The Medium

# The Medium: Intel Core i7-14700KF + Intel Arc B580 — Benchmark Analysis

This combination of Intel's Core i7-14700KF and Intel's Arc B580 produces a highly uneven experience in The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title that stresses the GPU far more than the CPU. The data shows a system that can handle the game at playable framerates only when settings are carefully managed, with the Arc B580 emerging as the clear bottleneck across all tested resolutions. The measured results reveal a pattern where dropping from Ultra to Low settings can more than quadruple the average framerate, indicating that the GPU's 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the limiting factor rather than the CPU's 20 cores. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data, contextualizes the combo's ranking among 3,724 tested combinations, and provides actionable settings guidance based strictly on the empirical results.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior in The Medium is dramatic and reveals a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 88 FPS average, but moving to 1440p drops that to 74 FPS, and at 4K it falls further to 58 FPS. This represents a 34% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, which indicates that even at the lowest graphical preset, the Arc B580 is still the primary constraint. The scaling is not linear, though, and the pattern changes significantly when moving up the settings ladder.

At Medium settings, the framerate drops from 55 FPS at 1080p to 47 FPS at 1440p, then to 37 FPS at 4K — a total decline of 33% from the lowest to highest resolution. The High preset shows a steeper degradation: 40 FPS at 1080p, 33 FPS at 1440p, and 26 FPS at 4K, representing a 35% drop. The Ultra preset exhibits the most severe scaling, falling from 31 FPS at 1080p to 26 FPS at 1440p and 21 FPS at 4K, a 32% reduction. Interestingly, the percentage drop is remarkably consistent across all presets, hovering around 32-35% from 1080p to 4K, which suggests the resolution scaling is purely GPU-limited with no CPU involvement.

The 4K results are particularly telling. At 4K Ultra, the average is just 21 FPS, which is below playability thresholds, while 4K High yields 26 FPS and 4K Medium delivers 37 FPS. Only 4K Low at 58 FPS approaches a smooth experience. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 37 FPS, a 176% improvement when dropping to the lowest preset. This wide spread indicates that The Medium's graphical options have a massive impact on GPU load, likely due to heavy use of volumetric effects and high-resolution textures that disproportionately affect the Arc B580's 192-bit memory bus and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth. The data clearly shows that 4K gaming is only viable at Low settings for this combo, and even then, the 58 FPS average leaves little headroom for demanding scenes.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 2,819 out of 3,724 tested combinations in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 24% of all tested systems. This is a surprisingly low ranking given the CPU's strong benchmark performance — the Core i7-14700KF sits in the 94th percentile among all CPUs — but it underscores how heavily this game depends on the GPU. The Arc B580's 68th percentile ranking among all GPUs is the limiting factor, and in a game like The Medium that appears to be almost entirely GPU-bound, the CPU's strength cannot compensate.

Looking at the GPU's nearest rivals provides context for the ranking. The Arc B580's average benchmark score of 23,021 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (23,061, delta of -0.2%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22,895, delta of 0.6%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (23,172, delta of -0.7%). This clustering suggests that in raw compute terms, the B580 performs in the same tier as these older or higher-tier cards, yet the in-game ranking of 2,819 out of 3,724 indicates that The Medium may be particularly demanding on Intel's Xe2-HPG architecture. The RTX 3080, for instance, typically dominates in gaming workloads, so the near-identical average benchmark score does not translate to identical game performance.

The CPU's nearest rivals tell a different story. The Core i7-14700KF averages 70,163 in benchmarks, sitting just 0.2% above the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (69,996), 0.4% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875), and 0.9% above the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515). It trails the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K by 1% (70,879). These minuscule deltas indicate that in CPU-bound scenarios, this processor is at the top of its class, but the combo's low in-game rank proves that The Medium is not CPU-bound. The data implies that swapping the CPU for a much weaker model would produce nearly identical framerates, while swapping the GPU would yield significant changes. This is an important insight for anyone interpreting the combo's poor rank — it is a GPU limitation, not a CPU one.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580's specifications explain much of its behavior in The Medium. The GPU features 2,560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units, with a base and boost clock of 2670 MHz. Its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth, and the card delivers 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The 20 RT cores and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate suggest it is architecturally capable of handling modern effects, but the measured framerates indicate that raw throughput is insufficient for this game's demands at higher presets.

The memory subsystem is likely a critical factor. At 4K Ultra, the game drops to 21 FPS, and the 12 GB frame buffer may be insufficient for the highest quality textures at that resolution, causing the GPU to rely on slower memory accesses. The 456.0 GB/s bandwidth is moderate by modern standards, and The Medium's horror aesthetics with detailed environments and lighting effects likely require substantial memory traffic. The 192-bit bus width, while adequate for 1080p and 1440p, becomes a constraint at 4K where the pixel throughput demand increases by 300% compared to 1080p.

The GPU's benchmark results show a mixed profile. Its PassMark G3D score of 15,748 is respectable, but the DirectX 12 score of just 76 and DirectX 11 score of 128 are surprisingly low, which may indicate driver overhead or architectural inefficiencies in certain workloads. The Vulkan score of 109,672 in Geekbench is strong, suggesting the Xe2-HPG architecture performs well with modern APIs. However, The Medium's engine may not be optimally utilizing Intel's architecture, as evidenced by the large gap between the GPU's 68th percentile ranking and the combo's bottom-quartile in-game position. The data suggests that while the B580 is competitive in synthetic benchmarks, real-world game performance can vary significantly based on the specific title's rendering paths.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend heavily on the target resolution and acceptable framerate. At 1080p, Medium settings provide 55 FPS average with a minimum of 47 FPS and maximum of 64 FPS, which is the sweet spot for smooth gameplay on a 60 Hz display. High settings at 1080p drop to 40 FPS, which is playable but noticeably less smooth, while Ultra at 31 FPS is borderline. Low at 1080p yields 88 FPS, but the visual quality reduction is likely too severe for a horror game that relies on atmosphere and detail.

At 1440p, Medium settings deliver 47 FPS average with a minimum of 40 FPS and maximum of 54 FPS. This is the recommended preset for 1440p, as High drops to 33 FPS and Ultra plummets to 26 FPS, both of which are below comfortable playability. Low at 1440p offers 74 FPS, which is excellent for competitive or fast-paced play, but again sacrifices the visual fidelity that defines the horror experience. The 47 FPS average at Medium represents a reasonable compromise, though users with variable refresh rate monitors may find the 40 FPS minimum acceptable.

For 4K, the situation is dire. Ultra at 21 FPS and High at 26 FPS are unplayable, while Medium at 37 FPS is marginal at best. Low at 58 FPS is the only 4K preset that approaches smoothness, but even then, the visual downgrade is substantial. The data indicates that 4K gaming with this combo should be avoided unless the user is willing to accept Low settings and potentially lower internal resolution scaling. The Medium's measured minimum FPS of 31 at 4K Medium suggests significant frame time spikes that would be noticeable in gameplay. The recommended approach is 1080p Medium for the best balance of visual quality and performance, or 1440p Medium for users prioritizing resolution over smoothness.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages span a wide range: Low delivers 88 FPS, Medium provides 55 FPS with a minimum of 47 and maximum of 64, High produces 40 FPS, and Ultra drops to 31 FPS. The 33 FPS gap between Low and Medium is substantial, while the 15 FPS difference between Medium and High is also significant)Skip. The 9 FPS drop from High to Ultra is smaller, suggesting diminishing returns in GPU load at the highest preset.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower absolute numbers: Low achieves 74 FPS, Medium delivers 47 FPS (minimum 40, maximum 54), High produces 33 FPS, and Ultra falls to 26 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 27 FPS, while Medium to High is 14 FPS, and High to Ultra is 7 FPS. The consistency of these deltas across resolutions suggests that each settings tier adds a roughly proportional GPU load, with the Arc B580's compute resources being the limiting factor at every step.

At 3840x2160, the numbers become challenging: Low yields 58 FPS, Medium provides 37 FPS (minimum 31, maximum 42), High produces 26 FPS, and Ultra drops to 21 FPS. The Low to Medium gap is 21 FPS, Medium to High is 11 FPS, and High to Ultra is 5 FPS. The narrowing gaps at higher resolutions indicate that the GPU is becoming saturated, with the memory bandwidth and shading unit throughput reaching their limits. The 4K Medium minimum of 31 FPS is particularly telling, as it suggests that even the average 37 FPS includes significant dips that would cause visible stuttering during intense scenes.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a formidable processor with 20 cores and 28 threads, operating at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 cache per core provide ample capacity for gaming workloads. The CPU's benchmark results are stellar: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44,167 and single-core of 6,235, Geekbench multi-core of 21,462 and single-core of 2,578, and a PassMark multi-thread score of 52,425. The 94th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms its top-tier status.

However, in The Medium, the CPU's role appears minimal. The measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking — if the CPU were the constraint, we would expect framerates to remain relatively constant across resolutions, but instead we see the 30-35% drops from 1080p to 4K that are characteristic of GPU limitation. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU has the least work to do, the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads are likely underutilized, as The Medium is a horror title that typically uses only a few cores for game logic and rendering.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores — the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F (0.2% slower), AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (0.4% slower), and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (0.9% slower) — would almost certainly produce identical framerates in this game, given the GPU bottleneck. The 1% faster Intel Core Ultra 7 265K would also make no measurable difference. This is a critical insight: users with this combo should not invest in a CPU upgrade to improve The Medium performance, as the data clearly indicates the GPU is the sole limiting factor. The CPU's 125 W TDP and LGA 1700 socket are irrelevant to the gaming experience here, and its strengths in multi-threaded workloads are simply not exercised by this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium with this combo?

A: The data shows 1080p is the only resolution where all presets are at least marginally playable, with Medium delivering 55 FPS average (minimum 47 FPS). At 1440p, only Low (74 FPS) and Medium (47 FPS) approach acceptable framerates, while 4K is only viable at Low (58 FPS). For the best balance of visual quality and smoothness, 1080p Medium is recommended based on the measured results.

Q: Why is the combo ranked so low (2,819 out of 3,724) despite having a top-tier CPU?

A: The ranking reflects that The Medium is heavily GPU-bound — the Arc B580's 68th percentile GPU ranking is the limiting factor, not the Core i7-14700KF's 94th percentile CPU ranking. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, would produce identical framerates because the GPU cannot keep up at higher settings.

Q: Is the Arc B580's 12 GB VRAM sufficient for 4K in this game?

A: The measured data shows 4K Ultra at 21 FPS and 4K High at 26 FPS, both unplayable, while 4K Medium delivers 37 FPS. The 12 GB frame buffer may be adequate, but the 456.0 GB/s bandwidth and 13.67 TFLOPS of compute are insufficient for smooth 4K at higher presets. Only 4K Low (58 FPS) approaches playability, suggesting the GPU's raw throughput is the primary constraint.

Q: How does the Arc B580 compare to its benchmark rivals in this game?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 23,021 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22,895, 0.6% slower) and AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (23,061, 0.2% faster). However, the in-game results indicate that these synthetic scores do not predict The Medium performance, as the combo ranks in the bottom 24% of all tested systems.

Q: What framerate can I expect at 1440p with Ultra settings?

A: The measured average is 26 FPS at 1440p Ultra, which is below the 30 FPS threshold typically considered minimal for playability. The 1440p Medium preset provides 47 FPS average with a minimum of 40 FPS, offering a much smoother experience at the cost of some visual detail.

Q: Does the CPU's 20 cores and 28 threads help in this game?

A: No, the data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking. The framerate scales consistently with resolution changes (30-35% drops from 1080p to 4K), which is characteristic of GPU limitation. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44,167 and PassMark multi-thread score of 52,425 are irrelevant to The Medium's performance, as the GPU is the sole constraint at all tested settings.