The Medium

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i7-14700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER lands at rank 1173 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. That places this configuration in the lower-middle portion of the field, which makes sense given the GPU's age and tier. The RTX 2060 SUPER sits at the 63rd percentile against all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 19774 puts it within 0.5% of the RTX 2070 and 0.3% of the GTX TITAN. The CPU, by contrast, is a much stronger component — the i7-14700F ranks in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average score of 54097 that trails the Ryzen 9 9900X by just 0.6%.

The data suggests this is a GPU-limited pairing for The Medium. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 92.4 FPS, but that number collapses as you raise settings or resolution. The gap between the CPU's capability and the GPU's output is stark: the i7-14700F is a top-tier 20-core processor, yet the RTX 2060 SUPER's 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory become the bottleneck in this horror title. In practical terms, this combo will play The Medium, but only at settings that respect the GPU's limits.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of 60 FPS in The Medium?

A: Yes, but only at 1080p Low (92.4 FPS) or 1440p Low (78.2 FPS). At 4K Low, the average drops to 61.6 FPS, which is barely above the 60 FPS threshold. Any preset above Low at any resolution fails to hit 60 FPS, with 1080p Medium delivering 54.4 FPS and 1440p Medium reaching exactly 50 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER's average benchmark score of 19774 is 0.5% ahead of the RTX 2070 (19680), 0.3% ahead of the GTX TITAN (19706), 0.8% ahead of the Quadro K5200 (19623), and 1.3% ahead of the Tesla K40m (19519). These are very tight margins, meaning the 2060 SUPER is effectively performance-equivalent to those cards in this range.

Q: What is the CPU's standing relative to other processors?

A: The i7-14700F has an average benchmark score of 54097, which is 0.6% below the Ryzen 9 9900X (54450) and 1.1% below the Ryzen 9 9900X3D (54681). It beats the Xeon Phi 7290 (53469) by 1.2% and the EPYC 7313P (53206) by 1.7%. This places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No. The i7-14700F's 20 cores and 28 threads, boosting to 5.40 GHz, far exceed what The Medium demands. The measured FPS scaling across resolutions shows the GPU is the limiting factor — dropping from 1080p to 4K cuts FPS dramatically even at the same settings, which is classic GPU-bound behavior.

Q: What is the best setting for 4K play?

A: Low is the only viable 4K preset, yielding 61.6 FPS average. Medium drops to 39.2 FPS, High to 28.7 FPS, and Ultra to 23.6 FPS. If you insist on 4K, Low is the only option that approaches smoothness.

Q: How does the combo's in-game rank compare to its component percentiles?

A: The rank of 1173 out of 1689 (approximately 30th percentile) is far below what the CPU's 94th percentile would suggest. This disconnect confirms that the RTX 2060 SUPER's 63rd percentile standing drags the overall experience down, making the GPU the clear weak link.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals a purely GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, 1080p delivers 92.4 FPS, 1440p gives 78.2 FPS, and 4K falls to 61.6 FPS — a total reduction of 33.3% from 1080p to 4K. The pattern intensifies at higher presets. At Medium, the progression is 54.4 FPS (1080p) to 50 FPS (1440p) to 39.2 FPS (4K), a 28% loss from 1080p to 4K. High settings show 39.9 FPS at 1080p, 32.9 FPS at 1440p, and 28.7 FPS at 4K — a 28.1% decline.

Ultra settings are the harshest: 32 FPS at 1080p, 28.2 FPS at 1440p, and 23.6 FPS at 4K, a 26.3% drop. Interestingly, the percentage loss from 1080p to 4K shrinks as settings increase, which suggests that at Ultra, the game is so demanding that even 1080p saturates the GPU, leaving less headroom for resolution scaling to matter. The i7-14700F's role here is minimal — its 5.40 GHz boost clock and 33 MB of shared L3 cache ensure it never becomes the constraint. The data consistently points to the RTX 2060 SUPER's 256-bit memory bus and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth being insufficient for The Medium's fixed-camera scenes with heavy volumetric effects at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows make the optimal configuration clear. For 1080p, Low is the only preset that clears 60 FPS comfortably (92.4 FPS), while Medium sits at 54.4 FPS — playable but not smooth. High (39.9 FPS) and Ultra (32 FPS) are for players who prioritize visuals over fluidity, but they do not represent good experiences for a horror game where timing matters.

At 1440p, Low (78.2 FPS) is the sweet spot, with Medium (50 FPS) being borderline acceptable if you can tolerate occasional dips. High (32.9 FPS) and Ultra (28.2 FPS) are effectively unplayable for most users. For 4K, Low (61.6 FPS) is the only option that meets a 60 FPS target, and it barely does so. Medium (39.2 FPS) and above are not recommended.

The practical advice: run The Medium at 1080p Low if you want the smoothest experience, or 1080p Medium if you need better visuals and can accept 54.4 FPS. For 1440p, stick to Low. Avoid 4K entirely unless you have no alternative, and even then, only Low is viable. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for these settings, but the GPU's compute power (7.181 TFLOPS FP32) is simply not enough for higher presets in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 92.4 FPS on Low, 54.4 FPS on Medium, 39.9 FPS on High, and 32 FPS on Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium is a 41.1% performance loss, while Medium to High costs another 26.7%, and High to Ultra drops 19.8%. This steep curve indicates the game's settings have a disproportionate impact on the GPU at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, results are 78.2 FPS (Low), 50 FPS (Medium), 32.9 FPS (High), and 28.2 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset at 1440p is exactly 50 FPS, a round number that suggests the GPU hits a hard limit around that point. High and Ultra at 1440p are nearly identical in performance to their 1080p counterparts, further confirming the GPU is saturated.

At 3840x2160, the numbers are 61.6 FPS (Low), 39.2 FPS (Medium), 28.7 FPS (High), and 23.6 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Low result is notable — it's the only 4K preset above 60 FPS, and it's only 3.4% slower than 1440p Medium. This suggests that at Low settings, the game's rendering load is manageable, but any increase in quality overwhelms the RTX 2060 SUPER's 2176 shading units and 64 ROPs.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread Raptor Lake-R processor with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 per core give it substantial headroom for gaming workloads. In Cinebench R23, it scores 35443 multi-core and 5003 single-core; in Geekbench, it reaches 16571 multi-core and 2711 single-core. These are excellent numbers that place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs.

However, The Medium does not stress this CPU meaningfully. The game's measured FPS is entirely dictated by the GPU, as evidenced by the linear FPS scaling with resolution changes. At 4K Low (61.6 FPS) versus 1080p Low (92.4 FPS), the 33.3% drop cannot be attributed to the CPU — the i7-14700F's passmark single-thread score of 4261 and multithread score of 41765 are far beyond what this title needs for its fixed-camera perspectives and pre-rendered environments.

The CPU's nearest rivals show it is a top-tier part: it trails the Ryzen 9 9900X by 0.6% and the Ryzen 9 9900X3D by 1.1%, while beating the Xeon Phi 7290 by 1.2% and the EPYC 7313P by 1.7%. With a launch MSRP of $359, this processor is overkill for The Medium when paired with an RTX 2060 SUPER. The bottleneck is unambiguous: the GPU's 63rd percentile ranking and 12 nm Turing architecture (TU106 chip) cannot keep pace with what the CPU can feed it. If you were to upgrade the GPU, this CPU would not hold you back in this game — the data shows it has ample single-thread and multi-thread performance for years to come.