The Medium

The Medium pairs a 20-core Intel Core i7-14700K with an 8 GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, a combination that lands at rank 889 out of 1689 tested combos for this title. This places the pairing in the middle of the database’s tested configurations, with benchmark results showing that the GPU is the primary constraint on frame rates, especially at higher resolutions and quality presets. The CPU’s strong multi-threaded performance ensures that it does not bottleneck the GPU in this horror title, but the RTX 3060 Ti’s 8 GB VRAM and Ampere architecture define the experience across the measured settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank in The Medium?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ranks 889 out of 1689 tested combinations, placing it in the middle of the database for this game.

Q: How does the RTX 3060 Ti compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 25120. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6700M, scores 25180, a delta of -0.2%. The AMD Radeon RX 6600 and AMD Radeon 890M are also close, with scores of 25235 and 25246 respectively, both showing a -0.5% delta.

Q: What is the best frame rate achieved at 1920x1080?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 110.9 FPS. With Medium settings, it drops to 72.7 FPS, and at High settings, it reaches 51.9 FPS.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in The Medium?

A: At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are 73.3 FPS on Low, 46.8 FPS on Medium, 35.3 FPS on High, and 23.5 FPS on Ultra. The Ultra preset is the only one that falls below 30 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU’s benchmark score compare to its closest rival?

A: The Intel Core i7-14700K has an average benchmark score of 70074. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, scores 70104, which is a 0% delta. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420, a -0.5% delta.

Q: What is the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 92.4 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 34.1 FPS. This represents a significant performance gap, with Medium and High landing at 60.3 FPS and 41.8 FPS respectively.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA104 chip, featuring 4864 shading units, 152 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs. It has 38 RT cores and 152 tensor cores, which are relevant for the game’s rendering workloads. The GPU’s memory configuration is 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is a critical factor in The Medium, as the game’s dual-reality mechanic can be demanding on VRAM, especially at higher resolutions.

The card’s clock speeds are 1410 MHz base and 1665 MHz boost, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). The pixel rate is 133.2 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 253.1 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance at 16.20 TFLOPS. The GPU’s average benchmark score is 25120, which places it at the 69th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6700M (score 25180, delta -0.2%) and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 (score 25235, delta -0.5%), showing that the RTX 3060 Ti is tightly clustered with these competitors in raw compute.

In The Medium, the data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor. At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops from 73.3 on Low to 23.5 on Ultra, a clear sign that the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth are stretched at 4K. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1920x1080 and 2560x1440, but the Ultra preset at 4K likely pushes against the memory capacity, contributing to the sub-30 FPS result. The boost clock of 1665 MHz provides the headroom needed for the lower-resolution presets, where the card can maintain higher frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a 20-core, 28-thread processor from the Core 14th Gen series, based on the Raptor Lake architecture (Raptor Lake-R). It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 33 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU’s average benchmark score is 70074, placing it at the 96th percentile of all CPUs, indicating strong overall performance.

The CPU’s nearest rival is the Intel Core i7-14700KF, which scores 70104 with a 0% delta, meaning the two are virtually identical in performance. The AMD EPYC 9115 scores 69887 (0.3% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X scores 70420 (-0.5% delta), showing that the i7-14700K is competitive with top-tier server and desktop parts. In single-threaded tests, the CPU scores 6287 in Cinebench R23, and in multi-core, it hits 44534, demonstrating robust performance for games that rely on a few fast cores or scale across many threads.

For The Medium, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with enough data to maintain frame rates. The benchmark results indicate that the CPU is not a bottleneck, as the FPS differences across settings are primarily driven by GPU load. The high boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensures that single-threaded tasks, such as game logic, are handled efficiently. The 20 cores and 28 threads provide ample headroom for background tasks and the game’s rendering threads, but the data shows that the GPU’s limits are reached before the CPU’s.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of Intel Core i7-14700K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ranks 889 out of 1689 tested combinations in The Medium. This places it just below the median, indicating that while the CPU is high-end, the GPU holds the pairing back in this specific title. The rank is influenced by the GPU’s position at the 69th percentile of all GPUs, which is lower than the CPU’s 96th percentile, creating an imbalance.

Compared to other combos, this pairing is likely outperformed by configurations with more powerful GPUs, such as those from the GeForce 40 series, but it also outranks many older or lower-tier combinations. The rank of 889 suggests that for The Medium, the RTX 3060 Ti is the limiting component, and users with this CPU would benefit from a higher-tier GPU to move up the ranking. The data shows that the CPU’s strong benchmark scores do not translate into higher FPS when the GPU is the bottleneck, as seen in the 4K Ultra result.

The combo’s position is also reflected in the measured FPS, where the 1920x1080 Low preset achieves 110.9 FPS, but the 3840x2160 Ultra preset drops to 23.5 FPS. This wide range indicates that the pairing is versatile for 1080p and 1440p gaming but struggles at 4K with high settings. The rank of 889 out of 1689 is a practical indicator that the combo is adequate for medium to high settings at lower resolutions, but not for maxed-out 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo covers three resolutions and four quality settings, providing a clear picture of performance scaling.

At 1920x1080, the combo starts with 110.9 FPS on Low settings, which is the highest average across all configurations. Medium settings drop to 72.7 FPS, High to 51.9 FPS, and Ultra to 40.3 FPS. This shows that the RTX 3060 Ti can handle 1080p with ease, even on Ultra, maintaining above 40 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance decreases as expected. Low settings average 92.4 FPS, which is still smooth for most displays. Medium settings hit 60.3 FPS, High drops to 41.8 FPS, and Ultra falls to 34.1 FPS. The 1440p results indicate that the combo is suitable for high-refresh-rate gaming on Low or Medium, but High and Ultra presets will require a 60 Hz monitor for a consistent experience.

At 3840x2160, the GPU’s limitations become evident. Low settings average 73.3 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 46.8 FPS. High settings average 35.3 FPS, and Ultra falls to 23.5 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K is steep, with a drop of nearly 50 FPS, highlighting the impact of the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and bandwidth constraints.

Overall, the data shows that the combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K reserved for Low or Medium settings. The RTX 3060 Ti’s performance in The Medium is consistent with its benchmark score and percentile, and the CPU’s high-end specs do not compensate for the GPU’s mid-range position in this title.