The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine 4, presents a unique challenge to hardware due to its dual-reality rendering technique. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600, using only the provided benchmark data to determine how this combination handles the game’s demands across resolutions and settings.

FAQ

Q: Is this combination capable of running The Medium at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where it achieves an average of 55 FPS. At Medium settings, the average drops to 35 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. High and Ultra settings yield 25 FPS and 20 FPS respectively, making them unplayable at this resolution.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combo to maintain a high frame rate?

A: At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 84 FPS on Low settings and 52 FPS on Medium settings. While 2560x1440 on Low also provides a solid 71 FPS, the 1080p resolution offers the highest frame rates, with the Low preset being the only setting that breaks the 80 FPS barrier.

Q: How much of a performance drop occurs when moving from 1080p to 1440p?

A: The data shows a consistent decline. For example, on Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 52 FPS at 1920x1080 to 44 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 8 FPS. On High settings, the drop is from 37 FPS to 32 FPS, indicating the GPU is the primary bottleneck as resolution increases.

Q: Does the game’s performance scale similarly between all settings at a given resolution?

A: No, the scaling is not linear. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium reduces the average FPS from 84 to 52 (a 32 FPS drop), while moving from Medium to High reduces it from 52 to 37 (a 15 FPS drop). The largest single-step performance hit is between Low and Medium, suggesting a significant increase in rendering complexity.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for The Medium?

A: It ranks 2904th out of 3724 total tested combinations. This places it in the lower portion of the performance spectrum, indicating that while it can run the game, it is not a high-end configuration for this specific title.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded for this combination?

A: The only provided minimum frame rates are for the Medium preset across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 44 FPS; at 2560x1440, it is 37 FPS; and at 3840x2160, it is 29 FPS. No minimum values are listed for the Low, High, or Ultra presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and AMD Radeon RX 6600 achieves a rank of 2904 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the bottom 22% of all configurations, a significant indicator that this pairing is not optimized for this particular game’s demands. The benchmark results suggest that while the CPU is highly capable, the GPU’s performance is the limiting factor, dragging the overall combo ranking down.

The rank is a holistic measure, but the FPS data confirms it. The highest average frame rate achieved across all tests is 84 FPS at 1080p Low, which is respectable but not exceptional. At more demanding settings like 1440p Ultra or 4K Ultra, the combo falls to 25 FPS and 20 FPS respectively, which are below playable thresholds. This performance profile is consistent with a mid-range GPU being paired with a high-end CPU, where the GPU becomes the bottleneck in graphically intensive scenes. The combo’s relative position shows that users seeking high-refresh-rate or high-fidelity experiences in The Medium would need to look at configurations with more powerful GPUs.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear trend: performance degrades significantly as resolution increases, which points directly to the GPU as the limiting component. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average frame rate on Medium settings drops from 52 FPS to 44 FPS, a 15% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K on the same settings results in a further drop from 44 FPS to 35 FPS, a 20% decrease. This accelerating decline is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance, as the number of pixels to render quadruples from 1080p to 4K.

The pattern holds across all settings. On Low, the FPS drops from 84 at 1080p to 71 at 1440p and then to 55 at 4K. On High, it drops from 37 to 32 to 25. The percentage drop between each resolution step is larger at higher settings, suggesting that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are saturated more quickly. For example, the 4K Ultra preset yields a mere 20 FPS, indicating that the RX 6600’s 8 GB of VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the game’s highest visual fidelity at that resolution. The scaling data makes it clear that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can maintain playable frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides average FPS for four settings at three resolutions, with minimum and maximum values only for the Medium preset. Here is the complete breakdown of measured results:

• 1920x1080 (1080p): At Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 84 FPS. Medium settings yield an average of 52 FPS, with a minimum of 44 FPS and a maximum of 60 FPS. High settings produce an average of 37 FPS. Ultra settings drop to an average of 30 FPS.
• 2560x1440 (1440p): Low settings deliver an average of 71 FPS. Medium settings produce an average of 44 FPS, with a minimum of 37 FPS and a maximum of 51 FPS. High settings average 32 FPS. Ultra settings fall to an average of 25 FPS.
• 3840x2160 (4K): Low settings manage an average of 55 FPS. Medium settings yield an average of 35 FPS, with a minimum of 29 FPS and a maximum of 40 FPS. High settings average 25 FPS. Ultra settings are the lowest at an average of 20 FPS.

The data shows that the 1080p Low preset is the only configuration that achieves a frame rate above 80 FPS. The 1440p Low preset is the only other setting that breaks the 70 FPS mark. All other configurations, including 1080p Medium, fall below 60 FPS. The minimum FPS values for the Medium preset are notable: they show that even at 1080p, the frame rate can dip to 44 FPS, which might be noticeable in a horror game with sudden scene changes. For a stable experience, users would need to prioritize the Low preset at 1080p or 1440p.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is a mid-range GPU built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process node. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. The GPU’s boost clock is rated at 2491 MHz, with a game clock of 2044 MHz. These specifications, combined with the measured FPS data, illustrate its role in The Medium’s performance.

The RX 6600’s 8 GB VRAM is a crucial factor. At 4K resolution, the game’s textures and rendering buffers likely exceed this capacity, causing the GPU to rely on slower system memory, which explains the severe FPS drop to 25 FPS on High and 20 FPS on Ultra. The 128-bit memory bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are also limiting factors; at higher resolutions, the GPU cannot feed its shader units fast enough, leading to the observed frame rate declines. The GPU’s 1792 shading units and 64 ROPs are sufficient for 1080p gaming, as evidenced by the 84 FPS result on Low settings, but they are overwhelmed by the pixel fill rate required at 4K.

The GPU’s compute capability, measured at 8.928 TFLOPS FP32, is adequate for the game’s rendering, but the fixed-camera dual-world mechanic of The Medium likely increases the number of draw calls and shader instructions, putting additional pressure on the GPU. The benchmark results show that the RX 6600 is the dominant bottleneck in this combo, as the CPU is more than capable of keeping up, based on its own benchmark scores. The GPU’s performance is best utilized at 1080p, where it can provide a smooth experience on lower settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience for this combo is at 1920x1080 with the Low preset, which delivers an average of 84 FPS. This is the only setting that provides a frame rate significantly above the 60 FPS target, ensuring a fluid and responsive experience. While the Low preset may reduce visual fidelity, it is the only configuration that guarantees a high level of performance without risking frame rate dips.

For users who prefer higher visual quality, the 1080p Medium preset (52 FPS) is a viable alternative, but the minimum FPS of 44 indicates that there will be noticeable stutters in demanding scenes. The 1440p Low preset (71 FPS) is also a strong choice, offering a higher resolution with a still-playable frame rate. However, the 1080p Medium preset provides a better balance of resolution and speed for most users. The Ultra preset at any resolution is not recommended, as it fails to reach 30 FPS at 1080p and drops to 20 FPS at 4K, making the game unplayable. The data strongly supports using the Low preset at 1080p or 1440p to achieve the best performance from this hardware combination.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with 24 MB of shared L3 cache. Its benchmark scores are exceptionally high, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and a single-core score of 4594, placing it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. This indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck in The Medium.

The game’s performance scaling with resolution is almost entirely dependent on the GPU, as the CPU’s high single-thread performance (Geekbench single-core score of 2445) is more than sufficient to handle the game’s logic and draw calls. The CPU’s 14 cores and 20 threads also provide ample headroom for background processes, ensuring that the game’s main thread is not starved of resources. The combo’s rank of 2904 out of 3724 is due to the GPU’s limitations, not the CPU’s.

The CPU’s performance relative to its nearest rivals is also telling. The data shows the Core i5-14600KF has an average benchmark score of 49394, which is 0.3% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 and 0.8% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 5 245. This confirms that the CPU is a top-tier performer, and in this pairing, it is waiting on the GPU to deliver frames. For The Medium, the CPU’s role is to provide consistent frame pacing and prevent any CPU-side hitches, which it does admirably given its high clock speeds and core count. The bottleneck is unequivocally the RX 6600.