The Medium

# FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate for this combo at 1080p Medium settings?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 delivers an average of 88 FPS at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, with a minimum of 75 FPS and a maximum of 101 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600K has an average benchmark score of 48,618, placing it 0.2% behind the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H and 0.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4345P. It sits in the 90th percentile among all CPUs.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile relative to all graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks in the 69th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23,877. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z, trails by 0.6%.

Q: At which resolution does this combo achieve its highest average FPS?

A: The highest recorded average is 141 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 4K with Low settings, the average drops to 93 FPS.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking in The Medium among tested configurations?

A: This CPU-GPU combination ranks 1,075th out of 3,724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the upper third of all configurations.

Q: Does the CPU support overclocking and what is its TDP?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600K has an unlocked multiplier for overclocking, and its thermal design power is rated at 125 watts.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K is a 14-core, 20-thread processor built on Intel's Raptor Lake architecture. It operates with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a 24 MB shared L3 cache. The chip uses a 10 nm process node and communicates with the system via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes. Its memory controller supports both DDR4 and DDR5 in a dual-channel configuration.

In synthetic workload testing, the CPU demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance. The Cinebench R23 multicore score reaches 24,491, while the single-core score is 2,064. Geekbench results show 16,673 in multicore and 2,491 in single-core tests. Passmark's multithread score is 38,682, with a single-thread score of 4,270. The processor ranks in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48,618.

The nearest CPU rivals, based on average score, include the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H at 48,698 (0.2% higher), the AMD EPYC 4345P at 48,470 (0.3% lower), and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245HX at 48,287 (0.7% lower). This places the i5-14600K in a tightly contested performance band where differences are minimal.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is evident when examining frame rate behavior across settings. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 141 FPS, which suggests the processor can feed the GPU effectively at lower graphical loads. The 14-core configuration with 20 threads provides ample headroom for the game's logical threads, though The Medium is not typically considered a CPU-heavy title. The boost clock of 5.30 GHz helps maintain responsiveness in single-threaded game logic, while the 24 MB cache reduces memory latency for frequently accessed data.

# GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip, fabricated on a 4 nm process from TSMC. It contains 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die. The GPU has a base clock of 1330 MHz, a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and a game clock of 2070 MHz. Memory runs at 2518 MHz with 20.1 Gbps effective speed.

The graphics card features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. It has 3,584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units. Ray tracing is handled by 56 dedicated RT cores. The card achieves a pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s, a texture rate of 564.5 GTexel/s, and 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. Power consumption is rated at 220 W, requiring a 550 W suggested power supply and dual 8-pin connectors.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RX 9070 scores 6,290 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 131,539 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 58,705 in Geekbench Vulkan. Passmark shows 25,381 in G3D and 14,737 in GPU compute. The GPU ranks in the 69th percentile among all graphics cards, with an average score of 23,877. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z at 23,736 (0.6% higher), the AMD Radeon RX 6800S at 24,063 (0.8% lower), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile at 23,628 (1.1% higher).

The GPU's 16 GB VRAM capacity is substantial for The Medium, which requires loading large texture sets and environments. The 644.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures that geometry and texture data flow smoothly to the rendering pipeline. The 128 ROPs handle pixel output efficiently, which becomes important at higher resolutions.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for The Medium span three resolutions and four quality settings. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 141 FPS on Low, 88 FPS on Medium, 63 FPS on High, and 50 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 75 FPS and maximum of 101 FPS, indicating stable performance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops to 119 on Low, 74 on Medium, 53 on High, and 42 on Ultra. The Medium preset at this resolution records a minimum of 63 FPS and a maximum of 85 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings results in a 14 FPS decrease, from 88 to 74.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 93 FPS on Low, 58 FPS on Medium, 42 FPS on High, and 33 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Medium preset shows a minimum of 50 FPS and maximum of 67 FPS. The transition from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings drops the average from 74 to 58 FPS, a reduction of 16 FPS.

The data reveals that Low settings at 1080p produce the only triple-digit average at 141 FPS. Medium settings at 1080p remain comfortably above 60 FPS at 88. High settings at 1080p dip to 63 FPS, while Ultra falls to 50 FPS. At 1440p, only Low and Medium exceed 60 FPS, with High at 53 and Ultra at 42. At 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS; Low tops out at 93, Medium at 58, High at 42, and Ultra at 33.

The minimum frame rates recorded for Medium settings show consistency across resolutions: 75 at 1080p, 63 at 1440p, and 50 at 4K. These minimums suggest that even at lower average FPS, the frame pacing remains stable without severe dips. The maximum FPS values follow a similar pattern, with 101 at 1080p, 85 at 1440p, and 67 at 4K.

# How This Combo Ranks

In The Medium, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-14600K and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 1,075th out of 3,724 tested combos. This places the configuration in the 71st percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 29% of tested combos perform better in this game.

The ranking position reflects the balanced nature of this pairing. The CPU's 90th percentile standing among all processors suggests it is not the limiting factor in most scenarios. The GPU's 69th percentile among all graphics cards indicates it carries more of the performance burden, particularly at higher resolutions where pixel throughput becomes critical.

The delta between the combo's ranking and the individual component percentiles shows that The Medium is sensitive to GPU performance. At 4K Ultra, the 33 FPS average is below typical playability thresholds, indicating the GPU reaches its limit before the CPU does. Conversely, at 1080p Low, the 141 FPS result demonstrates that the CPU can sustain high frame rates when the GPU is not heavily taxed.

Compared to the GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, the RX 9070's performance in The Medium is consistent with its overall standing. The GTX TITAN Z, which scores 0.6% higher in average GPU benchmarks, would likely produce similar frame rates in this game, though specific game performance may vary.

# Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset at 1080p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. The 88 FPS average with a 75 FPS minimum ensures smooth gameplay without requiring the lowest settings. The 75 FPS minimum is particularly important for maintaining consistent frame pacing during scene transitions.

For 1440p, the Medium preset is again the recommended choice, delivering a 74 FPS average with a 63 FPS minimum. This keeps the experience above 60 FPS for most of the gameplay, though the minimum approaches the threshold. Players prioritizing frame rate stability might consider Low settings at 1440p, which yield 119 FPS average.

At 4K, no preset achieves a 60 FPS average. The Low preset provides the highest average at 93 FPS, which is playable but sacrifices visual fidelity. Medium at 4K drops to 58 FPS average with a 50 FPS minimum, which may be acceptable for slower-paced horror sections but could struggle during action sequences. The High and Ultra presets at 4K, at 42 and 33 FPS respectively, are not recommended for smooth gameplay.

The data suggests that Medium settings provide the most consistent experience across all resolutions. The minimum frame rates for Medium are 75, 63, and 50 at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively, showing a predictable decline. The maximum frame rates follow suit at 101, 85, and 67. This consistency indicates that Medium settings avoid the extreme performance swings seen when jumping between Low and Ultra.

# Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck shifts between CPU and GPU. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 88 at 1080p to 74 at 1440p, a 15.9% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the average drops from 74 to 58, a 21.6% decrease. The compounding effect from 1080p to 4K results in a 34.1% total reduction, from 88 to 58 FPS.

Low settings show a different scaling pattern. From 1080p to 1440p, the average drops from 141 to 119, a 15.6% decrease. From 1440p to 4K, it drops from 119 to 93, a 21.8% decrease. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 34.0%, nearly identical to the Medium preset.

High settings exhibit larger percentage drops. From 1080p to 1440p, the average falls from 63 to 53, a 15.9% decrease. From 1440p to 4K, it drops from 53 to 42, a 20.8% decrease. The total reduction is 33.3%. Ultra settings show similar behavior, with 50 to 42 FPS from 1080p to 1440p (16.0% decrease) and 42 to 33 FPS from 1440p to 4K (21.4% decrease), totaling 34.0% from 1080p to 4K.

The consistent percentage decreases across all settings suggest a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. The CPU maintains sufficient frame generation capability even at 1080p Low, where 141 FPS is achieved. As resolution increases, the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become the limiting factors. The 16 GB VRAM and 644.6 GB/s bandwidth handle the data requirements, but the 4K resolution demands more pixel processing than the 128 ROPs can deliver at high settings.

The 4K Ultra result of 33 FPS indicates that the GPU is overwhelmed at maximum settings. The 4K High result of 42 FPS shows improvement but remains below playable thresholds. The linear scaling pattern across all presets confirms that the limiting component is the GPU, not the CPU, in this title.