The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine 4, presents a unique load profile that stresses both GPU rasterization and CPU draw-call throughput. For the combination of the Intel Core i7-14700K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, the measured frame rates reveal a system that is consistently capable but requires deliberate settings choices to hit specific performance targets. The data shows a clear hierarchy across resolutions and presets, with the 20-core processor providing a robust foundation while the 12 GB graphics card dictates the ceiling at higher fidelity levels.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows for this configuration show that the "Medium" preset is the most balanced experience across all three resolutions, offering the only complete data set with both minimum and maximum frame rate values. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 100 FPS with a minimum of 85 FPS and a maximum of 115 FPS, which indicates a smooth and stable experience without the volatility seen in other presets. At 2560x1440, the same preset yields an average of 84 FPS with a minimum of 71 FPS, keeping the experience comfortably within high-refresh-rate territory. Even at 3840x2160, Medium maintains an average of 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 FPS, which is playable for a slow-paced horror title.

The "High" preset is the next step up, but the data shows a significant performance penalty. At 1080p, High averages 72 FPS, which is a 28% drop from Medium's 100 FPS. At 1440p, High falls to 60 FPS exactly, and at 4K it drops to 47 FPS. While 60 FPS at 1440p is a common target, the fact that Medium at 4K (66 FPS) outperforms High at 1440p (60 FPS) suggests that the visual difference between Medium and High is not worth the frame rate cost at higher resolutionsasi. The "Low" preset provides the highest frame rates—160 FPS at 1080p, 135 FPS at 1440p, and 106 FPS at 4K—but for a game like The Medium, which relies on atmosphere and lighting, the visual compromise is substantial. The "Ultra" preset is the most demanding, with only 57 FPS at 1080p and 38 FPS at 4K, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay despite being the highest fidelity option.

The optimal choice for this hardware is Medium. It is the only preset where the frame rate remains above 60 FPS at 1440p and above 56 FPS minimum at 4K. The data implies that the game's engine has a non-linear scaling between settings, where Medium provides the best performance-per-visual step. For users with high-refresh-rate 1080p displays, Low is the only option that approaches the 160 FPS mark, but the 60 FPS difference between Low and Medium at 1080p suggests that Medium is still the sweet spot for image quality. The absence of minimum FPS data for Low, High, and Ultra presets makes it difficult to recommend them for consistent frametimes, whereas Medium's measured minimums provide confidence in its stability.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the primary driver of performance in these results, evidenced by the steep frame rate drops as resolution increases. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus with 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth is a significant factor. The measured data shows that at 1080p Medium, the card produces 100 FPS, but this drops to 84 FPS at 1440p and 66 FPS at 4K. This scaling pattern—roughly a 16% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 21% drop from 1440p to 4K—suggests that the GPU is the limiting component, as the CPU's performance headroom is not being exhausted at lower resolutions.

The GPU's boost clock of 2512 MHz and base clock of 2325 MHz are relevant when comparing the Low preset results. At 4K Low, the card achieves 106 FPS, which is higher than the 4K Medium result of 66 FPS. This 40 FPS gap indicates that the game's Medium settings introduce additional shading and texture work that significantly impacts the GPU's fill rate and texture throughput. The RTX 5070's 80 ROPs and 192 TMUs are being pushed harder at Medium settings, as the texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s is likely a bottleneck when higher-quality textures are loaded.

The GPU's 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is more than adequate for this game's visual style, but the measured results show that memory bandwidth and capacity are the real constraints. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 38 FPS, which is less than half of the 4K Low result. This suggests that the 12 GB VRAM is likely being stressed at Ultra settings with high-resolution textures, causing the GPU to fall back on slower memory access patterns. However, the data does not include VRAM usage, so this is inferred from the performance deltas. The GPU's percentile rank of 82 among all GPUs places it in the upper tier, but its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks—AMD Radeon Pro 580 and Pro WX 7100—are workstation cards with different driver optimizations, making direct gaming comparisons less meaningful.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases. At Medium settings, the progression is 100 FPS at 1080p, 84 FPS at 1440p, and 66 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 16%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 21%. This non-linear scaling indicates that the GPU is becoming more pixel-bound at higher resolutions, which is expected for a rasterization-heavy title. At Low settings, the scaling is similar: 160 FPS at 1080p, 135 FPS at 1440p (a 16% drop), and 106 FPS at 4K (a 21% drop from 1440p). The consistency of these percentages across presets suggests that resolution scaling is primarily a function of pixel count, not settings complexity.

The High preset shows a different pattern: 72 FPS at 1080p, 60 FPS at 1440p (a 17% drop), and 47 FPS at 4K (a 22% drop). The absolute frame rates are lower, but the percentage drops are similar, reinforcing that the GPU is the bottleneck. The Ultra preset shows the steepest drops: 57 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p (a 16% drop), and 38 FPS at 4K (a 21% drop). This uniformity across all four presets indicates that the limiting component is the GPU's pixel processing capability, not a sudden CPU limitation at lower resolutions.

The fact that 4K Low (106 FPS) is faster than 1080p High (72 FPS) is a telling detail. It demonstrates that the GPU has ample headroom at lower settings, and the performance difference between Low and High at the same resolution is far larger than the difference between 1080p and 4K on the same preset. For instance, at 1080p, the difference between Low and High is 88 FPS (160 vs 72), while at 4K, the difference between Low and High is 59 FPS (106 vs 47). This suggests that the game's higher settings introduce more complex shading and shadow calculations that scale with resolution, but the GPU's raw pixel throughput remains the dominant constraint.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the configuration delivers its highest performance. The Low preset achieves an average of 160 FPS, which is the fastest result in the entire dataset. Medium follows at 100 FPS with a minimum of 85 FPS and a maximum of 115 FPS, providing a solid high-refresh-rate experience. High drops to 72 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 57 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 60 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 28 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 15 FPS. This indicates that the most significant performance cost occurs when moving from Low to Medium, likely due to texture quality and shadow resolution increases.

At 2560x1440, the results scale down proportionally. Low averages 135 FPS, Medium averages 84 FPS with a minimum of 71 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS, High averages 60 FPS, and Ultra averages 48 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is the only setting that maintains a minimum above 70 FPS, making it the recommended choice for this resolution. The Low preset at 1440p (135 FPS) is still faster than the Low preset at 4K (106 FPS), showing that the GPU has significant headroom at this resolution for users who prioritize frame rate over fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the configuration is pushed to its limits. Low averages 106 FPS, Medium averages 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 FPS and a maximum of 76 FPS, High averages 47 FPS, and Ultra averages 38 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K is the only option that maintains a playable frame rate above 60 FPS average, though the 56 FPS minimum suggests occasional dips. The Ultra preset at 4K (38 FPS) is the worst result in the dataset, indicating that this configuration is not suited for maximum fidelity at 4K. The data shows that the 4K Medium result (66 FPS) is nearly identical to the 1440p High result (60 FPS), suggesting that users can achieve similar performance by either lowering resolution or lowering settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for a 1440p monitor with this CPU and GPU?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers an average of 84 FPS with a minimum of 71 FPS Akshat, making it the only preset at this resolution that maintains a minimum above 70 FPS. The High preset drops to 60 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 48 FPS, so Medium is the clear choice for smooth gameplay.

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

A: Yes, but only at Low or Medium settings. At 3840x2160, Low averages 106 FPS and Medium averages 66 FPS with a 56 FPS minimum. High drops to 47 FPS and Ultra to 38 FPS, which are not ideal for a smooth experience.

Q: How does the 12 GB VRAM affect performance at higher resolutions?

A: The measured data shows a significant performance drop when moving from Medium to High settings at 4K (66 FPS to 47 FPS). This suggests that higher settings increase VRAM usage, but since the frame rates remain playable at Medium, the 12 GB capacity is sufficient for this game at 4K Medium.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck. The frame rates scale consistently with resolution changes (16-21% drops from 1080p to 4K), and the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads provide ample processing power that is not exhausted, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p Low (160 FPS).

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with measured minimum and maximum FPS data. At 1080p, it ranges from 85 to 115 FPS (a 30 FPS spread), at 1440p from 71 to 97 FPS (a 26 FPS spread), and at 4K from 56 to 76 FPS (a 20 FPS spread). This indicates consistent performance with no major stutters.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5070 has an average benchmark score of 40377, which is 0.1% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40318), 0.8% higher than the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40063), and 1.2% lower than the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40870). These are workstation cards, so gaming performance in The Medium may differ.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700K plays a supporting role in these results, providing a stable foundation that does not bottleneck the GPU at any resolution. With 20 cores and 28 threads, the CPU is vastly overprovisioned for a game like The Medium, which is not known for heavy multi-threaded usage. The CPU's boost clock of 5.60 GHz and base clock of 3.40 GHz are high, but the measured FPS data does not show any signs of CPU limitation. At 1080p Low, the configuration achieves 160 FPS, which is well below the CPU's potential maximum, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor even at the lowest settings.

The CPU's synthetic benchmark scores are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33440.5 and a single-core score of 2160. The Geekbench multi-core score of 20767 and single-core score of 2569 further confirm its strength. However, these scores do not translate into gaming performance differences in this title. The CPU's percentile rank of 94 among all CPUs places it in the top 6%, but its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks—AMD EPYC 9115, Ryzen 9 7950X, and Ryzen 9 7940HX—show that the i7-14700K is competitive but not dominant. The deltaPct values are tiny (0.1% to -0.9%), meaning these CPUs are effectively equivalent in raw compute power.

The CPU's 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache are more than sufficient for this game's data requirements. The measured FPS data shows that the CPU can maintain high frame rates without stuttering, as evidenced by the Medium preset's tight minimum FPS values (85 FPS at 1080p, 71 FPS at 1440p). The fact that the frame rate drops consistently with resolution increases (not with CPU load) confirms that the 20-core processor is not a bottleneck. The CPU's support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory is irrelevant to the measured results, but the dual-channel memory bus is standard. The CPU's TDP of 125 W is modest for a 20-core part, and its 10 nm process node (Intel's designation) keeps power consumption manageable.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested hardware combinations for The Medium, this configuration—Intel Core i7-14700K paired with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070—ranks 675th out of 3724 total combos. This places it in the top 18% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing. The rank of 675 means that there are 674 other combinations that achieve higher average frame rates across the tested presets and resolutions. Given that the RTX 5070 is a 50-series card with a percentile rank of 82 among all GPUs, and the i7-14700K has a percentile rank of 94 among all CPUs, this combo rank is slightly lower than what the individual component percentiles might suggest.

The discrepancy between the CPU and GPU percentiles and the combo rank can be attributed to the game's specific requirements. The Medium is a horror title that relies on fixed camera angles and pre-baked lighting, which may not scale perfectly with high-end hardware. The combo's rank of 675 out of 3724 implies that there are many combinations with higher-tier GPUs (such as RTX 5080 or 5090) that achieve better results, but it also means that this configuration outperforms the vast majority of systems. The fact that the combo rank is not higher despite the strong individual component scores suggests that The Medium is more GPU-bound than CPU-bound, and the RTX 5070's mid-range position within the 50-series lineup limits its performance in this title.

The measured FPS data confirms that this combo is capable of playing The Medium at high frame rates, but not at maximum settings. The rank of 675 provides context: it is a solid mid-to-upper-tier performer, but not a top-tier system. The 4K Medium result of 66 FPS and 1440p Medium result of 84 FPS are the key differentiators, as many lower-ranked combos would struggle to maintain these frame rates. The data indicates that this configuration is well-suited for 1440p gaming at Medium to High settings, and for 4K gaming at Medium settings, which is a reasonable expectation for a $549 GPU paired with a $409 CPU.