The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a comprehensive 4K-capable experience in The Medium, though the data reveals distinct performance ceilings depending on resolution and preset. Across the measured spectrum, this combination transitions from a GPU-bound powerhouse at 4K to a system where CPU headroom becomes increasingly apparent at 1080p, with the RTX 4090’s raw throughput ensuring that even the most demanding settings remain playable.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression across resolutions clearly identifies the RTX 4090 as the primary performance limiter at higher pixel counts, while also exposing a shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution decreases. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops from 75 FPS at 1920x1080 to 63 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 12 FPS, and then further down to 50 FPS at 3840x2160, another 13 FPS decline. This linear scaling pattern—roughly a 16% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 21% drop from 1440p to 4K—is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload where the graphics card’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are the decisive factors.

The scaling behavior shifts noticeably when examining the Low preset. At 1920x1080, the average frame rate reaches 196 FPS, which drops to 178 FPS at 2560x1440 and 140 FPS at 3840x2160. The percentage reductions here are smaller in absolute terms but similar in proportion, indicating that even at Low settings, the GPU remains the dominant constraint. However, the fact that 1080p Low produces nearly 200 FPS suggests the CPU is still capable of feeding the GPU at very high frame rates without becoming a hard limit.

Medium settings offer the most complete dataset, including minimum and maximum frame rates, which allow for a deeper analysis of frame pacing. At 1920x1080 Medium, the average is 132 FPS with a minimum of 112 FPS and maximum of 152 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Medium drops the average to 111 FPS (minimum 95, maximum 128), and 3840x2160 Medium further reduces it to 87 FPS (minimum 74, maximum 101). The consistent 20 FPS gap between minimum and maximum at each resolution suggests stable performance without severe spikes, but the proportional drop from 1080p to 4K—about 34%—underscores that the GPU’s workload increases substantially with pixel count.

The data indicates that at 4K, the RTX 4090 is working near its limits for this title, particularly at Ultra where the average falls to 50 FPS. In contrast, at 1080p, the system demonstrates headroom that could support higher refresh rate displays, with the CPU showing less strain as evidenced by the relatively small performance deltas between Low and High presets at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 serves as the unequivocal performance anchor for this combination, with its specifications directly explaining the observed frame rates. The GPU’s 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for The Medium’s fixed-camera scenes that often feature high-resolution textures and complex lighting. The ample VRAM capacity ensures that texture streaming and asset loading do not introduce stutter, even at 4K Ultra where memory pressure would be highest.

Clock speeds further reinforce the GPU’s dominance. The base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with 16,384 shading units, deliver substantial compute throughput. The 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance allows the GPU to handle the game’s rendering effects with considerable margin, which is reflected in the fact that even at 4K Ultra, the average frame rate remains above 50 FPS—a playable threshold for a horror title where slower pacing is acceptable.

The GPU’s memory clock of 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) works in tandem with the 384-bit bus to maintain the 1.01 TB/s bandwidth figure. This becomes particularly relevant when comparing the Medium preset results across resolutions, where the minimum frame rates remain relatively close to the averages—74 FPS minimum versus 87 FPS average at 4K Medium, for instance. The bandwidth ensures that memory access does not become a bottleneck, allowing the GPU’s compute units to operate efficiently.

The RTX 4090’s 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are relevant for The Medium, which utilizes ray-traced reflections and shadows in certain scenes. While the benchmark data does not isolate ray tracing performance specifically, the fact that the GPU maintains 50 FPS at 4K Ultra suggests that these accelerated cores are effectively handling the additional workload without catastrophic frame rate drops.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions, providing a combination of visual fidelity and performance that avoids the extremes. At 3840x2160 Medium, the average of 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS ensures smooth gameplay for a horror title, where sudden frame drops could disrupt immersion. The 74 FPS floor is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays, and the 101 FPS maximum indicates there is headroom for occasional bursts of activity.

For users prioritizing maximum visual quality at 4K, the High preset is a viable alternative, delivering 63 FPS average. However, the lack of minimum frame rate data for High means there is uncertainty about worst-case scenarios, unlike Medium where the 74 FPS minimum provides confidence. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 50 FPS average, which, while playable, leaves little margin for demanding scenes or background processes.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again emerges as the recommended choice, with 111 FPS average and a 95 FPS minimum. The High preset at this resolution delivers 80 FPS, which is acceptable but not optimal for high refresh rate monitors. The Low preset at 1440p produces 178 FPS, but the visual compromise is likely too severe for most users. The Ultra preset at 63 FPS mirrors the 4K High result, suggesting that the visual gains from Ultra over High are not worth the performance cost.

At 1920x1080, the Medium preset provides 132 FPS average with a 112 FPS minimum, making it ideal for 144Hz displays. The High preset at 95 FPS is also suitable for 100Hz monitors, while Low at 196 FPS exceeds the refresh rate of most displays but sacrifices significant visual quality. The Ultra preset at 75 FPS is the only setting at 1080p that drops below 90 FPS, reinforcing that Medium or High are the optimal choices for this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full spectrum of settings shows a clear hierarchy. Low produces 196 FPS average, Medium follows at 132 FPS (minimum 112, maximum 152), High at 95 FPS, and Ultra at 75 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium is 64 FPS, while the delta between Medium and High is 37 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 20 FPS. This diminishing returns pattern indicates that the performance cost per visual quality increment increases as settings rise, with the jump from Low to Medium being the most efficient in terms of frame rate retention.

At 2560x1440, the results are 178 FPS for Low, 111 FPS for Medium (minimum 95, maximum 128), 80 FPS for High, and 63 FPS for Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings: 18 FPS for Low, 21 FPS for Medium, 15 FPS for High, and 12 FPS for Ultra. This consistency suggests that the GPU’s pixel processing workload scales predictably with resolution, with the absolute reduction being smaller at higher settings due to the already lower baseline frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the results are 140 FPS for Low, 87 FPS for Medium (minimum 74, maximum 101), 63 FPS for High, and 50 FPS for Ultra. The transition from 1440p to 4K results in drops of 38 FPS for Low, 24 FPS for Medium, 17 FPS for High, and 13 FPS for Ultra. Interestingly, the absolute drop from 1440p to 4K is larger than the drop from 1080p to 1440p for Low and Medium settings, indicating that the GPU’s fill rate becomes a more significant constraint at 4K, particularly for less demanding presets where other bottlenecks are absent.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achievable with this combination?

A: The highest measured average is 196 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings, followed by 178 FPS at 2560x1440 Low and 140 FPS at 3840x2160 Low.

Q: Is 4K Ultra playable with the RTX 4090 and Ryzen 9 9900X?

A: Yes, the average frame rate at 3840x2160 Ultra is 50 FPS, which is above the playable threshold for a horror game, though it leaves limited headroom for demanding scenes.

Q: Which resolution and setting provides the most stable frame rate?

A: The 1920x1080 Medium preset provides the most stable data, with a minimum of 112 FPS and maximum of 152 FPS, resulting in a 40 FPS range that indicates consistent frame pacing.

Q: How does the GPU’s memory bandwidth affect performance?

A: The 1.01 TB/s bandwidth from 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus ensures that memory access does not become a bottleneck, as evidenced by the minimum frame rates remaining close to averages at Medium settings across all resolutions.

Q: What is the frame rate drop from 1440p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average drops from 80 FPS at 2560x1440 to 63 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of 17 FPS or approximately 21%.

Q: Does the CPU limit performance at any resolution?

A: The data does not indicate CPU limiting, as even at 1080p Low with 196 FPS average, the frame rate scales consistently with resolution, suggesting the GPU remains the primary constraint.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X provides the processing foundation for this combination, with its 12 cores and 24 threads ensuring that The Medium’s CPU workload is handled without becoming a constraint. The CPU’s base clock of 4.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz, combined with 64 MB of L3 cache, deliver strong single-threaded performance that is critical for the game’s fixed-camera scenarios, where scene transitions and streaming can create transient CPU spikes.

The benchmark data for the Ryzen 9 9900X shows a single-thread score of 1286 in 3DMark and a Geekbench single-core score of 3010, which are indicative of high per-core performance. This is relevant because The Medium uses a fixed-camera perspective that often relies on a few primary threads for game logic and scene management, rather than scaling perfectly across all 24 threads. The multi-threaded scores, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32172, demonstrate that the CPU has substantial headroom for background tasks or future titles that utilize more cores.

In the context of this game’s measured FPS, the CPU’s role is supportive rather than dominant. The fact that the RTX 4090’s performance scales consistently with resolution, even at Low settings where CPU load would be proportionally higher, indicates that the Ryzen 9 9900X is never the limiting factor. The CPU’s 24 threads and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth from DDR5 ensure that data can be fed to the GPU without starvation, even at 196 FPS where frame times are under 5.1 milliseconds.

The CPU’s 92nd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 57498, places it slightly below the AMD EPYC 9015 (57555, delta -0.1%) and Intel Core i9-14900 (58115, delta -1.1%). While these rivals are close in synthetic benchmarks, the Ryzen 9 9900X’s real-world performance in The Medium is sufficient to avoid any CPU-induced frame rate drops, as the measured FPS data shows no anomalies that would suggest processor limitations.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this combination of AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 72 out of 3724 tested combos for The Medium. This places the setup in the top 2% of all tested configurations, indicating that it outperforms the vast majority of alternatives in this specific title. The top 2% ranking is consistent with the hardware’s specifications, as the RTX 4090 is one of the most powerful consumer GPUs available, and the Ryzen 9 9900X provides ample CPU support.

The rank of 72 out of 3724 means there are 71 combinations that achieve higher frame rates in The Medium. While the data does not specify which combinations rank higher, it is reasonable to infer that they likely feature either more specialized hardware or configurations optimized specifically for this game’s engine. The fact that this combo ranks in the 98th percentile suggests that for the vast majority of users, this setup will deliver near-top-tier performance in The Medium.

Comparing to the nearest rivals in the database, the RTX 4090’s average benchmark score of 60347 is nearly identical to the Intel Arc Pro A60 (60326, delta 0%), which is surprising given the vast architectural differences between the two GPUs. However, this comparison is based on synthetic benchmarks rather than game-specific performance, and the measured FPS data for The Medium shows the RTX 4090 delivering frame rates that would be unattainable for lower-tier GPUs. The Ryzen 9 9900X’s nearest rivals are all server or workstation processors with similar average scores, but their availability and platform requirements differ significantly from the desktop AM5 socket.

The combination’s rank of 72 indicates that while this is an extremely high-performing setup, there is still a small group of configurations that achieve better results in The Medium. This could be due to factors such as overclocking, driver optimizations, or specific memory configurations that are not captured in the standard benchmark data. Nevertheless, for a stock configuration, the Ryzen 9 9900X and RTX 4090 represent a top-tier choice for this game, offering playable frame rates at 4K Ultra and exceptional performance at lower resolutions.