The Medium

The Intel Core i5-14600KF and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER pairing in The Medium produces a playable but demanding experience, with the benchmark data revealing a system that is heavily constrained by its graphics processor. The measured frames per second across resolutions and presets show clear performance ceilings, making settings management critical for maintaining smooth gameplay in this fixed-camera horror title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. Its substantial multi-threaded capability is reflected in synthetic workloads, scoring 32,889 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 13,813 in Cinebench R20 multi-core. Single-thread performance is equally strong, with a Geekbench single-core score of 2,778 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4,643. This processor sits in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, placing it among the top tier for gaming workloads.

Despite this computational headroom, the measured FPS in The Medium indicates the CPU is rarely the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 70.7 FPS, which is the highest average across all tested configurations. This suggests the processor can feed the GPU adequately even at lower resolutions where CPU overhead is typically more pronounced. The data compression score of 485,140 and encryption score of 27,608 further demonstrate that the CPU handles background tasks without likely introducing frame hitches. In direct comparison with its closest rivals, the i5-14600KF trails the AMD EPYC 4345P by 0.5% in average benchmark score, while leading the Intel Core i5-14600K by 0.4%. The performance delta with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is a mere 0.6%, indicating that this processor is competitively positioned for any game that does leverage multiple cores.

In The Medium, the 14-core configuration provides ample processing power for game logic, AI, and streaming assets. The jump from 1080p Low (70.7 FPS) to 1080p Medium (44.4 FPS) is a 37% reduction, which is far larger than what a CPU bottleneck would typically produce. This pattern strongly implicates the GPU as the primary constraint. The processor’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4 and DDR5) ensure that data can be fed to the graphics card without introducing a stall, but the raw frame rates never approach the CPU’s theoretical ceiling.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the definitive performance limiter in this configuration. It features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s base clock is 1530 MHz, boosting to 1785 MHz, and it contains 1,408 shading units alongside 88 texture mapping units and 48 ROPs. Its FP32 throughput of 5.027 TFLOPS and texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s are modest by modern standards, and the card sits at the 55th percentile of all GPUs. The benchmark data shows a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,278 and a Passmark G3D score of 12,699, placing it just 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 in average score.

The VRAM capacity is a critical factor in The Medium. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS collapses to 18, and even at 4K High it only reaches 23.4 FPS. The 6 GB frame buffer is likely overwhelmed by the game’s high-resolution textures and the dual-reality rendering technique that the title employs. The GPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT, is only 0.7% ahead in average score, but that does not translate into playability here. The memory bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s is insufficient for 4K workloads, as evidenced by the steep performance cliff between 1440p and 4K.

At 1080p, the GPU shows its strengths and limits. The 70.7 FPS at Low settings is respectable, but dropping to Medium reduces performance to 44.4 FPS, and High further reduces it to 35 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields only 26.6 FPS, which is below the threshold for a smooth experience. The GPU’s Passmark DirectX 12 score of 50 and DirectX 11 score of 104 indicate that it handles API overhead adequately, but the raw shading power is insufficient for higher presets. The card’s 12 nm process node and 6,600 million transistors are dated, making the GTX 1660 SUPER a budget-oriented solution that struggles with modern horror titles demanding visual fidelity.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal balance of visual quality and performance is found at 1080p Medium, which delivers 44.4 FPS. This is the highest setting that maintains an average above 40 FPS, providing a playable experience without the visual degradation of Low settings. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs 9.4 FPS (from 44.4 to 35), a 21% reduction that may not justify the marginal visual improvements. The Low preset at 1080p achieves 70.7 FPS, which is ideal for players prioritizing smoothness, but it likely sacrifices too much detail in a game that relies on atmospheric lighting and shadow work.

At 1440p, the Medium preset yields 40.2 FPS, which is still acceptable for a slower-paced horror game, but the High preset drops to 29.6 FPS, making it borderline. For 4K, no preset is truly playable; the Low setting at 47.2 FPS is the only option above 30 FPS, but even that is below the 60 FPS target and requires significant visual compromises. The Ultra preset is effectively unplayable at any resolution, with scores of 26.6 FPS at 1080p, 19.5 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K.

The data suggests that players should avoid High and Ultra presets entirely with this GPU. The performance delta between Medium and High is consistent across resolutions, indicating that the settings are GPU-bound and not CPU-limited. For the best experience, 1080p Medium is the recommended choice, as it provides a frame rate that is 26% higher than High at the same resolution while still offering a substantial upgrade over Low. If a higher resolution is desired, 1440p Medium at 40.2 FPS is viable, but 4K should be reserved for Low settings only, and even then, the experience will be suboptimal.

FAQ

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

A: The benchmark data shows that 1080p provides the highest frame rates across all presets, with 70.7 FPS on Low and 44.4 FPS on Medium. 1440p is playable only on Medium (40.2 FPS) and Low (58.1 FPS), while 4K is only viable on Low (47.2 FPS) but remains below 60 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 14,286, which is 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 (14,314) and 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon Vega 11 (14,352). It also trails the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT by 0.7% (14,389).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The i5-14600KF scores in the 93rd percentile of CPUs, and the frame rate drops significantly when increasing resolution or settings, which is characteristic of GPU limitation. For example, 1080p Low yields 70.7 FPS, but 1080p Ultra drops to 26.6 FPS.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the GTX 1660 SUPER?

A: The launch MSRP of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is 229 USD. This is a historical figure and does not reflect current market pricing.

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

A: Only at Low settings, where it achieves 47.2 FPS. Medium drops to 26.5 FPS, High to 23.4 FPS, and Ultra to 18 FPS. None of these meet a 60 FPS target, and only Low is above 30 FPS.

Q: How does the i5-14600KF compare to the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X in average benchmark scores?

A: The i5-14600KF has an average score of 49,367, which is 0.6% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X’s 49,062. The i5-14600KF also leads the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H by 1.4%.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a stark GPU bottleneck. At Low settings, performance drops from 70.7 FPS at 1080p to 58.1 FPS at 1440p (an 18% reduction) and then to 47.2 FPS at 4K (a 33% reduction from 1080p). This scaling is relatively gentle because Low settings reduce the pixel shading load, but the 6 GB VRAM and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth still struggle with the 3840x2160 resolution.

At Medium settings, the scaling is more severe: 44.4 FPS at 1080p falls to 40.2 FPS at 1440p (a 9% drop) and then crashes to 26.5 FPS at 4K (a 40% drop from 1440p). This indicates that the GPU’s memory subsystem becomes saturated at 4K, as the texture data exceeds the available capacity. The High preset shows a similar pattern, with 35 FPS at 1080p, 29.6 FPS at 1440p, and 23.4 FPS at 4K—a 33% total reduction from 1080p to 4K.

The Ultra preset is the most telling: 26.6 FPS at 1080p, 19.5 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. The difference between 1440p and 4K is only 1.5 FPS, suggesting that the GPU has hit a hard computational limit rather than a memory bandwidth limit. The pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s are insufficient for Ultra settings at any resolution above 1080p. The data confirms that resolution scaling is heavily dependent on the preset, but the limiting component is unequivocally the GPU. The CPU’s performance headroom is never fully utilized, as even the lowest resolution and settings do not produce frame rates that would stress the i5-14600KF’s 14 cores.