The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding fixed-camera environment where the Intel Core i5-14600KF and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combination demonstrates a clear performance hierarchy across resolutions and settings. The measured data reveals a system that is consistently capable of playable frame rates at 1440p, but which requires careful settings management to maintain smooth performance at 4K. The benchmark results show a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions, with the CPU’s substantial multi-threaded headroom remaining largely untapped as resolution scales.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate deltas between resolutions are substantial and tell a clear story about where the bottleneck lies. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 86.8 FPS to 72.8 FPS, a reduction of approximately 16%. This is a modest decline, suggesting that the CPU is still contributing meaningfully to the performance equation at this stage. However, the scaling becomes more aggressive when pushing to 3840x2160, where the Medium preset yields 58.3 FPS. This represents a 20% drop from the 1440p figure, indicating that the GPU is now the primary limiting component.

The trend is consistent across all quality presets. At Low settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p sees a drop from 139.5 FPS to 118.4 FPS, a 15% reduction. The jump to 4K at Low settings brings the average down to 93.3 FPS, a further 21% decline. This pattern confirms that the AMD Radeon RX 9070, with its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, is being increasingly saturated as pixel count rises. The data indicates that even at the lowest quality preset, 4K resolution demands nearly double the GPU work of 1080p, which is typical for a horror title that relies heavily on volumetric effects and complex shaders.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is the decisive factor in this game’s performance envelope. Its boost clock of 2520 MHz and game clock of 2070 MHz provide the raw throughput needed to drive The Medium’s heavy rendering load. The GPU’s 3584 shading units and 128 ROPs are fully exercised at 4K, where the Ultra preset manages only 32.5 FPS. This figure sits well below the 60 FPS threshold, underscoring that the card’s compute resources are overwhelmed by the combination of 4K resolution and maximum quality settings.

The 16 GB frame buffer is a notable asset, as it allows the game to load high-resolution textures without exceeding memory capacity. However, the benchmark results show that memory capacity is not the limiting factor here; rather, it is the raw shading and rasterization throughput. The GPU’s 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 564.5 GTexel/s texture rate are substantial, yet they are insufficient to maintain fluid frame rates at 4K Ultra. The card’s 644.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth, while generous, cannot compensate for the sheer pixel workload. The data suggests that the GPU is operating at its intended performance tier, but The Medium’s visual fidelity at maximum settings is simply beyond what this configuration can deliver at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-14600KF and AMD Radeon RX 9070 achieves a rank of 533 out of 1689 combos. This places it in the upper third of all tested systems, which is a respectable position given the game’s demanding nature. The CPU itself is a strong contributor, holding the 93rd percentile against all processors. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32889 and single-core score of 4643 indicate a processor that is well-suited for gaming workloads.

The GPU, however, sits at the 79th percentile against all graphics cards, which is slightly lower than the CPU’s standing. This imbalance explains why the combo rank is not higher. The CPU’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14600K, which trails by only 0.4% in average benchmark score, and the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, which is 0.6% behind. This indicates that the processor is performing at the top of its class. The GPU’s rivals, such as the NVIDIA A2 and Quadro GV100, are within 0.8% of its average score, but these are professional or data-center parts, not direct gaming comparisons. The overall ranking suggests that this combo is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, but it is not optimized for 4K Ultra settings in this specific title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience is found at 2560x1440 with the High preset, which delivers 53.9 FPS. This provides a good balance between visual fidelity and smoothness, though it does fall slightly short of a locked 60 FPS. For a more fluid experience, the Medium preset at 1440p achieves 72.8 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and still offers respectable image quality. At 1920x1080, the High preset runs at 61.8 FPS, which is playable, but the Medium preset at 86.8 FPS is the better choice for maintaining high frame rates without sacrificing too much detail.

At 3840x2160, the choices are more constrained. The Medium preset delivers 58.3 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a horror game where consistent frame pacing is important for atmosphere. The High preset at 43.1 FPS is noticeably less smooth, and the Ultra preset at 32.5 FPS should be avoided for serious play. The Low preset at 4K produces 93.3 FPS, but this comes at a significant cost to visual quality. The data indicates that 1440p Medium or High is the sweet spot for this combination, offering the best compromise between frame rate and visual detail.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates scale predictably with settings. The Low preset achieves 139.5 FPS, which is exceptionally high and indicates that the system is not constrained by either component at this resolution. Medium produces 86.8 FPS, High drops to 61.8 FPS, and Ultra falls to 51.5 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 88 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU has ample headroom at 1080p. The fact that Ultra still manages above 50 FPS suggests that the CPU is keeping pace, but the GPU is beginning to feel the load.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset still delivers a very playable 118.4 FPS. Medium drops to 72.8 FPS, which is a solid result, and High comes in at 53.9 FPS. Ultra at 1440p produces 42.1 FPS, which is borderline for a game that benefits from smooth motion. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is most pronounced at the High and Ultra settings, where the GPU is working harder to fill the additional pixels. At 3840x2160, the Low preset is the only one that maintains a high frame rate at 93.3 FPS. Medium falls to 58.3 FPS, High to 43.1 FPS, and Ultra to 32.5 FPS. The 4K results clearly show that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the frame rates decline in near-linear fashion with each settings increase.