The Medium

The Medium presents a fascinating stress test for the Intel Core i3-12100F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER pairing. This combination ranks 278th out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the top 16.5% of all systems evaluated for this title. The ranking suggests a capable setup, but the measured frame rates reveal a more nuanced story about where the bottlenecks lie, particularly as resolution and settings scale. The data indicates a system that can deliver smooth gameplay but requires careful settings management to hit high refresh rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The 278th position out of 1689 combos places this system firmly in the upper quartile of tested configurations for The Medium. This is a strong showing, especially considering the CPU’s modest 4-core, 8-thread configuration. The RTX 4070 SUPER is clearly the dominant component, as its benchmark percentile of 84 versus the CPU’s 72 suggests the graphics card is doing the heavy lifting. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 13516 places it just 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX and a mere 0.4% behind the Intel Core i7-1250U, indicating that its raw processing power is competitive with much more expensive processors in synthetic tests.

However, the ranking in The Medium is not solely about raw compute. The game’s fixed-camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds often rely on different engine characteristics than typical first-person titles. The data suggests this combo excels because the RTX 4070 SUPER’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth can handle the game’s high-resolution textures without stuttering, while the i3-12100F’s single-thread performance (3dmark_single_thread score of 893) is sufficient to feed the GPU. The system’s 72nd percentile standing among all CPUs and 84th among all GPUs means the pairing is well-balanced for this specific workload, even if the CPU is the weaker link.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a clear sweet spot at Medium settings across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium settings deliver an average of 103.2 FPS, which is a 41% improvement over High settings (73.2 FPS) while remaining far more visually demanding than Low (146 FPS). The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs 30 FPS, a significant 29% performance drop, suggesting that High settings introduce effects that disproportionately tax the system. At 1440p, Medium settings hold at 90.3 FPS, still comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth play, while High drops to 61.6 FPS.

For 4K gaming, Medium settings become the only viable option for a consistently playable experience, yielding 69.8 FPS. High settings at 4K fall to 48.3 FPS, which is borderline for a horror game where frame pacing is critical. The data strongly implies that Medium settings offer the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. The i3-12100F’s 4.30 GHz boost clock and 3.30 GHz base clock appear to handle the game’s CPU overhead at Medium without issue, as the frame rates scale almost linearly with resolution, indicating the GPU is the primary constraint at this preset.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling across resolutions reveals a system that is largely GPU-bound, but with an interesting caveat at lower settings. From 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings, the frame rate drops from 103.2 to 90.3 FPS, a 12.5% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings brings a further drop to 69.8 FPS, a 22.7% reduction. This pattern suggests that at Medium settings, the RTX 4070 SUPER is still the limiting factor, as the CPU has enough headroom to maintain consistent performance.

However, the Low settings tell a different story. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 146 FPS. At 1440p Low, it reaches 138.4 FPS, and at 4K Low, it still manages 108.7 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low is only a 5.2% drop, which is remarkably small. This indicates that at Low settings, the i3-12100F’s 4 cores begin to become a limiting factor. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11912 is respectable, but the game may not be utilizing all 8 threads efficiently, creating a bottleneck that prevents the GPU from reaching its full potential at lower resolutions. The data implies that the CPU’s performance ceiling is around 146 FPS in this title, regardless of how much GPU headroom is available.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range shows a wide performance envelope. Low settings produce an average of 146 FPS, making it the only preset that approaches high-refresh-rate territory. Medium settings deliver 103.2 FPS, which is excellent for a horror title that benefits from smooth camera movement. High settings drop to 73.2 FPS, still playable but noticeably less fluid. Ultra settings bottom out at 58 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and suggests that the game’s most demanding effects are too much for this combo at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower absolute numbers. Low settings hit 138.4 FPS, maintaining the CPU-bound ceiling. Medium settings provide 90.3 FPS, which is ideal for 1440p gaming on a standard 60-100 Hz monitor. High settings fall to 61.6 FPS, just above the playability threshold. Ultra settings at 52.8 FPS are not recommended for a smooth experience. At 3840x2160, the RTX 4070 SUPER’s 12 GB memory buffer and 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute become the clear drivers. Low settings manage 108.7 FPS, a surprising result that indicates the game is highly scalable. Medium settings hit 69.8 FPS, the best balance at 4K. High settings produce 48.3 FPS, and Ultra drops to 40.2 FPS, both below the ideal threshold for a game that relies on atmospheric tension.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the workhorse of this configuration, and its specifications directly explain the measured results. The GPU’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory running at 21 Gbps effective across a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This is crucial for The Medium, which loads large, high-resolution textures to create its dual-reality scenes. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the system still manages 40.2 FPS, indicating the memory subsystem is not severely throttling performance. The GPU’s boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1980 MHz, combined with 7168 shading units, deliver the raw throughput needed to maintain the frame rates seen in the measurements.

The GPU’s 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 42576, places it just 0.2% above the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and 0.3% above the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE. This suggests the RTX 4070 SUPER is performing at the expected level for its class. The 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores are relevant for The Medium’s use of ray-traced reflections and DLSS, though the measured FPS data does not differentiate between these features. The 220 W TDP and 550 W suggested PSU indicate the GPU has sufficient power headroom, and the data shows no evidence of power throttling, as frame rates scale predictably with resolution.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 1440p with High settings?

A: Yes, the measured data shows an average of 61.6 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings. This is just above the 60 FPS threshold, though Medium settings at 90.3 FPS provide a more comfortable margin for fluctuating scenes.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming?

A: Medium settings at 3840x2160 yield 69.8 FPS, which is the only preset above 60 FPS at 4K. High settings drop to 48.3 FPS and Ultra to 40.2 FPS, making Medium the clear recommendation for a smooth experience.

Q: Is the Intel Core i3-12100F a bottleneck for the RTX 4070 SUPER?

A: The data suggests a partial bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 146 FPS, and at 1440p Low, it only drops slightly to 138.4 FPS. This small scaling gap indicates the CPU is limiting performance at these settings, while at Medium and above, the GPU becomes the primary constraint.

Q: How does the CPU’s cache configuration affect The Medium?

A: The i3-12100F has 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core. The game’s performance scaling suggests this is sufficient for most settings, as the CPU’s single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 score of 1681) appears to be the more critical factor than cache size.

Q: What is the expected performance at 1080p Ultra?

A: The measured average is 58 FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This is below the 60 FPS target, so users seeking a locked 60 FPS experience should consider High settings, which deliver 73.2 FPS.

Q: Does the GPU’s 12 GB VRAM cause any issues at 4K?

A: No, the data shows no evidence of VRAM-related stuttering. At 4K Ultra, the system still achieves 40.2 FPS, and at 4K High, it reaches 48.3 FPS, indicating the 12 GB buffer is sufficient for The Medium’s texture demands.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz, combined with a 58 W TDP, make it a modest but capable partner for the RTX 4070 SUPER. The CPU’s benchmark results show a single-thread score of 893 in 3dmark and 1681 in Cinebench R23, which are competitive for its class. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-7700K, scores only 1.8% higher on average, while the i3-10105 is 0.6% behind, indicating this chip punches above its weight.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role becomes evident in the Low settings data. The system’s inability to scale beyond 146 FPS at 1080p Low, while the GPU is clearly capable of more, points to the 4-core limitation. The CPU’s Passmark multithread score of 14015 and Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11912 suggest it can handle the game’s AI and scripting, but the fixed-camera angles may create specific thread scheduling challenges. The L3 cache of 12 MB shared across all cores is small by modern standards, but the data shows this does not become a major issue until the CPU is pushed to its limits at low settings and high frame rates. The 8 threads allow for some parallel processing, but the game’s engine appears to favor fewer, faster cores, which the i3-12100F provides with its high boost clock.