The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine, presents a unique stress profile that rewards raw GPU throughput. The pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D produces frame rates that shift dramatically with resolution, revealing a system where the graphics card is the primary driver of performance. The benchmark data indicates that this combination sits at rank 33 out of 3724 tested combos, placing it in the top 1% of all configurations tested for this game.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a steep and consistent drop as resolution increases, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p with Medium settings, the combo delivers 144 FPS, but this falls to 122 FPS at 1440p and further to 95 FPS at 4K. This represents a 34% performance loss from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 22% loss from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is nearly linear with pixel count, suggesting that the RTX 5090 D is being fed a steady stream of work with no significant CPU bottleneck emerging at any point.

The pattern holds across all settings presets. On High settings, the frame rate drops from 103 FPS at 1080p to 87 FPS at 1440p (a 15.5% decrease), and then to 68 FPS at 4K (a 21.8% decrease from 1440p). The Low preset shows the same trend: 178 FPS at 1080p, 168 FPS at 1440p, and 153 FPS at 4K. The consistency of these drops across different quality levels is telling; even when the GPU is less stressed by visual effects, the resolution scaling remains steep, confirming that pixel throughput is the limiting factor.

What is more revealing is the behavior at the highest settings. At Ultra, the 4K frame rate collapses to 54 FPS, while 1440p holds at 69 FPS and 1080p manages 82 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 1440p at Ultra is 13 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 15 FPS. This suggests that the most demanding settings introduce effects that scale super-linearly with resolution, likely related to the game's dual-world rendering mechanic, which can double the effective scene complexity. The data implies that for a smooth 60 FPS experience at 4K, the Ultra preset is simply out of reach, while Medium provides a comfortable margin.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700F is a 20-core, 28-thread processor with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35,122 and single-core score of 4,958 indicate substantial processing power. However, in The Medium, the CPU's role appears secondary. The fact that frame rates scale so predictably with resolution—a pure GPU metric—suggests that the processor is never the bottleneck, even at 1080p where CPU overhead is typically most pronounced.

The data supports this interpretation through the sheer headroom available. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 178 FPS, which is a high frame rate but not an extreme one that would typically expose CPU limitations. The processor's PassMark single-thread score of 4,257 and multi-thread score of 41,317 place it in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, indicating it has ample single-thread performance for game logic and draw call submission. The 33 MB of shared L3 cache also helps keep frequently accessed game data close to the cores.

The core configuration is notable for this title. The Medium is not known for heavily threading its main game loop, but the 20 cores (8 performance cores and 12 efficiency cores, inferred from the 20-core count with 28 threads) provide plenty of background processing capacity. The Cinebench R20 multi-core score of 14,751 shows that when the game does spawn worker threads for physics or streaming, the CPU can handle them without impacting the main render thread. The benchmark results indicate that the i7-14700F is more than sufficient for this game, and the measured FPS deltas between settings are almost entirely attributable to GPU workload changes.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo maintain a stable 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, but only on Medium settings. The measured data shows 95 FPS average at 4K Medium, with a minimum of 81 FPS and a maximum of 110 FPS. At High settings, the average drops to 68 FPS, which is still above 60 but with less headroom. At Ultra, the average falls to 54 FPS, below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How much performance is gained by dropping from 4K to 1440p at the same settings?

A: At Medium settings, the gain is 27 FPS (from 95 FPS at 4K to 122 FPS at 1440p), representing a 28.4% increase. At High settings, the gain is 19 FPS (from 68 FPS to 87 FPS), a 27.9% increase. At Low settings, the gain is 15 FPS (from 153 FPS to 168 FPS), a 9.8% increase.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: The difference is substantial. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 178 FPS, while the Ultra preset delivers 82 FPS. This is a 96 FPS difference, meaning the Ultra preset runs at less than half the frame rate of the Low preset. The Medium preset at 144 FPS sits between them.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 D the limiting factor in this configuration?

A: The data strongly suggests yes. The frame rates scale almost exactly with resolution changes, which is the hallmark of a GPU-limited scenario. The CPU has significant headroom, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p Low (178 FPS) and the fact that the drop from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all settings.

Q: How does the GPU's benchmark performance relate to its in-game results?

A: The RTX 5090 D has a PassMark G3D score of 44,065 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. These high synthetic scores align with the strong in-game frame rates, though the game's specific rendering demands can cause the Ultra preset to be particularly heavy.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 87 FPS at 1440p High. This is a comfortable frame rate for most displays. For comparison, dropping to Medium settings at the same resolution yields 122 FPS, and raising to Ultra drops to 69 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a rank of 33 out of 3,724 tested combinations in The Medium. This places it in the top 0.9% of all configurations, which is an exceptional result. The ranking reflects the raw power of the RTX 5090 D, which is the dominant factor in this game's performance profile.

To contextualize this rank, consider the individual components. The CPU's average benchmark score of 53,620 puts it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X, which scores 53,288 (a 0.6% delta). The GPU's average benchmark score of 77,712 places it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 78,940 (a -1.6% delta). The combo rank of 33 is higher than the individual percentile ranks might suggest, indicating that the pairing of this particular CPU and GPU is especially well-suited for this game.

The rank implies that only 32 other combinations of CPU and GPU managed to achieve higher frame rates in The Medium. Given that the RTX 5090 D is near the top of the GPU hierarchy, the combinations ranked above it likely feature either an even more powerful CPU or a configuration with a GPU that has a higher synthetic benchmark score. The data shows that the i7-14700F does not hold back the RTX 5090 D in this title, as the combo rank is significantly better than what would be expected if the CPU were a limiting factor.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, it delivers 144 FPS with a minimum of 123 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate monitors. At 1440p, it maintains 122 FPS with a minimum of 103 FPS, which is ideal for 120Hz displays. At 4K, it provides 95 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for a consistent experience.

The High preset is a viable alternative for those who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, but the data shows it comes at a significant cost. At 1080p, High delivers 103 FPS, a 41 FPS drop from Medium. At 1440p, it delivers 87 FPS, a 35 FPS drop. At 4K, it delivers 68 FPS, a 27 FPS drop. The High preset introduces additional visual effects that are costly, but the frame rates remain playable.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for 4K gaming on this combo, as the 54 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS target. At 1440p, Ultra delivers 69 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. At 1080p, Ultra delivers 82 FPS, which is acceptable but represents a 62 FPS loss compared to Medium. The Low preset, while delivering the highest frame rates (178 FPS at 1080p), sacrifices too much visual quality for a game that is heavily reliant on atmosphere and lighting.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates reveals a clear hierarchy. At 3840x2160, the frame rates are: Low at 153 FPS, Medium at 95 FPS (with min 81 and max 110), High at 68 FPS, and Ultra at 54 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 27 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 14 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are: Low at 168 FPS, Medium at 122 FPS (with min 103 and max 140), High at 87 FPS, and Ultra at 69 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 35 FPS, which is larger than at 4K, indicating that the High preset's additional effects become relatively more expensive at lower resolutions where the GPU has more headroom to process them.

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are: Low at 178 FPS, Medium at 144 FPS (with min 123 and max 166), High at 103 FPS, and Ultra at 82 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 41 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 21 FPS. The 1080p data shows the widest spread between settings, as the GPU is less constrained by pixel count and can fully express the differences in shading and post-processing load.

The minimum FPS data, available only for Medium settings, shows that the frame time consistency is good. At 4K, the minimum of 81 FPS against an average of 95 FPS indicates occasional dips, but nothing severe. At 1440p, the minimum of 103 FPS against an average of 122 FPS shows similar behavior. At 1080p, the minimum of 123 FPS against an average of 144 FPS is the most stable.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the undisputed performance driver in this configuration. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, it offers a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is crucial for a game like The Medium that often renders two worlds simultaneously. The 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die provide 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines.

The GPU's clock speeds of 2017 MHz base and 2407 MHz boost, combined with its 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute, allow it to handle the game's fixed-camera scenes with ease at lower resolutions. However, the data shows that even this powerful GPU struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra. The 54 FPS average at 4K Ultra indicates that the game's most demanding settings, which likely include high-resolution shadows, volumetric effects, and the dual-world rendering, can saturate even the RTX 5090 D's capabilities.

The VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor in any of the measured scenarios. The 32 GB frame buffer is more than sufficient for 4K textures and effects, and the game does not appear to be memory-constrained. The GPU's 170 ray tracing cores are present, but the game's performance profile suggests that traditional rasterization is the primary workload. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326 and PassMark G3D score of 44,065 corroborate the in-game results, showing a GPU that is capable of exceptional throughput but is nonetheless challenged by the most extreme settings in this title.

The GPU's 575 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate a high-power component, but the benchmark results show that this power translates directly into frame rate. The data from the measured FPS rows demonstrates that the RTX 5090 D is the component that determines performance in The Medium, with the CPU providing sufficient support to avoid any bottleneck. The 5 nm process node and 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth are the key specifications that enable the high frame rates observed at Medium and High settings across all resolutions.