The Medium

The Medium’s benchmark data for the Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT presents a clear picture of a system that is heavily influenced by graphics settings and resolution, with the GPU acting as the primary performance driver. The measured results across the four quality presets and three resolutions reveal a configuration capable of smooth gameplay at lower settings but one that struggles to maintain playable frame rates at the highest visual fidelity, particularly at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, confirming that the rendering load scales dramatically with pixel count. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 108 FPS at 1920x1080 to 98.3 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 9%, and then drops further to 73.6 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 32% decrease from the 1080p figure. This pattern indicates that even at the least demanding preset, the GPU is still the limiting factor as resolution increases.

The scaling becomes more severe at higher quality presets. At High settings, performance goes from 51 FPS at 1080p to 42.9 FPS at 1440p, and then to 31.7 FPS at 4K—a cumulative 38% loss from the starting point. The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 72.9 FPS at 1080p, 58.8 FPS at 1440p, and 50.1 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most punishing, with 42.6 FPS at 1080p dropping to 34.3 FPS at 1440p and finally to 26.3 FPS at 4K, a 38% total reduction that leaves the game below the 30 FPS threshold at the highest resolution.

These results suggest that the game’s engine scales pixel count in a nearly linear fashion, and the RX 6750 XT’s 12 GB frame buffer and 192-bit memory interface are sufficient for bandwidth at lower resolutions but become saturated as the pixel workload grows. The data shows no evidence of a CPU bottleneck at any resolution, as the frame rate declines consistently with resolution rather than flattening out, which would indicate a processor limitation. The limiting component is unambiguously the GPU across all tested configurations.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process, is the dominant component in this pairing. Its specifications include 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 40 ray accelerators. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2150 MHz and a boost clock of 2600 MHz, with a game clock of 2495 MHz, and these high clocks contribute directly to the measured frame rates. The memory subsystem consists of 12 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a critical factor for The Medium’s asset streaming at high resolutions.

The GPU’s benchmark percentile of 79 versus all GPUs places it in the upper quarter of the field, and its average benchmark score of 35327 is supported by strong synthetic results, including a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2548 and a Passmark G3D score of 20700. The nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon RX 5600M with a score of 35264 (0.2% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Mobile at 35435 (-0.3% lower), and the AMD Radeon 880M at 35646 (-0.9% lower). This clustering shows that the RX 6750 XT sits in a tightly contested performance band, but its real-world results in this game are more telling.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU’s capabilities are stretched thin at Ultra settings, where 4K performance falls to 26.3 FPS. At High settings, the card delivers 51 FPS at 1080p but only 31.7 FPS at 4K, indicating that the visual effects at High and Ultra presets heavily tax the shader and ROP throughput. The Low and Medium presets are where the card excels, with 108 FPS and 72.9 FPS respectively at 1080p, and even at 4K, Low settings yield 73.6 FPS, showcasing the card’s raw compute power when effects are reduced. The GPU role is central: it dictates the ceiling for playability, and the data shows that users must trade visual quality for frame rate as resolution increases.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Comet Lake architecture, built on a 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, with a 12 MB shared L3 cache. The processor supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration, providing 42.7 GB/s of memory bandwidth, and connects via PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes. Its benchmark percentile versus all CPUs is 73, with an average benchmark score of 14168, placing it in the mid-to-upper range of desktop processors.

In synthetic tests, the i5-10400F shows respectable multi-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10297 and a single-core score of 1453. Its 3DMark scores range from 688 in single-thread to 4748 in 16-thread tests, indicating scaling across core counts. The nearest rivals in the database include the AMD EPYC 7552 with an average score of 14115 (0.4% higher), the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C at 14277 (-0.8% lower), the Intel Core i5-8500 at 14332 (-1.1% lower), and the AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 at 14336 (-1.2% lower). This places the i5-10400F in a tight competitive set, but its role in this game is secondary.

The measured FPS data shows no instance where the CPU becomes the bottleneck. At 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 108 FPS, which is a high frame rate that would stress the processor, yet the GPU still delivers consistent results without any indication of frame pacing issues. The absence of a CPU limitation is further supported by the fact that the frame rate scales almost entirely with resolution and settings, and the CPU’s 4.30 GHz boost clock provides sufficient single-thread performance for The Medium’s gameplay logic. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is more than adequate for this title, as the game does not appear to leverage more than a few threads heavily. The CPU role is supportive rather than performance-defining, and the data confirms that upgrading the processor would yield minimal FPS gains in this specific game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo is comprehensive, covering four settings at three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 108 FPS on Low, 72.9 FPS on Medium, 51 FPS on High, and 42.6 FPS on Ultra. These figures show a clear hierarchy, with Low settings delivering more than double the frame rate of Ultra. The gap between Medium and High is 21.9 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra is only 8.4 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns from the highest preset.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 98.3 FPS on Low, 58.8 FPS on Medium, 42.9 FPS on High, and 34.3 FPS on Ultra. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs between 8.4% and 19.4% of performance depending on the preset, with the largest relative drop occurring at Medium settings. At 3840x2160, the averages are 73.6 FPS on Low, 50.1 FPS on Medium, 31.7 FPS on High, and 26.3 FPS on Ultra. The 4K results are the most telling: only the Low preset achieves a frame rate above 60 FPS, while the Medium preset is playable at 50.1 FPS, but High and Ultra fall below the 30 FPS threshold, with Ultra being the only preset that is effectively unplayable.

The data reveals that the combo’s sweet spot is at 1440p Medium or 1080p High, both of which hover around 60 FPS. At 4K, users are forced to use Low settings for a smooth experience, which nullifies the visual benefits of the higher resolution. The min and max FPS values are not provided, so the analysis relies solely on averages, but the consistency across settings suggests that the GPU maintains stable output without significant frame time spikes.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 867 out of 1689 tested combinations in The Medium, placing it in the lower half of the database. This rank of 867 out of 1689 corresponds to approximately the 51st percentile, meaning that slightly more than half of all tested combos perform better in this game. Given the RX 6750 XT’s GPU percentile of 79 and the i5-10400F’s CPU percentile of 73, the combo’s overall rank is lower than either component’s individual percentile, indicating that The Medium is a demanding title that punishes the combination’s specific characteristics.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in the database—the RX 5600M, RTX 5070 Ti Mobile, and Radeon 880M—all have average scores within 1% of the RX 6750 XT, yet this combo’s rank suggests that other factors beyond raw GPU compute, such as memory bandwidth and driver optimization, play a role in this game. The CPU’s rivals, including the EPYC 7552 and i5-8500, are all within 1.2% of its average score, but the CPU is not the limiting factor here. The rank of 867 indicates that while the components are individually capable, the combined system is more suited to less demanding titles or lower settings in The Medium.

The data shows that the combo’s performance is competitive at 1080p and 1440p with lower settings, but its rank suffers due to the poor 4K Ultra performance. The fact that only 822 combos rank below this one suggests that many systems with similar or weaker GPUs can still achieve better results by using more efficient settings or having more VRAM. The rank is a reflection of the average performance across all tested scenarios, and the combo’s inability to maintain 30 FPS at 4K Ultra is a significant drag on its standing. Overall, this combination is positioned as a mid-tier performer, adequate for 1080p high-refresh gaming but limited at higher resolutions in The Medium.