The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title, presents a demanding workload that scales significantly with both resolution and image quality settings. For the combination of an Intel Core i7-12700KF and an AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, the measured data reveals a clear performance hierarchy where the Ultra preset is largely unplayable at higher resolutions, while the Low setting offers extremely high frame rates that far exceed display refresh rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Medium?

A: According to the measured data, 1920x1080 provides the highest average frame rates across all settings, ranging from 136.6 FPS on Low to 46.7 FPS on Ultra. At 2560x1440, the average frame rates drop to a range of 111.1 FPS on Low to 40.1 FPS on Ultra. The 3840x2160 resolution yields the lowest results, with the Ultra preset averaging only 29.4 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform at 2560x1440?

A: The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 averages 40.1 FPS. This is a playable frame rate for slower-paced horror games, but it is significantly lower than the Medium preset at the same resolution, which averages 71.2 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more of a bottleneck for this game?

A: The performance scaling across resolutions indicates a GPU-bound workload. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 136.6 FPS, while at 3840x2160, the same preset drops to 88.4 FPS. This significant drop with increasing resolution shows the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the limiting factor, as the CPU's performance remains constant regardless of resolution.

Q: What is the largest performance gap between settings?

A: The data shows a substantial difference between the Low and Ultra presets. At 1920x1080, the gap is 89.9 FPS (from 136.6 down to 46.7). At 2560x1440, the gap is 71.0 FPS (from 111.1 down to 40.1). At 3840x2160, the gap narrows to 59.0 FPS (from 88.4 down to 29.4).

Q: Does this combo rank highly among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 618 out of 1689 total combos tested for this game. This places it in the upper-middle portion of the performance spectrum, indicating a capable pairing, though not a top-tier one for The Medium.

Q: What is the average FPS on the Medium preset at each resolution?

A: The Medium preset averages 85.4 FPS at 1920x1080, 71.2 FPS at 2560x1440, and 57.3 FPS at 3840x2160. These figures represent a balanced middle ground between the high frame rates of the Low preset and the visual demands of the High and Ultra presets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF 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 features 25 MB of shared L3 cache and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, it achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28979 and a single-core score of 4091, indicating strong multi-threaded and single-threaded capabilities. Its PassMark multi-thread score is 34092, and it sits in the 89th percentile of all CPUs.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with enough data to maintain high frame rates. The benchmark results show that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution or setting, as the frame rates scale consistently with the graphical load. The processor's high single-thread performance, reflected in its 3DMark single-thread score of 1043, ensures that the game's primary logic thread is handled efficiently. Its multi-thread performance, with a 3DMark max-threads score of 9983, is more than sufficient for the game's background tasks and streaming. The data suggests that the i7-12700KF provides ample headroom, allowing the GPU to be the primary determinant of performance across all tested configurations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the Ultra preset is exceedingly demanding for this hardware combination. At 3840x2160, it yields an average of only 29.4 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. Even at 1920x1080, the Ultra preset averages 46.7 FPS, a playable but not optimal frame rate for a game that benefits from smooth camera movement. The High preset offers a moderate improvement, averaging 60.4 FPS at 1920x1080 and 49.8 FPS at 2560x1440, but it still struggles at 4K with a 37.8 FPS average.

The Medium preset emerges as the most balanced option for this combo. At 1920x1080, it delivers a smooth 85.4 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 71.2 FPS, providing an excellent balance between visual fidelity and performance. Even at 3840x2160, the Medium preset achieves a respectable 57.3 FPS, making it the only setting that delivers a playable 4K experience without dropping to the significantly lower visual quality of the Low preset. For players prioritizing maximum frame rates, the Low preset offers exceptional performance, averaging 136.6 FPS at 1920x1080 and 111.1 FPS at 2560x1440, but this comes at a substantial cost to visual detail. The data strongly suggests that the Medium preset is the recommended choice for most users, as it provides the best combination of visual quality and performance across all three resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT achieves a rank of 618 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the 63rd percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms a majority of other configurations. The ranking reflects a capable mid-to-high-tier system that can handle the game's requirements, but it is not among the top-performing setups that can max out the game at high resolutions.

The CPU itself is a strong performer, sitting in the 89th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 35355. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core i5-14400, which is a mere 0.1% faster, and the Intel Core i7-13800H, which is 0.2% faster. This indicates that the i7-12700KF is closely matched with other modern processors in its class. The GPU, the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, holds a 76th percentile ranking among all GPUs with an average score of 32619. Its nearest rivals include the AMD FirePro S9300 X2, which is 0.2% faster, and the NVIDIA P104-100, which is 0.4% slower. The GPU's performance is adequate for the game, but its 76th percentile ranking suggests that several other graphics cards are more powerful, which explains why the combo does not rank higher despite the capable CPU.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is a powerful graphics card based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, featuring 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. It has a boost clock of 2430 MHz and a game clock of 2124 MHz, with a base clock of 1295 MHz. The card contains 3840 shading units and 60 ray tracing cores, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate. Its PassMark G3D score is 24176, and it sits in the 76th percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU is the dominant factor in The Medium's performance. The measured frame rates show a clear and consistent drop as resolution increases, a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering. For example, on the Medium preset, the average FPS drops from 85.4 at 1920x1080 to 71.2 at 2560x1440 and further down to 57.3 at 3840x2160. This scaling pattern confirms that the RX 7800 XT's rendering throughput is the primary constraint. The card's 16 GB of VRAM is sufficient for the game's high-resolution textures, as there is no indication of a memory capacity bottleneck. The GPU's raw compute power, measured at 37.32 TFLOPS FP32, is substantial, yet the game's demanding rendering techniques, likely including complex lighting and post-processing effects, push the card to its limits on the Ultra preset, which averages only 29.4 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that the RX 7800 XT is a strong performer for this title, but it requires careful settings management to achieve a consistent, high-quality experience at higher resolutions.