The Medium

# The Medium with AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 produces a distinctly GPU-bound experience in The Medium, with frame rates scaling almost linearly with resolution and settings changes. The measured data shows that this combination ranks 1525th out of 2911 tested combos in this title, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. The RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game's demands, but the GPU's compute resources become the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the dramatic FPS drops when moving from 1440p to 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior in The Medium reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 108 FPS average, but dropping to 1440p Low reduces that to 91 FPS, a 15.7% decrease. Moving further to 4K Low brings the average down to 72 FPS, another 20.9% reduction from the 1440p figure. This consistent degradation pattern across resolution steps indicates that the rendering pipeline is heavily dependent on the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth rather than CPU capabilities.

At Medium settings, the scaling is even more pronounced. The 1080p Medium average of 68 FPS falls to 57 FPS at 1440p (16.2% drop) and then to 45 FPS at 4K (21.1% drop from 1440p). The High preset shows similar behavior: 49 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset follows the same trend with 39 FPS at 1080p, 32 FPS at 1440p, and 25 FPS at 4K. The near-uniform percentage drops across all settings presets when scaling resolution suggest that the bottleneck is consistently the GPU's rasterization and shading throughput.

The minimum FPS data available for Medium settings reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 58 FPS against a 68 FPS average; at 1440p Medium, the minimum drops to 49 FPS against a 57 FPS average; and at 4K Medium, the minimum falls to 38 FPS against a 45 FPS average. The gap between minimum and average FPS remains proportionally similar across resolutions, indicating stable frame pacing without CPU-related hitches. Since the Ryzen 9 8945HX has 16 cores and 32 threads with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, the CPU is unlikely to introduce frame-time spikes at any resolution tested.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Medium?

A: The data shows that 1440p Low delivers 91 FPS average, which is the highest frame rate above 60 FPS at a resolution above 1080p. For higher visual fidelity, 1440p Medium achieves 57 FPS average, which remains playable.

Q: How does the RTX 4070's VRAM capacity affect performance?

A: The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory with a 192-bit bus and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth. The fact that performance scales consistently with resolution and settings suggests the VRAM capacity is adequate for The Medium at all tested configurations, as frame rates degrade predictably rather than collapsing due to memory overflow.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary bottleneck. Frame rates drop by roughly 15-21% each time resolution increases from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, regardless of settings preset. The Ryzen 9 8945HX's strong multi-threaded performance (Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713) is not being fully utilized in this title.

Q: What settings preset offers the best balance of performance and quality?

A: At 1080p, Medium settings provide 68 FPS average with a minimum of 58 FPS, which is the highest preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS. At 1440p, Low settings at 91 FPS is the only preset that stays above 60 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems for The Medium?

A: The combination ranks 1525th out of 2911 tested combos, placing it in the 47.6th percentile. This means roughly 52% of tested systems perform better in this specific game.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p, Low yields 108 FPS while Ultra yields 39 FPS, a 176.9% performance advantage for Low. At 1440p the gap is 91 FPS versus 32 FPS (184.4% difference), and at 4K it's 72 FPS versus 25 FPS (188% difference).

Settings Recommendations

For a target of 60 FPS or higher, the data shows that 1080p Medium is the most visually demanding configuration that achieves this goal, with an average of 68 FPS and a minimum of 58 FPS. The High preset at 1080p drops to 49 FPS average, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p, only Low settings reach the 60 FPS mark with 91 FPS average, while Medium drops to 57 FPS average.

For players prioritizing visual quality over raw frame rate, 1440p Medium at 57 FPS average and 49 FPS minimum provides a reasonable compromise between image clarity and smoothness. The 4K resolution is only viable at Low settings, where the 72 FPS average provides a playable experience, but Medium at 4K drops to 45 FPS average and 38 FPS minimum, which may feel less responsive.

The Ultra preset appears to be reserved for systems with significantly more GPU headroom. At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 39 FPS average; at 1440p Ultra, 32 FPS; and at 4K Ultra, 25 FPS. These numbers suggest that Ultra settings should only be used with upscaling technologies or on lower-resolution displays where the frame rate penalty is less severe. The Medium preset offers the best balance between visual fidelity and playability, particularly at 1080p where it maintains a minimum of 58 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

With a rank of 1525 out of 2911 tested combos, this system places in the lower-middle tier of the database for The Medium. This positioning is somewhat surprising given the components' individual benchmark standings: the Ryzen 9 8945HX sits in the 95th percentile among all CPUs, and the RTX 4070 is in the 81st percentile among all GPUs. The discrepancy between component-level rankings and in-game ranking suggests that The Medium's engine does not scale well with this particular hardware configuration.

The GPU's nearest rivals by average benchmark score provide context for its performance ceiling. The RTX 4070 scores 37648 on average, only 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (37628) and 0.4% higher than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37507). The RTX 4080 Mobile scores 1.3% higher at 38135, which is a modest gap that would translate to only a few FPS in real-world gaming. This narrow performance band around the RTX 4070's score suggests that the GPU is performing as expected in The Medium, and the low combo rank is more attributable to the game's specific demands rather than any hardware deficiency.

The CPU's nearest rivals show a similarly tight grouping. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX scores 76155, just 0.1% below the Ryzen 9 8945HX's 76212 average. The AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P and Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX both score within 0.4% of the Ryzen 9 8945HX. This indicates that the CPU is not a differentiating factor in this game, as several comparable processors would likely produce identical frame rates given the GPU-bound nature of the workload.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 serves as the primary performance determinant in The Medium. The GPU's 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output processors handle the game's fixed-function rendering workload. The 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for any ray-traced or DLSS features, though the measured results do not specify whether these features were enabled. The GPU's base clock of 1920 MHz and boost clock of 2475 MHz are typical for the Ada Lovelace architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process with 35,800 million transistors.

The memory subsystem plays a critical role in resolution scaling. The 12 GB GDDR6X configuration with a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which appears sufficient for the textures and buffers used in The Medium. The fact that 4K Medium produces 45 FPS average with a minimum of 38 FPS suggests the GPU is compute-limited rather than bandwidth-limited, as the performance penalty from 1440p to 4K is consistent with pixel count increases rather than memory capacity exhaustion.

The GPU's 200 W TDP and dual-slot form factor with a single 16-pin power connector indicate this is a desktop-class implementation. The PCIe 4.0 x16 interface provides ample bandwidth for the GPU to communicate with the Ryzen 9 8945HX, which supports PCIe Gen 5 with 28 lanes. The GPU's end-of-life production status and launch MSRP of 599 USD position it as a mid-range component from the GeForce 40-series, with the GeForce 30 as its predecessor and GeForce 50 as its successor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces the following average frame rates: Low settings achieve 108 FPS, Medium settings achieve 68 FPS with a minimum of 58 FPS and maximum of 78 FPS, High settings achieve 49 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 39 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra represents a 176.9% performance difference, indicating that settings have a substantial impact on GPU load.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down predictably: Low settings produce 91 FPS, Medium settings produce 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS and maximum of 66 FPS, High settings produce 41 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 32 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 15-21% of performance depending on the preset, with the largest absolute drop occurring at Low settings (17 FPS difference) and the smallest at Ultra (7 FPS difference).

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes marginal for smooth gameplay: Low settings yield 72 FPS, Medium settings yield 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 FPS and maximum of 52 FPS, High settings yield 32 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 25 FPS. The 4K Medium configuration exceeds the 4K High and Ultra presets by 40.6% and 80% respectively, making it the highest preset that maintains an average above 40 FPS. The minimum FPS of 38 at 4K Medium is close to the 32 FPS average of 4K High, suggesting that frame pacing remains consistent even at lower frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX contributes to the system's overall capability but is not the limiting factor in The Medium. With 16 cores and 32 threads based on Zen 4 architecture in the Dragon Range codename, this mobile processor provides substantial multi-threaded throughput. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713 and single-core score of 6030 place it in the 95th percentile among all CPUs, indicating that its processing power is well above the requirements for this game.

The CPU's clock behavior supports consistent frame delivery. The base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz provide a wide frequency range that can adapt to varying workloads. The 64 MB of L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core help maintain high instruction throughput, while the dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU can feed data to the GPU without becoming a bottleneck.

The processor's benchmark scores relative to its nearest rivals confirm its competitive position. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX scores within 0.1% of the Ryzen 9 8945HX, and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores 0.6% higher. These marginal differences in synthetic benchmarks are unlikely to produce measurable FPS differences in The Medium, given the GPU-bound nature of the workload. The CPU's 55 W TDP and 5 nm TSMC process node with 13,140 million transistors indicate an efficient design that can sustain high clocks without excessive power draw.