The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 delivers a middle-of-the-pack experience in The Medium, placing 1307th out of 2911 tested combos. This position suggests a configuration that is capable of smooth gameplay at moderate settings, but one that will struggle to maintain high frame rates at maximum quality presets. The data indicates a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck, particularly at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides ample headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1307 out of 2911 places it in the 44.9th percentile of all tested configurations. This is a solidly mid-range result, indicating that the pairing is neither a high-end enthusiast setup nor a low-end budget compromise. The ranking reflects a balance where the components work together to produce playable, but not exceptional, performance in this specific horror title.

When compared to other pairings, this result is heavily influenced by the GPU's standing. The Radeon RX 7700 sits at the 58th percentile among all GPUs, which is a moderate score. The Ryzen 9 9900X, in contrast, is a top-tier processor, ranking in the 92nd percentile among all CPUs. The substantial gap between the CPU's high percentile and the GPU's more modest one suggests that the graphics card is the limiting factor in this combination, dragging the overall rank down from what the processor alone could achieve.

In terms of average benchmark scores, the CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 9015, which is 0.1% faster, and the AMD EPYC 7313, which is 0.2% slower. The Intel Core i9-14900 is 1.1% ahead, and the Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M is 1.4% ahead. For the GPU, the closest competitor is the AMD Radeon R9 370X, which is 0.1% slower. The AMD Radeon RX 9060 is 1% faster, the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 is 1.1% slower, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is 1.7% faster. These tight margins indicate that the combo's performance is closely grouped with several other mid-range options.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture and features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. This large frame buffer is a significant asset for The Medium, a game known for its detailed environments, as it allows for high-resolution textures to be loaded without excessive stuttering. The GPU's base clock is 1900 MHz, with a game clock of 2041 MHz and a boost clock of 2459 MHz, which are the frequencies that directly influence the frame rates seen in the measured data.

The benchmark results show a clear pattern where the GPU's performance scales with settings. At 1080p, the card achieves 115 FPS on Low, 72 FPS on Medium, and 51 FPS on High. The drop to 41 FPS on Ultra indicates that the card's compute resources (2560 shading units) are being heavily taxed by the highest quality presets. The GPU's 40 ray tracing cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support are present, but the performance data suggests that enabling the most demanding visual features will push the card to its limits.

The 16 GB VRAM capacity is particularly relevant for The Medium, which is known for its dual-world rendering mechanic that can be memory-intensive. The data shows that even at 4K with High settings, the card achieves 34 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 27 FPS. This suggests that while memory capacity is sufficient for the game's demands, the raw processing power of the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions and quality settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal balance between visual quality and performance is the Medium preset. At 1080p, this setting yields an average of 72 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. The frame time data for this setting shows a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 83 FPS, indicating a stable experience without major dips.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers an average of 61 FPS, which remains playable, though it sits right at the threshold for high-refresh-rate monitors. The minimum of 51 FPS suggests there may be occasional stutters in demanding scenes, but overall, this is the most balanced setting for this resolution. At 4K, the Medium preset drops to 48 FPS, which is playable for a slower-paced horror game but not ideal for those seeking a fluid experience.

The High preset is not recommended for most users, as it results in a significant performance hit. At 1080p, High yields 51 FPS, a 29% reduction from Medium. At 1440p, it drops to 43 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 34 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, producing only 41 FPS at 1080p, 34 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K. For a smooth experience, the Low preset is the only option that guarantees high frame rates across all resolutions, but it sacrifices visual fidelity. The Medium preset is the clear sweet spot, offering a playable frame rate at all resolutions while maintaining a reasonable level of graphical detail.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across three resolutions and four quality settings.

At 1920x1080, the performance scales predictably with settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 115 FPS, making it the only setting that fully utilizes high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset provides 72 FPS, with a measured range of 61 to 83 FPS, showing a stable performance envelope. High settings produce 51 FPS, which is a notable drop from Medium. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding just 41 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth play.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates decrease across all settings. Low settings deliver 97 FPS, which is still excellent for competitive play. Medium settings provide 61 FPS, with a range of 51 to 70 FPS, making it the only preset that maintains a playable average at this resolution. High settings drop to 43 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 34 FPS, both of which are below the ideal threshold for a fluid experience. The data shows a 31% reduction in performance from Low to Medium, and a further 44% reduction from Medium to Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings achieve 76 FPS, which is surprisingly playable given the resolution. Medium settings drop to 48 FPS, with a range of 40 to 55 FPS, indicating some frame pacing issues. High settings produce 34 FPS, and Ultra settings yield just 27 FPS. The data clearly shows that 4K gaming is only viable on this hardware at Low or Medium settings, and even then, the experience is not as smooth as at lower resolutions.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium with this combo?*

A: The data shows that 1080p is the most consistent experience, with all settings except Ultra achieving at least 51 FPS. At 1440p, Medium is the only preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS. 4K is only playable on Low or Medium settings, with averages of 76 and 48 FPS respectively.

Q: Is the Ultra preset viable at any resolution?

A: No. The Ultra preset yields an average of 41 FPS at 1080p, 34 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K. These frame rates are below the 60 FPS target and are likely to result in a stuttery, less responsive experience.

Q: How much of a performance drop is there between Medium and High settings?

A: The drop is significant. At 1080p, the average FPS falls from 72 on Medium to 51 on High, a 29% reduction. At 1440p, the drop is from 61 to 43, a 30% reduction. At 4K, the drop is from 48 to 34, a 29% reduction.

Q: Does the 16 GB VRAM of the RX 7700 help with this game?

A: The 16 GB frame buffer is sufficient for the game's memory demands, as the GPU does not run out of memory at any measured setting or resolution. However, the GPU's processing power, not its memory capacity, is the limiting factor, as seen in the substantial FPS drops when increasing quality settings.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to the GPU's in this combo?

A: The CPU is far more capable than the GPU. The Ryzen 9 9900X ranks in the 92nd percentile of all CPUs, while the RX 7700 ranks in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. This means the GPU is the bottleneck, and the CPU is likely not limiting performance in The Medium.

Q: What is the frame time variance like at 1440p Medium?

A: The measured data for 1440p Medium shows a minimum FPS of 51 and a maximum of 70, with an average of 61. This indicates a variance of 19 FPS, which suggests some fluctuation in frame times, but the average remains playable.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It features 64 MB of L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores exceptionally well, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,172 and a single-core score of 2,253. Its Passmark multi-thread score is 54,643, and its Geekbench multi-core score is 22,174.

Given the GPU's performance profile, the CPU's role in The Medium is to provide a stable foundation without becoming a bottleneck. The game is not heavily multi-threaded, and the 9900X's strong single-core performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1,286, ensures that it can handle the game's primary game logic and rendering threads with ease. The CPU's 92nd percentile ranking confirms that it is a top-tier processor, and the measured FPS data shows that its power is not being fully utilized.

The benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combination. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU is least stressed, the CPU is able to feed the GPU enough data to achieve 115 FPS. The fact that the frame rates drop significantly as resolution and settings increase points to the GPU's shader and pixel processing capabilities being the primary constraint. The CPU's high memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s and PCIe Gen 5 support are future-proofing features, but for The Medium, the processor is simply providing a solid, unremarkable baseline that allows the GPU to be the star of the show.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear pattern of how performance scales with resolution. At Low settings, the frame rates are 115, 97, and 76 for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. This represents a 15.7% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 21.6% drop from 1440p to 4K. At Medium settings, the frame rates are 72, 61, and 48 for the three resolutions, showing a 15.3% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 21.3% drop from 1440p to 4K.

This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. The frame rate drops are relatively consistent across the different quality settings, suggesting that the GPU's pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors. The Radeon RX 7700 has a pixel rate of 236.1 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 393.4 GTexel/s, and these resources are being consumed proportionally more as resolution increases.

The fact that the CPU is not the bottleneck is reinforced by this analysis. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see a less pronounced drop in frame rates as resolution increases, because the CPU's workload remains relatively constant regardless of resolution. Instead, the data shows a consistent and significant performance degradation with higher resolutions, which is the hallmark of a GPU-limited system. The jump from 1080p to 4K results in a 33.9% reduction in average FPS at Low settings, a 33.3% reduction at Medium, and a 33.3% reduction at High. This uniform scaling confirms that the RX 7700's processing power is the primary constraint, and that the Ryzen 9 9900X has ample headroom to handle the game's logic at any resolution.