The Medium

The Medium presents a uniquely demanding workload, and the pairing of the Intel Core i7-12700K with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT offers a revealing case study in system balance. The data indicates a configuration that is heavily skewed by GPU limitations, where the processor's substantial capabilities are frequently left waiting on the graphics card to catch up.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the primary driver of the frame rates observed in this dataset. Its specifications paint a picture of a mid-range contender built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture, featuring a Navi 23 chip manufactured on a 7 nm process. The card operates with a base clock of 1968 MHz and a boost clock of 2589 MHz, with a game clock rated at 2359 MHz. This silicon is paired with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. The GPU's raw compute capability is listed at 10.60 TFLOPS, and its performance percentile against all GPUs sits at 71.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a critical factor in The Medium, a game known for its dual-world rendering that can stress memory allocation. At 4K resolution, the performance collapse from Low to High settings strongly suggests that memory bandwidth and capacity are being saturated. The gap between the 61.2 FPS average at Low and the 29.8 FPS at High is not a linear scaling of visual fidelity; it represents a fundamental resource bottleneck. The card's 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs are capable of generating frames, but the data implies that at higher settings and resolutions, the GPU is spending more time managing data transfer than actual rendering, leading to the substantial frame rate penalties observed.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The system's overall position is defined by the `comboRankInGame` field, which places it at rank 1175 out of 1689 tested combinations. This puts the configuration in the 30th percentile of all tested hardware pairings for this specific title. This ranking is surprisingly low when considering the CPU's individual performance, but it aligns perfectly with the GPU's more modest standing. The benchmark data suggests that this is a system where the processor is not the limiting factor; the graphics card is. The RX 6600 XT, while a solid performer in many titles, finds itself outclassed in The Medium's most demanding presets. The rank indicates that a significant majority of other tested combos deliver higher average frame rates, likely due to the inclusion of more powerful GPUs that can handle the game's specific rendering load. The i7-12700K's high average benchmark score of 35684 is largely neutralized because the GPU becomes the bottleneck before the CPU's full potential can be utilized.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Analyzing the measured FPS rows, the most logical recommendation for a playable experience is the Low preset across all resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p, Low yields an average of 93.2 FPS, which is smooth and responsive. Moving to 1440p, Low still provides a solid 75.9 FPS. Even at 4K, the Low preset manages a playable 61.2 FPS. The Medium preset offers a significant visual upgrade but comes with a steep performance cost: it drops the 1080p average to 56 FPS and the 4K average to 35.8 FPS. High and Ultra presets are not viable for maintaining a consistent 60 FPS target, as the 1080p High average falls to 43.6 FPS and Ultra to 34.5 FPS. The data strongly suggests that for a stable experience, the Low preset is the only reliable option. Users seeking higher fidelity would need to accept frame rates in the 30-50 FPS range, which is a poor trade-off for a horror game where smooth camera movement is crucial for immersion.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured data provides a clear picture of performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the frame rates range from a peak of 93.2 FPS on Low to a minimum of 34.5 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset averages 56 FPS, while High sits at 43.6 FPS. At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds with a lower ceiling: Low produces 75.9 FPS, Medium drops to 50 FPS, High falls to 35.1 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 24.5 FPS. At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly overwhelmed. The Low preset is the only one that remains above 60 FPS, hitting 61.2 FPS. Medium and High fall to 35.8 and 29.8 FPS respectively, and Ultra is virtually unplayable at 21.4 FPS. The data reveals a consistent pattern: each step up in preset quality results in a roughly 20-30% reduction in frame rate, regardless of resolution. The delta between Low and Ultra is substantial, with the 4K Ultra average being less than a quarter of the 1080p Low average.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: Is this system capable of running the game at 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Only with the Low preset. The measured data shows a 61.2 FPS average at 3840x2160 on Low. All other settings at 4K fall below 36 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for a high refresh rate experience?

A: 1080p with the Low preset is the only configuration that exceeds 90 FPS, hitting a 93.2 FPS average. The 1440p Low preset is also viable at 75.9 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU's performance percentile compare to its rank in this game?

A: The GPU has a percentile of 71 against all GPUs, but the specific combo with the i7-12700K ranks 1175 out of 1689 combos in The Medium, indicating the game is particularly demanding on the graphics hardware.

Q: What is the performance impact of switching from Medium to High at 1440p?

A: The average frame rate drops from 50 FPS on Medium to 35.1 FPS on High, a significant reduction of roughly 30% for one step in visual quality.

Q: Which component is more likely to be the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT. The data shows massive frame rate drops as settings increase, while the CPU's benchmark scores (e.g., a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29241) suggest it has ample headroom for this workload.

Q: What are the exact frame rate differences between the Ultra presets across all resolutions?

A: At 1080p, Ultra averages 34.5 FPS. At 1440p, it drops to 24.5 FPS. At 4K, it falls further to 21.4 FPS.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a high-end desktop processor with 12 cores and 20 threads, based on the Alder Lake architecture. It features a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 25 MB shared L3 cache. Its benchmark scores are impressive, including a Passmark multithread score of 34404 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2561. Given these specifications, the CPU is unlikely to be the limiting factor in The Medium. The game's performance issues, as evidenced by the measured FPS, are almost entirely GPU-bound. The 12 cores and 20 threads provide more than enough processing power for the game's logic and physics. The data suggests that even a significantly weaker CPU could achieve similar frame rates in this title, as the RX 6600 XT will max out its rendering capacity long before the i7-12700K is stressed. The CPU's high single-thread performance also ensures that the game's main thread will not create a bottleneck, but this advantage is moot when the GPU cannot deliver frames fast enough.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling data reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. Between 1080p and 1440p, the frame rate drops are relatively consistent. For example, on the Low preset, the average goes from 93.2 FPS to 75.9 FPS, a reduction of about 18.5%. On the High preset, it goes from 43.6 FPS to 35.1 FPS, a similar ~19.5% reduction. This proportional scaling is typical when the GPU is the primary constraint, as the rendering workload increases in a linear fashion with pixel count. However, the jump from 1440p to 4K shows a more severe impact. The Low preset drops from 75.9 FPS to 61.2 FPS (a ~19% reduction, still consistent), but the Medium preset drops from 50 FPS to 35.8 FPS (a ~28% reduction). This steeper decline at higher settings suggests a VRAM or memory bandwidth wall is being hit at 4K, exacerbating the GPU's limitations. The fact that the CPU's frame rate ceiling is never reached is evident in the absolute numbers; the i7-12700K could easily push hundreds of frames per second in less demanding titles, but here it is capped by the RX 6600 XT's output. The data clearly indicates that the graphics card is the sole arbiter of performance in this configuration.