The Medium

The Medium is a horror title that is unusually demanding on GPU hardware, and the measured results for the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 show a configuration that is clearly bound by the graphics card at higher settings. The data reveals a wide performance spread across presets, making the choice of settings more impactful than in most games.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data shows that the Medium preset at 1440p offers the best balance of smoothness and visual fidelity for this specific combo. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers an average of 74 FPS, with a minimum of 63 FPS and a maximum of 85 FPS. This is the only setting that keeps the frame rate comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold at this resolution. While the High preset at 1440p produces an average of 53 FPS, that number falls below the ideal for responsive gameplay, making Medium the optimal choice.

At 1080p, the situation becomes more flexible. The Medium preset at 1920x1080 achieves 88 FPS on average, with a minimum of 75 FPS, which is excellent for high refresh rate monitors. The Low preset at 1080p pushes the average to 141 FPS, which is ideal for competitive play if the player prioritizes frame rate over visuals. However, the High preset at 1080p averages 63 FPS, which is playable but does not take full advantage of the hardware's potential. For a horror game that relies on atmosphere, the Medium preset at 1080p provides the best combination of visual detail and performance, avoiding the visual degradation of Low while maintaining a high frame rate.

For 4K resolution, the data shows a stark reality. The High preset at 3840x2160 averages only 42 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 33 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K provides an average of 58 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 67 FPS. This is the only playable option at 4K, but it still sits below the 60 FPS standard. The Low preset at 4K reaches 93 FPS, but the visual compromise is severe for a game with such heavy atmospheric lighting. The pragmatic recommendation is to use the Medium preset for all resolutions, as it is the highest setting that maintains a playable frame rate, and to accept that 4K will require a tolerance for frame rates in the 50-60 FPS range.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the decisive component in this pairing for The Medium, as evidenced by the performance scaling across settings. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. The boost clock is rated at 2520 MHz, with a game clock of 2070 MHz. These specifications are directly reflected in the benchmark results, which show that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher settings.

The VRAM capacity of 16 GB is not a limiting factor in this title, as the game's demands are more compute-intensive than memory-hungry. The data shows that reducing settings from High to Low at 1080p increases the average frame rate from 63 FPS to 141 FPS, a 124% improvement. This massive jump indicates that the GPU's shading units and ray tracing cores are being heavily taxed by the game's effects, rather than its memory subsystem. The RDNA 4.0 architecture, built on a 4 nm process, provides 3584 shading units and 56 ray tracing cores, which are fully utilized by The Medium's fixed camera angles and complex lighting.

The GPU's performance relative to other cards is modest, with a percentile ranking of 69 among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 23877 places it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, which has a score of 24170 and a delta of -1.2%. This puts the RX 9070 in the upper mid-range tier, which aligns with the measured FPS in The Medium. The card is capable of high frame rates at lower settings, but it lacks the raw power to maintain 60 FPS at 4K with High or Ultra presets. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6290 reinforces this position, showing that the card is competent for modern titles but not a top-tier performer.

Resolution Scaling

The benchmark data shows a clear and predictable pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor in this configuration. At the Medium preset, the average frame rate drops from 88 FPS at 1080p to 74 FPS at 1440p, a 16% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the average drops further to 58 FPS, a 22% decrease. This scaling is typical for a GPU-bound scenario, where the number of pixels rendered directly impacts the workload.

The Low preset shows even more dramatic scaling. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 141 FPS, which drops to 119 FPS at 1440p (16% decrease) and then to 93 FPS at 4K (22% decrease). This consistent scaling pattern across all resolutions indicates that the CPU, the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, is not introducing any bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting performance, the frame rates at lower resolutions would plateau or show erratic scaling, but the data shows smooth, predictable declines.

The High and Ultra presets show similar trends, with the High preset dropping from 63 FPS at 1080p to 53 FPS at 1440p and 42 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset starts at 50 FPS at 1080p and falls to 42 FPS at 1440p and 33 FPS at 4K. The fact that even at 1080p, the Ultra preset cannot maintain 60 FPS suggests that the game's highest settings are simply too demanding for this GPU. The resolution scaling data strongly suggests that the RX 9070 is the sole performance limiter, as the frame rate scales proportionally with the pixel count, leaving no indication of CPU involvement in the performance ceiling.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 60 FPS experience at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset is the only option that achieves a 60 FPS average at 2560x1440, with an average of 74 FPS and a minimum of 63 FPS. The High preset falls short with an average of 53 FPS.

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

A: Yes, but only at the Medium preset, which averages 58 FPS at 3840x2160. The High and Ultra presets average 42 FPS and 33 FPS respectively, which are not smooth enough for a playable experience.

Q: Is the 16 GB of VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: Yes, the data shows no indication of VRAM limitations. The performance scaling is consistent across resolutions, suggesting the GPU's compute capability, not memory capacity, is the limiting factor.

Q: How does the RX 9070 compare to the RTX 2080 SUPER in this context?

A: The RX 9070 has an average benchmark score of 23877, which is 1.2% lower than the RTX 2080 SUPER's score of 24170. This indicates they are closely matched, with the RX 9070 performing slightly worse on average.

Q: Is the CPU holding back performance in this game?

A: No. The resolution scaling data shows consistent frame rate drops as resolution increases, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU is not the bottleneck at any settings or resolution.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The High preset at 1920x1080 averages 63 FPS. This is playable, but the Medium preset offers a significant improvement with 88 FPS average, making it the better choice for a smoother experience.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 797th out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the 73rd percentile, meaning it outperforms roughly three-quarters of all tested configurations. This ranking is a direct reflection of the GPU's mid-range performance, as the CPU is exceptionally powerful and would not be a limiting factor.

The rank of 797 is a strong result for a single GPU setup, but it is not near the top of the charts. The data suggests that higher-ranked combos likely feature more powerful GPUs, such as the RTX 4090 or RX 7900 XTX, which would push frame rates higher at 4K and Ultra settings. The CPU's contribution to this rank is minimal, as it is clearly not the bottleneck. In fact, the CPU's performance is so far ahead of the GPU's capabilities in this game that swapping the RX 9070 for a more powerful card would likely yield a significantly better rank, while keeping the same CPU. This indicates that the combo's ranking is almost entirely determined by the GPU's position in the market.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a flagship processor that plays a minimal role in determining frame rates in The Medium. The CPU has 24 cores and 24 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. It features 36 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s. These specifications are formidable, and the benchmark data confirms that the CPU is more than capable of feeding the GPU.

The CPU's average benchmark score is 84003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, its closest rival. This places it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, indicating top-tier performance. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 51731 and single-core score of 7303 further demonstrate its strength. However, in The Medium, the measured FPS does not change in a way that reflects CPU limitations. The frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings, which would not happen if the CPU were struggling to keep up.

The game likely relies on a few threads for its core logic, and the CPU's high single-thread performance, evidenced by the 4823 Passmark single-thread score, ensures that it is never the bottleneck. The 24-thread count is excessive for this title, but it does not hurt performance. The data shows that the CPU's role is to provide a stable platform for the GPU to operate at its full potential, and it does so without issue. For this specific game, the CPU is a silent partner, allowing the RX 9070 to be the sole determinant of the experience.