The Medium

# How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER lands at rank 1039 out of 1689 tested combinations for The Medium, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the field. This ranking reflects a pairing where the GPU's age and mid-range positioning in the current benchmark hierarchy create a noticeable bottleneck in a game known for its heavy visual atmosphere. The combo sits at roughly the 61.5th percentile of tested configurations, meaning about three out of every five rigs tested will outperform it in this specific horror title. That percentile position is worth interrogating: the CPU is exceptionally strong — it holds the 93rd percentile against all CPUs — yet the overall combo rank is dragged down dramatically by the graphics card, which only reaches the 65th percentile among all GPUs. The data suggests the RTX 2070 SUPER is the limiting actor in most scenarios, and the i7-13700K's considerable headroom is largely untapped in The Medium's rendering workloads.

# GPU Role

The RTX 2070 SUPER brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock sits at 1605 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and the card's 2560 shading units process FP32 at 9.062 TFLOPS. These specifications place the GPU in the 65th percentile of all graphics cards, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA RTX A400 (2.3% slower per the deltaPct, despite its higher raw score) and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (2.5% faster). The 8 GB VRAM capacity is the first thing to question when looking at the 4K results — at 3840x2160 with High settings, the combo manages only 29.9 FPS, which suggests the card is hitting both a compute and memory ceiling. The memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is respectable for a card of this era, but The Medium's fixed-camera angles and detailed textures can be demanding on fill rate and texture fetch operations. The card's 64 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s, which becomes strained at higher resolutions. Interestingly, the gap between Low and High settings at 4K is stark — 69.9 FPS versus 29.9 FPS — indicating that the GPU's compute units are the primary constraint rather than VRAM capacity alone, since even at Low settings the 8 GB buffer would not be exceeded by typical textures.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 99.4 FPS, which drops to 85.1 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 14.4% reduction) and then falls to 69.9 FPS at 3840x2160 (a further 17.9% reduction from 1440p). This relatively gentle slope from 1080p to 4K at Low settings suggests the CPU is still contributing meaningfully at lower resolutions, but the GPU begins to dominate as pixel count rises. The picture changes dramatically at High settings: 42.6 FPS at 1080p, 38 FPS at 1440p (a 10.8% drop), and 29.9 FPS at 4K (a 21.3% drop from 1440p). The steeper decline at higher settings indicates that the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth are saturated more quickly when quality presets increase the per-pixel workload. At Ultra settings, the scaling is even more punishing: 36 FPS at 1080p, 31.9 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K — a cumulative 36.1% loss from 1080p to 4K. These numbers point to the RTX 2070 SUPER being the limiting component across all resolutions, but the degree of limitation intensifies with both resolution and settings level. The CPU's high boost clock of 5.40 GHz and 16 cores simply cannot compensate for the GPU's throughput ceiling in this title.

# Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide clear guidance for playable configurations. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 61.4 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while High drops to 42.6 FPS and Ultra falls to 36 FPS. The Low preset at 1080p produces 99.4 FPS, but the visual compromise may be unnecessary given the Medium result. For 2560x1440, the Medium preset yields 54.6 FPS — playable but with occasional dips below 60 — while Low achieves 85.1 FPS for a smoother experience. At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more constrained: Medium produces 42 FPS, Low reaches 69.9 FPS, and High drops to 29.9 FPS. The data indicates that Medium settings at 1440p offer the best balance of fidelity and frame rate for this combo, providing 54.6 FPS without resorting to the visual degradation of Low. For 4K owners, Low settings at 69.9 FPS is the only preset that maintains a fluid presentation, while Medium at 42 FPS may be acceptable for slower-paced horror gameplay. Ultra settings are not recommended at any resolution, as even at 1080p they only reach 36 FPS, which undermines the responsive feel required for horror titles.

# FAQ

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for The Medium?

A: It ranks 1039th out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the distribution.

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 with Medium settings at 61.4 FPS offers the best balance, while 2560x1440 with Medium at 54.6 FPS is a viable alternative for higher resolution.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The RTX 2070 SUPER sits at the 65th GPU percentile, while the i7-13700K holds the 93rd CPU percentile, and FPS scaling with resolution confirms GPU-bound behavior.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in The Medium?

A: Only at Low settings, where it achieves 69.9 FPS. Medium drops to 42 FPS, High to 29.9 FPS, and Ultra to 23 FPS, so 4K requires significant settings compromises.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals?

A: It is roughly on par with the NVIDIA RTX A400 (0.5% slower) and GTX TITAN Z (0.9% faster), while trailing the RTX 4060 Mobile by 2.3% and leading the RX 5700 by 2.5% in average benchmark scores.

Q: What is the impact of raising settings from Low to Ultra at 1080p?

A: Average FPS falls from 99.4 at Low to 61.4 at Medium, 42.6 at High, and 36 at Ultra — a 63.8% reduction from Low to Ultra, showing the GPU's sensitivity to quality presets.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz, built on the Raptor Lake architecture with a 30 MB L3 cache. Its benchmark results are formidable: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39000 and a single-core score of 5505, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 17731. The CPU sits in the 93rd percentile of all processors, and its nearest rivals are all extremely close — the Core i7-13700KF is just 0.1% faster, the AMD EPYC 4364P is 0.3% slower, and the Core i9-12900F is 0.4% slower. Despite this computational firepower, The Medium's measured FPS at 1080p Low (99.4 FPS) is not limited by the CPU — the fact that improving GPU settings to Medium drops FPS to 61.4 while the CPU load presumably remains similar indicates that the processor has ample headroom. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 10717 and max-thread score of 12412 further confirm the CPU's ability to feed the GPU in most scenarios. The real question is whether the CPU's power is being wasted at higher resolutions — the data suggests yes, as even at 4K Low, the 69.9 FPS result implies the GPU is the sole constraint, with the CPU waiting idle. For this horror title, which relies more on atmospheric rendering than physics simulation, the i7-13700K's 16 cores are largely underutilized, and its 5.40 GHz boost clock does not translate into higher frame rates once the GPU is saturated.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers an average of 99.4 FPS on Low settings, 61.4 FPS on Medium, 42.6 FPS on High, and 36 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages shift to 85.1 FPS on Low, 54.6 FPS on Medium, 38 FPS on High, and 31.9 FPS on Ultra. At 3840x2160, the results are 69.9 FPS on Low, 42 FPS on Medium, 29.9 FPS on High, and 23 FPS on Ultra. The delta between Low and Ultra widens with resolution: at 1080p, Ultra is 63.8% slower than Low; at 1440p, the gap is 62.5%; at 4K, it reaches 67.1%. This non-linear scaling underscores the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading limitations. The jump from Low to Medium at each resolution is substantial — at 1080p, a 38.2% FPS reduction; at 1440p, a 35.8% reduction; at 4K, a 39.9% reduction — suggesting that the Medium preset introduces a significant increase in per-pixel work. The step from Medium to High is milder (30.6% at 1080p, 30.4% at 1440p, 28.8% at 4K), while High to Ultra is the smallest increment (15.5% at 1080p, 16.1% at 1440p, 23.1% at 4K). These patterns indicate that the Medium preset is the inflection point where the GPU's resources become strained, and each subsequent tier yields diminishing returns relative to the FPS cost. The 4K Ultra result of 23 FPS is the worst case in the dataset, confirming that this combo is not suited for maximum quality at the highest resolution.