The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title with a heavy reliance on volumetric lighting and pre-rendered transitions, presents a demanding load for the Intel Core i5-12600KF and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combination. The measured frame rates across resolutions and presets reveal a system that is consistently GPU-bound, with the CPU providing enough headroom to avoid becoming the primary constraint. The data indicates a playable experience at 1440p, but the title's aggressive High and Ultra presets at 4K push the GPU to its limits, resulting in sub-60 FPS averages.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K clearly demonstrates that the AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the limiting component. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 143.1 at 1920x1080 to 119.4 at 2560x1440, a reduction of 23.7 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average falls further to 93, representing a 50.1 FPS total drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where increasing pixel count directly impacts the render output.

The High preset shows a more dramatic scaling curve, with average FPS at 60.7 for 1080p, 53.8 for 1440p, and 44.6 for 4K. The percentage decrease from 1080p to 4K is approximately 26.5%, which is less than the 35% drop seen on the Low preset. This suggests that the additional graphical features enabled by the High preset, such as enhanced shadows and reflections, create a more consistent per-pixel cost, mitigating the pure resolution penalty.

At the Ultra preset, the scaling becomes severe. The 1080p average of 49.8 FPS is already below the 60 FPS target, and this falls to 40.3 at 1440p and 31.2 at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is less than half the 1080p Low result, indicating that the combination of maximum resolution and highest settings overwhelms the RX 9070's compute capabilities. The data suggests that the i5-12600KF, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, is not a bottleneck at any resolution, as the FPS deltas are consistently proportional to the resolution changes rather than showing a plateau at lower resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset achieves an average of 89.3 FPS, which is 47.6% higher than the High preset's 60.7 FPS while still maintaining visual quality above the Low preset. This trend continues at 2560x1440, where Medium produces 75.4 FPS versus 53.8 FPS for High, a margin of 21.6 FPS that keeps the experience well within the smooth range for the majority of displays.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset's 59.6 FPS average is the only preset that approaches the 60 FPS standard, while High and Ultra fall to 44.6 and 31.2 FPS respectively. The Low preset at 4K does provide 93 FPS, but this comes with significant visual compromises that likely undermine the atmospheric horror presentation. For users targeting 4K, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point, as it provides a playable average while retaining enough graphical features to maintain the game's intended mood.

The Ultra preset is demonstrably too demanding for this combination. Even at 1080p, it produces an average of 49.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and represents a 44.2% performance penalty compared to Medium. The data shows that the jump from High to Ultra is not worth the frame rate cost; High at 1440p yields 53.8 FPS, while Ultra at the same resolution yields only 40.3 FPS. Therefore, the optimal strategy for this combo is to run Medium at 1440p for a high-refresh experience or Medium at 4K for a cinematic, locked-30 FPS experience, avoiding the High and Ultra presets entirely unless the user prioritizes visuals over frame rate.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 4K with a consistent 60 FPS?

A: No. The measured data shows the best 4K result is 59.6 FPS on the Medium preset. The High preset averages 44.6 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 31.2 FPS. None of the 4K presets achieve a 60 FPS average.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming on this system?

A: The Medium preset is the strongest choice, delivering 75.4 FPS. This is significantly higher than the High preset's 53.8 FPS, and it avoids the performance collapse seen on Ultra, which only manages 40.3 FPS.

Q: How much performance is gained by dropping from High to Low at 1080p?

A: The Low preset averages 143.1 FPS, which is 82.4 FPS higher than the High preset's 60.7 FPS. This represents a 135.7% performance increase, but it comes at the cost of reduced graphical fidelity.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-12600KF bottlenecking the AMD Radeon RX 9070 in this game?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. The frame rates scale predictably with resolution changes, which is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario. The CPU's performance is sufficient to feed the GPU at all tested settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1440p Ultra and 4K Ultra?

A: At 1440p Ultra, the average is 40.3 FPS, while at 4K Ultra, the average is 31.2 FPS. The increase to 4K results in a 9.1 FPS drop, or approximately 22.6% lower performance.

Q: Is the 4K Low preset playable on this hardware?

A: Yes, the 4K Low preset produces an average of 93 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS standard. This setting provides a smooth experience, though it requires sacrificing most of the game's visual enhancements.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations for The Medium, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and AMD Radeon RX 9070 holds a rank of 520 out of 1689 tested combos. This places it in the 69.2nd percentile of all tested systems, indicating that it outperforms a majority of configurations but is not among the top tier of performers. The rank of 520 suggests that while this combo is capable of handling the game's core requirements, there are 519 other combinations that deliver higher average frame rates, likely featuring more powerful GPUs.

The ranking is a holistic measure that considers performance across all tested resolutions and presets. The combo's position in the upper third of the table reflects its ability to maintain playable frame rates at 1440p and its strong performance at 1080p, but it is pulled down by its struggles at 4K Ultra. The data shows that the RX 9070's 16 GB of VRAM is sufficient, but the GPU's raw compute throughput is the limiting factor in the most demanding scenarios. Relative to the CPU's own benchmark standing, which is in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, the combo's overall rank is lower, confirming that the graphics card is the primary determinant of this game's performance ceiling.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070, built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip, is the decisive component in this combination's performance. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for The Medium's high-resolution textures. The benchmark data shows no evidence of VRAM capacity limiting performance, even at 4K Ultra, indicating that the memory subsystem is not a weakness in this title.

The GPU's clock behavior is notable, with a base clock of 1330 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, while the game clock is specified at 2070 MHz. The measured FPS results suggest that the card is operating within its expected clock ranges under load, as the scaling between presets aligns with the computational demands of each setting. The 220 W TDP and dual-slot design are consistent with a mid-to-high-end card, and the PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensures no bandwidth limitations are introduced.

The 56 ray tracing cores and 3584 shading units are the key architectural features that determine the game's visual output. The transition from Low to Medium settings likely enables features that utilize these units, which explains the significant FPS drop from 143.1 to 89.3 at 1080p. The Ultra preset's 31.2 FPS at 4K indicates that the GPU's compute resources are fully saturated, as the FP32 throughput of 36.13 TFLOPS is insufficient to handle the game's maximum effects at that resolution. The passmark_g3d score of 25381 places the GPU in the 79th percentile of all GPUs, which is consistent with its performance profile in this title — strong at mainstream settings but not a top-tier 4K powerhouse.