The Medium

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 holds rank 1765 out of 2911 tested combinations in The Medium. This places the combo in the lower-middle tier of all systems tested, meaning roughly 60% of configurations deliver higher average frame rates in this title. The ranking reflects a pairing where the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory interface become limiting factors at higher resolutions, while the CPU's six Zen 4 cores provide sufficient headroom for the game's logical workload.

The combo's position becomes clearer when examining component-level percentiles. The CPU sits at the 83rd percentile among all processors, while the GPU rests at the 66th percentile among all graphics cards. The gap between these percentiles indicates that the graphics card is the more constraining element in this pairing, particularly as resolution increases. The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14600T (0.1% ahead), Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (0.2% ahead), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H (0.2% behind), and AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (0.3% ahead) — all essentially tied in average benchmark score. The GPU's nearest competitors are the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (0.6% behind), AMD Radeon HD 8970M (1.0% behind), AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (1.6% ahead), and NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (1.6% behind), showing the RTX 5050 sits in a tightly contested performance band.

This rank of 1765 out of 2911 suggests the combo handles The Medium at playable frame rates only when settings and resolution are carefully managed. The measured data shows the system achieves 60 FPS at 1080p Medium, which is likely the sweet spot for consistent gameplay. Pushing to 1440p or 4K at higher presets drops frame rates below the 30 FPS threshold, making those configurations less viable for a smooth experience in this horror title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in The Medium?

A: The measured data shows 1920x1080 at Medium settings delivers 60 FPS average, with a minimum of 51 FPS and maximum of 69 FPS. This is the only configuration that hits the 60 FPS target while maintaining reasonable visual quality. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 96 FPS average, but Medium offers a better balance of visual fidelity and smoothness.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F scores 32,750 on average across all benchmarks. Its closest competitor, the Intel Core i5-14600T, scores 32,707 (0.1% ahead), while the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H scores 32,812 (0.2% behind). The differences are within measurement noise, indicating these processors perform nearly identically in general compute workloads.

Q: Is the RTX 5050's performance similar to any older or mobile GPUs?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 21,035. The AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL scores 21,153 (0.6% lower), the AMD Radeon HD 8970M scores 21,237 (1.0% lower), and the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT scores 20,713 (1.6% higher). These deltas show the RTX 5050 occupies a performance bracket comparable to several established desktop and mobile parts.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the system delivers 51 FPS average, with a minimum of 43 FPS and maximum of 58 FPS. This is playable but noticeably below the 1080p Medium result of 60 FPS average. The 9 FPS gap between minimum and average suggests occasional dips that could be noticeable in tense scenes.

Q: Does the CPU's 12 threads help in this game?

A: The Ryzen 5 7400F features 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.70 GHz. The data shows the CPU is not the primary bottleneck — at 1080p Low, the system reaches 96 FPS average, indicating the processor can feed the GPU adequately at lower settings. The GPU becomes the limiting factor as resolution increases.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to all tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 1765 out of 2911 tested combos, placing it in the 39th percentile of all systems tested for The Medium. This means about 39% of configurations perform worse, while roughly 61% deliver higher average frame rates in this game.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 320.0 GB/s of bandwidth. For The Medium, this memory configuration proves adequate at 1080p but becomes strained at higher resolutions. The GPU's base clock runs at 2317 MHz with a boost clock of 2572 MHz, while memory operates at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective). These clocks are modest for the 50-series architecture, yet the card still manages to deliver playable frame rates at 1080p in this title.

The GPU's shading units number 2560, with 80 texture mapping units and 32 raster output pipelines. This configuration produces a pixel rate of 82.30 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 205.8 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute throughput of 13.17 TFLOPS reflects the card's position as an entry-level Blackwell part. In The Medium, these specifications translate to 60 FPS at 1080p Medium, which is the most balanced measured configuration.

The RTX 5050's ray tracing cores (20) and tensor cores (80) are present but do not appear to significantly influence performance in this title, as the game's measured results likely rely on traditional rasterization. The GPU's 66th percentile ranking among all graphics cards places it in the upper-middle tier, though its nearest rivals include older mobile parts like the Radeon RX Vega M GL and Radeon HD 8970M — suggesting the card's real-world gaming performance tracks closer to mid-range hardware from previous generations.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity becomes a limiting factor at 4K resolutions. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the system manages only 29 FPS average, while dropping to Low settings at the same resolution yields 64 FPS. This dramatic swing indicates texture memory pressure at higher presets, forcing the GPU to swap data more frequently and reducing throughput. At 1080p, the VRAM allocation is sufficient, as evidenced by the 43 FPS High preset result and 96 FPS Low preset result.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the system delivers 60 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Medium drops this to 51 FPS average, a 15% reduction. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 40 FPS, a 33% reduction from 1440p and a 33% reduction from 1080p. This scaling pattern suggests the GPU becomes increasingly constrained as pixel count rises, with the CPU maintaining adequate performance throughout.

The Low preset shows similar scaling behavior: 96 FPS at 1080p, 81 FPS at 1440p (16% drop), and 64 FPS at 4K (21% drop from 1440p, 33% from 1080p). The High preset follows the same trajectory: 43 FPS at 1080p, 36 FPS at 1440p (16% drop), and 29 FPS at 4K (19% drop from 1440p, 33% from 1080p). The consistent ~33% reduction from 1080p to 4K across all presets indicates the GPU's rendering pipeline scales predictably with resolution, and the limiting component remains the graphics card rather than the CPU.

Ultra settings exhibit the steepest resolution penalty: 34 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p (15% drop), and 23 FPS at 4K (21% drop from 1440p, 32% from 1080p). The Ultra preset results at 4K (23 FPS) and 1440p (29 FPS) fall below the 30 FPS threshold generally considered minimum for playable frame rates, making these configurations impractical for smooth gameplay. The data indicates that the RTX 5050's 8 GB VRAM and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth cannot sustain the memory demands of Ultra settings at higher resolutions in The Medium.

The resolution scaling analysis points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads at 3.70 GHz base and 4.70 GHz boost provide sufficient compute for the game's logic, as evidenced by the fact that frame rate drops correlate directly with pixel count rather than scene complexity. The 1080p to 4K transition consistently reduces FPS by roughly one-third across all presets, a pattern typical of GPU-bound scenarios.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, built on TSMC's 5 nm process with Zen 4 architecture (Raphael). It operates at a 3.70 GHz base clock and 4.70 GHz boost clock, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support includes dual-channel DDR5 with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth, and the processor connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 21,765 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,072 in single-core. PassMark results show a multi-thread score of 25,645 and a single-thread score of 3,689. These numbers place the processor at the 83rd percentile among all CPUs, indicating strong general-purpose performance. However, in The Medium, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU, as frame rates scale primarily with resolution rather than scene complexity.

The CPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score are the Intel Core i5-14600T (32,707, 0.1% ahead), Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (32,697, 0.2% ahead), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H (32,812, 0.2% behind), and AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (32,662, 0.3% ahead). All four competitors sit within 0.3% of the Ryzen 5 7400F's 32,750 average, making them effectively identical in compute throughput. This means the choice of CPU among these options would not meaningfully change The Medium's performance.

The measured FPS data suggests the CPU provides adequate headroom for the GPU at all tested resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 96 FPS average, which is likely near the CPU's practical limit for this game's engine. The fact that increasing resolution to 1440p and 4K at the same Low settings reduces frame rates to 81 and 64 FPS respectively indicates the GPU becomes the limiting factor well before the CPU's capacity is exhausted. The CPU's 12 threads handle the game's multi-threaded workloads without introducing bottlenecks, as evidenced by the smooth scaling pattern across resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal configuration for this system in The Medium is 1920x1080 with Medium settings, delivering 60 FPS average with a minimum of 51 FPS and maximum of 69 FPS. This preset provides a stable frame rate that meets the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay while maintaining visual quality above the Low preset. The Medium preset's minimum of 51 FPS ensures that even during demanding scenes, frame rates remain comfortably above the 30 FPS playability threshold.

For users who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity, the Low preset at 1080p offers 96 FPS average, which provides a substantial margin for high-refresh-rate displays. However, the 36 FPS difference between Low and Medium at 1080p suggests that Medium settings are not particularly demanding for this GPU, making the visual upgrade worthwhile. At 1440p, Medium settings achieve 51 FPS average, which is playable but may exhibit occasional dips to 43 FPS minimum. This configuration suits users with 1440p displays who accept slightly lower frame rates for increased resolution.

The High and Ultra presets are not recommended for this system. At 1080p, High delivers 43 FPS average and Ultra delivers 34 FPS average, both below the 60 FPS target. At 1440p, High drops to 36 FPS and Ultra to 29 FPS, with the latter falling below the 30 FPS playability threshold. At 4K, only the Low preset (64 FPS) achieves playable frame rates; Medium (40 FPS) is marginal, while High (29 FPS) and Ultra (23 FPS) are not viable. Users targeting 4K should stick to Low settings, though the visual compromise may not justify the resolution increase over 1440p Medium.

The data indicates that Medium settings provide the best balance of visual quality and performance across all tested resolutions. The 1080p Medium result of 60 FPS average is the only configuration that hits the standard 60 FPS target, while 1440p Medium offers a playable 51 FPS average. For users willing to accept frame rates in the 40-50 FPS range, 4K Medium is marginally viable, but the 40 FPS average with likely dips below 34 FPS makes this a risky choice for consistent gameplay.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 96 FPS average
• Medium: 60 FPS average (minimum 51, maximum 69)
• High: 43 FPS average
• Ultra: 34 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 81 FPS average
• Medium: 51 FPS average (minimum 43, maximum 58)
• High: 36 FPS average
• Ultra: 29 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 64 FPS average
• Medium: 40 FPS average (minimum 34, maximum 46)
• High: 29 FPS average
• Ultra: 23 FPS average

The frame rate progression across resolutions follows a consistent pattern: each step from 1080p to 1440p to 4K reduces performance by roughly 15-20% per step at the same settings preset. The Medium preset shows the most complete data with minimum and maximum values, revealing that the 1080p configuration maintains a tight 51-69 FPS range, while 1440p spans 43-58 FPS and 4K spans 34-46 FPS. These ranges indicate stable performance without extreme frame time spikes, which is important for a horror game where smooth rendering contributes to atmosphere.

The Low preset at 1080p (96 FPS) is the highest measured frame rate, followed by Low at 1440p (81 FPS) and Low at 4K (64 FPS). The Ultra preset produces the lowest results across all resolutions, with 34 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K — none of which provide a smooth experience. The High preset sits between Medium and Ultra, offering 43 FPS at 1080p, 36 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K.

The data shows that the RTX 5050's 8 GB VRAM and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for Medium settings up to 1440p, but High and Ultra presets at any resolution above 1080p push the GPU beyond its comfortable operating range. The 4K Medium result of 40 FPS average with a 34 FPS minimum is the only 4K configuration that approaches playability, though users seeking consistent 60 FPS should remain at 1080p Medium or 1080p Low.