The Medium

The Medium presents a fascinating case study in how a fixed-camera horror title scales across hardware, and the pairing of the Intel Core i7-12700K with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT produces a dataset that rewards careful inspection. The measured FPS values reveal a system that is overwhelmingly capable at mainstream resolutions but begins to show its limits at the very top end of the spectrum. The data suggests that the experience is defined by the interaction between the game's rendering load and the GPU's substantial memory and bandwidth resources, rather than any bottleneck from the processor.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data offers a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets, and the optimal choice depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers an average of 101 FPS, with a minimum of 86 FPS and a maximum of 116 FPS. This is a remarkably smooth experience, offering nearly double the frame rate of the High preset at 72 FPS and significantly more headroom than the Ultra preset's 57 FPS. The Low preset reaches 161 FPS, but the jump from Low to Medium only costs 60 FPS while providing what is presumably a substantial visual upgrade, making Medium the sweet spot for high-refresh-rate 1080p displays.

Moving to 1440p, the story becomes more nuanced. The Medium preset again provides a strong 85 FPS average, with a minimum of 72 FPS that keeps the experience comfortably above typical 60 Hz refresh rates. The High preset drops to 61 FPS, which is still playable but leaves little margin for dips in busier scenes. The Ultra preset falls to 48 FPS, which is noticeably less fluid. For 1440p, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation, as it maintains high fluidity while the minimum FPS of 72 suggests it can handle the game's dramatic shifts in camera perspective without stuttering.

At 4K, the calculus changes entirely. The Medium preset produces a 67 FPS average, with a minimum of 57 FPS and a maximum of 77 FPS. This is the only preset at 3840x2160 that maintains an average above 60 FPS. The High preset drops to 48 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to a demanding 38 FPS. While the Low preset hits 107 FPS, it likely sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a horror game that relies heavily on atmosphere. Therefore, the data unequivocally points to the Medium preset as the only viable option for a smooth 4K experience, trading some graphical flair for a playable frame rate. The minimum FPS of 57 at 4K Medium is the key metric here, as it shows the system can hold near 60 FPS even in demanding moments.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT holds a rank of 632 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the top 17% of all systems tested, which is a strong showing and indicates that this pairing is well-suited for this title. The rank suggests that while there are many faster combinations, this system is far from the bottom of the pack and should provide a high-quality experience for most players.

The processor itself, the Intel Core i7-12700K, sits at the 84th percentile when compared against all CPUs in the database. This is a high ranking, reflecting its strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. Its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmark averages are the Intel Core i5-13600T, Intel Core i7-12700KF, Intel Core i7-13700T, and Intel Core 5 213PE, with score deltas of -0.1%, -0.2%, -0.3%, and -0.4% respectively. These minuscule deltas indicate that the i7-12700K is essentially performance-equivalent to these other processors in general compute tasks, meaning the CPU is not a differentiating factor in this specific game's results.

The GPU tells a different story. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT holds a 55th percentile ranking among all GPUs, which is notably lower than the CPU's ranking. Its nearest rivals in the database, based on average benchmark scores, are the AMD Radeon 660M, NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile, and AMD Radeon RX 570X, with deltas of -0.5%, -0.5%, and -0.9%, and the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT with a delta of 1.5%. These are strange bedfellows for a high-end desktop card, but the percentile ranking is what it is. This discrepancy between the CPU's high percentile and the GPU's mid-tier percentile strongly suggests that in The Medium, the graphics card is the primary determinant of the final frame rate, and the system's overall rank is pulled down by the GPU's relative standing.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is a substantial piece of hardware, featuring 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s. This is a massive amount of memory and bandwidth, which is crucial for a game like The Medium that renders highly detailed, fixed-camera scenes. The data shows that the GPU's role is paramount. The transition from the Low to Ultra preset at any resolution causes a massive swing in average FPS, indicating that the GPU's shading and texture processing capabilities are the primary bottleneck.

For instance, at 1080p, the average FPS drops from 161 on Low to 57 on Ultra, a 104 FPS difference. This is a clear sign that the game's higher settings, likely involving more complex lighting and shadow effects, are heavily taxing the GPU's compute units. The GPU's boost clock of 2394 MHz and game clock of 2025 MHz provide the raw speed for these calculations. The 84 ray accelerators and 5376 shading units are the workhorses. However, the fact that the GPU's percentile rank is only 55 suggests that its raw compute power, while excellent, does not translate to an elite standing in the database's aggregate benchmarks. Yet, in The Medium, the 20 GB VRAM buffer ensures that there are no memory capacity issues even at 4K Ultra, meaning the FPS drops are purely due to compute and fill-rate limitations, not a lack of memory.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides a clear matrix of average FPS across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the progression is 161 FPS on Low, 101 FPS on Medium, 72 FPS on High, and 57 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset's minimum of 86 FPS is particularly strong, indicating a very stable frame pacing. At 2560x1440, the averages are 136 FPS on Low, 85 FPS on Medium, 61 FPS on High, and 48 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset again shows a solid minimum of 72 FPS. At 3840x2160, the averages drop to 107 FPS on Low, 67 FPS on Medium, 48 FPS on High, and 38 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Medium preset has a minimum of 57 FPS and a maximum of 77 FPS.

These numbers illustrate a consistent pattern: the cost of moving from Medium to High is roughly a 25-30% performance hit across all resolutions, while the jump from High to Ultra is another significant 20-25% reduction. Conversely, the drop from Medium to Low yields a massive increase in FPS. This suggests that the Medium preset is a well-balanced point in the game's settings, and the High and Ultra presets are designed for users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate. The 4K results are the most telling, as even the powerful RX 7900 XT can only manage an average of 67 FPS on Medium, showing that 4K is a genuine challenge for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a clear trend in how the system scales from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 101 at 1080p, to 85 at 1440p, and finally to 67 at 4K. This represents a 16% drop when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 21% drop when moving from 1440p to 4K. This scaling is not linear and is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario.

The fact that the FPS does not halve when going from 1080p to 4K, which contains four times the pixels, is a critical observation. If the system were purely pixel-bound, the 4K frame rate would be roughly a quarter of the 1080p frame rate. Instead, it is about two-thirds. This indicates that while the GPU is the primary limiter, the game's engine and the CPU still play a role in maintaining a baseline level of performance. The CPU, with its high 84th percentile ranking, is clearly capable of feeding the GPU enough data. The limiting component is the GPU's ability to process the increased pixel count and the more complex shaders at higher resolutions. The relatively modest FPS drop from 1080p to 4K suggests that the game is not purely fill-rate limited, but also relies on other GPU functions that do not scale directly with resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best setting to use for a 60 FPS experience at 4K resolution?

A: The data shows that the Medium preset at 3840x2160 is the only option that achieves an average FPS above 60, with a measured 67 FPS average and a 57 FPS minimum.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: The Low preset achieves an average of 161 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 57 FPS. This represents a 104 FPS difference, making Low nearly three times faster.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck. The GPU's percentile rank is 55, while the CPU's is 84. The large FPS swings between different graphics presets further indicate that the graphics card is the limiting factor.

Q: What are the minimum FPS figures for the Medium preset at various resolutions?

A: The measured minimum FPS for the Medium preset is 86 FPS at 1080p, 72 FPS at 1440p, and 57 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does this system's performance rank among all tested combinations?

A: This combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT ranks 632nd out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 17% of all systems.

Q: What is the average FPS at 1440p on the High preset?

A: The benchmark data shows an average FPS of 61 at 2560x1440 with the High settings preset.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It has a substantial 25 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 19,784 points in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,850.5 in single-core, along with a Geekbench multicore score of 15,790. These figures demonstrate a highly capable processor that is far from being a weak link in this system.

In The Medium, the CPU's role appears to be supportive rather than primary. The evidence for this is the fact that the FPS scales significantly with graphics settings changes. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would remain relatively constant regardless of the GPU load. Here, we see a 104 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p, which is a purely GPU-driven change. The CPU is likely responsible for managing the game's fixed-camera logic, streaming assets, and handling the complex render threads. Given its high benchmark scores and its 84th percentile ranking, it is more than capable of handling these tasks. The nearest rival CPUs are all within 0.4% in average score, showing that its performance is competitive with newer and similarly positioned processors. The data indicates that the i7-12700K provides a stable and robust foundation, allowing the RX 7900 XT to operate without being starved of data, but it is the GPU that ultimately dictates the final frame rate.