The Medium

Settings Recommendations

The data clearly favors Medium as the best experience for this combination of Intel Core i5-14600KF and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT in The Medium. At 1080p, Medium delivers 78.6 FPS, which is a substantial 36.3% improvement over High’s 57.7 FPS, while remaining well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The jump from Medium to Low at 1080p yields 125.6 FPS, but the visual degradation in a horror title with atmospheric lighting is not worth the extra 47 FPS.

At 1440p, Medium produces 69.1 FPS, which remains playable and consistent, while High drops to 48.3 FPS — a noticeable step down that risks perceptible stutter in tense sequences. The 4K results reinforce this recommendation: Medium hits 49.9 FPS, which is borderline but acceptable for slower-paced horror, whereas High falls to 38.9 FPS and Ultra plummets to 29.4 FPS.

Ultra settings are not viable at any resolution. The best Ultra result is 46.1 FPS at 1080p, and at 1440p it drops to 37.5 FPS. This preset appears designed for higher-tier GPUs, and the data shows diminishing returns relative to Medium. Low settings, while producing 105.8 FPS at 1440p and 85.3 FPS at 4K, sacrifice too much of the game’s visual identity — the shadow work and texture detail that define the horror atmosphere.

The verdict is straightforward: Medium at 1440p offers the optimal balance for this combo, with 69.1 FPS and enough visual fidelity to preserve the intended mood. For players prioritizing frame rate over visuals, Medium at 1080p provides 78.6 FPS with headroom for dips.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is the primary driver of these results, and its specifications explain the scaling pattern. With 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus delivering 432.0 GB/s bandwidth, the card has sufficient capacity for The Medium’s asset streaming at 1440p, but the 4K Ultra result of 29.4 FPS suggests the memory subsystem and 96 ROPs become limiting factors at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2544 MHz and game clock of 2171 MHz are relevant when comparing the Low preset results: 125.6 FPS at 1080p and 85.3 FPS at 4K represent a 32.1% drop, which is less severe than the High preset’s 32.6% drop (57.7 to 38.9 FPS). This indicates that at Low settings, the GPU’s raw throughput — rated at 35.17 TFLOPS FP32 — is the binding constraint, while at higher presets, memory bandwidth and ROP throughput become more significant.

The card’s 54 ray tracing cores are present but The Medium’s fixed camera angles and pre-baked lighting mean RT workloads are minimal; the benchmark data does not show a separate RT performance tier. The GPU’s pixel rate of 244.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 549.5 GTexel/s align with the observed scaling — texture-heavy scenes at Ultra cause the steepest declines (46.1 to 29.4 FPS from 1080p to 4K). The passmark DirectX 12 score of 79 and 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 3316 provide context: this is a mid-range performer that handles 1440p Medium comfortably but struggles with 4K Ultra demands.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination ranks 685th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the 59.4th percentile of all configurations. That ranking is respectable but not elite, reflecting the GPU’s position as the weaker link in this pairing. The CPU’s percentile vs all CPUs is 93, while the GPU’s is 73 — a 20-point gap that suggests the processor has headroom the graphics card cannot fully exploit in this title.

The CPU’s nearest rivals show it is competitive: the Intel Core i5-14600K scores 0.4% higher, the AMD EPYC 4345P is 0.5% lower, and the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X trails by 0.6%. These deltas are negligible in gaming terms, confirming the CPU is not the bottleneck. The GPU’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, matches it exactly at 0% delta, while the AMD Radeon RX 570 is 0.2% lower — though that comparison is misleading given the RX 570’s age and architecture.

The combo’s mid-pack ranking aligns with the measured FPS: it delivers playable frame rates at 1440p Medium but falls short of high-refresh 1080p Ultra expectations. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a stronger GPU would move the combo significantly higher in the rankings, as the 14-core processor has demonstrated multicore strength (Cinebench R23 multicore: 32889) that remains underutilized at the GPU-bound settings typical of this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p: Low delivers 125.6 FPS — the only result above 120 FPS in the entire dataset. Medium produces 78.6 FPS, High drops to 57.7 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 46.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 47 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 20.9 FPS, showing diminishing returns as settings increase.

1440p: Low remains strong at 105.8 FPS, but Medium falls to 69.1 FPS — a 36.7 FPS drop from Low. High manages 48.3 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. Ultra is 37.5 FPS, a 31.6% reduction from High. The Medium-to-High transition at 1440p costs 20.8 FPS, nearly identical to the 1080p penalty.

4K: Low is the only playable preset at 85.3 FPS. Medium drops to 49.9 FPS, High to 38.9 FPS, and Ultra to 29.4 FPS. The Ultra result is the single lowest score in the dataset, and it reinforces that this GPU cannot handle maximum settings at 4K. The Low result at 4K (85.3 FPS) is higher than the High result at 1080p (57.7 FPS), which demonstrates that settings have a larger impact than resolution on this hardware.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Low is always playable, Medium is viable up to 1440p, High is marginal at 1080p, and Ultra is never recommended.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck lies. At Medium settings, the progression is 78.6 → 69.1 → 49.9 FPS (1080p → 1440p → 4K). The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 12.1%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 27.8%. This accelerating decline indicates GPU-bound behavior — the RX 7700 XT’s 432.0 GB/s bandwidth and 12 GB frame buffer are insufficient to maintain performance as pixel count quadruples.

At Low settings, the scaling is 125.6 → 105.8 → 85.3 FPS. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 15.8%, and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 19.4%. The more uniform scaling at Low settings suggests that when texture and shading loads are reduced, the GPU’s compute units (3456 shading units) scale more predictably with resolution. The 4K-to-1080p ratio at Low is 0.68, meaning 4K retains 68% of 1080p performance; at Medium, that ratio drops to 0.63, and at High, it falls to 0.67.

The Ultra preset shows the most severe scaling: 46.1 → 37.5 → 29.4 FPS, with a 4K-to-1080p ratio of 0.64. This consistency across presets (0.63–0.68) shows that resolution scaling is primarily limited by the GPU’s memory bandwidth and ROP throughput, not by CPU or driver overhead. The CPU, with 14 cores and 20 threads, is not the limiting factor — the data shows that even at 1080p Low (125.6 FPS), the processor has no trouble feeding the GPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is not the bottleneck in this title, and the evidence is clear from both benchmark scores and FPS patterns. With 14 cores, 20 threads, and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, this processor provides substantial headroom for The Medium’s CPU demands. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 32889 and single-core score of 4643 place it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, far above the GPU’s 73rd percentile.

The FPS data supports this: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 125.6 FPS, which is a strong result that would likely be higher with a faster GPU. The drop to 4K Ultra (29.4 FPS) is entirely attributable to GPU limitations, not CPU constraints. The CPU’s nearest rivals — the Core i5-14600K (0.4% higher), EPYC 4345P (0.5% lower), and Ryzen 9 5950X (0.6% lower) — all show near-identical performance, confirming that any of these processors would produce similar results with the same GPU.

The 24 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 or DDR5) are adequate for this game’s streaming needs. The CPU’s 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform are standard for this class. Single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 single-core (4643), is what matters most for The Medium’s main thread, and the 5.30 GHz boost clock ensures that thread has sufficient speed. The PassMark single-thread score of 4273 reinforces this view — this CPU will not hold back the RX 7700 XT in any scenario measured here.

FAQ

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

A: Medium is the recommended preset. It delivers 78.6 FPS at 1080p, 69.1 FPS at 1440p, and 49.9 FPS at 4K — all within playable ranges except 4K, which remains borderline acceptable for horror pacing.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested configurations?

A: It ranks 685th out of 1689 combos, placing it in the 59.4th percentile. The CPU is in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 73rd percentile, indicating the GPU is the limiting component.

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

A: Only at Low settings, where it achieves 85.3 FPS. Medium produces 49.9 FPS, High drops to 38.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 29.4 FPS — none of the higher presets are recommended for 4K.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-14600KF holding back the RX 7700 XT?

A: No. The CPU scores 32889 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 4643 in single-core, ranking in the 93rd percentile. The FPS scaling across resolutions follows GPU-bound patterns, not CPU limitations.

Q: How does the RX 7700 XT compare to its nearest rival, the RTX 5060?

A: The two GPUs have identical average benchmark scores, with a 0% delta. This means swapping between them would produce nearly indistinguishable FPS results in The Medium.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: Low produces 105.8 FPS, while Ultra produces 37.5 FPS — a 68.3 FPS difference. Medium sits at 69.1 FPS, which is the best trade-off between visual quality and performance.