The Medium

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate for this combo at 1080p Medium settings?

A: The Intel Core i9-14900K with AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers an average of 93 FPS at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 107 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i9-14900K scores 79097 on average across benchmark tests, which is 0.3% lower than the Intel Core i9-14900KF (79371) and 0.6% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus (79574). It is 1.7% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (77740).

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT holds the 55th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13543. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon HD 7770M, scores 13536, a delta of 0.1%.

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: At 3840x2160, the Medium preset produces 62 FPS on average, with a minimum of 53 FPS and a maximum of 71 FPS. This is the only 4K preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS, making it the optimal choice for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested system combinations?

A: This specific pairing of the Intel Core i9-14900K and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT ranks 857th out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 23% of all configurations.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 126 FPS on average, while the Ultra preset drops to 45 FPS. This represents a 64% reduction in average frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. This desktop part, released in October 2023, features 36 MB of shared L3 cache and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory across a dual-channel bus. The CPU’s 125 W TDP reflects its high-performance positioning, and its unlocked multiplier allows for overclocking headroom.

In synthetic workloads, this processor demonstrates exceptional multi-threaded capability. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5 and single-core score of 2262.5 indicate strong performance across both heavily threaded and lightly threaded tasks. The Geekbench multi-core score of 21697 and single-core score of 2655 reinforce this pattern. PassMark multi-thread results show 58674 points, while single-thread performance reaches 4697 points, placing the CPU in the 95th percentile of all processors.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and manage game logic, physics, and streaming. The game’s fixed-camera horror presentation relies on consistent frame pacing, and the i9-14900K’s high single-thread performance helps maintain stable frame times. The 32 threads also handle background tasks without contention, which is relevant for a game that may use multiple cores for audio and AI systems. Benchmark data shows that at lower resolutions and settings, where the GPU is less stressed, the CPU’s capabilities become more apparent — the jump from 1080p Low to 1080p Medium yields a 56 FPS difference, suggesting the CPU can sustain high frame rates when GPU load is modest.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on preset selection across resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 93 FPS on average, with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 107 FPS. This is the highest preset that maintains an average above 90 FPS, while High drops to 67 FPS and Ultra falls to 53 FPS. For players prioritizing smoothness at 1080p, Medium offers the best balance between visual quality and performance.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again stands out, producing 79 FPS average with a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS. This is the only 1440p preset that stays above 60 FPS on average; High achieves 56 FPS, while Ultra drops to 45 FPS. The Low preset reaches 126 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial for a horror game that relies on atmosphere.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the only viable option for smooth gameplay, delivering 62 FPS average with a minimum of 53 FPS and a maximum of 71 FPS. High drops to 44 FPS, and Ultra falls to 35 FPS, both below the threshold for comfortable play. The data suggests that Medium is the recommended preset across all three resolutions, providing the best experience per the measured rows without sacrificing playability.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT ranks 857th out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places the system in the upper quartile of all configurations tested, indicating strong overall performance. The rank reflects the synergy between the high-end CPU and the RDNA 4.0 GPU, which together handle the game’s demands effectively.

The CPU’s 95th percentile ranking among all processors suggests that it is not a bottleneck in this system. The GPU’s 55th percentile ranking is more modest, but this metric aggregates synthetic benchmarks that may not fully represent gaming workloads. In game-specific testing, the combo achieves playable frame rates at all resolutions with the Medium preset, which is a strong result for a horror title that emphasizes visual detail over competitive frame rates.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing performs well but is not at the very top, likely due to the GPU’s mid-pack synthetic standing. The data indicates that the CPU is overqualified for this game’s requirements, while the GPU determines the ceiling for frame rates at higher settings and resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip, manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s boost clock reaches 2970 MHz, with a game clock of 2400 MHz and a base clock of 1660 MHz. The 4096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units deliver a pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s.

In The Medium, the GPU’s 16 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the game’s textures at all settings, including Ultra at 4K. The memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s supports high-resolution rendering without significant bottlenecks. The GPU’s compute capabilities, including 48.66 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, handle the game’s shader work efficiently, particularly at Medium settings where the balance between visual quality and frame rate is optimal.

Synthetic benchmarks show the GPU achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 7260, a Geekbench Vulkan score of 65879, and a PassMark G3D score of 26795. The PassMark DirectX 12 score of 78 is notably lower, but this may reflect specific workload characteristics rather than overall gaming performance. The GPU’s 55th percentile ranking among all GPUs suggests it is a mid-range performer in synthetic tests, yet in The Medium, it delivers playable frame rates at 4K Medium, indicating that the game is not overly demanding on GPU resources at that preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured frame rates span a wide range depending on the preset. Low settings produce an average of 149 FPS, while Medium yields 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 107 FPS. High settings drop to 67 FPS, and Ultra falls to 53 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 56 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 14 FPS, showing diminishing returns at higher quality levels.

At 2560x1440, the pattern continues with Low achieving 126 FPS, Medium producing 79 FPS (minimum 67, maximum 90), High reaching 56 FPS, and Ultra dropping to 45 FPS. The difference between 1080p and 1440p at Medium is 14 FPS, indicating a moderate resolution scaling cost. At High, the drop is 11 FPS, and at Ultra, it is 8 FPS, suggesting that higher settings reduce the relative impact of resolution.

At 3840x2160, Low settings achieve 99 FPS, Medium produces 62 FPS (minimum 53, maximum 71), High drops to 44 FPS, and Ultra falls to 35 FPS. The 4K Medium result is the only one above 60 FPS, while 4K High and Ultra both fall below 45 FPS, which may be acceptable for a horror game with slower pacing but not ideal for smooth motion. The full data set shows that the Medium preset provides the most consistent experience across all resolutions, with minimum frame rates that stay within 14 FPS of the average.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the scaling behavior of this combo. At Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 93 at 1080p to 79 at 1440p, a 15% reduction, and then to 62 at 4K, a 33% reduction from 1080p. At High settings, the averages are 67 at 1080p, 56 at 1440p, and 44 at 4K, representing drops of 16% and 34% respectively. At Ultra, the averages are 53 at 1080p, 45 at 1440p, and 35 at 4K, with drops of 15% and 34%.

These consistent percentage drops across presets indicate that the GPU is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. The CPU’s high performance ensures that it does not become a bottleneck at lower resolutions, as evidenced by the 149 FPS result at 1080p Low. However, as resolution rises, the GPU’s rendering load increases, and the frame rate scales down proportionally.

The data suggests that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p Low, the system is likely CPU-bound, as the GPU can render frames faster than the CPU can feed it. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, with frame rates dropping to 35 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K, at 62 FPS, represents a balanced point where neither component is excessively stressed, making it the sweet spot for this combo in The Medium.