The Medium

Similar Performance Alternatives

The Intel Core i7-14700F sits in a tight cluster of CPUs with nearly identical average benchmark scores. The closest match is the Intel Xeon 6505P, which scores 53,701 versus the i7-14700F's 53,620, a difference of only 0.2 percent. The Intel Xeon Phi 7290 trails by 0.3 percent, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is 0.6 percent behind, and the AMD EPYC 7313P sits 0.8 percent lower. All four alternatives land within a single percentage point of each other, meaning any of these processors would deliver effectively the same CPU-bound performance in The Medium. The Ryzen 9 7900X is the most direct consumer comparison, while the Xeon and EPYC parts represent server-grade equivalents that would behave similarly in this workload.

On the GPU side, the Intel Arc B390 occupies a very different position. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,482 places it near a group of older NVIDIA mobile and OEM parts. The GeForce GT 520MX scores 1,463, just 1.3 percent lower. The GeForce 800M is 1.5 percent behind, the GeForce GT 625 OEM is 2.5 percent lower, and the GeForce GT 710 trails by 2.7 percent. The Arc B390 outperforms all of these, but the margins are narrow. In practical terms, the data suggests this GPU behaves like a very low-end part, closer to decade-old entry-level hardware than to any modern gaming GPU. The percentile ranking reinforces this: the Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs, meaning roughly 91 percent of tested GPUs score higher.

The implications for The Medium are stark. The CPU is a high-end desktop processor with a 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs, while the GPU is a bottom-decile part. The combination creates a massive imbalance. Any benchmark result from this pairing reflects the GPU as the overwhelming bottleneck, not the CPU. Users considering similar hardware should understand that swapping the CPU for any of its nearest rivals would change almost nothing, while swapping the GPU for something in a higher percentile would transform the results entirely.

CPU and GPU Roles

The recorded FPS data makes the division of labor clear. Across all resolutions and settings, the frame rates are consistently low, which points to the GPU as the limiting factor. The CPU's capabilities, including its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35,122 and PassMark multi-thread score of 41,317, are far beyond what this game requires at these settings. The GPU's 3DMark score of 1,482 tells a different story: it is simply not equipped to render The Medium at acceptable frame rates.

Resolution scaling reveals how heavily the GPU is burdened. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average FPS is 51. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings drops the average to 43 FPS, a 15.7 percent reduction. At 3840x2160, it falls further to 34 FPS, a 33.3 percent drop from 1080p. This pattern holds across every preset. At Medium settings, 1080p averages 32 FPS, 1440p averages 27 FPS, and 4K averages 21 FPS. The consistent scaling with resolution is a classic GPU-bound signature. If the CPU were the constraint, frame rates would stay roughly flat as resolution changes.

Preset scaling reinforces the GPU bottleneck. At 1080p, jumping from Low to Medium costs 19 FPS on average (51 to 32), and from Medium to High costs another 9 FPS (32 to 23). Ultra drops to 18 FPS. The same pattern appears at 1440p and 4K. The GPU's pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s are simply insufficient for the demands of higher resolutions and more complex shading. The 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 figure sounds respectable on paper, but the architecture's real-world gaming performance, as captured in the 3DMark score, tells a more sobering story.

The CPU's role is nearly irrelevant here. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is most stressed, the CPU has ample headroom. The i7-14700F's 20 cores and 28 threads, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, are far more than The Medium requires. The data shows zero scenarios where the CPU becomes the limiting factor. Every frame rate drop between resolutions and presets is attributable to the GPU. Users should not expect CPU upgrades or tweaks to improve performance in this title; the bottleneck is unambiguously the Arc B390.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run The Medium at 60 FPS at any resolution?

A: No. The verdictByResolution data lists no playable settings for 3840x2160, 2560x1440, or 1920x1080. The highest recorded average FPS across all tests is 51 at 1080p Low, which is still 9 FPS short of the 60 FPS playable threshold.

Q: Which resolution and settings produce the highest average FPS?

A: The best result is 1920x1080 with Low settings, averaging 51 FPS. The lowest recorded result is 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, averaging 12 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700F scores 53,620 on average. The Intel Xeon 6505P is 0.2 percent higher, the Intel Xeon Phi 7290 is 0.3 percent lower, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X is 0.6 percent lower, and the AMD EPYC 7313P is 0.8 percent lower. All are effectively equivalent.

Q: Does the GPU have any direct competitors that perform similarly?

A: The Intel Arc B390 scores 1,482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX is 1.3 percent lower, the GeForce 800M is 1.5 percent lower, the GeForce GT 625 OEM is 2.5 percent lower, and the GeForce GT 710 is 2.7 percent lower. These are the closest recorded matches.

Q: What percentile does the GPU rank in among all GPUs?

A: The Intel Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile, meaning it outperforms only about 9 percent of all GPUs in the database. The CPU, by contrast, ranks at the 91st percentile.

Q: Is the 4K Medium setting's FPS range representative of typical performance?

A: At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 21, with a minimum of 18 and a maximum of 24. The narrow range suggests consistent, GPU-bound performance without significant frame time spikes.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: this PC cannot run The Medium at the 60 FPS playable threshold at any resolution. The verdictByResolution field lists no playable settings for 3840x2160, 2560x1440, or 1920x1080. The best-case scenario is 1920x1080 with Low settings, averaging 51 FPS. That is 9 FPS below the threshold. Every other combination scores lower.

At 2560x1440, the most favorable result is 43 FPS on Low, and at 3840x2160, it drops to 34 FPS on Low. The GPU simply lacks the rendering power to push The Medium across the finish line. The 12 RT cores and DirectX 12 Ultimate support are not enough to compensate for the low overall throughput. Users seeking a playable experience would need a substantially different GPU. The CPU is not the issue; it ranks at the 91st percentile and would handle this game effortlessly. The Arc B390's 9th percentile ranking is the sole reason for failure.

Best Settings per Resolution

No resolution achieves a playable average FPS of 60 or higher, so no "best settings" recommendation can be made. The recorded data shows the following highest averages per resolution:

• 3840x2160: Low settings, 34 FPS average
• 2560x1440: Low settings, 43 FPS average
• 1920x1080: Low settings, 51 FPS average

Each of these falls short of the 60 FPS threshold. The closest approach is 1080p Low at 51 FPS, which is still 15 percent below playable. At higher settings, the averages drop dramatically: 1080p Medium runs at 32 FPS, 1440p Medium at 27 FPS, and 4K Medium at 21 FPS. Ultra settings are the worst, with 18 FPS at 1080p, 15 FPS at 1440p, and 12 FPS at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific CPU and GPU pairing ranks 3,314th out of 3,724 tested combos in The Medium. That places it in the bottom 11 percent of all configurations. The ranking reflects the GPU's severe underperformance relative to the CPU. Most other combinations in the database, even those with weaker CPUs, achieve better frame rates because they pair them with more capable GPUs.

The combo rank is consistent with the individual component percentiles. The CPU sits at the 91st percentile, but the GPU sits at the 9th percentile. The final ranking of 3,314 out of 3,724 is pulled down almost entirely by the GPU. In a game like The Medium, where the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rate, this pairing is structurally disadvantaged. Users should interpret this rank as a warning: the CPU is wasted in this configuration for gaming purposes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates for the Intel Core i7-14700F and Intel Arc B390 in The Medium is as follows:

3840x2160:

• High: 15 FPS average
• Low: 34 FPS average
• Medium: 21 FPS average, 18 FPS minimum, 24 FPS maximum
• Ultra: 12 FPS average

2560x1440:

• High: 19 FPS average
• Low: 43 FPS average
• Medium: 27 FPS average, 23 FPS minimum, 31 FPS maximum
• Ultra: 15 FPS average

1920x1080:

• High: 23 FPS average
• Low: 51 FPS average
• Medium: 32 FPS average, 27 FPS minimum, 37 FPS maximum
• Ultra: 18 FPS average

Only the Medium setting at each resolution includes minimum and maximum frame data. The 1080p Medium range spans 27 to 37 FPS, a 10 FPS spread that indicates modest frame time variation. The 1440p Medium range spans 23 to 31 FPS, while the 4K Medium range spans 18 to 24 FPS. These ranges are tighter than the differences between presets, suggesting the GPU maintains consistent performance at each setting rather than spiking wildly.

The overall pattern is monotonic: higher resolutions and higher settings always produce lower frame rates. The gaps between Low and Medium are the largest, typically 19 FPS at 1080p, 16 FPS at 1440p, and 13 FPS at 4K. The gaps between High and Ultra are smaller, around 5 FPS at 1080p, 4 FPS at 1440p, and 3 FPS at 4K. This indicates diminishing returns from the most demanding settings, but no setting comes close to the 60 FPS target. The data leaves no room for interpretation: this hardware combination is not viable for The Medium.