The Medium

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the Intel Arc B580 presents a specific set of trade-offs in The Medium. The measured frame rates show a clear pattern: the Ultra preset is largely unplayable, while the Low preset is the only setting that consistently delivers fluid motion across all tested resolutions. The data suggests that for a balanced experience, the Low preset is the definitive choice, as it provides a substantial performance headroom that no other setting can match.

Settings Recommendations

Benchmark results indicate a stark hierarchy in performance across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 86.4 FPS, which is more than 60% higher than the Medium preset’s 52.7 FPS. This gap widens further when comparing Low to High, where the average drops to 40.6 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding only 29.8 FPS at the same resolution.

The situation becomes more critical at higher resolutions. At 2560x1440, the Low preset maintains a respectable 73.4 FPS, while Medium falls to 46.8 FPS and High to 35 FPS. At 3840x2160, the Low preset still produces 59.5 FPS, which is playable, but Medium drops to 37.7 FPS and High to 27.2 FPS. The Ultra preset is consistently below playable thresholds across all resolutions, hitting a low of 22.9 FPS at 4K.

Given these numbers, the Low preset is the only setting that offers a consistently smooth experience. While the Medium preset is borderline at 1080p, its performance degrades too quickly at higher resolutions to be recommended. The data shows that the visual quality gains from Medium or High do not justify the steep performance penalties, making Low the optimal preset for this combination in The Medium.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580’s specifications provide context for its performance in this title. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s. Its memory clock runs at 2375 MHz, with an effective speed of 19 Gbps. The core operates at a base and boost clock of 2670 MHz, which is a relatively high frequency for this class of hardware.

In The Medium, the GPU’s role appears to be the primary limiting factor at higher settings. The substantial frame rate drops when moving from Low to Medium—for instance, from 86.4 FPS to 52.7 FPS at 1080p—indicate that the rendering load quickly saturates the GPU’s capabilities. The 12 GB VRAM buffer is likely sufficient for the game’s textures, but the raw compute throughput, estimated at 13.67 TFLOPS FP32, is not enough to sustain high frame rates under heavier settings. The pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s also suggest that the GPU is pushed to its limits when the game’s effects are maximized.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i9-14900K and Intel Arc B580 ranks 1312 out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the lower half of all configurations, indicating that it is not an optimal pairing for this particular game. The low ranking is primarily attributable to the GPU’s performance ceiling, as the CPU is one of the most powerful available.

The combo’s percentile position suggests that many other processor and graphics card pairings achieve higher frame rates. While the i9-14900K is a top-tier CPU, its capabilities are not fully utilized in this scenario. The data shows that the GPU becomes the bottleneck long before the CPU’s processing power is exhausted, resulting in a ranking that reflects the GPU’s limitations rather than the CPU’s strengths.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 86.4 FPS for Low, 52.7 FPS for Medium, 40.6 FPS for High, and 29.8 FPS for Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, these numbers decrease to 73.4 FPS, 46.8 FPS, 35 FPS, and 25.4 FPS respectively.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops further, with the Low preset achieving 59.5 FPS, Medium at 37.7 FPS, High at 27.2 FPS, and Ultra at 22.9 FPS. The progression shows a consistent pattern: each step up in settings costs roughly 20-30% of the frame rate, and each increase in resolution adds another significant penalty. The Low preset at 4K is the only 4K configuration that remains above 60 FPS, while all other settings at this resolution fall below smooth playability.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals how the system scales from 1080p to 4K. For the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 86.4 at 1920x1080 to 73.4 at 2560x1440, and finally to 59.5 at 3840x2160. This represents a 31% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is a relatively modest decline, suggesting that the GPU still has some headroom at lower settings.

However, the scaling becomes more severe at higher presets. For the Medium preset, the drop from 52.7 FPS at 1080p to 37.7 FPS at 4K is a 28% decrease. The High preset shows a similar trend, falling from 40.6 FPS to 27.2 FPS, a 33% reduction. The Ultra preset is the worst, going from 29.8 FPS to 22.9 FPS, a 23% drop.

The pattern suggests that at lower settings, the system is more balanced, with the CPU and GPU sharing the workload. As settings increase, the GPU becomes the limiting component, and the frame rate scales more closely with resolution. The relatively small percentage drops at higher settings indicate that the GPU is already saturated, and the additional pixel count has a diminishing impact on the overall performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. It is based on the Raptor Lake architecture and features a large 36 MB L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 49872 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 7040 in single-core, placing it in the 97th percentile of all CPUs.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is less critical than the GPU’s. The benchmark results show that the frame rates are primarily constrained by the graphics card, particularly at higher settings. The i9-14900K’s high clock speeds and core count provide ample processing power for the game’s logic and physics, but these are not the bottlenecks in this scenario.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor, as the frame rates drop consistently when settings are increased, regardless of resolution. This indicates that the GPU is the primary constraint. The i9-14900K’s performance is more than sufficient for this game, and its capabilities are not fully utilized in this pairing. The core and thread count, combined with the high boost clock, ensure that the CPU does not introduce any stutter or frame pacing issues, allowing the GPU to be the sole determinant of performance.