The Medium

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for The Medium across the three tested resolutions tell a clear story about where this system's bottleneck sits. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the AMD Radeon RX 570 paired with the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X produces an average of 46.8 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same Low preset drops the average to 34.5 FPS, a reduction of roughly 26%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 at Low yields 31.7 FPS, which is only about 8% below the 1440p result.

The scaling pattern changes dramatically when settings increase. At High preset, the frame rate falls from 20.8 FPS at 1080p to 15.8 FPS at 1440p, then to 11.3 FPS at 4K. That represents a 46% drop from 1080p to 4K. At Ultra settings, the decline is even steeper in relative terms: 16.8 FPS at 1080p, 11.6 FPS at 1440p, and 7.8 FPS at 4K.

What these numbers indicate is that the GPU is the limiting component across all resolution and settings combinations. The Ryzen 9 9900X, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, is not constraining performance; the RX 570's 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth simply cannot keep pace with the increasing pixel counts. The relatively modest frame rate differences between 1440p and 4K at Low settings (2.8 FPS) compared to the larger gap between 1080p and 1440p (12.3 FPS) suggest that at Low preset, the game becomes less GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but the absolute performance remains poor.

The data shows that 1080p is the only resolution where any preset approaches playable frame rates. At 1440p and 4K, even Low settings fail to reach 35 FPS, meaning the system is fundamentally resolution-limited by the GPU rather than the CPU.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is built on the Polaris 20 chip with GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. Its base clock runs at 1168 MHz with a boost clock of 1244 MHz, while the memory operates at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective). The 4 GB GDDR5 frame buffer sits on a 256-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. With 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output units, the GPU delivers 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s.

In benchmark terms, this GPU holds a 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30158. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (deltaPct 0.2%), the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (deltaPct 0.2%), the NVIDIA Tesla M60 (deltaPct 0.6%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (deltaPct 0.8%). These deltas are remarkably small, indicating that the RX 570 performs essentially on par with those cards in synthetic benchmarks, despite being from an older generation.

For The Medium specifically, the GPU's 4 GB VRAM capacity is a critical constraint. The game's measured results show that even at 1080p Low, the system only achieves 46.8 FPS. The combination of a 256-bit memory bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth is insufficient for the game's demands at higher settings. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate collapses to 7.8 FPS, indicating that the GPU is overwhelmed by the combination of resolution and graphical fidelity. The data suggests that the RX 570's GCN architecture, while capable in synthetic workloads, lacks the modern feature set and memory capacity needed for this horror title at playable frame rates beyond the lowest settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X provides substantial computational headroom for this gaming workload. With 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge codename), the CPU operates at a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. The 64 MB of shared L3 cache, combined with 80 KB L1 and 1 MB L2 per core, ensures that game logic and asset streaming are not bottlenecked. The CPU supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, and features PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 9 9900X achieves a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54450. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D (deltaPct -0.4%), the Intel Core i7-14700F (deltaPct 0.7%), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K (deltaPct -1.5%), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (deltaPct -1.8%). These figures place the 9900X within 1.8% of its closest competitors, showing that CPU performance is not a differentiator in this system.

The measured FPS data confirms that CPU performance is not the limiting factor in The Medium. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 46.8 FPS, which is still below the 60 FPS threshold that would indicate a balanced system. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates plateau across resolution changes. Instead, the frame rates drop consistently as resolution increases, indicating that the GPU is the primary constraint. The Ryzen 9 9900X's high single-thread performance (6555 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 1286 in 3DMark single-thread) and strong multi-thread capabilities (46438 in Cinebench R23 multi-core) mean that the CPU can easily feed the GPU with draw calls and game state updates, but the GPU cannot render frames fast enough to utilize that headroom.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for playing The Medium with this hardware?

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 is the only resolution where any preset reaches above 40 FPS. At 1080p Low, the system averages 46.8 FPS, while 1440p and 4K at Low settings yield 34.5 FPS and 31.7 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 570's average benchmark score of 30158 places it within 0.8% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30109), AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097), NVIDIA Tesla M60 (29969), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (29928). The deltas range from 0.2% to 0.8%, indicating near-identical synthetic performance.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X a bottleneck for the RX 570 in this game?

A: No. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking and strong benchmark scores (46438 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 6555 in single-core) far exceed what the GPU can utilize. The frame rate scaling with resolution confirms the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 46.8 FPS, Medium produces 28.3 FPS, High produces 20.8 FPS, and Ultra produces 16.8 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is exactly 30.0 FPS.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, Low settings yield 31.7 FPS, Medium yields 20.2 FPS, High yields 11.3 FPS, and Ultra yields 7.8 FPS. None of these are playable for a smooth experience.

Q: What is the system's overall rank for The Medium?

A: The combination of AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 1623 out of 1689 tested combinations in this game, placing it near the bottom of the database.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy for playability. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 46.8 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset that approaches a playable frame rate. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 28.3 FPS, which may be acceptable for a slower-paced horror title but remains below typical smoothness thresholds. High and Ultra at 1080p (20.8 and 16.8 FPS respectively) are too demanding for this GPU.

At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 34.5 FPS, which is marginal at best. Medium drops to 24.8 FPS, High to 15.8 FPS, and Ultra to 11.6 FPS. None of these configurations provide a consistently smooth experience. At 3840x2160, even Low settings only reach 31.7 FPS, with Medium at 20.2 FPS, High at 11.3 FPS, and Ultra at 7.8 FPS.

The best experience per the measured rows is 1920x1080 with Low settings, yielding 46.8 FPS. This is the only configuration that breaks the 45 FPS barrier. For users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, 1080p Medium at 28.3 FPS is the next viable option, though it represents a 39.5% reduction in frame rate compared to Low. Given that the GPU ranks in the 74th percentile and sits near the bottom of the game's combo ranking (1623 of 1689), users should temper expectations and stick to the lowest settings at 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table summarizes all measured average frame rates for The Medium with the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and AMD Radeon RX 570:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 46.8 FPS
• Medium: 28.3 FPS
• High: 20.8 FPS
• Ultra: 16.8 FPS

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 34.5 FPS
• Medium: 24.8 FPS
• High: 15.8 FPS
• Ultra: 11.6 FPS

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 31.7 FPS
• Medium: 20.2 FPS
• High: 11.3 FPS
• Ultra: 7.8 FPS

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Low settings provide the highest frame rates, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra being the most demanding. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 18.5 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 7.5 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 4.0 FPS. At 1440p, those gaps are 9.7, 9.0, and 4.2 FPS respectively. At 4K, the gaps are 11.5, 8.9, and 3.5 FPS.

The resolution scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings reduces frame rate by 12.3 FPS, while 1440p to 4K reduces it by only 2.8 FPS. This nonlinear scaling suggests that at Low settings, the GPU becomes less pixel-bound at higher resolutions, possibly due to other bottlenecks such as memory bandwidth or driver overhead. At Ultra settings, the 1080p-to-1440p drop is 5.2 FPS, and 1440p-to-4K is 3.8 FPS, showing a more consistent scaling pattern under heavy load.

The data confirms that this system is only viable at 1080p with the lowest settings, and even then, the 46.8 FPS average falls short of a locked 60 FPS experience. The RX 570's 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are the primary constraints, while the Ryzen 9 9900X's computational power goes largely unused in this scenario.