The Medium

# The Medium with Intel Core i7-14700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060

The benchmark data for The Medium on this platform shows a config that is clearly GPU-limited across most settings, with the Intel Core i7-14700F providing ample headroom. The combo ranks 814th out of 1689 tested configurations, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the database. The measured FPS values reveal distinct scaling patterns across resolutions and presets, with the RTX 5060's 8 GB GDDR7 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth playing a decisive role in how the game behaves at higher quality levels.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling from 1080p to 4K demonstrates a steep performance cliff that identifies the GPU as the primary constraint. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 117.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 95.9 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 18%, and then to 77.9 FPS at 3840x2160, another 19% drop. This pattern indicates that even at the lowest preset, the render resolution substantially impacts throughput, with the 4K figure sitting at about 66% of the 1080p result.

The scaling becomes more aggressive at higher presets. At Medium settings, the progression is 75.1 FPS (1080p), 58.2 FPS (1440p), and 50.0 FPS (4K). The 1440p to 4K transition here costs only 14% performance, whereas the 1080p to 1440p step costs 22%. At High settings, the numbers are 50.7 FPS, 41.0 FPS, and 31.9 FPS respectively, with the 1440p to 4K drop being the largest relative decline at 22%. Ultra settings show the most pronounced scaling: 44.1 FPS at 1080p falls to 35.4 FPS at 1440p (20% drop) and then to 27.7 FPS at 4K (22% drop).

The data suggests that the game's rendering load scales superlinearly with pixel count, particularly at higher presets. The RTX 5060's 3840 shading units and 30 RT cores are evidently being pushed hard at 4K, especially when texture quality and effects increase. The 8 GB VRAM capacity appears sufficient at 1080p across all presets, but at 4K Ultra the combination of resolution and preset likely approaches the memory limit, as evidenced by the 27.7 FPS result. The CPU, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, is clearly not the bottleneck — the consistent performance drops across every resolution step point squarely at the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows that Medium settings provide the most balanced experience across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 75.1 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and represents a 48% improvement over High's 50.7 FPS. The jump from Medium to Low at 1080p yields 117.5 FPS, but the visual quality sacrifice is substantial for a marginal gameplay benefit in a horror title where atmosphere matters.

At 1440p, Medium produces 58.2 FPS, which is playable but slightly below the 60 FPS ideal. High at this resolution drops to 41.0 FPS, which introduces noticeable stutter in a game that relies on tension and timing. Low at 1440p achieves 95.9 FPS, but again, the visual downgrade is severe. For 1440p, Medium is the recommended preset — it maintains reasonable fluidity while preserving enough graphical fidelity for the game's dark, moody environments.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. Medium yields exactly 50.0 FPS, which is borderline playable but not smooth. High at 4K drops to 31.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 27.7 FPS, both of which are too low for a game that benefits from responsive controls. Low at 4K reaches 77.9 FPS, but the visual compromise is extreme. For 4K, Medium is the only viable preset that balances frame rate and image quality, though users seeking strict 60 FPS would need to drop to Low. The Ultra preset, at 27.7 FPS at 4K, is effectively unplayable and should be avoided on this hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 814 out of 1689 tested configurations places this system in the 48th percentile of all tested combos for The Medium. This is a surprisingly low position given the hardware involved, suggesting that the RTX 5060 is not particularly well-suited to this specific game's demands. The GPU's passmark G3D score of 20891 and percentile of 73 against all GPUs indicate it is a mid-to-upper-tier card, yet The Medium's rendering engine appears to penalize it more than average.

The CPU component of this combo is strong, with an average benchmark score of 54097 and a 94th percentile ranking against all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X (avg score 54450, -0.6% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D (avg score 54681, -1.1% delta), meaning the i7-14700F sits within 1% of those top-tier processors in general compute. However, this CPU strength does not translate into a high game-specific rank, reinforcing that The Medium is GPU-bound on this platform.

The GPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks are the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (delta 0%), the AMD Radeon RX 570 (delta -0.2%), and the NVIDIA Tesla M60 (delta 0.5%). The fact that the RX 570 — an older, lower-tier card — benchmarks nearly identically to the RTX 5060 in the aggregate score is notable. For The Medium specifically, the 814th rank out of 1689 combos means roughly half of all tested systems perform better, which is a sobering result for a 50-series GPU paired with a 14th-gen i7.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full preset ladder shows a wide spread. Low settings deliver 117.5 FPS, which is the highest measured result for this combo. Medium drops to 75.1 FPS, a 36% reduction from Low. High further reduces performance to 50.7 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 44.1 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is the largest single-preset jump at 24.4 FPS, indicating a significant rendering complexity increase at that tier.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower absolute values. Low produces 95.9 FPS, Medium 58.2 FPS, High 41.0 FPS, and Ultra 35.4 FPS. The Medium to High drop here is 17.2 FPS, again the largest step. The 1440p results show that Medium is the only preset that remains above 55 FPS, while High and Ultra fall into the 35-41 FPS range that is generally considered marginal for action games.

At 3840x2160, the results become more compressed in absolute terms but remain proportionally similar. Low achieves 77.9 FPS, Medium 50.0 FPS, High 31.9 FPS, and Ultra 27.7 FPS. The Low to Medium gap is 27.9 FPS, while the High to Ultra gap is only 4.2 FPS, suggesting that Ultra at 4K adds relatively little visual overhead compared to High but still fails to maintain playable frame rates. The 4K Ultra result of 27.7 FPS is the lowest measured value across all tests.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, housing 21,900 million transistors on an 181 mm² die. Its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory operates at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is the likely limiting factor at higher resolutions and presets, as 8 GB is modest for modern titles at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's clock behavior — 2280 MHz base and 2497 MHz boost — combined with its 3840 shading units and 120 tensor cores, produces 19.18 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The pixel rate of 119.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 299.6 GTexel/s are adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but struggle to keep pace at 4K with high-detail settings. The 30 RT cores are present but do not appear to provide meaningful assistance in this title, as The Medium likely uses limited ray tracing.

The measured FPS data correlates strongly with the GPU's aggregate benchmark profile. The passmark G3D score of 20891 and the DirectX 11 result of 200 suggest a card that performs well in standard rasterization but may not excel in the specific shader workloads The Medium uses. The GPU's 73rd percentile ranking against all GPUs is respectable, yet the game-specific results place it lower than this would imply. The 145 W TDP and PCIe 5.0 x8 interface are consistent with a mid-range card, and the 8 GB VRAM appears to be the bottleneck at 4K Ultra, where the 27.7 FPS result likely reflects memory pressure rather than raw compute limits.