The Medium

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a benchmark profile for The Medium that is defined by headroom. At 1920x1080, the combination produces a 178 FPS average at Low settings, while at 3840x2160, the Ultra preset drops to a 50 FPS average. The measured frame rates across four resolutions and four settings tiers reveal a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher presets, yet still capable of clearing the 60 FPS playability threshold at every resolution with the appropriate settings selection.

Best Settings per Resolution

3840x2160 (4K): The most demanding preset that maintains a 60 FPS average is High, which delivers 63 FPS average. The Medium preset runs at 87 FPS, and Low runs at 140 FPS, but High is the highest visual quality tier that stays above the playability threshold. Ultra at this resolution falls to 50 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS target.

2560x1440 (1440p): The most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, averaging 63 FPS. The High preset averages 80 FPS, Medium averages 111 FPS, and Low averages 168 FPS. Ultra is the only preset at this resolution that tests the limit of the 60 FPS target, but it clears it by 3 FPS.

1920x1080 (1080p): The most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, averaging 75 FPS. High averages 95 FPS, Medium averages 132 FPS, and Low averages 178 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p provides a 15 FPS margin over the playability threshold, indicating that the system has additional headroom even at maximum settings.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling pattern across resolutions indicates that the RTX 4090 is the primary performance driver at 4K and 1440p, while the i7-14700F becomes more relevant at 1080p and low settings. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Ultra settings, the average FPS drops from 75 to 63, a 16% reduction. From 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 at Ultra, the average FPS drops from 63 to 50, a 21% reduction. This progressive decline with increasing resolution is characteristic of GPU-bound scenarios, where the rendering load outpaces the CPU's frame generation capacity.

The CPU's influence is evident in the Low settings results. At 1920x1080 Low, the average is 178 FPS; at 2560x1440 Low, it is 168 FPS; and at 3840x2160 Low, it is 140 FPS. The relatively small delta between 1080p and 1440p Low (10 FPS) compared to the larger delta between 1440p and 4K Low (28 FPS) suggests that at lower settings, the CPU can feed frames efficiently until the GPU's pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor at 4K. The i7-14700F, with 20 cores and 28 threads, provides sufficient single-thread performance for the game's logic, but the data shows that resolution scaling affects FPS more than settings scaling at high presets.

At Medium settings, the min-to-max FPS spread widens with resolution. At 1920x1080 Medium, the range is 112 to 152 FPS (spread of 40). At 2560x1440 Medium, the range is 95 to 128 FPS (spread of 33). At 3840x2160 Medium, the range is 74 to 101 FPS (spread of 27). The narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates that frame pacing becomes more consistent as the GPU becomes the bottleneck, reducing the variance introduced by CPU scheduling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

3840x2160:

• Ultra: Average 50 FPS. No min or max values recorded.
• High: Average 63 FPS. No min or max values recorded.
• Medium: Average 87 FPS. Minimum 74 FPS, maximum 101 FPS. The 27 FPS spread between min and max indicates moderate frame variance.
• Low: Average 140 FPS. No min or max values recorded.

2560x1440:

• Ultra: Average 63 FPS. No min or max values recorded.
• High: Average 80 FPS. No min or max values recorded.
• Medium: Average 111 FPS. Minimum 95 FPS, maximum 128 FPS. The 33 FPS spread is wider than at 4K Medium, suggesting more CPU involvement in frame delivery.
• Low: Average 168 FPS. No min or max values recorded.

1920x1080:

• Ultra: Average 75 FPS. No min or max values recorded.
• High: Average 95 FPS. No min or max values recorded.
• Medium: Average 132 FPS. Minimum 112 FPS, maximum 152 FPS. The 40 FPS spread is the widest of any Medium preset, indicating that the CPU has more headroom to generate frames, but with less consistent pacing.
• Low: Average 178 FPS. No min or max values recorded.

The data shows that only the Medium presets have recorded min and max values. For all other settings, only average FPS is available. The Medium preset at 1080p has the highest min FPS at 112, while the 4K Medium has the lowest min FPS at 74, but still above the 60 FPS threshold.

The Verdict

This PC can run The Medium at all four tested resolutions, provided the settings are chosen appropriately. The verdict by resolution is as follows:

• 3840x2160: Playable settings include High, Low, and Medium. The best setting is High with an average of 63 FPS. Ultra is not playable, averaging 50 FPS.
• 2560x1440: Playable settings include High, Low, Medium, and Ultra. The best setting is Ultra with an average of 63 FPS. All four presets clear the 60 FPS threshold.
• 1920x1080: Playable settings include High, Low, Medium, and Ultra. The best setting is Ultra with an average of 75 FPS. All four presets clear the 60 FPS threshold.

The system meets the 60 FPS playability threshold at 4K only up to High settings, but at 1440p and 1080p, the full range of presets, including Ultra, is playable. The 4K Ultra preset is the only configuration that fails to meet the playability target, falling 10 FPS short.

Similar Performance Alternatives

CPU Rivals: The i7-14700F has an average benchmark score of 53620. The nearest rivals are all within 1% of this score. The Intel Xeon 6505P scores 53701, which is 0.2% lower. The Intel Xeon Phi 7290 scores 53469, which is 0.3% higher. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X scores 53288, which is 0.6% higher. The AMD EPYC 7313P scores 53206, which is 0.8% higher. Any of these CPUs would behave nearly identically in The Medium at the tested resolutions, as their synthetic benchmark scores are effectively equivalent. The Ryzen 9 7900X is the closest consumer-oriented alternative, while the Xeon parts are server-class but offer similar compute performance.

GPU Rivals: The RTX 4090 has an average benchmark score of 60347. The nearest rivals are also tightly clustered. The Intel Arc Pro A60 scores 60326, which is 0% different. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 scores 60140, which is 0.3% higher. The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M scores 61896, which is 2.5% lower. The AMD Radeon PRO V710 scores 58657, which is 2.9% higher. The Arc Pro A60 is the closest match, with a delta of 0%, meaning it should produce nearly identical FPS in The Medium. The Radeon Pro W6600M, despite a 2.5% lower score, would still deliver frame rates within a few FPS of the RTX 4090. None of these rivals would change the verdict: at 4K, High remains the best playable setting, and at 1440p and 1080p, Ultra remains playable.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K Ultra settings?*

A: No. At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 50, which is below the 60 FPS playability threshold. The best playable setting at 4K is High, with an average of 63 FPS.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combination?

A: The highest average FPS is 178, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At Medium settings, the average is 132 FPS, and at High settings, it is 95 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's performance compare to its nearest GPU rival?

A: The Intel Arc Pro A60 has an average benchmark score of 60326, which is 0% different from the RTX 4090's 60347. The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M scores 61896, which is 2.5% lower. These rivals would produce similar frame rates in The Medium.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1440p Ultra?

A: The data indicates GPU limitation. At 2560x1440 Ultra, the average FPS is 63, which is identical to the 4K High average. The scaling from 1080p Ultra (75 FPS) to 1440p Ultra (63 FPS) shows a 12 FPS drop, while the drop from 1440p Ultra to 4K Ultra (50 FPS) is 13 FPS, suggesting consistent GPU-bound scaling.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1080p Medium?

A: The minimum FPS at 1920x1080 Medium is 112, with a maximum of 152 and an average of 132. The 40 FPS spread indicates frame pacing variability, but the minimum still clears the 60 FPS threshold by 52 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination ranks 95th out of 3724 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the top 2.6% of all tested configurations.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank for this specific CPU-GPU pairing in The Medium is 95 out of 3724 tested combinations. This places the system in the 97.4th percentile, meaning it outperforms roughly 97% of all tested configurations. The rank reflects the combined capability of the i7-14700F's multi-threaded performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 35122, and the RTX 4090's raw rendering throughput, demonstrated by its Passmark G3D score of 38194. The high rank is consistent with the measured FPS data: the system clears the 60 FPS threshold at all resolutions except 4K Ultra, and even at 4K Ultra, the 50 FPS average is only 10 FPS short of the target. The proximity of the CPU and GPU rivals (all within 2.9% delta for both components) suggests that this rank is representative of a tight cluster of high-end hardware, and small benchmark variations would not meaningfully change the system's position in the overall ranking. For a game like The Medium, which is a horror title with a release date of 2021-01-27, this hardware combination provides substantial headroom for the game's rendering demands, with the only notable compromise being the 4K Ultra preset.