The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine 4, presents a unique challenge for the Intel Core i7-13700K and AMD Radeon RX 6600 combination. The measured data reveals a system that is decisively GPU-limited at higher resolutions, with the RX 6600 acting as the primary bottleneck, while the i7-13700K provides ample headroom. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings to characterize the performance profile of this pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is severe, indicating that the Radeon RX 6600 is the limiting component at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 37 FPS at 1920x1080 to 32 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 25 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 32.4% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K, a scaling curve that points directly at the GPU's fillrate and memory bandwidth constraints as resolution increases.

The pattern is consistent across all quality presets. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 84 at 1080p to 71 at 1440p and 55 at 4K. The 4K Low setting still delivers 55 FPS, which is playable, but the 34.5% drop from 1080p shows that even at the lowest graphical fidelity, the pixel throughput demanded by 4K overwhelms the GPU. The RX 6600's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes a critical constraint at 4K, where texture data and framebuffer operations scale exponentially.

Medium settings show the most complete data, with min and max FPS recorded. At 1080p Medium, the average is 52 FPS (min 44, max 60). Moving to 1440p Medium yields 44 FPS (min 37, max 51), and at 4K Medium, the average drops to 35 FPS (min 29, max 40). The 4K Medium minimum of 29 FPS approaches the threshold where stutter becomes noticeable in a horror title, which relies heavily on smooth camera transitions to maintain atmosphere.

Ultra settings are nearly unplayable beyond 1080p. The average FPS at 1080p Ultra is 30, dropping to 25 at 1440p and 20 at 4K. These figures confirm that the Ultra preset is not viable for this GPU at any resolution, as even 1080p fails to maintain a consistent 30 FPS floor. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 33.3% reduction, mirroring the other presets and reinforcing that the bottleneck is purely resolution-driven rather than settings-driven.

The data suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor in these scaling trends. The Intel Core i7-13700K, with its 16 cores and 24 threads, has significant headroom even in a game that may not be heavily multithreaded. The consistent percentage drops across all settings imply that the GPU is saturated at every preset, and the CPU is waiting on the render thread rather than the reverse.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows indicate that the Low preset offers the most reliable experience for this combination, particularly at 1440p and above. At 1920x1080 Low, the average FPS of 84 provides a substantial margin above the 60 FPS threshold, ensuring smooth gameplay in most scenes. At 2560x1440 Low, the 71 FPS average remains comfortably playable, and even at 3840x2160 Low, the 55 FPS average is acceptable for a slower-paced horror game where reaction time is less critical than atmosphere.

Medium settings represent a reasonable compromise for 1080p users. The 52 FPS average at 1920x1080 Medium, with a minimum of 44 FPS, keeps the experience within a playable range, though the 44 FPS minimum may dip during intense visual effects. At 1440p Medium, the 44 FPS average (min 37) is borderline, and at 4K Medium, the 35 FPS average (min 29) is likely to feel inconsistent during fast transitions between the game's dual-reality mechanic.

High settings are only recommended for users who prioritize visual fidelity over smoothness at 1080p. The 37 FPS average at 1920x1080 High is below the ideal threshold for a cinematic horror experience, and the 32 FPS average at 1440p High and 25 FPS at 4K High make these resolutions impractical for sustained play. The Ultra preset should be avoided entirely, as the 30 FPS average at 1080p is the only measure that even approaches playability, and the 20 FPS at 4K is a slideshow.

Given that the game is a horror title where frame pacing matters for immersion, the Low preset at 1440p or 1080p appears to be the sweet spot. The 71 FPS at 1440p Low provides a high enough refresh to keep the camera movements fluid, while the visual trade-offs of Low settings are less noticeable in a game with a muted color palette and fixed camera angles. The Medium preset at 1080p is the alternative for users who want improved shadows and textures without sacrificing too much performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a Raptor Lake-S architecture processor with 16 cores and 24 threads, running at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30745 and a single-core score of 2116, while Geekbench reports 19429 multi-core and 2529 single-core.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The game's fixed-camera perspective and relatively static scenes place less stress on the CPU than open-world titles with dynamic geometry. The i7-13700K's high single-thread performance, highlighted by a 3DMark single-thread score of 1136, ensures that the game's main thread is rarely a bottleneck, even when the GPU is struggling at 4K.

The CPU's 24 threads provide ample capacity for background tasks and streaming, though The Medium is unlikely to utilize more than a fraction of them. The benchmark data shows that the CPU sits at the 89th percentile versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 46881. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 5900 (avg score 46971, delta -0.2%) and the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX (avg score 46654, delta 0.5%), placing it in a highly competitive performance tier that far exceeds the demands of this game.

The CPU's memory support for DDR4 and DDR5, along with its dual-channel memory bus, provides sufficient bandwidth for the GPU to feed data. However, the measured FPS data confirms that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution or setting. The consistent FPS drops across all presets when increasing resolution point to the GPU as the sole constraint, meaning that the i7-13700K has significant headroom to spare in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-13700K and AMD Radeon RX 6600 ranks 2904 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places the pairing in the bottom 22% of all combinations tested, which is a surprising result given the CPU's high performance tier. The ranking reflects the GPU's limitations in this specific title, rather than any deficiency in the processor.

The low ranking is primarily attributable to the RX 6600's performance class. As a GPU, the RX 6600 sits at the 63rd percentile versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19036. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (avg score 19030, delta 0%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (avg score 19049, delta -0.1%), and the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (avg score 18954, delta 0.4%). This places the GPU in the mid-range tier, which is insufficient for a game like The Medium that has demanding rendering requirements at higher resolutions.

The combo rank of 2904 out of 3724 indicates that many other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher frame rates in this game. The data suggests that the i7-13700K is being held back by the RX 6600, as the CPU's capabilities are far beyond what the GPU can utilize in this title. Users with this combination would see significant FPS improvements by upgrading the GPU without changing the CPU, as the processor has ample headroom to support a more powerful graphics card.

The ranking also highlights the importance of balance in a gaming system. While the i7-13700K is a top-tier processor, its pairing with a mid-range GPU creates a bottleneck that limits overall performance in GPU-bound scenarios like The Medium. The measured FPS data corroborates this, showing that the system never exceeds 84 FPS even at 1080p Low, which is far below what the CPU alone is capable of supporting.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 23 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC. It features 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units, along with 28 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1626 MHz, a boost clock of 2491 MHz, and a game clock of 2044 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) across an 8 GB GDDR6 interface with a 128-bit bus.

The GPU's memory configuration is likely a significant factor in The Medium's performance. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at most settings, but at 4K, the memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s becomes a constraint. The game's use of high-resolution textures and dual-world rendering may exceed the 8 GB VRAM at 4K Ultra, causing the GPU to fall back to system memory and drastically reducing frame rates.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RX 6600 scores 15096 in Passmark G3D and 6554 in Passmark GPU Compute, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1492. These figures place it in the mid-range category, consistent with its percentile rank of 63. The GPU's FP32 performance of 8.928 TFLOPS and pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s are adequate for 1080p gaming but struggle with the pixel throughput required at 4K.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck in every scenario except possibly 1080p Low. At 1080p Low, the 84 FPS average suggests the GPU is still keeping pace, but at 1080p Medium (52 FPS) and 1080p High (37 FPS), the GPU's limitations become apparent. The 1080p Ultra average of 30 FPS indicates that the GPU cannot sustain even a 30 FPS floor with maximum settings, making the Ultra preset a non-option.

The GPU's 28 ray tracing cores are present but underutilized in this title, as The Medium does not heavily rely on ray-traced effects. Instead, the game's performance is more dependent on traditional rasterization and fillrate, which is where the RX 6600's 64 ROPs and 159.4 GPixel/s pixel rate are tested. At 4K, the GPU's fillrate is simply insufficient to maintain playable frame rates, as evidenced by the 20 FPS average at Ultra settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS ranges from 84 at Low settings to 30 at Ultra settings. The Medium preset delivers 52 FPS (min 44, max 60), while High settings yield 37 FPS. This represents a 64.3% reduction in average FPS from Low to Ultra, with each settings tier costing roughly 15-20 FPS. The 1080p Medium minimum of 44 FPS is the only sub-50 FPS measurement at this resolution, indicating that most presets remain playable.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS drops significantly across all presets. Low settings produce 71 FPS, Medium delivers 44 FPS (min 37, max 51), High yields 32 FPS, and Ultra falls to 25 FPS. The 1440p Medium minimum of 37 FPS is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, and the 1440p High average of 32 FPS is marginal at best. The 1440p Low average of 71 FPS is the only measurement at this resolution that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance is severely constrained. Low settings achieve 55 FPS, Medium delivers 35 FPS (min 29, max 40), High yields 25 FPS, and Ultra drops to 20 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 29 FPS is the lowest recorded minimum in the dataset, indicating that the game will experience noticeable frame drops during demanding scenes. The 4K Low average of 55 FPS is the only acceptable measurement at this resolution, and even that is below the 60 FPS target.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each resolution increase from 1080p to 1440p costs approximately 25-30% of average FPS, while the jump from 1440p to 4K costs an additional 25-35%. The Low preset maintains the highest FPS at every resolution, with 84 FPS at 1080p, 71 FPS at 1440p, and 55 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset offers the most balanced experience at 1080p (52 FPS) but degrades rapidly at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in The Medium?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with Low settings delivers the highest average FPS at 84, while 2560x1440 with Low settings provides 71 FPS. For a balance of quality and performance, 1920x1080 with Medium settings yields 52 FPS (min 44, max 60).

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, which produce an average of 55 FPS. Medium settings at 4K drop to 35 FPS (min 29), High settings fall to 25 FPS, and Ultra settings are unplayable at 20 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-13700K or the AMD Radeon RX 6600 the bottleneck in this game?

A: The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K indicates the GPU is the limiting component. The RX 6600's performance drops by 32-34% from 1080p to 4K across settings, while the CPU's high single-thread score (2116 in Cinebench R23) suggests it has ample headroom.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 2904 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 22% of systems. This low ranking is due to the GPU's mid-range performance class rather than the CPU.

Q: What is the playable FPS threshold for this system?

A: The system exceeds 60 FPS only at 1080p Low (84 FPS) and 1440p Low (71 FPS). At 1080p Medium, the average is 52 FPS with a minimum of 44 FPS, which is playable but may dip during intense scenes.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide any benefit at 1080p?

A: No. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 30, which is below the standard playable threshold. The minimum FPS was not recorded, but the average suggests the game will not maintain a consistent frame rate at this preset.