The Medium

Resolution Scaling

The Medium demonstrates an unusual scaling pattern with this Intel Core i5-14600KF and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT combination, one that points away from a simple GPU-bound narrative. From 1080p to 1440p at High settings, the frame rate drops from 71.6 FPS to 63.6 FPS, a modest 11% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 4K at the same preset yields a steeper decline to 48.8 FPS, a 23% loss. This non-linear progression suggests the GPU begins to assert its limits more forcefully as pixel count climbs, but the 1080p ceiling of 71.6 FPS on High is telling — the hardware is not being fully stretched at that resolution.

The Low preset reveals the most dramatic scaling curve. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 162.5 FPS, which falls to 134 FPS at 1440p (an 18% drop) and then to 105.6 FPS at 4K (a further 21% decline). This consistent, stepwise reduction across all three resolutions indicates that even at Low settings, the rendering load scales predictably with pixel count. The 4K Low result of 105.6 FPS being nearly double the 4K High result of 48.8 FPS shows that settings have a larger impact than resolution in this title — the gap between Low and High at 4K is 116%, while the gap between 1080p and 4K at High is just 47%.

Ultra settings create the most constrained scenario. The 4K Ultra result of 37 FPS is barely playable, while 1440p Ultra reaches 51.2 FPS and 1080p Ultra achieves 56.3 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra is a 9% drop, but from 1440p to 4K it is a 28% reduction. This pattern suggests that The Medium's Ultra preset introduces effects that disproportionately tax the GPU at higher resolutions, likely related to the game's fixed camera angles and layered rendering techniques.

How This Combo Ranks

Among 1,689 tested combinations in The Medium, this pairing of the Core i5-14600KF and Radeon RX 7900 XT sits at rank 305. That places it in the top 18% of all tested systems, a strong showing for a horror title that is not typically used as a flagship benchmark. The data indicates that this combo outperforms the overwhelming majority of alternatives, though it does not crack the top tier where the most extreme hardware configurations reside.

The CPU's individual standing reinforces this position. The Core i5-14600KF holds a 93rd percentile ranking against all CPUs in the database, with an average benchmark score of 49,367. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 4345P, scores 49,595 — a 0.5% advantage — while the Intel Core i5-14600K trails by 0.4% at 49,166. The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and Intel Xeon Gold 5318H are further behind at 49,062 and 48,698 respectively, representing 0.6% and 1.4% deficits. These margins are narrow, indicating that the 14600KF is positioned at a performance plateau where small architectural differences matter more than core counts.

The GPU's percentile ranking is lower at 82, with an average benchmark score of 38,358. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile, matches it exactly at 38,349 (0% delta), while the NVIDIA CMP 70HX and GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile sit within 0.3% and 0.6% respectively. The NVIDIA GeForce MX570 is 0.4% ahead at 38,494. This clustering suggests the RX 7900 XT competes in a tight performance band where mobile and desktop parts converge in synthetic tests.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7900 XT brings substantial memory resources to The Medium, with 20 GB of GDDR6 across a 320-bit bus delivering 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is likely a key factor in the game's high-resolution performance, as The Medium's fixed-camera scenes can require large texture buffers. The GPU's 5 nm process node and RDNA 3.0 architecture with 5,376 shading units provide the raw compute foundation, while the 84 ray tracing cores handle the game's lighting effects.

Clock behavior shows a base of 1387 MHz, a game clock of 2025 MHz, and a boost clock of 2394 MHz. The boost headroom of 369 MHz above the game clock suggests thermal and power constraints are not limiting the card during typical gameplay. The 300 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate this is a high-power part, but the measured frame rates show it delivers accordingly. The GPU's 82nd percentile ranking against all GPUs, while solid, is notably lower than the CPU's 93rd percentile — a gap that explains why the combo does not rank higher overall.

The 4K Ultra result of 37 FPS is the clearest signal of GPU limitation. At that setting, the card's pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s are insufficient to maintain fluid motion. The FP32 throughput of 51.48 TFLOPS, while impressive on paper, does not translate into playable Ultra performance at 4K in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the full settings sweep reveals a wide performance envelope. Low produces 162.5 FPS, Medium drops to 100.2 FPS, High reaches 71.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 56.3 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 38% reduction, while Medium to High is a 29% reduction, and High to Ultra is a 21% reduction. This diminishing impact of each successive quality tier is a characteristic of the game's rendering pipeline, where the largest performance hit comes from the initial quality jump.

1440p results follow the same ordering with lower absolute values. Low delivers 134 FPS, Medium reaches 83.5 FPS, High produces 63.6 FPS, and Ultra manages 51.2 FPS. The relative gaps between presets are compressed compared to 1080p — Low to Medium is a 38% drop, Medium to High is a 24% drop, and High to Ultra is a 19% drop. The compression suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is becoming a more significant factor across all settings.

4K results show the widest spread. Low achieves 105.6 FPS, Medium drops to 66.3 FPS, High falls to 48.8 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 37 FPS. The Low to Medium gap is 37%, Medium to High is 26%, and High to Ultra is 24%. Notably, the 4K Low result of 105.6 FPS exceeds the 1080p High result of 71.6 FPS, indicating that resolution alone is not the primary bottleneck — settings complexity plays a larger role in determining playability.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF provides 14 cores and 20 threads with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz. This configuration, built on the Raptor Lake architecture with a 10 nm process, delivers strong multi-threaded performance that is relevant for The Medium's background loading and asset streaming. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache help maintain consistent frame delivery, particularly in scenes with complex geometry.

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU's capabilities align well with gaming demands. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,889 and single-core score of 4,643 indicate balanced performance. The Geekbench multi-core result of 15,636 and single-core of 2,778 further confirm this. Passmark scores, including 125,982 in integer math and 93,048 in floating-point math, demonstrate the CPU's ability to handle the varied computational loads a horror game presents.

The CPU's 93rd percentile ranking against all processors, combined with a 0.4% lead over the Core i5-14600K and a 0.6% advantage over the Ryzen 9 5950X, positions it as a top-tier gaming processor. In The Medium, the CPU does not appear to be a limiting factor at any tested resolution or settings level. The frame rate differences between 1080p and 1440p at the same settings are consistent with GPU-bound scaling, not CPU bottlenecks.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 4K smoothly?

A: At 4K High settings, the average frame rate is 48.8 FPS, which is playable but not smooth. Dropping to Medium yields 66.3 FPS, while Low reaches 105.6 FPS. Ultra at 4K produces only 37 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for this hardware in The Medium?

A: 1440p offers the best balance, with High settings at 63.6 FPS and Medium at 83.5 FPS. This resolution provides higher frame rates than 4K while maintaining better visual quality than 1080p.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XT compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 38,358, matching the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile at 0% delta. The NVIDIA CMP 70HX trails by 0.3%, while the GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile is 0.6% behind.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting component. The CPU holds a 93rd percentile ranking, while the GPU sits at 82nd percentile. Frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings, indicating GPU-bound performance.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 71.6 FPS at 1080p High. Medium settings produce 100.2 FPS, while Low reaches 162.5 FPS and Ultra drops to 56.3 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested systems in The Medium?

A: It ranks 305th out of 1,689 tested combinations, placing it in the top 18% of all systems tested for this game.

Settings Recommendations

For a smooth 60 FPS experience, the Medium preset is the optimal choice regardless of resolution. At 1080p Medium, the combo produces 100.2 FPS, at 1440p Medium it reaches 83.5 FPS, and even at 4K Medium it maintains 66.3 FPS. This preset delivers a significant improvement over High settings — a 40% frame rate increase at 1080p, 31% at 1440p, and 36% at 4K — while the visual difference between Medium and High in The Medium is less pronounced than in many other titles.

Players targeting 4K should use Medium settings as their ceiling, as the 66.3 FPS result provides headroom above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings at 4K drop to 48.8 FPS, which introduces noticeable stutter in a game that relies on atmospheric tension. The Low preset at 4K, while delivering 105.6 FPS, sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a horror experience where environmental detail contributes to immersion.

For 1440p displays, High settings at 63.6 FPS offer a good middle ground, though Medium at 83.5 FPS provides more safety margin for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution — even at 1080p it only reaches 56.3 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. The data suggests that the performance cost of Ultra settings, which reduces frame rates by 21-27% compared to High depending on resolution, is not justified by the visual gains in this title.