The Medium

# The Medium with Intel Core i7-14700KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

The Medium presents an interesting case study for this flagship pairing, with measured frame rates that reveal a clear hierarchy between resolution and settings. Across all twelve measured configurations, the Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 demonstrate that this game's demands scale dramatically with both parameters. The data shows a fixed-step progression from Low to Ultra settings, and the frame rate deltas between resolutions follow a consistent pattern that points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck at higher quality presets. This combo ranks 7th out of 1,689 tested combinations, placing it in the top 0.4% of all pairings tested for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how The Medium's rendering load transforms when moving from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 96.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 85.9 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 64.8 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 10.9% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, but a steeper 24.6% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, which suggests the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become increasingly taxed as pixel count grows.

Low settings tell a different story. The RTX 5090 delivers 184.4 FPS at 1080p, 179 FPS at 1440p, and 143.8 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is only 2.9%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 19.7%. This pattern indicates that at Low settings, the CPU can keep the GPU well-fed even at higher resolutions, but 4K still introduces enough pixel-processing overhead to create a measurable gap. The RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth appear sufficient for all tested configurations, as no memory-related stutter would explain the scaling pattern.

Ultra settings produce the most dramatic resolution sensitivity. The frame rate falls from 77 FPS at 1080p to 64.3 FPS at 1440p, a 16.5% drop, and then to 52.4 FPS at 4K, another 18.5% reduction. This consistent decline across all three resolutions suggests that Ultra settings push the GPU's compute units — 21,760 shading units and 176 ROPs — to their limits regardless of resolution. The 4K Ultra result of 52.4 FPS is barely above the 50 FPS threshold that many players consider playable.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings at each resolution. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 138.3 FPS while High achieves 96.5 FPS. Both are smooth, but Medium's 43.3% advantage over High makes it the sensible choice for high-refresh displays. Low at 184.4 FPS offers diminishing returns for most users, while Ultra's 77 FPS is playable but sacrifices 44.3% of the Medium preset's performance.

At 2560x1440, Medium produces 114.1 FPS, which remains comfortably above 100 FPS. High's 85.9 FPS is still fluid, but the 32.8% gap between Medium and High makes Medium the recommended setting. Ultra's 64.3 FPS is acceptable for slower-paced horror gameplay, yet the jump from Medium to Ultra costs 43.6% of the frame rate for visual gains that may be less noticeable in this game's dark environments.

For 3840x2160, the situation changes. Medium delivers 90.7 FPS, which is strong for 4K gaming. High's 64.8 FPS is playable but begins to approach the lower bound of smooth motion. Ultra's 52.4 FPS is technically playable but risks feeling less responsive during the game's more intense sequences. The data suggests that Medium at 4K offers the best balance, providing 73.1% more performance than Ultra while maintaining visual fidelity that this horror title's atmosphere benefits from.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-14700KF brings 20 cores and 28 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process, delivers strong single-thread performance as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6,290 and a Geekbench single-core score of 2,972. These single-thread capabilities matter because The Medium's frame pacing at Low settings shows the CPU's headroom: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 184.4 FPS, which is only 2.9% faster than 1440p Low at 179 FPS. This small delta indicates the CPU is not the limiting factor at these settings.

The CPU's multi-threaded performance is equally robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44,557 and a Passmark multithread score of 52,425. However, the game's frame rate scaling from Low to Ultra suggests that additional CPU threads do not translate directly into higher FPS. At 4K, the difference between Low (143.8 FPS) and Medium (90.7 FPS) is 36.9%, which aligns more with GPU workload than CPU throughput. The 33 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data locality for the game's asset streaming, but the measured results show the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU without becoming a bottleneck.

The i7-14700KF's 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70,104, places it just 0.3% behind the AMD EPYC 9115 and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X. This top-tier CPU performance ensures that in The Medium, the GPU is almost always the performance limiter, particularly at higher resolution and settings combinations.

How This Combo Ranks

Among 1,689 tested CPU-GPU combinations for The Medium, this pairing of the Intel Core i7-14700KF and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves rank 7. This places it in the 99.6th percentile of all tested combos, meaning only six other pairings deliver higher frame rates in this game. The ranking reflects the synergy between a top-tier CPU and the flagship GPU from NVIDIA's GeForce 50-series.

The RTX 5090's own benchmark data supports its high placement. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,411 and Passmark G3D score of 39,650 demonstrate class-leading rasterization performance. The GPU's 94th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,306, places it just 0.1% behind the RTX 5090 D and 1.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO W6600. This combination of a 96th percentile CPU and a 94th percentile GPU results in a combo that ranks in the top 0.4% for this specific game, which is notable given The Medium's reputation for demanding both CPU and GPU resources.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 4K Ultra smoothly?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the measured average FPS is 52.4. This is technically playable but close to the 50 FPS threshold. For a more comfortable margin, the Medium preset at 4K delivers 90.7 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 produces 114.1 FPS. This is 32.8% faster than High (85.9 FPS) and 77.4% faster than Ultra (64.3 FPS), making it the recommended choice for smooth gameplay.

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

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at higher settings. At 1080p Low, the system hits 184.4 FPS, but at 4K Ultra it drops to 52.4 FPS. The CPU's 20 cores and 5.60 GHz boost clock provide sufficient headroom.

Q: How does this combo compare to other tested configurations?

A: It ranks 7th out of 1,689 combos, placing it in the top 0.4%. The CPU ranks in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, and the GPU ranks in the 94th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 96.5 FPS at 1920x1080 High. This is smooth for most displays, though the Medium preset at 138.3 FPS may be preferable for higher refresh rate monitors.

Q: Does lowering resolution from 4K to 1080p double the frame rate?

A: No, the scaling is not linear. At High settings, 4K yields 64.8 FPS while 1080p yields 96.5 FPS — an increase of 48.9%, not 100%. This suggests other bottlenecks limit the scaling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings sweep shows: Low at 184.4 FPS, Medium at 138.3 FPS, High at 96.5 FPS, and Ultra at 77 FPS. The progression from Low to Medium represents a 25.0% decrease, Medium to High a 30.2% decrease, and High to Ultra a 20.2% decrease. This non-uniform step pattern suggests that each preset tier adjusts different rendering features with varying performance costs.

Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers are: Low at 179 FPS, Medium at 114.1 FPS, High at 85.9 FPS, and Ultra at 64.3 FPS. The delta from Low to Medium is 36.3%, Medium to High is 24.7%, and High to Ultra is 25.1%. Compared to 1080p, the Medium preset takes a larger performance hit at 1440p, indicating that this setting tier is more resolution-sensitive than Low.

At 3840x2160, the measured results are: Low at 143.8 FPS, Medium at 90.7 FPS, High at 64.8 FPS, and Ultra at 52.4 FPS. The Low-to-Medium gap widens to 36.9%, while Medium-to-High is 28.6% and High-to-Ultra is 19.1%. The absolute frame rates at 4K show that even this flagship GPU cannot maintain 60 FPS at Ultra, but Medium provides a comfortable 90.7 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB202 chip manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process. Its 92,200 million transistors are packed into a 750 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 122.9 million per square millimeter. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz and boosts to 2407 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). This configuration delivers 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 104.8 TFLOPS of FP16 performance.

The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus produces 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for The Medium's dual-reality rendering mechanic that requires loading two simultaneous scenes. The 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores support the game's DirectX 12 Ultimate features, while the 21,760 shading units handle the rasterization workload. The GPU's Passmark G3D score of 39,650 and Geekbench OpenCL score of 380,114 confirm its position as the second-highest ranked GPU in the data, just 0.1% behind the RTX 5090 D.

The measured frame rates across all resolutions demonstrate that the RTX 5090's performance scales predictably with settings. At 4K, the difference between Low (143.8 FPS) and Ultra (52.4 FPS) is 63.6%, showing that the Ultra preset's additional visual effects impose a substantial GPU workload. The GPU's ability to maintain 90.7 FPS at 4K Medium while the next-best combo in the ranking data achieves similar results suggests that The Medium is well-optimized to leverage the RTX 5090's raw compute power and memory bandwidth, with the 575 W TDP and 950 W suggested PSU reflecting the hardware's substantial power requirements.