The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title from 2021, presents an interesting stress profile for the Intel Core i5-14600K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER. The measured data reveals a configuration that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet shows surprising headroom at 1080p. The combination of a high-core-count CPU and a 16 GB Ada Lovelace GPU produces a predictable scaling curve, though the specific frame rates at each preset tell a nuanced story about where the performance ceiling truly lies.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 demonstrates a classic GPU-bound scenario, but the rate of decline is steeper than typical for this class of hardware. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 177 FPS at 1080p to 149 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 28 frames, and then falls further to 117 FPS at 4K. This represents a 33.9% performance loss from 1080p to 4K at the lowest preset. The scaling suggests that even at Low settings, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is beginning to feel the pressure of the 3840x2160 pixel count, though the 117 FPS result remains highly playable.

The Medium preset tells a similar story with a slightly different slope. Starting at 110 FPS in 1080p, the frame rate dips to 93 FPS at 1440p and then to 73 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K here is 33.6%, which is remarkably consistent with the Low preset scaling. This consistency implies that the rendering workload scales nearly linearly with resolution, and that the GPU's memory bandwidth of 672.3 GB/s is being utilized effectively without becoming a sudden bottleneck at any specific resolution.

High settings reveal a more aggressive scaling pattern. The 1080p result of 79 FPS falls to 67 FPS at 1440p, and then to 52 FPS at 4K. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K is 34.2%, which is again in line with the other presets. However, the absolute numbers suggest that High settings at 4K are right at the edge of the playability threshold, with the 52 FPS average being noticeably less fluid than the 73 FPS seen at Medium.

Ultra settings further compress the performance envelope. The 1080p Ultra result is 63 FPS, which drops to 53 FPS at 1440p and then to 42 FPS at 4K. The 33.3% reduction from 1080p to 4K is the smallest relative drop among all presets, which indicates that at Ultra, the GPU is spending more time on per-pixel effects that do not scale as dramatically with resolution. The 42 FPS 4K Ultra result would likely be considered borderline for a horror game that relies on atmosphere and smooth camera movement.

The data strongly suggests that the limiting component across all resolutions is the GPU. The CPU, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, shows no signs of constraining the frame rate even at 1080p Low where 177 FPS is achieved. The consistent 33-34% scaling penalty from 1080p to 4K across all four presets is a hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario, where the CPU has ample headroom to feed the graphics card.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 1920x1080, the measured data indicates that High settings at 79 FPS provide a solid experience, but Medium at 110 FPS offers a substantial 39% improvement in frame rate with what is likely a modest visual trade-off. The 4K resolution tells a different story, where Medium at 73 FPS appears to be the sweet spot, providing a 40% uplift over High's 52 FPS while maintaining a frame rate that is still smooth enough for the game's deliberate pacing.

The Ultra preset is difficult to recommend at any resolution. At 1080p it achieves 63 FPS, which is only 20% lower than High, but at 4K it falls to 42 FPS, which is 19% below the already marginal High result. The data implies that the visual gains from Ultra over High are not worth the performance penalty, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU is already struggling to maintain 60 FPS.

Low settings produce remarkably high frame rates, with 177 FPS at 1080p and 117 FPS at 4K. These results suggest that Low is viable for players who prioritize maximum fluidity, but the visual degradation in a horror game that relies on environmental detail may not be acceptable to most users. The Medium preset emerges as the balanced recommendation across all resolutions, offering frame rates that are never below 73 FPS even at 4K.

The measured frame time data for Medium settings, which includes min and max FPS values, provides additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the min FPS is 94 and the max is 127, indicating a relatively tight frame time distribution. At 1440p Medium, the range is 79 to 107, and at 4K Medium, it is 62 to 84. These ranges suggest that Medium settings produce a stable experience with no severe frame time spikes, which is critical for a game that uses fixed camera angles where stutter would be immediately noticeable.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, with its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, provides 672.3 GB/s of bandwidth. In The Medium, this memory configuration appears sufficient, as the measured frame rates do not indicate any texture thrashing or asset streaming bottlenecks. The GPU's 8448 shading units and 66 RT cores are operating within their expected envelope, though the game's use of fixed camera angles likely reduces the ray tracing load compared to first-person titles.

The GPU's boost clock of 2610 MHz is a notable factor in the frame rate results. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows that the GPU is able to maintain its boost clock under load, as the frame rates scale predictably with pixel count rather than falling off due to thermal or power throttling. The 285 W TDP is being utilized effectively, with the data showing no sudden drops in performance that would indicate power limit hits.

The VRAM usage pattern is not directly measured in the provided data, but the fact that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER achieves 177 FPS at 1080p Low and 117 FPS at 4K Low suggests that even at Low settings, the GPU is not starved for memory bandwidth. The 16 GB capacity is likely overkill for The Medium, which was released in 2021 and would not have been designed to utilize such large frame buffers. This headroom means that the GPU's performance is limited by its compute throughput rather than memory capacity.

The GPU's benchmark scores corroborate the in-game performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5569 and the Passmark G3D score of 31811 both place the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER in the upper echelon of graphics cards, though the percentileVsAllGpus of 76 indicates that it is not the absolute fastest. The nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark are professional and workstation cards like the NVIDIA Quadro M5000 and RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell, which have slightly higher average scores but would not typically be used for gaming.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 provides the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. At Medium settings, the combo achieves 93 FPS at 1440p, which is 27% higher than the 4K result of 73 FPS, while still delivering a substantial resolution upgrade over 1080p.

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so consistently from 1080p to 4K across all settings?

A: The measured results show an almost uniform 33-34% reduction in average FPS from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 at every preset. This consistency indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, as its rendering workload scales directly with pixel count while the CPU maintains sufficient headroom.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for The Medium?

A: The frame rate data suggests yes. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is most stressed, the combo maintains 42 FPS average with no min FPS data indicating a memory-related stutter. The 16 GB capacity on a 256-bit bus provides 672.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which appears to be more than adequate for this 2021 title.

Q: Why is the 4K Medium result (73 FPS) so much higher than 4K High (52 FPS)?

A: The 40% difference between these two settings suggests that High enables a significant number of GPU-intensive effects that scale with resolution. The fact that the gap between Medium and High at 4K is larger than the gap at 1080p (110 vs 79 FPS, a 28% difference) indicates that the higher resolution amplifies the cost of these visual features.

Q: How does the CPU's performance in this game compare to its synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core i5-14600K achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 24491 and a single-core score of 2064, placing it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. In The Medium, its nearest rival is the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H, which has a similar average benchmark score of 48698 (0.2% higher). The game's frame rates at 1080p Low (177 FPS) suggest that the CPU is not a bottleneck.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured data shows an average of 67 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings. This is 19% lower than the 1080p High result of 79 FPS, and 29% higher than the 4K High result of 52 FPS, positioning 1440p High as a viable option for players with 60 Hz monitors.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600K, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, is not the limiting factor in The Medium based on the measured data. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 177 FPS, which is a frame rate that would strain many CPUs even in less demanding titles. The fact that this result is achieved while maintaining a consistent scaling pattern across resolutions indicates that the CPU has substantial headroom.

The CPU's boost clock of 5.30 GHz is likely the primary contributor to its strong gaming performance. The Medium, being a third-person horror game with fixed camera angles, does not typically require massive multi-threaded throughput, so the high single-core performance of the Raptor Lake architecture is well-suited to the game's engine. The Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2064 places it in the top tier of desktop processors, which explains why it can feed the GPU at 177 FPS without showing signs of strain.

The CPU's 24 MB of shared L3 cache provides a substantial buffer for game data, and the dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support allows for flexible system configurations. The measured frame rates at 4K, where the GPU is heavily loaded, show no evidence of CPU-induced frame time spikes, as the min FPS at 4K Medium is 62, which is only 15% below the average of 73. This tight frame time distribution suggests that the CPU is delivering frames to the GPU consistently.

The Intel Core i5-14600K's average benchmark score of 48618 places it just 0.2% below the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H and 0.3% above the AMD EPYC 4345P in the nearest rivals list. This positioning indicates that the CPU is performing at the expected level for its specifications, with no thermal or power delivery issues affecting its in-game performance. The 125 W TDP is modest for a 14-core processor, and the data suggests that this power budget is sufficient for sustained gaming loads.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers a wide range of frame rates depending on settings. Low settings achieve 177 FPS average, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings produce 110 FPS with a min of 94 and a max of 127, showing a stable frame time distribution. High settings reduce the average to 79 FPS, while Ultra settings further lower it to 63 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 64.4% reduction in frame rate at 1080p.

The 2560x1440 results show a consistent downward shift. Low settings achieve 149 FPS, Medium produces 93 FPS with a range of 79 to 107, High drops to 67 FPS, and Ultra falls to 53 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 64.4%, which is nearly identical to the 1080p gap, indicating that the settings scaling is consistent across these two resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope tightens considerably. Low settings produce 117 FPS, which is still very playable. Medium settings achieve 73 FPS with a min of 62 and a max of 84, which is surprising given that the average is 37% lower than the 1080p Medium result. High settings drop to 52 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 42 FPS. The Low to Ultra reduction at 4K is 64.1%, which is again consistent with the other resolutions.

The min FPS data for Medium settings is particularly informative. At 1080p, the min is 94 FPS, which is 85% of the average. At 1440p, the min is 79 FPS, which is 85% of the average. At 4K, the min is 62 FPS, which is 85% of the average. This consistent ratio indicates that the game's frame time distribution is stable regardless of resolution, and that the combo does not suffer from occasional severe frame rate dips.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14600K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER combination ranks 361 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 9.7% of all configurations. This rank is impressive given that the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus is 76, meaning that 24% of GPUs score higher in synthetic benchmarks. The combo's high rank suggests that the CPU-GPU pairing is well-balanced for this specific game, and that the CPU's strong single-core performance helps extract maximum frame rates from the GPU.

The rank of 361 out of 3724 combos implies that the combo outperforms 3363 other configurations, which likely include many with more powerful GPUs but weaker CPUs. This indicates that The Medium places a premium on CPU performance, and that the 5.30 GHz boost clock of the Core i5-14600K is a significant advantage. The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, such as the NVIDIA TITAN RTX with a score of 31676 (1.9% higher), may not achieve better in-game results if paired with a less capable CPU.

The combo's rank also reflects the GPU's 16 GB VRAM capacity, which is higher than many competing cards. While The Medium may not require this much memory, the headroom ensures that the GPU never becomes memory-limited, allowing it to focus its compute resources on rendering. The combination of a top-10 percentile CPU and a solidly upper-midrange GPU produces a result that is greater than the sum of its parts in this title, as evidenced by the top 10% overall rank.