The Medium

The Medium is a demanding title, and this combination of an Intel Core i7-12700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER lands in the top 9% of all tested configurations. The data confirms a system that is capable of high-refresh-rate play at 1080p and 1440p, but requires careful settings management to maintain smooth performance at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific hardware pairing achieves a rank of 152 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places the system in the 91st percentile of all configurations, a strong result that indicates a well-balanced setup for this horror title. The ranking reflects that the combination of the 12-core processor and the 16 GB graphics card is sufficient to avoid severe bottlenecks, though the game’s engine still presents a challenge at its highest settings.

The CPU’s overall benchmark percentile of 89 is nearly matched by its in-game performance rank, suggesting the processor is pulling its weight. Similarly, the GPU’s percentile of 86 aligns closely with the combo’s final placement. The data shows that neither component is dramatically outclassing the other in this title; they work in concert. Compared to its nearest rivals, the Core i7-12700K sits within a tight performance band. It is 0.3% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 and 0.7% slower than the Intel Core i5-14500HX, but it edges out the Intel Core i7-13700T by 0.6% and the Intel Core i7-13800H by 0.8%. This indicates that processor headroom is not the primary differentiator in this game; the graphics card and settings selection are far more impactful.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 672.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for The Medium’s detailed textures and fixed-camera scenes that can be heavy on memory usage. The GPU’s architecture, built on a 5 nm process, includes 8448 shading units and 66 ray tracing cores, though the measured data does not isolate ray tracing performance.

The clock speeds are significant: a base of 2340 MHz and a boost of 2610 MHz. The data shows that the GPU is capable of massive throughput, with an FP32 rating of 44.10 TFLOPS. In practical terms, this power translates to a 116 average FPS at 4K Low settings, proving the card’s raw strength. However, the game’s Ultra preset is a different story. The drop from High to Ultra at every resolution is steep, with performance falling from 53.9 to 42.6 FPS at 4K. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are particularly taxing on the GPU, pushing it beyond its comfort zone for smooth 60 FPS gameplay at higher resolutions. The GPU’s Passmark G3D score of 31811 and its overall benchmark average of 48704 place it in the 86th percentile, confirming it is a high-end part that is fundamentally strong but not immune to the game’s most demanding settings.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K with a stable 60 FPS?

A: Not on the High preset, which averages 53.9 FPS. At Medium settings, the average rises to 70.5 FPS, which provides the necessary headroom for a stable 60 FPS experience at 3840x2160.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The data suggests not. At 1920x1080, the average FPS scales from 61.7 on Ultra to 169.5 on Low. The high frame rates at Low settings indicate the GPU is still the limiting factor, as the CPU is able to feed it enough data to reach these numbers.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: The jump is substantial. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 148.6 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages just 55.5 FPS. This is a drop of 93.1 FPS, which shows how dramatically the visual presets affect performance.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: Its average benchmark score of 48704 is 1.6% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A2000 and 2% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile. It is 0.7% slower than the NVIDIA CMP 50HX and 2.1% slower than the Intel Arc A550M.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth the performance cost?

A: The data shows a significant cost. At 4K, moving from High to Ultra reduces the average FPS from 53.9 to 42.6, a drop of 11.3 FPS. For a horror game where smooth motion is important, the High preset is a better trade-off.

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

A: The Low preset is significantly faster. It averages 169.5 FPS, which is 107.8 FPS higher than the Ultra preset’s 61.7 FPS average at the same resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal preset depends entirely on the target resolution. For 4K gaming, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation. It is the only preset that breaks the 60 FPS barrier at this resolution, averaging 70.5 FPS. This provides a smooth and playable experience while maintaining a significant visual upgrade over the Low preset. The High preset, at 53.9 FPS, is borderline and may cause noticeable stuttering in a game that relies on atmosphere and tension.

At 2560x1440, the High preset is the best balance of quality and performance. It delivers an average of 68.6 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS target. The Ultra preset at 55.5 FPS is below this threshold, and the jump to Medium (93.7 FPS) is unnecessary for most players. For competitive or high-refresh-rate displays, the Low preset at 148.6 FPS is available, but it sacrifices the visual fidelity that makes the game immersive.

At 1920x1080, the High preset is the sweet spot. It achieves an average of 80.1 FPS, which is a solid performance level. The Ultra preset at 61.7 FPS is still playable but leaves little margin for error in demanding scenes. The Medium preset at 111.2 FPS is an alternative for those who want extra headroom, but the visual difference between Medium and High is often less impactful than the performance gain from High to Ultra is detrimental.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a clear picture of performance scaling. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 169.5 on Low to 61.7 on Ultra. The Medium preset achieves 111.2 FPS, while High reaches 80.1 FPS. This shows that the game is highly scalable, with the Ultra preset acting as a significant performance sink.

At 2560x1440, the numbers scale down predictably. The Low preset averages 148.6 FPS, Medium hits 93.7 FPS, High reaches 68.6 FPS, and Ultra drops to 55.5 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 25.1 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 13.1 FPS. This indicates that the High preset is the first point where the GPU starts to feel the pressure.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is heavily tasked. The Low preset is the only one that maintains a high frame rate, averaging 116 FPS. Medium follows at 70.5 FPS, High at 53.9 FPS, and Ultra at 42.6 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 45.5 FPS, a massive drop that shows how much of the GPU’s resources are consumed by the higher-quality textures and effects. The data confirms that 4K gaming on this title requires a compromise on visual settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, which provides strong single-threaded performance for game logic. Its benchmark results are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29241 and a single-core score of 4128. The Passmark multithread score of 34404 and single-thread score of 4013 further confirm its capability.

However, in The Medium, the CPU’s role appears secondary to the GPU. The benchmark scores show it is not a bottleneck, as evidenced by the high frame rates achieved at Low settings across all resolutions. The 20 threads are more than sufficient for the game’s engine. The processor’s performance is tightly clustered with its rivals, with deltas of less than 1% in either direction. This suggests that upgrading or downgrading to a similar-tier CPU would have a minimal impact on frame rates in this specific game. The system’s rank of 152 is more evidence of the GPU’s power than the CPU’s, as the processor simply provides a stable foundation without holding the graphics card back.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are steep and clearly demonstrate that the GPU is the limiting component. At High settings, performance falls from 80.1 FPS at 1080p to 68.6 FPS at 1440p, a drop of 11.5 FPS. Moving to 4K, it falls further to 53.9 FPS, a total drop of 26.2 FPS from the 1080p baseline. This scaling is typical for a GPU-bound scenario.

The pattern is similar at Medium settings. The average FPS drops from 111.2 at 1080p to 93.7 at 1440p and then to 70.5 at 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 40.7 FPS. At Low settings, the drop is even more pronounced in absolute terms, falling from 169.5 to 148.6 and then to 116. This represents a 53.5 FPS loss from 1080p to 4K.

The consistency of these drops across all settings points to a singular conclusion: the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the primary driver of performance. The CPU is not the limiting factor because the frame rate scales predictably with resolution, which only increases the GPU’s workload. The data shows that to maintain a consistent experience, players must reduce settings as they increase resolution. The jump from 1440p to 4K is particularly punishing, requiring a drop of at least one full preset level to achieve similar frame rates. For example, 1440p High (68.6 FPS) is roughly equivalent to 4K Medium (70.5 FPS), highlighting the significant cost of rendering at 4K.