The Medium

# The Medium with AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers a curious mixed bag in The Medium, a horror title that leans heavily on fixed-camera angles and pre-rendered transitions. With measured frame rates spanning from a sluggish 38 FPS at 4K Ultra to a fluid 161 FPS at 1080p Low, this combination demonstrates both the GPU's raw rasterization headroom and the CPU's ability to feed it under lighter loads. The combo currently ranks 451st out of 2,911 tested configurations, placing it in the top 15.5% of all recorded pairings for this title — a respectable standing that masks significant variability across settings and resolutions. The data reveals a system that can handle the game comfortably at high refresh rates in 1080p, but struggles to maintain smooth motion at 4K when visual fidelity is pushed to its ceiling. What follows breaks down exactly where this hardware excels, where it stumbles, and what the measurements suggest about the underlying performance dynamics.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo achieves in The Medium?

A: The highest recorded average is 161 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At the same resolution, Medium settings yield 101 FPS, High settings produce 72 FPS, and Ultra drops to 57 FPS.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are 107 FPS on Low, 67 FPS on Medium, 48 FPS on High, and 38 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset includes a minimum of 57 FPS and maximum of 77 FPS, while other presets lack min/max data.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 451st out of 2,911 tested combos in The Medium, meaning it outperforms roughly 84.5% of all recorded system pairings for this game.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XT compare to its nearest rival in GPU benchmarks?

A: The RX 7900 XT has an average benchmark score of 13,745, which is 1.5% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT (13,543 score, +1.5% deltaPct) and 0.5% higher than the AMD Radeon 660M (13,812 score, -0.5% deltaPct).

Q: What are the CPU's key benchmark strengths relative to its rivals?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X3D scores 54,762 on average, sitting 0.6% below the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (55,093, -0.6% deltaPct) but 2.1% above the Intel Core i7-14700F (53,620, +2.1% deltaPct). Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 47,737.

Q: Does the game data include minimum frame rate information for all settings?

A: No. Only the Medium preset at each resolution includes min/max FPS values: 86/116 at 1080p, 72/98 at 1440p, and 57/77 at 4K. All other presets report only average FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT carries 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, delivering 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth — an enormous pool that proves relevant in The Medium's asset-heavy environments. The card's 5,376 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 192 raster output pipelines provide the raw throughput needed for the game's dual-reality rendering mechanic, where two simultaneous perspectives are often composited on screen. Clock speeds are notable: a base of 1387 MHz, a game clock of 2025 MHz, and a boost clock of 2394 MHz, with memory running at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). These figures translate to 51.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s, which the benchmark data shows is ample for 1080p but progressively insufficient as resolution climbs.

The GPU's percentile rank of 55 versus all GPUs places it near the median, yet its nearest rivals in the database are unexpected — the AMD Radeon 660M and NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile are both integrated or mobile parts, with deltaPct values of -0.5% and -0.5% respectively. This suggests the average benchmark score of 13,745 is skewed by certain workloads rather than representative of gaming performance. The PassMark G3D score of 29,009 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5,623 indicate strong modern API performance, while the Geekbench Vulkan score of 71,068 shows excellent low-level API throughput. In The Medium specifically, the GPU's role becomes clear through the measured FPS scaling: at 1080p Low, the card pushes 161 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it collapses to 38 FPS — a 76% drop that highlights how the 20 GB frame buffer and 800 GB/s bandwidth cannot compensate for the sheer fill-rate demands of 4K with maxed settings.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 451 out of 2,911 tested configurations, this pairing sits comfortably in the upper tier of results for The Medium. The rank of 451 means approximately 2,460 other combos perform worse, while only 450 achieve higher frame rates — a top 15.5% placement that reflects the hardware's genuine capability in this title. The rank is somewhat surprising given the GPU's modest 55th percentile ranking among all GPUs, suggesting that The Medium favors the RX 7900 XT's specific architecture traits, particularly its 20 GB memory capacity and high bandwidth, over raw compute metrics. The CPU's 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs (average score 54,762) provides a strong foundation, with the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's 12 cores and 24 threads ensuring no processor bottleneck at any resolution tested.

The deltaPct values against CPU rivals show a tight cluster: the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF is 0.6% faster, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K is 1.3% slower, the Intel Xeon 6505P is 2% slower, and the Intel Core i7-14700F is 2.1% slower. This narrow spread suggests that at the frame rates measured (38–161 FPS), CPU differences of 1-2% are unlikely to be the primary determinant of performance. The GPU side tells a different story — the RX 7900 XT's nearest rivals are all within 1.5% in average score, yet the actual gaming results vary wildly by settings, implying that memory configuration and driver optimization matter more than raw benchmark deltas. The combo rank of 451, while strong, does not place this system in the elite tier; the gap between 4K Ultra at 38 FPS and 1080p Low at 161 FPS indicates that users must make deliberate trade-offs to achieve their target experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the resolution most likely to be paired with high-refresh monitors, the data shows a clear progression: Low settings produce 161 FPS, Medium drops to 101 FPS with a minimum of 86 and maximum of 116, High yields 72 FPS, and Ultra settles at 57 FPS. The 1080p results demonstrate that the RX 7900 XT has substantial headroom even at High, with the CPU's 12 cores providing consistent frame pacing. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages shift downward but remain playable: Low hits 136 FPS, Medium delivers 85 FPS (min 72, max 98), High drops to 61 FPS, and Ultra falls to 48 FPS. The 1440p Medium result is particularly noteworthy — it maintains a 72 FPS minimum, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while the Ultra preset at 48 FPS begins to show the GPU's limits.

At 3840x2160, the performance picture changes dramatically. Low settings still manage 107 FPS, but Medium falls to 67 FPS (min 57, max 77), High drops to 48 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 38 FPS. The 4K Medium preset's 57 FPS minimum is borderline for a horror title where frame rate consistency matters for atmospheric tension, while the 38 FPS Ultra average suggests unplayable stutter. The min/max data available only for Medium presets reveals tight ranges: at 1080p the spread is 30 FPS (86–116), at 1440p it's 26 FPS (72–98), and at 4K it's 20 FPS (57–77). These narrow ranges indicate that the game's frame pacing is stable when the GPU isn't overwhelmed, which is a positive sign for the Medium preset's viability. Interestingly, the 4K Low result of 107 FPS is higher than the 1080p High result of 72 FPS, suggesting that settings have a more profound impact than resolution — a hallmark of a game where lighting and shadow quality are computationally expensive.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D brings 12 cores and 24 threads to the table, built on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) using a 4 nm TSMC process. Its base clock of 4.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz provide high single-thread performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6,739 and a Geekbench single-core score of 3,041. The 128 MB of L3 cache (in 8 MB per-core blocks) is crucial for gaming workloads that exhibit high data locality, and the dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU can feed the GPU without stalling. The 3DMark results show strong scaling: 2,512 for 2 threads, 9,002 for 8 threads, and 13,795 for max threads, indicating that multi-threaded scaling is efficient but plateaus beyond 8 threads — a pattern typical for games like The Medium that primarily use 4-8 threads for gameplay logic.

The CPU's benchmark scores reveal its positioning: the PassMark multithread score of 56,154 and Cinebench R20 multicore score of 20,049 place it among desktop leaders, while the single-thread PassMark score of 4,646 shows strong per-core performance. In the context of The Medium, the measured FPS data suggests that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor — at 1080p Low, the system hits 161 FPS, which is likely near the game's engine cap or the GPU's rasterization limit rather than a CPU constraint. The 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs reinforces this: the processor has ample headroom to handle the game's AI, physics, and streaming systems even at high frame rates. The 120W TDP with a 5.50 GHz boost clock indicates that thermal headroom is sufficient for sustained loads, and the PCIe Gen 5 interface (24 lanes) provides bandwidth far exceeding what The Medium requires. The nearest rival data shows the CPU is 0.6% slower than the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF but 2.1% faster than the Intel Core i7-14700F — a tight grouping that suggests CPU choice has minimal impact on this game compared to GPU selection.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset emerges as the most balanced choice across all three resolutions, but the optimal selection depends on the user's display and performance priorities. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 101 FPS with a minimum of 86 — this is the sweet spot for high-refresh gaming, as it remains above 60 FPS at all times while offering a 43% improvement over High's 72 FPS and a 77% improvement over Ultra's 57 FPS. The jump from Low (161 FPS) to Medium (101 FPS) costs 37% of the frame rate, but the visual fidelity gains in a horror game with fixed camera angles are substantial, making Medium the recommended preset for 1080p displays up to 144Hz. For 1440p, Medium again takes the crown at 85 FPS (min 72, max 98), which is comfortably above 60 FPS and only 13 FPS below Low's 136 FPS — the settings overhead is well worth the graphical upgrade. High at 61 FPS is playable but leaves no headroom for drops, while Ultra at 48 FPS falls below the 50 FPS threshold many consider minimum for smooth motion.

At 3840x2160, the recommendation shifts. Medium at 67 FPS is the only preset that maintains a playable average, but its 57 FPS minimum is dangerously close to the 60 FPS target — users with VRR displays will tolerate this, but those without may notice stutter. Low at 107 FPS is the safe choice for 4K, sacrificing visual quality for a 60% frame rate increase over Medium. High at 48 FPS and Ultra at 38 FPS are not recommended for 4K, as both fall below playable thresholds. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset demonstrates the best balance of visual fidelity and performance — it consistently maintains a minimum FPS above 55 and averages within 40-50% of the Low preset's peak. For users prioritizing frame rate above all else, Low at 1080p (161 FPS) or 1440p (136 FPS) offers the smoothest experience, but the data strongly suggests that Medium is the intended design point for this hardware.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate degradation from 1080p to 4K reveals critical insights about where the bottleneck lies. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (161 FPS) to 2560x1440 (136 FPS) represents a 15.5% drop, while moving from 1440p to 3840x2160 (107 FPS) costs an additional 21.3% — a total 33.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K. This scaling pattern indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is becoming increasingly pixel-bound as resolution rises. At Medium settings, the drops are more pronounced: 101 FPS at 1080p drops to 85 FPS at 1440p (15.8% loss) and then to 67 FPS at 4K (21.2% loss from 1440p), totaling 33.7% from 1080p to 4K. The High preset shows a steeper curve: 72 FPS at 1080p falls to 61 FPS at 1440p (15.3% loss) and then to 48 FPS at 4K (21.3% loss), a 33.3% total reduction. Ultra follows suit with 57 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p (15.8% loss), and 38 FPS at 4K (20.8% loss from 1440p), totaling 33.3%.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings — hovering around 15-16% from 1080p to 1440p and 21% from 1440p to 4K — points to a purely GPU-bound scenario. The pixel count increases by 77.8% from 1080p to 1440p and by 125% from 1440p to 4K, yet the frame rate drops are far less severe, indicating that the RX 7900 XT's 800.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 20 GB frame buffer are mitigating the expected scaling losses. However, the absolute numbers tell the real story: at 4K Ultra, 38 FPS is barely above cinematic frame rates, while at 1080p Low, 161 FPS is more than double the refresh rate of most standard monitors. The CPU's role in this scaling is minimal — the Ryzen 9 9900X3D's 12 cores and 5.50 GHz boost clock ensure that even at 1080p Low, where the GPU is least stressed, the processor can sustain 161 FPS without becoming a limiting factor. The data implies that users targeting 4K must accept Medium settings (67 FPS) as their ceiling, while those at 1080p can comfortably push to High (72 FPS) or Ultra (57 FPS) if they prefer visual fidelity over raw frame rate.