, and its single-core score of 2016.5 shows strong per-thread performance.

The CPU's role in The Medium is secondary. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 143 FPS, which is high, but the GPU is still the bottleneck. The CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads are more than adequate for the game's game logic and rendering engine. The 3dmark_16_threads score of 10972 indicates strong multi-threading, but The Medium is not a multi-threaded game. The CPU's high single-thread performance (3dmark single thread 1093) ensures it can feed the GPU with frames, but it is not the limiting factor.

The CPU's percentile of 91% vs all CPUs means it is faster than 91% of all CPUs. However, in this game, the CPU's potential is not fully utilized. The 4K Medium FPS of 59 is a GPU-limited result, not CPU-limited. The CPU's high cache and fast clocks do not affect the frame rate in this game, as the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU's 5.60 GHz boost clock helps with the game's single-threaded tasks, but the GPU's rendering workload is the main factor. The benchmark results show the CPU is a top-tier processor, but in The Medium, it sits idle while the RTX 3080 works. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7313P, has a delta of 0.2%, showing the 7900X is in a performance cluster.

Settings Recommendations

The data provides clear recommendations for the best experience on this system.

For a high-refresh monitor at 1080p, the Low preset is the only way to achieve triple-digit FPS. At 143 FPS, it offers the smoothest experience. If a higher visual quality is desired, the Medium preset at 90 FPS is still above 60 FPS and provides a better experience, with a minimum of 76 FPS. The High preset at 64 FPS is playable, but the Ultra preset at 51 FPS is not recommended for 60 FPS gaming.

At 1440p, the Low preset reaches 121 FPS, suitable for high-refresh 1440p displays. The Medium preset at 75 FPS is a solid choice for a balance, with a minimum of 64 FPS. The High preset at 54 FPS is below 60 FPS, so it may cause noticeable stutters in a horror game. The Ultra preset at 43 FPS is not ideal.

At 4K, the Low preset is the only one that maintains an average above 60 FPS, at 95 FPS. However, playing at Low settings on a 4K screen may not be visually ideal. The Medium preset at 59 FPS is just below the 60 FPS target, but the min FPS of 50 could cause occasional dips. The High and Ultra presets are too demanding, with 42 and 34 FPS respectively.

The best overall experience appears to be the Medium preset at 1440p, offering 75 FPS with a minimum of 64 FPS. This provides a smooth experience with good visual quality. For 4K users, the Medium preset is the highest playable option, but the Low preset is the only one with a comfortable frame rate. The data suggests the system is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p, but struggles to maintain 60 FPS at 4K with higher settings. The Medium preset is the recommended compromise across all resolutions, as it is the only preset with a full FPS range (min and max) and delivers playable frame rates. At 4K, Medium yields 59 FPS, which is acceptable for a 60 Hz display, but for a smooth experience, Low is the safest choice. The High and Ultra presets are not recommended for this combo, as they fall below the 60 FPS target at 1440p and 4K.