The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built around a dual-reality rendering technique, presents a strenuous workload for the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER pairing. The measured data reveals a configuration where the graphics card is the definitive bottleneck, struggling to maintain playable frame rates at higher resolutions and settings. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data, the roles of the CPU and GPU, and provides actionable settings recommendations based strictly on the benchmark results.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data shows a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 70 FPS. Stepping up to 1440p Low drops performance to 59 FPS, and at 4K Low it falls to 47 FPS. This progression represents a 15.7% decrease from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 20.3% decrease from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is consistent, indicating that the rendering load is scaling directly with pixel count, a hallmark of a system limited by the graphics processor rather than the central processor.

The gap between settings widens dramatically at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 45 FPS (70 vs. 25). At 4K, that same settings gap is 30 FPS (47 vs. 17). The absolute FPS values at 4K are critically low: High settings yield just 21 FPS, and Ultra drops to an unplayable 17 FPS. Even the Medium preset, which includes frame time data, only manages an average of 29 FPS at 4K, with a minimum of 25 FPS. This data suggests that 4K resolution is not a viable target for this hardware configuration in The Medium, as even the lowest settings fail to reach a smooth 60 FPS threshold, and the high-fidelity presets fall well below 30 FPS.

At 1440p, the situation improves but remains constrained. The Low preset achieves a respectable 59 FPS, which is close to the 60 FPS target but not fully locked. Medium settings drop to 37 FPS, and High and Ultra fall to 27 and 21 FPS, respectively. The 1080p results show the best overall performance, with Low hitting 70 FPS and Medium at 44 FPS. The data indicates that the GTX 1660 SUPER's processing power is the limiting factor; the CPU is not the constraint here, as the frame rate drops proportionally with the increased pixel workload. The transition from 1080p to 4K effectively halves the frame rate at Low settings (70 to 47 FPS), confirming that the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity are being saturated.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is the primary performance limiter in this configuration. Its specifications—6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus with 336.0 GB/s bandwidth—are the key constraints. The game's high-resolution textures and dual-world rendering likely place significant pressure on the 6 GB VRAM pool. The data shows that the 4K High preset (21 FPS) is only marginally better than 4K Ultra (17 FPS), suggesting that the card is not just compute-bound but also memory-bandwidth-bound, as increasing texture quality yields diminishing returns.

The GPU's clock speeds are modest by modern standards, with a base clock of 1530 MHz and a boost clock of 1785 MHz. The measured FPS data shows that the GTX 1660 SUPER is outperformed by its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (0.4% higher average score) and the AMD Radeon RX 580 (0.4% higher). This puts the GPU at the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, indicating a mid-range part. In The Medium, this translates to an inability to maintain 60 FPS even at 1080p Medium (44 FPS), a clear sign that the card is stretched beyond its comfortable operating range for this title.

The GPU's compute capabilities, measured at 5.027 TFLOPS FP32, are insufficient for the game's demands at higher quality presets. The 1080p Ultra result of 25 FPS is only 10 FPS lower than the High preset (32 FPS), but the jump from Medium (44 FPS) to High (32 FPS) is a significant 27.3% drop. This non-linear scaling suggests that the High preset enables specific rendering features that disproportionately impact the GPU's throughput. The card's 1408 shading units and 48 ROPs are simply not enough to handle the post-processing and lighting calculations at higher settings. The data clearly indicates the GPU is the bottleneck, as the performance is consistently low regardless of resolution when settings are high, while the CPU has ample headroom.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a high-end desktop processor that is vastly overqualified for the graphical workload presented by The Medium in this pairing. With 20 cores and 28 threads, it provides massive multi-threaded performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33440.5. Its single-thread performance is also strong, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2160, which is critical for the game's main thread logic and physics calculations. The CPU's boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures that any single-threaded bottleneck is minimized.

The benchmark data shows no evidence of CPU limitation. The frame rate scales inversely with resolution and settings, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would be similar across different resolutions. Instead, the 4K Low (47 FPS) is significantly lower than the 1080p Low (70 FPS), proving the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU's performance percentile of 94 out of 100, with an average benchmark score of 69355, places it in the top tier of processors. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (0.2% lower score) and the AMD EPYC 9115 (0.1% higher score), are high-core-count parts, confirming the i7-14700K's position in the enthusiast segment.

In this specific game, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and manage the game's logic. The data suggests that the i7-14700K is never the limiting factor, as even at 1080p Low, the frame rate is only 70 FPS, which is well within the CPU's capability to deliver. The processor's 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide low-latency access to game data, but the actual bottleneck is the GPU's inability to rasterize the scene quickly enough. The CPU is effectively idle, waiting for the GPU to catch up, which is a common scenario when pairing a top-tier CPU with a mid-range graphics card.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combination capable of running The Medium at 4K resolution?*

A: Based on the measured data, 4K is not a viable option. The highest average FPS at 4K is 47 on Low settings, which is below the 60 FPS target. High and Ultra settings yield 21 and 17 FPS, respectively, which are unplayable.

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

A: The data indicates that 1080p is the optimal resolution. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 70 FPS, and at Medium it hits 44 FPS. 1440p is only playable on Low settings (59 FPS), making 1080p the only resolution that offers a balance of quality and playability.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER's performance here compare to its closest rivals?

A: In synthetic benchmarks, the GTX 1660 SUPER has an average score of 12986. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, has a score of 12940, which is 0.4% lower. The AMD Radeon RX 580 has a score of 12928, also 0.4% lower. This indicates the 1660 SUPER is on par with these parts.

Q: Will upgrading the CPU improve frame rates in this game?

A: No, the data suggests not. The CPU is not the bottleneck. The frame rate drops significantly when resolution increases (e.g., from 70 FPS at 1080p Low to 47 FPS at 4K Low), which shows the GPU is the limiting factor. The i7-14700K is a high-performance part (94th percentile) and is not holding back the GTX 1660 SUPER.

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

A: At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 70 FPS, while the Ultra preset delivers 25 FPS. This is a difference of 45 FPS, or a 64.3% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

Q: Does the game's VRAM usage appear to be an issue?

A: The GTX 1660 SUPER has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory. The data shows a large drop from 1080p Low (70 FPS) to 1080p High (32 FPS), which could indicate that the High preset is exceeding the comfortable VRAM capacity, causing performance degradation.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for settings optimization. The primary goal is to maintain an average FPS above 30, with 60 FPS being the ideal target. At 1080p, the Low preset is the only one that achieves a solid 60 FPS target, hitting 70 FPS. The Medium preset, with an average of 44 FPS and a minimum of 37 FPS, provides a smoother experience than High (32 FPS) or Ultra (25 FPS) and is likely the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for most users, as it avoids the significant performance penalties of the higher presets.

At 1440p, the options are severely limited. The Low preset is the only playable option, achieving 59 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 37 FPS, which is playable but not ideal, while High (27 FPS) and Ultra (21 FPS) are too slow for comfortable gameplay. For 4K, no preset is recommended, as even Low only achieves 47 FPS, and all other presets fall below 30 FPS. Based on the data, the best experience is achieved at 1080p with the Medium preset, as it offers a significant visual upgrade over Low (44 FPS vs. 70 FPS) while maintaining a frame rate above the 30 FPS playability threshold, with a measured minimum of 37 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured FPS data is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 70 FPS. The Medium preset averages 44 FPS, with a minimum of 37 and a maximum of 51. The High preset averages 32 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 25 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 59 FPS. The Medium preset averages 37 FPS, with a minimum of 32 and a maximum of 43. The High preset averages 27 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 21 FPS. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 47 FPS. The Medium preset averages 29 FPS, with a minimum of 25 and a maximum of 33. The High preset averages 21 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 17 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific configuration, the Intel Core i7-14700K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER, is ranked 3179 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the bottom 14.6% of all tested systems, indicating that it is a low-performing combination for this specific game. This low ranking is primarily attributed to the GPU's mid-range standing (53rd percentile) and its inability to handle the game's demanding rendering workload. The CPU, on the other hand, is a top-tier part (94th percentile), but its high performance does not compensate for the GPU's limitations in this title. The combination of a very fast CPU and a slow GPU creates a significant imbalance, leading to the low overall rank. The data confirms that the GTX 1660 SUPER is the weakest link in the chain, and its performance is the defining factor for this combo's position in the benchmark database.