The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title, presents a distinctive load profile where the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti exhibit a clear dependency on settings and resolution. The measured data shows a wide performance envelope, from a demanding 41.9 FPS at 4K Ultra to a fluid 174.1 FPS at 1080p Low. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS rows to determine the optimal balance between visual fidelity and frame rate for this specific hardware combination, which ranks 155th out of 1689 tested combos in this game.

Settings Recommendations

The data indicates that the High preset offers the most consistently playable experience across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, High delivers 77.3 FPS, which is a substantial 20.4% improvement over the Ultra preset's 64.2 FPS, while still providing the enhanced visual quality over Medium's 111.3 FPS. The trade-off becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions, where the GPU's workload increases. At 2560x1440, High produces 68.2 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, whereas Ultra drops to 50.8 FPS, which may introduce noticeable stuttering in a game that relies on atmospheric tension.

For users with high-refresh-rate 1080p displays, the Medium preset is the most balanced choice. It achieves 111.3 FPS, which is nearly double the frame rate of Ultra while maintaining a level of detail that is likely sufficient for the game's dark, texture-heavy environments. The Low preset, while hitting 174.1 FPS, sacrifices too much visual fidelity for the marginal gain over Medium. At 4K, the situation is more critical. The High preset's 51.1 FPS is the only setting above 50 FPS, making it the definitive recommendation for a 4K panel. The Ultra preset's 41.9 FPS falls below the threshold for a smooth experience, and the gap between Low and High at 4K is significant, with High being 55.4% slower than Low but providing a much more complete visual presentation. Benchmark results indicate that the High preset is the "sweet spot" for this combination, providing the best ratio of visual quality to measured performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the primary driver of the performance differences observed in the FPS table. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, the card delivers a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s, which is sufficient for the game's asset streaming at 1080p and 1440p. However, the 4K results reveal the GPU's limitations. The drop from 74.8 FPS at Medium to 51.1 FPS at High at 3840x2160 suggests a heavy reliance on the GPU's shading units and RT cores, as the game's fixed-camera angles can still render complex scenes with multiple light sources.

The card's boost clock of 2610 MHz and FP32 performance of 40.09 TFLOPS are the key specifications behind the raw frame generation. The 60 RT cores and 240 Tensor cores are present, but their specific impact on The Medium is not directly measured in the FPS data. The data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor when moving from 1440p to 4K, as the CPU has headroom to spare. The GPU's 85th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 44900, places it in a strong position, but the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (41.9 FPS) indicates that the card is being pushed to its limits by the game's highest settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best setting for a 1440p monitor with this hardware?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 delivers 68.2 FPS, which is the optimal balance. Ultra drops to 50.8 FPS, which is less stable, while Medium provides 91.9 FPS but with reduced visual effects.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in The Medium?

A: Yes, but only with the High preset, which achieves 51.1 FPS. Lowering to Medium gives 74.8 FPS, but the visual difference is noticeable. The Ultra preset is not recommended as it falls to 41.9 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's 12-core configuration affect the FPS in this game?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X's 12 cores and 24 threads are likely underutilized, as the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is primarily dictated by the GPU. The CPU's high single-core performance (6555 in Cinebench R23) ensures it does not bottleneck the GPU at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the Low preset ever preferable to Medium?

A: At 1080p, Low offers 174.1 FPS compared to Medium's 111.3 FPS. For competitive or high-refresh-rate play, this is significant, but the visual downgrade in a horror game may detract from the atmosphere. At 4K, Low's 114.7 FPS is a viable option if frame rate is prioritized over visual fidelity.

Q: What is the performance difference between the RTX 4070 Ti and its closest rival?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 44900, which is 0.6% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile's 45152. This negligible delta indicates near-identical synthetic performance, though real-world FPS may vary.

Q: Does the GPU's 12 GB VRAM become a limiting factor at 4K?

A: The data does not show VRAM capacity being a direct issue. The FPS drop from 74.8 (Medium) to 51.1 (High) at 4K is more likely due to the increased shading and texture work, but the 504.2 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient to avoid major stutters.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS table provides a complete picture of the system's behavior. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are consistently high, with Low at 174.1, Medium at 111.3, High at 77.3, and Ultra at 64.2. The transition from Low to Medium is a 36.1% drop, while Medium to High is a 30.5% drop, and High to Ultra is a 16.9% drop. This shows diminishing returns on performance as settings increase.

At 2560x1440, the pattern continues with a more pronounced GPU load. Low delivers 150.2 FPS, Medium 91.9 FPS, High 68.2 FPS, and Ultra 50.8 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 25.8%, while High to Ultra is 25.5%. The 4K results (3840x2160) show the steepest decline. Low achieves 114.7 FPS, Medium 74.8 FPS, High 51.1 FPS, and Ultra 41.9 FPS. The High to Ultra drop at 4K is 18.0%, which is less than at 1440p, but the absolute frame rates are much lower. Across all resolutions, the Ultra preset consistently yields the lowest FPS, while Low provides the highest, with the RTX 4070 Ti showing a 2.7x difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p (174.1 vs 64.2) and a 2.7x difference at 4K (114.7 vs 41.9).

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a clear scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At the Low setting, the FPS drops from 174.1 at 1080p to 150.2 at 1440p, a 13.7% reduction, and then to 114.7 at 4K, a 23.6% reduction from 1440p. This indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is becoming a bottleneck at higher resolutions, but the CPU is still providing enough headroom.

For the High setting, the scaling is more aggressive: 77.3 FPS at 1080p, 68.2 at 1440p (an 11.8% drop), and 51.1 at 4K (a 25.1% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling, with 64.2 at 1080p, 50.8 at 1440p (a 20.9% drop), and 41.9 at 4K (a 17.5% drop from 1440p). This pattern suggests that the RTX 4070 Ti's rendering pipeline is the limiting component, as the CPU's performance does not degrade with resolution. The fact that the 1080p to 1440p drop at Low is only 13.7% versus the 4K drop of 23.6% from 1440p points to the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading power being saturated at 4K, particularly with higher settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, provides a robust foundation for the game's logic and streaming. Its boost clock of 5.60 GHz and a single-thread score of 6555 in Cinebench R23 ensure that the CPU is not a bottleneck in most scenarios. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, the system hits 174.1 FPS, which is a high frame rate that would expose any CPU limitation, yet the performance is strong.

The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 1286 and multi-thread score of 13929 indicate a balanced design. In The Medium, which typically relies on a few main threads for rendering calls, the CPU's high per-core performance is more critical than its 24 threads. The 64 MB of shared L3 cache helps with data locality, reducing latency. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700F, has an average score of 54097, which is 0.7% higher than the 9900X's 54450, indicating that in synthetic tests, the Intel chip is marginally faster. However, in this game, the measured FPS is more dependent on the GPU. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms its high-end status, but the FPS table shows that upgrading the CPU would not yield significant gains in The Medium since the GPU is the limiting factor at all resolutions above 1080p Low.