The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built around layered reality shifts, presents a distinct workload where the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 combination demonstrates a clear performance hierarchy. The measured data, drawn from 12 distinct resolution and settings configurations, reveals a system that is firmly GPU-bound at higher visual presets, yet capable of exceptional frame rates when the workload shifts. This analysis breaks down the specific contributions of each component, the optimal settings for playability, and how this pairing stacks up against other tested configurations.

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

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core processor with 24 threads, built on the Raptor Lake architecture. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz provide substantial single-thread headroom, which is critical for the game's logic and camera system. The processor’s benchmark profile is strong, with a 3dmark_max_threads score of 12412 and a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 39000. More relevant to gaming, the single-thread performance, evidenced by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 1136 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2850, ensures that the CPU is rarely a bottleneck in this title.

In the measured results, the CPU’s role becomes apparent when examining the scaling from 1080p to 4K at the same settings. At Low settings, the 1080p average of 150.8 FPS drops to 126.5 FPS at 1440p and further to 100.4 FPS at 4K. This 50.4 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings indicates that even with reduced graphical load, the GPU is still the primary limiter, though the CPU’s high thread count ensures that frame pacing remains consistent. The processor’s 93rd percentile ranking against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 47282, places it among the top tier. It sits virtually tied with the Intel Core i7-13700KF, holding a negligible -0.1% delta, and is ahead of the AMD EPYC 4364P by 0.3% and the Intel Core i9-12900F by 0.4%. For The Medium, this means the i7-13700K provides ample computational headroom; the data shows that changes in resolution have a far more significant impact on frame rates than any CPU-side limitation, confirming that the processor is not the constraining factor in this pairing.

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

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 is the dominant force in this configuration. It features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. The GPU's boost clock of 2475 MHz and its Ada Lovelace architecture with 5888 shading units provide the raw throughput needed for The Medium’s rendering demands. The GPU’s benchmark scores, including a Passmark G3D score of 26927 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 168006, place it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 37283 is closely matched by the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, which sits just 0.6% higher, and the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A, which is 1.9% higher. The RTX 4070 outperforms the AMD Radeon RX 5300M by 2.5%.

The GPU's influence is most evident in the frame rate scaling across settings. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra yields a drop from 150.8 FPS to 54.7 FPS, a 96.1 FPS difference. This is a massive swing, directly attributable to the GPU's workload. At 4K, the same settings transition sees the average FPS fall from 100.4 to 32.5. The 12 GB VRAM capacity appears sufficient, as the data does not show any anomalous crashes or stutters that would indicate memory paging. The GPU’s role is clear: it is the limiting component in this system for The Medium. The performance deltas between settings are far larger than those between resolutions, indicating that the visual presets are the primary lever for controlling performance, with the RTX 4070’s compute and memory subsystems being fully exercised at higher presets.

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

The measured data provides a clear picture of the performance envelope across four presets. The "Ultra" preset is demanding, delivering an average of 54.7 FPS at 1080p, 43.9 FPS at 1440p, and 32.5 FPS at 4K. While playable at 1080p, the 4K result falls below a smooth threshold. The "High" preset offers a more balanced experience. At 1080p, it achieves 69.2 FPS, which is a solidly playable frame rate. At 1440p, it drops to 55.5 FPS, and at 4K, it reaches 46.2 FPS. These numbers indicate that "High" is the optimal preset for a consistent experience, especially for users targeting 60 FPS at 1440p or a stable 40+ FPS at 4K.

The "Medium" preset provides a significant performance uplift over "High". At 1080p, it delivers 92.1 FPS, a 33% improvement over the "High" preset’s 69.2 FPS. This gap narrows at higher resolutions, with "Medium" hitting 78.5 FPS at 1440p and 62.8 FPS at 4K. For users with 4K displays, "Medium" is the recommended starting point, as it is the only preset that consistently breaks the 60 FPS barrier at that resolution. The "Low" preset is the fallback, offering 150.8 FPS at 1080p, 126.5 FPS at 1440p, and 100.4 FPS at 4K. This indicates that "Low" is only necessary for users seeking extremely high refresh rates at lower resolutions. The data suggests that for this hardware combo, "High" at 1440p provides the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, while "Medium" is the best choice for 4K gaming.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 achieves a rank of 389 out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium. This places the pairing in the top 23% of all configurations tested. This ranking is a composite measure of performance across all settings and resolutions. The high CPU percentile ranking (93rd) and the GPU's 81st percentile ranking combine to produce a system that performs above the median. The combination's position relative to its peers is notable because it demonstrates that a mid-to-high-tier GPU paired with a high-end CPU can outperform systems with more expensive GPUs but weaker processors.

The rank of 389 is determined by the aggregate data from the measured FPS rows. The system’s ability to deliver 100+ FPS at 4K on "Low" and 92.1 FPS at 1080p on "Medium" contributes to a strong average score. While it does not break into the top 100, it is a robust performer. The data shows that the combo is more competitive at lower resolutions, where the CPU’s strength is more pronounced, but it remains a capable 4K machine when settings are managed. The rank reflects that this is a balanced system, not a lopsided one, and its position in the upper quartile of the database reflects the synergy between the i7-13700K’s computational power and the RTX 4070’s rendering capabilities.

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

The frame rate data reveals a consistent pattern of scaling from 1080p to 4K, which helps identify the bottleneck in this configuration. At "Low" settings, the average FPS drops from 150.8 at 1080p to 126.5 at 1440p, a 24.3 FPS reduction, and then to 100.4 at 4K, a further 26.1 FPS reduction. This is a total drop of 50.4 FPS from 1080p to 4K, or a 33.4% decrease. At "High" settings, the drop is from 69.2 FPS at 1080p to 55.5 FPS at 1440p (a 13.7 FPS drop) and then to 46.2 at 4K (a 9.3 FPS drop), totaling a 23.0 FPS decrease. The scaling is not linear, and the rate of decline slows as the resolution increases, which is typical for GPU-bound scenarios.

The most telling statistic is the performance difference between the "Low" and "Ultra" presets at the same resolution. At 1080p, the gap between "Low" and "Ultra" is 96.1 FPS (150.8 vs 54.7). At 4K, that gap narrows to 67.9 FPS (100.4 vs 32.5). This shows that the GPU is the overwhelming limiting factor. When the GPU is under heavy load (Ultra), it cannot maintain high frame rates at any resolution. When the load is light (Low), the GPU can push very high FPS, but the absolute ceiling is still limited by its own throughput, not the CPU. The fact that the 4K "Low" preset (100.4 FPS) is still higher than the 1080p "Ultra" preset (54.7 FPS) confirms that the graphics settings have a more significant impact on performance than resolution. This data indicates a classic GPU-limited system, where the Intel Core i7-13700K has ample headroom and is not preventing the RTX 4070 from achieving its maximum output at any tested configuration.