The Medium

Similar Performance Alternatives

The database groups this Intel Core i5-10400F and Intel Arc B580 pairing by aggregate benchmark scores. For the CPU, the nearest measured equivalents are the Intel Xeon 6756E, which scores 0.2% higher, and the AMD EPYC 7552 at 0.5% higher. On the other side, the Intel Core 7 160UL trails by 0.3%, and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C is 0.6% lower. These deltas are tiny, meaning any of these processors would likely produce nearly identical frame pacing in The Medium, assuming the same GPU and settings.

For the GPU, the Intel Arc B580 sits within a narrow band of comparable graphics cards. The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP scores just 0.2% higher, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 is 0.6% lower. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 leads by 0.7%, and the NVIDIA P106-100 is 1% behind. The recorded data shows that swapping the Arc B580 for any of these rivals would shift average FPS by roughly one frame or less across the tested presets, so users with those GPUs should expect similar behavior in this horror title.

What the numbers imply is that this combo is not an outlier. It lands in a performance cluster where small benchmark differences translate to barely perceptible gameplay changes. The CPU and GPU both sit at the 68th percentile among all tested parts, meaning around two-thirds of alternative hardware is slower, but the nearest rivals are remarkably close. For The Medium specifically, the bottleneck behavior would likely mirror this pairing regardless of which of these near-identical parts is installed.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run The Medium at 1080p with the Low preset?

A: Yes. The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings is 85.6, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold by a wide margin.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, only the Low preset stays above 60 FPS. The recorded average is 71.5 FPS, while Medium drops to 46.4 FPS, which is below the playable threshold.

Q: Is 4K Ultra playable with this hardware?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 21.6 FPS, and even High only reaches 24.7 FPS. The Low preset at 4K averages 59.5 FPS, just under the 60 FPS threshold, so no setting at this resolution is classified as playable.

Q: How large is the performance gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: The difference is substantial. Low averages 85.6 FPS, while Ultra averages 31.3 FPS, a drop of 54.3 FPS. Medium sits at 53.3 FPS, and High at 39.4 FPS.

Q: Does the game scale evenly with resolution changes?

A: Not uniformly. At Low settings, going from 1080p to 1440p reduces average FPS from 85.6 to 71.5, a 14.1 FPS loss. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Low drops from 71.5 to 59.5, an 12 FPS loss. The scaling is consistent but not linear.

Q: What is the rank of this combo among all tested systems for The Medium?

A: This pairing ranks 2860 out of 3724 tested combinations, placing it in the lower portion of the database for this game.

Best Settings per Resolution

The database records four settings options: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. The playable threshold is set at 60 FPS average. Here is the most demanding preset that remains at or above that threshold for each resolution.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset is the only option that clears 60 FPS, with an average of 85.6 FPS. Medium falls to 53.3 FPS, High to 39.4 FPS, and Ultra to 31.3 FPS. Therefore, Low is the best playable setting at 1080p, even though the margin is comfortable.

At 2560x1440, the situation tightens. Low averages 71.5 FPS, which is playable. Medium drops to 46.4 FPS, High to 32.8 FPS, and Ultra to 26 FPS. Low is again the only preset that meets the threshold, but the headroom above 60 FPS is smaller than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS. Low averages 59.5 FPS, which is just below the threshold. Medium averages 36.9 FPS, High 24.7 FPS, and Ultra 21.6 FPS. The verdict for 4K is not playable at any setting, so there is no best playable preset to report.

The Verdict

The recorded data answers the question of whether this Intel Core i5-10400F and Intel Arc B580 combination can run The Medium. At 1920x1080, the answer is yes, but only with the Low preset, which averages 85.6 FPS. Medium at 53.3 FPS, High at 39.4 FPS, and Ultra at 31.3 FPS all fail the 60 FPS playable threshold.

At 2560x1440, the system remains playable with Low settings, averaging 71.5 FPS. Medium at 46.4 FPS, High at 32.8 FPS, and Ultra at 26 FPS are all below 60 FPS. The verdict for 1440p is playable, but strictly limited to the lowest quality preset.

At 3840x2160, no setting achieves 60 FPS. Low comes closest at 59.5 FPS, which is technically not playable per the database threshold. Medium averages 36.9 FPS, High 24.7 FPS, and Ultra 21.6 FPS. The verdict for 4K is not playable at any preset.

In summary, this PC can run The Medium at 1080p and 1440p, but only on Low settings for both resolutions. The game is not playable at 4K under any configuration recorded in the measurements.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four quality presets. All values are average FPS, as the minimum and maximum fields are null in the records.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 21.6 FPS for Ultra, 24.7 FPS for High, 36.9 FPS for Medium, and 59.5 FPS for Low. The progression shows that dropping from Ultra to Low more than doubles the frame rate, from 21.6 to 59.5 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 26 FPS for Ultra, 32.8 FPS for High, 46.4 FPS for Medium, and 71.5 FPS for Low. The Low preset is the first to cross the 60 FPS line, while Medium is 13.6 FPS short of it.

At 1920x1080, the averages are 31.3 FPS for Ultra, 39.4 FPS for High, 53.3 FPS for Medium, and 85.6 FPS for Low. The jump from Medium to Low is 32.3 FPS, the largest single preset-to-preset gain in the entire dataset.

Comparing across resolutions at the same preset reveals a consistent pattern. At Low, the averages are 85.6 FPS at 1080p, 71.5 FPS at 1440p, and 59.5 FPS at 4K. At Medium, the averages are 53.3, 46.4, and 36.9 FPS respectively. At High, they are 39.4, 32.8, and 24.7 FPS. At Ultra, they are 31.3, 26, and 21.6 FPS. In every preset, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is smaller than the drop from 1440p to 4K, suggesting the GPU becomes increasingly stressed at higher pixel counts.

How This Combo Ranks

The database ranks this specific CPU and GPU pairing for The Medium at position 2860 out of 3724 tested combinations. This places the system in the 23rd percentile of all recorded combos, meaning roughly three out of four tested configurations deliver higher average FPS in this game.

Given that the CPU and GPU each sit at the 68th percentile in their respective standalone benchmark pools, the in-game rank is notably lower. This discrepancy implies that The Medium is particularly demanding on the combined system, or that other tested combos with similar component percentiles achieve better frame rates due to factors like driver optimization or memory configuration.

The rank of 2860 out of 3724 means this system is not near the bottom, but it is firmly in the lower half. The nearest rival GPUs, such as the RTX 2080 and RTX 3080, would likely shift the rank by only a few positions given their tiny benchmark deltas. However, the in-game rank of 2860 reflects the measured FPS directly, so the playability verdict at 1080p and 1440p Low stands regardless of the overall ranking.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data shows how the Intel Core i5-10400F and Intel Arc B580 share the workload in The Medium. The CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, while the GPU has 2560 shading units and 12 GB of GDDR6 memory. The game's frame rates scale heavily with resolution, which points to the GPU as the dominant factor at higher pixel counts.

At 1080p, the CPU likely has more influence because the GPU is not fully saturated. The average FPS at Low is 85.6, which is high enough that the processor could become a limiting factor in scenes with complex physics or AI. However, the fact that dropping to Medium at 1080p yields 53.3 FPS, a decrease of 32.3 FPS, suggests the GPU still carries most of the load for graphical settings.

At 1440p, the GPU's role increases. The Low preset averages 71.5 FPS, while Medium drops to 46.4 FPS. The 25.1 FPS difference between these presets at 1440p, compared to the 32.3 FPS difference at 1080p, indicates that the GPU is becoming more of a bottleneck as resolution rises. The CPU has less headroom to compensate for higher graphical demands.

At 4K, the GPU is clearly the primary constraint. The Low preset averages 59.5 FPS, just below the playable threshold, while Medium drops to 36.9 FPS. The 22.6 FPS gap between Low and Medium at 4K is smaller than at lower resolutions, confirming that the GPU is maxed out and the CPU cannot offset the pixel-count penalty. The scaling from 1440p Low at 71.5 FPS to 4K Low at 59.5 FPS is a 12 FPS loss, while the same resolution change at Medium costs 9.5 FPS, showing that the GPU's limits compress the frame rate range at 4K.

In summary, the CPU is sufficient for this game but not the primary driver of performance. The GPU dictates playability, especially at 1440p and 4K. The verdict data reinforces this: the system only clears 60 FPS on Low settings at 1080p and 1440p, which are the presets that least stress the GPU. Raising settings or resolution quickly pushes the Arc B580 past its capabilities, while the i5-10400F has enough headroom to avoid becoming the main bottleneck in those scenarios.