The Medium

The Medium is a fixed-camera horror game that leans heavily on atmosphere, and the data for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 shows a combination that can handle the game at playable frame rates, but with significant trade-offs depending on resolution and quality settings. This analysis is based entirely on measured performance data, which shows the combo ranking 1307 out of 2911 tested combinations, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the database. The CPU is a 24-core, 24-thread processor with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, while the GPU is a 16 GB GDDR6 card with a 256-bit memory bus and 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth, both of which are relevant to how this game performs.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Medium?

A: Based on the measured FPS data, 1920x1080 with Low settings delivers the highest average frame rate at 115 FPS. For a more balanced experience, 2560x1440 with Medium settings provides 61 FPS on average, which is smoother than the 48 FPS average seen at 3840x2160 with Medium settings.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in The Medium?

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. At 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average FPS is 76, which is playable. However, at Medium settings the average drops to 48 FPS, and at High settings it falls to 34 FPS. Ultra settings at 4K produce an average of 27 FPS, which is not ideal for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83807), 1.1% higher than the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83090), and 1.2% higher than the AMD EPYC 9135 (82980). It is 1.3% lower than the AMD EPYC 7F72, which scores 85072.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals in overall benchmark scores?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7700 has an average benchmark score of 15852. This is 0.1% higher than the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862), 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679), 1% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (16014), and 1.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129).

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Medium preset yields an average of 72 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 83 FPS. Switching to Ultra lowers the average to 41 FPS, which is a substantial drop of 31 FPS, indicating that Ultra settings are much more demanding on the GPU.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the limiting factor at 3840x2160. The average FPS drops from 76 at Low settings to 27 at Ultra settings, a 64% reduction. Since the CPU has high multi-core performance (51731 in Cinebench R23 multi-core), it is unlikely to be the constraint at this resolution, as the workload shifts heavily to the graphics card.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture and features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. This is a significant amount of VRAM for a game like The Medium, which often loads detailed textures and environments. The GPU’s base clock is 1900 MHz, with a boost clock of 2459 MHz and a game clock of 2041 MHz, which are the frequencies that determine its processing speed during typical gaming loads. The card has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 96 render output units, which directly affect how it handles pixel and texture calculations.

In The Medium, the GPU’s role is evident in the measured FPS data across different quality settings. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average FPS is 115, indicating that the GPU has plenty of headroom at lower resolutions and less demanding settings. However, as settings increase to Ultra, the average FPS falls to 41 at 1080p, showing that the card’s raw compute power (25.18 TFLOPS FP32) is being taxed by the game’s higher-quality effects. The 16 GB VRAM is unlikely to be a limiting factor, as even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 27, suggesting the bottleneck is more about the GPU’s processing throughput rather than memory capacity. The card’s memory clock of 2438 MHz (19.5 Gbps effective) helps maintain data flow, but the performance drop from Low to Ultra at every resolution points to the GPU’s shading and rasterization limits being the primary constraint.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which is typical for a GPU-bound game. At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 72. Moving to 2560x1440 with the same settings drops the average to 61 FPS, a reduction of 15.3%. At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the average FPS falls further to 48, which is 33.3% lower than the 1080p result. This scaling indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component, as the CPU’s performance (with a boost clock of 5.80 GHz and 24 threads) is more than sufficient to feed the graphics card at these resolutions.

The drop from 1080p to 4K is more pronounced at higher settings. For instance, at High settings, the average FPS goes from 51 at 1080p to 43 at 1440p and then to 34 at 4K, a total reduction of 33.3% from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 115 at 1080p to 97 at 1440p and then to 76 at 4K, a 33.9% drop. This consistency across settings suggests that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count increases, while the CPU’s role remains minimal. The fact that the 4K Low setting still achieves 76 FPS shows that the GPU has enough raw power for less demanding scenes, but the more complex rendering at Higher and Ultra settings quickly overwhelms it.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed view of how this combo performs across three resolutions and four quality settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 115 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p yields an average of 72 FPS, with a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 83 FPS, indicating a stable frame time. High settings at 1080p average 51 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 41 FPS. This shows a clear progression where each step up in quality costs roughly 20-30% performance at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 97 FPS, which is still very playable. Medium settings at 1440p average 61 FPS, with a minimum of 51 and maximum of 70 FPS, providing a smooth experience for most users. High settings at 1440p average 43 FPS, which starts to feel less fluid, and Ultra settings drop to 34 FPS. The pattern continues at 3840x2160: Low averages 76 FPS, Medium averages 48 FPS (with a minimum of 40 and maximum of 55 FPS), High averages 34 FPS, and Ultra averages just 27 FPS. These numbers show that 4K is only viable at Low or Medium settings for this combo, while 1440p is the sweet spot for a balance between visual quality and frame rate.

The minimum and maximum FPS values are only provided for Medium settings at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the range is 61 to 83 FPS, which is a 22 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range is 51 to 70 FPS, a 19 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the range is 40 to 55 FPS, a 15 FPS spread. This narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is more consistently loaded, reducing frame time variance but also lowering the overall average.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and AMD Radeon RX 7700 combination is ranked 1307 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the 44.9th percentile of all configurations, meaning it performs better than roughly 45% of the tested setups. This rank reflects the GPU’s mid-range standing; the Radeon RX 7700 has a percentile of 58 among all GPUs, while the CPU has a percentile of 96 among all CPUs. The CPU is clearly a high-end part, but the GPU is more mainstream, which drags the overall combo ranking down.

Compared to its nearest GPU rivals, the Radeon RX 7700’s average benchmark score of 15852 is very close to the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862, a 0.1% difference) and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679, a 1.1% difference). It is slightly behind the AMD Radeon RX 9060 (16014, a 1% difference) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129, a 1.7% difference). This suggests that in a game like The Medium, which is not extremely demanding, the RX 7700 will perform similarly to these cards, and the combo’s ranking is more dependent on the GPU than the CPU. The CPU’s high benchmark scores (84003 average, with 51731 in Cinebench R23 multi-core) do not fully compensate for the GPU’s mid-range position in this specific game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process node. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, with a total L3 cache of 36 MB shared across the cores. The CPU’s benchmark scores are impressive: it achieves 51731 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 7303 in single-core, putting it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. This level of performance is far beyond what The Medium requires, as the game is not known for heavy CPU utilization.

In the context of this combo, the CPU’s role is to ensure that the GPU is never starved of data. The measured FPS data shows that at lower resolutions like 1080p with Low settings, the average FPS reaches 115, which is likely near the GPU’s maximum output. The CPU’s high single-thread performance (4823 in Passmark single-thread) helps in maintaining frame pacing, but the game’s fixed-camera design means it doesn’t need to process complex open-world physics or large numbers of AI agents. The 24 threads are largely underutilized, but the high boost clock ensures that any single-threaded tasks are handled quickly.

The CPU’s memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel access and a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s, which is adequate for feeding the GPU’s 624.1 GB/s memory bandwidth without creating a bottleneck. The combination of a powerful CPU and a mid-range GPU means that in The Medium, the GPU is the limiting factor at all settings above Low. This is confirmed by the FPS scaling: going from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings reduces the average FPS from 72 to 48, a 33.3% drop, while the CPU’s workload would not increase proportionally. The CPU’s 24 cores and 24 threads are overkill for this game, but they provide headroom for other tasks, such as streaming or background applications, without affecting game performance. Overall, the CPU is not a bottleneck in this pairing; the GPU’s performance determines the final frame rates.