The Medium

The Intel Core i7-12700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, with performance heavily dictated by resolution and graphics presets. The data shows a clear pattern: this combo is firmly a 1080p performer, struggles at 1440p, and is largely unsuitable for 4K gaming at high settings. The GPU is the primary bottleneck, as evidenced by the dramatic FPS swings between Low and Ultra presets, while the CPU’s strong multi-threaded headroom prevents it from being a limiting factor in this title.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, confirming that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the dominant constraint in this system. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 41 FPS. Moving to 1440p drops this to 34.9 FPS (a 14.9% reduction), and pushing to 4K yields 28.7 FPS (a 30% drop from 1080p). This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering load on the graphics card grows exponentially with pixel count.

The Low preset tells a similar but more revealing story. At 1080p Low, the system hits 91.8 FPS, which indicates the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU well above 60 FPS. However, at 4K Low, the frame rate falls to 62.4 FPS. While this is still playable, the 32% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings underscores that even at minimal graphical load, the RTX 3060 Ti cannot maintain high frame rates at 4K. The GPU’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely the limiting factors here, as the game’s fixed-scene horror visuals demand significant memory throughput.

The trend across Medium and Ultra presets reinforces this conclusion. At Medium, the drop from 1080p (57.5 FPS) to 1440p (46 FPS) is a 20% loss, and to 4K (35.8 FPS) is a 37.7% loss. At Ultra, the system falls from 34 FPS at 1080p to 29.1 FPS at 1440p and 23 FPS at 4K. The fact that Ultra at 1080p (34 FPS) is slower than High at 4K (28.7 FPS) is not surprising; the gap between presets is larger than the gap between resolutions, indicating that the GPU’s compute and memory resources are exhausted by the game’s highest visual settings regardless of resolution. The data suggests that for a consistent 60 FPS experience, users must either drop to Low settings at 1080p or accept sub-50 FPS averages at higher presets.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60 FPS in The Medium?*

A: The only measured configuration that achieves a 60 FPS average is 1080p with Low settings, producing 91.8 FPS. At 1440p Low, the average is 75.6 FPS, which also exceeds 60 FPS. No High, Medium, or Ultra preset at any resolution reaches 60 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3060 Ti perform at 4K in this game?

A: At 4K, the GPU struggles significantly. The best 4K result is 62.4 FPS on Low settings. Medium drops to 35.8 FPS, High to 28.7 FPS, and Ultra to 23 FPS. These numbers indicate that 4K is only viable on the lowest preset.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-12700KF a bottleneck for the RTX 3060 Ti in this title?

A: No. The CPU has 12 cores and 20 threads with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, and benchmark results show it ranks in the 89th percentile among all CPUs. The FPS scaling across resolutions points to the GPU as the limiting component, not the processor.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low settings produce 75.6 FPS, while Ultra produces 29.1 FPS. This is a 46.5 FPS difference, representing a 61.5% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest to the highest preset.

Q: Does the GPU’s memory capacity affect performance in this game?

A: The RTX 3060 Ti has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus. Given the large FPS drops at higher presets and resolutions, the memory subsystem appears to be a factor in the GPU-bound behavior, though the exact allocation is not specified in the data.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 1181 out of 1689 total tested combos, placing it in the bottom 30% of all systems tested for The Medium.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is the decisive factor in this combo’s performance. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, running at an effective 14 Gbps, provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz, with 4864 shading units and 80 ROPs. These specifications translate into a rendering capability that is clearly insufficient for the highest settings in The Medium at 1440p and 4K.

The benchmark data shows the GPU’s percentile rank is 69, meaning it outperforms 69% of all GPUs, but its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6600 and AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP, with average scores within 0.5-0.7% of the RTX 3060 Ti. This indicates the GPU is positioned in the mid-range tier, and The Medium’s horror environments, which rely on detailed textures and lighting, push it to its limits. The 16.20 TFLOPS FP32 compute throughput is not enough to sustain high frame rates at Ultra settings, as evidenced by the 23 FPS result at 4K Ultra.

The GPU’s memory bandwidth is likely a key constraint. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 91.8 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra, it drops to 34 FPS — a 63% reduction. This massive drop is not typical of a purely compute-bound scenario; it suggests that the higher presets increase memory pressure beyond what the 448.0 GB/s bandwidth can handle efficiently. The GPU’s 38 RT cores and 152 tensor cores are present, but the data does not isolate ray tracing effects; the overall FPS figures indicate that the standard rasterization load alone is heavy.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For a target of 60 FPS, the only viable options are Low settings at 1080p (91.8 FPS) or 1440p (75.6 FPS). The 1440p Low configuration offers a higher resolution with a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, making it the best balance of visual fidelity and performance among the measured rows. At 1080p Low, the frame rate is high enough to provide headroom for potential frame drops, but the resolution is lower.

If 60 FPS is not a hard requirement, Medium at 1080p (57.5 FPS) is a reasonable compromise, offering better visual quality than Low while staying close to the 60 FPS target. However, Medium at 1440p (46 FPS) and High at 1080p (41 FPS) are both sub-optimal, as they fall below 50 FPS. The data shows that High and Ultra presets are not recommended for this GPU, as they produce frame rates below 35 FPS at 1080p and below 30 FPS at 1440p.

For users with a 1440p monitor, the choice is stark: Low settings at 75.6 FPS or Medium at 46 FPS. The 29.6 FPS difference between these two presets is substantial, and the data suggests that the visual upgrade to Medium does not justify the performance loss, given that the GPU is already near its limits. At 4K, only Low is playable at 62.4 FPS; every other preset falls below 36 FPS. The recommendation is to prioritize resolution over settings: 1440p Low provides a playable experience, while 1080p Medium offers a slightly better visual profile at a lower resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the combo’s capabilities. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low averages 91.8 FPS, Medium averages 57.5 FPS, High averages 41 FPS, and Ultra averages 34 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 57.8 FPS, indicating that the GPU’s performance is highly sensitive to preset changes.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 75.6 FPS, Medium at 46 FPS, High at 34.9 FPS, and Ultra at 29.1 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets: Low drops by 16.2 FPS, Medium by 11.5 FPS, High by 6.1 FPS, and Ultra by 4.9 FPS. This pattern shows that lower presets suffer larger absolute FPS losses at higher resolutions because they are less GPU-bound to begin with.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 62.4 FPS, Medium at 35.8 FPS, High at 28.7 FPS, and Ultra at 23 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is severe: Low loses 13.2 FPS, Medium loses 10.2 FPS, High loses 6.2 FPS, and Ultra loses 6.1 FPS. Notably, the difference between Medium and High at 4K is only 7.1 FPS, while at 1080p the same difference is 16.5 FPS. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so constrained that preset changes have a diminished impact on frame rates.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i7-12700KF is a high-end processor with 12 cores (likely a mix of performance and efficiency cores given the Alder Lake architecture) and 20 threads. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz, and it boosts up to 5.00 GHz. The CPU has 25 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 or DDR5 memory. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 28979 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4091 in single-core, placing it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU. The 1080p Low result of 91.8 FPS demonstrates that the CPU can drive frame rates well above 60 FPS when the GPU is not the bottleneck. The CPU’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14400 (within 0.1% average score) and the Intel Core i9-12900HX (within 0.2%), indicating that its performance is solid but not exceptional for its generation. The 3DMark max-thread score of 9983 and the PassMark multithread score of 34092 confirm strong multi-threaded capability, which is relevant for a game like The Medium that may use multiple threads for streaming and physics.

However, the FPS data shows no signs of CPU limitation. The consistent FPS drops across resolutions and presets are entirely consistent with GPU-bound behavior. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the frame rates to remain relatively flat across resolutions at the same preset. Instead, the 4K results are significantly lower than 1080p at every preset, confirming that the RTX 3060 Ti is the limiting component. The CPU’s 125W TDP and 5.00 GHz boost clock provide ample headroom for this workload.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ranks 1181 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the 30th percentile, meaning 70% of all tested systems deliver better performance in this game. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the CPU’s strong benchmark scores, but it aligns with the GPU’s mid-range positioning.

The RTX 3060 Ti’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (within 0.2% average score), the AMD Radeon RX 6600 (within 0.5%), and the AMD Radeon 890M (within 0.5%). These rivals are all in the same performance tier, which explains why the combo ranks relatively low — the GPU is simply not powerful enough to push the game’s heavy visual effects at higher settings. The combo’s rank of 1181 suggests that while the CPU is capable, the overall system is held back by the GPU, especially in a game that is known for its demanding fixed-camera scenes and volumetric lighting.

The data indicates that to improve the ranking, a more powerful GPU would be necessary. The CPU has room to support a faster graphics card, as evidenced by its high single-thread and multi-thread scores. However, with the current GPU, the combo is best suited for 1080p gaming at Low to Medium settings, or 1440p at Low. The rank of 1181 out of 1689 is a clear verdict: this is a mid-tier system for The Medium, not a high-end one. Users seeking higher frame rates at higher settings would need to consider a different GPU, as the RTX 3060 Ti is the primary constraint in this configuration.