The Medium

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 3394th out of 3724 tested combinations in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 9% of all tested hardware combos. This is a severely GPU-bound pairing for this title, where the RX 580's age and compute limitations become the dominant factor at every resolution and preset. The data shows that this combo is only viable for low-resolution or low-preset play, and even then, it struggles to maintain smooth frame rates by modern standards.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 3394 out of 3724 tested configurations indicates that the vast majority of other hardware pairings deliver higher average frame rates in The Medium. This places the system in the 9th percentile of tested combos, which is a poor result for a game released with fixed-camera horror sequences that benefit from consistent frame pacing. The ranking reflects a fundamental mismatch: the i7-14700F is a high-end 2024 CPU with a 91st percentile rank among all CPUs, while the RX 580 is a 2017 GPU sitting at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs. The CPU is effectively waiting on the GPU at every turn, and the benchmark data confirms that the graphics card is the bottleneck.

When comparing the individual components to their nearest rivals, the data shows that the CPU is not the issue. The Core i7-14700F scores an average benchmark of 53620, which is within 0.8% of the AMD EPYC 7313P (53206) and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (53288). The RX 580, however, scores an average of 12928, sitting just 0.4% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (12986) and 0.5% ahead of the AMD Radeon 740M (12870). These rival deltas confirm that the GPU is performing exactly as expected for its class, but that class is simply too weak for the demands of The Medium at higher settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the limiting component in this pairing, and its specifications make this clear. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p but becomes strained at higher resolutions. The core runs at a base clock of 1257 MHz with a boost of 1340 MHz, and the memory operates at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective). The card has 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, yielding a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute is rated at 6.175 TFLOPS, which is modest by modern standards.

In The Medium, the GPU's role is decisive. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 49 FPS, which is the best result in the entire measured set. However, the moment settings are raised to Medium, the average drops to 31 FPS, and High falls to 22 FPS. This steep decline is a direct result of the RX 580's limited shading and texture throughput, as the game's fixed-camera scenes and layered rendering (the game often renders two worlds simultaneously) place heavy demands on fill rate and shader work. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for the game's textures, but the 6.175 TFLOPS of compute power is not enough to handle the visual effects at higher presets.

The GPU's benchmark scores reinforce this analysis. In PassMark G3D, the RX 580 scores 8813, and in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1005. These are low scores that reflect the card's age, and the game's measured FPS values align directly with these results. The card's DirectX 12 PassMark score of 43 is particularly telling, as The Medium uses DX12, and the low score indicates poor optimization for modern API workloads.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, which further confirms the GPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 49 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops the average to 41 FPS, a 16% reduction, and 4K Low falls to 32 FPS, a 35% drop from 1080p. This scaling is relatively gentle because at Low settings, the GPU is not fully saturated, and the CPU still has some headroom.

The scaling becomes more dramatic at higher presets. At Medium settings, the frame rates are 31 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p, and 20 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium is 35%, which is similar to Low, but the absolute numbers are already below playable thresholds. At High settings, the results are 22 FPS at 1080p, 18 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K, representing a 36% drop from 1080p to 4K. At Ultra, the numbers are 17 FPS at 1080p, 15 FPS at 1440p, and 11 FPS at 4K, a 35% reduction.

The consistent ~35% drop from 1080p to 4K across all presets indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at every resolution. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the scaling would flatten out at higher resolutions, as the GPU would be less taxed. Instead, the frame rates continue to fall proportionally with pixel count, which is the hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario. The i7-14700F, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, has ample headroom to feed the RX 580, but the GPU cannot translate that CPU capability into higher frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo can achieve in The Medium?

A: The best measured result is 49 FPS at 1080p with Low settings. No other resolution or preset combination exceeds this value.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-14700F or the AMD Radeon RX 580 the bottleneck?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU's average benchmark score of 53620 places it in the 91st percentile, while the GPU's average score of 12928 is in the 53rd percentile. The FPS scaling with resolution confirms that the GPU limits performance.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest rival in this game?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928, which is 0.4% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (12986) and 0.5% higher than the AMD Radeon 740M (12870). The measured FPS results are consistent with this mid-tier positioning.

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

A: The data shows 4K results ranging from 32 FPS at Low to 11 FPS at Ultra. These frame rates are below playable thresholds for a horror game that relies on atmosphere and timing, so 4K is not recommended.

Q: What is the highest preset that maintains an average above 30 FPS?

A: Only the Low preset achieves an average above 30 FPS, and it does so at all three resolutions: 49 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K. Medium settings drop below 30 FPS at every resolution.

Q: Does the game support modern graphics APIs for this GPU?

A: The RX 580 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The game runs on DX12, and the card's PassMark DirectX 12 score of 43 indicates limited performance in this API.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of playable settings for this combo. The only preset that delivers an average FPS above 30 is Low, which achieves 49 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K. For a game like The Medium, where fixed-camera angles and slow pacing can tolerate slightly lower frame rates, Low settings at any resolution are the only viable option.

If the user insists on Medium settings, the best result is 31 FPS at 1080p, which is borderline playable but will likely produce noticeable stutters in action sequences. The Medium preset at 1440p (26 FPS) and 4K (20 FPS) falls below acceptable thresholds. High and Ultra presets are not recommended, as they produce frame rates in the 11-22 FPS range across all resolutions, which is effectively unplayable for a game that requires timing-based interactions.

The data suggests that the optimal experience is Low settings at 1080p, providing 49 FPS with a comfortable margin above the 30 FPS baseline. For users with 1440p monitors, Low settings at 41 FPS is also acceptable, but the visual fidelity will be significantly reduced. The 4K Low result of 32 FPS is technically above 30, but it is close to the edge and may drop further in demanding scenes.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, built on the Raptor Lake-R architecture. It operates at a base clock of 2.10 GHz with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, and it has a 33 MB shared L3 cache plus 2 MB per-core L2 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, and it uses an Intel Socket 1700. Its benchmark scores are impressive: Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 35122, single-core scores 4958, and Geekbench multi-core scores 19620.

In The Medium, however, the CPU's role is largely passive due to the GPU bottleneck. The game's measured FPS values are consistently low across all settings, and the CPU never becomes the limiting factor. Even at 1080p Low, where the combo achieves 49 FPS, the CPU has significant headroom to process game logic and AI. The CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 41317 and single-thread score of 4257 indicate that it can handle the game's CPU demands with ease.

The CPU's benchmark position reinforces this conclusion. It sits at the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 53620, placing it just 0.2% behind the Intel Xeon 6505P (53701) and 0.8% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7313P (53206). This is a top-tier processor that would pair well with a significantly faster GPU. The data indicates that upgrading the GPU would yield substantial FPS gains in The Medium, while the CPU would continue to provide stable performance without becoming a new bottleneck.