The Medium

The Medium, a horror title built around fixed-camera angles and a split-world mechanic, presents a unique load profile for the Intel Core i7-14700K and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX combination. The measured data reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with a clear hierarchy of performance scaling from 1080p to 4K. This analysis breaks down the benchmark rows to show where the bottleneck lies and how the hardware responds to different settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is substantial, but the pattern is not linear. At 1080p with High settings, the combo delivers 79.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p at the same preset reduces this to 64.4 FPS, a drop of 15 FPS. At 4K, the average falls to 50.9 FPS, which is a 36% reduction from the 1080p result. This scaling behavior suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution climbs, but the CPU still has headroom at lower resolutions.

The Low preset shows a different dynamic. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 171.3 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. At 1440p Low, it drops to 147.3 FPS, a smaller relative loss than at High settings. The 4K Low result of 117.2 FPS is still above the 1080p High figure, indicating that even at 4K, the Low preset is not pushing the hardware to its limit. This suggests that the game's render load scales significantly with both resolution and quality settings.

Ultra settings present the steepest curve. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 60.7 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it falls to 51.4 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it bottoms out at 44 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 4K at Ultra is only 16.7 FPS, which is proportionally smaller than the gap at Low settings. This compression indicates that at Ultra, the GPU is already saturated at 1080p, and additional resolution has diminishing returns on frame rate because the render cost per pixel is already very high.

The data points to a classic GPU-bound scenario at 4K. The 50.9 FPS at 4K High is playable but not high-refresh territory. The 44 FPS at 4K Ultra is borderline for a smooth experience in a game that relies on atmospheric tension rather than fast action. At 1080p and 1440p, the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU, as evidenced by the 171.3 FPS at 1080p Low. The limiting component at 4K is clearly the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which shows a 117.2 FPS result at Low settings but cannot maintain that throughput when quality settings are increased.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the star of this benchmark, but only under the right conditions. Its 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for The Medium's texture streaming and dual-world rendering. The benchmark results show a wide spread from 44 FPS at 4K Ultra to 171.3 FPS at 1080p Low, demonstrating that the GPU's 61.39 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the deciding factor in most scenarios.

The clock speeds are noteworthy. The base clock of 1929 MHz and boost clock of 2498 MHz, with a game clock of 2365 MHz, indicate that the GPU can sustain high frequencies under load. This is reflected in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6841, which places the GPU in the 85th percentile among all GPUs. The PassMark G3D score of 31238 further confirms its position as a high-end part, though the nearest rival data shows it is only 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile and 1.6% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M6000.

At 4K High, the 50.9 FPS result suggests the GPU is working near its limits. The transition from Medium to High at 4K costs 21.1 FPS (72 down to 50.9), while the transition from High to Ultra costs only 6.9 FPS (50.9 down to 44). This non-linear scaling indicates that the High preset is already hitting a compute ceiling, and Ultra adds marginal visual quality at a steep performance cost. The 24 GB VRAM is never a constraint in this game, as even the most demanding 4K Ultra preset does not show signs of memory throttling in the frame rate data.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows offer a clear guide for optimal settings. At 1080p, the High preset at 79.4 FPS is the sweet spot for smooth gameplay, while Ultra at 60.7 FPS is acceptable for those prioritizing image quality. The Low preset at 171.3 FPS is excessive for a horror game with a slow pace, but it shows the ceiling of the hardware. At 1440p, the Medium preset at 90.2 FPS is the best balance, as High at 64.4 FPS is still smooth but Medium provides a significant frame rate cushion. The Ultra preset at 51.4 FPS is playable but not ideal.

At 4K, the recommendation is more nuanced. The Medium preset at 72 FPS is the only option that maintains a solid 60+ FPS average. High at 50.9 FPS is playable but may feel less fluid during camera transitions. Ultra at 44 FPS is not recommended for a game that relies on subtle environmental details, as the frame rate drops below the 45 FPS threshold for comfortable viewing. The Low preset at 117.2 FPS is smooth but sacrifices the atmospheric lighting and texture detail that define The Medium's visual style.

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the most sensible default for this combo. It delivers 105.5 FPS at 1080p, 90.2 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K, all of which are above the 60 FPS target. This consistency across resolutions makes Medium the reliable choice for players who prioritize frame rate stability over maximum visual fidelity.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranks 190th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the top 11.2% of all configurations, which is a strong showing for a system with a CPU that has a 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs and a GPU with an 85th percentile ranking. The combo rank is lower than the individual component percentiles, which suggests that the game is not perfectly optimized for high-end hardware, or that other combos with faster GPUs or more balanced pairings edge it out.

The GPU's nearest rivals provide context. The RX 7900 XTX is 0.8% ahead of the RTX 4090 Mobile in average benchmark score, but in a desktop context, the comparison is less clear. The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, has an identical avgScore of 70104, with a 0% deltaPct, indicating that the KF variant offers no performance difference in synthetic tests. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is 0.5% ahead of the i7-14700K in average score, while the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 is 1.4% ahead. These margins are small, suggesting that the CPU is not a differentiator in this game.

The 190th rank out of 1689 combos indicates that while this system is capable, it is not in the top tier for The Medium specifically. The game's fixed-camera angles and pre-rendered elements may not fully utilize the GPU's compute power, which could explain why the combo rank is lower than the sum of its parts.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K plays a supporting role in this benchmark, but it is not a bottleneck. With 20 cores and 28 threads, it has ample parallelism for the game's background processes. The base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz provide strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6287 and Geekbench single-core score of 2932. The 33 MB of shared L3 cache is sufficient for game data that needs to be accessed quickly.

The CPU's benchmark results show a 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70074. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, has an identical avgScore of 70104 and a 0% deltaPct, confirming that the integrated UHD Graphics 770 does not impact gaming performance. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X is 0.5% ahead, but this margin is negligible in real-world gaming scenarios.

The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 171.3 FPS, which is a high frame rate that would expose CPU limitations if they existed. The drop to 147.3 FPS at 1440p Low and 117.2 FPS at 4K Low indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint as resolution increases. The CPU's 125 W TDP and 10 nm process node are typical for a high-end desktop part, and its 28 threads are more than enough for The Medium's multi-threaded rendering pipeline.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Medium?

A: The data shows that 1440p with Medium settings at 90.2 FPS or High settings at 64.4 FPS provides the best balance of image quality and frame rate. At 4K, the Medium preset at 72 FPS is the only option above 60 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 117.2 FPS, while Ultra achieves 44 FPS. This represents a 73.2 FPS difference, or roughly 2.7 times faster, indicating that Ultra is disproportionately demanding.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck at 1080p?

A: The CPU is not the bottleneck at 1080p. The 171.3 FPS result at Low settings shows that the Intel Core i7-14700K can feed the GPU effectively. The bottleneck at 1080p is the GPU, especially at Ultra settings where the 60.7 FPS result is near the GPU's compute limit.

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

A: This combo ranks 190th out of 1689 tested combinations, placing it in the top 11.2% of all configurations tested in The Medium.

Q: Does the RX 7900 XTX's 24 GB VRAM make a difference in this game?

A: The benchmark data does not show any signs of VRAM limitation. The 24 GB of GDDR6 memory is more than sufficient for The Medium, as even at 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops are consistent with compute limitations rather than memory bandwidth issues.

Q: What is the recommended preset for a 60 FPS target at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 90.2 FPS is well above the 60 FPS target, while the High preset at 64.4 FPS also meets it. For a more stable experience, Medium is the safer choice.