The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers a robust 1080p and 1440p experience in The Medium, with 4K Ultra proving demanding. The data shows that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset achieves an average of 129 FPS, which is 47 FPS higher than the Ultra preset’s 82 FPS and only 25 FPS lower than the Low preset’s 154 FPS. At 2560x1440, Medium produces 122 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold, while Ultra drops to 69 FPS. At 3840x2160, Medium maintains 95 FPS, whereas High falls to 68 FPS and Ultra to 54 FPS. For users prioritizing smooth gameplay with high visual quality, the Medium preset is the recommended starting point, as it keeps average FPS above 90 even at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows indicate that the Medium preset provides the most consistent experience across all three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset yields an average of 129 FPS with a minimum of 109 FPS and a maximum of 148 FPS, demonstrating tight frame pacing. The High preset at the same resolution delivers 103 FPS, while Ultra drops to 82 FPS, showing a steep performance penalty for the highest settings. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 122 FPS with a minimum of 103 FPS, which is still well above the refresh rate of most standard monitors. The High preset at 1440p produces 87 FPS, and Ultra falls to 69 FPS, indicating that the jump from Medium to High costs 35 FPS, while Ultra costs another 18 FPS. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset’s 95 FPS average is the only setting above 90 FPS, with High at 68 FPS and Ultra at 54 FPS. The Low preset, while reaching 135 FPS at 4K, sacrifices too much visual detail for a marginal gain over Medium in lower resolutions. Benchmark results suggest that for users with high-refresh-rate 1080p or 1440p displays, the Medium preset is ideal, while 4K users should consider Medium as the ceiling for playable performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This memory configuration is substantial for The Medium, a horror title that can utilize large textures and high-resolution assets. The GPU’s base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and its memory runs at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed. The card’s 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines contribute to its raw throughput. In the benchmark results, the RTX 5090 D achieves a passmark G3D score of 44065 and a passmark GPU compute score of 28396, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 77712 is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, though these rivals are mobile parts. The GPU’s performance in The Medium is primarily limited by the CPU at lower resolutions, as indicated by the relatively small FPS gains from 1440p to 1080p. At 4K, the GPU becomes the dominant factor, with the High preset dropping to 68 FPS and Ultra to 54 FPS, showing that the card’s compute power is stretched by the game’s highest settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 68th out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 2.3% of all configurations. This high ranking reflects the GPU’s strong benchmark performance, as the RTX 5090 D sits in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs. The CPU, while not top-tier, holds its own with a 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs. The combo’s rank of 68 indicates that it outperforms the vast majority of tested systems, but it is not the absolute best, likely due to CPU limitations at lower resolutions. In comparison to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RTX 5090 D’s average score of 77712 is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT’s 76904 and 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT’s 78940. The CPU’s nearest rivals show a tighter grouping, with the Ryzen 5 8400F’s average score of 25005 being 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F’s 24964 and 0.4% higher than the Intel Core i7-13620H’s 24911. This suggests that the combo’s ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU, which is expected given the game’s graphical demands.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS across settings shows a clear hierarchy. The Low preset averages 154 FPS, the Medium preset averages 129 FPS with a minimum of 109 and maximum of 148, the High preset averages 103 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 82 FPS. The transition from Low to Medium costs 25 FPS, from Medium to High costs 26 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 21 FPS, indicating a relatively even performance drop per settings tier. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 146 FPS, Medium averages 122 FPS with a minimum of 103 and maximum of 140, High averages 87 FPS, and Ultra averages 69 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 24 FPS, from Medium to High is 35 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 18 FPS, showing that the High preset is particularly expensive at 1440p. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 135 FPS, Medium averages 95 FPS with a minimum of 81 and maximum of 110, High averages 68 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 40 FPS, from Medium to High is 27 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 14 FPS. These numbers reveal that at 4K, the Medium preset is the most balanced, while the High and Ultra settings push the GPU to its limits.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 varies significantly by settings preset, revealing the limiting component. For the Medium preset, the average FPS drops from 129 at 1080p to 122 at 1440p, a reduction of 7 FPS, and then to 95 at 4K, a further reduction of 27 FPS. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 34 FPS, or roughly 26%. For the High preset, the average FPS drops from 103 at 1080p to 87 at 1440p, a reduction of 16 FPS, and then to 68 at 4K, a further reduction of 19 FPS. The total drop is 35 FPS, or about 34%. For the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 154 at 1080p to 146 at 1440p, a reduction of 8 FPS, and then to 135 at 4K, a further reduction of 11 FPS. The total drop is 19 FPS, or about 12%. The Ultra preset shows the largest relative drop, from 82 at 1080p to 69 at 1440p, a reduction of 13 FPS, and then to 54 at 4K, a further reduction of 15 FPS. The total drop is 28 FPS, or about 34%. The relatively small FPS difference between 1080p and 1440p for the Low and Medium presets suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor at these resolutions, as the GPU has headroom to render more pixels. However, the larger drop from 1440p to 4K indicates that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as pixel count increases, particularly for the High and Ultra presets.

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. It features 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU’s benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20851 and a single-core score of 2943, placing it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. In The Medium, the CPU’s role is evident in the 1080p and 1440p results, where the FPS differences between settings are smaller than at 4K. For example, at 1080p, the Low preset averages 154 FPS, while the Medium preset averages 129 FPS, a difference of 25 FPS. At 1440p, the difference between Low and Medium is 24 FPS, nearly identical. This suggests that the CPU is able to feed the GPU enough frames at these resolutions, and the FPS is limited by the GPU’s rendering capabilities. However, at 4K, the difference between Low and Medium grows to 40 FPS, indicating that the GPU is now the bottleneck, and the CPU has less impact on the final frame rate. The CPU’s single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 at 2943, is sufficient for the game’s logic and physics, but the 6-core, 12-thread configuration may limit performance in highly threaded scenes. The CPU’s nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, has an average score of 24964, which is 0.2% lower, showing that the 8400F is competitive in its class.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for The Medium with this hardware?

A: The Medium preset provides the best balance of performance and visual quality. It averages 129 FPS at 1080p, 122 FPS at 1440p, and 95 FPS at 4K, all above the 60 FPS threshold, while the Ultra preset drops to 54 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77712, which is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT’s 76904 and 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT’s 78940.

Q: What is the CPU’s ranking among all processors, and how does it affect game performance?

A: The Ryzen 5 8400F is in the 77th percentile of all CPUs. In The Medium, it limits performance at 1080p and 1440p, where FPS differences between Low and Medium presets are small, but at 4K the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 135 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 54 FPS, a difference of 81 FPS. The Medium preset sits in between at 95 FPS.

Q: How does the combo’s rank in The Medium compare to other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 68th out of 2911 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.3% of all systems tested for this game.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1440p, and is it stable?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 has a minimum FPS of 103 and a maximum of 140, with an average of 122 FPS, indicating stable performance with minimal frame drops.