The Medium

The Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER produces a playable, though not flawless, experience in The Medium. The data indicates that the "Medium" preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, providing a stable frame rate with only minor dips, whereas "High" and "Ultra" settings push the GPU beyond its comfort zone, particularly at higher resolutions. While the CPU is exceptionally powerful, the benchmark results clearly show that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary bottleneck, limiting performance in this title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the "Medium" preset is the clear recommendation for this combination. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 63 FPS with a minimum of 54 FPS and a maximum of 72 FPS. This is the only preset at this resolution that maintains an average above 60 FPS while still providing a reasonable visual quality upgrade over "Low". The "Low" preset achieves a higher average of 101 FPS, but the jump to Medium is substantial for the performance cost, and the minimum frame rate of 54 FPS suggests the experience remains smooth.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is still the best choice, producing an average of 53 FPS with a minimum of 45 FPS and a maximum of 61 FPS. While this is below the 60 FPS threshold, the frame time consistency is acceptable for a slow-paced horror title. The "High" preset at this resolution drops to an average of 38 FPS, which is a significant 15 FPS reduction, making the game feel noticeably less fluid. The "Ultra" preset at 2560x1440 is nearly unplayable, with an average of just 30 FPS.

For 3840x2160, the data presents a more challenging scenario. The "Medium" preset is the only viable option for a somewhat playable experience, yielding an average of 42 FPS with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 48 FPS. The "High" preset falls to an average of 30 FPS, which is borderline for a game that benefits from smooth camera movement. The "Ultra" preset is effectively a slideshow at this resolution, with an average of 24 FPS. The data strongly suggests that players should avoid "High" and "Ultra" settings entirely, as the performance cost is not justified by the incremental visual gains in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The benchmark results place this specific configuration at rank 2162 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the lower half of all tested systems, which is a direct consequence of the GPU's limitations. The CPU, however, is a top-tier component; its benchmark scores place it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, indicating that the processor is not the limiting factor. This significant disparity between the CPU's high percentile and the combo's overall rank highlights a severe bottleneck.

The system's overall performance is dragged down by the GPU. The RTX 2070 SUPER sits in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 20282 is only slightly below its nearest rivals, such as the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480, -1%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, -1.2%). The data shows that this GPU is competitive with its immediate peers, but it lacks the raw horsepower required to drive The Medium at high settings and resolutions. The combo's rank is a reflection of this GPU ceiling, not the CPU's potential.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the definitive performance limiter in this configuration. The benchmark data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, average frame rates drop dramatically. For instance, at the "High" preset, the average FPS falls from 45 at 1920x1080 to 38 at 2560x1440, and finally to 30 at 3840x2160. This scaling is a classic indicator of a GPU-bound scenario, where the graphics card's processing power is exhausted before the CPU's potential is reached.

The GPU's specifications provide context for these results. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock is listed at 1750 MHz, with an effective data rate of 14 Gbps. The core clocks are 1605 MHz base and 1770 MHz boost. These figures are modest by modern standards, and the 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is insufficient to maintain high frame rates in a demanding title like The Medium at higher resolutions. The GPU's own benchmark scores corroborate this, with a Passmark G3D score of 18169 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1651, indicating a mid-range performance level that is outmatched by the CPU in this pairing.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combination capable of running The Medium at 60 FPS?*

A: At 1920x1080 with the "Low" preset, the system achieves an average of 101 FPS, and with the "Medium" preset, it averages 63 FPS. However, at higher resolutions or with higher settings, it falls below 60 FPS. The "High" preset averages 45 FPS at 1080p, and the "Medium" preset averages 53 FPS at 1440p.

Q: What is the best setting for a balance of visuals and performance?

A: The "Medium" preset is the optimal choice. It provides an average of 63 FPS at 1080p and 53 FPS at 1440p, with minimum frame rates of 54 FPS and 45 FPS respectively. This is the only preset that offers a playable experience without the significant performance hit seen in "High" or "Ultra".

Q: How does the system perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the "Medium" preset is the only playable option, yielding an average of 42 FPS. The "High" preset drops to 30 FPS, and the "Ultra" preset is unplayable at 24 FPS. The "Low" preset is the only one that achieves a playable 67 FPS, but it sacrifices visual fidelity.

Q: Is the Intel Core i9-14900K limiting performance in this game?

A: No. The CPU is in the 95th percentile of all processors and has an average benchmark score of 79097. The performance data shows that frame rates are heavily dependent on resolution and settings, which is a characteristic of a GPU bottleneck. The CPU has ample headroom to feed the GPU.

Q: How does the RTX 2070 SUPER compare to its closest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 20282. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, has an average score of 20480, which is 1% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile is 1.2% higher with a score of 20534, and the Intel Arc B570 is 1.3% higher with a score of 20556. This indicates the RTX 2070 SUPER is competitive with its direct peers but is not a high-performance part.

Q: What is the frame rate stability like on the Medium preset?

A: The data shows a consistent frame rate. At 1080p, the average is 63 FPS with a minimum of 54 FPS and a maximum of 72 FPS. At 1440p, the average is 53 FPS with a minimum of 45 FPS and a maximum of 61 FPS. At 4K, the average is 42 FPS with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 48 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 is severe and clearly demonstrates the GPU's limitations. Looking at the "Medium" preset, the average frame rate decreases by 10 FPS when moving from 1080p (63 FPS) to 1440p (53 FPS), and then by another 11 FPS when moving from 1440p to 4K (42 FPS). This linear decline is a strong indicator that the system is entirely GPU-bound, as the rendering workload increases exponentially with pixel count.

This pattern is consistent across all settings. The "High" preset shows a drop from 45 FPS at 1080p to 38 FPS at 1440p, and then to 30 FPS at 4K. The "Low" preset follows the same trend, from 101 FPS at 1080p to 85 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 67 FPS at 4K. The fact that even the "Low" preset cannot maintain a high frame rate at 4K underscores the fact that the GPU is the primary bottleneck. A more balanced system with a stronger GPU would show a less dramatic performance drop at higher resolutions, but here, the RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB of VRAM and 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth are simply overwhelmed by the demands of 4K rendering in this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K plays a supporting role in this configuration, providing an immense amount of computational headroom that the RTX 2070 SUPER cannot utilize in The Medium. The CPU's specifications are formidable: it has 24 cores and 32 threads, with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost clock of 6.00 GHz. It also features a large 36 MB of shared L3 cache. These specifications translate to exceptional synthetic benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 39399.5 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 21697.

However, the game's performance data shows no evidence of CPU limitation. The frame rates scale predictably with resolution and settings, which is the signature of a GPU-bound workload. The CPU's performance is so far ahead of the GPU that it is effectively idle, waiting for the graphics card to complete its tasks. The data suggests that even a significantly less powerful CPU would achieve similar frame rates in this specific game with this GPU. The i9-14900K's high performance, while excellent for other tasks, is not a contributing factor to the frame rates observed here; the RTX 2070 SUPER is the sole determinant of this combo's gaming performance in The Medium.