The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title from 2021, presents an interesting stress profile for the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination. The measured data reveals a system where the GPU is the dominant variable across all tested resolutions and settings, but the specific frame rates suggest a title that is more forgiving of CPU limitations than many modern shooters. The benchmark results indicate a playable experience at most configurations, with clear scaling patterns that point to the RTX 5070 as the primary performance driver.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a consistent and predictable performance curve that firmly identifies the GPU as the limiting component. At Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 89 FPS at 1080p to 84 FPS at 1440p, a relatively modest 5.6% reduction. However, the jump to 4K at the same settings sees a more substantial decline to 66 FPS, representing a 25.8% drop from the 1080p baseline. This pattern intensifies at higher quality presets, where the Ultra setting shows a steeper descent: 57 FPS at 1080p falls to 48 FPS at 1440p (a 15.8% reduction), and then plummets to 38 FPS at 4K, a 33.3% decrease from the 1080p result.

The Low preset tells a different story, with frame rates remaining remarkably high across all resolutions. At 1080p, Low settings produce 106 FPS, which only drops to 100 FPS at 1440p and 93 FPS at 4K. This relatively shallow curve—a 12.3% total reduction from 1080p to 4K—suggests that when the rendering load is light, the system has ample headroom, and the GPU is not being pushed to its limits. The data implies that the RTX 5070's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory and 672.0 GB/s bandwidth are more than sufficient for The Medium's requirements at lower presets, allowing the card to maintain high throughput even as pixel count increases.

The scaling behavior reveals that the game becomes progressively more GPU-bound as settings increase, which is typical for a title with heavy fixed-function rendering effects like volumetric lighting and ray-traced reflections. The fact that the 1080p to 1440p transition at Medium settings yields only a 5.6% drop, while the 1440p to 4K transition at the same settings yields a 21.4% drop, indicates that the GPU's fillrate and shading capacity are being taxed more heavily at higher pixel counts. This non-linear scaling is a hallmark of a game that pushes pixel shader workloads, and the RTX 5070's 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 performance appears to be the bottleneck at 4K Ultra, where the frame rate dips to 38 FPS.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo achieve 60 FPS at 4K in The Medium?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where the average frame rate is 93 FPS. At Medium settings, the average drops to 66 FPS, which is above 60 but with minimums recorded at 56 FPS. High settings yield 47 FPS, and Ultra falls to 38 FPS, so 4K 60 FPS requires the Low preset.

Q: What is the best resolution for a smooth 60 FPS experience with this hardware?

A: At 2560x1440, both Low (100 FPS) and Medium (84 FPS) settings comfortably exceed 60 FPS, while High settings hit exactly 60 FPS. The data shows that 1440p Medium provides the best balance, with a minimum of 71 FPS and maximum of 96 FPS, ensuring no drops below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance at different resolutions?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, appears to be sufficient for this title. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all settings, which indicates that the CPU is not introducing a bottleneck at any resolution. The 3DMark multi-threaded scores (4,748 for 16 threads) suggest adequate headroom for the game's fixed-camera scenarios.

Q: Is the Ultra preset worth the performance cost?

A: The data shows that Ultra settings at 1080p produce 57 FPS, which is 32 FPS lower than Medium settings at the same resolution. The jump from High to Ultra at 4K costs 9 FPS (47 to 38), a 19.1% reduction. Given that Medium settings at 1440p deliver 84 FPS, the visual gains from Ultra may not justify the frame rate penalty.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only minimum FPS values recorded are for the Medium preset: 75 FPS at 1080p, 71 FPS at 1440p, and 56 FPS at 4K. These figures suggest that the Medium preset maintains consistent frame pacing, with the 4K result being the only configuration that dips below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does this GPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5070's average benchmark score of 40,377 places it nearly identical to the AMD Radeon Pro 580, which scores 40,318 (a 0.1% difference). It is slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 by 0.8% and behind the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 by 1.2%. This indicates that the RTX 5070 is positioned in a competitive performance tier.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the clear performance driver in The Medium, as evidenced by the frame rate scaling patterns. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which appears more than adequate for this title's asset streaming requirements. The card's base clock of 2325 MHz and boost clock of 2512 MHz, combined with 6,144 shading units, deliver the raw compute power needed for the game's complex lighting calculations.

The RTX 5070's 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores are particularly relevant, as The Medium was one of the early titles to heavily utilize ray-traced reflections and shadows. The 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while not the highest in the 50-series lineup, provides substantial headroom for these effects. The data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the GPU achieves 106 FPS, which is only 13.2% faster than the 4K Low result of 93 FPS, suggesting that the card's compute resources are not fully saturated at lower resolutions.

The GPU's 80 ROPs and 192 TMUs contribute to a pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s, which become the limiting factors at higher resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 38 FPS likely represents the point where the pixel fillrate and memory bandwidth are fully taxed. The fact that the 4K Medium result of 66 FPS has a minimum of 56 FPS indicates that there are moments where the GPU struggles to maintain consistent frame delivery, likely in scenes with dense volumetric effects.

The RTX 5070's 250 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest it has sufficient thermal headroom for sustained workloads, and the PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensures no bandwidth limitations. The GPU's 82nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, based on its average benchmark score of 40,377, confirms that it is a high-end part, though its nearest rivals in the database are professional workstation cards, which may not directly translate to gaming performance parity.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 achieves a rank of 1,063 out of 3,724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 28.6% of all configurations. This ranking is noteworthy given that the CPU is a 10th-generation part from 2020, while the GPU is a 2025 release. The data suggests that The Medium is not particularly CPU-sensitive, allowing the older processor to keep pace with more modern CPUs when paired with the RTX 5070.

The combo's percentile position indicates that the RTX 5070's performance is the primary contributor to this ranking. The GPU's 82nd percentile standing among all GPUs is significantly higher than the CPU's 68th percentile ranking, which further supports the interpretation that the GPU is the dominant factor in this pairing. The 1,063 rank out of 3,724 means that 2,661 other combos scored lower, while 1,062 scored higher, placing this configuration in the upper-middle tier of all possible pairings.

The fact that this combo outranks many others with newer CPUs but weaker GPUs underscores the importance of the graphics card in The Medium. The game's fixed-camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds in some areas reduce the CPU's workload, allowing the i5-10400F's 6 cores and 12 threads to provide sufficient processing power. The CPU's 3DMark multi-threaded score of 4,748 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10,283 indicate that it still holds its own against more recent processors in this specific workload.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F's role in The Medium is supportive rather than dominant, as the frame rate data shows no signs of CPU-induced bottlenecks. The processor's 6 cores and 12 threads, based on the Comet Lake architecture, operate at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. These clocks, combined with 12 MB of shared L3 cache, provide sufficient single-thread performance for the game's main game logic and AI routines.

The CPU's benchmark results paint a picture of a mid-range processor that is aging gracefully. The Cinebench R20 multi-core score of 4,318 and single-core score of 609, along with the Geekbench multi-core score of 6,257, suggest that the i5-10400F is capable of handling the game's CPU demands without becoming a limiting factor. The 3DMark single-thread score of 688 and 2-thread score of 1,350 indicate that the processor's per-core performance is adequate for the game's primary thread.

The memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s from dual-channel DDR4 is likely sufficient for The Medium, as the game does not appear to be memory-sensitive based on the resolution scaling data. The CPU's PCIe Gen 3 interface, while older than the GPU's Gen 5 capability, does not appear to introduce a bottleneck, as the RTX 5070's performance scales predictably with resolution and settings. The CPU's 68th percentile ranking among all processors, based on an average benchmark score of 14,185, confirms its mid-pack positioning, but this does not translate to poor gaming performance in this title.

The nearest rivals to the i5-10400F in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Xeon 6756E (0.2% higher score) and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.6% lower score), indicating that the processor's performance is tightly clustered with other parts in its class. This suggests that swapping to a slightly newer CPU would yield minimal gains in The Medium, as the GPU is clearly the constraining factor at higher settings and resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 106 FPS, while Medium settings produce 89 FPS with a minimum of 75 FPS and maximum of 102 FPS. High settings yield 72 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 57 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 49 FPS, a 46.2% reduction, which demonstrates the significant impact of quality presets at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low settings maintain a strong 100 FPS average, while Medium settings achieve 84 FPS with a minimum of 71 FPS and maximum of 96 FPS. High settings hit exactly 60 FPS, which is the threshold for smooth gameplay, and Ultra settings fall to 48 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is modest for Low (5.7% drop) but more pronounced for Ultra (15.8% drop), indicating that higher settings increase the resolution's impact.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more challenging. Low settings still deliver a playable 93 FPS, but Medium settings drop to 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 FPS, which could cause noticeable stutters in demanding scenes. High settings average 47 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 38 FPS, both of which are below the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K resolution consistently amplifies the performance gap between settings, with the Low to Ultra spread reaching 55 FPS, a 59.1% reduction from the Low preset.

The Medium preset is the only setting that provides minimum and maximum FPS data across all three resolutions, which allows for a more detailed analysis. The 1080p Medium minimum of 75 FPS and maximum of 102 FPS shows a 27 FPS variance, while the 1440p Medium range is 25 FPS (71 to 96), and the 4K Medium range is 20 FPS (56 to 76). This decreasing variance at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently loaded as pixel count increases, reducing frame time spikes.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal configuration for this combo depends on the target resolution and desired frame rate stability. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers the best experience, providing 89 FPS average with a minimum of 75 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay without dipping below 60 FPS. The High preset at 72 FPS is also viable, but the 17 FPS difference between Medium and High makes Medium the more attractive option for maintaining higher headroom.

For 2560x1440 users, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation, delivering 84 FPS average with a minimum of 71 FPS. This configuration provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold while offering better visual quality than Low. The High preset at exactly 60 FPS is technically playable, but the lack of any headroom means that demanding scenes could cause drops below 60 FPS, making Medium the safer choice.

At 3840x2160, the options are more limited. The Low preset at 93 FPS provides the smoothest experience, but sacrifices significant visual quality. The Medium preset at 66 FPS is the best balance, though the 56 FPS minimum indicates occasional drops below 60 FPS. For players who prioritize frame rate stability at 4K, Low settings are recommended, while those who value visual fidelity and can tolerate occasional dips may prefer Medium.

The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it provides the lowest frame rates (57 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K) without a proportional visual improvement over High settings. The data suggests that the jump from High to Ultra costs an average of 15-17% performance across resolutions, which is a significant penalty for marginal visual gains. The Medium preset, with its consistent minimum FPS values, offers the best overall experience for this hardware combination.