The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built around a dual-reality rendering technique, presents a distinctive load profile that stresses both the GPU’s raw throughput and the CPU’s ability to feed it. The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX delivers a wide performance envelope across resolutions, with frame rates that scale predictably but reveal a specific bottleneck hierarchy. In the database, this configuration holds combo rank 461 out of 3724 tested combinations, placing it in the top 12.4% of all tested pairings for this title, a strong showing that reflects the high-end nature of both components.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent drop as resolution increases, which is the expected signature of a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 78 FPS; moving to 1440p reduces that to 66 FPS, a 15.4% decrease. The jump to 4K further compresses performance to 52 FPS, which is a 33.3% drop from the 1440p figure and a 33.3% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern indicates that the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the primary limiter at higher resolutions, as the CPU has ample headroom to keep up with the increased pixel throughput demands.

The Low settings preset tells a similar story but with higher absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 167 FPS, which falls to 147 FPS at 1440p (an 11.9% drop) and then to 115 FPS at 4K (a 21.8% drop from 1440p). The percentage declines between resolution steps are smaller at Low settings compared to High settings, suggesting that the GPU is less saturated at lower quality presets and that the CPU’s role becomes relatively more significant, though the GPU still dominates the scaling curve.

Medium settings show the most moderate scaling, with 109 FPS at 1080p dropping to 92 FPS at 1440p (a 15.6% drop) and then to 72 FPS at 4K (a 21.7% drop). Ultra settings exhibit the steepest curve: 62 FPS at 1080p, 52 FPS at 1440p (a 16.1% drop), and 41 FPS at 4K (a 21.2% drop from 1440p). The fact that even at 1080p Ultra the combo cannot exceed 62 FPS suggests that the game’s heavier rendering features, such as the dual-world camera mechanic, impose a hard ceiling that neither component can overcome at that preset, regardless of resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame field places this configuration at rank 461 out of 3724 tested combos, which translates to the 87.6th percentile. This is a strong result, but not a top-tier one, indicating that while the Intel Core i7-12700KF and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX are capable parts, there are faster combinations for The Medium. The CPU’s own percentileVsAllCpus is 85, meaning it outperforms 85% of all CPUs in the database, while the GPU’s percentileVsAllGpus is 64, a lower figure that reflects the GPU’s age and the presence of newer, faster cards.

The CPU’s nearest rivals provide context for its synthetic benchmark standing. The Intel Core i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35365, which is just 0.1% behind the Intel Core i7-13700T (score 35403) and 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i5-13600T (score 35305). It also sits 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700K (score 35287) and 0.2% behind the Intel Core 5 213PE (score 35428). These tiny deltas show that the 12700KF is essentially performance-equivalent to its closest competitors in general compute, so the in-game ranking is more likely driven by GPU performance and specific game optimizations than by CPU differences.

On the GPU side, the RX 7900 XTX has an average benchmark score of 19410, which places it 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB (score 19334) and 1.2% ahead of the NVIDIA TITAN Xp (score 19177), but 1% behind the NVIDIA Quadro K5200 (score 19602) and 1.2% behind the AMD FirePro D300 (score 19637). These rival comparisons are striking because they pit a modern high-end card against much older or lower-tier parts, yet the score deltas are small. This suggests that the database’s average benchmark score for the RX 7900 XTX may be skewed by its end-of-life production status, but in The Medium specifically, the combo’s rank shows it still competes well against the broader field.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX features 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s. This large memory capacity is not fully utilized by The Medium, which is a 2021 title, but the bandwidth is crucial for the game’s high-resolution textures and the dual-scene rendering that the game employs. The GPU’s clocks are listed as a base of 1929 MHz, a game clock of 2365 MHz, and a boost clock of 2498 MHz, with memory running at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). These clocks are high for the RDNA 3.0 architecture, and they directly influence the measured FPS at each settings preset.

The GPU’s 6144 shading units and 192 ROPs provide the raw pixel throughput needed for 4K rendering, and the data confirms that the card is the bottleneck at that resolution. At 4K Ultra, the combo only manages 41 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, indicating that the GPU’s compute resources are fully taxed by the game’s most demanding settings. The transistor count of 57,700 million on a 529 mm² die, built on TSMC’s 5 nm process, gives the card a transistor density of 109.1M per mm², which explains its high FP32 performance of 61.39 TFLOPS.

The GPU’s directX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility are relevant for a game like The Medium, which uses DirectX 12 features. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (167 FPS) shows that the GPU can deliver very high frame rates when the workload is light, but the scaling to 4K Low (115 FPS) still represents a 31.1% reduction, so the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute units remain the dominant factor even at lower presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces average FPS of 167 on Low, 109 on Medium, 78 on High, and 62 on Ultra. The Medium preset has a recorded min FPS of 93 and max FPS of 125, providing a tight range that suggests consistent frame pacing. The gap between Low and Medium is 58 FPS (a 53.2% increase from Low to Medium), while the gap between Medium and High is 31 FPS (a 28.4% drop), and the gap between High and Ultra is 16 FPS (a 20.5% drop). This shows that each settings tier adds a significant workload, with the largest jump occurring when moving from Low to Medium.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS figures are 147 on Low, 92 on Medium, 66 on High, and 52 on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a min of 78 and max of 106, which is a 28 FPS spread, slightly wider than at 1080p. The percentage drops from 1080p to 1440p are 11.9% for Low, 15.6% for Medium, 15.4% for High, and 16.1% for Ultra. These reductions are all in the 12–16% range, indicating that the resolution increase imposes a nearly uniform load increase across settings, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops to 115 on Low, 72 on Medium, 52 on High, and 41 on Ultra. The Medium preset’s min FPS is 61 and max is 83, showing a 22 FPS range. The percentage drops from 1440p to 4K are 21.8% for Low, 21.7% for Medium, 21.2% for High, and 21.2% for Ultra. These values are all close to 21%, suggesting that the 4K resolution multiplies the pixel count by 2.25, and the GPU’s scaling is nearly linear, confirming that the RX 7900 XTX is the limiting component at this resolution. The only preset that stays above 60 FPS at 4K is Low, which achieves 115 FPS, while Medium just barely exceeds 60 FPS at 72 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700KF has 12 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This Alder Lake-S architecture part features a 10 nm process node from Intel, with a 125 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 25 MB of shared L3 cache. These specifications give the CPU strong single-threaded and multi-threaded performance, as reflected in its benchmark scores: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28838 and single-core score of 4071, plus Geekbench multi-core of 14367 and single-core of 2255.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and manage the game’s simulation logic. The measured FPS at 1080p Low (167 FPS) is high enough that the CPU could become a limiting factor if the game’s engine is not well-optimized for multi-threading. However, the 3DMark 16-thread score of 9282 and max-thread score of 9983 indicate that the CPU has substantial parallel compute capability. The game’s fixed-camera perspective reduces the number of objects on screen compared to open-world titles, so the CPU is less likely to be the bottleneck, which is consistent with the resolution scaling data showing GPU dominance.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the database, such as the Intel Core i7-13700T with a score of 35403, are only 0.1% ahead, meaning that swapping the CPU for a slightly faster part would not meaningfully change the in-game FPS. The combo rank of 461 is more likely determined by the GPU’s standing relative to newer cards, as the CPU’s 85th percentile ranking is higher than the GPU’s 64th percentile. At 1080p Ultra, the combo delivers 62 FPS, which is acceptable, but the fact that it cannot push higher suggests the game’s rendering engine places a hard limit on the frame rate at that preset, rather than a CPU constraint.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium settings preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 109 FPS with a min of 93 FPS, ensuring consistent frame times above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p, Medium produces 92 FPS with a min of 78 FPS, which is still smooth and comfortable for a horror title where frame pacing matters for atmosphere. Even at 4K, Medium achieves 72 FPS with a min of 61 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target, making it the only preset that sustains playable frame rates at 4K aside from Low.

The High preset is a viable alternative for users with 1080p or 1440p monitors, as it yields 78 FPS at 1080p and 66 FPS at 1440p, but it drops to 52 FPS at 4K, which is below the acceptable threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it only reaches 62 FPS at 1080p, 52 FPS at 1440p, and 41 FPS at 4K, all of which are marginal or poor. The Low preset delivers high frame rates (167 FPS at 1080p, 147 FPS at 1440p, 115 FPS at 4K) but sacrifices visual fidelity, which undermines the game’s atmospheric horror presentation.

For a balanced experience, the Medium preset is the clear choice, as it provides a 100% improvement over High at 4K (72 vs 52 FPS) and a 32% improvement over High at 1080p (109 vs 78 FPS), while still offering better visuals than Low. The data shows that the jump from Medium to High costs 31 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p, and 20 FPS at 4K, which is a significant performance hit for the visual gains that High provides. Therefore, Medium is the sweet spot for this combo in The Medium.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1440p Medium provides 92 FPS with a min of 78 FPS, which is ideal for smooth gameplay. 1080p Medium reaches 109 FPS, while 4K Medium drops to 72 FPS, so 1440p is the recommended resolution for balancing visual detail and frame rate.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: No, 4K Ultra produces only 41 FPS on average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play. The GPU becomes the limiting factor at this preset, and the frame rate is not acceptable for a horror game requiring responsive controls.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700KF has an average benchmark score of 35365, which is 0.1% behind the Intel Core i7-13700T (35403) and 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i5-13600T (35305). It is also 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700K (35287) and 0.2% behind the Intel Core 5 213PE (35428).

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth and how does it affect the game?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. This high bandwidth supports the game’s high-resolution textures and dual-scene rendering, allowing the GPU to maintain 72 FPS at 4K Medium settings.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The resolution scaling data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. Frame rates drop by 15–16% from 1080p to 1440p and by 21% from 1440p to 4K, which is characteristic of a GPU-limited workload. The CPU’s 12 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom, as shown by its high Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28838.

Q: What settings preset should I use for the best experience?

A: The Medium preset is recommended, as it delivers 109 FPS at 1080p, 92 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K, with min FPS of 93, 78, and 61 respectively. This preset avoids the large performance penalties of High and Ultra while maintaining better visuals than Low.