The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding fixed-camera horror experience, and the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 reveals a configuration that is heavily influenced by the graphics card's raw power. The benchmark results show a clear hierarchy across the four tested presets, with performance scaling predictably from the Low setting to the Ultra setting. The data indicates that the High preset offers a compelling balance, delivering a 61 frames per second average at 4K resolution, which is a playable threshold for this genre. While the Ultra preset at 4K drops to 50.5 frames per second, the High preset at 2560x1440 provides a more comfortable 79.9 frames per second, suggesting that players targeting higher refresh rates should consider this resolution and settings combination.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data indicates that the High preset is the optimal choice for this hardware combination across all tested resolutions. At 3840x2160, the High preset achieves 61 frames per second, which is a significant improvement over the Ultra preset's 50.5 frames per second, while maintaining a visual quality that is closer to the maximum. The jump from High to Ultra costs a substantial 10.5 frames per second at 4K, a 17% performance penalty that may not justify the marginal visual gains. For players with 1440p displays, the High preset delivers 79.9 frames per second, which is well-suited for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset at 1440p offers 110.2 frames per second, but the step down in visual fidelity is noticeable. The Low preset is not recommended for this configuration, as the frame rates exceed 138 frames per second at 4K, indicating that the GPU is not being fully utilized and the visual compromises are too severe. The data strongly suggests that High is the sweet spot, providing a stable experience without the heavy cost of Ultra.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing, and the benchmark results clearly demonstrate its capabilities. The GPU features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This substantial memory allocation is more than sufficient for The Medium's requirements, even at 4K resolution with high-quality textures. The card's boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with its 16384 shading units, allows it to handle the game's complex lighting and shadow effects. The measured FPS data shows that the RTX 4090 is the primary driver of performance, as the frame rates scale almost entirely with the graphics settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the card produces 177.9 frames per second, but this is a scenario where the CPU may start to become a limiting factor. The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is reflected in the high frame rates at 1440p and 4K, where it maintains playable performance even at the most demanding presets. The 450 W TDP and triple-slot cooler indicate that this is a high-power component, but the benchmark data shows that the thermal and power headroom is used effectively to deliver top-tier results.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all tested hardware combinations for The Medium, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and the RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 25 out of 1689 combos. This places the configuration in the top 1.5% of all tested systems, which is an exceptional result. The high ranking is primarily attributable to the RTX 4090's dominance in this title, as the game appears to be heavily GPU-bound. The CPU's contribution is less significant, but the Ryzen 9 7900X's high single-thread performance ensures that it does not bottleneck the GPU at lower resolutions. The rank of 25 indicates that there are only 24 other tested configurations that can outperform this setup, which are likely to feature even more exotic or overclocked components. The data shows that this is a top-tier gaming system for The Medium, capable of delivering high frame rates at the highest resolutions without compromise.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields 177.9 frames per second, which is the highest frame rate recorded in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p achieves 132.6 frames per second, while High produces 94.7 frames per second. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 75.1 frames per second, which is still a very playable frame rate. Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 169.2 frames per second, demonstrating that the GPU is still capable of very high performance at this resolution. The Medium preset at 1440p achieves 110.2 frames per second, and High produces 79.9 frames per second. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 64.9 frames per second, which is the lowest frame rate at this resolution. At 3840x2160, the Low preset yields 138.4 frames per second, which is a remarkable figure for 4K gaming. The Medium preset at 4K achieves 87.1 frames per second, and High produces 61 frames per second. The Ultra preset at 4K is the most demanding scenario, with an average of 50.5 frames per second. This breakdown shows a consistent pattern of performance scaling, with each step up in settings costing approximately 20-30% of the frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K provides insight into the limiting component of this system. At Low settings, the performance scales from 177.9 frames per second at 1080p to 138.4 frames per second at 4K, a reduction of 22.2%. This relatively modest drop indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is playing a more significant role, as the GPU has enough headroom to maintain high frame rates even at 4K. However, at Ultra settings, the frame rate drops from 75.1 frames per second at 1080p to 50.5 frames per second at 4K, a reduction of 32.7%. This steeper decline shows that at higher settings, the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, as the increased resolution places a greater load on the graphics card. The data reveals that at 1080p with Low settings, the system is likely CPU-limited, as the frame rate does not increase proportionally when moving to lower resolutions. At 4K with Ultra settings, the system is clearly GPU-limited, with the RTX 4090 working at its maximum capacity. The scaling pattern suggests that the Ryzen 9 7900X is sufficient to feed the RTX 4090 at 1440p and 4K, but at 1080p, the CPU may be holding back the GPU in less demanding scenarios.

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. In The Medium, the CPU's role is less prominent than the GPU's, but it is still important for maintaining consistent frame rates. The processor's high single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6168, ensures that it can handle the game's logic and physics calculations without becoming a bottleneck. The data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the frame rate of 177.9 frames per second is likely near the CPU's limit, as the GPU is more than capable of producing higher frame rates. The CPU's 64 MB of L3 cache helps with data locality, which is beneficial for games with complex scene graphs. The benchmark results indicate that the Ryzen 9 7900X does not limit the RTX 4090 at 1440p or 4K, as the frame rates scale consistently with the graphics settings. The processor's 5 nm process node and 170 W TDP allow it to maintain high boost clocks during gaming, which contributes to its strong performance in this title. The data confirms that this CPU is well-matched to the RTX 4090 for The Medium, providing enough headroom for the GPU to operate at its full potential.