The Medium

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER lands at rank 498 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it comfortably in the upper third of all systems measured. That position reflects a balanced pairing where the GPU carries the bulk of the rendering workload, but the six-core Comet Lake processor still provides enough headroom to avoid becoming a serious bottleneck at most settings. The combo sits at the 73rd percentile for the CPU and the 84th percentile for the GPU, suggesting the graphics card is the stronger component in this matchup, yet the overall rank of 498 indicates that the system as a whole is competitive but not elite, with roughly 70 percent of tested configurations ahead of it in this specific title.

How This Combo Ranks

The data shows a clear hierarchy when examining the combo’s standing. With 1689 total configurations measured, a rank of 498 means the i5-10400F and RTX 4070 SUPER combination outperforms 1191 other setups, or about 70.5 percent of the field. This is a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU, and it aligns with the fact that The Medium is a demanding horror title that leans heavily on graphics hardware. The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks—the AMD EPYC 7552, AMD Ryzen 3 7320C, Intel Core i5-8500, and AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546—all score within 1.2 percent of the i5-10400F in average benchmark score, meaning the processor is effectively on par with a cluster of other chips. However, the RTX 4070 SUPER’s nearest rivals, including the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE, are within 0.3 percent of its average score, so the GPU is similarly positioned among its peers. The combination’s rank is therefore not a product of one component dominating; rather, it reflects a synergistic pairing where neither part drags the other down significantly.

The measured frame rates reinforce this balanced assessment. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 105.9 FPS, which is close to the 1080p Low ceiling of 105.9 FPS and indicates the CPU is not the primary limiter at lower graphical loads. Moving to 4K Ultra, the system drops to 36.7 FPS, a figure that is clearly GPU-bound. This spread of results, from near-triple-digit frame rates at 1080p Low to sub-40 FPS at 4K Ultra, demonstrates that the combo is versatile but has clear limits, and the rank of 498 captures that middle-ground performance profile. The data suggests that for users targeting high refresh rates at 1080p or smooth 1440p gameplay, this combo is well-suited, but for 4K enthusiasts, it will require careful settings management.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and the benchmark results make that clear. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, the card offers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for The Medium’s asset streaming at 1440p and even 4K. The GPU’s boost clock of 2475 MHz, combined with its 7168 shading units, allows it to push high pixel rates, and the data shows this translates directly into frame rate differences across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the GPU is barely taxed, producing 105.9 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, the same card falls to 36.7 FPS, a 65 percent drop that underscores how much the higher resolution and settings demand from the graphics hardware.

The GPU’s 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores are relevant for a horror title like The Medium, which uses fixed camera angles and heavy post-processing effects. However, the measured FPS numbers do not include ray tracing-specific tests, so the data only reflects traditional rasterization performance. Still, the card’s 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is substantial, and the benchmark results indicate that at Medium settings, the GPU can hold 70.4 FPS at 4K, which is a playable threshold for most users. The RTX 4070 SUPER’s 84th percentile standing among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 42576, places it just ahead of the RTX A6000 and Radeon RX 7650 GRE, both of which are within 0.3 percent. This confirms the GPU is a strong performer, but the data also shows that at 4K Ultra, even this card struggles, meaning the GPU is the definitive limiting factor at the highest settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of which preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 89.5 FPS, which is a significant improvement over the High preset’s 76.5 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 57.9 FPS. The Low preset reaches 105.9 FPS, but that comes with a substantial visual fidelity loss that is rarely worth the extra 16.4 FPS over Medium. For 1080p, the Medium preset is the sweet spot, as it stays well above the 60 FPS threshold and provides a meaningful quality boost over Low.

At 1440p, the Medium preset produces 82.9 FPS, which is the best combination of smoothness and quality, while High drops to 62.0 FPS and Ultra falls to 48.6 FPS. The 1440p Medium setting is clearly the recommended choice, as it offers a 20.9 FPS advantage over High and remains comfortably playable. At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. Medium yields 70.4 FPS, which is the only preset that maintains playability at this resolution, while High drops to 49.1 FPS and Ultra falls to 36.7 FPS. The Low preset at 4K produces 90.9 FPS, but the visual compromise is severe. The data indicates that for 4K, Medium is the only viable option for maintaining a smooth experience, and users seeking higher fidelity should consider lowering resolution instead.

FAQ

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems in The Medium?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER combination ranks 498 out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the upper third of all configurations measured.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gameplay?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers 82.9 FPS, which is the highest playable frame rate above 60 FPS, making it the optimal choice for 1440p.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming?

A: At 4K with Medium settings, the combo achieves 70.4 FPS, which is playable. However, High settings drop to 49.1 FPS and Ultra to 36.7 FPS, so 4K requires Medium settings for a smooth experience.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 42576 puts it within 0.3 percent of the NVIDIA RTX A6000 and AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE, and it sits 1.4 percent ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 580X.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 105.9 FPS, which is close to the 1080p ceiling, indicating the CPU is not a significant bottleneck at lower settings, while at 4K Ultra, the GPU becomes the primary limiter.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: The Low preset produces 105.9 FPS, while Ultra drops to 57.9 FPS, a difference of 48 FPS, showing that high settings extract a substantial performance cost.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that becomes progressively GPU-bound as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 105.9 FPS, but at 1440p Low, it drops to 101.7 FPS, a modest 4.2 FPS decline. Moving to 4K Low, the frame rate falls to 90.9 FPS, a further 10.8 FPS reduction. This pattern shows that at Low settings, the system is relatively consistent across resolutions, with only a 15 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the CPU and GPU are both handling the load efficiently.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is far more aggressive. The 1080p Ultra result is 57.9 FPS, which drops to 48.6 FPS at 1440p and then plummets to 36.7 FPS at 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 21.2 FPS, or 36.6 percent, which is a clear sign that the GPU is the limiting component at higher graphical loads. The Medium settings show a similar but less severe trend: 89.5 FPS at 1080p, 82.9 FPS at 1440p, and 70.4 FPS at 4K, a 19.1 FPS total drop. The data suggests that the RTX 4070 SUPER’s 12 GB of VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 4K Medium, but the card’s compute throughput begins to struggle at Ultra, where the 36.7 FPS result falls below playable thresholds. The i5-10400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, does not appear to be the bottleneck at any resolution, as the FPS drops align with GPU workload rather than CPU limitations. This resolution scaling analysis confirms that the combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K viable only at reduced settings.