The Medium

The Medium pairs a fixed-camera horror aesthetic with a heavy reliance on both CPU and GPU resources. The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 produces a very specific performance envelope, one that is strictly limited by the graphics card at higher resolutions but surprisingly capable at 1080p with adjusted settings. The data reveals a system that is fundamentally mismatched for high-end play, yet offers a clear path to a playable experience if the user is willing to compromise.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium with this hardware?

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the average frame rate exceeds 30 FPS. At this resolution, the Low preset achieves an average of 46.5 FPS, which is the highest measured value for this combo.

Q: How does the GTX 1650 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1650 has an average benchmark score of 8713. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile, scores 8746, which is a delta of -0.4% (the GTX 1650 is slightly slower). It is also 0.4% behind the AMD Radeon 550X (8749) and 0.5% behind the NVIDIA Quadro P2200 (8671).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: The data strongly indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average frame rate is 14.4 FPS, and at Ultra it drops to 9.5 FPS. These low scores suggest the GTX 1650's 4 GB of VRAM and compute throughput cannot handle the pixel load, regardless of the CPU's capability.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: The gap is substantial. At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers an average of 37.3 FPS, while the Ultra preset only manages 15.4 FPS. This represents a significant 21.9 FPS drop, showing that the Ultra preset is not viable at this resolution.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 8400F compare to the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X?

A: The two processors have nearly identical average benchmark scores. The Ryzen 5 8400F scores 25064, while the Ryzen 7 2700X scores 25057, resulting in a deltaPct of 0%. They are effectively performance equals in this metric.

Q: Does the GTX 1650 support modern graphics APIs needed for The Medium?

A: Yes. The GPU supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. This ensures compatibility with the game's rendering requirements, even if the performance is not sufficient for high settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data offers a clear hierarchy for the best experience. The primary goal for a playable frame rate is to stay above 30 FPS, and the only way to achieve this with this hardware is to prioritize the Low preset. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 46.5 FPS, which is the only configuration that provides a comfortable margin above playability thresholds. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 25.1 FPS, a significant 21.4 FPS loss that makes the game feel stuttery and unresponsive.

For users with a 1440p monitor, the same logic applies. The Low preset at 2560x1440 produces an average of 37.3 FPS, which is playable. The Medium preset here falls to 21.9 FPS, which is a less desirable experience. The High and Ultra settings are effectively non-options at any resolution, as they consistently produce sub-20 FPS averages. The data suggests that the "optimal" experience is a strict trade-off: accept the Low preset to get a functional frame rate, or use higher settings only for static screenshots. The performance penalty for moving from Low to Medium is consistently around 20 FPS at each resolution (e.g., from 46.5 to 25.1 at 1080p, and from 37.3 to 21.9 at 1440p), which is too steep for the visual gain.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. Its synthetic benchmark scores are robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20851 and a single-core score of 2943. This places it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, indicating strong overall processing power. The data suggests that the CPU is not the primary constraint in this pairing. Even at the lowest resolution and settings (1080p Low), where the CPU's workload is relatively highest, the system achieves 46.5 FPS. The processor's PassMark multithread score of 24530 and its 3DMark 16-thread score of 6091 show it has ample headroom for gaming workloads.

The CPU's performance parity with the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (deltaPct of 0%) suggests that the game is not sensitive to the architectural advantages of Zen 4 in this specific scenario. The bottleneck is clearly elsewhere. The 16 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (83.2 GB/s bandwidth) provide a solid foundation, but the game's engine appears to be waiting on the GPU to render frames. The fact that frame rates plummet when resolution or settings increase—without a corresponding change in CPU load—confirms that the Ryzen 5 8400F is ready to feed frames far faster than the GTX 1650 can produce them.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested hardware combinations for The Medium, this pairing ranks near the bottom. The comboRankInGame field places this system at rank 1593 out of 1689 total combos. This puts it in the bottom 6% of all tested systems, a clear indication of its performance limitations. The data implies that the vast majority of other hardware configurations tested will deliver higher average frame rates. This low ranking is almost entirely attributable to the GPU, as the CPU's percentile rank (82nd) is far higher than the GPU's (43rd). The GTX 1650's average benchmark score of 8713 is modest, and its PassMark G3D score of 7880 confirms its entry-level status. The system is not a competitive gaming platform for this title; it is a configuration that can run the game only at its most basic settings and lowest resolutions. The ranking highlights a fundamental mismatch: a modern, capable CPU is paired with a legacy, low-power GPU, resulting in a system that cannot leverage the CPU's strengths in this gaming context.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the definitive limiting factor in this configuration. With 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus (128.1 GB/s bandwidth), it lacks the capacity and speed for a demanding title like The Medium. Its compute capabilities are also limited, with an FP32 performance of 2.984 TFLOPS and a texture rate of 93.24 GTexel/s. The GPU's architecture is Turing, but it lacks the RT and Tensor cores found in higher-end models, meaning it relies purely on rasterization. The data shows a clear correlation between the GPU's workload and frame rate. At 1080p Low, the GPU can manage 46.5 FPS. However, increasing the settings to High at the same resolution drops the average to 23.2 FPS, a 50% reduction. This suggests the game's higher presets introduce effects that heavily tax the 4 GB VRAM buffer and the 896 shading units.

The GPU's synthetic performance places it in the 43rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon 550X with a deltaPct of -0.4%, show that it is competing with other entry-level parts. The 75W TDP and lack of power connectors indicate this is a low-power solution, and the data reflects that it is not designed for high-fidelity gaming. The GTX 1650 is a 1080p, low-settings card, and The Medium confirms this classification. The extreme drop to 9.5 FPS at 4K Ultra is a direct consequence of the GPU being overwhelmed by the pixel count and texture data, far exceeding its memory bandwidth and processing power.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system achieves its best results. The Low preset leads with an average of 46.5 FPS. The Medium preset follows at 25.1 FPS, while High drops to 23.2 FPS. Ultra is the worst at 16.4 FPS. This shows a steep cliff between Low and Medium, but a surprisingly small gap between Medium and High (1.9 FPS).

Moving to 2560x1440, all averages decrease. The Low preset is the only one that remains playable, with an average of 37.3 FPS. Medium falls to 21.9 FPS, High to 15.3 FPS, and Ultra to 15.4 FPS. The Ultra and High presets are nearly identical here, suggesting that the game's Ultra preset at 1440p is not adding a significant load over High, perhaps due to a VSync or frame pacing limit, or that the GPU is already fully saturated.

At 3840x2160, the configuration is overwhelmed. The Low preset manages an average of 31.9 FPS, which is surprisingly the only 4K option above 20 FPS. Medium drops to 20.5 FPS, High to 14.4 FPS, and Ultra to a slideshow-like 9.5 FPS. The data shows that 4K is only conceivable with the Low preset, and even then, it is borderline playable. The frame rate scaling is not linear; the gap between Low and High at 4K is 17.5 FPS, which is smaller than at 1080p (23.3 FPS), indicating that the GPU is hitting a hard memory or compute wall at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU-bound nature of this system. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 46.5 at 1080p to 31.9 at 4K, a decrease of 14.6 FPS or roughly 31%. At the High preset, the drop is from 23.2 at 1080p to 14.4 at 4K, a decrease of 8.8 FPS (38%). This scaling pattern is a classic sign of a GPU that is running out of memory bandwidth and fill rate. The pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, but the frame rate does not quarter; it holds up better at Low settings because the GPU is less burdened by shading work.

The data implies that the limiting component is unequivocally the GTX 1650. If the Ryzen 5 8400F were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a smaller FPS difference between 1080p and 4K, as the CPU's workload remains constant. Instead, the consistent drop across all settings confirms that the GPU is saturated. The 4 GB VRAM is likely a critical issue at 4K, as the game may be forced to swap textures to system memory, causing stutters and reducing the average frame rate. The scaling also shows that the CPU has headroom; at 1080p Low with 46.5 FPS, the CPU is likely not fully utilized, meaning a more powerful GPU would yield a significant FPS increase in this same system.