The Medium

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for The Medium reveal a pronounced sensitivity to resolution, but the shape of that scaling curve depends heavily on the quality preset. At 1080p Low, the combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER delivers an average of 101.8 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 85.8 FPS, a reduction of roughly 16%. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 64.6 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings represents a 37% performance loss, which is a moderate decline and suggests the GPU is still managing the workload without being completely overwhelmed.

The picture changes dramatically when the preset is raised to High. At 1080p High, the average is 44.9 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 40.3 FPS, and at 4K High, it bottoms out at 27.5 FPS. The difference between 1080p and 4K at High is a 39% reduction, similar in percentage to Low, but the absolute numbers are far lower. This indicates that the quality preset is the dominant factor in determining playability, while resolution scaling amplifies the strain on the GPU.

Ultra settings produce the most demanding scenario. The 1080p Ultra average is 37.1 FPS, 1440p Ultra is 30.1 FPS, and 4K Ultra is 25.8 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 4K here is 30%, which is actually the smallest percentage decline across all presets. This is a telling sign: at Ultra, even 1080p is already so taxing that the GPU is operating near its ceiling, so the incremental cost of higher resolutions is compressed. The limiting component in this pairing is clearly the graphics card, not the processor. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D, with its 16 cores and 32 threads, is far more capable than what The Medium requires at any of these settings.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of CPU and GPU ranks 1032 out of 1689 total combos for The Medium. That places it in the lower-middle portion of the field, which is consistent with the GPU being a mature, mid-range part from the GeForce 20-series. The RTX 2070 SUPER sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, and its average benchmark score is 22206. The CPU, by contrast, is at the 96th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 71660. The disparity between the two components is stark: the processor is a top-tier part, while the graphics card is decidedly mid-pack.

The combo rank of 1032 out of 1689 means that roughly 61% of tested combinations outperform it in this game. This is not surprising given that the GPU’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A400, which scores 22307 (a 0.5% advantage), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z at 22006 (a 0.9% deficit). The AMD Radeon RX 5700 trails by 2.5% with a score of 21670. These are all comparable GPUs, and none of them are recent flagship parts. The CPU’s nearest rivals, meanwhile, include the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (0.9% ahead), the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (1.8% ahead), and the Intel Core i7-14700KF (2.2% ahead). The processor is essentially trading blows with other high-end desktop and server parts, but that strength cannot compensate for the GPU’s limitations in a graphically intensive title like The Medium.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the TU104 chip with a 12 nm process and a die size of 545 mm². It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. The base clock is 1605 MHz, with a boost clock of 1770 MHz. The card has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units. It also includes 40 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores, which are relevant for games that leverage these features, though The Medium’s performance data here does not isolate those workloads.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a notable constraint for a game like The Medium, which is known for its dual-reality rendering technique. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate falls to 25.8 FPS, which is likely a combination of memory bandwidth saturation and fill-rate limits. The pixel rate is 113.3 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 283.2 GTexel/s, both of which are modest by modern standards. The FP32 throughput is 9.062 TFLOPS, which is adequate for 1080p gaming but insufficient for high-refresh 4K in demanding titles. The GPU’s percentile rank of 65 and its average benchmark score of 22206 confirm that it is a capable but not exceptional part. The data shows that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the bottleneck in this pairing, as the CPU is never the limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the performance ranges from 101.8 FPS at Low to 37.1 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset yields 64.1 FPS, and High produces 44.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 37.7 FPS, which is substantial, while the gap between Medium and High is 19.2 FPS, and High to Ultra is 7.8 FPS. This suggests diminishing returns as settings increase, with the GPU struggling more at each step.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 85.8 FPS at Low, 53.9 FPS at Medium, 40.3 FPS at High, and 30.1 FPS at Ultra. The drop from Low to Medium is 31.9 FPS, from Medium to High is 13.6 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 10.2 FPS. The proportional cost of Ultra is higher here than at 1080p, reinforcing that the GPU is running out of headroom.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 64.6 FPS at Low, 41.1 FPS at Medium, 27.5 FPS at High, and 25.8 FPS at Ultra. The Low setting remains playable, but Medium dips below 60 FPS, and High and Ultra are both below 30 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is only 1.7 FPS, indicating that the GPU is completely saturated and additional settings have minimal impact. For a smooth experience, the data suggests that 1080p Medium or 1440p Low are the practical ceilings, while 4K is only viable at Low.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for playable frame rates with this combo?

A: At 1080p Medium, the average is 64.1 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p Low, the average is 85.8 FPS. For 4K, only Low settings achieve an average of 64.6 FPS, making it the sole 4K preset that is consistently smooth.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 2070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 22206. The NVIDIA RTX A400 scores 22307, which is 0.5% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z scores 22006, which is 0.9% lower. The AMD Radeon RX 5700 scores 21670, which is 2.5% lower.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in The Medium?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D ranks at the 96th percentile among CPUs with an average score of 71660, while the RTX 2070 SUPER ranks at the 65th percentile with an average score of 22206. The frame rate drops across resolutions and settings are consistent with GPU saturation.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p Ultra and 4K Ultra?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the average is 37.1 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the average is 25.8 FPS. This represents a 30% reduction, which is the smallest percentage drop among the presets, indicating the GPU is already near its limit at 1080p Ultra.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 1032 out of 1689 total combinations in The Medium. This places it in the lower-middle range, largely because the GPU is a mid-tier part while the CPU is top-tier.

Q: What is the VRAM capacity and does it matter for this game?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate is 25.8 FPS, which suggests the memory capacity and bandwidth are insufficient for the highest settings at that resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It has a base clock of 4.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz. The L3 cache is 128 MB shared, which is substantial and beneficial for gaming workloads. The CPU is built on a 4 nm process at TSMC, with 16,630 million transistors across a dual-die design of 2x 70.6 mm². It supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. The processor also has integrated Radeon Graphics, though the discrete GPU handles all rendering in this test.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is minimal. The measured frame rates are entirely consistent with GPU-bound behavior. For example, at 1080p Low, the CPU is capable of 101.8 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra, the same CPU can only manage 37.1 FPS. The bottleneck is the graphics card. The CPU’s benchmark results reinforce this: it scores 59712 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 8430 in single-core, which are exceptional numbers. Its 3DMark results range from 1292 for single-thread to 17184 for max threads, and it achieves a PassMark multithread score of 70255. The CPU’s nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 (0.9% faster), the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (1.8% faster), and the Intel Core i7-14700KF (2.2% faster), all of which are similarly powerful.

The data shows that the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is essentially providing a stable platform for the RTX 2070 SUPER to operate, but it is never the source of a performance ceiling. The 128 MB L3 cache and high boost clock are irrelevant to the frame rates observed here because the GPU is the constraining factor. For players using this combination, the CPU is overqualified, and any frame rate improvements would require a GPU upgrade rather than a processor change. The combo rank of 1032 out of 1689 reflects this imbalance: a top-tier CPU paired with a mid-range GPU results in mid-pack gaming performance in a demanding title like The Medium.