The Medium

The Intel Core i7-14700K paired with Intel's Arc B370 integrated graphics cannot run The Medium at a playable level in any tested configuration. The recorded data shows frame rates far below the 60 FPS threshold at every resolution and every preset, and the bottleneck is unambiguous: a flagship-tier processor is strapped to an integrated GPU sitting in the 5th percentile of all graphics hardware in the database.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the most forgiving resolution in the dataset, the numbers already fall short. The Low preset averages 46 FPS, Medium averages 29 FPS with a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 33, High averages 21 FPS, and Ultra averages 16 FPS. Even the lowest possible settings fail to reach the 60 FPS playable threshold, and the Medium preset frame-time range is tight, from 24 to 33, meaning there is no moment where the experience recovers into smooth territory.

At 2560x1440 the situation deteriorates further. Low manages 39 FPS, Medium drops to an average of 24 FPS with a minimum of 21 and a maximum of 28, High falls to 17 FPS, and Ultra lands at 14 FPS. The Medium preset loses 5 FPS on average relative to its 1080p result, a decline consistent with a GPU that is completely saturated as pixel count rises.

At 3840x2160, the results are effectively a slideshow. Low averages 30 FPS, Medium averages 19 FPS with a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 22, High averages 14 FPS, and Ultra averages 11 FPS. The 4K Low result sitting at half the 60 FPS target, despite a CPU in the 94th percentile, confirms that the graphics side of this pairing is the hard limit at every turn.

FAQ

Q: Can the i7-14700K + Arc B370 run The Medium at 1080p?

A: No. The best recorded result at 1920x1080 is 46 FPS on the Low preset, which is below the 60 FPS playable threshold. Higher presets drop to 29, 21, and 16 FPS for Medium, High, and Ultra respectively.

Q: What is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo in The Medium?

A: 46 FPS average, at 1920x1080 on the Low preset. No configuration in the dataset reaches 60 FPS.

Q: Is 4K playable on this hardware?

A: Not remotely. At 3840x2160 the averages range from 30 FPS on Low down to 11 FPS on Ultra, and the Medium preset never exceeds 22 FPS.

Q: Which component is holding this combo back?

A: The GPU. The Arc B370 is an integrated solution in the 5th percentile of all GPUs in the database with a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1184, while the i7-14700K sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested combinations in The Medium?

A: It ranks 3439 out of 3724 tested combos, placing it in the bottom tier of configurations measured for this game.

Q: Does lowering settings help enough?

A: Dropping from Ultra to Low roughly triples the frame rate at 1080p, from 16 to 46 FPS, but the gain is still not sufficient to clear 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The ranking data reinforces the measured results. This pairing sits at rank 3439 of 3724 combinations tested in The Medium, which places it near the very bottom of the leaderboard. That position is not a reflection of the CPU: the i7-14700K posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33440.5, a single-core score of 2160, and a PassMark multithread rating of 52392, numbers that sit in the 94th percentile of all processors. Its nearest rivals by average benchmark score, the AMD EPYC 9115 at 69288 (0.1 percent behind), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 69515 (0.2 percent ahead), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX at 69875 (0.7 percent ahead), and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F at 69996 (0.9 percent ahead), are all high-end chips. Any of those processors paired with a proper discrete GPU would demolish these frame rates.

The drag on the ranking is the graphics side. The Arc B370's lone recorded benchmark, a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184, puts it within rounding distance of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 at 1186, the ATI Radeon HD 5770 at 1190, the AMD Radeon HD 7650M at 1192, and the AMD FirePro M2000 at 1168. These are rival comparisons from a hardware generation that predates The Medium's 2021 release, and they underline the point: the integrated GPU is simply not built for this workload.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Because the GPU is the binding constraint, any alternative that behaves similarly must be built around comparable graphics capability. The database places the Arc B370 alongside the ATI Radeon HD 5770, which scores 0.5 percent higher on average, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 at 0.2 percent higher, the AMD Radeon HD 7650M at 0.7 percent higher, and the AMD FirePro M2000 at 1.4 percent lower. A system built on any of those graphics solutions would be expected to produce nearly identical results in The Medium: sub-30 FPS at 1080p on Medium settings and unplayable frame rates at higher resolutions.

On the CPU side, swapping the i7-14700K for the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, or AMD EPYC 9115 would change nothing meaningful, since all four sit within one percent of its average benchmark score. The lesson from the rival data is directional: to fix this experience, replace the graphics solution, not the processor. The i7-14700K, with 20 cores, 28 threads, a 5.60 GHz boost clock, and PCIe Gen 5 with 16 CPU lanes, is fully capable of feeding a dramatically faster GPU.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling data tells a one-sided story about where the performance ceiling lies. From 1080p to 1440p on the Medium preset, the average drops from 29 to 24 FPS; from 1440p to 4K it falls from 24 to 19 FPS. Between presets at 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra cuts the average from 46 to 16 FPS. Settings and resolution changes produce large swings in frame rate, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound configuration: when the graphics solution is the limit, every increase in render load translates directly into lost frames, and the CPU's ample headroom goes unused.

If the CPU were the constraint, the picture would look different: raising resolution would barely move the frame rate because the processor would already be saturated, and the gap between Low and Ultra presets would compress. Neither pattern appears here. The i7-14700K, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 20767 and a single-core score of 2569, plus support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory, has enormous reserves for a horror title released in 2021. The Arc B370, drawing 25 W with 1280 shading units, 10 RT cores, and system-shared memory, exhausts itself the moment The Medium's dual-reality rendering demands real rasterization throughput. The GPU is decisive at every resolution tested; the CPU is a passenger.

The Verdict

No. This PC cannot run The Medium at a playable level anywhere in the tested matrix. The verdict data shows an empty list of playable settings at 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160, with no preset clearing the 60 FPS threshold at any resolution. The single best result in the entire dataset, 46 FPS at 1080p Low, still falls short, and it comes with every visual compromise the game offers. Medium settings at 1080p deliver 29 FPS average with dips to 24, which is marginal even for a slow-paced horror game, and everything beyond 1080p is unambiguously off the table.

The configuration itself is the problem, not either part in isolation. A processor in the 94th percentile of all CPUs deserves better than an integrated GPU in the 5th percentile, and The Medium, a DirectX 12 Ultimate-class title, exposes that mismatch ruthlessly. The recorded data supports one clear recommendation: this combo should not be considered for The Medium at any resolution or preset, and the fix lies entirely on the graphics side.