The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding workload for the Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, with the measured data revealing a system that is firmly constrained by the graphics card at higher resolutions. The combination ranks 1222nd out of 1689 tested configurations for this title, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database, though the CPU itself holds an 89th percentile standing among all processors. This disparity in component performance levels is the central theme of the benchmark results.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and unmistakable, confirming that the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is the limiting factor in this pairing. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 37.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 36.2 FPS at 2560x1440, a relatively modest decline of 4.5%. However, moving to 3840x2160 produces a more dramatic reduction to 28.3 FPS, representing a 25.3% loss compared to the 1080p result. This pattern indicates that the GPU is already saturated at 1080p and simply cannot push more frames as pixel count rises.

The Low settings row tells an even clearer story about the scaling behavior. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 90.1 FPS, which drops to 78.7 FPS at 2560x1440 and finally to 62.8 FPS at 3840x2160. The percentage decline from 1080p to 4K is 30.3%, which is substantial but less severe than the High settings drop. This suggests that at Low settings, the CPU begins to play a more meaningful role, though the GPU still dominates the bottleneck. The 12-core, 20-thread Intel Core i7-12700KF with its 5.00 GHz boost clock is clearly not the constraint here, as evidenced by its strong 28979 score in Cinebench R23 multicore testing.

Ultra settings produce the most extreme scaling. The 19.9 FPS average at 4K is barely playable, while the 1080p Ultra result of 32.0 FPS is only 7.6% higher than the 4K High figure. This shows that the Ultra preset's additional graphical demands overwhelm the RX 5700 XT's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth at every resolution tested. The GPU's 68th percentile ranking among all graphics cards, alongside its 9.754 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, simply cannot sustain the rendering load that The Medium's fixed camera angles and layered scenes require.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, built on the RDNA 1.0 architecture with the Navi 10 chip, operates with a base clock of 1605 MHz, a game clock of 1755 MHz, and a boost clock of 1905 MHz. These frequencies are relatively modest by modern standards, yet the measured FPS figures show that the card is working at its limits. The 8 GB memory capacity appears adequate for 1080p and 1440p at Low and Medium settings, but the 4K Ultra result of 19.9 FPS strongly suggests that memory pressure and bandwidth limitations are contributing to the poor scaling.

The GPU's 2560 shading units and 160 texture mapping units provide a theoretical texture rate of 304.8 GTexel/s, but the benchmark results indicate that the actual performance falls well short of what those specifications might suggest. The DirectX 12 score of 64 in Passmark, compared to the DirectX 11 score of 116, highlights that the card's architectural efficiency in newer APIs is not its strong suit. The 64 ROPS and 121.9 GPixel/s pixel rate are adequate for lower resolutions but become a clear bottleneck when the engine must fill 8.3 million pixels per frame at 4K.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile with a delta of -0.1% and the Intel Arc A350M at +0.3%, indicating that the RX 5700 XT sits in a performance band where small architectural differences produce negligible real-world changes. The 225 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest a card that was positioned for 1440p gaming at its 2019 launch, and the measured data confirms that this remains its practical ceiling in The Medium.

Settings Recommendations

Examining the measured FPS rows, the Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers 90.1 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset that approaches high-refresh-rate gaming. The Medium preset at 1080p produces 56.4 FPS, which is playable but not smooth by competitive standards. The High preset at 1080p drops to 37.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32.0 FPS. For a consistent experience, Low at 1080p is the only setting that provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 78.7 FPS, which remains playable, while Medium drops to 48 FPS and High falls to 36.2 FPS. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with Low achieving 62.8 FPS, Medium at 38.8 FPS, High at 28.3 FPS, and Ultra at 19.9 FPS. The data suggests that users should prioritize resolution over quality: a 1440p Low experience at 78.7 FPS is far more responsive than a 1080p High experience at 37.9 FPS, and the visual differences between Low and High in a horror game with fixed camera angles are often less impactful than frame rate consistency.

The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 33.7 FPS (from 90.1 to 56.4), while the jump from Medium to High costs 18.5 FPS (from 56.4 to 37.9). The Ultra preset offers no measurable benefit over High at 4K, where the 28.3 to 19.9 FPS drop represents a 29.7% reduction for marginal quality gains. The optimal balance for this hardware combination is clearly the Low preset at either 1080p or 1440p, depending on whether the user prioritizes frame rate or pixel density.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings sweep shows 90.1 FPS at Low, 56.4 FPS at Medium, 37.9 FPS at High, and 32.0 FPS at Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 64.5% reduction in average frame rate, which is a significant penalty for the visual upgrades. The 1080p Low result of 90.1 FPS is the single highest average in the entire dataset, and it is nearly 2.4 times the 4K Ultra figure of 19.9 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the results are 78.7 FPS at Low, 48.0 FPS at Medium, 36.2 FPS at High, and 25.6 FPS at Ultra. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings costs 11.4 FPS (12.7%), while the same resolution change at Ultra costs 6.4 FPS (20.0%). This indicates that higher settings amplify the resolution penalty, as the GPU becomes more memory-bound and shader-limited.

At 3840x2160, the measured values are 62.8 FPS at Low, 38.8 FPS at Medium, 28.3 FPS at High, and 19.9 FPS at Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 42.9 FPS, which is the largest absolute spread across all resolutions. The 4K Low result of 62.8 FPS is actually higher than the 1080p High result of 37.9 FPS, which suggests that users with 4K displays can achieve a playable experience by sacrificing visual quality, while those on 1080p panels seeking higher detail will face sub-60 FPS performance.

The Intel Core i7-12700KF's performance in synthetic benchmarks, including a 9282 score in 3DMark 16-thread testing and a 12171 score in Cinebench R20 multicore, confirms that the CPU is not hindering the GPU in this title. The processor's nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14400, has an average score of 35336 with a delta of just 0.1%, indicating that the 12700KF's 35355 average is essentially identical to a mid-range current-gen chip. This further reinforces that the RX 5700 XT is the sole bottleneck in The Medium.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combination in The Medium?

A: The measured data shows that 1920x1080 with Low settings delivers the highest average FPS at 90.1, while 2560x1440 at Low provides 78.7 FPS. The 4K resolution is only viable at Low settings, achieving 62.8 FPS.

Q: Why is the performance at 4K so much lower than at 1080p?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and a 448.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is insufficient for the rendering load at 3840x2160. The High preset drops from 37.9 FPS at 1080p to 28.3 FPS at 4K, a 25.3% reduction.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-12700KF bottlenecking the RX 5700 XT?

A: No. The CPU's benchmark scores, including 28979 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 9282 in 3DMark 16-thread, place it at the 89th percentile among all CPUs. The GPU's 68th percentile ranking and the FPS scaling patterns confirm the graphics card is the limiting component.

Q: How does the RX 5700 XT compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 24731 is within 0.1% of the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile (24763) and 0.3% of the Intel Arc A350M (24647). These close deltas suggest similar real-world performance in The Medium.

Q: What is the playable threshold for this hardware?

A: The data shows that 60 FPS is achievable only at Low settings across all resolutions, with 90.1 FPS at 1080p, 78.7 FPS at 1440p, and 62.8 FPS at 4K. All Medium, High, and Ultra presets fall below 60 FPS at every resolution.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide any benefit over High?

A: The measured difference is small: at 1080p, Ultra delivers 32.0 FPS versus 37.9 FPS for High, a 15.6% penalty. At 4K, the difference is 19.9 FPS versus 28.3 FPS, a 29.7% reduction, making Ultra not worth the performance cost.