The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine 4, presents a unique workload that stresses both the CPU and GPU heavily due to its signature split-screen rendering technique. The configuration of the Intel Core i9-14900K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti delivers a performance profile that is strong but heavily dependent on graphical settings, placing it in the top tier of tested systems for this specific game.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database for The Medium, this specific combination of Intel Core i9-14900K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti holds the 185th position out of 1689 tested combos. This ranking places it comfortably within the top 11% of all systems tested, indicating a high-performance pairing that is well above the median experience. The percentile ranking is a direct result of the hardware's raw capabilities; the CPU sits in the 97th percentile among all processors, while the GPU is in the 85th percentile among all graphics cards.

The data suggests that while the GPU is a high performer, it is slightly less exceptional than the CPU in its respective field. This creates a system where the central processor has significant headroom, but the graphics card becomes the primary arbiter of final frame rates. When compared to its immediate rivals, the CPU's average benchmark score of 79824 is nearly identical to the AMD EPYC 7413, which scores 80041 (a -0.3% difference). It also edges out the Intel Core i9-14900KF, which scores 79245 (a 0.7% difference), showing that the performance is consistent with its direct siblings. This high CPU standing ensures that in a game like The Medium, which has known CPU-sensitive sections, the processor will not be the bottleneck.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i9-14900K is a 24-core, 32-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process node. It operates with a base clock of 3.20 GHz and can boost up to 6.00 GHz, a high ceiling that is critical for maintaining frame pacing in games that rely on strong single-thread performance. The processor features a substantial 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB per core of L2 cache, which helps to feed data to the cores quickly during complex scene rendering.

For The Medium, the CPU's role is significant due to the game's use of a dual-world mechanic, where the game renders two separate scenes simultaneously. This effectively doubles the draw calls and physics calculations required per frame. The benchmark results show that even at 1080p with Low settings, where the GPU load is minimized, the system achieves 172.5 FPS, indicating the CPU can handle the game's logic and scene management without limiting the frame rate. The high core count and boost clock ensure that the game's main thread and background rendering tasks are processed without stutter, allowing the GPU to work as fast as it can, particularly at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work to do per frame.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture and features 7680 shading units alongside 60 RT cores and 240 Tensor cores. It is equipped with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 2310 MHz and a boost clock of 2610 MHz, and its raw compute power is rated at 40.09 TFLOPS for FP32 operations.

In The Medium, the GPU's memory capacity and bandwidth are put to the test. The game's high-resolution textures and the need to hold two different environments in memory simultaneously can be demanding on VRAM. The 12 GB frame buffer proves sufficient for this title, but the data shows that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher settings. The GPU's performance relative to its rivals shows it is a competitive part; its average benchmark score of 44900 is slightly below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile's 45152 (a -0.6% difference) but above the AMD Radeon Pro 580's 44195 (a 1.6% difference). This places it in a performance tier where it can deliver high frame rates, but it is the component that determines the maximum playable settings and resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of the system's capabilities across different resolutions and settings.

At 1920x1080, the system is mostly GPU-bound even at Low settings. The average frame rates scale from 172.5 FPS at Low to 108.1 FPS at Medium, 75.3 FPS at High, and 64.2 FPS at Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is significant, a 108.3 FPS reduction, showing that the Ultra preset imposes a heavy load on the graphics card. Even at the most demanding 1080p preset, the system remains highly playable.

Moving to 2560x1440, the resolution increase begins to tax the GPU more heavily. The average frame rates are 147.7 FPS at Low, 90.8 FPS at Medium, 64.1 FPS at High, and 53.4 FPS at Ultra. The performance is still very good, but the gap between Low and Ultra narrows to a 94.3 FPS difference, indicating the GPU is becoming the clear bottleneck as the pixel count increases.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the GPU is fully saturated. The average frame rates are 114.9 FPS at Low, 71.6 FPS at Medium, 51.2 FPS at High, and 43.1 FPS at Ultra. At this resolution, the RTX 4070 Ti's limits are exposed. While Low settings provide a smooth experience, the High and Ultra presets dip below the 60 FPS mark, reaching 51.2 FPS and 43.1 FPS respectively. This shows that for a locked 60 FPS experience at 4K, users would need to select the Medium preset or lower.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling across resolutions reveals the balance between the CPU and GPU. From 1080p to 4K at Low settings, the frame rate drops from 172.5 FPS to 114.9 FPS, a 33% reduction. This relatively modest drop indicates that at Low settings, even at 4K, the CPU is still able to feed the GPU enough data to maintain a high frame rate, though the GPU is doing more work.

However, the scaling at Ultra settings tells a different story. The frame rate drops from 64.2 FPS at 1080p to 43.1 FPS at 4K, a 33% reduction as well, but the absolute numbers are much lower. The consistent percentage drop across settings suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting component at all resolutions when Ultra is enabled. The data indicates that the CPU has ample headroom; the performance ceiling is set by the RTX 4070 Ti.

The most telling data point is the difference between Low and Ultra at 4K. The 71.8 FPS gap (from 114.9 to 43.1 FPS) shows the massive impact of the Ultra preset's graphical features, such as advanced lighting and shadow effects, which heavily load the GPU's shading units and RT cores. The system is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, where it can achieve 53.4 FPS at Ultra and 90.8 FPS at Medium, but at 4K, it requires a compromise on settings to maintain high refresh rates. The benchmark results indicate that the Core i9-14900K provides a solid foundation, but the RTX 4070 Ti is the deciding factor for the experience in The Medium.