The Best Gaming PCs to Play The Medium

The Medium released on January 28^th 2021.

This psychological horror game was developed by the Bloober team, who are experienced in creating scary titles such as the 2019 Blair Witch Game. We’re covering the gameplay of this dark mystery, the official specifications, and a few cheeky PC recs.

The Medium Gameplay

The Medium is a thrilling game from the horror genre with some unique gameplay aspects. It cleverly incorporates innovative features with more traditional gameplay that earned it some excellent day one reviews.

You play as Marriane, who is a Medium who’s haunted by the visions of a terrible murder. In the search for answers, she ends up at an abandoned hotel resort. This is where she begins uncovering its haunting history through two different worlds.

Similar to horror games of the past, The Medium uses fixed camera angles in order to create a cinematic experience. The fixed camera also helps with motion sickness, because as the game progresses, you will find yourself controlling Marriane in the real world and spirit world simultaneously. This all takes place on a split-screen, and the dual reality is one of the main features of the gameplay. It is important to use it wisely in order to overcome puzzles and obstacles throughout the game and uncover the truth behind Marriane’s visions.

Rendering two immersive environments at the same time can put more demand on your PC hardware. The game also features raytracing to help create a more realistic atmosphere and make the shadows that little bit more ominous.

The Medium Official Specifications

With two worlds to power at the same time and the option of ray tracing, it’s no surprise The Medium can be a taxing game to play on PC. Below is the table of the basic minimum and recommended system requirements listed on the Steam store page.

	Minimum requirements	Recommended requirements
Operating system	Windows 10 64-bit version only	Windows 10 64-bit version only
Processor	Intel® Core™ i5-6600 AMD Ryzen™ 5 2500X	Intel® Core™ i5-9600 AMD Ryzen™ 7 3700X
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 1650 Super or GTX 1060 Radeon™ R9 390X	NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 1660 Super Radeon™ RX 5600XT @4K NVIDIA GeForce® RTX 2080 or RTX 3060 Ti Radeon™ RX 6800
Memory	8GB	16GB
Storage	55GB Available	55GB available
Direct X	Version 11	Version 12
Sound card	DirectX compatible, headphones recommended	DirectX compatible, headphones recommended

The Specification Requirements for Every Resolution:

The Bloober team also announced the specifications required for playing The Medium at different resolutions with different graphical settings. The full spec list is as follows:

Minimum to play at 1080p with 30 FPS and low preset

OS: Windows 10 64 bit
CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 or AMD Ryzen 5
GPU: GeForce 1650 Super or GTX 1060, or AMD R9 390X
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 50GB HDD
DirectX: 11

MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ventus 2X OC 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Sapphire Radeon RX 7600 Pulse Gaming 8GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Recommended to play at 1080p with 30 FPS and medium preset

OS: Windows 10 64 bit
CPU: Intel Core i5-9600 or AMD Ryzen 3700 X
GPU: GeForce GTX 1660 Super or AMD RX 5600XT 6GB
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 50GB SSD
DirectX: 11

Recommended for 1440p with 30 FPS and high preset

OS: Windows 10 64 bit
CPU: Intel Core i5-9600 or AMD 3700 X
GPU: GeForce RTX 2060 Super or AMD 5700 XT
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 50GB SSD
DirectX: 11

Recommended for Ultra preset at 2160p and 30 FPS

OS: Windows 10 64 bit
CPU: Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700 X
GPU: GeForce RTX 2080 8GB or RTX 3060 Ti, or AMD RX 6800 16GB
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 50GB SSD
DirectX: 11

Minimum for ray tracing on at 1080p and 30 FPS with medium preset

OS: Windows 10 64 bit
CPU: Intel Core i5-9600 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700 X
GPU: GeForce RTX 2060 Super 8GB or AMD RX 6800 16GB
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 50GB SSD
DirectX: 12

SAPPHIRE PULSE AMD Radeon™ RX 7800 XT Gaming Graphics Card with 16GB GDDR6, AMD RDNA™ 3 architecture

Recommended for ray tracing on at 1440p and 30 FPS with high preset

OS: Windows 10 64 bit
CPU: Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700 X
GPU: GeForce RTX 3060 Ti or RTX 2080 8GB, or AMD RX 6800 16GB
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 50GB SSD
DirectX: 12

Reccomended for ray tracing on at 2160p and 30 FPS with high preset

OS: Windows 10 64 bit
CPU: Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700 X
GPU: GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD RX 6800 XT 16GB
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 50GB SSD
DirectX: 12

Analysis of the Recommended Specifications to Play The Medium

The specifications cover a huge range of possible scenarios and all target 30 FPS gameplay. 30 FPS might sound terrible to the typical PC gamer but, fortunately, Bloober Team confirmed that you will have the option to unlock frame rates in the graphics menu. Taking this into account, if you want to run the graphical settings completely maxed with a high FPS, you’re going to need cutting-edge hardware.

To experience the spooky atmosphere of The Medium with all it has to offer, an RTX 30 Series graphics card is recommended for higher resolutions. However, if you bought into ray tracing technology early you should still get a great experience with a high-end RTX 20 series card. Just make sure you pair it with at least 16GB of memory and a powerful Intel or AMD processor with at least 6 cores.

However, if you’re looking to play The Medium on an older or more budget system, this should still be possible. The minimum specifications list a GTX 1060, and you’ll only need around 50GB of HDD space. However, an SSD is recommended, and it’s one of the best upgrades you can make to an ageing system.

What hardware is best for Playing The Medium?

One of the best (or worst if you’re easily scared) ways to play a horror game is late at night in a dark room. To complete the immersion, as recommended by The Mediums developers, you should also be wearing a pair of headphones.

If you’re looking to upgrade why not take a look at the highly-rated Razer BlackShark V2 Pro. These are one of Overclockers best-selling gaming headsets and it’s easy to see why. They are loaded with features like low latency wireless, 50mm Titanium drivers, ultra-comfortable memory foam cushions and 24-hour battery life.

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Razer BlackShark V2 HyperSpeed RGB Gaming Headset

One of the other components that stands out on the specs list is an SSD. There’s nothing that ruins your immersion more than a loading screen. If you’re running out of space on an ageing drive or still running a noisy HDD it’s time to upgrade to play The Medium.

Samsung 2TB 870 QVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 64 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-77Q2T0BW)

M.2 NVME drives are the kings of speed. However, a 2.5″ SATA drive provides great value for money and you don’t have to worry about having a compatible motherboard. Simply unplug your old HDD and connect up the Samsung 2TB 870 QVO. This drive comes with a 3 year warranty, 560MB/s read speed and large capacity for all your games.

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The Best PCs to Play The Medium

Of course, if you’re in the market for more than a spot upgrade or two, getting a high-performance PC is the best way to enjoy The Medium. We have an extensive collection of gaming PCs and laptops that are optimised for immersive, horror experiences. Listed below are our top five picks, but you can explore the full range should these not make your spine tingle!

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