The Medium

The Medium is a horror title that stresses both the CPU and GPU due to its dual-reality rendering technique, and the combination of an Intel Core i7-14700K with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER produces a measurable performance profile across resolutions and settings. This analysis uses the measured frame rate data to characterize how this specific pairing handles the game, ranking it against other tested combos and breaking down the bottleneck behavior. The data shows a system that can deliver playable performance at lower presets, but struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at higher quality settings, particularly at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 2162 out of 3724 tested combinations for The Medium. That places this pairing in the 42nd percentile of all combos tested, meaning roughly 58% of other configurations deliver higher average frame rates in this specific title. The ranking reflects the RTX 2070 SUPER's position as a mid-range GPU from the previous generation, paired with a high-end current-generation CPU. The data indicates that this is a GPU-limited configuration, where the processor's substantial compute headroom is not fully utilized by the graphics card in most scenarios.

Looking at the individual components, the CPU has a percentile rank of 94 against all processors, indicating it outperforms 94% of all CPUs in general benchmark averages. The GPU, by contrast, has a percentile rank of 65 against all GPUs, meaning it sits above the median but below the top tier. The disparity between these two percentiles explains the overall combo ranking. The CPU is capable of far more than the GPU can deliver, making the graphics card the primary constraint in The Medium. Benchmark results confirm that the i7-14700K's average benchmark score of 69355 is closely matched by rivals such as the AMD EPYC 9115 with a delta of 0.1%, the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X with a delta of -0.2%, and the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX with a delta of -0.7%. The GPU's average benchmark score of 20282 is similarly close to competitors, with the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M at -1%, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at -1.2%, and the Intel Arc B570 at -1.3%.

The rank of 2162 out of 3724 suggests that while this combo is not among the top performers, it is also far from the bottom. The measured frame rates show a system that can achieve 101 FPS at 1080p Low, which is competitive with many configurations, but the drop to 24 FPS at 4K Ultra illustrates the GPU's limitations under maximum load. This is a pairing that favors lower resolution and settings compromises over brute-force high-end rendering. The data positions this combo as a solid 1080p performer with diminishing returns as resolution scales upward.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for The Medium provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience for this hardware combination. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers an average of 101 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded across all settings and resolutions. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 63 FPS, with a minimum of 54 FPS and a maximum of 72 FPS, which remains comfortably playable. The High preset at 1080p yields 45 FPS, while the Ultra preset falls to 36 FPS. For players prioritizing smooth motion, the Low preset at 1080p is the clear choice, offering more than double the frame rate of High and nearly triple that of Ultra.

At 1440p, the Low preset achieves 85 FPS, which is still highly responsive, while Medium delivers 53 FPS with a minimum of 45 FPS and a maximum of 61 FPS. The High preset at 1440p drops to 38 FPS, and Ultra falls to 30 FPS. For a balanced visual and performance trade-off, the Medium preset at 1440p appears optimal, as it maintains an average above 50 FPS while improving visual fidelity over Low. The 4K results show that the Low preset at 67 FPS is the only playable option, with Medium at 42 FPS already showing noticeable strain and High at 30 FPS and Ultra at 24 FPS falling below acceptable thresholds for most users.

Considering the entire dataset, the best experience is achieved at 1080p with the Low preset, where the 101 FPS average provides headroom for smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes. However, for those who prefer higher visual quality, the 1080p Medium preset at 63 FPS offers a solid compromise, with the minimum of 54 FPS indicating that frame drops are kept within a tolerable range. The data suggests that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, with settings capped at Medium for a consistent experience. At 1440p, users should stick to Low or Medium, while 4K requires the Low preset to remain playable.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU as the dominant limiting factor in this configuration. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 101 at 1080p to 85 at 1440p, a reduction of 16 FPS, and then to 67 at 4K, a further drop of 18 FPS. This represents a total decline of 34 FPS, or approximately 34%, when moving from 1080p to 4K. The pattern indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER's rendering throughput is increasingly taxed as pixel count rises. The data shows a less steep decline between 1080p and 1440p compared to the drop from 1440p to 4K, suggesting that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources become more strained at higher resolutions.

At the Medium preset, the average FPS falls from 63 at 1080p to 53 at 1440p, and then to 42 at 4K. The delta between 1080p and 1440p is 10 FPS, while the delta between 1440p and 4K is 11 FPS, showing a relatively consistent scaling pattern. The minimum FPS also drops, from 54 at 1080p to 45 at 1440p and 35 at 4K, indicating that frame time consistency degrades as resolution increases. The High preset shows a more pronounced drop: 45 FPS at 1080p, 38 FPS at 1440p, and 30 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset follows a similar trajectory, with 36 FPS at 1080p, 30 FPS at 1440p, and 24 FPS at 4K.

The scaling behavior points to the GPU being the bottleneck, as the CPU's performance does not vary with resolution. The i7-14700K's 20 cores and 28 threads provide ample processing power, and its benchmark scores suggest it can handle the game's logic and rendering calls without becoming a constraint. The fact that frame rates drop consistently with resolution increases confirms that the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are the limiting resources. The GPU's boost clock of 1770 MHz and base clock of 1605 MHz are fixed, so the only way to improve performance is to reduce the rendering load, which is exactly what the lower presets achieve.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed view of how this combo performs across all tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 101 FPS, the highest recorded in the dataset. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 63 FPS, with a minimum of 54 FPS and a maximum of 72 FPS, showing a stable frame delivery with only modest variance. The High preset at 1080p drops to 45 FPS, while the Ultra preset falls to 36 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a clear performance cost for each quality tier, with the gap between Low and Medium being the largest at 38 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 85 FPS, which is still a strong result for this GPU. The Medium preset at 1440p produces 53 FPS, with a minimum of 45 FPS and a maximum of 61 FPS, indicating that frame times remain consistent enough for smooth gameplay. The High preset at 1440p drops to 38 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 30 FPS. The data shows that 1440p is playable at Low and Medium presets, but High and Ultra push the GPU to its limits, resulting in frame rates that may cause noticeable stutter in a horror game where smooth camera movement is critical.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset delivers 67 FPS, which is surprising given the high pixel count, but the reduced visual fidelity allows the GPU to maintain a playable rate. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 42 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 48 FPS, showing significant frame variance that could impact the experience. The High preset at 4K falls to 30 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 24 FPS. The 4K results confirm that this combo is not suited for high-quality 4K gaming, with only the Low preset remaining above the 60 FPS threshold.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset shows the most consistent frame delivery, with minimum values that are within 15% of the average. The Low preset offers the highest frame rates but sacrifices visual quality, while High and Ultra presets provide diminishing returns as resolution increases. The data indicates that players should prioritize the Medium preset for a balanced experience, or the Low preset for maximum smoothness.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary determinant of frame rates in The Medium for this combo. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock is listed at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective, and this bandwidth is a critical factor in the game's performance at higher resolutions. The GPU's base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz dictate its raw compute throughput, which is further defined by 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output pipelines. The GPU also includes 40 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores, though The Medium's rendering demands appear to rely more heavily on traditional rasterization.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide context for its gaming performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651 and the Geekbench OpenCL score of 83358 indicate a mid-range level of compute capability. The Passmark G3D score of 18169 and the Passmark GPU Compute score of 7557 further characterize the GPU's performance. The GPU's percentile rank of 65 against all GPUs places it in the upper half but below the top tier, which aligns with the measured FPS data showing playable but not exceptional performance in The Medium. The nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M with a delta of -1%, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile with a delta of -1.2%, and the Intel Arc B570 with a delta of -1.3%, all of which perform within a narrow margin of the RTX 2070 SUPER.

The GPU's 8 GB memory capacity is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but at 4K, the higher resolution textures and rendering demands may exceed the available VRAM, contributing to the significant frame rate drops observed in the data. The 4K High preset at 30 FPS and 4K Ultra at 24 FPS suggest that the GPU is struggling to keep up with the rendering load, with the memory bandwidth likely being a bottleneck. The GPU's 12 nm process node and 13,600 million transistors on a 545 mm² die indicate a mature architecture that is nonetheless dated compared to newer GPUs, which explains its mid-range standing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K plays a supporting role in The Medium, providing ample compute headroom that is not fully utilized by the RTX 2070 SUPER. The CPU features 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. It is built on the Raptor Lake architecture using a 10 nm process node, with a die size of 257 mm². The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 2 MB of L2 cache per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, and its benchmark scores reflect a high-performance processor.

The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 33440.5 and single-core score of 2160 demonstrate its strong multi-threaded and single-threaded capabilities. The Geekbench multicore score of 20767 and single-core score of 2569 further confirm its performance. The Passmark multithread score of 52392 and single-thread score of 4472 show that the CPU excels in both parallel and sequential workloads. The CPU's percentile rank of 94 against all processors places it in the top 6%, and its average benchmark score of 69355 is closely matched by rivals such as the AMD EPYC 9115, AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, and AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with rendering commands and handle game logic, including the dual-reality rendering that the game is known for. The measured FPS data shows that frame rates are consistently higher at lower resolutions, which indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the 101 FPS average suggests that the CPU is capable of delivering frames faster than the GPU can process them, but the GPU's limits cap the frame rate. The CPU's 125 W TDP and support for PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes ensure that data transfer to the GPU is not a constraint. The CPU's integrated UHD Graphics 770 is not relevant for gaming with a discrete GPU, but its presence does not impact performance.

The data shows that the CPU's performance is more than adequate for The Medium, as the frame rates scale almost entirely with GPU load. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see similar frame rates across resolutions, but the measured data shows a clear decline from 1080p to 4K, confirming the GPU's dominance in this pairing. The CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads provide headroom for background tasks and future games, but for The Medium, the CPU is not the bottleneck. The launch MSRP for the CPU is $409, and the GPU's launch MSRP is $499 USD, but pricing is not a factor in the performance analysis.