The Medium

The Medium is a horror title that stresses the graphics subsystem heavily, and the combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT produces a clear pattern of performance scaling across resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 162.9 FPS, which drops to 137.1 FPS at 1440p and further to 105.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a 35.3% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that even at the lowest graphical preset, the resolution increase places significant demand on the GPU. At Medium settings, the frame rates are 99.8 FPS at 1080p, 84.6 FPS at 1440p, and 68.4 FPS at 4K, showing a 31.5% drop from 1080p to 4K. The High preset yields 73.1 FPS at 1080p, 64 FPS at 1440p, and 48.2 FPS at 4K, a 34.1% reduction. Ultra settings produce the most demanding scenario, with 57.7 FPS at 1080p, 48.8 FPS at 1440p, and 40.6 FPS at 4K, representing a 29.6% decrease from the lowest to highest resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling pattern reveals that the RX 7900 XT is the primary limiting component across all settings. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K remains relatively consistent, hovering around 30-35% regardless of the quality preset. This consistency indicates that the GPU's rendering workload scales predictably with pixel count, and the CPU has sufficient headroom to feed the graphics card at all resolutions. At 4K Ultra, the system produces 40.6 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold that many players consider smooth, while 4K High delivers 48.2 FPS, still short of that mark. The 1440p results are more playable, with Medium achieving 84.6 FPS and High reaching 64 FPS, making 1440p the sweet spot for this combination if you prefer higher quality settings. At 1080p, even Ultra settings maintain 57.7 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for competitive play, while Low settings at 1080p reach 162.9 FPS, indicating that the CPU is not holding back the GPU at lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT features 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, providing 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's boost clock is 2394 MHz, with a game clock of 2025 MHz and a base clock of 1387 MHz. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s. The 20 GB frame buffer is substantial for a horror game like The Medium, which often uses high-resolution textures to create atmospheric environments. The memory bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s ensures that texture streaming at 4K resolution does not become a bottleneck, as evidenced by the playable frame rates at 4K Medium (68.4 FPS) and 4K Low (105.4 FPS). The GPU's 5376 shading units and 192 ROPs contribute to its ability to handle the game's lighting and shadow effects, though the Ultra preset still pushes the card to its limits at higher resolutions. The RX 7900 XT's 84 ray tracing cores are present, but the data does not show ray tracing performance specifically for this game.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, at 4K Low settings the system achieves 105.4 FPS, and at 4K Medium it reaches 68.4 FPS. However, at 4K High the frame rate drops to 48.2 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it falls to 40.6 FPS, so you will need to lower settings for a smooth 60 FPS experience.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance in this game?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600K with 14 cores and 20 threads has a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, and the benchmark results indicate it is not the limiting factor. The frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K are consistent across settings, suggesting the GPU is the bottleneck rather than the CPU.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: At 1440p Medium, the system achieves 84.6 FPS, and at 1440p High it reaches 64 FPS. Both are above 60 FPS, making 1440p the recommended resolution for a balance of visual quality and smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XT's memory configuration impact performance?

A: The 20 GB of GDDR6 memory with 800.0 GB/s bandwidth provides ample capacity for high-resolution textures. The data shows that memory bandwidth is sufficient, as frame rates scale predictably with resolution rather than suffering from sudden drops.

Q: Is the Ultra preset viable at any resolution?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the system produces 57.7 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 48.8 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it falls to 40.6 FPS, so the Ultra preset is only recommended for 1080p gaming.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: This combination ranks 277 out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the top 16.4% of all configurations tested for The Medium.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT ranks 277 out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the top 16.4% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the strong performance of the RX 7900 XT, which has an average benchmark score of 38358 and sits in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. The CPU also contributes to this ranking, with an average benchmark score of 49166 and a 93rd percentile ranking among all CPUs. The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (deltaPct 0%), NVIDIA CMP 70HX (deltaPct 0.3%), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (deltaPct 0.6%), showing that the RX 7900 XT performs nearly identically to these competitors in synthetic benchmarks. The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (deltaPct 0.2%) and the Intel Core i5-14600KF (deltaPct -0.4%), indicating that the i5-14600K provides comparable processing power to these alternatives. The high rank of 277 out of 1689 confirms that this is a well-balanced pairing for The Medium, capable of delivering strong frame rates at most resolutions and settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K features 14 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The processor has 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB of L2 cache per core, with an 80 KB L1 cache per core. The CPU's benchmark results show strong single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4642 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2803. Multi-threaded performance is also robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32881 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 15846. In The Medium, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU, as the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all settings. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 162.9 FPS, which is high enough to indicate that the CPU is not limiting performance. The boost clock of 5.30 GHz provides quick response times for single-threaded game logic, while the 20 threads ensure that background tasks do not interfere with gameplay. The CPU's 14 cores are sufficient for this title, as the game does not appear to heavily utilize multi-threading to the point where the processor becomes a bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the system delivers 162.9 FPS on Low settings, 99.8 FPS on Medium, 73.1 FPS on High, and 57.7 FPS on Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra is 105.2 FPS, representing a 64.6% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to highest quality preset. At 1440p, the frame rates are 137.1 FPS on Low, 84.6 FPS on Medium, 64 FPS on High, and 48.8 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 88.3 FPS, a 64.4% reduction. At 4K, the results are 105.4 FPS on Low, 68.4 FPS on Medium, 48.2 FPS on High, and 40.6 FPS on Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 64.8 FPS, a 61.5% reduction. The data shows that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with frame rates above 60 FPS at both 1080p and 1440p. The High preset is only playable at 1080p (73.1 FPS) and 1440p (64 FPS), while the Ultra preset is only suitable for 1080p gaming at 57.7 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium is substantial at all resolutions, with an average increase of about 39% in frame rate, while the jump from High to Ultra produces a smaller average decrease of about 20%. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces additional graphical effects that are particularly demanding on the GPU, making it less practical for higher resolutions.