The Medium

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT paired with the Intel Core i5-14400F delivers a wide performance envelope in The Medium, but the data reveals a title heavily influenced by graphics settings and resolution. Across the measured configurations, the combination ranks 289th out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the top 17% of systems. The benchmark results show a clear pattern: the GPU is the dominant factor, with CPU performance being sufficient to avoid bottlenecks, though the game's demands scale aggressively with visual fidelity.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K demonstrates how The Medium becomes increasingly GPU-bound as pixel count rises. At Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 56.9 at 1920x1080 to 47.0 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 9.9 frames. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average falls to 39.8, meaning the 4K result is exactly 30% lower than the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern indicates that at 4K Ultra, the RX 7900 XT is working near its limits for this title.

The High settings row shows a similar but steeper decline. Starting at 70.7 FPS in 1080p, the average drops to 63.3 at 1440p and then to 50.7 at 4K. The jump from 1440p to 4K represents a 19.9% performance loss, while the 1080p to 4K transition costs 28.3% of the frame rate. These percentages suggest that the GPU's 800.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 20 GB of GDDR6 VRAM are sufficient even at 4K, but the compute load from the 5376 shading units becomes the limiting factor.

For Medium settings, the resolution scaling is less punishing. The 1080p average of 103.6 FPS falls to 88.0 at 1440p and then to 66.2 at 4K. The 1440p to 4K drop of 24.8% is slightly less severe than at High settings, implying that reduced shading complexity allows the card to maintain more of its performance at higher resolutions. Low settings show the most favorable scaling: 157.6 FPS at 1080p, 138.6 at 1440p, and 103.4 at 4K. Even at 4K Low, the system delivers well over 100 FPS, confirming that the RX 7900 XT has ample headroom when the game's visual load is minimized.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 31 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. Its 57,700 million transistors across a 529 mm² die provide the foundation for its 51.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The card operates with a base clock of 1387 MHz and a boost clock of 2394 MHz, with a game clock of 2025 MHz that represents typical sustained performance. Memory runs at 2500 MHz with 20 Gbps effective speed across a 320-bit bus, yielding 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth.

In The Medium, the GPU's role is clearly defined by the measured FPS. The card's percentile rank of 82 against all GPUs indicates strong overall capability, but the game's demands at Ultra settings push it to 39.8 FPS at 4K. The 84 ray tracing cores are present in the architecture, yet the benchmark data shows the rasterization load alone is substantial. The 192 ROPs handle pixel output at 459.6 GPixel/s, which becomes relevant when examining the 4K Ultra result where fill rate limits are approached.

Comparing to its nearest rivals in the database, the RX 7900 XT's average benchmark score of 38358 is within 0.3% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile and 0.6% ahead of the RTX 4080 Mobile. This close grouping suggests that the card's performance tier is well established, but The Medium's specific optimization for AMD hardware may explain why the 4K results remain playable despite the demanding settings. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support with version 12_2 ensures full feature compatibility, though the game's actual usage of these features is not quantified in the measured data.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for maintaining 60 FPS at High settings?

A: The 2560x1440 High configuration averages 63.3 FPS, making it the highest resolution above the 60 FPS threshold. The 3840x2160 High result drops to 50.7 FPS, below the preferred threshold.

Q: How much performance is gained by lowering settings from Ultra to Low at 4K?

A: The average frame rate rises from 39.8 FPS at Ultra to 103.4 FPS at Low, representing an improvement of 63.6 FPS or approximately 160% higher performance.

Q: Does the RX 7900 XT bottleneck at any resolution?

A: The data shows no CPU bottleneck indication. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 157.6 FPS, and the scaling across resolutions follows a GPU-bound pattern typical of a card with 800.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Is the 20 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K Ultra in this game?

A: The 4K Ultra result of 39.8 FPS does not indicate a memory limitation. The card's 20 GB GDDR6 with 320-bit bus provides ample capacity, with performance limited by compute rather than memory allocation.

Q: What settings should be used for 1440p gaming at high refresh rates?

A: The 2560x1440 Low setting achieves 138.6 FPS, while Medium delivers 88.0 FPS. For 144 Hz displays, Low settings are required, while Medium suits 60-75 Hz monitors.

Q: How does this system compare to its rank of 289 out of 1689 combos?

A: The rank places the combination in the top 17.1% of all tested configurations. The 4K Ultra result of 39.8 FPS is below the 60 FPS ideal, but lower settings provide playable frame rates at all resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is the standout configuration. It achieves 88.0 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS standard while maintaining a middle-ground visual presentation. At 1080p, the Medium preset yields 103.6 FPS, making it ideal for high refresh rate monitors where the extra frames beyond 100 provide a smoother experience.

Users targeting 4K should consider the Low preset, which delivers 103.4 FPS and ensures a fully playable experience. The High preset at 4K averages 50.7 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, while Ultra at 50.7 FPS is below acceptable thresholds for most users. The data indicates that the jump from High to Ultra at any resolution costs roughly 10-15 FPS, so High represents a more efficient use of GPU resources.

For 1440p, the High preset at 63.3 FPS is the recommended compromise, providing solid visual fidelity with frame rates suitable for most monitors. The Ultra preset at 47.0 FPS should be avoided unless visual quality takes absolute priority over smoothness. At 1080p, High at 70.7 FPS is a solid choice, but the Medium preset's 103.6 FPS offers better value for gamers with 100 Hz+ displays.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rate ranges from 56.9 FPS at Ultra to 157.6 FPS at Low. The Medium preset delivers 103.6 FPS, and High produces 70.7 FPS. This represents a spread of 100.7 FPS between the lowest and highest settings, indicating that the game scales dramatically with visual options.

The 2560x1440 results show a compressed spread of 91.6 FPS. Ultra averages 47.0 FPS, High reaches 63.3 FPS, Medium achieves 88.0 FPS, and Low tops out at 138.6 FPS. Each step up in settings reduces performance by roughly 25-30%, with the Ultra to High transition costing 16.3 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the total range narrows to 63.6 FPS. Ultra delivers 39.8 FPS, High reaches 50.7 FPS, Medium produces 66.2 FPS, and Low achieves 103.4 FPS. The 4K results show that even at Low settings, the system maintains playable frame rates, but the Ultra preset falls below 40 FPS, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at each settings level is consistent, with Low losing 34.3% of its frame rate, Medium losing 36.1%, High losing 28.3%, and Ultra losing 30.0%.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F provides the processing foundation with 10 cores and 16 threads, operating at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boosting to 4.70 GHz. This Raptor Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 10 nm process, delivers a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21914 and a single-core score of 3093. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache support the game's logic and streaming requirements.

The CPU's percentile rank of 88 against all processors places it well above the GPU's rank of 82, indicating that the processor is not the limiting component in this combination. Its average benchmark score of 32508 positions it within 0.2% of the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7645 and the Intel Core i7-13705H, showing comparable processing capability. The PassMark multithread score of 25783 and single-thread score of 3723 confirm balanced performance for gaming workloads.

In The Medium, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. The fact that 1080p Low achieves 157.6 FPS without any indication of a CPU bottleneck suggests that the 10-core configuration provides sufficient throughput for the game's simulation and rendering threads. The 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support ensure stable operation, though the game's performance is ultimately dictated by the RX 7900 XT's compute capabilities. The data shows no scenario where the CPU's limits are reached, reinforcing that this is a GPU-limited title at all measured settings.