The Medium

The Medium is a horror title that stresses the GPU heavily, and the benchmark data for the Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 confirms this. The measured results show a system that can handle the game at 1080p with ease but begins to struggle as resolution climbs, making the choice of settings the most critical factor for a smooth experience.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep, revealing a clear GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 106.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 70.1 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of roughly 34%. This pattern intensifies at higher presets. With Medium settings, the average drops from 68.9 FPS at 1080p to 43.9 FPS at 4K, a 36% decline. At High settings, the 1080p average of 48.2 FPS falls to 31.1 FPS at 4K, a 35% loss.

The most demanding preset, Ultra, shows the same trend but at a lower absolute level. The 1080p Ultra average of 38.9 FPS drops to 24.5 FPS at 4K, which is a 37% decrease. These consistent percentage drops across all settings indicate that the scaling is linear and driven by pixel count, not by any CPU bottleneck. The i5-14600KF, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, has more than enough headroom here; the limiting component is clearly the RTX 4060's rendering throughput.

The data suggests that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo if you want to maintain a playable frame rate with higher visual fidelity. At 2560x1440, the High preset averages 40.2 FPS, which is borderline, while Low averages 88.5 FPS, which is smooth. The 4K results are marginal at best, with only the Low preset breaking the 60 FPS barrier.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the i5-14600KF and RTX 4060 ranks 981 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, which aligns with the measured FPS numbers. The ranking reflects that while the CPU is a strong performer, the GPU holds this pairing back in a title that is so graphically demanding.

The i5-14600KF itself is a powerful processor, sitting in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs tested. Its average benchmark score of 49367 is essentially on par with its nearest rivals, including the Intel Core i5-14600K (0.4% higher) and the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (0.6% higher). This means the CPU is not the weak link. The RTX 4060, however, only sits in the 66th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 23181. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6600M, scores only 0.6% higher, and the Intel Arc B580 is 0.7% lower, showing this GPU is a mid-pack performer.

The combo's mid-tier rank is a direct consequence of this pairing. A stronger GPU like the RTX 4060's higher-tier siblings would push this combo much higher in the rankings, but with the current configuration, the data shows a system that is balanced for 1080p but not for higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is the decisive component in this game's performance. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has a base clock of 1830 MHz and a boost clock of 2460 MHz. These specifications, combined with its 3072 shading units, determine its output. The 8 GB VRAM is a notable factor; The Medium's high-resolution textures can put pressure on this capacity, which likely contributes to the significant performance drop at 4K.

The GPU's raw compute power is rated at 15.11 TFLOPS for FP32 operations. This figure, while seemingly high, is not sufficient for the demands of 4K Ultra settings in this title, as evidenced by the 24.5 FPS average. The card's 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores are present, but the game's performance scaling suggests that traditional rasterization is the primary load. The data shows that the RTX 4060 is best utilized at 1080p, where its capability is sufficient to deliver high frame rates, but it becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience for this combo is at 1920x1080 with the Medium preset. At this setting, the average FPS is 68.9, which provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Dropping to Low at 1080p yields 106.8 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors, but the visual fidelity loss may not be worth the extra frames for a horror game where atmosphere matters.

For 1440p, the Low preset is the only setting that guarantees a consistently smooth experience, with an average of 88.5 FPS. The Medium preset at 56.9 FPS is playable, but it is close to the edge and may dip during intense scenes. The High preset at 40.2 FPS is too inconsistent for a game that relies on tension and timing. At 4K, the Low preset is the only viable option, offering 70.1 FPS, but the visual compromise is significant. The High preset at 31.1 FPS and Ultra at 24.5 FPS are not recommended for a playable experience.

The best balance of visual quality and performance is the Medium preset at 1080p. It offers a substantial improvement over Low without the steep performance penalty of High or Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured averages provides a full picture of this combo's behavior.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 106.8 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 68.9 FPS. The High preset averages 48.2 FPS, and the Ultra preset is the most taxing, with an average of 38.9 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 88.5 FPS. The Medium preset averages 56.9 FPS. The High preset averages 40.2 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 32.6 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 70.1 FPS. The Medium preset averages 43.9 FPS. The High preset averages 31.1 FPS, and the Ultra preset is the lowest measured result in the entire set, with an average of 24.5 FPS.

These numbers show a clear and predictable scaling pattern. The gap between Low and Ultra widens as resolution increases, from a 67.9 FPS difference at 1080p to a 45.6 FPS difference at 4K. This indicates that the graphics card's memory bandwidth and processing power are stretched thinner as the pixel count grows.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF plays a supporting role in this game. With 14 cores (including performance and efficiency cores) and 20 threads, it has substantial parallel processing capability. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz provide strong single-threaded performance, which is often more important for game logic and frame pacing. The processor's 24 MB of shared L3 cache helps keep frequently accessed data close to the cores.

Benchmark data confirms the CPU's strength. It scores 32889 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4643 in single-core. Its Geekbench scores are 15636 multi-core and 2778 single-core. These figures place it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals—all within a 1.4% margin—are other high-end desktop processors. This indicates that the i5-14600KF is not a limiting factor in The Medium.

The fact that FPS scales almost perfectly with resolution changes, and that the CPU is ranked so highly, proves that the processor is never the bottleneck in this configuration. The data shows that even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would be most likely to hold back the GPU, the system achieves 106.8 FPS, which is a frame rate that a lesser processor might struggle to maintain. The i5-14600KF provides all the necessary headroom, ensuring that the RTX 4060 is the sole determinant of performance in this title.