The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror game built around dual-reality rendering, presents a unique stress profile that this specific hardware pairing handles with notable unevenness. The combination of the 16-core AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and the flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces a dataset that reveals a system where the GPU is often the primary bottleneck, but the CPU's architecture still defines the ceiling for high-refresh-rate play. The measured frames per second across resolutions and presets tell a story of a machine that is powerful yet surprisingly sensitive to the game's demanding visual effects, particularly at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo in The Medium?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 157 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset. This drops to 132 FPS at 2560x1440 and 104 FPS at 3840x2160 under the same Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset, the combo produces an average frame rate of 37 FPS. This is the lowest average recorded in the dataset, indicating that the Ultra preset at 4K is not playable for smooth gameplay.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS at 1080p Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the measured average FPS is 98, with a minimum of 84 FPS and a maximum of 113 FPS. This suggests a playable experience with some frame time variance.

Q: How does the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 compare to the Intel Core i9-14900K in raw CPU benchmarks?

A: According to the data, the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 has an average benchmark score of 77740, which is 1.7% lower than the Intel Core i9-14900K's average score of 79097. This makes the i9-14900K a close rival.

Q: What is the RTX 5090's average benchmark score and how does it rank against all GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 has an average benchmark score of 79842 and sits in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs. Its closest rival is the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, which scores 0.3% higher.

Q: Is there a significant performance drop between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: Yes. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 70 at 1920x1080 to 59 at 2560x1440, and finally to 47 at 3840x2160. This represents a 33% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Strix Halo. Its base clock of 3.00 GHz can boost up to 5.10 GHz, and it features a substantial 64 MB of shared L3 cache. The data shows this CPU performing in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77740. This places it in direct competition with high-end desktop parts; for instance, it is a mere 1.6% faster than the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX and 1.7% slower than the Intel Core i9-14900K.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's role is to manage the game's logic, AI, and the complex dual-world rendering engine that requires constant data streaming. The benchmark results suggest that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 157 FPS, a figure that is likely bounded by the game engine's frame rate limit or the GPU's ability to process frames quickly at that settings level. However, the CPU's single-threaded performance, indicated by a Geekbench single-core score of 2464, is crucial for maintaining consistent frame pacing in a game that often renders two distinct scenes simultaneously.

The high multi-threaded capability, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35314, ensures that background tasks and the game's streaming systems do not cause hitches. The data implies that while the GPU handles the pixel-pushing, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 provides a robust foundation that prevents CPU-bound stutters, especially when the resolution scales down and frame rates rise. The processor's 55W TDP and mobile market segment suggest it is a high-efficiency part, but its performance profile in this test is firmly in the desktop-class tier, enabling the RTX 5090 to operate without a significant processor-imposed bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the undisputed heavyweight in this configuration. Built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture, it features 21,760 shading units and a massive 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. Its boost clock of 2407 MHz and 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute place it at the top of the consumer GPU stack, reflected in its 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs. The data indicates its raw performance is formidable, but its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are professional-grade cards like the Tesla P100, which are not gaming-focused.

In The Medium, the GPU's role is paramount. The game's hallmark is its split-screen rendering of two realities, which effectively doubles the geometry and lighting calculations. This is why the frame rates scale so drastically with settings. At 4K Ultra, the RTX 5090 is brought to its knees, averaging just 37 FPS. This suggests that the game's Ultra preset, likely with heavy use of ray tracing and high-resolution shadows, is a brute-force test that even the most powerful GPU cannot dominate. The 32 GB of VRAM is ample for the game's textures, but the compute load from the dual-world rendering is the primary bottleneck.

The performance scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows the GPU's workload increasing exponentially. For example, at 1440p, the frame rate drops from 132 FPS on Low to 47 FPS on Ultra, a 64% reduction. This indicates that the GPU is the main driver of performance variance, and the game is heavily GPU-bound. The memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) and the sheer memory bandwidth are crucial for feeding the GPU's shader units at high resolutions, but the data shows that even this bandwidth is insufficient to prevent significant frame rate drops when the game's most demanding settings are enabled.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 527th out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places the system in the top 18% of all configurations tested, which is a solid result but not a dominant one given the component choices. The ranking is a composite measure that likely accounts for performance across multiple settings and resolutions, and it suggests that while the system is powerful, other combinations of CPUs and GPUs can achieve similar or better results in this specific title.

The fact that this combo does not crack the top 100 is telling. It implies that the game's performance is so heavily GPU-dependent that the specific choice of a high-end CPU like the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 provides diminishing returns. A system with a slightly less powerful CPU but the same RTX 5090 would likely rank similarly, as the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher settings. Conversely, a system with a less powerful GPU would see a significantly lower rank, underscoring the GPU's dominance in this benchmark. The 527th rank out of 2911 combos indicates that this is a top-tier setup, but the data shows there is still a significant headroom for other high-end GPUs to perform better, likely due to driver optimizations or platform-specific advantages.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of the system's capabilities across nine distinct scenarios. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 157 FPS (Low), 98 FPS (Medium), 70 FPS (High), and 56 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset at this resolution shows a minimum FPS of 84 and a maximum of 113, indicating a playable experience with some frame pacing variance. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 132 FPS (Low), 83 FPS (Medium), 59 FPS (High), and 47 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset here shows a minimum of 70 FPS and a maximum of 95 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly. The averages are 104 FPS (Low), 65 FPS (Medium), 47 FPS (High), and 37 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum FPS of 55 and a maximum of 75. This breakdown shows that the system can provide a smooth 60+ FPS experience at 1080p and 1440p on Medium settings, but at 4K, only the Low preset comfortably exceeds 100 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K is unplayable, averaging only 37 FPS. The High preset at 4K, averaging 47 FPS, is borderline and may be acceptable for a slower-paced horror game, but it does not meet the standard for smooth action. The data shows that the sweet spot for this combo is 1440p, where it can balance visual quality and performance across all presets except Ultra.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For a 60 FPS target, the highest playable preset is Medium at 2560x1440, which averages 83 FPS with a minimum of 70 FPS. At 1920x1080, the High preset averages 70 FPS, offering a better visual experience than Medium while still maintaining a smooth frame rate. At 4K, the High preset averages only 47 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, so the Medium preset, averaging 65 FPS, is the best choice for a 60 FPS target.

For players prioritizing visual fidelity over frame rate, the High preset at 1440p offers a good balance, with an average of 59 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS mark but still playable for a horror title. The Ultra preset is generally not recommended, as it only achieves a playable frame rate at 1080p (56 FPS average), and even then, it is on the edge of playability. The data suggests that the Medium preset at 1440p provides the best overall experience, delivering a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while still offering a significant visual upgrade over Low settings. At 4K, the Medium preset is the only viable option for a smooth experience, as Low settings sacrifice too much visual quality, and High settings dip below 60 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the system's bottleneck characteristics. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 157 at 1080p to 132 at 1440p, and then to 104 at 4K. This represents a 17% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 21% drop from 1440p to 4K. The relatively modest drop at Low settings suggests that the game is not purely GPU-bound at this preset; the CPU's single-thread performance may be limiting the frame rate at 1080p, preventing it from scaling as high as the GPU could theoretically go.

At Medium settings, the drop is more pronounced: from 98 FPS at 1080p to 83 FPS at 1440p (a 15% drop), and then to 65 FPS at 4K (a 22% drop from 1440p). This indicates that as the GPU load increases, it becomes the primary bottleneck. At High settings, the drop is 59 FPS from 70 FPS at 1080p (a 16% drop) and then to 47 FPS at 4K (a 20% drop). The consistent percentage drops across these settings suggest a scaling pattern where the GPU's workload increases linearly with pixel count, but the CPU's ability to feed it becomes less of a factor as the GPU takes longer to render each frame.

The most dramatic scaling occurs at Ultra settings, where the frame rate drops from 56 FPS at 1080p to 47 FPS at 1440p (a 16% drop) and then to 37 FPS at 4K (a 21% drop). The 4K Ultra result of 37 FPS is the lowest in the dataset, and it indicates that the game's Ultra preset, likely with advanced effects, creates a massive GPU workload that even the RTX 5090 cannot manage at high resolutions. The data shows that the GPU is the limiting component across all settings, but the CPU's influence is more apparent at lower resolutions and settings where the frame rate is high. The system is a capable 1080p and 1440p performer, but at 4K, it is firmly GPU-bound, and the user must sacrifice settings to achieve playable frame rates.