The Medium

# The Medium with Intel Core i7-14700K + AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT

The Medium presents a heavy load for this pairing, with benchmark results showing a clear pattern: the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT becomes the primary constraint as resolution climbs, while the Intel Core i7-14700K provides ample headroom. The measured data shows this combo ranks 2776th out of 3724 tested combinations, placing it in the lower third of all configs tested for this title, which is consistent with a GPU that sits at the 59th percentile among all GPUs paired with a CPU at the 94th percentile among all CPUs. The game itself, a horror title released in January 2021, demands more from the rendering hardware than the processing hardware, as the FPS deltas across resolution changes far exceed what the CPU's core count would suggest.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals the GPU as the limiting component. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 89 FPS at 1920x1080 to 59 FPS at 3840x2160, a 34% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is from 56 FPS at 1080p to 37 FPS at 4K, a 34% reduction as well. The High preset shows a similar proportional decline: 40 FPS at 1080p down to 26 FPS at 4K, a 35% decrease. Ultra settings follow the same trajectory, going from 32 FPS at 1080p to 21 FPS at 4K, a 34% drop.

This consistency across all four presets — roughly one-third of performance lost when moving from 1080p to 4K — is a textbook signature of GPU-bound rendering. If the CPU were the constraint, the 4K results would show a much smaller delta because higher resolutions put less relative stress on the processor. The data shows that even at 1080p, the GPU is already working hard; the RX 5700 XT's 9.754 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth are being taxed by The Medium's rendering demands.

Looking at the intermediate step, 2560x1440 sits almost exactly halfway between the 1080p and 4K results for every preset. At Low, 1440p delivers 75 FPS versus 89 FPS at 1080p and 59 FPS at 4K. At Medium, 1440p yields 47 FPS, compared to 56 FPS at 1080p and 37 FPS at 4K. This linear scaling with pixel count indicates that the frame rate is directly proportional to the number of pixels being shaded, which is the defining characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario. The CPU, with its 20 cores and 28 threads, is never the bottleneck here; even at 1080p Low, where the GPU has the least work, the CPU's PassMark multithread score of 52392 and single-thread score of 4472 are more than sufficient to feed the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience for this hardware combination. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 56 FPS average with a minimum of 48 FPS and a maximum of 64 FPS. This is the only preset at 1080p that stays comfortably above the 30 FPS playability threshold while also avoiding the visual degradation of Low settings. Low at 1080p runs at 89 FPS, which is smoother but comes with significant visual compromises in a horror game where atmosphere matters. High at 1080p drops to 40 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS, both of which are below what most players would consider acceptable for a smooth experience.

At 2560x1440, the situation narrows. Medium is the only viable preset, producing 47 FPS average with a minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 54 FPS. Low runs at 75 FPS but sacrifices the visual fidelity that makes The Medium's dual-reality presentation effective. High at 1440p drops to 34 FPS, and Ultra falls to 27 FPS, both below playable thresholds. At 3840x2160, the data shows that Medium is the only preset that maintains a minimum above 30 FPS, delivering 37 FPS average with a 31 FPS minimum and 43 FPS maximum. Low at 4K runs at 59 FPS, but the visual quality loss at that resolution is substantial.

The recommendation from the data is clear: Medium settings provide the best balance across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium's 56 FPS average is smooth enough for the game's slower-paced horror gameplay, while at 1440p and 4K, Medium is the only preset that keeps minimum frame rates above 30 FPS. The measured minimums for Medium — 48 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 4K — all stay above the stutter threshold, whereas the minimums for other presets are either unlisted or would likely fall below playable levels based on the averages.

How This Combo Ranks

This configuration ranks 2776th out of 3724 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the 74th percentile of all tested combinations. That ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU's position in the overall hierarchy. The RX 5700 XT holds the 59th percentile among all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 16361 places it within 1% of several competitors. The nearest rival data shows a tight cluster: the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M scores 16351 (0.1% delta), the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell scores 16408 (-0.3% delta), the AMD Radeon PRO W7500 scores 16415 (-0.3% delta), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 scores 16504 (-0.9% delta). This grouping indicates that the RX 5700 XT is performing right at its expected level, neither overachieving nor underperforming relative to its synthetic benchmark scores.

The CPU side tells a different story. The Core i7-14700K sits at the 94th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 69355. Its nearest rivals are extremely close: the AMD EPYC 9115 scores 69288 (0.1% delta), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X scores 69515 (-0.2% delta), the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX scores 69875 (-0.7% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F scores 69996 (-0.9% delta). The CPU is clearly not the limiting factor in this game; the combo's rank of 2776 out of 3724 is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's mid-tier position.

The gap between the CPU's 94th percentile ranking and the GPU's 59th percentile ranking explains why this combo sits where it does. The Medium is not a CPU-intensive title; even a much weaker processor would likely produce similar frame rates with this GPU. The data shows that the combo's overall position is determined by the GPU, and any upgrade path would need to focus on the graphics card rather than the processor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full preset range was measured. Low settings produce the highest average at 89 FPS, followed by Medium at 56 FPS with a minimum of 48 FPS and a maximum of 64 FPS. High settings drop to 40 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS average. The spread from Low to Ultra is 57 FPS, demonstrating the significant impact of preset selection on this hardware.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds with lower absolute numbers. Low delivers 75 FPS average, Medium produces 47 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 54 FPS, High drops to 34 FPS, and Ultra falls to 27 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 48 FPS, reflecting the increased pixel load at higher resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results compress further. Low averages 59 FPS, Medium averages 37 FPS with a minimum of 31 FPS and a maximum of 43 FPS, High drops to 26 FPS, and Ultra falls to 21 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is now only 38 FPS, as the GPU becomes the overwhelming constraint at 4K resolution.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all three resolutions, which suggests it was the primary tested configuration. The minimum frame rates for Medium — 48 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, and 31 FPS at 4K — all indicate that this preset maintains playable performance even in demanding scenes. The maximum frame rates — 64 FPS at 1080p, 54 FPS at 1440p, and 43 FPS at 4K — show that the GPU has occasional headroom but is generally operating near its limits.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is built on the RDNA 1.0 architecture using the Navi 10 chip, fabricated on a 7 nm process at TSMC with 10,300 million transistors on a 251 mm² die. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical factor for The Medium's rendering engine. The card operates at a base clock of 1605 MHz, a game clock of 1755 MHz, and a boost clock of 1905 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation pipelines deliver a pixel rate of 121.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 304.8 GTexel/s.

The FP32 performance of 9.754 TFLOPS is the key number for understanding this card's position in The Medium. The game's measured performance aligns closely with what this compute throughput would suggest. At 1080p Medium, the card produces 56 FPS, which means each frame requires approximately 174 million FLOPs of compute work. At 4K Medium, the 37 FPS average means each frame requires roughly 264 million FLOPs, reflecting the increased pixel count.

The memory subsystem is also relevant. The 8 GB capacity is sufficient for this game at the tested settings, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates scale consistently with resolution rather than dropping off due to memory overflow. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for the card's compute capabilities; the measured results show no indication of memory bandwidth being a secondary bottleneck. The card's PassMark G3D score of 16277 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2134 both place it in a mid-range position, consistent with the 59th percentile overall ranking.

The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are all within 1% of its average score, indicating that performance in The Medium is representative of the card's general capability. The card's DirectX 12 support (12_1) is fully utilized by this game, and the Vulkan 1.4 API support provides additional compatibility options. The card's 225 W TDP and dual-slot design are standard for this performance class, and the 550 W suggested PSU provides adequate headroom for the full system.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium with this hardware?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with Medium settings provides 56 FPS average with a 48 FPS minimum, which is the smoothest playable experience. At 2560x1440, Medium delivers 47 FPS average, and at 3840x2160, Medium drops to 37 FPS average with a 31 FPS minimum.

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080, Ultra produces 32 FPS average, at 2560x1440 it drops to 27 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it falls to 21 FPS. These results are below playable thresholds, so Ultra is not recommended with this GPU.

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-14700K or the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT the limiting factor?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting component. Frame rates drop by about 34% from 1080p to 4K across all presets, which is characteristic of GPU-bound rendering. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking versus the GPU's 59th percentile ranking confirms the processor has significant headroom.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 2776th out of 3724 tested combinations for The Medium. The ranking is driven primarily by the GPU's mid-tier position, as the CPU is among the top performers in the database.

Q: What minimum frame rates can be expected at Medium settings?

A: The measured minimums are 48 FPS at 1920x1080, 40 FPS at 2560x1440, and 31 FPS at 3840x2160. All of these maintain playable performance above the 30 FPS threshold, though the 4K minimum is close to that boundary.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM capacity affect performance in this game?

A: The consistent scaling of frame rates with resolution suggests that 8 GB is sufficient for The Medium at the tested settings. If VRAM were insufficient, the 4K results would show disproportionate drops compared to 1440p.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on a 10 nm process with a 257 mm² die size. It operates at a 3.40 GHz base clock and boosts to 5.60 GHz, with a 125 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. This is a high-end desktop processor with a 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 69355.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark scores are exceptional. Cinebench R23 multi-core reaches 33440.5, while single-core hits 2160. Geekbench multi-core scores 20767 with a single-core score of 2569. The PassMark suite shows particularly strong multithreaded performance at 52392, with integer math at 182876 and floating point math at 134222. These numbers place the CPU in the top tier of processors, well above what The Medium requires.

In this game, the CPU's role is minimal. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings are consistent with GPU-bound performance, meaning the 14700K is never the limiting factor. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU has the least work and frame rates reach 89 FPS, the CPU is capable of feeding frames far beyond that level. The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks — the AMD EPYC 9115, Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7940HX, and Ryzen 7 9700F — all score within 1% of the 14700K, confirming its position at the top of the performance hierarchy.

The CPU's specifications support this conclusion. With 20 cores and 28 threads, it provides massive parallel processing capability that The Medium's engine likely does not fully utilize. The 5.60 GHz boost clock ensures high single-threaded performance for game logic and physics, while the 33 MB L3 cache reduces memory latency. The DDR4 and DDR5 memory support, along with PCIe Gen 5 connectivity (16 lanes from the CPU), provide ample bandwidth for any GPU configuration. The integrated UHD Graphics 770 is present but irrelevant for gaming with a discrete GPU installed.

The data shows that upgrading the CPU would provide no measurable benefit in The Medium. The bottleneck is squarely on the GPU, and any frame rate improvement would require a graphics card upgrade. The CPU's 94th percentile ranking versus the GPU's 59th percentile ranking highlights this imbalance, and the combo's 2776th rank out of 3724 reflects the GPU's position rather than any CPU limitation.