The Medium

The Medium, a horror title built around a fixed-camera perspective and dual-reality rendering, presents a demanding workload that scales predictably with resolution on this AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination. The measured data shows a clear progression of average frame rates across the three tested resolutions, with the GPU becoming the dominant bottleneck at higher settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 151.3 FPS on Low, 124.4 FPS on Medium, 89.2 FPS on High, and 69.7 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, those figures drop to 146.4, 106.7, 78.4, and 58.9 FPS respectively. At 3840x2160, the performance falls further to 134.2 FPS on Low, 86.3 FPS on Medium, 58.3 FPS on High, and 46.0 FPS on Ultra. The frame rate deltas between 1080p and 4K reveal how the RTX 5080’s raw throughput is taxed by the game’s unique rendering demands.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K produces a substantial but uneven performance penalty, depending on the graphics preset. On Low settings, the drop from 151.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 134.2 FPS at 3840x2160 is a relatively modest 11.3% reduction, suggesting that at lower graphical loads, the CPU and memory subsystem still contribute meaningively to overall throughput. The Medium preset shows a larger scaling hit, falling from 124.4 FPS to 86.3 FPS, a 30.6% decrease, indicating the GPU starts to become the limiting factor as shader complexity increases. High settings exhibit the steepest relative drop in this dataset: 89.2 FPS at 1080p versus 58.3 FPS at 4K, a 34.6% decline. Ultra settings follow a similar pattern, with 69.7 FPS at 1080p sinking to 46.0 FPS at 4K, a 34.0% reduction.

This scaling behavior reveals that The Medium’s rendering engine is heavily pixel-bound at higher resolutions, particularly when advanced effects are enabled. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is enormous — 134.2 FPS versus 46.0 FPS — which is a 65.7% performance spread, far wider than the 53.9% spread seen at 1080p (151.3 FPS versus 69.7 FPS). At 1440p, the spread is 59.8% (146.4 FPS versus 58.9 FPS). The data indicates that the RTX 5080, with its 56.28 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, has enough headroom at 1080p and 1440p for most presets, but at 4K, the Ultra preset pushes the GPU to its limits, barely maintaining a playable average. The 16 GB GDDR7 frame buffer is not the constraint here; rather, the sheer pixel count combined with the game’s layered scene rendering drives the steep scaling curve.

FAQ

Q: How does the combo perform at 1080p on High settings?

A: The average frame rate is 89.2 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings. This is above the 60 FPS threshold and indicates smooth gameplay for most scenes, though it is notably lower than the 124.4 FPS seen on Medium.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this setup?

A: At 3840x2160, the combo achieves 58.3 FPS on High and 46.0 FPS on Ultra, which are playable but not ideal for high-refresh-rate displays. Low settings at 4K hit 134.2 FPS, but that preset reduces graphical fidelity significantly.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p?

A: Medium settings at 2560x1440 produce 106.7 FPS, which offers a strong balance of performance and visual quality. High settings drop to 78.4 FPS, still playable, while Ultra falls to 58.9 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU’s benchmark score relate to gaming performance?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F has an average benchmark score of 25064, and its percentile versus all CPUs is 82. This places it in the upper tier of processors, but the measured FPS data shows that the GPU, not the CPU, limits frame rates at higher resolutions and presets.

Q: Does the RTX 5080’s high benchmark score translate to consistent frame rates?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score is 59188, with a percentile versus all GPUs of 89. However, in The Medium, the Ultra preset at 4K still only reaches 46.0 FPS, showing that even a top-tier GPU is challenged by this specific game’s workload.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings deliver 146.4 FPS, while Ultra delivers 58.9 FPS. This 87.5 FPS gap represents a 59.8% reduction, highlighting the significant cost of enabling the highest graphical features.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 124.4 FPS, which is 35.2 FPS higher than High (89.2 FPS) and 54.7 FPS higher than Ultra (69.7 FPS). The jump from Medium to High costs roughly 28.3% of the frame rate at 1080p, while High to Ultra costs another 21.9%. At 2560x1440, Medium hits 106.7 FPS, which is a solid target for most displays; High drops to 78.4 FPS, and Ultra to 58.9 FPS. The 1440p Medium result is only 17.7% slower than the 1080p Medium result, indicating that this preset scales well with resolution.

For 3840x2160, the situation changes. Medium produces 86.3 FPS, which is respectable, but High falls to 58.3 FPS, and Ultra to 46.0 FPS. The data suggests that for 4K gaming, Medium is the highest preset that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS, while High is acceptable for those who prioritize visuals over frame rate stability. The Ultra preset at any resolution is difficult to recommend, as it provides diminishing returns over High while incurring a 20-21% frame rate penalty. For players with high-refresh-rate monitors at 1080p or 1440p, Medium or High are the sensible choices; for 4K, Medium is the clear winner in this dataset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces a full range of results across presets. Low settings average 151.3 FPS, making it the fastest configuration in the entire dataset. Medium reaches 124.4 FPS, a 17.8% reduction from Low. High drops to 89.2 FPS, which is a 28.3% further reduction from Medium. Ultra is the slowest at 1080p with 69.7 FPS, a 21.9% drop from High. The total spread from Low to Ultra at this resolution is 81.6 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 146.4 FPS, only 4.9 FPS below the 1080p Low result, showing that the GPU still has headroom at this resolution. Medium yields 106.7 FPS, a 27.1% decrease from Low. High produces 78.4 FPS, a 26.5% drop from Medium. Ultra finishes at 58.9 FPS, a 24.9% reduction from High. The 1440p results are consistently 2.8% to 14.2% slower than their 1080p counterparts, with the gap widening as settings increase.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is taxed more heavily. Low still manages 134.2 FPS, which is 11.3% slower than 1080p Low. Medium falls to 86.3 FPS, a 35.7% decrease from Low and a 30.6% drop from the 1080p Medium result. High averages 58.3 FPS, which is 32.4% below Medium and 34.6% below 1080p High. Ultra is the slowest configuration in the entire dataset at 46.0 FPS, a 21.1% reduction from High and a 34.0% drop from 1080p Ultra. The 4K Ultra result is the only measurement below 50 FPS, indicating that this setting pushes the hardware to its limit.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination ranks 74th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the top 4.4% of all configurations in the database, which is a strong showing given the game’s demanding nature. The rank reflects the GPU’s high average benchmark score of 59188 and the CPU’s solid 25064 average score. The GPU’s percentile versus all GPUs is 89, meaning it outperforms 89% of tested graphics cards, while the CPU’s percentile versus all CPUs is 82.

The rank is more indicative of the GPU’s capabilities than the CPU’s, as the measured FPS data shows larger drops from resolution scaling than from preset changes at lower resolutions. The combo’s 74th position suggests that only 73 other CPU-GPU pairings deliver higher average frame rates in this specific title, which is notable for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The nearest rivals for the CPU include the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (avg score 25057, delta 0%), the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 (25099, -0.1%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F (24993, 0.3%). These small deltas confirm that the 8400F is competitive with other processors in its class, though the game’s performance is ultimately driven by the RTX 5080’s 56.28 TFLOPS of compute power.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F brings 6 cores and 12 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture and codenamed Phoenix. Its base clock is 4.20 GHz with a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, and it has a 65 W TDP. The CPU’s cache configuration includes 64 KB L1 per core, 1 MB L2 per core, and 16 MB shared L3. These specifications are modest by modern standards, but the benchmark data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in The Medium. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 151.3 FPS, which is close to the CPU’s practical limit for this game, but at higher resolutions and presets, the GPU takes over as the limiting component.

The CPU’s multi-threaded performance, as measured by Cinebench R23, is 20851 points (multicore) and 2943 points (singlecore). The 3DMark 16-thread score is 6091, and the 2-thread score is 1874, showing that the CPU scales well with additional threads. However, The Medium’s fixed-camera rendering and heavy pixel shading mean that the GPU’s 10752 shading units and 336 texture mapping units are far more influential on frame rates. The CPU’s dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient to feed the RTX 5080, as evidenced by the relatively small frame rate differences between 1080p and 1440p on Low settings (151.3 versus 146.4 FPS). The data suggests that the 8400F’s 6-core, 12-thread configuration is adequate for this title, and the 82nd percentile CPU score confirms it sits above most processors in the database, allowing the RTX 5080 to perform near its potential.