The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding fixed-camera horror environment where the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti combination delivers a wide performance envelope, ranging from highly playable at 4K Low to a hard ceiling at 1080p Ultra. The benchmark data for this pairing shows a system that is consistently GPU-limited across most settings, with CPU headroom that only becomes apparent at lower resolutions and reduced graphical loads.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the primary driver of frame rates in The Medium, and its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a substantial buffer for the game’s high-resolution textures. With a memory bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s, the card has ample throughput for the game’s streaming assets, which is critical for maintaining consistent frame pacing in a title that frequently loads new areas without loading screens. The GPU’s boost clock of 2452 MHz and base clock of 2295 MHz are the reference points, but the actual performance is governed by how the Blackwell 2.0 architecture handles the game’s specific shader workloads.

The data shows a stark difference between the Low and Ultra presets. At 4K, the average frame rate drops from 121.8 FPS on Low to 40.8 FPS on Ultra, a 66.5% reduction that illustrates the extreme cost of the game’s volumetric lighting and high-resolution shadow maps. The RTX 5070 Ti’s 70 RT cores and 280 tensor cores are present, but The Medium’s fixed-camera angles mean that the game relies more on raw rasterization and fill rate than on dynamic ray tracing. The GPU’s pixel rate of 235.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 686.6 GTexel/s are the key specifications here, as they determine how quickly the card can resolve the game’s detailed environments across multiple resolutions.

In terms of standing among other GPUs, the RTX 5070 Ti’s average benchmark score of 52086 places it in the 87th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080, has an average score of 52085, a delta of 0%. This indicates that the two cards are effectively tied in synthetic workloads, but the game-specific data shows that the RTX 5070 Ti has the memory capacity and bandwidth to handle The Medium’s largest assets without stuttering. The GPU’s 96 ROPs are also a relevant factor, as they cap the pixel throughput at 4K Ultra, where the card is clearly saturated.

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

At 1920x1080, the RTX 5070 Ti and Ryzen 9 9900X combination shows a clear progression from 181 FPS on Low to 113.3 FPS on Medium, 84.4 FPS on High, and 67.6 FPS on Ultra. The 1080p Low result is the only configuration in the entire dataset that approaches the CPU’s potential, as the frame rate is high enough that the processor’s single-thread performance becomes relevant. The jump from Low to Medium is a 37.4% decrease, while the jump from Medium to High is a 25.5% decrease, and High to Ultra is a 19.9% decrease, showing that each preset tier has a diminishing impact on performance as graphics settings scale.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but the GPU begins to assert its dominance. The Low preset delivers 153.1 FPS, which is still above the refresh rate of most high-refresh monitors, while Medium drops to 95.2 FPS, High to 68.5 FPS, and Ultra to 56.9 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 1440p at the same settings is consistent: Low drops by 15.4%, Medium by 16.0%, High by 18.8%, and Ultra by 15.8%. This uniformity suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor across all these presets, as the percentage decrease scales closely with the pixel count increase from 2.07 million pixels to 3.68 million pixels.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 5070 Ti’s limits are exposed. The Low preset still manages 121.8 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 75.4 FPS, High to 53.1 FPS, and Ultra to 40.8 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, and the 40.8 FPS average indicates a heavy reliance on the GPU’s fill rate. The transition from 1440p to 4K sees a 20.4% drop on Low, a 20.8% drop on Medium, a 22.5% drop on High, and a 28.3% drop on Ultra, with the Ultra preset showing the largest relative decline due to the additional memory bandwidth pressure.

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

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X provides a strong foundation for this GPU, but its role in The Medium is secondary. With 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, the processor has a boost clock of 5.60 GHz and a base clock of 4.40 GHz. The game is not heavily multithreaded, as evidenced by the CPU’s benchmark scores: the 3dmark 16-thread score is 12552, while the max-thread score is 13929, indicating that scaling beyond 16 threads yields diminishing returns. The single-thread score of 1286 is more relevant for The Medium, as the game’s rendering logic typically relies on a few primary threads.

The CPU’s performance ceiling is visible in the 1080p Low result of 181 FPS. This is the only data point where the CPU is likely the primary limiter, as the GPU is not fully saturated at this resolution and settings combination. The Ryzen 9 9900X’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6555 and multi-core score of 46438 show strong raw performance, but the game’s engine does not appear to leverage the full 12-core complement. The L3 cache of 64 MB shared and L2 cache of 1 MB per core provide ample memory for the game’s logic, but the benchmark results suggest that the CPU is never the bottleneck except at the lowest graphical settings.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 9 9900X has an average benchmark score of 54450, which places it at the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D scores 54681, a 0.4% delta, while the Intel Core i7-14700F scores 54097, a 0.7% delta. These small differences indicate that CPU choice has minimal impact on The Medium’s performance, as the game is primarily GPU-bound. The CPU’s 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth and DDR5 support are sufficient, but the data shows that even a significantly slower CPU would likely produce similar frame rates in this title.

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

The resolution scaling data for this combination reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by 15.4% on Low, 16.0% on Medium, 18.8% on High, and 15.8% on Ultra. These reductions are close to the theoretical pixel count increase of 77.8%, but they are much smaller in percentage terms, indicating that the GPU has spare capacity at 1080p and is not fully saturated until higher resolutions.

The transition from 1440p to 4K is more revealing. The Low preset drops by 20.4%, Medium by 20.8%, High by 22.5%, and Ultra by 28.3%. The Ultra preset’s 28.3% drop is the most significant, suggesting that at 4K Ultra, the RTX 5070 Ti is hitting its memory bandwidth and ROP limits. The 16 GB VRAM is not exhausted, but the 896.0 GB/s bandwidth is strained by the game’s high-resolution textures and effects.

The overall scaling from 1080p Low to 4K Low results in a 32.7% FPS reduction, while the same scaling at Ultra results in a 39.6% reduction. This pattern confirms that the GPU is the limiting component across all settings, as the CPU’s performance remains constant regardless of resolution. The Ryzen 9 9900X’s 24 threads are largely idle during gameplay, and the data suggests that users should focus on GPU settings rather than CPU overclocking to improve performance in The Medium.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and setting combination for this hardware in The Medium?

A: The data shows that 1440p High produces an average of 68.5 FPS, while 4K Medium produces 75.4 FPS. For a balance of visual quality and fluidity, 1440p High is the safest choice, as 4K Ultra drops to 40.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p Low?

A: The 1080p Low result of 181 FPS is the only configuration where the CPU likely becomes the limiting factor. The Ryzen 9 9900X’s single-thread score of 1286 and the GPU’s high headroom at this low setting suggest that the processor’s ability to feed the GPU frames is the ceiling.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 Ti compare to the RTX 4080 in this game?

A: The RTX 5070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 52086, which is identical to the RTX 4080’s score of 52085, a 0% delta. In The Medium, the RTX 5070 Ti’s performance is effectively equal to the RTX 4080, based on the synthetic scores, but the game-specific FPS data is only available for the RTX 5070 Ti.

Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 4K in The Medium?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings, where the average FPS is 75.4. The High preset at 4K drops to 53.1 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 40.8 FPS, so users must reduce settings to Medium or lower to maintain a 60 FPS average at 4K.

Q: Does the Ryzen 9 9900X’s 12-core configuration provide any benefit in this game?

A: The data suggests minimal benefit. The CPU’s 3dmark 16-thread score of 12552 and max-thread score of 13929 show modest scaling beyond 16 threads, but The Medium does not appear to utilize more than a few cores effectively, as frame rates are consistently GPU-limited.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at the same resolution?

A: At 1080p, the difference is from 181 FPS on Low to 67.6 FPS on Ultra, a 62.7% reduction. At 1440p, it goes from 153.1 FPS to 56.9 FPS, a 62.8% reduction. At 4K, it goes from 121.8 FPS to 40.8 FPS, a 66.5% reduction, showing that the Ultra preset’s cost increases with resolution.