The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding workload for the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti pairing. This combo, ranked 1491 out of 1689 tested configurations, sits in the lower percentile of systems capable of running the game, indicating that it is a decidedly entry-level setup for this title. The measured frame rates show a system that is consistently struggling to maintain smooth gameplay, particularly at higher resolutions and quality presets, where the GTX 1660 Ti's 6 GB of VRAM and TU116 chip become the primary limiting factors.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, which is a classic indicator of GPU-bound rendering. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 71.8 FPS, which is the most playable configuration in the dataset. Moving to 1440p at the same Low preset drops the average to 61.8 FPS, a 14% reduction, and at 4K Low, the average falls to 44.8 FPS, a further 27% decrease from the 1440p result. This scaling pattern shows that even at the lowest quality settings, the pixel throughput demands of higher resolutions quickly outpace what the GTX 1660 Ti can deliver.

The situation becomes more severe with higher quality presets. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 34 FPS at 1080p to 25.3 FPS at 1440p, and then to 21.4 FPS at 4K. This indicates that the combination of increased resolution and higher graphical fidelity creates a multiplicative load that the GPU cannot handle. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at High quality results in a 25.6% performance loss, while the jump from 1440p to 4K at the same preset results in a 15.4% loss. The data suggests that the limiting component is overwhelmingly the GPU, as the performance degradation correlates directly with the increase in pixel count and shading complexity, which are primarily handled by the graphics card.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings at 4K is particularly telling. The 44.8 FPS at Low drops to a slideshow-like 15.7 FPS at Ultra, a 65% reduction in performance. This massive swing, driven by the 12 Gbps GDDR6 memory and the 1536 shading units being overwhelmed, confirms that users must make significant quality sacrifices to achieve any semblance of playability on this hardware. The benchmark results indicate that the Core i3-12100F, with its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 4.30 GHz boost clock, is not the bottleneck at these settings; rather, the GTX 1660 Ti's 288.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 5.437 TFLOPS of FP32 compute are insufficient for The Medium's demands beyond 1080p Low or Medium.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo achieve a stable 60 FPS experience in The Medium?

A: Yes, but only at 1920x1080 with Low settings, where the average FPS is 71.8. At Medium settings, the average drops to 46.9 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. No other resolution or quality preset in the data reaches 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best playable configuration for this hardware?

A: The data suggests 1920x1080 with Low settings is the only configuration that provides a consistently smooth experience, with an average of 71.8 FPS. For a more balanced visual quality, 2560x1440 at Low settings averages 61.8 FPS, but this is still a marginal result.

Q: How does this combo perform at 4K resolution?

A: Poorly. At 4K, the average FPS ranges from 44.8 FPS at Low settings to 15.7 FPS at Ultra settings. The High and Medium presets yield 21.4 FPS and 26.6 FPS respectively, all of which are below playable thresholds.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The benchmark data points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck. The performance scaling with resolution is steep, with a 65% drop from Low to Ultra at 4K. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11912, are not reflected in the FPS data, which shows that the graphics card is unable to feed frames fast enough at higher loads.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and High settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Medium settings average 46.9 FPS, while High settings average 34 FPS. This is a 12.9 FPS difference, or a 27.5% reduction in performance, showing that the High preset has a significant impact on the GTX 1660 Ti.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to Low at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings average 61.8 FPS, while Ultra settings average 22.3 FPS. This represents a 64% performance drop, demonstrating that the Ultra preset is not viable for this combination.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti combo ranks 1491 out of 1689 tested combinations in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 12% of systems. This rank is far below the 72nd percentile for the CPU alone and the 55th percentile for the GPU alone, which shows that the pairing is not well-suited for this specific game's requirements. The data indicates that while each component is mid-tier on its own, their combined performance in The Medium is severely limited.

When compared to other combos in the database, this system's performance is poor. The GPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 570X and NVIDIA GTX 680, have average benchmark scores that are within 0.8% of the GTX 1660 Ti, but the measured FPS in this game shows the 1660 Ti struggling to maintain playable rates. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-7700K, has a 1.8% higher average score, but this does not translate into a meaningful FPS advantage in The Medium, as the game is clearly GPU-bound. The low rank suggests that users with this hardware should expect to play at the lowest settings and resolution to get a functional experience, and that the system is not representative of a mid-range gaming setup for this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the combo's capabilities across all settings. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from a high of 71.8 FPS at Low settings to a low of 22.4 FPS at Ultra settings. The Medium preset yields 46.9 FPS, while High settings produce 34 FPS. This resolution offers the only playable results, with Low being the only preset to exceed 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance drops significantly. Low settings average 61.8 FPS, which is still playable but below the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 36.8 FPS, High settings average 25.3 FPS, and Ultra settings average 22.3 FPS. The 1440p resolution is only viable at Low settings, and even then, it is close to the 60 FPS threshold.

At 3840x2160, the system is unable to provide a smooth experience. Low settings average 44.8 FPS, which is below 60 FPS. Medium settings drop to 26.6 FPS, High settings to 21.4 FPS, and Ultra settings to 15.7 FPS. None of the 4K results are playable, and the data shows a clear progression of performance loss as both resolution and quality settings increase.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is the dominant factor in these results. Equipped with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, the card has a memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s, which is a key limitation in The Medium. The game's high-resolution textures and complex scenes require substantial memory throughput, and the data shows that the card's 12 Gbps effective memory speed is not sufficient to maintain high frame rates at 1440p or 4K.

The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 1500 MHz and a boost of 1770 MHz, are typical for the Turing architecture, but the 1536 shading units and 48 ROPs are overwhelmed by the game's rendering demands. The FP32 performance of 5.437 TFLOPS is the theoretical ceiling, and the measured FPS indicates that the card is operating at its limits even at 1080p Medium. The 55th percentile ranking for the GPU against all others confirms that it is a mid-range part by synthetic benchmarks, but its real-world performance in The Medium is below average, as evidenced by the combo's overall rank.

The card's 6 GB VRAM is also a potential concern. While the data does not show specific VRAM usage, the steep performance drop from Low to Medium settings at 1080p (71.8 FPS to 46.9 FPS) suggests that the game is exceeding the available memory or that the increased texture detail is causing a significant compute load. The GTX 1660 Ti's predecessor, the GeForce 10-series, and successor, the GeForce 20-series, bracket its position in the market, but the benchmark results in The Medium show that it is a capable card only for older or less demanding titles. For this game, the GPU's limitations are the primary reason for the low frame rates, and any improvement in performance would require a more powerful graphics card.