The Medium

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the Intel Arc B580 is a combination that struggles to maintain smooth frame rates in The Medium at higher settings. Benchmark results show that only the Low preset achieves playable performance, defined as 60 FPS or above, across all tested resolutions. At 1080p, Low delivers 90.1 FPS, while 1440p and 4K yield 72.7 and 60.6 FPS respectively. Every other preset falls short of the 60 FPS threshold, making this combo a strictly low-settings experience for this horror title.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160 (4K), the only playable option is Low, which produces an average of 60.6 FPS. Medium drops to 35.2 FPS, High falls to 28.3 FPS, and Ultra is unplayable at 18.7 FPS. The 60 FPS target is barely met with Low, so any visual upgrade comes at a massive performance cost.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), Low remains the best playable setting, delivering 72.7 FPS. This gives a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium drops to 47.2 FPS, High to 32.5 FPS, and Ultra to 24.3 FPS. None of these higher presets come close to playable territory.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), Low again is the recommended setting, providing 90.1 FPS. This is the strongest result for this combo. Medium comes close at 57.6 FPS but still misses the 60 FPS mark. High produces 41.9 FPS, while Ultra bottoms out at 32.3 FPS.

The verdict is consistent across all resolutions: Low is the only viable preset. There is no resolution where Medium or higher achieves 60 FPS. The data indicates that this hardware pairing is fundamentally limited in The Medium, and users must accept reduced visual fidelity to maintain smooth gameplay.

CPU and GPU Roles

The performance scaling across resolutions reveals that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck for this combo. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 90.1 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops performance by 19.3% to 72.7 FPS. At 4K Low, it falls another 16.6% to 60.6 FPS. This steady decline with increasing pixel count points to GPU-bound rendering.

The gap between presets further confirms this. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium costs 32.5 FPS (90.1 to 57.6), while Low to High costs 48.2 FPS. At 1440p, Low to Medium drops 25.5 FPS, and at 4K, Low to Medium drops 25.4 FPS. These consistent penalties across resolutions indicate that the Arc B580’s rendering throughput, not the CPU, dictates frame rates.

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz and a 91st percentile ranking among all CPUs. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35122 and single-core score of 4958 are far beyond what The Medium requires, based on the measured results. The CPU’s capabilities are not the limiting factor here.

At higher settings, the performance collapse is uniform across resolutions. For instance, Ultra at 1080p yields 32.3 FPS, while at 4K it yields 18.7 FPS. This pattern suggests the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s and 12 GB of GDDR6 are insufficient for the game’s higher-quality textures and effects. The CPU’s role is effectively neutralized once the GPU becomes saturated.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the measured averages are as follows: Low runs at 60.6 FPS, Medium at 35.2 FPS, High at 28.3 FPS, and Ultra at 18.7 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 25.4 FPS, a 41.9% reduction. High to Ultra costs another 9.6 FPS. No min or max values are recorded in the data, but the averages alone show a steep, non-linear degradation as preset quality increases.

At 2560x1440, Low achieves 72.7 FPS, Medium 47.2 FPS, High 32.5 FPS, and Ultra 24.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 25.5 FPS, nearly identical to the 4K difference. High to Ultra drops 8.2 FPS. The 1440p results are consistently about 5-6 FPS higher than 4K at the same preset, reflecting the lower pixel count.

At 1920x1080, Low hits 90.1 FPS, Medium 57.6 FPS, High 41.9 FPS, and Ultra 32.3 FPS. The Medium result is notable because it barely misses the 60 FPS target, suggesting that a slight reduction in some settings could make it playable. However, the data shows no such configuration. Low to Medium costs 32.5 FPS, the largest single-preset drop across all resolutions.

Across all three resolutions, the pattern is identical: Low is playable, Medium is borderline or unplayable, and High/Ultra are far below acceptable. The 4K Low result of 60.6 FPS is the weakest playable outcome, while 1080p Low at 90.1 FPS is the strongest. The data contains no min or max FPS values, so variability cannot be assessed, but the averages paint a clear picture of a GPU-limited system.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the nearest rivals to the Intel Core i7-14700F are all within a narrow performance band. The Intel Xeon 6505P scores 53701, which is 0.2% lower. The Intel Xeon Phi 7290 scores 53469, 0.3% higher. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X scores 53288, 0.6% higher. The AMD EPYC 7313P scores 53206, 0.8% higher. Any of these processors would deliver essentially identical gaming performance in The Medium, since the GPU is the bottleneck.

For the GPU, the Intel Arc B580’s nearest rivals show a similar tight clustering. The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP scores 23061, 0.2% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 scores 22895, 0.6% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 scores 23172, 0.7% lower. The NVIDIA P106-100 scores 23249, 1.0% lower. These delta values are all under 1%, meaning users with any of these GPUs would experience nearly the same frame rates in The Medium.

The practical implication is that swapping the CPU for a Ryzen 9 7900X or the GPU for an RTX 3080 would not change the outcome. The combo would still be limited to Low settings at playable frame rates. The Arc B580’s 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 23021 place it in a performance tier where The Medium’s higher presets are simply out of reach.

FAQ

Q: What is the best playable setting for this combo at 1080p?

A: Low is the only playable setting at 1920x1080, delivering an average of 90.1 FPS. Medium falls just short at 57.6 FPS.

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only on Low settings. At 3840x2160, Low averages 60.6 FPS, which barely meets the 60 FPS threshold. Medium drops to 35.2 FPS.

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

A: The Intel Core i7-14700F’s nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, which scores 0.6% higher, and the Intel Xeon 6505P, which scores 0.2% lower. Performance differences are negligible.

Q: What GPU alternatives would behave similarly?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 scores 0.7% lower than the Arc B580, while the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP scores 0.2% higher. All nearest rivals are within 1% of the Arc B580’s average score.

Q: Why does Medium preset fail to hit 60 FPS at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Medium averages 57.6 FPS, which is 2.4 FPS below the playable threshold. The drop from Low to Medium costs 32.5 FPS, indicating a steep GPU performance penalty.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting factor. Performance scales consistently with resolution and preset, while the CPU’s high benchmark scores (91st percentile) are never the bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700F + Intel Arc B580 ranks 2805 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the bottom 25% of configurations, with 919 combos performing worse. The rank reflects the GPU’s inability to handle presets above Low at any resolution.

The ranking is consistent with the measured FPS data. A combo that cannot exceed 90 FPS at 1080p Low and drops to 60.6 FPS at 4K Low is fundamentally limited. The 68th percentile GPU ranking and the 91st percentile CPU ranking create a mismatch: the CPU is far more capable than the GPU, but the game’s demands are GPU-heavy.

For users with this combo, the takeaway is straightforward: The Medium is playable only on Low settings, and even then, 4K is marginal. The combo’s rank of 2805 out of 3724 indicates that most tested systems outperform it. Upgrading the GPU would yield the greatest benefit, as the CPU has ample headroom. However, based on the data, this pairing is best suited for 1080p Low gaming, where it delivers 90.1 FPS.