The Medium

The Medium presents an unusually demanding workload for this pairing of an Intel Core i5-10400F and an AMD Radeon RX 580. The measured frame rates across the board are low, indicating that this combination is positioned at the very edge of playability for this title. The data reveals a system that struggles under the game's fixed camera angles and layered rendering, with performance hinging heavily on the graphics preset selected. The benchmark results paint a clear picture of a hardware duo that requires careful configuration to deliver a tolerable experience.

Settings Recommendations

Based strictly on the measured FPS rows, the only preset that approaches a consistently playable state is Low at 1920x1080, which delivers an average of 46.4 FPS. This is the sole configuration where the average frame rate crosses the 30 FPS threshold that is often considered the minimum for a playable experience in a slow-paced horror title. While 46.4 FPS is not ideal for fast-paced action, it is the only setting that provides a sufficient performance buffer to avoid the worst of the stuttering and slowdowns that plague the higher presets.

At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium is substantial, with the average FPS dropping from 46.4 to 31.8. This represents a significant visual improvement for a playable frame rate, but it leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. The High preset at 1080p yields 21.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 20.0 FPS, both of which are below the threshold for smooth motion and would likely result in a frustrating experience. The data suggests that the RX 580's 8 GB of VRAM and GCN architecture are overwhelmed by the game's higher fidelity settings, even at the lowest resolution.

For users with a 1440p display, the situation is more dire. The Low preset at 2560x1440 produces an average of 39.7 FPS, which is playable but with compromises. However, the Medium preset at this resolution drops to 25.8 FPS, and High falls to 17.3 FPS. The 4K results are effectively unplayable across all presets, with the High setting at 3840x2160 managing only 13.9 FPS and Ultra collapsing to 9.1 FPS. The recommendation is clear: prioritize the Low preset at 1080p for a functional experience, or accept the lower fidelity of Low at 1440p if a higher resolution is mandatory. The data indicates that any attempt to run Medium or higher at resolutions above 1080p will result in a slideshow.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 46.4 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

Q: Is this system capable of running The Medium at 4K resolution?

A: No. The benchmark data shows that at 3840x2160, even the Low preset only reaches an average of 31.7 FPS. The Medium, High, and Ultra presets at 4K all fall below 22 FPS, with Ultra dropping to 9.1 FPS.

Q: How does the 1080p Ultra preset compare to the 1080p High preset?

A: The average frame rate drops from 21.9 FPS on High to 20.0 FPS on Ultra, a minimal difference of 1.9 FPS. This suggests the Ultra preset offers diminishing returns for a significant performance cost.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and Medium presets at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset delivers an average of 31.8 FPS, which is 14.6 FPS lower than the Low preset's 46.4 FPS. This indicates a substantial performance hit for the visual upgrade.

Q: Where does this specific hardware combination rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 1578 out of 1689 tested combinations for this game, placing it in the bottom 6.6% of all systems measured.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely the bottleneck at 4K with Low settings?

A: The data suggests a GPU bottleneck. The frame rate at 4K Low is 31.7 FPS, which is significantly lower than the 46.4 FPS at 1080p Low. This scaling shows the GPU is struggling with the increased pixel count, as the CPU workload does not change as dramatically with resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a classic pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 46.4 FPS at 1920x1080 to 39.7 FPS at 2560x1440, a decrease of 6.7 FPS. Moving further to 3840x2160, the frame rate falls to 31.7 FPS, a further drop of 8.0 FPS. This linear degradation is characteristic of a system where the graphics card's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary limiting factors. The RX 580, with its 256-bit memory bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth, is being saturated by the increasing pixel workload.

The scaling pattern is even more pronounced at higher settings. For instance, at the High preset, performance drops from 21.9 FPS at 1080p to 17.3 FPS at 1440p, and then to 13.9 FPS at 4K. This steeper decline at higher settings suggests that not only is the GPU struggling with resolution, but also with the increased shader complexity and texture detail. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is smaller than the gap between 1440p and 4K, indicating that the jump to 4K is particularly punishing for this GPU. The data implies that the CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is not the primary constraint in these scenarios, as the frame rate scales inversely with resolution in a way that points directly at the graphics processor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frame rates shows a consistent hierarchy across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 46.4 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire dataset. The Medium preset follows at 31.8 FPS, representing a 31.5% reduction in performance. High drops to 21.9 FPS, and Ultra settles at 20.0 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is the largest single-preset jump, at 14.6 FPS, while the difference between High and Ultra is a marginal 1.9 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats but with lower absolute numbers. Low produces 39.7 FPS, which is still the only playable option. Medium falls to 25.8 FPS, a reduction of 13.9 FPS from Low. High is measured at 17.3 FPS, and Ultra at 12.7 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p results in a 14.4% performance loss at Low settings, but a 21% loss at High settings, illustrating that higher presets are more sensitive to resolution changes.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low manages 31.7 FPS, which is technically above 30 but still lacks smoothness. Medium drops to 21.4 FPS, High to 13.9 FPS, and Ultra to 9.1 FPS. The data shows that the RX 580 is unable to maintain a consistent frame rate at 4K, with even the lowest settings producing a barely acceptable average. The Ultra preset at 4K is the worst performer in the entire dataset, with an average that is 80% lower than the best-case scenario at 1080p Low.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1578 out of 1689 tested combinations places this system in the bottom 6.6% of all configurations benchmarked in The Medium. This is a remarkably low standing, indicating that the Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 580 are severely outclassed by the majority of systems tested for this title. The rank reflects the overall poor performance across all resolutions and settings, with the system only managing playable frame rates at the lowest settings and resolution.

This ranking is consistent with the GPU's overall benchmark percentile of 53, which places it just above the median for all GPUs. However, The Medium appears to be an exceptionally demanding game on this hardware, as the combo rank is far lower than what the GPU's general percentile might suggest. The CPU's percentile of 73 is comparatively higher, but it is not enough to compensate for the GPU's limitations in this specific title. The data indicates that while the CPU is a capable mid-range part, the GPU is the anchor that drags this combo to the bottom of the rankings for The Medium.

CPU Role

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 is a Comet Lake architecture part on a 14 nm process, and its benchmark scores are respectable, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10297 and a single-core score of 1453. In the context of The Medium, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU, as the frame rate scaling with resolution indicates a graphics-bound workload. The CPU is likely not the primary bottleneck, as it has enough threads and clock speed to feed the GPU in most scenarios.

However, the game's design, which often renders two simultaneous worlds with fixed camera angles, could place a unique load on the CPU. The data does not show a scenario where the CPU is clearly limiting, as the FPS drops are consistent with GPU-bound scaling. The 12 threads may help with the game's background streaming and logic tasks, but the benchmark results suggest that the CPU is not the reason for the low frame rates. The CPU's nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C, has an average score that is 0.8% higher, indicating the i5-10400F is competitive with other mid-range parts, but this does not translate into playable performance in this game.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the clear limiting factor in this configuration. With 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, offering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, the card has a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz. Its GCN 4.0 architecture provides a theoretical texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s, but these figures are insufficient for the demands of The Medium. The GPU's benchmark scores, such as a Passmark G3D score of 8813, place it in the 53rd percentile, but the game's measured performance is far below what this percentile might imply.

The data shows that the RX 580 cannot handle the Medium preset at 1080p (31.8 FPS) well, and it is completely overwhelmed at higher resolutions. The 4K results are particularly telling, with even Low settings struggling to maintain 31.7 FPS. This suggests that the GPU's 256-bit memory bus and 8 GB of VRAM are not enough to handle the game's high-resolution textures and effects. The GPU's nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570, has an identical average score, but this is a much older card with less VRAM, highlighting that the RX 580's performance is on par with hardware from a previous generation. The launch MSRP of 229 USD reflects its original mid-range positioning, but the benchmark data indicates that it is now below the requirements for a smooth experience in this modern horror title.