The Medium

The Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT combination delivers a playable experience in The Medium, but the scaling pattern reveals a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics card at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 117.3 FPS, but this drops to 96.2 FPS at 1440p Low and further to 73.4 FPS at 4K Low. This 37.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K on Low settings indicates that even at the lowest graphical load, the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The pattern intensifies at High settings: 48.8 FPS at 1080p, 40.4 FPS at 1440p, and 32.3 FPS at 4K. The frame rate degradation from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 33.8%, which is a clear signal that the RX 6750 XT is struggling to maintain performance as pixel count rises, while the i3-12100F has ample headroom to feed the GPU.

The most telling evidence of GPU limitation comes from the Ultra preset. At 1080p Ultra, the combo achieves 43 FPS, which falls to 34.8 FPS at 1440p Ultra and 29.3 FPS at 4K Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra at any given resolution is enormous: at 1080p, the difference is 74.3 FPS (117.3 vs 43). This massive spread shows that the game’s visual fidelity settings have a far greater impact on performance than resolution changes, which is typical of a title where the GPU’s shading and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors. The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on the RX 6750 XT is not the issue at 4K; rather, the 13.31 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and the 432.0 GB/s bandwidth are simply insufficient to push high frame rates at 4K Ultra.

How This Combo Ranks

The data places this combination at rank 853 out of 1689 tested combinations in The Medium. This percentile placement—roughly the 50th percentile—indicates that while this setup is not a top-tier performer, it sits firmly in the middle of the pack for this specific title. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 13516 places it at the 72nd percentile among all CPUs, which is respectable for a quad-core part. However, the GPU’s average benchmark score of 35327 places it at the 79th percentile among all GPUs, suggesting that the graphics card is the stronger component in this pairing.

When comparing to nearest rivals, the i3-12100F’s performance is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX, with a delta of -0.1%, meaning the 4-core, 8-thread Intel part essentially matches a high-end workstation processor in average benchmark score. The CPU also edges out the Intel Core i7-7700K by 1.8%, demonstrating that Alder Lake’s architecture provides competitive single-thread and multi-thread performance despite having fewer physical cores. On the GPU side, the RX 6750 XT is within 0.2% of the AMD Radeon RX 5600M and trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 by only 1.3% in average benchmark score. This suggests that in synthetic tests, the RX 6750 XT punches above its class, but in The Medium specifically, the combo’s mid-pack ranking reflects the game’s demanding nature.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data strongly suggests that players should avoid the Ultra preset at all resolutions. At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 43 FPS, which is borderline playable but not smooth for a horror title that benefits from consistent frame pacing. The High preset at 1080p offers 48.8 FPS, which is a marginal improvement but still below the 60 FPS threshold that most players prefer. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers 74.4 FPS, which is a substantial jump of 25.6 FPS over High and represents the best balance between visual quality and performance at this resolution.

For 1440p, the data shows that Medium settings are the sweet spot, achieving 58.3 FPS. This is comfortably above the 40.4 FPS seen at High and the 34.8 FPS at Ultra. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 96.2 FPS, but the visual sacrifice is likely too severe for a game that relies on atmospheric horror. At 4K, the situation is more challenging. The Medium preset yields 47.7 FPS, which is playable, but the High preset drops to 32.3 FPS and Ultra to 29.3 FPS. Given these numbers, the recommended configuration is Medium settings at any resolution, as it consistently provides the highest frame rate that remains visually acceptable without the drastic drop of High or Ultra.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum frame rate achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 117.3 at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i3-12100F scores 13516 on average, which is 0.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534).

Q: Is the GPU memory sufficient for 4K gaming in this title?

A: The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, and the data shows 4K Medium achieves 47.7 FPS, indicating memory capacity is not the limiting factor.

Q: What is the rank of this combo among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 853 out of 1689 tested combinations in The Medium.

Q: How much faster is the GPU than its closest competitor in average score?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT has an average score of 35327, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 5600M (35264).

Q: Does lowering resolution from 1440p to 1080p always improve FPS?

A: Yes, at every settings level, 1080p produces higher FPS than 1440p, with the largest gain at Low (21.1 FPS increase).

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured performance. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2150 MHz and a boost clock of 2600 MHz, with a game clock of 2495 MHz. This high clock speed, combined with 2560 shading units and 160 texture mapping units, provides substantial raw compute power. The 64 ROPs handle pixel output, and the pixel rate of 166.4 GPixel/s is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but insufficient for 4K at high settings.

The memory subsystem is a critical factor. The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is sufficient for the game’s texture streaming at 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K Ultra, the combination of higher pixel count and demanding shaders causes the FPS to drop to 29.3. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 13.31 TFLOPS is the key metric here; it allows for smooth 1080p Medium at 74.4 FPS, but the 4K High result of 32.3 FPS indicates that the compute units are saturated. The GPU’s 7 nm process node and 17,200 million transistors on a 335 mm² die size contribute to its efficiency, but the 250 W TDP shows that it draws significant power under load.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. This Alder Lake-S architecture part has a 12 MB shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory. The CPU’s benchmark scores reveal its strengths: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11912 and a single-core score of 1681 indicate strong per-thread performance. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 1659 and 4-thread score of 2859 show that the CPU can handle lightly-threaded workloads efficiently.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is less critical than the GPU. The data shows that the combo achieves 117.3 FPS at 1080p Low, which is far above the 60 FPS target, suggesting the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower settings. Even at 4K Low, the 73.4 FPS result indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU enough data at high resolutions. The CPU’s percentile rank of 72 among all CPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 13516, places it in the upper-middle tier. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-7700K, scores 13280, which is 1.8% lower, confirming that the i3-12100F’s newer architecture provides a tangible advantage despite having fewer cores than many competitors.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset provides a detailed view of performance across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo produces 117.3 FPS on Low, 74.4 FPS on Medium, 48.8 FPS on High, and 43 FPS on Ultra. The transition from Low to Medium costs 42.9 FPS, while moving from Medium to High costs 25.6 FPS, and High to Ultra only costs 5.8 FPS. This diminishing returns pattern suggests that High and Ultra are poorly optimized relative to their visual impact.

At 2560x1440, the results are 96.2 FPS on Low, 58.3 FPS on Medium, 40.4 FPS on High, and 34.8 FPS on Ultra. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is 21.1 FPS, representing a 18% reduction. At Medium, the drop is 16.1 FPS (21.6% reduction), and at High, it is 8.4 FPS (17.2% reduction). The Ultra preset shows the smallest absolute drop at 8.2 FPS, but this is from an already low base.

At 3840x2160, the figures are 73.4 FPS on Low, 47.7 FPS on Medium, 32.3 FPS on High, and 29.3 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Low result is notably strong, suggesting that the game’s low settings reduce GPU load significantly. However, the 4K Ultra result of 29.3 FPS is below the 30 FPS threshold, making it effectively unplayable for most users. The data shows that the Medium preset at every resolution provides the most consistent experience, with 74.4 FPS at 1080p, 58.3 FPS at 1440p, and 47.7 FPS at 4K. These numbers indicate that this combo is best suited for 1080p Medium or 1440p Medium gaming, with 4K requiring significant settings compromises to maintain playable frame rates.