The Medium

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate for this combo at 1080p with High settings in The Medium?

A: The measured average frame rate is 64 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings.

Q: How does the Intel Core i3-12100F compare to its closest rival in CPU benchmarks?

A: The i3-12100F scores 13516 on average, which is 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (13534) and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i7-1250U (13462).

Q: What is the memory configuration of the AMD Radeon RX 9070?

A: The GPU comes with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations in The Medium?

A: This combo ranks 510th out of 1689 total tested combos.

Q: Does the RX 9070 support hardware ray tracing?

A: Yes, it includes 56 ray tracing cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2).

Q: What is the GPU's average benchmark score and percentile standing?

A: The RX 9070 has an average benchmark score of 34780, placing it in the 79th percentile among all GPUs.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture using a 4 nm process at TSMC, with the Navi 48 chip containing 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1330 MHz, a boost clock of 2520 MHz, and a game clock of 2070 MHz, while memory runs at 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective). With 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units, the card delivers 322.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 564.5 GTexel/s texture rate, plus 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 compute.

For The Medium, the GPU's 16 GB VRAM buffer is substantial for a horror title known for its dual-reality rendering mechanic. The measured FPS data shows the card handling the game's memory demands comfortably even at 4K, where the lowest preset still achieves 95.6 FPS. The 644.6 GB/s memory bandwidth appears sufficient for the game's streaming requirements, as the performance scaling between settings follows a predictable pattern rather than showing signs of VRAM capacity stalling. The GPU's 79th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 34780, places it near the NVIDIA A2 (34866, 0.2% higher) and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 (34541, 0.7% lower), though these benchmark rivals do not necessarily reflect gaming performance parity.

The FP32 throughput of 36.13 TFLOPS and the FP16 rate of 72.25 TFLOPS (2:1) suggest strong raw compute that should handle the game's fixed-camera scenes and pre-rendered transitions efficiently. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support with hardware ray tracing cores (56 total) means the GPU is technically equipped for any of the game's modern rendering features, though the measured data focuses on standard rasterization presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear resolution scaling pattern across all four settings presets. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings drops the average from 64 FPS to 55.1 FPS, a reduction of 8.9 FPS. Going from 1440p to 4K at High settings further reduces the average to 43.7 FPS, another 11.4 FPS decline. At Low settings, the same progression shows 139.5 FPS at 1080p, 119.1 FPS at 1440p, and 95.6 FPS at 4K. The Medium preset yields 91 FPS at 1080p, 73 FPS at 1440p, and 60.6 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings are the most demanding, producing 50.7 FPS at 1080p, 39.3 FPS at 1440p, and 34.5 FPS at 4K.

The consistent frame rate drops across resolutions indicate that the RX 9070 remains the primary limiting component throughout this range. At 1080p Low, the 139.5 FPS average suggests the CPU is still keeping pace, since a CPU bottleneck would typically show more erratic scaling. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is proportionally larger than the gap between 1440p and 4K for most presets, which is typical for a GPU where pixel throughput becomes increasingly dominant at higher resolutions. The data implies that users aiming for high refresh rates would need to stay at 1080p with Medium or Low settings, while 4K gaming is only viable on the Low preset if targeting 60 FPS or above. The 4K Medium result of 60.6 FPS sits right at the edge of smooth playability, making it a borderline choice depending on the user's tolerance for occasional dips.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide clear guidance for optimizing the experience in The Medium. For 1080p displays, Medium settings deliver 91 FPS, which offers a smooth experience while maintaining visual fidelity above the Low preset's 139.5 FPS. High settings at 1080p drop to 64 FPS, which is still playable but sacrifices nearly 30% of the Medium preset's frame rate for presumably modest visual gains. Ultra at 1080p produces 50.7 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold that many players prefer for action sequences.

At 1440p, Medium settings provide 73 FPS, which represents the best balance between image quality and performance. High settings at 1440p yield 55.1 FPS, which may be acceptable for a slower-paced horror title but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. Low at 1440p produces 119.1 FPS, which would benefit players with high refresh rate monitors. Ultra at 1440p drops to 39.3 FPS, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

For 4K resolution, the data shows a stark choice. Low settings achieve 95.6 FPS, which is excellent for 4K gaming, but Medium drops to 60.6 FPS and High falls to 43.7 FPS. Ultra at 4K produces 34.5 FPS, which is generally considered too low for a playable experience. The Medium preset at 4K offers the best compromise, hitting just above 60 FPS while providing better visuals than Low. The recommendation across all resolutions is to prioritize Medium settings, which consistently deliver frame rates at or above 60 FPS for 1080p and 1440p, and barely reach 60 FPS at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

This particular combination of Intel Core i3-12100F and AMD Radeon RX 9070 ranks 510th out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the upper third of all combinations tested, indicating solid performance relative to the broader database. The CPU itself sits in the 72nd percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 13516, while the GPU ranks in the 79th percentile with an average score of 34780. The slightly higher GPU percentile suggests that the graphics card is the stronger component in this pairing, which aligns with the resolution scaling data showing the GPU as the primary performance limiter.

The combo rank of 510 out of 1689 suggests that while this pairing is capable, there are 509 combinations that achieve higher frame rates in The Medium. Given that the CPU ranks 72nd percentile and the GPU ranks 79th percentile, the combo underperforms relative to what each component's individual percentile might suggest. This could indicate that The Medium is somewhat sensitive to CPU performance, or that the game's fixed-camera angles and detailed environments create specific bottlenecks that favor other hardware configurations. The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals show very tight competition: the i3-12100F is only 0.1% behind the Threadripper PRO 3975WX and 0.4% ahead of the i7-1250U, suggesting that CPU choice within this performance band has minimal impact on overall results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combo in The Medium covers three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the results are: Low 139.5 FPS, Medium 91 FPS, High 64 FPS, and Ultra 50.7 FPS. At 2560x1440, the results are: Low 119.1 FPS, Medium 73 FPS, High 55.1 FPS, and Ultra 39.3 FPS. At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 95.6 FPS, Medium 60.6 FPS, High 43.7 FPS, and Ultra 34.5 FPS.

The scaling between settings at each resolution follows a consistent pattern. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium reduces frame rate by 48.5 FPS (from 139.5 to 91), while moving from Medium to High reduces it by 27 FPS (from 91 to 64), and High to Ultra reduces it by 13.3 FPS (from 64 to 50.7). At 1440p, the same progression yields reductions of 46.1 FPS (Low to Medium), 17.9 FPS (Medium to High), and 15.8 FPS (High to Ultra). At 4K, the reductions are 35 FPS (Low to Medium), 16.9 FPS (Medium to High), and 9.2 FPS (High to Ultra). The diminishing returns at higher settings are most pronounced at 1080p, where the jump from Low to Medium is particularly large. The 4K data shows the smallest absolute differences between presets, which is consistent with the GPU becoming the dominant bottleneck at higher pixel counts.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on Alder Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 10 nm process with a 163 mm² die size. It operates with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a TDP of 58 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 lanes. Its average benchmark score of 13516 places it in the 72nd percentile among all CPUs.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's benchmark results reveal interesting characteristics. The 3DMark tests show 4051 for 16 threads, 4026 for 8 threads, and 4023 for max threads, indicating that the 4-core/8-thread configuration scales well up to 8 threads but shows minimal gains beyond that. The single-thread score of 893 in 3DMark and 1681 in Cinebench R23 single-core suggest strong per-core performance, which is relevant for a game that may rely on a few heavily loaded threads. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11912 demonstrates that the 4-core design can still deliver competitive multithreaded performance for its class.

The measured FPS data indicates that the CPU does not appear to be the limiting factor in most scenarios. At 1080p Low, the 139.5 FPS average suggests the CPU can feed frames well above typical display refresh rates. Even at 1080p Medium with 91 FPS, the CPU maintains adequate throughput. The nearest rivals for this CPU — the Threadripper PRO 3975WX (0.1% higher), i7-1250U (0.4% lower), i3-10105 (0.6% lower), and i7-7700K (1.8% lower) — all have similar average scores, indicating that any of these would likely produce comparable results in The Medium. The CPU's 58 W TDP and 12 MB L3 cache are modest but sufficient for this title, which appears to rely more heavily on GPU performance based on the resolution scaling analysis.