The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a strong, balanced experience in The Medium, with performance scaling predictably across resolutions and settings. The measured data shows this combo ranks in the 84th percentile of all tested configurations, placing it firmly in the upper tier for this horror title. The following analysis breaks down the benchmark results to guide settings choices and clarify the roles of the CPU and GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this combo identifies a clear sweet spot between visual fidelity and frame rate. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 104.9 FPS average, which is a 28.1 FPS improvement over the High preset’s 76.8 FPS. This 37% performance gain comes at a minor visual cost, making Medium the most efficient choice for high-refresh-rate displays at this resolution. The Low preset at 1080p yields 152.4 FPS, but the jump from Low to Medium only costs 47.5 FPS while providing substantially better image quality, so Low is only advisable for competitive play.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset again proves optimal, producing 85.8 FPS average. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold and only 7.5 FPS below the High preset at 1080p, demonstrating that the RTX 4070 SUPER has ample headroom at this resolution. The High preset at 1440p drops to 65.7 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less margin for demanding scenes. For a locked 60 FPS experience with higher fidelity, High at 1440p works, but Medium is the better balance of smoothness and visual detail.

At 3840x2160, the data shifts decisively. The Medium preset averages 70.1 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that clears the 60 FPS mark. The High preset falls to 50.4 FPS, and Ultra drops to 41.3 FPS, both of which introduce noticeable stutter in a horror game where smooth camera movement is critical. The Low preset at 4K hits 110.4 FPS, but the visual degradation is severe. Therefore, Medium at 4K is the recommended preset for this combo, offering the best compromise between atmosphere and responsiveness.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing for The Medium. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the game’s high-resolution textures. The GPU’s 7168 shading units and 56 RT cores are fully utilized, as evidenced by the performance scaling between presets. The boost clock of 2475 MHz allows the card to sustain high throughput, and the data shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at all resolutions tested.

This is most apparent when comparing the 1080p Low preset (152.4 FPS) to the 1440p Low preset (139.3 FPS). The modest 13.1 FPS drop indicates that the GPU is still the limiting factor even at lower settings, as a CPU-bound scenario would show a larger gap. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s FP32 throughput of 35.48 TFLOPS ensures that the render pipeline is never starved, and the 80 ROPs deliver the pixel fill rate needed for the game’s lighting effects. The GPU’s 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms its high-end positioning, sitting close to the RTX A6000 in aggregate benchmarks.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound curve. At Medium settings, the combo delivers 104.9 FPS at 1080p, drops to 85.8 FPS at 1440p, and further to 70.1 FPS at 4K. This represents a 33% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is relatively mild and indicates that the GPU has enough compute headroom to handle the increased pixel count without collapsing. The High preset shows a steeper decline: 76.8 FPS at 1080p, 65.7 FPS at 1440p, and 50.4 FPS at 4K, a 34% total drop.

The Ultra preset demonstrates the most aggressive scaling, falling from 61 FPS at 1080p to 48.5 FPS at 1440p and finally 41.3 FPS at 4K. This 32% reduction shows that Ultra’s additional effects tax the GPU heavily, and the 4K result falls below playable thresholds. The Low preset maintains the highest absolute numbers (152.4 → 139.3 → 110.4 FPS) but still shows a 28% drop from 1080p to 4K. This consistent pattern across all settings confirms that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the limiting component, and the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are not holding back performance at any resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination achieves a rank of 265 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 15.7% of all configurations. This is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU, and the data suggests the pairing is well-balanced for this title. The CPU itself holds an 82nd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25064. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (deltaPct 0), the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (deltaPct -0.1), and the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (deltaPct 0.3), indicating that the 8400F sits in a competitive performance band.

The GPU’s 84th percentile ranking is slightly higher than the CPU’s, which explains why the combo performs better than the sum of its parts might suggest. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (deltaPct -0.2), shows that the GPU is near the top of its class. This combination of a slightly above-average CPU and a high-end GPU results in a configuration that handles The Medium’s demanding environments without notable CPU bottlenecks, as evidenced by the smooth scaling across resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The Medium preset at 3840x2160 delivers 70.1 FPS average, which is the only 4K setting above 60 FPS. The High preset drops to 50.4 FPS, and Ultra falls to 41.3 FPS.

Q: How does this combo perform at 1080p compared to 1440p?

A: At 1080p Medium, the combo averages 104.9 FPS, while at 1440p Medium it averages 85.8 FPS. The 19.1 FPS difference shows that the GPU maintains strong performance at both resolutions.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The frame rate scales consistently with resolution changes (from 152.4 FPS at 1080p Low to 110.4 FPS at 4K Low), which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance.

Q: What frame rate can I expect on the Ultra preset at 1440p?

A: The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 produces an average of 48.5 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and may feel less smooth during fast camera movements.

Q: How does this combo rank relative to other tested configurations?

A: It ranks 265th out of 1689 combos, placing it in the top 15.7% of all systems tested in The Medium. The CPU ranks in the 82nd percentile and the GPU in the 84th percentile of their respective categories.

Q: Does the Low preset offer a significant performance boost over Medium?

A: Yes, at 1080p the Low preset achieves 152.4 FPS compared to Medium’s 104.9 FPS, a 47.5 FPS increase. However, the visual quality reduction is substantial, making Medium the better choice for most players.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured average frame rates for this combo is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces 152.4 FPS, Medium produces 104.9 FPS, High produces 76.8 FPS, and Ultra produces 61 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 139.3 FPS, Medium averages 85.8 FPS, High averages 65.7 FPS, and Ultra averages 48.5 FPS. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 110.4 FPS, Medium averages 70.1 FPS, High averages 50.4 FPS, and Ultra averages 41.3 FPS.

These numbers illustrate a consistent pattern: the RTX 4070 SUPER provides a 20-30% performance uplift when moving from High to Medium settings across all resolutions, while the jump from Medium to Low adds another 45-57% headroom. The Ultra preset is consistently the most demanding, and its 4K result of 41.3 FPS is the only measured value below 45 FPS. The data shows no anomalous spikes or drops, confirming that the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F maintains stable frame delivery without introducing CPU-related hitches. For players prioritizing smoothness, Medium at any resolution is the safest choice, while High is viable only at 1080p and 1440p.