The Medium

The Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 570 pairing delivers a playable experience in The Medium only at the lowest settings, with the data showing a hard ceiling of 44 FPS at 1080p. This combo ranks in the bottom 5% of tested configurations, at rank 3557 out of 3724 combos, indicating that the hardware is severely underpowered for this title's demands.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-10400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. This Comet Lake architecture processor, built on a 14 nm process, offers a 12 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration. The CPU's benchmark scores place it in the 68th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 14185.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's threading capabilities are sufficient for the game's logic, but the measured frame rates show the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The processor's single-thread performance, as indicated by a 3dmark_single_thread score of 688 and a passmark_single_thread score of 2541, is adequate for the game's core simulation tasks. The multi-threaded performance, with a cinebench_r23_multicore score of 10283, ensures that background processes do not interfere with frame pacing, yet the overall combo performance remains constrained by the graphics card.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Xeon 6756E with an average score of 14163 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core 7 160UL at 14232 (0.3% lower), and the AMD EPYC 7552 at 14115 (0.5% higher). These close margins confirm that the i5-10400F is a mid-range processor in computational terms, but its role in this game is secondary to the GPU. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 44 FPS, and at 1440p Low it drops to 37 FPS, demonstrating that the CPU maintains enough headroom to let the GPU dictate performance scaling.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the decisive component in this combo, featuring 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. Its Polaris 20 chip, built on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries, houses 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units. The GPU runs at a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz, with memory clocked at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective). This configuration yields a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance at 5.095 TFLOPS.

The GPU's 4 GB VRAM capacity is a critical limitation for The Medium, which is a horror title known for its dual-world rendering technique. At 1080p Medium, the combo produces an average of 28 FPS with a minimum of 23 FPS and a maximum of 32 FPS. At 1080p High, the average drops to 20 FPS, and at Ultra it falls to 16 FPS. The 4 GB frame buffer likely causes texture thrashing at higher settings, as evidenced by the steep performance cliff between Low (44 FPS) and Medium (28 FPS) at 1080p, a 36% reduction in frame rate.

The RX 570's synthetic benchmarks show it in the 74th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28766. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (28874, 0.4% lower), the AMD Radeon R9 M295X (28580, 0.7% higher), and the AMD Radeon RX 470 (28996, 0.8% lower). Despite this mid-tier ranking, the GPU's performance in The Medium is consistently low across all resolutions, with the best case scenario being 44 FPS at 1080p Low and the worst case being 10 FPS at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo can achieve in The Medium?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 44, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration that approaches a playable frame rate, as all other settings and resolutions produce averages below 37 FPS.

Q: How does the combo perform at 1440p resolution?

A: At 2560x1440, the best average FPS is 37 with Low settings. Medium settings yield 23 FPS (minimum 20, maximum 27), High settings produce 17 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 13 FPS. None of these 1440p configurations provide a smooth experience.

Q: Is 4K resolution viable with this hardware?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the combo achieves 29 FPS on Low, 18 FPS on Medium (minimum 15, maximum 21), 13 FPS on High, and 10 FPS on Ultra. These frame rates are well below playable thresholds, making 4K impractical for this pairing.

Q: What is the impact of raising settings from Low to Medium at 1080p?

A: The average FPS drops from 44 to 28, a significant 36% reduction. This suggests that the Medium preset introduces rendering features that heavily tax the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM and compute resources, making the jump particularly punishing.

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

A: The combo ranks 3557 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 5% of all hardware pairings. This indicates that the i5-10400F and RX 570 combination is one of the weaker setups for this game.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 44 FPS, while at 1440p Low it achieves 37 FPS, a 16% drop. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rate would remain more constant across resolutions, but the proportional scaling with resolution indicates GPU-bound performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data unequivocally points to Low settings as the only viable preset for this combo. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 44 FPS, which is the sole configuration that approaches a playable experience. The Medium preset at 1080p yields only 28 FPS, and while this might be tolerable for a horror game with slower pacing, the minimum of 23 FPS suggests occasional stutter in demanding scenes.

For players prioritizing frame rate stability, 1080p Low is the recommended choice. The 1440p Low preset produces 37 FPS, which is a 16% reduction from 1080p Low, and given the small resolution difference in visual fidelity, staying at 1080p provides more headroom for frame time consistency. The High and Ultra presets are not recommended at any resolution, as they produce averages between 10 and 20 FPS, which are unplayable in a game that requires responsive camera control for horror navigation.

The Medium preset at 1080p offers a compromise at 28 FPS, but the measured minimum of 23 FPS indicates that the GPU is struggling to maintain performance. Given that the game's dual-world mechanic can double the rendering load, the Low preset's 44 FPS average provides a safer margin against sudden frame drops. Players who are sensitive to motion sickness should avoid anything above Low, as the frame rate volatility at higher settings can induce discomfort.

How This Combo Ranks

This pairing of Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 3557 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 5% of all configurations. This rank reflects the GPU's age and VRAM limitations, as the CPU's synthetic benchmarks are respectable for its era. The combo's position is dictated almost entirely by the RX 570's inability to handle the game's rendering demands at any setting above Low.

The rank of 3557 means that fewer than 200 tested combos perform worse than this setup. This places the combo in the same performance tier as entry-level integrated graphics solutions or severely mismatched pairings. The data shows that the combo's best case scenario of 44 FPS at 1080p Low is a marginal result, and any attempt to increase visual fidelity results in sub-30 FPS averages, which are generally considered unplayable for action-driven horror titles.

For context, the GPU's nearest synthetic rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M, which scores 0.4% higher, and the AMD Radeon RX 470, which scores 0.8% higher. These small deltas in synthetic benchmarks do not translate to meaningful differences in The Medium, as all these GPUs would struggle with the same VRAM and compute constraints. The combo's rank is a clear verdict: this hardware is insufficient for a satisfying experience in this game, and users should expect to significantly lower expectations or upgrade components.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo in The Medium reveal a consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution and settings increase. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 44 FPS, which is the highest recorded average across all configurations. The Medium preset at this resolution produces an average of 28 FPS, with a minimum of 23 FPS and a maximum of 32 FPS. The High preset drops to 20 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 16 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average of 37 FPS, representing a 16% decrease from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset at 1440p yields 23 FPS (minimum 20, maximum 27), the High preset produces 17 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 13 FPS. The 1440p results show that the GPU's scaling is nearly linear with resolution, confirming that the RX 570 is the limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the performance becomes largely unplayable. The Low preset averages 29 FPS, the Medium preset averages 18 FPS (minimum 15, maximum 21), the High preset averages 13 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 10 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate that this combo cannot handle the game's rendering workload at any quality level, with even Low settings failing to maintain a consistent 30 FPS.

The data shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p Low is the only acceptable configuration, 1080p Medium and 1440p Low are borderline, and everything else is below playable thresholds. The minimum FPS values for Medium settings across all resolutions (23 at 1080p, 20 at 1440p, 15 at 4K) indicate that the GPU occasionally struggles to maintain frame pacing, which can be particularly jarring in a horror game where smooth camera movement is essential for immersion.