The Medium

The Medium presents a significant challenge for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070, even when paired with the capable Intel Core i5-14400F. The benchmark data shows that this combination ranks in the 17th percentile, placing it at position 3082 out of 3724 tested combos. This is a demanding title where the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck, particularly at higher resolutions and quality presets. The data indicates that while the CPU provides a solid foundation, the GTX 1070's 8 GB of VRAM and Pascal architecture are stretched thin by this horror title's fixed camera angles and heavy post-processing. Users should expect playable performance primarily at 1080p with lower settings, with the system struggling to maintain smooth frame rates at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Medium?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the system achieves consistently playable frame rates. At Low settings, the average FPS is 75, and at Medium settings it drops to 47 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the average at Medium settings falls to 40 FPS, while at 3840x2160, even Low settings only yields 50 FPS average, with Medium dropping to 31 FPS.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between Low and Ultra settings?

A: The performance delta is substantial. At 1920x1080, the jump from Ultra (27 FPS average) to Low (75 FPS average) represents a 48 FPS improvement. At 2560x1440, Low (63 FPS) is 41 FPS faster than Ultra (22 FPS). The gap narrows slightly at 3840x2160, where Low (50 FPS) is 32 FPS faster than Ultra (18 FPS).

Q: Is the GTX 1070's 8 GB of VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: The data indicates that the 8 GB VRAM capacity is a limiting factor at higher resolutions. While the card maintains 47 FPS at 1080p Medium, this drops to 31 FPS at 4K Medium. The performance degradation across resolutions suggests that both memory bandwidth and capacity constraints are at play, as the game's asset streaming demands increase with pixel count.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 3082 out of 3724 tested combinations, placing it in the lower percentile of systems. This rank of 3082 positions it well below the median, indicating that the GTX 1070 is a significant weak point for this particular title, despite the CPU's relative strength.

Q: How does the CPU benchmark compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-14400F has an average benchmark score of 32279, which is nearly identical to its nearest competitors. It sits 0.1% above the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U and 0.2% above the Intel Core i9-11900, while being 0.2% below the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS. These differences are negligible in real-world gaming scenarios.

Q: Does the GTX 1070's age show in this title?

A: Yes, the benchmark results indicate the card's age. The GPU's average benchmark score of 9780 places it in the 47th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include professional workstation cards like the AMD FirePro W5000 and NVIDIA Quadro M2000M. In The Medium, this translates to sub-60 FPS performance at most settings above 1080p Low.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is the decisive factor in this combo's performance in The Medium. With a base clock of 1506 MHz and a boost clock of 1683 MHz, the card operates on the Pascal architecture, built on a 16 nm process at TSMC. The 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s, which is the theoretical ceiling for data transfer between the GPU and memory. The card's 1920 shading units and 64 ROPs handle the game's rendering pipeline, but the data reveals that these specifications are insufficient for smooth high-fidelity gameplay.

The measured FPS values show a clear pattern: the GTX 1070 struggles to maintain 60 FPS at any resolution above 1080p Low. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average is 75 FPS, but this falls to 47 FPS at Medium. The 28 FPS drop between these presets highlights the card's inability to handle the game's increased shading and texture work at higher quality levels. The situation worsens at 2560x1440, where even Low settings only achieve 63 FPS, and Medium drops to 40 FPS. At 3840x2160, the card is overwhelmed, with Low settings producing 50 FPS and Medium falling to 31 FPS.

The VRAM capacity appears to be a critical constraint. The 8 GB buffer is sufficient for 1080p Medium, but the game's reliance on high-resolution textures at 4K likely exceeds this capacity, causing performance to plummet. The 256.3 GB/s bandwidth also becomes a bottleneck when the game streams in assets for larger frame buffers. The data suggests that the GTX 1070's memory subsystem is the primary limitation, as the core clock speeds are not the main issue — the card's transistor count of 7,200 million and die size of 314 mm² are comparable to other mid-range cards of its era, but the memory technology is outdated for this game's demands.

The GPU's benchmark profile supports this conclusion. Its passmark G3D score of 13498 and DirectX 12 score of 48 indicate mediocre performance in modern API workloads. The card's 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is respectable, but The Medium's use of deferred rendering and volumetric effects places heavy stress on memory bandwidth rather than raw compute. This is why the card performs better at lower resolutions where the memory bandwidth is less taxed.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data provides clear guidance on which settings preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance for this combo. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 47 FPS average with a minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 54 FPS. This is the highest quality setting that maintains a frame rate above 40 FPS consistently. The Low preset at 1080p achieves 75 FPS, which is smoother, but the visual fidelity loss is significant in a horror game that relies on atmospheric lighting and shadow detail.

At 2560x1440, the situation changes. The Medium preset produces 40 FPS average with a 34 FPS minimum, which is playable but not ideal for a game that benefits from smooth camera movement. The Low preset at 63 FPS is the better choice for this resolution, as it provides a more responsive experience without the stutter that can occur below 40 FPS. For 3840x2160, the data strongly suggests avoiding Medium or higher. The Low preset at 50 FPS is the only viable option, as Medium drops to 31 FPS and High falls to 22 FPS.

The best experience per the measured rows is the 1920x1080 Medium preset. This configuration offers a 47 FPS average, which is within the acceptable range for a story-driven horror game. The 40 FPS minimum indicates that there will be occasional drops, but these are likely to occur during loading or transition scenes rather than during active gameplay. The 54 FPS maximum shows that the system can push higher when the scene is less demanding. This preset also uses the game's Medium quality assets, which should fit within the GTX 1070's 8 GB VRAM without causing excessive swapping.

For players who prioritize smoothness over visual detail, the 1920x1080 Low preset at 75 FPS is the recommended alternative. This provides a 28 FPS improvement over Medium and ensures that the game never dips below 60 FPS. However, the loss of shadow quality and texture detail may detract from the game's oppressive atmosphere. The 2560x1440 Low preset at 63 FPS is a middle ground for those with higher-resolution displays, offering a balance between clarity and performance, though it lacks the consistency of the 1080p Medium setting.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent degradation as resolution and quality increase. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 75 FPS on Low, 47 FPS on Medium, 34 FPS on High, and 27 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting's range of 40 to 54 FPS shows a 14 FPS variance, indicating that the game's performance is scene-dependent. The High and Ultra presets fall below 35 FPS, making them unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops significantly. Low settings yield 63 FPS, which is still playable, but Medium falls to 40 FPS with a range of 34 to 45 FPS. High settings produce only 28 FPS, and Ultra drops to 22 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at this resolution is 23 FPS, highlighting the steep cost of the Medium preset's additional visual features. The data suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth is the limiting factor, as the increased pixel count at 1440p requires more data to be pushed through the 256.3 GB/s bus.

At 3840x2160, the card is clearly out of its depth. Low settings achieve 50 FPS, which is surprising given the resolution, but Medium drops to 31 FPS with a range of 26 to 36 FPS. High settings fall to 22 FPS, and Ultra produces just 18 FPS. The 4K Low result indicates that the game's Low preset significantly reduces texture quality and shadow resolution, allowing the card to maintain a playable frame rate. However, the 19 FPS drop from Low to Medium at this resolution demonstrates that the card cannot handle even modest quality increases at 4K.

The data also shows that the game scales poorly with resolution on this hardware. At Low settings, the performance drop from 1080p to 1440p is 12 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is another 13 FPS. At Medium settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 7 FPS, but from 1440p to 4K is 9 FPS. This nonlinear scaling suggests that the card's memory system becomes increasingly strained as the frame buffer size grows, with the 4K Medium result of 31 FPS being particularly telling — it is only 4 FPS above the 1080p Ultra result of 27 FPS, indicating that resolution has a greater impact than quality preset at the higher end.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-14400F and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 ranks 3082 out of 3724 tested combinations in The Medium. This places it in the 17th percentile of all systems, meaning that 83% of tested combos perform better. The rank of 3082 is a clear indicator that this GPU is the limiting factor, as the CPU is a relatively strong performer in synthetic benchmarks.

The GPU's performance percentile of 47% against all GPUs provides context for this ranking. The GTX 1070's average benchmark score of 9780 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, with the AMD FirePro W5000 being 0.2% lower and the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M being 0.5% lower. However, these are professional workstation cards, not gaming GPUs, which underscores the GTX 1070's age. In contrast, the CPU's percentile of 83% against all CPUs shows that the i5-14400F is well above average, with its 32279 average score being within 0.5% of its nearest rivals like the Intel Core i7-12800H.

The disparity between the CPU and GPU performance explains the combo's low rank. The CPU's benchmark scores, such as the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21645 and Geekbench multicore score of 11268, are strong, but these do not translate to gaming performance when the GPU cannot keep up. In The Medium, the GPU's DirectX 12 score of 48 and Vulkan score of 22121 indicate that it can execute modern API workloads, but the frame rates measured show that it lacks the raw throughput needed for this game's demanding rendering.

The combo rank of 3082 out of 3724 indicates that this system is only suitable for low-to-medium quality gaming at 1080p. The data shows that the system is closer to the bottom of the ranking than the top, with the bottom 17% of systems including this combo. For context, if the GPU were upgraded to a more modern card, the rank would likely improve significantly, as the CPU has ample headroom. However, with the current configuration, users should expect a sub-optimal experience in The Medium.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F plays a supporting role in this combo, and the data shows that it is not the bottleneck in The Medium. The CPU features 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. Its 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data storage for game logic. The CPU's 65 W TDP and Raptor Lake architecture on a 10 nm process make it a modern, efficient processor.

In synthetic benchmarks, the i5-14400F performs well. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21645 and single-core score of 3055 indicate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. The Geekbench multicore score of 11268 and single-core score of 2058 further confirm its capability. The CPU's average benchmark score of 32279 places it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals being within 0.5% in either direction. This suggests that the CPU is more than capable of feeding the GPU with draw calls and game state data.

However, in The Medium, the CPU's role is limited by the GPU's performance. The game's fixed camera angles and scripted sequences are not particularly CPU-intensive, so the i5-14400F's 10 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient. The CPU's boost clock of 4.70 GHz ensures that single-threaded tasks, such as game logic and AI, are handled quickly. The data does not show any CPU-related bottlenecks, as the frame rates scale consistently with resolution and quality settings, which are GPU-bound factors.

The CPU's memory support for DDR4 and DDR5, along with its dual-channel memory bus, provides adequate bandwidth for the game's data streaming. The lack of integrated graphics is irrelevant since the GTX 1070 handles all rendering. The CPU's PCIe Gen 5 support with 16 lanes ensures that the GPU has a high-bandwidth connection, though the GTX 1070 uses PCIe 3.0, which is backward compatible and does not bottleneck in this scenario.

The benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo. The GPU's 47th percentile ranking versus the CPU's 83rd percentile makes it clear that any upgrade to the GPU would yield significant performance gains in The Medium. The CPU's strong single-threaded performance, as shown by its 3701 passmark single-thread score, ensures that it can handle the game's logic without causing frame drops. Ultimately, the data shows that the i5-14400F is a solid foundation, but the GTX 1070 holds the system back in this title.