The Medium

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Core i9-14900K compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The i9-14900K scores 79,097 in the average benchmark score, which places it 0.3% behind the Intel Core i9-14900KF (79,371) and 0.6% behind the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus (79,574). It sits 1.2% below the AMD EPYC 7413 (80,041) but runs 1.7% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (77,740). The processor holds a 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs tested.

Q: What is the GPU's performance standing relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT achieves an average benchmark score of 24,442, placing it 0.7% above the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (24,277) and 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (24,236). It trails the Intel Arc A350M by 0.8% (24,647) and sits 1.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (24,170). This GPU ranks in the 70th percentile across all graphics cards.

Q: Which resolution delivers the highest average frame rate for this combo?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 with Low settings produces the top average of 91 FPS. At the same resolution, Medium settings yield 57 FPS, High settings 41 FPS, and Ultra settings 32 FPS. The lowest measured average comes from 3840x2160 at Ultra settings, which drops to 21 FPS.

Q: How much does the average FPS vary between Low and Ultra settings at 2560x1440?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset reaches 77 FPS on average, while Ultra falls to 27 FPS. That is a difference of 50 FPS between the two extremes. Medium settings land at 48 FPS, and High settings produce 34 FPS.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested system configurations in this game?

A: This particular pairing of the Intel Core i9-14900K with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT achieves a combo rank of 2,669 out of 3,724 total tested combinations in The Medium. That places it in the lower third of all recorded system configurations.

Q: Are there any measured minimum or maximum FPS values for High settings?

A: No, the measured FPS data only includes min and max values for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1920x1080 Medium, the range spans 49 to 66 FPS; at 2560x1440 Medium, it spans 41 to 55 FPS; and at 3840x2160 Medium, it spans 32 to 43 FPS. High, Low, and Ultra presets list only average FPS values.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. Its memory clock runs at 2000 MHz, which translates to 16 Gbps effective. The core clock starts at 1968 MHz base and boosts up to 2589 MHz, with a game clock rated at 2359 MHz. These specifications define the GPU's raw throughput capabilities.

The card's architecture is RDNA 2.0 on a 7 nm TSMC process, housing 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die. It features 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units. The pixel rate reaches 165.7 GPixel/s, and the texture rate hits 331.4 GTexel/s. Floating-point performance tops out at 10.60 TFLOPS for FP32 operations.

In The Medium, the GPU's role becomes evident when examining the frame rate differences across settings. At 1920x1080, dropping from Ultra (32 FPS) to Low (91 FPS) yields a 59 FPS swing, indicating the graphics card is heavily taxed by the game's visual effects. The 8 GB VRAM capacity appears sufficient at lower presets, but the performance collapse at Ultra settings suggests the card's compute resources, rather than memory capacity alone, are the primary constraint.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide context: it achieves 16,461 in Passmark G3D and 7,520 in Passmark GPU Compute. Its DirectX 12 test score of 61 is notably lower than the DirectX 11 score of 163, which may hint at how the game's engine interacts with the card's API performance. The Medium, being a horror title with fixed camera angles and layered rendering, likely stresses the GPU's ability to handle multiple simultaneous scenes.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data reveals a clear pattern of frame rate degradation as resolution increases. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 91 at 1920x1080 to 77 at 2560x1440, then to 60 at 3840x2160. This represents a 34% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, suggesting the GPU becomes progressively more pixel-bound at higher resolutions.

At Medium settings, the averages are 57 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 9 FPS, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 10 FPS. This relatively consistent step-down indicates the GPU's fill rate and bandwidth are being approached uniformly as pixel counts rise.

High settings show a steeper decline: 41 FPS at 1080p, 34 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K. The 4K result falls below the 30 FPS threshold, making it borderline unplayable for smooth motion. Ultra settings are even more demanding, producing 32 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p, and 21 FPS at 4K.

The limiting component becomes apparent when comparing these scaling patterns. The CPU, an Intel Core i9-14900K with 24 cores and 32 threads, is unlikely to bottleneck at any resolution in this game. Instead, the GPU's 128-bit memory bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth appear to be the constraining factors. The consistent frame rate drops across all settings as resolution increases point to the graphics card being the primary limitation in this configuration.

How This Combo Ranks

This system configuration, pairing the Intel Core i9-14900K with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, achieves a combo rank of 2,669 out of 3,724 tested combinations in The Medium. That places it in the 28th percentile of all recorded system pairings, meaning roughly 72% of tested configurations perform better in this specific game.

The ranking is notable given the CPU's high standing. The i9-14900K sits in the 95th percentile among all CPUs, with strong synthetic scores like 39,399.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 21,697 in Geekbench multi-core. Yet the GPU's 70th percentile ranking among all graphics cards drags the combined performance down significantly.

The data suggests this is a CPU-heavy pairing where the processor's capabilities far exceed what the GPU can utilize in The Medium. The GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630, which scores 0.7% lower, and the Intel Arc A350M, which scores 0.8% higher. These are not high-end cards, and the RX 6600 XT's position among them indicates its mid-range standing.

For a horror game like The Medium, which likely relies on atmospheric effects and detailed environments, the combo's rank suggests that players would need to compromise on visual fidelity to achieve acceptable frame rates. The gap between the CPU's potential and the GPU's delivery is a key takeaway from this ranking data.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the combo delivers 91 FPS on Low settings, 57 FPS on Medium, 41 FPS on High, and 32 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 66 FPS, providing a playable range. Low and High settings do not report min/max values, only averages.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop to 77 FPS on Low, 48 FPS on Medium, 34 FPS on High, and 27 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset records a minimum of 41 FPS and a maximum of 55 FPS. This resolution still achieves playable frame rates at Low and Medium settings, but High and Ultra fall below comfortable thresholds.

At 3840x2160, the highest resolution tested, the results are 60 FPS on Low, 38 FPS on Medium, 27 FPS on High, and 21 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 32 FPS and a maximum of 43 FPS. Only the Low preset maintains a smooth 60 FPS average at this resolution.

The data shows a consistent pattern where each step up in settings costs approximately 30-40% of the frame rate. For example, at 1440p, moving from Low (77 FPS) to Medium (48 FPS) loses 29 FPS, and moving from Medium to High (34 FPS) loses another 14 FPS. The diminishing returns suggest that the GPU's resources are being consumed by increasingly expensive visual effects.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. The 57 FPS average with a minimum of 49 FPS and maximum of 66 FPS provides a stable experience above the 30 FPS threshold, with enough headroom for occasional dips. This is the highest quality setting that maintains a comfortable average above 50 FPS.

For players prioritizing smoothness over visuals, the Low preset at 1920x1080 delivers 91 FPS on average, which is well above the 60 FPS target. At 2560x1440, the Low preset still achieves 77 FPS, making it the only setting at that resolution to exceed 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p (48 FPS) is borderline, sitting close to the 45-50 FPS range where motion remains acceptable.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset produces 60 FPS, which is exactly at the standard refresh rate. This is the only 4K setting that achieves a playable average. The Medium preset at 4K (38 FPS) may be suitable for slower-paced horror gameplay, but the High and Ultra presets at 27 and 21 FPS respectively are likely too choppy for comfortable play.

The data recommends avoiding Ultra settings entirely at any resolution. Even at 1080p, Ultra yields only 32 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and only marginally above the 30 FPS minimum. The visual fidelity gained from Ultra appears to cost too much performance relative to the Medium preset's 57 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K provides substantial processing power with 24 cores and 32 threads, running at a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. Its cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor's architecture is Raptor Lake on a 10 nm Intel process with a die size of 257 mm².

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance with scores of 20,793 in Cinebench R20 multi-core and 39,399.5 in Cinebench R23 multi-core. Its single-core results are equally impressive: 2,935 in Cinebench R20 single-core and 2,262.5 in Cinebench R23 single-core. The Geekbench scores show 21,697 multi-core and 2,655 single-core.

The CPU's role in The Medium appears secondary to the GPU, based on the frame rate data. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 91 FPS, which is a high frame rate that would require the CPU to feed the GPU efficiently. The i9-14900K's strong single-core performance, indicated by its 4,697 Passmark single-thread score, likely ensures that the game's main thread is not a bottleneck.

However, the CPU's potential is underutilized given the GPU's constraints. The RX 6600 XT's 70th percentile ranking among GPUs means the processor is paired with a mid-range graphics card that cannot fully exploit the CPU's capabilities. The data suggests that in this game, the CPU has ample headroom, and the measured frame rates are more reflective of GPU limitations than CPU performance.

The processor's 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs, combined with its high benchmark scores, indicates that it would not be the limiting factor in any resolution or settings combination tested. The CPU's 125 W TDP and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory provide flexibility, but these specifications do not directly influence the measured game performance as much as the GPU's characteristics do.