The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine 4, exhibits a pronounced sensitivity to graphics settings and resolution when paired with the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER. The measured frame rates reveal a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher presets, while the processor's substantial headroom becomes apparent only at lower settings and resolutions. The data indicates a configuration capable of smooth gameplay at 4K, but one where the choice of preset is far more consequential than the choice of resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K demonstrates a classic GPU-limited scenario, particularly at the higher graphical presets. At the Ultra preset, the average frame rate drops from 69.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 59.1 FPS at 2560x1440, a modest reduction, before settling at 47.7 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a total decrease of approximately 31% from 1080p to 4K. The High preset follows a similar trajectory, starting at 88.1 FPS at 1080p, falling to 75.2 FPS at 1440p, and reaching 55.9 FPS at 4K.

The scaling pattern shifts dramatically when moving to the Medium and Low presets. At Medium settings, the game runs at 120.6 FPS at 1080p, which only drops to 102.3 FPS at 1440p and 76 FPS at 4K. The Low preset is even more revealing: 176.4 FPS at 1080p falls to 158.1 FPS at 1440p and 128.1 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is only about 27% for Low settings, compared to roughly 31% for Ultra. This smaller relative decline at lower presets indicates that the CPU is beginning to play a more significant role, as the GPU is no longer the sole bottleneck.

The data strongly suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER is the limiting component at High and Ultra presets across all tested resolutions. The substantial performance gap between Low and Ultra at any given resolution—for instance, 128.1 FPS versus 47.7 FPS at 4K—highlights the immense load that the highest preset places on the graphics card. The game's rendering techniques, likely including volumetric effects and complex lighting, appear to scale heavily with pixel count, making 4K Ultra a demanding target even for this high-end GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows offer a clear hierarchy of performance, and the optimal preset depends heavily on the target display resolution. For 4K displays, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 47.7 FPS, which is playable but below the 60 FPS threshold many consider ideal for a smooth experience. Dropping to High at 4K yields 55.9 FPS, a significant improvement that brings the experience much closer to that target. The Medium preset at 4K provides 76 FPS, ensuring a fluid frame rate with a noticeable visual compromise from the higher presets.

At 1440p, the High preset's 75.2 FPS average is a strong choice, offering a balance between visual fidelity and smoothness. The Ultra preset at 1440p achieves 59.1 FPS, which is borderline for 60 Hz displays. For 1080p users, the Ultra preset's 69.5 FPS is perfectly playable, while High at 88.1 FPS provides ample headroom for demanding scenes. The data shows that the Medium preset is a viable fallback for any resolution, with 120.6 FPS at 1080p and 76 FPS at 4K, ensuring a consistent experience.

The "best experience" per the measured rows is a trade-off between the High and Medium presets. For a 4K display, High settings are the recommended starting point, as they provide 55.9 FPS, a substantial upgrade from Ultra without a massive visual penalty. If a locked 60 FPS is mandatory, the Medium preset at 4K is the only option that consistently exceeds that mark. At 1440p, High settings provide the best balance, while 1080p users have the luxury of choosing Ultra without significant performance concerns. The Low preset, while offering high frame rates, is likely too visually compromised for this horror title, where atmosphere is paramount.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, is a formidable processor, and its benchmark scores indicate it is far from the limiting factor in this configuration. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 43695 and single-core score of 6168 demonstrate exceptional throughput. Its 3DMark max-threads score of 12536 further cements its position as a high-end part, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs tested. The processor's boost clock of 5.60 GHz and base clock of 4.70 GHz provide the high-frequency performance that many games favor.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's role is most evident when examining the frame rates at Low settings across resolutions. The relatively small performance delta between 1080p (176.4 FPS) and 1440p (158.1 FPS) suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with enough data to maintain high frame rates, even as resolution increases. The fact that the 4K Low result (128.1 FPS) is still significantly higher than the 4K Ultra result (47.7 FPS) confirms that the GPU is the primary constraint at higher presets.

The processor's headroom is also visible in the scaling from Low to Medium settings. At 1080p, the drop from 176.4 FPS to 120.6 FPS is substantial, indicating that the increased graphical load is now shifting the bottleneck back to the GPU. The Ryzen 9 7900X is unlikely to be the cause of any frame rate dips in this game; its 12-core, 24-thread configuration provides ample processing power for the game's logic and rendering threads, ensuring that the RTX 4080 SUPER is kept busy.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER holds the 67th position out of 1689 tested combos for this specific game. This places it in the top 4% of all configurations, a strong showing that underscores its high-end pedigree. The data suggests that this pairing is exceptionally well-suited for The Medium, with the CPU's performance not hindering the GPU's output in any meaningful way.

The GPU itself ranks in the 88th percentile of all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 53610. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, which has an average score of 53489 (a delta of 0.2%), and the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M with a score of 53414 (a delta of 0.4%). The RTX 4080 SUPER is also 2.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7700S and 2.9% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti. This indicates that the GPU is performing as expected, with no anomalous deficits.

The CPU's ranking is equally strong, sitting in the 93rd percentile of all processors. Its average benchmark score of 50556 is nearly identical to that of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235, which scores 50598 with a delta of -0.1%. It is also very close to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT, which scores 50738 with a delta of -0.4%. This consistency between the CPU and GPU rankings suggests a balanced system, where neither component is a weak link. The combo's rank of 67 out of 1689 confirms the overall capability of this pairing, indicating that it can handle the game's demands with authority.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the star of this configuration, and its influence on The Medium's performance is dominant. The GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s, which is more than sufficient for the game's textures and assets at 4K resolution. The card's boost clock of 2550 MHz and its 10240 shading units deliver immense compute power, reflected in its Passmark G3D score of 34245.

The frame rate data clearly shows the GPU's workload scaling with both resolution and settings. The transition from Low to Medium at 1080p results in a drop of over 55 FPS, from 176.4 to 120.6. This is a direct consequence of the increased pixel shading and texture filtering load on the GPU. At 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra is even more stark, with a 80.4 FPS gap between the 128.1 FPS Low result and the 47.7 FPS Ultra result. This demonstrates that the Ultra preset's effects, likely including ray tracing or high-fidelity shadows, are extremely taxing on the GPU.

The GPU's 88th percentile ranking, with an average benchmark score of 53610, confirms that it is a top-tier part. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, is only 0.2% behind, indicating that the RTX 4080 SUPER is performing right at its expected level. The measured FPS in The Medium aligns with this benchmark data; the card is delivering strong numbers, but the game's Ultra preset is a genuine stress test. The data suggests that while the RTX 4080 SUPER is powerful, The Medium's most demanding settings require a compromise in resolution or preset to achieve high refresh rates, making the High preset at 1440p or the Medium preset at 4K the sensible choices for a consistently smooth experience.