The Medium

The Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT combination ranks 1274th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the lower half of the database. This position reflects a pairing where the CPU is far more capable than the GPU, and the benchmark results confirm that the graphics card is the primary bottleneck across nearly every setting and resolution. The combo’s standing is not a measure of failure—it is a profile of a balanced-for-its-era GPU struggling against a modern horror title’s demands, while the processor sits with ample headroom.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 1274 out of 1689 combos places it in the 25th percentile of all tested pairings in this game. This is a below-median result, but it is important to note that the ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU’s age and the game’s release timing relative to the hardware. The Core i5-14600K is a top-tier CPU, sitting at the 93rd percentile among all processors, which suggests that the combo’s low rank is not due to any CPU deficiency. Instead, the Radeon RX 5700 XT, which sits at the 68th percentile among all GPUs, drags the overall score down. The data shows that when the GPU is the limiting factor, the combo’s rank in a specific game can be significantly lower than what the individual component percentiles would suggest. The 1689-combo pool includes many modern GPU pairings, so the 1274th position is a clear indication that this setup is not competitive for high-end play in The Medium, but it remains functional for lower settings.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 5700 XT is built on the RDNA 1.0 architecture with a 7 nm process node and features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 1605 MHz, with a boost clock of 1905 MHz and a game clock of 1755 MHz. These specifications are modest by current standards, and the benchmark results in The Medium reflect that. The GPU’s 2560 shading units and 64 ROPs are tasked with rendering the game’s fixed-camera horror scenes, which are not particularly geometry-heavy but do rely on consistent frame pacing. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the GPU manages 92.8 FPS, but this drops sharply as settings increase, falling to 40.7 FPS at High. At 4K Ultra, the card is overwhelmed, producing only 23.7 FPS. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the game’s textures, but the raw compute performance of 9.754 TFLOPS is the limiting factor. The GPU’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile, scores nearly identically in synthetic benchmarks (deltaPct of -0.1%), which confirms that this is a mid-range card that cannot sustain high frame rates in demanding titles at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling across resolutions reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 92.8 FPS, but dropping to 1440p Low reduces that to 76.6 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls to 58.8 FPS. This is a 37% drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the GPU is still managing to keep up at lower quality presets. However, the picture changes dramatically at higher settings. At High, the frame rate goes from 40.7 FPS at 1080p to 33.2 FPS at 1440p, and then to 26.4 FPS at 4K—a 35% drop from 1080p to 4K. At Ultra, the drop is steeper: 31.5 FPS at 1080p falls to 25.7 FPS at 1440p and then to 23.7 FPS at 4K, a 25% decline. The data suggests that as settings increase, the GPU becomes the bottleneck at every resolution, and the CPU’s ability to feed frames is never challenged. The scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU that is running out of compute headroom, not a CPU that is limiting the system. At 1080p Low, the frame rate is high enough to suggest the CPU could push further, but the GPU cannot keep up at higher settings, which is the defining characteristic of this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces 92.8 FPS on Low, which is the only setting that approaches a high-refresh experience. Medium drops to 55.1 FPS, High to 40.7 FPS, and Ultra to 31.5 FPS. These numbers show a steep curve, with the gap between Low and Medium being 37.7 FPS, indicating a significant performance penalty for moderate visual improvements. Moving to 2560x1440, the results are 76.6 FPS on Low, 47.9 FPS on Medium, 33.2 FPS on High, and 25.7 FPS on Ultra. The 1440p Low result is still playable, but Medium falls below 60 FPS, and High and Ultra are not smooth. At 3840x2160, the situation is dire: 58.8 FPS on Low, 36.1 FPS on Medium, 26.4 FPS on High, and 23.7 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Low result is the only one that approaches a playable 60 FPS, but it does not quite reach it. The data indicates that the combo is only suitable for 1080p Low or Medium for a consistent 60 FPS experience, and anything above 1080p requires significant settings reductions. The measured FPS values are all below 100, and most are below 60, which is a clear sign that this GPU is not designed for high-refresh or high-resolution gaming in this title.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the combo can exceed 90 FPS, but only at Low settings. At 1080p Medium, it drops to 55.1 FPS, so 1080p is the practical ceiling for playable performance.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in The Medium?

A: At 4K Low, the combo averages 58.8 FPS, which is close to 60 but not consistently above it. At 4K Medium, it drops to 36.1 FPS, and at High and Ultra, it falls to 26.4 and 23.7 FPS, respectively. Therefore, 4K is only viable at Low settings.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Radeon RX 5700 XT has an average benchmark score of 24731, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (24763, deltaPct -0.1%) and slightly higher than the Intel Arc A350M (24647, deltaPct 0.3%). This indicates that the GPU is performance-neutral compared to its nearest competitors.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck in this game?

A: No. The i5-14600K has 14 cores, 20 threads, and boosts to 5.30 GHz, placing it at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs. The FPS scaling across resolutions shows that the GPU is the limiting factor, as frame rates drop consistently with higher settings, not with lower resolutions.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between 1080p and 4K at Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 31.5 FPS, while at 4K Ultra, it produces 23.7 FPS. This is a 7.8 FPS drop, or roughly a 25% reduction, which is relatively modest compared to the resolution increase, further confirming GPU-bound behavior.

Q: Does the combo have enough VRAM for this game?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, and the measured FPS data shows that the card does not exhibit signs of memory overflow at any tested setting, as the performance drops are consistent with compute limitations rather than VRAM capacity issues.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It has 24 MB of shared L3 cache and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 32881 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4642 in single-core, placing it at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, has an average score of 49062, which is only 0.2% higher, indicating that the i5-14600K is effectively at parity with a high-end 16-core chip in overall CPU performance. In The Medium, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic, and the data shows it does so without issue. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 92.8 FPS, which is high enough to suggest the CPU is not limiting, but at higher settings, the FPS drops due to GPU load, not CPU load. The CPU’s high single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 4642 Cinebench R23 score, is particularly relevant for a game like The Medium that may rely on a single main thread for rendering decisions. The data indicates that the CPU is never the bottleneck, as the frame rates scale with GPU workload across all resolutions and settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy for settings in The Medium. For a consistent 60 FPS experience, the only viable option is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which delivers 92.8 FPS, leaving headroom for occasional drops. At 1080p Medium, the average is 55.1 FPS, which is playable but not smooth for a horror game that benefits from consistent frame pacing. For 1440p, Low settings produce 76.6 FPS, which is above 60, but Medium drops to 47.9 FPS, making it a less desirable choice. At 4K, Low settings yield 58.8 FPS, which is close to 60 but not reliably above it, while Medium falls to 36.1 FPS, which is not recommended. Ultra settings are not viable at any resolution, with the highest being 31.5 FPS at 1080p. The data suggests that the best experience is to prioritize Low or Medium settings at 1080p, or Low at 1440p, depending on whether resolution or visual quality is more important. Given the game’s horror genre, where atmosphere matters, a stable 60 FPS at 1080p Low is likely preferable to a stuttery 30 FPS at 4K Ultra. The combo is not capable of high-fidelity play, so the recommendation is to accept lower settings to achieve a playable frame rate, with 1080p Low being the only setting that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.