The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title from 2021, presents a unique load profile that stresses both processor and graphics card in distinct ways. The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT produces a dataset that clearly delineates where each component’s limits lie. The data shows a system capable of high refresh rates at lower settings, but one that becomes heavily GPU-bound as resolution and visual fidelity increase.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core processor with 32 threads, operating on a base clock of 3.20 GHz and capable of boosting up to 6.00 GHz. This architecture, built on the 10 nm Raptor Lake process, provides a substantial amount of computational headroom for a game like The Medium. While the game’s horror genre and fixed-camera angles might suggest a light CPU load, the data indicates that the processor’s high single-core performance is a critical factor in achieving the higher frame rates seen at lower resolutions.

Benchmark results for the chip show a single-core Geekbench score of 3064 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7040, placing it in the 97th percentile of all CPUs. This strength is directly reflected in the game’s performance. At 1080p with Low settings, the system reaches 125.1 FPS, a figure that suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far more frames than the graphics card can render at higher settings. The processor’s multi-core performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 49872, is less of a factor here, as The Medium does not appear to be a title that scales with the full 32-thread count.

The i9-14900K’s nearest rivals, such as the AMD EPYC 7413 and the Intel Core i9-14900KF, show average benchmark scores within 0.7% of this chip, indicating that it is operating at the top tier of processing power. In this game, that power translates to a system that is rarely the bottleneck. The data suggests that the CPU’s role is to provide a stable, high-performance foundation, ensuring that frame pacing remains consistent and that the GPU is never waiting for instructions. This is particularly evident when comparing the 1080p Low result of 125.1 FPS to the 1440p Low result of 103.1 FPS; the drop is significant but not as dramatic as the drop seen when increasing graphical settings, confirming that the CPU is not the primary limiter in most scenarios.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Analyzing the measured frames per second across all settings and resolutions, the most balanced experience is found at the Medium preset. At 1080p, Medium produces an average of 79.6 FPS, which is a substantial improvement over the High preset’s 58.3 FPS. This margin of roughly 21 FPS represents a significant gain in smoothness without a catastrophic loss in visual quality. The step from Medium to High at 1080p incurs a performance penalty of about 27%, while the visual uplift in a game with The Medium’s slower pacing may not justify that cost.

At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 67 FPS, which remains above the 60 FPS threshold for a playable experience. This is a more desirable option than High, which dips to 46.3 FPS. The data indicates that Medium is the sweet spot for this combo, allowing the RX 7700 XT to maintain a fluid frame rate while still utilizing the game’s graphical features. For users with high-refresh-rate monitors, the Low preset at 1080p offers 125.1 FPS, which is the only configuration that exceeds 120 FPS. However, this comes at the cost of reduced visual fidelity.

The Ultra preset is consistently the worst performer, yielding 46.4 FPS at 1080p and dropping to 27.3 FPS at 4K. The data suggests that Ultra is not a viable option for this combination, as it pushes the GPU beyond its limits and results in a stuttering, sub-60 FPS experience even at the lowest resolution tested. The High preset also struggles to maintain 60 FPS at any resolution, with its best showing being 58.3 FPS at 1080p. Therefore, the recommendation is clear: Medium settings provide the best compromise between visual quality and performance, ensuring a stable and enjoyable experience across all resolutions.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The frame rate scaling across resolutions provides a clear picture of the system’s bottlenecks. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings reduces the average FPS from 79.6 to 67, a drop of approximately 16%. The subsequent move from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings is more severe, with the average FPS falling to 54.3, a further reduction of about 19%. This pattern indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The trend is even more pronounced at High settings. The average FPS at 1080p is 58.3, which falls to 46.3 at 1440p and then to 38 at 4K. The relative drops are consistent, reinforcing that the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is being tasked with an increasingly heavy workload. The Low preset shows a different scaling curve. At 1080p, the system achieves 125.1 FPS, dropping to 103.1 at 1440p and 84.2 at 4K. Even at 4K Low, the system remains above 60 FPS, suggesting that the CPU can maintain a high frame rate if the GPU load is sufficiently reduced.

This data implies that at lower settings, the CPU is capable of pushing frame rates high enough to expose the GPU’s limitations. However, at higher settings, the GPU’s rendering workload dominates, and the CPU’s performance becomes less relevant. The fact that the 4K Low score of 84.2 FPS is still lower than the 1080p Low score of 125.1 FPS shows that even with minimal graphical settings, the increased resolution alone adds enough strain to the GPU to reduce performance by over 30%. This confirms that for this pairing, the RX 7700 XT is the limiting component in all scenarios, with the CPU providing enough headroom to never be the primary constraint.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

Within the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i9-14900K and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT holds a rank of 705 out of 1689 combos. This places it in the upper-middle tier of all tested systems, a position that is consistent with the GPU’s performance class. While the CPU is a top-tier component, the overall ranking is dragged down by the graphics card’s more mainstream positioning.

The GPU’s percentile of 73 versus all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 30097, put it in direct competition with cards like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, which has a nearly identical average score of 30109 and a deltaPct of 0. This parity in synthetic benchmarks is reflected in the game’s measured results, which show the RX 7700 XT struggling to maintain high frame rates at higher settings. The combo’s rank of 705 suggests that there are many systems with more powerful GPUs that will significantly outperform this pairing in The Medium.

However, the rank also shows that this combo is far from the bottom. The presence of the i9-14900K ensures that the system does not suffer from CPU-related stutters or bottlenecks that might plague lower-end processors. The data indicates that this combo is a balanced mid-to-high-end setup, where the CPU is future-proof and the GPU is the current limiting factor. For users seeking higher performance in this game, the data implies that upgrading the GPU would yield a more significant improvement than upgrading the CPU, as the processor is already performing near the top of its class.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a Navi 32 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 1435 MHz, a game clock of 2171 MHz, and a boost clock of 2544 MHz. These specifications position it as a capable mid-range card, but the data from The Medium shows its limitations at higher resolutions.

The 12 GB of VRAM is sufficient for the game’s requirements, but the memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s appears to be a limiting factor at 4K resolution. The game’s average FPS at 4K Medium is 54.3, which is a substantial drop from the 1440p result. This is likely due to the increased memory pressure and the GPU’s raw compute power being insufficient to handle the pixel throughput. The GPU’s FP32 performance is rated at 35.17 TFLOPS, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K.

The benchmarks for the GPU show a Passmark G3D score of 22547 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3316. These scores place it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs, indicating a solid, but not exceptional, level of performance. The nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, has an average benchmark score that is within 0.1% of the RX 7700 XT, suggesting that their performance in this game would be very similar. The data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck in this system, particularly at 4K and at higher settings, where the frame rates drop below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured frame rate data provides a complete picture of the system’s performance across the tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the system achieves an average of 125.1 FPS on Low settings. This drops to 79.6 FPS on Medium, 58.3 FPS on High, and 46.4 FPS on Ultra. The spread of results at this resolution shows a clear scaling curve, with the cost of each settings tier being significant.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS starts at 103.1 on Low, which is still a very playable frame rate. The Medium preset delivers 67 FPS, while High drops to 46.3 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p produces an average of 37.2 FPS, which is below the threshold for a comfortable experience. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is most noticeable at the Low and Medium settings, where the frame rates fall by about 17% and 16%, respectively.

At 3840x2160, the system’s limits are clearly exposed. The Low preset manages an average of 84.2 FPS, which is surprisingly high for 4K and indicates that the CPU and GPU can still work well together when the graphical load is minimized. The Medium preset drops to 54.3 FPS, High falls to 38 FPS, and the Ultra preset yields a very low 27.3 FPS. These 4K results demonstrate that the RX 7700 XT is not suited for high-fidelity gaming at this resolution, as even the Medium preset cannot maintain a stable 60 FPS. The data shows a consistent pattern: the GPU is the limiting factor, and its performance degrades predictably as the workload increases with resolution and settings.