The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 pairing presents a stark generational contrast in The Medium. The processor is a modern 12-core, 24-thread Zen 5 part, while the graphics card is a Pascal-era model. The benchmark data reveals a system where the GPU is consistently the primary constraint, yet the CPU’s headroom defines the upper limits of what is achievable.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a formidable foundation, built on the 4 nm process with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its 12 cores and 24 threads, paired with a 64 MB shared L3 cache, provide immense parallel processing capability. In the context of The Medium, a game that relies on fixed camera angles and pre-rendered transitions, the CPU is not the bottleneck; its benchmark percentile of 94 vs all CPUs confirms its elite status. The data shows that even at 1080p, the lowest resolution tested, the frame rate is never CPU-limited, as the GPU is far more likely to saturate.

This CPU’s strength is most evident when looking at its synthetic scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 46438 and a Geekbench single-core score of 3341. These numbers suggest that frame pacing and draw call submission are handled with ease. The processor’s nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and Intel Core i7-14700F, show negligible differences in average score (54681 and 54097, respectively), with deltaPct values of -0.4% and 0.7%. This indicates that swapping the CPU would have virtually no impact on The Medium's performance, as the game is not sensitive to the small variations in CPU compute power represented here. The real story is that the CPU is waiting, ready, but unneeded to its full potential.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, with its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus, is the decisive factor in this pairing. Its base clock of 1506 MHz and boost clock of 1683 MHz are fixed, and its 1920 shading units are tasked with rendering the game’s dense, volumetric environments. The GPU’s percentile rank of 51 vs all GPUs places it squarely in the mid-range, and the measured results in The Medium reflect this. The most telling data point is the dramatic FPS drop when moving from Low to Ultra settings, which points directly to the GPU’s shading and memory bandwidth limits.

The 8 GB VRAM buffer is a critical element. While the game does not appear to exceed it at the tested settings (as no min-FPS data is available to suggest swapping), the bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s is likely a limiting factor at higher resolutions. The GPU’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER, has a deltaPct of -1.4% in average score, showing that the GTX 1070 is not an outlier; it is simply a mid-tier card that must compromise on settings to achieve playable frame rates. The data indicates that the GTX 1070 is the ceiling for this system’s performance in The Medium.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy of settings. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves an average of 76 FPS, which is the only setting that hits a high refresh rate target. The Medium preset drops to 47.7 FPS, which is playable but not smooth, while High and Ultra fall to 34.8 and 29.4 FPS, respectively. The data suggests that for a fluid experience at 1080p, Low is the only viable option, as it is the only one that consistently stays above 60 FPS.

At 1440p, the situation worsens. The Low preset averages 60.5 FPS, which is just at the edge of playability. The Medium preset falls to 37.3 FPS, and High and Ultra are effectively unplayable at 28.4 and 21.6 FPS. For 4K, the Low preset is the only option that approaches a playable state, averaging 46.7 FPS, while Medium and High drop to 30.5 and 25 FPS, and Ultra is a slideshow at 17.3 FPS. The recommendation is clear: the Low preset is the only one that offers a consistently smooth experience across all resolutions, though 1440p Low is the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this hardware.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of the Ryzen 9 9900X and GTX 1070 ranks 1425 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the bottom 16% of all systems tested, which is a poor result for a CPU that sits in the top 6% of all processors. The ranking is almost entirely attributable to the GPU. The delta between the CPU’s high percentile (94) and the GPU’s mid-range percentile (51) is the defining characteristic of this pairing.

The rank of 1425 suggests that most other tested configurations feature either a more balanced GPU or a weaker CPU with a stronger GPU. The data implies that the CPU is not contributing to the gaming experience in a meaningful way, as the GPU is the limiting factor. This is a textbook example of a CPU bottleneck in reverse; it is a GPU bottleneck, where the graphics card is unable to keep up with the CPU’s ability to feed it data. The low rank is not a reflection of the CPU’s capability but of the mismatch between the two components.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system?

A: The 1440p Low preset is the best balance, achieving an average of 60.5 FPS. While 1080p Low reaches 76 FPS, 1440p Low offers a higher resolution with a still-smooth frame rate, making it the superior choice for visual clarity without sacrificing playability.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest rival in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The GTX 1070 has an average benchmark score of 12331. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro K4200, scores 12241, which is a deltaPct of 0.7% slower. The GTX 1650 SUPER scores 12504, which is a deltaPct of -1.4% faster than the GTX 1070.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X the bottleneck in this system?

A: No, the data indicates the opposite. The CPU’s benchmark percentile is 94, and its nearest rival, the Ryzen 9 9900X3D, is only -0.4% different in average score. The FPS drops are consistent with GPU limitations, not CPU ones, as the CPU has ample headroom.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between the High and Ultra presets at 4K?

A: At 4K, the High preset averages 25 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 17.3 FPS. This is a difference of 7.7 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset imposes a significant additional load on the GPU for minimal visual gain.

Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 1080p?

A: Yes, but only on the Low preset, which averages 76 FPS. The Medium preset averages 47.7 FPS, and the High preset averages 34.8 FPS, so the system cannot sustain 60 FPS on higher settings.

Q: What is the CPU’s single-thread performance score?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X achieves a Geekbench single-core score of 3341 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6555. These scores indicate strong single-thread performance, which is sufficient for the game’s logic and rendering tasks.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The raw data for this system is as follows. At 1920x1080, the average FPS is 76 on Low, 47.7 on Medium, 34.8 on High, and 29.4 on Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 60.5 on Low, 37.3 on Medium, 28.4 on High, and 21.6 on Ultra. At the highest resolution, 3840x2160, the averages drop to 46.7 on Low, 30.5 on Medium, 25 on High, and 17.3 on Ultra.

These numbers show a consistent pattern. The gap between Low and Medium is substantial at every resolution, with an average drop of about 28% from Low to Medium. The gap between Medium and High is smaller, and the gap between High and Ultra is the smallest, suggesting diminishing returns for the highest settings. The data reveals that the GTX 1070 has a hard ceiling, and the only way to get a smooth experience is to drop to Low settings, which reduces the graphical load enough to allow the GPU to keep up.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The scaling from 1080p to 4K is severe, and it tells a clear story about the system’s bottleneck. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 76 at 1080p to 60.5 at 1440p (a 20.4% decrease) and then to 46.7 at 4K (a 38.6% decrease from 1080p). At High settings, the drop is from 34.8 at 1080p to 28.4 at 1440p (an 18.4% decrease) and then to 25 at 4K (a 28.2% decrease from 1080p).

The rate of FPS loss is not linear, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. The pixel count increase from 1080p to 4K is 4x, but the FPS does not drop by 4x, indicating that the GPU is not purely pixel-bound; it is also limited by memory bandwidth and fill rate. The fact that the FPS at High settings at 4K is 25, while at Ultra it is 17.3, shows that the GPU is struggling to maintain even basic rendering at that resolution. The data strongly suggests that the GTX 1070’s 256.3 GB/s memory bandwidth and 107.7 GPixel/s pixel rate are the primary limiting factors, as the CPU’s performance is unaffected by resolution changes. This is a definitive GPU-bound configuration.