The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built around narrative pacing and dense environmental detail, presents a distinct performance profile for the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 combination. The measured frame rates across resolutions and presets reveal a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics card at higher settings, while also showing significant scaling headroom at lower presets. This analysis breaks down the measured data to explain where the bottleneck lies and which settings offer the most consistent experience.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and clearly indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At Medium settings, the average frame rate falls from 72 FPS at 1920x1080 to 61 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 11 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 48 FPS. This pattern is even more pronounced at High settings, where the transition from 1080p (52 FPS) to 1440p (44 FPS) and then to 4K (34 FPS) shows a consistent ~15-20% performance loss with each step up in resolution. The data suggests that the RTX 5060's rendering pipeline is being saturated by the pixel count, especially given the game's reliance on complex lighting and volumetric effects.

The scaling from Low to Ultra settings at a fixed resolution further confirms this. At 1080p, Low settings yield 116 FPS, which drops to 52 FPS at High and only 41 FPS at Ultra. This 75 FPS spread (from Low to Ultra) is far larger than the spread caused by resolution changes alone, indicating that the game's graphical presets have a massive impact on the GPU workload. At 4K, the spread is from 76 FPS (Low) down to 27 FPS (Ultra), showing that Ultra settings at 4K are simply too demanding for this hardware, pushing the average below the threshold for smooth gameplay Mend.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, with its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivers a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This bandwidth appears sufficient for the Medium preset at most resolutions, but the data suggests that the card's compute capabilities, rather than memory, are the primary constraint at higher quality settings. The GPU's boost clock of 2497 MHz and its 3840 shading units produce a peak FP32 throughput of 19.18 TFLOPS, which is moderate by current standards. Benchmark results show the card sits in the 72nd percentile for all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, is only 1.2% ahead in average score, indicating that this is a mid-range performer.

In The Medium, the GPU's role is critical at High and Ultra presets. The transition from High to Ultra at 1440p results in a 9 FPS drop (from 44 to 35 FPS), while at 1080p it drops 11 FPS (from 52 to 41 FPS). These are significant penalties that suggest Ultra settings enable effects like ray-traced reflections or higher shadow quality that tax the RT cores (30 dedicated cores on this chip). The 8 GB VRAM is not shown to be a bottleneck in the measured rows since even at 4K Ultra, the card still produces 27 FPS, implying the game fits within the memory allocation but the shader workload becomes prohibitive.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K is a 16-core, 24-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz and a base clock of 3.40 GHz. Its benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30745 and a single-core score of 2116, placing it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs. The processor's 30 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel memory support (DDR4/DDR5) provide ample headroom for gaming workloads. In synthetic tests, its average benchmark score of 46881 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900, which is only 0.2% behind, showing that the i7-13700K is not a limiting factor in this configuration.

The measured FPS data supports this conclusion. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 116 FPS, but this is still far from the CPU's theoretical ceiling. The fact that the frame rate increases by 40 FPS when moving from Low to Medium at 1080p (from 116 to 72 FPS is a decrease, but the absolute numbers show the GPU is capping performance) indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck. Specifically, at 4K Low, the system produces 76 FPS, which is only 40 FPS less than at 1080p Low, despite a 4x increase in pixel count. This shows that the GPU is still managing to keep up at lower settings, but the CPU's single-thread performance (3dmark single-thread score of 1136) is more than adequate for the game's logic and draw calls, which are typically not heavy for a fixed-camera title.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-13700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 achieves a rank of 1670 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places the system in the 55th percentile of all tested combinations, meaning it outperforms more than half of the configurations in the database but falls short of the top tier. The ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU, which is the weaker component relative to the CPU. The i7-13700K is a top-tier processor that could easily support a much faster graphics card, but the RTX 5060 holds the system back.

Looking at the GPU's nearest rivals, the RTX 5060's average benchmark score of 26331 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon 860M (26401, -0.3% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce MX550 (26421, -0.3% delta), but those are integrated or entry-level mobile parts. The more relevant comparison is the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (26553, -0.8% delta) and the RX 6750 XT (26011, 1.2% delta). The data indicates that in this game, the RTX 5060 performs similarly to these older AMD cards, but the measured FPS in The Medium shows that the RTX 5060 is unable to maintain playable frame rates at 4K High or Ultra, which is consistent with its mid-range positioning.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table summarizes the exact measured average frame rates for this configuration:

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|---------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 34 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 76 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 48 | 41 | 55 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 27 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | High | 44 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 97 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 61 | 52 | 70 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 35 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | High | 52 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 116 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 72 | 61 | 83 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 41 | - | - |

At 1080p Medium, the system achieves 72 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 83 FPS, showing a stable frame time distribution. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 FPS, still playable but with less headroom. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS, which is borderline for a smooth experience. The High preset at any resolution above 1080p is not advisable, as it results in averages below 45 FPSchers.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal experience for this hardware is the Medium preset at 1920x1080. This setting yields an average of 72 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS, ensuring that the frame rate rarely dips below the 60 FPS threshold, which is crucial for a game with slow camera pans and heavy atmospheric effects. The 1080p Medium preset provides a balance between visual fidelity and performance, as the game's art direction is still preserved while maintaining smooth motion.

For users with 1440p displays, the Medium preset is also the most viable option, producing an average of 61 FPS and a minimum of 52 FPS. While not perfectly smooth, it offers a playable experience with better image clarity than 1080p. The Low preset at 1440p (97 FPS) is an alternative for those prioritizing frame rate, but it sacrifices too much visual detail for a horror game that relies on lighting and shadows. At 4K, only the Low preset (76 FPS) provides a consistent frame rate, but the Medium preset (48 FPS) is acceptable for slower-paced sections; however, the minimum of 41 FPS suggests potential stutter. The High and Ultra presets are not recommended for any resolution above 1080p due to average frame rates below 45 FPS.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with Medium settings provides the best balance, achieving an average of 72 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS Po.

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

A: At 4K, only the Low preset (76 FPS) is consistently smooth. The Medium preset averages 48 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS, which is borderline, while High (34 FPS) and Ultra (27 FPS) are not playable.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 compare to its closest rival in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5060's average score of 26331 is 1.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT (26011), but 0.8% behind the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary (26553).

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-13700K a bottleneck for the RTX 5060 in this game?

A: No. The CPU's percentile rank of 89 and high single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 score of 2116) indicate it is not the limiting factor. The FPS scaling with resolution confirms the GPU is the bottleneck.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The measured data shows 116 FPS on Low and 41 FPS on Ultra at 1920x1080, a difference of 75 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset is much more demanding on the GPU.

Q: What is the frame rate range for the Medium preset at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the system produces a minimum of 52 FPShol and a maximum of 70 FPS, with an average of 61 FPS.