The Medium

The Intel Core i7-14700KF paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 produces a wide range of performance in The Medium, depending on resolution and settings. The data shows that the system is clearly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while at 1080p Low it can deliver 116 FPS. At 4K Ultra, that number plummets to 27 FPS, indicating that the GPU becomes the limiting factor long before the CPU runs out of headroom. The following sections break down the measured results and what they mean for this combination.

Resolution Scaling

Moving from 1080p to 4K consistently reduces framerates by roughly one-third across all settings. At High settings, the drop from 1080p (52 FPS) to 1440p (44 FPS) is a 15% loss, and then to 4K (34 FPS) the drop is 23% further, a total of 35% from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the transition is 116 FPS at 1080p, 97 FPS at 1440p, and 76 FPS at 4K, a drop of 34.5% over the full span. Medium follows the same pattern: 72 → 61 → 48, a 33% reduction. Ultra settings yield 41 → 35 → 27, a 34% decrease. Because the percentage is nearly identical across all settings (33-35%), the resolution scaling is uniform and independent of quality level. This strongly suggests that the product is not memory-bandwidth limited; the bus width stays constant at 128 bits. Instead, the GPU core itself is the constraint. The RTX 5060 has 3840 shading units, which can handle 19.18 TFLOPS of FP32, yet the trend shows that pixel-pushing becomes the bottleneck as resolution rises.

The most dramatic drop occurs between Medium at 1080p and Ultra at 4K, where the FPS drops from 72 to 27, a 63% decline. Even at Low settings, the 4K result (76 FPS) is still below the 1080p Medium result (72 FPS) - the higher resolution cancels the benefit of lower settings. This is a classic sign that the GPU's fill rate and raw throughput determine the outcome.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF is a 20-core, 28-thread processor with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its third-level cache is 33 MB. In Cinebench R23, it scores 44,167 in multi-core and 6,235 in single-core; Geekbench reports 21,462 multi-core and 2,578 single-core. These scores place the CPU at the 94th percentile overall compared with all CPUs, meaning it is a very capable chip for gaming and other work. But in The Medium, the maximum framerate recorded at any resolution is 116 FPS at 1080p Low. That number is far beyond the GPU's ability to keep up at high qualities, indicating that the CPU is not the limiting factor at that setting.

At 1080p High, the FPS is 52, which is considerably lower than the 116 FPS at Low. That difference is entirely due to the GPU workload, not the CPU. The CPU can clearly push higher FPS if the GPU allows. At 1440p and 4K, the FPS progressively falls to the GPU's capability. Even in large scenes, a chip with 28 threads and a 5.6 GHz boost is unlikely to be the bottleneck at these settings. The data is corroborated by the CPU's nearest rivals: the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is just 0.2% ahead in average score, the Ryzen 9 7940HX is 0.4% ahead, and the Ryzen 9 7950X is 0.9% ahead. These deltas are minimal, indicating the i7-14700KF's performance is in line with top competition. Therefore, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU; it is not limiting the frame rate in The Medium under any of the tested configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with 3840 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. It has 30 ray tracing cores and 120 tensor cores. The memory is 8 GB of GDDR7 on a 128-bit bus with a bandwidth of 448 GB/s. The boost clock sits at 2497 MHz. These specs are capable but not extreme, and the measurements reflect that. In synthetic benchmarks, the GPU scores 3628 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, 112,787 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 20,891 in Passmark G3D. Its average score is 261. The nearest competitors, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, are within the 1% range, meaning the RTX 5060 is competitive for the segment.

In Practical play, the GPU is the master. At 1080p Low, it can produce 116 FPS, but the moment the game demands more visual quality, the frame-rates crumble. At 1080p Ultra, it falls to 41 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the result is 27 FPS, which is unplayable. The huge variance between Low and Ultra at 1080p shows that the GPU’s raw compute is being fully utilised; there is no CPU stall. At 4K even the Medium setting only gets 48 FPS (41-55 range), which is just borderline. The 8 GB VRAM might also be a factor at 4K; the game’s maximum memory requirement is not disclosed, but when the GPU runs out of VRAM the FPS usually collapses. The data, however, doesn't show that here—the FPS scales strictly with resolution and settings, suggesting no memory-spill issues within this test.

Comparing with the GPU's nearest rivals further suggests the performance rank. The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 is 0.3% lower, the AMD Radeon 860M is 0.3% lower, the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is 1.2% higher, and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary is 0.8% higher. So the RTX 5060 sits in a narrow band, making it a midrange card. The user should expect that toachieve 60 FPS, they will need to use Low or Medium quality at 1080p.

Measured FBS Breakdown

The following are the measured average FPS values from the benchmark data:

1080p:

• Low 116
• Medium 72 (min 61, max 83)
• High 52
• Ultra 41

1440p:

• Low 97
• Medium 61 (min 52, max 70)
• High 44
• Ultra 35

4K (3840×2160):

• Low 76
• Medium 48 (min 41, max 55)
• High 34
• Ultra 27

The gap between medium and high is consistent at all resolutions: about 10-10 FPS at 1080p (from 72 to 41), 10-9 FPS at 1440p (61 to 44), and 10-7 FPS at 4K (48 to 34). The medium settings are the most balanced. At 1080p, medium gives 72 FPS, which is about 10 FPS above the 60hz threshold. Only low at 1080p gives a commanding margin (116). At 1440p, the medium still hits 61 FPS, but that's minimum borderline with occasional dips to 52. The only setting to consistently hold over 60 FPS is Medium at 1440p? No, it's 61 average but min 52, so risky. Low at 1440p is 97, that's the safe option. At 4K, even low yields 76 FPS – but if you insist on quality, you'll have to go to medium. So the user must prioritize resolution or visual quality.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this pair is ranked 1670 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the upper-middle ceiling. That rank indicates that roughly 55% of tested configurations deliver better average FPS and 45% worse. The ranking is based on the average of all measured frame rates across the resolution/settings matrix. The performance is consistent with a mid-range GPU combined with a high-end CPU: the CPU is in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, while the GPU is in the 72nd percentile. Their combination gets an overall rank that is closer to the GPU's percentile, which agrees with the observation that the GPU bottlenecks the system. In other words, the system is not wasting CPU potential, but the GPU's position caps the overall output.

FAQ

Q: What is the best setting for 60 FPS in The Medium?

A: The only tested configuration that provides 60 FPS or higher is Medium at 1080p (72 FPS). Low at 1080p gives 116 FPS, but if you want any visual quality, Medium at 1080p is the only one that both exceeds 60 FPS and has decent image quality. (Note each FPS value is from the table.)

Q: Can this combo run 4K smoothly?

A: No untra all its settings. The maximum 4K FPS is 76 (Low), but drops to 43 at Medium, and to 34 at High. 4K Ultra gives only 27 FPS, which is unwatchable. For a stutter-free game, the user is restricted to Low or Medium at 4K.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at any resolution?

A: No. The max FPS at 1080p Low is 116, which is a high enough result for the GPU to produce. The CPU has a 28-thread, 5.6 GHz boost, and its nearest rivals are all within 1% delta. The data points to GPU bottlenecking, not CPU.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 compare to its nearby rivals?

A: The RTX 5060's average benchmark score is 2 ? Actually the averageBenchmarkScore is 26331 for the GPU (and it exceeds the CPUs). The nearest rivals: AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is 1.2% higher, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary is 0.8% higher, AMD Radeon 860M and MX550 are both 0.3% lower. So the performance is essentially in a tie.

Q: Is there a single setting that reaches 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes, Low at 1440p gives 97 FPS, but Medium at 1440p yields 61 FPS (with min/case 52), which is above 60 but brace for dips. High at 1440p is 44 FPS. So only Low and Medium (barely) can hit 60.

Q: What does the combo rank 1670 out of 3724 mean for future?

A: It means about 45% of configurations tested are faster, so this is a middle-of-the-park setup. The CPU is not the limiting factor, so the only way to dramatically improve the score is to upgrade the GPU, which is allowed by the 5th generation PCIe slot (PCIe 5.0 x8) on the GPU.

All data used in the analysis comes from measured FPS scores and synthetic benchmarks included in the fact pack. No additional claims are made.