The Medium

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 lands at rank 351 out of 1,689 tested combos in The Medium. That places this configuration in the top 21% of all tested pairings, which is a strong showing for a system built around a mid-range 10th Gen processor. The data suggests the GPU is doing the heavy lifting here, as the RTX 5090 alone sits in the 94th percentile among all GPUs tested, while the i5-10400F ranks in the 73rd percentile among CPUs.

What makes this ranking particularly interesting is the delta between the two components' individual strengths. The GPU's average benchmark score of 84,306 dwarfs the CPU's 14,168, yet the combo still manages to crack the top 400. This implies the game's engine is capable of leveraging the RTX 5090's raw power even with a relatively modest processor feeding it. The nearest CPU rivals to the i5-10400F — the AMD EPYC 7552 with a 0.4% higher average score, the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C at -0.8%, and the Intel Core i5-8500 at -1.1% — all fall within a narrow performance band, confirming that the processor is not the differentiator in this pairing. The combo's rank of 351 suggests that while the RTX 5090 boosts performance substantially, the older Comet Lake architecture prevents this from being a top-100 configuration.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 brings 32 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is far beyond what The Medium requires, even at 4K Ultra settings, which indicates the card is operating well within its comfort zone. The GPU's boost clock reaches 2,407 MHz, and its base clock sits at 2,017 MHz, with memory running at an effective 28 Gbps. These clocks, combined with 21,760 shading units, give the card 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 compute.

In The Medium specifically, the GPU appears to be the dominant performance driver. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 108.8 FPS, and even at 4K Low it manages 90.6 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates the RTX 5090 is never fully saturated by this title's demands. The card's 176 ROPs and 680 TMUs provide ample pixel and texture throughput, which explains why even the most demanding preset at 4K (Ultra) still yields 51.3 FPS. The GPU's percentile ranking of 94 versus all GPUs tested reinforces that this is an elite-tier card, and the measured results in The Medium confirm that classification in practice.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear bottleneck shift. At Low settings, the drop from 108.8 FPS at 1080p to 90.6 FPS at 4K represents a 16.7% decrease, which is modest. At Medium settings, the decline from 87.3 to 74.6 FPS is a 14.5% reduction. The High preset shows a similar pattern: 78 FPS at 1080p falling to 66.5 FPS at 4K, an 14.7% drop. However, the Ultra preset demonstrates a steeper decline, moving from 71.6 FPS at 1080p down to 51.3 FPS at 4K — a 28.4% reduction.

This scaling behavior suggests that at lower settings, the CPU is imposing a ceiling on frame rates. The 1080p Low result of 108.8 FPS is barely higher than the 4K Low result of 90.6 FPS, indicating that resolution changes have limited impact when the workload is light. As settings increase to Ultra, the GPU becomes more engaged, and resolution scaling becomes more pronounced. The i5-10400F's 6 cores and 12 threads at a 4.30 GHz boost clock appear sufficient to feed the RTX 5090 at lower resolutions, but the 4K Ultra gap reveals where the CPU's limitations start to surface.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Low settings as the optimal choice for frame rate enthusiasts, delivering 108.8 FPS at 1080p and 101.1 FPS at 1440p. Even at 4K Low, the combo maintains 90.6 FPS, which comfortably exceeds the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. However, the jump from Low to Medium costs roughly 20% performance at every resolution — 108.8 to 87.3 at 1080p, 101.1 to 83.7 at 1440p, and 90.6 to 74.6 at 4K — while presumably offering meaningful visual improvements.

For players prioritizing visual fidelity, High settings at 1440p provide 74 FPS, which is a playable experience. The Ultra preset, while visually demanding, drops to 68.1 FPS at 1440p and 51.3 FPS at 4K, with the latter falling below the ideal smoothness threshold. The data suggests that Medium at 4K (74.6 FPS) offers a better balance than Ultra at 1440p (68.1 FPS), indicating that resolution matters more than preset in this title. The sweet spot appears to be Medium settings, which maintains 74.6 FPS at 4K and 87.3 FPS at 1080p, preserving both visual quality and frame rate headroom.

FAQ

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

A: Yes, the measured data shows 66.5 FPS at 4K High and 51.3 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Low preset reaches 90.6 FPS, so all tested settings at 4K are playable to some degree.

Q: How does the i5-10400F compare to its closest CPU rivals?

A: The i5-10400F's average benchmark score of 14,168 is within 1.2% of all four nearest rivals. The AMD EPYC 7552 is 0.4% faster, while the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C, Intel Core i5-8500, and AMD Ryzen Embedded V2546 are 0.8%, 1.1%, and 1.2% slower respectively.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Low settings produce 101.1 FPS while Ultra produces 68.1 FPS, a difference of 33 FPS or roughly 32.6% lower performance at Ultra.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM matter for this game?

A: The 32 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is far beyond The Medium's requirements. The measured data shows strong performance even at 4K Ultra, suggesting the memory capacity is not a limiting factor in this title.

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

A: It ranks 351 out of 1,689 tested combos, placing it in the top 21% of all pairings tested in The Medium.

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

A: The data suggests the CPU limits performance at 1080p Low, where the combo achieves 108.8 FPS. The GPU's high percentile ranking and the relatively small FPS gains from 1080p to 4K at Low settings indicate the i5-10400F caps frame rates at lower resolutions.

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 Comet Lake processor features 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 256 KB of L2 cache per core, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU's benchmark results show a single-thread score of 688 in 3DMark and a multi-thread score of 4,748 in the 16-thread test, which places it in the 73rd percentile among all CPUs.

In The Medium, the CPU's role becomes apparent when examining the FPS scaling across resolutions at the same settings. At Low settings, the difference between 1080p (108.8 FPS) and 4K (90.6 FPS) is just 18.2 FPS, suggesting the CPU is the primary constraint. The processor's PassMark multi-thread score of 12,115 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10,297 indicate solid mid-range performance, but the 10th Gen architecture lacks the gaming optimizations of newer processors. The data implies that while the i5-10400F can drive the RTX 5090 to playable frame rates, it prevents the combo from fully exploiting the GPU's capabilities at lower resolutions, where the 108.8 FPS ceiling at 1080p Low reveals the CPU's limitation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the measured average FPS values are: Low 108.8, Medium 87.3, High 78, and Ultra 71.6. The progression shows a 29.3% drop from Low to Ultra, which is the smallest relative decline across all resolutions.

At 1440p, the results are: Low 101.1, Medium 83.7, High 74, and Ultra 68.1. Compared to 1080p, the Low preset loses 7.7 FPS, Medium loses 3.6 FPS, High loses 4 FPS, and Ultra loses 3.5 FPS. This relatively flat decline across presets indicates the GPU handles the resolution increase efficiently.

At 4K, the measured values are: Low 90.6, Medium 74.6, High 66.5, and Ultra 51.3. The gap between Low and Ultra widens to 39.3 FPS, a 43.4% reduction. The 4K Ultra result of 51.3 FPS is the only measured configuration that falls below the 60 FPS threshold, while the 4K High result of 66.5 FPS just clears it. The data shows that across all 12 measured configurations, the combo stays above 50 FPS, with 11 of 12 configurations exceeding 60 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution follows a consistent pattern, with the largest absolute drop occurring at 4K, where the RTX 5090's workload increases most significantly.