The Medium

The Medium presents a unique scaling challenge for the Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti pairing. The data reveals a system where the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions, but the CPU's substantial headroom ensures that even the most demanding settings remain playable. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across resolutions and presets, interpreting what the numbers mean for this specific hardware combination.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is stark and reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 55.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 34.7 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of approximately 38%. This steep decline indicates that the RTX 3080 Ti's rendering pipeline is saturated as pixel count increases, with the GPU's 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 compute struggling to maintain higher frame rates at 4K.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all presets, but the magnitude varies. At Low settings, the drop from 147.2 FPS at 1080p to 101.9 FPS at 4K represents a 30.8% reduction. This smaller percentage decline at lower settings suggests that while the GPU is still the limiting factor, the reduced shading load allows the architecture to operate more efficiently. The RTX 3080 Ti's 912.4 GB/s memory bandwidth becomes increasingly critical at higher resolutions, and the data shows this resource being taxed heavily at 4K.

Interestingly, the 1440p results sit almost exactly midway between the 1080p and 4K figures for each preset. At Medium settings, the 2560x1440 average of 78 FPS is roughly 16% lower than the 1080p result of 93.3 FPS, and 27% higher than the 4K result of 61.4 FPS. This linear scaling pattern indicates that the game's rendering load scales predictably with resolution, with no unexpected bottlenecks emerging at intermediate resolutions.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080 Ti's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a decisive factor in The Medium's performance. At 4K Ultra, the average of 34.7 FPS suggests that both memory capacity and bandwidth are being heavily utilized, as the game's fixed camera angles and detailed environments demand substantial texture streaming. The GPU's base clock of 1365 MHz and boost clock of 1665 MHz, combined with 10240 shading units, deliver 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, yet the data shows this is insufficient for 60 FPS at 4K with maximum settings.

The GPU's 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present but do not appear to provide a decisive advantage in this title, as the measured results are driven primarily by traditional rasterization performance. The 186.5 GPixel/s pixel rate and 532.8 GTexel/s texture rate explain why Lower settings yield dramatic improvements: at 4K Low, the average of 101.9 FPS is nearly triple the Ultra result, indicating that the GPU has ample raw throughput when the shading load is reduced.

The benchmark results place this GPU at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 41224. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, scores 41441, a delta of -0.5%, meaning the 3080 Ti is essentially on par with the 3090 in synthetic tests. This near-identical performance is reflected in the game's frame rates, where the GPU's compute resources are the clear determinant of FPS at higher resolutions and presets.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium settings as the optimal balance for this combination. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 93.3 FPS, which is 33% higher than the High preset's 70 FPS and only 36% lower than Low's 147.2 FPS. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs 23.3 FPS, a 25% reduction, while the visual upgrade is typically less impactful than the performance loss suggests.

For 2560x1440, Medium produces 78 FPS, which remains comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This is the recommended resolution for this combo, as it provides a 44% improvement over the 4K Medium result of 61.4 FPS while maintaining visual fidelity. At 4K, Medium's 61.4 FPS is playable, but the 16.6 FPS drop from 1440p Medium indicates that the GPU is approaching its limits.

Ultra settings are not recommended at any resolution. Even at 1080p, Ultra yields only 55.9 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for a horror game where smooth camera movement is essential. The 21.1 FPS difference between 1080p Medium and 1080p Ultra represents a 22.6% performance penalty that is difficult to justify. Low settings, while delivering high frame rates, sacrifice too much visual detail, particularly at 4K where the 101.9 FPS average is impressive but the reduced texture quality undermines the horror atmosphere.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of presets shows the GPU's capabilities clearly. Low settings achieve 147.2 FPS, Medium drops to 93.3 FPS, High falls further to 70 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 55.9 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 62% reduction in frame rate, demonstrating how heavily the game's effects and shadow quality impact performance.

At 2560x1440, the results are 126.4 FPS (Low), 78 FPS (Medium), 54 FPS (High), and 46.2 FPS (Ultra). The gap between Medium and High widens to 24 FPS, indicating that High settings introduce rendering features that disproportionately tax the GPU. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls below 50 FPS, making it unsuitable for consistent gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the data shows 101.9 FPS (Low), 61.4 FPS (Medium), 42.5 FPS (High), and 34.7 FPS (Ultra). The 4K results reveal that only Low and Medium presets deliver acceptable performance. The High preset's 42.5 FPS and Ultra's 34.7 FPS are below the threshold for a smooth experience, confirming that this GPU is not designed for maximum settings at 4K in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti ranks 396th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 23.4% of all configurations. This rank reflects the GPU's 83rd percentile standing among all GPUs, while the CPU's 96th percentile performance ensures that processor-related bottlenecks are minimal.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 70104 puts it virtually tied with the Intel Core i7-14700K (70074, 0% delta) and slightly ahead of the AMD EPYC 9115 (69887, 0.3% delta). This CPU performance is irrelevant in The Medium's GPU-bound scenarios, but it explains why the combo ranks as well as it does — the 14700KF provides no drag on the GPU's output. In contrast, the GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 3090, would likely produce nearly identical frame rates given the 0.5% benchmark delta, suggesting that the combo rank is stable across similar GPU pairings.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 60 FPS on 4K?

A: Only at Low settings, which achieves 101.9 FPS. At Medium settings, the average drops to 61.4 FPS, barely exceeding 60 FPS. High and Ultra presets fall well below this threshold at 42.5 FPS and 34.7 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the best resolution for this hardware?

A: 2560x1440 with Medium settings delivers 78 FPS, which is the highest frame rate above 60 FPS while maintaining reasonable visual quality. At 4K Medium, the result is 61.4 FPS, while 1080p Medium achieves 93.3 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti compare to its direct rival in this game?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti's average benchmark score is 41224, compared to the RTX 3090's 41441, a 0.5% difference. This negligible gap means performance in The Medium would be nearly identical between the two cards.

Q: Is the CPU holding back performance in this game?

A: No. The Intel Core i7-14700KF ranks in the 96th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 70104. The GPU is the limiting component, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops when increasing resolution or settings.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low achieves 147.2 FPS while Ultra delivers 55.9 FPS, a difference of 91.3 FPS. This represents a 62% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest to highest settings.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The measured data does not indicate VRAM-related stuttering or crashes. The 12 GB capacity with 912.4 GB/s bandwidth supports 4K Medium at 61.4 FPS, though the lower frame rates at High and Ultra are attributable to compute limitations rather than memory capacity.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF plays a supporting role in The Medium, providing ample headroom that prevents any processor-induced bottlenecks. With 20 cores and 28 threads, the CPU's parallel capabilities are far beyond what this horror title requires. The base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz ensure that even single-threaded game logic runs without constraint, as evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6290.

The CPU's 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide fast access to game data, though the fixed camera angles and limited entity counts in The Medium do not stress cache hierarchies significantly. The 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform are more than sufficient for this workload, and the CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms its capability.

The benchmark results show that the CPU's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i7-14700K (0% delta), AMD EPYC 9115 (0.3% delta), and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (-0.4% delta) — are statistically indistinguishable in synthetic tests. In The Medium specifically, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations without introducing latency. The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K confirms that the CPU is never the limiting factor, as frame rates decline uniformly with increased GPU load rather than plateauing due to processor constraints.