The Medium

Best Settings per Resolution

The recorded data for The Medium with the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 shows a clear performance ceiling at each resolution. The most demanding preset that maintains an average of at least 60 FPS is the benchmark's playable threshold.

At 1920x1080, the highest playable setting is Medium, which delivers an average of 77 FPS. This preset also records a minimum of 65 FPS and a maximum of 88 FPS, meaning even the lowest observed frame rate stays above the 60 FPS line. Pushing to High drops the average to 55 FPS, which falls short of the threshold, while Ultra averages only 44 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the best setting that clears 60 FPS is also Medium, with an average of 65 FPS. However, the minimum frame rate here is 55 FPS, which dips below the playable threshold during demanding scenes. The High preset averages 46 FPS, and Ultra averages 37 FPS. For a stricter 60 FPS minimum requirement, Low would be the safer choice, averaging 100 FPS.

At 3840x2160, only Low settings remain playable, averaging 81 FPS. Medium drops to 51 FPS average with a minimum of 43 FPS, High falls to 36 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 29 FPS. The 4K resolution clearly demands significant graphical compromises from this hardware combination.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run The Medium at 1080p with high settings?

A: No. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the average frame rate is 55 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS playable threshold. Medium settings are required to stay above 60 FPS, averaging 77 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: Medium is the highest preset that maintains an average of 65 FPS at 2560x1440. However, the minimum frame rate at this setting is 55 FPS, so players who prioritize consistent frame pacing may prefer Low, which averages 100 FPS.

Q: Is 4K resolution playable with this hardware?

A: Only with Low settings. At 3840x2160, Low averages 81 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold. Medium averages 51 FPS, High averages 36 FPS, and Ultra averages 29 FPS, none of which are playable by the 60 FPS standard.

Q: How does the RTX 3070's benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 17208, placing it in the 61st percentile among all GPUs. The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT scores 17083, which is 0.7% lower, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 scores 17037, 1% lower. The NVIDIA Tesla K40c scores 17468, 1.5% higher.

Q: What is the CPU's relative standing among all processors?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F sits in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14185. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon 6756E, scores 14163, a 0.2% difference, while the AMD EPYC 7552 scores 14115, 0.5% lower.

Q: Does the Medium preset offer a significant frame rate advantage over High?

A: Yes. Across all resolutions, Medium consistently outperforms High by a substantial margin. At 1080p, Medium averages 77 FPS versus 55 FPS for High, a 22 FPS gap. At 1440p, the difference is 19 FPS (65 versus 46), and at 4K, the gap narrows to 15 FPS (51 versus 36).

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates reveals how the game scales across resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 106 FPS. Medium follows at 77 FPS, with a minimum of 65 and maximum of 88. High averages 55 FPS, and Ultra averages 44 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a steady decline, with the most dramatic drop occurring between Medium and High, a 22 FPS reduction.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 100 FPS, which is only 6 FPS lower than the 1080p Low result. Medium averages 65 FPS, with a minimum of 55 and maximum of 74. High drops to 46 FPS, and Ultra falls to 37 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a roughly 15% to 20% performance penalty across most presets, though the Low setting is less affected due to reduced GPU load.

At 3840x2160, the performance curve steepens significantly. Low averages 81 FPS, a 19 FPS drop from 1440p Low. Medium averages 51 FPS, with a minimum of 43 and maximum of 58. High averages 36 FPS, and Ultra averages 29 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 30 FPS, indicating that the Medium preset imposes a much heavier rendering load at this resolution.

Notably, the minimum and maximum frame rates are only recorded for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the range spans from 65 to 88 FPS, a 23 FPS variance. At 1440p Medium, the range is 55 to 74 FPS, a 19 FPS variance. At 4K Medium, the range is 43 to 58 FPS, a 15 FPS variance. This suggests that frame pacing becomes more consistent as resolution increases, likely due to the GPU becoming the dominant bottleneck and reducing CPU-related hitches.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the Intel Core i5-10400F, based on average benchmark scores, include the Intel Xeon 6756E with a score of 14163, just 0.2% lower than the i5's 14185. The Intel Core 7 160UL scores 14232, 0.3% higher, while the AMD EPYC 7552 scores 14115, 0.5% lower. The AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277, 0.6% higher. These processors would likely produce nearly identical frame rates in The Medium, as the performance deltas are all within a fraction of a percent.

For the GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070's average score of 17208 places it close to the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, which scores 17083, a 0.7% difference. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 scores 17037, 1% lower, and the AMD Radeon HD 7970M scores 17019, 1.1% lower. The NVIDIA Tesla K40c scores 17468, 1.5% higher. Swapping the RTX 3070 for any of these near equivalents would result in very similar FPS figures, with differences likely within a few frames per second across all settings and resolutions.

Since the CPU and GPU both have rivals within roughly 1.5% of their respective scores, a system using any of these nearby components would behave almost identically in The Medium. The combination of the i5-10400F and RTX 3070 is well matched, and any of the listed alternatives would maintain the same general playability profile: medium settings at 1080p and 1440p, low settings at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

Among all tested combinations in the database, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 1635th out of 3724 combos for The Medium. This places it in the upper portion of the distribution, roughly in the 56th percentile of tested systems. The ranking reflects the balance between the CPU's 68th percentile standing and the GPU's 61st percentile standing, with the overall combo landing between those two figures.

The rank suggests that while this system is not at the top of the performance hierarchy, it sits comfortably above the median. Many higher-ranked combinations likely feature more recent CPUs or higher-tier GPUs, but the i5-10400F and RTX 3070 still deliver playable performance at the most common gaming resolutions. The 4K results, which limit the system to Low settings, are the main factor holding back a higher rank.

The Verdict

The benchmark data clearly answers whether this PC can run The Medium. At 1920x1080, the system achieves playable frame rates on Low and Medium presets, with the best playable setting being Medium at 77 FPS average. At 2560x1440, Low and Medium both clear the 60 FPS average threshold, with Medium being the best at 65 FPS, though its minimum of 55 FPS is worth noting. At 3840x2160, only Low is playable, averaging 81 FPS.

The verdict by resolution confirms these findings. For 1080p, the recommended setting is Medium with 77 FPS. For 1440p, the recommended setting is also Medium with 65 FPS. For 4K, the recommended setting is Low with 81 FPS. In all cases, the system can run the game, but the visual quality ceiling varies significantly by resolution. Players targeting 4K will need to accept low graphical fidelity, while 1080p and 1440p users can enjoy medium details with smooth performance.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals an interesting division of labor between the CPU and GPU in The Medium. At lower resolutions, the frame rate differences between settings are relatively modest, suggesting that the GPU is not the sole limiting factor. For example, at 1080p, the gap between Low and Medium is 29 FPS (106 to 77), while at 4K, the same settings gap is 30 FPS (81 to 51). This consistency across resolutions indicates that the game's rendering complexity scales predictably with resolution, and neither component becomes disproportionately stressed.

However, the CPU's role becomes more apparent when examining the 1080p results. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 106 FPS, which is only 6 FPS higher than 1440p Low at 100 FPS. This small difference suggests that at 1080p, the CPU may be limiting performance, as the GPU should have ample headroom at such a low resolution. The i5-10400F's six cores and twelve threads, while capable, may not provide enough single-thread throughput to push beyond the 106 FPS mark.

At 1440p and 4K, the GPU takes on a more dominant role. The jump from 1440p Medium to 4K Medium shows a 14 FPS drop (65 to 51), while the jump from 1080p Medium to 1440p Medium shows a 12 FPS drop (77 to 65). These similar reductions indicate that the GPU is being progressively saturated as resolution increases. The 4K Ultra result of 29 FPS, compared to 1440p Ultra at 37 FPS, reinforces this trend, with the RTX 3070's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256-bit bus becoming a limiting factor at extreme resolutions.

The scaling between presets also highlights the GPU's importance. At 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra is 52 FPS (81 to 29), a 64% reduction. At 1080p, the same preset range shows a 62 FPS difference (106 to 44), a 58% reduction. The slightly steeper curve at 4K indicates that higher settings impose a heavier burden on the GPU's shading units, texture units, and ray tracing cores as resolution increases. For players seeking maximum frame rates, the data suggests that lowering resolution provides a more consistent benefit than lowering settings alone, since the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 1440p and above.