The Medium

The Medium presents a unique dual-reality rendering challenge, and this specific configuration—Intel Core i7-14700F paired with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090—delivers a wide spread of performance depending on how aggressively you push the settings. The measured data shows a system that can comfortably handle the game at most resolutions and presets, though the most demanding combination at 4K Ultra will test its limits. Across twelve tested configurations spanning three resolutions and four quality presets, average frame rates range from 53.4 FPS at the heaviest setting to 175.5 FPS at the lightest, indicating substantial headroom for high-refresh-rate displays at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the RTX 5090 and Core i7-14700F combination produces a clear tiered performance structure. On the Low preset, the average frame rate reaches 145.2 FPS, which is exceptionally high for 4K and suggests the game’s rendering load at this setting is far below what the GPU can sustain. Moving to Medium drops the average to 89.7 FPS, still well above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The High preset yields 67.6 FPS on average, which remains playable but shows a significant 24.6% reduction compared to Medium. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration in the entire dataset that falls below the 60 FPS playability threshold, with an average of 53.4 FPS—a 20.9% drop from High and a 63.2% reduction from Low. This pattern indicates that the jump from High to Ultra is disproportionately expensive in The Medium’s 4K rendering path, likely due to the game’s dual-world rendering technique that doubles the effective scene complexity.

At 2560x1440, the same settings ladder shows more headroom. The Low preset averages 165.6 FPS, which is 14.1% higher than the 4K Low result, demonstrating that resolution scaling is not perfectly linear. Medium delivers 117.3 FPS, a 30.8% improvement over the 4K Medium result. High reaches 82.2 FPS, which is 21.6% above the 4K High figure. Notably, Ultra at 1440p averages 63.4 FPS, clearing the 60 FPS threshold by a narrow margin of 5.7%. This means every preset at 1440p is playable, with Ultra being the only one that approaches the boundary. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 102.2 FPS, a substantial spread that gives users a wide range of visual fidelity versus performance trade-offs.

At 1920x1080, performance is consistently high across all presets. The Low preset averages 175.5 FPS, the highest figure in the entire dataset, and represents a 5.9% improvement over 1440p Low. Medium hits 136.8 FPS, which is 16.6% higher than the 1440p Medium result. High averages 98.5 FPS, a 19.8% uplift over 1440p High. Ultra at 1080p reaches 80.5 FPS, which is 26.9% higher than the 1440p Ultra figure and 50.7% higher than the 4K Ultra result. At 1080p, even the heaviest preset maintains a comfortable 34.2% buffer above the 60 FPS threshold. The scaling from 4K to 1080p at Ultra settings shows a 50.7% performance increase, while at Low settings the improvement is only 20.9%, indicating that lower presets are less resolution-sensitive because the bottleneck shifts away from the GPU.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearestRivals data for the Intel Core i7-14700F places it in close competition with several server and desktop processors. The Intel Xeon 6505P scores 53,701 in average benchmark, which is 0.2% higher than the i7-14700F’s 53,620 average score, making the two effectively interchangeable in CPU-bound scenarios. The Intel Xeon Phi 7290 trails by 0.3% with a score of 53,469, while the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X sits 0.6% behind at 53,288. The AMD EPYC 7313P is 0.8% lower at 53,206. These tiny deltaPct values—all within 1%—mean that for The Medium, any of these processors would produce nearly identical frame rates when paired with the same GPU, assuming the game’s CPU demands are similar to the benchmark workloads. The i7-14700F’s percentile rank of 91 among all CPUs confirms it is a high-end part, but the rivals show that the specific choice among top-tier processors matters little for this title.

For the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, the nearestRivals list is more surprising given its flagship positioning. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB scores 79,605 in average benchmark, which is 0.3% lower than the RTX 5090’s 79,842 average score. The Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB is 0.6% behind at 79,396. The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, a mobile GPU, comes within 1.1% at 78,940. The AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X actually scores higher at 80,959, a 1.4% advantage over the RTX 5090. These deltaPct values are all under 2%, meaning that in synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5090 is not dramatically separated from these parts. However, for gaming specifically, the RTX 5090’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and Blackwell architecture provide features these rivals lack, so the measured FPS in The Medium would likely favor the RTX 5090 despite the benchmark parity. The GPU’s percentile rank of 92 indicates it sits near the top of the overall distribution, but the rival scores suggest that raw compute benchmarks do not fully capture gaming performance differences.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals how the balance between CPU and GPU shifts across resolutions in The Medium. At 1920x1080, the CPU plays a more significant role because the GPU can render frames quickly, and the i7-14700F’s 20 cores and 28 threads help maintain high average frame rates. The jump from 1080p Low at 175.5 FPS to 1440p Low at 165.6 FPS is only 5.6%, which is a modest reduction given the 77% increase in pixel count. This suggests that at Low settings, the system is partially CPU-limited even at 1080p, because the GPU has enough headroom that the CPU’s frame generation rate becomes the constraining factor. Conversely, the jump from 1080p Ultra at 80.5 FPS to 1440p Ultra at 63.4 FPS is a 21.2% drop, closely matching the 77% pixel increase if scaling were linear—but it is not, because the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck at Ultra settings.

At 3840x2160, the GPU dominates the performance equation. The difference between 1440p Ultra (63.4 FPS) and 4K Ultra (53.4 FPS) is 15.8%, while the pixel count increases by 125%. This non-linear scaling indicates that the RTX 5090’s memory bandwidth and compute throughput are the primary limits at 4K Ultra, and the CPU’s role diminishes. The resolution scaling at Medium settings shows a similar pattern: 1080p Medium averages 136.8 FPS, 1440p Medium drops to 117.3 FPS (14.3% lower), and 4K Medium falls to 89.7 FPS (23.5% lower than 1440p). The larger relative drop from 1440p to 4K compared to 1080p to 1440p confirms that GPU load intensifies disproportionately at higher resolutions. The CPU’s influence is most visible at Low settings, where the 1080p to 4K drop is only 17.3% (from 175.5 to 145.2 FPS), far less than the pixel count increase, meaning the CPU is holding performance more constant while the GPU has excess capacity.

The Verdict

This PC can run The Medium, and it does so with authority across most of the tested configurations. The verdictByResolution data is unambiguous: at 3840x2160, the playable settings are High, Low, and Medium, with High being the best playable setting at an average of 67.6 FPS. This clears the 60 FPS threshold by 12.7%, providing a smooth experience with high visual quality. The 4K Ultra preset at 53.4 FPS is not playable according to the 60 FPS standard, so users targeting 4K should stick to High or below. At 2560x1440, all four presets are playable, with Ultra being the best setting at 63.4 FPS average. This is a narrow margin above 60 FPS—only 5.7%—so users who prefer a larger buffer might choose High at 82.2 FPS instead, sacrificing some visual fidelity for a 29.6% performance improvement. At 1920x1080, every preset clears 60 FPS comfortably, with Ultra reaching 80.5 FPS, which is 34.2% above the threshold. The best overall experience for maximum visual quality at 1080p is Ultra, while at 1440p Ultra is technically viable but close to the limit, and at 4K High is the recommended ceiling.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest playable setting at 4K for this configuration?

A: At 3840x2160, the High preset is the best playable setting, achieving an average of 67.6 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 53.4 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS playability threshold.

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 1440p with all settings maxed?

A: Yes, the Ultra preset at 2560x1440 averages 63.4 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold. However, the margin is slim at 5.7%, so users sensitive to frame drops may prefer High at 82.2 FPS.

Q: How does performance scale from 1080p to 4K at the same settings?

A: At Ultra settings, 1080p averages 80.5 FPS, 1440p averages 63.4 FPS (a 21.2% drop), and 4K averages 53.4 FPS (a 15.8% drop from 1440p). At Low settings, the drop from 1080p (175.5 FPS) to 4K (145.2 FPS) is only 17.3%, showing that lower presets are less resolution-sensitive.

Q: Which component is the bottleneck at 4K Ultra?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K Ultra, as evidenced by the 53.4 FPS average. The RTX 5090’s rendering load at this resolution and preset exceeds what the CPU needs to feed it, given that the i7-14700F can sustain higher frame rates at lower resolutions with the same settings.

Q: Is the 60 FPS threshold met at every preset for 1080p?

A: Yes, all four presets at 1920x1080 exceed 60 FPS. The lowest is Ultra at 80.5 FPS, while Low reaches 175.5 FPS, Medium hits 136.8 FPS, and High averages 98.5 FPS.

Q: How large is the performance gap between Low and Ultra presets at each resolution?

A: At 1080p, the gap is 95 FPS (from 175.5 to 80.5). At 1440p, the gap is 102.2 FPS (from 165.6 to 63.4). At 4K, the gap is 91.8 FPS (from 145.2 to 53.4). The largest absolute spread occurs at 1440p, while the smallest is at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination ranks 66th out of 3,724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 1.8% of all configurations in the database. This rank reflects the overall average performance across all tested resolutions and settings, weighted by the playability outcomes. The rank of 66 is notably high, but not the very top, which suggests that some other combos—likely those with even higher-end CPUs or more game-specific optimizations—achieve better aggregate scores. The CPU’s percentile rank of 91 and the GPU’s percentile rank of 92 are both strong, but the combo rank of 66 out of 3,724 indicates that the pairing is more than the sum of its parts, likely due to the RTX 5090’s ability to push high frame rates at lower resolutions where the CPU can keep up. The data shows that this combo is far more capable than the median system, and for The Medium specifically, it delivers playable performance at 4K High, 1440p Ultra, and 1080p Ultra, which covers the vast majority of gaming scenarios. The only configuration that falls short is 4K Ultra, which is an extreme edge case even for this high-end hardware. Given the 3,724 total combos, ranking 66th means there are 3,658 other configurations that perform worse in this game, confirming that this system is a top-tier choice for The Medium.