One of the big questions surrounding the PS5 and Xbox Series X is how powerful the consoles are and what it would take to make a comparable gaming PC. However, the minimum and recommended specs for the upcoming multiplatform game "The Medium" give a good idea of what the performance of the Xbox Series X is equivalent to.

Before we begin, let's review what "The Medium" is all about: set in Poland in the late 80s, the game tells the story of a medium called Maria who has access to the "spirit world" and is plagued by visions related to a mystery in an old resort in Krakow. At Microsoft's "Xbox 20/20" gaming event, players were able to see how "The Medium" represents two complete game worlds simultaneously, with players controlling Maria in both the real world and the spirit world.

The game looks very atmospheric and quite engaging, and its unique dual-reality gameplay makes it seem like a proper next-generation title. This is because "The Medium" runs at 4K resolution and 30 frames per second on the Xbox Series X and not at the smoother 60fps.

Running the game at 4K and 30 frames per second is possible with a well-specced gaming PC at this time, depending on the graphics card installed. On a decent gaming PC, "The Medium" seems to run reasonably well.

The minimum specs for this game listed on Steam are Intel Core i5-6600 / AMD Ryzen 5 2500X CPU, 8GB RAM, and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Radeon R9 390X to run at 1080p, 4GB of video memory is required. This is not a particularly demanding specification, and with a little shopping you could probably build such a PC for under $1,000.

However, these specs are for running games in FHD, not 4K, which the Xbox Series X runs by default.

Therefore, to meet the 4K recommended specs, an Intel Core i5-9600 / AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU with 16GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 / Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card is required. These specifications are quite powerful, and such a machine would be much more expensive than a $400-$500 gaming machine; the GeForce RTX 2070 sells for over $500 on its own.

However, these recommended specs indicate that the Xbox Series X's 12 teraflops could be the equivalent of a fairly powerful PC.

But before we start calculating the overall teraflops of a PC with sufficient specs and shouting in the comments about how much better a PC is than a gaming console, there is one major factor to consider.

The Medium's recommended 4K PC specs are likely to deliver performance somewhere between 30 and 60 fps at 4K. Also, PCs may be able to apply more graphical effects to the game than next-generation consoles.

The Xbox Series X will offer a lot of performance for a price tag that may be less than $400. Also, if ray tracing is truly realized in a series of games, it could provide graphics that would require a much more expensive graphics card on a gaming PC.

But The Medium's system requirements also indicate that if you are an avid PC gamer and have one of the best gaming PCs, you are in a good position for next-generation gaming.