The Medium

The Medium is a demanding horror title, and the Intel Core i7-14700F + AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT combination delivers a playable experience, but the data shows that settings management is critical. The measured results indicate that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming. At 1080p, the system delivers a very fluid experience at High settings, and at 1440p, it remains highly playable, though you will need to be more selective with your graphical presets. The 4K results are the most telling, showing a significant performance cliff that suggests the GPU is the primary limiting factor at that resolution.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal balance of visual quality and performance for this system is the Medium preset at 2560x1440. This configuration produces an average of 73 FPS with a minimum of 62 FPS, ensuring a consistently smooth experience that stays well above the 60 FPS threshold for most of the frame time. It is the sweet spot for this hardware, offering a substantial visual upgrade over Low without the performance penalty incurred by High or Ultra.

If you are gaming on a 1920x1080 display, the High preset is the clear choice. It achieves an average of 62 FPS, which is perfectly playable. While the Low preset hits 139 FPS and Medium reaches 87 FPS, the jump to High provides a significant improvement in graphical fidelity for a cost of only 25 FPS compared to Medium, making it the best experience for 1080p owners who prefer visual quality over raw frame rates.

For those with 4K displays, the data suggests that High settings are not viable for a smooth experience, yielding only 41 FPS. The Medium preset at 3840x2160 is the most demanding configuration that remains playable, with an average of 57 FPS and a minimum of 49 FPS. This is a playable, though not ideal, console-like experience. The Low preset at 4K is the only way to achieve a high frame rate, hitting 92 FPS, but it comes with a significant reduction in visual detail.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for any resolution in this title. At 1080p it produces 49 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 42 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 33 FPS. The performance cost of the Ultra preset is too high for the marginal visual gains it provides, especially when the High preset offers a much more stable frame rate. The data strongly suggests that the Ultra preset is intended for more powerful hardware than this combination.

FAQ

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

A: Yes, but with compromises. The data shows that at 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves an average of 92 FPS, while the Medium preset manages 57 FPS. The High preset drops to 41 FPS, and Ultra falls to 33 FPS. For a consistent 60+ FPS experience, you must use Low settings; for a cinematic 30-60 FPS experience, Medium is the highest playable preset.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combo?

A: The data indicates that 2560x1440 offers the best overall experience. At this resolution, the Medium preset delivers 73 FPS, and the High preset still achieves a playable 52 FPS. This resolution provides a good balance between visual clarity and performance, avoiding the frame rate limitations seen at 4K.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between the Low and Ultra presets?

A: The difference is substantial. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 139 FPS, while Ultra averages only 49 FPS. This represents a performance reduction of over 60% when moving from the lowest to the highest settings. The gap is consistent across resolutions, with a similar proportional drop at 1440p and 4K.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-14700F a bottleneck for the Radeon RX 6800 XT in this game?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system reaches 139 FPS, indicating the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU. However, the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor as resolution increases, as evidenced by the significant FPS drops when moving to 1440p and 4K with the same settings.

Q: What kind of frame rate stability can I expect?

A: The data for the Medium preset provides min and max FPS figures. At 1920x1080, the frame rate ranges from 74 to 100 FPS (average 87). At 2560x1440, it ranges from 62 to 84 FPS (average 73). At 3840x2160, it ranges from 49 to 66 FPS (average 57). This shows that frame pacing is generally consistent, with the minimum FPS staying reasonably close to the average.

Q: How does this combo's performance compare to other tested systems?

A: This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ranks 1139 out of 3724 tested combos for this game. This places it in the upper third of all tested systems, indicating it is a strong performer for The Medium, though there are more powerful configurations available.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the workhorse of this system for The Medium. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical asset for a game with high-resolution textures. The data strongly indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor, particularly at higher resolutions. The frame rate drops significantly as resolution increases, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance.

The GPU's clock speeds show its potential. With a base clock of 1825 MHz, a game clock of 2015 MHz, and a boost clock of 2250 MHz, the card is capable of high throughput. Its 4608 shading units and 72 RT cores provide the raw compute power needed for the game's rendering. However, the measured FPS data shows that even this powerful GPU struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K with High or Ultra presets.

The performance scaling across resolutions confirms the GPU's role. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 139 FPS, but at 4K Low, it drops to 92 FPS. This is a 34% reduction in performance when the resolution increases by a factor of four, which is a typical pattern for a GPU-bound scenario. The FPS drop from Low to Ultra at any resolution is also significant, further illustrating that the GPU is working at its limits to render the increased visual complexity. The 16 GB VRAM capacity ensures that the card will not run out of memory, but the processing power is what ultimately limits performance in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested configurations for The Medium, this combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT holds a rank of 1139 out of 3724 combos. This puts the system in the top 31% of all tested setups, a solid performance that is well above the median. This ranking reflects the balanced nature of the CPU and GPU pairing, as neither component is so weak that it holds the other back significantly in this title.

The ranking indicates that while this system is not at the absolute top tier, it delivers a very capable gaming experience for The Medium. The CPU itself is a high performer, with a benchmark score of 53620 and a percentile ranking of 91 against all CPUs. It sits close to the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, which has an average score of 53288, a delta of 0.6%. The GPU also performs well, with a percentile ranking of 85 against all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 48477 puts it in the same league as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, which has a score of 49957.

The combination of a top-tier CPU and a high-end GPU results in a system that is well-positioned to handle the demands of The Medium. The 1139th rank out of 3724 combos shows that there are many systems that perform better, but also a significant majority that perform worse. For a 1440p gaming setup, this combination is a strong choice, offering a good balance of performance and capability without being a top-of-the-line, extreme-performance build.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear and consistent pattern of performance decline as resolution increases, which provides insight into the system's limiting component. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS at Medium settings drops from 87 to 73, a decrease of 14 FPS. This is a moderate drop, suggesting that the system can handle the increased pixel count with some impact on performance.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is much more severe. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 73 to 57, a decrease of 16 FPS. This steeper decline indicates that the GPU is becoming increasingly stressed as the resolution approaches 4K. This is the expected behavior for a system where the graphics card is the primary performance limiter. The CPU has less impact at higher resolutions, as the workload shifts more heavily to the GPU for pixel rendering.

This scaling behavior is a strong indicator that the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the limiting component in this configuration for The Medium. At 1080p, the CPU is able to provide frames at a high rate, up to 139 FPS on Low settings. However, as resolution increases, the GPU's rendering workload increases, and the frame rate drops accordingly. The data suggests that the Intel Core i7-14700F is more than capable of keeping up with the GPU, as the performance bottleneck clearly lies with the graphical processing unit at higher resolutions. The system is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the GPU's limits become apparent.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system's performance is strong across all settings. The Low preset delivers the highest average frame rate at 139 FPS. The Medium preset achieves an average of 87 FPS, with a minimum of 74 and a maximum of 100 FPS, providing a very smooth experience. The High preset drops to an average of 62 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, resulting in an average of 49 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains solid but starts to show the GPU's workload. The Low preset produces an average of 117 FPS. The Medium preset averages 73 FPS, with a minimum of 62 and a maximum of 84 FPS. This is a very good result for 1440p gaming. The High preset averages 52 FPS, which is still playable. The Ultra preset drops to an average of 42 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for a smooth experience.

At 3840x2160, the performance takes a significant hit, clearly showing the GPU's limitations. The Low preset is the only one that provides a high frame rate, averaging 92 FPS. The Medium preset averages 57 FPS, with a minimum of 49 and a maximum of 66 FPS. This is a playable, but not ideal, experience for 4K. The High preset drops to an average of 41 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to just 33 FPS, which is not recommended for a playable experience. These numbers confirm that 4K gaming is only viable with reduced settings on this hardware.