The Medium

Settings Recommendations

The Medium presents a demanding workload for this combination of AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and AMD Radeon RX 9070, and the measured data shows a clear progression across its four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 140.6 FPS, which is more than enough for smooth gameplay on high-refresh displays. However, the Medium preset at 87.3 FPS provides a substantially better visual experience while retaining headroom above the 60 FPS threshold. The High preset drops to 63.4 FPS at 1080p, which remains playable but leaves little margin for demanding scenes. Ultra at 49.1 FPS falls below the 60 FPS target and should be avoided at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the situation becomes more constrained. Medium produces 71.9 FPS, which is the only preset at this resolution that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. High manages 52.5 FPS, while Ultra falls to 43.1 FPS, both of which require frame rate compromises. At 3840x2160, the data shows a stark reality: Medium yields 59.1 FPS, just shy of the 60 FPS mark, while High drops to 44.5 FPS and Ultra plummets to 31.7 FPS. Low at 4K produces 90.8 FPS, but the visual quality sacrifice is substantial.

The optimal experience across the board is the Medium preset. At 1080p it delivers 87.3 FPS with considerable margin, at 1440p it maintains 71.9 FPS, and at 4K it nearly reaches 60 FPS at 59.1 FPS. This preset balances the GPU's capabilities with acceptable visual fidelity. For players prioritizing frame rate over visuals, Low at 1440p offers 119.3 FPS, and at 1080p it reaches 140.6 FPS, but the Medium preset provides the best compromise between image quality and performance across all three resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 brings 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's base clock is 1330 MHz with a boost clock of 2520 MHz and a game clock of 2070 MHz. This memory configuration is significant for The Medium, a horror title that uses dual-reality rendering where two perspectives are rendered simultaneously. The 16 GB frame buffer provides ample capacity for the game's high-resolution textures and the overhead of rendering two worlds at once.

The GPU's compute capabilities include 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units. The FP32 throughput of 36.13 TFLOPS and texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s indicate a card capable of handling modern rendering workloads. The 56 ray tracing cores support the game's lighting effects, though the measured frame rates suggest The Medium's ray-traced elements impose a significant cost.

The RX 9070's performance percentile of 79 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34780, places it as a solid mid-to-high-range contender. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks show very tight margins: the NVIDIA A2 scores 34866 (0.2% higher), the NVIDIA Quadro GV100 scores 34677 (0.3% lower), and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 scores 34541 (0.7% lower). These narrow deltas in aggregate benchmarks do not translate to similar closeness in gaming performance, where the RX 9070's modern architecture and driver support provide advantages that synthetic tests may not capture.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals how the GPU becomes the dominant limiting factor as resolution increases. At Medium settings, the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 reduces performance from 87.3 FPS to 71.9 FPS, a drop of 15.4 FPS. Stepping up to 3840x2160 further reduces it to 59.1 FPS, another 12.8 FPS loss. This scaling pattern indicates the RX 9070 is increasingly constrained by pixel throughput at higher resolutions, with the 4K results showing the GPU approaching its limits.

The High preset demonstrates even steeper scaling: 63.4 FPS at 1080p, 52.5 FPS at 1440p, and 44.5 FPS at 4K. The percentage reduction from 1080p to 4K is substantial, with the 4K result being 30% lower than the 1080p figure. Ultra settings amplify this effect, producing 49.1 FPS at 1080p, 43.1 FPS at 1440p, and 31.7 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset's 4K result is 35% lower than its 1080p counterpart, confirming that the combination of high settings and high resolution pushes the GPU well beyond its comfortable operating range.

The Low preset shows the least resolution sensitivity: 140.6 FPS at 1080p, 119.3 FPS at 1440p, and 90.8 FPS at 4K. Even at 4K Low, the GPU maintains nearly 91 FPS, indicating that when rendering load is reduced, the RX 9070 has substantial headroom. This pattern suggests that the CPU, with its 12 cores and 24 threads on the Zen 5 architecture, is not the primary bottleneck; the frame rate deltas are driven by GPU fill rate and memory bandwidth demands as resolution climbs.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results span a wide range. Low produces 140.6 FPS, Medium delivers 87.3 FPS, High achieves 63.4 FPS, and Ultra drops to 49.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 53.3 FPS, indicating that the Medium preset's additional visual features cost significantly in performance. The step from Medium to High costs 23.9 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 14.3 FPS. These diminishing returns suggest that the Medium preset offers the best performance-per-visual-cost at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, Low remains playable at 119.3 FPS, while Medium produces 71.9 FPS. High falls to 52.5 FPS, and Ultra manages only 43.1 FPS. The 1440p results show a 47.4 FPS difference between Low and Medium, and a 28.8 FPS gap between Medium and Ultra. The High preset at 52.5 FPS sits below the 60 FPS threshold, making it a marginal choice for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the data reveals the most constrained scenario. Low yields 90.8 FPS, which remains smooth, but Medium drops to 59.1 FPS, just under the 60 FPS target. High produces 44.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 31.7 FPS. The 4K results show a 31.7 FPS difference between Low and Medium, and a 27.4 FPS gap between Medium and Ultra. The Ultra preset at 31.7 FPS is essentially unplayable for a horror title requiring responsive controls, while High at 44.5 FPS offers a playable but compromised experience.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 535 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the 68th percentile of all configurations evaluated. This rank reflects the measured performance across all resolutions and settings, positioning this combo in the upper third of tested systems.

The CPU component of this combo performs well in isolation. The Ryzen 9 9900X holds the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54450. Its nearest rivals show minimal differences: the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D scores 54681 (0.4% higher), the Intel Core i7-14700F scores 54097 (0.7% lower), the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K scores 55304 (1.5% higher), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF scores 55421 (1.8% higher). These sub-2% deltas indicate the CPU is not a differentiator in this game; the 9900X provides ample processing headroom.

The GPU, while ranking in the 79th percentile among all GPUs, has synthetic benchmark rivals that are unexpected: the NVIDIA A2, Quadro GV100, and even the AMD Radeon HD 7970 show nearly identical average scores. However, these aggregate benchmarks are not representative of gaming performance, and the RX 9070's measured results in The Medium demonstrate its real-world capability. The combo's rank of 535 suggests that while the GPU is competent, it is not among the top performers for this specific title, likely due to the game's demanding rendering requirements at higher settings and resolutions. The data indicates that this system is best suited for Medium settings, where it delivers playable frame rates across all tested resolutions.