The Medium

The Medium is a demanding title for any hardware, and the pairing of the Intel Core i3-12100F with the AMD Radeon RX 580 produces a specific set of performance characteristics that are heavily dictated by resolution and settings. The measured data reveals a system that can achieve playable frame rates only under specific conditions, while quickly becoming overwhelmed as graphical load increases. This analysis breaks down the observed FPS metrics across the tested resolutions, examines the roles of the GPU and CPU, and contextualizes the combo’s standing among 1,689 tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a dramatic and consistent drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, indicating that the graphics card is the primary limiting factor in this configuration. At the highest tested settings (Ultra), the average frame rate falls from 15.6 FPS at 1080p to 10.7 FPS at 4K, a decline of roughly 31% that renders the game unplayable at both resolutions. The pattern is similar at High settings, where the average drops from 22.9 FPS at 1080p to 12.8 FPS at 4K, a reduction of about 44%.

The scaling behavior changes significantly when settings are lowered. At Low settings, the average frame rate at 1920x1080 is 48.4 FPS, which is nearly playable, but this falls to 34.3 FPS at 3840x2160 — a 29% drop. The Medium preset shows a similar trend, with averages of 31.8 FPS at 1080p and 19.8 FPS at 4K. The fact that the 1080p Low result is more than three times faster than the 4K Ultra result (48.4 vs. 10.7 FPS) strongly suggests that the RX 580’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth are being saturated at higher resolutions, while the CPU has enough headroom to keep feeding frames.

The data also reveals that the gap between 1440p and 4K is smaller than the gap between 1080p and 1440p at most settings. For instance, at High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 6.3 FPS (22.9 to 16.6), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is only 3.8 FPS (16.6 to 12.8). This nonlinear scaling implies that the GPU is already working near its limit at 1440p High, and additional resolution increases yield diminishing absolute frame rate losses, even though the percentage decline remains steep. The practical takeaway is that this combo is only viable for smooth play at 1080p with Low settings, and anything higher requires significant compromises.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580, with its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus and a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s, is the decisive component in these results. The card’s base clock of 1257 MHz and boost clock of 1340 MHz, combined with 2304 shading units, place it in the 53rd percentile of all GPUs, which aligns with the observed mid-range performance. Its measured scores, such as a Passmark G3D score of 8813 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 37453, confirm that it is a capable but aging part that struggles with modern, graphically intensive titles like The Medium.

The VRAM capacity is not the bottleneck here, as 8 GB is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the raw compute power is. The card’s FP32 performance of 6.175 TFLOPS is simply not enough to maintain high frame rates in a game that uses heavy post-processing and volumetric effects. The data supports this: at 1440p High, the average FPS is just 16.6, and at 4K Ultra, it collapses to 10.7. Even at the lowest settings, the GPU cannot push past 48.4 FPS at 1080p, indicating that it is never fully idle and is always the performance ceiling.

The RX 580’s DirectX 12 support (12_0) is present, but its Passmark DirectX 12 score of 43 is notably lower than its DirectX 11 score of 60, suggesting that the architecture is not optimally efficient in newer APIs. This is relevant because The Medium likely uses DirectX 12, which could explain why the frame rates are lower than expected for a card that performs better in older benchmarks. The card’s 14 nm process node and 5,700 million transistors also indicate its age, and the data shows that it is outpaced by even modest modern GPUs, though it remains competitive with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 and GTX 570, which have similar average benchmark scores (13549 and 13564, respectively).

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor from the Alder Lake-S architecture, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. Its 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 10 nm process node give it strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by a Geekbench single-core score of 2224 and a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1681. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 13516 places it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, which is notably higher than the GPU’s 53rd percentile, reinforcing that the processor is not the primary constraint.

In this game, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and handle game logic, and the data suggests it does this adequately. The 3DMark scores show that the processor scales well with thread count, going from 1659 in the 2-thread test to 4051 in the 16-thread test, which means it can handle multi-threaded workloads without significant degradation. However, the game’s frame rates do not increase proportionally when resolution drops, which would happen if the CPU were the bottleneck — instead, they increase, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario.

The i3-12100F’s nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks include the Intel Core i7-7700K, which is just 1.8% slower, and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, which is 0.1% slower. This shows that the i3-12100F is a strong performer for its class, but its 4 cores are still a limitation for heavily threaded games. In The Medium, the measured FPS at 1080p Low is 48.4, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, and this is likely due to the GPU’s inability to render frames faster, not the CPU. The processor’s Passmark single-thread score of 3444 is robust, and its Cinebench R20 multicore score of 5003 suggests it can handle the game’s background tasks, but the overall performance is capped by the RX 580.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for playable performance?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 with Low settings yields an average of 48.4 FPS, which is the only configuration approaching playability. At Medium settings, the average drops to 31.8 FPS, and at High it falls to 22.9 FPS, so Low settings at 1080p is the only viable option for a smooth experience.

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

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The CPU’s average benchmark score ranks in the 72nd percentile, while the GPU ranks in the 53rd percentile. Furthermore, FPS scales significantly with resolution changes, which is a classic sign of a GPU-bound workload.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest rivals in terms of benchmark scores?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 13559, which is essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13564, 0% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 (13549, 0.1% delta). It is also 1.1% faster than the AMD Radeon Pro 455 (13416).

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM on the RX 580 help with high-resolution textures?

A: The 8 GB VRAM is not the primary issue, as the bottleneck is compute performance. The card’s FP32 throughput of 6.175 TFLOPS is insufficient for high settings, and the measured FPS at 4K Ultra is just 10.7, which indicates the GPU is overwhelmed regardless of VRAM capacity.

Q: What is the CPU’s single-thread performance relative to its multi-thread performance?

A: The i3-12100F scores 2224 in Geekbench single-core and 7413 in multi-core, showing strong single-thread capability. Its Cinebench R23 single-core score is 1681, while the multi-core score is 11912, indicating that while it has good per-core speed, its 4-core limit prevents higher multi-threaded scaling.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations for this game?

A: The combo ranks 1562 out of 1689 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 8% of systems. This is consistent with the low FPS numbers, which show that this hardware is not well-suited for the game’s demands.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F + AMD Radeon RX 580 combination ranks 1562nd out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 7.5% of all systems. This low ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU’s performance, which is the limiting factor, and it places this setup well below the median experience. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 13559 is slightly below the CPU’s average of 13516, but the GPU’s percentile rank of 53 is much lower than the CPU’s 72, indicating a severe imbalance that favors the processor.

In practical terms, this rank means that most other tested configurations will deliver higher frame rates at equivalent settings. For example, the nearest GPU rivals, the GTX 570 and GTX 950, have nearly identical average scores, but the overall combo rank is likely dragged down by the CPU’s relatively low core count for this specific title. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-7700K, is only 1.8% faster in average benchmark score, but that small difference is unlikely to change the frame rate outcomes significantly, as the GPU remains the bottleneck.

Ultimately that this combo is positioned at the fringe of playability for The Medium. The 1080p Low average of 48.4 FPS is the only bright spot, while 1440p and 4K are effectively unplayable at any settings above Low. The rank of 1562 out of 1689 accurately reflects the experience: only 127 other combos perform worse, meaning the vast majority of systems will offer a better experience. This is a legacy pairing that struggles with modern horror titles, and the data confirms that it is not recommended for this specific game.