The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built around dual-reality rendering, presents a distinctive workload that scales in non-obvious ways across resolutions and presets. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, using the provided benchmark data to isolate whether the CPU or GPU acts as the primary bottleneck at each setting. The data reveals a configuration that is GPU-limited at high visual fidelity, but which transitions to a more balanced state at lower presets, where the 6-core processor’s capabilities become more apparent.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates show a pronounced sensitivity to resolution, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p with Low settings, the combination produces an average of 122.7 FPS. Moving to 1440p at the same Low preset drops performance to 112 FPS, a reduction of approximately 8.7%. The jump to 2160p at Low settings yields 92.2 FPS, which is 17.7% below the 1440p figure and 24.9% below the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is relatively gentle, indicating that even at 4K, the RX 7800 XT has enough headroom to maintain playable frame rates when the graphical load is minimized.

The scaling becomes much steeper as the preset increases. At High settings, the frame rate falls from 62 FPS at 1080p to 48.6 FPS at 1440p (a 21.6% drop), and then to 38.2 FPS at 2160p (a further 21.4% drop). The Ultra preset exhibits the most aggressive scaling: 49.6 FPS at 1080p, 37.7 FPS at 1440p, and 30.9 FPS at 2160p. The percentage decline from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is 37.7%, which is significantly larger than the 24.9% decline seen at Low. This divergence suggests that higher presets introduce per-pixel work—such as volumetric effects and complex shading—that disproportionately taxes the GPU’s compute units as pixel count grows.

The data indicates that the limiting component shifts depending on resolution and preset. At 1080p Low, the 122.7 FPS figure is high enough that the CPU’s role becomes relevant; the Core i5-11400F’s boost clock of 4.40 GHz and 12 threads must feed frames quickly enough to avoid stalling the GPU. However, the fact that the score drops consistently with resolution at every preset confirms that the Radeon RX 7800 XT is the dominant constraint at Medium, High, and Ultra. The 4K Ultra result of 30.9 FPS is particularly telling: it represents a 74.8% reduction from the 1080p Low result, underscoring how the game’s rendering engine scales with both resolution and settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake generation, with a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark profile shows a 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and a max-thread score of 5652, indicating moderate single-core strength and respectable multi-core throughput. In Cinebench R23, it achieves 14372 points multi-core and 2029 points single-core. These figures place the CPU in the 75th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 17181.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU’s role is primarily about maintaining a minimum frame rate floor rather than pushing maximum FPS. The game’s fixed-camera angles and relatively static scenes reduce the need for complex physics or AI calculations compared to open-world titles. However, the dual-reality mechanic—rendering two worlds simultaneously—can create sudden spikes in draw calls. The 12 threads provide enough parallelism to handle these spikes without causing frame hitches, but the data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher presets. At 1080p Ultra, the GPU produces 49.6 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold where CPU bottlenecks typically appear. Only at 1080p Low, where the GPU delivers 122.7 FPS, does the CPU’s boost clock of 4.40 GHz become relevant for keeping up with frame generation.

Comparatively, the i5-11400F sits near the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, which has an average score of 17189 (a 0% delta), and the Intel Core i7-1260P at 17212 (a -0.2% delta). These rivals are all mobile or low-power parts, suggesting that the desktop i5-11400F’s performance is roughly equivalent to those chips in synthetic benchmarks. The practical implication is that the CPU has sufficient headroom to support the RX 7800 XT in this game, but it will not be the component that determines the difference between 30 and 60 FPS at high settings. The processor’s 65W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s are adequate for the game’s data streaming demands.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the clear primary driver of performance in this pairing. Built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with a 5 nm process, the GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 624.1 GB/s. Its boost clock is 2430 MHz, with a game clock of 2124 MHz. These specifications translate to a Passmark G3D score of 24176 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4157, placing the GPU in the 76th percentile among all graphics cards.

The benchmark results for The Medium show that the GPU’s performance scales predictably with workload. At 1080p Medium, the card produces 84.6 FPS, which drops to 69 FPS at 1440p Medium and 53.6 FPS at 2160p Medium. The transition from Medium to High at 1080p results in a 26.7% performance loss (from 84.6 to 62 FPS), while the transition from High to Ultra at 1080p costs another 20% (from 62 to 49.6 FPS). This indicates that the Ultra preset is particularly demanding, likely due to ray-traced effects or high-resolution shadow maps that stress the GPU’s 60 ray accelerators.

The 16 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, as even at 4K Ultra, the measured 30.9 FPS suggests the GPU is compute-limited rather than memory-limited. The 624.1 GB/s bandwidth provides ample throughput for texture streaming at high resolutions. However, the data shows that the GPU’s raw compute power is the bottleneck at all presets above Low. The 37.32 TFLOPS FP32 performance is substantial, but The Medium’s rendering engine appears to require more than that to sustain 60 FPS at 1440p Ultra, where the measured average is 37.7 FPS. The FirePro S9300 X2, with an average score of 32540, is a 0.2% delta from the RX 7800 XT’s 32619, but that rival is a dual-GPU workstation card, underscoring that the RX 7800 XT’s nearest competitors in synthetic benchmarks are not typical gaming parts.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this CPU/GPU combo?

A: The maximum measured average FPS is 122.7, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: At what resolution and settings does the combo fail to reach 30 FPS?

A: The only configuration below 30 FPS is 3840x2160 at Ultra settings, which delivers 30.9 FPS. No measured row falls below 30 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17181, which is essentially identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U’s 17189 (0% delta) and slightly higher than the Intel Core i7-1260P’s 17212 (-0.2% delta).

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 62 at 1920x1080 to 38.2 at 3840x2160, representing a 38.4% reduction.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU more likely to limit performance at 1440p Ultra?

A: The data shows 37.7 FPS at 1440p Ultra, which is well below the 60 FPS threshold. Given that the GPU’s benchmark percentile is 76 and the CPU’s is 75, the game’s heavy rendering load at Ultra settings points to the GPU as the limiting factor.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the CPU in this configuration?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F has a launch MSRP of $157.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured frame rate data reveals a consistent hierarchy across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 122.7 FPS, Medium averages 84.6 FPS, High averages 62 FPS, and Ultra averages 49.6 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 73.1 FPS, showing that the preset choice has a massive impact on performance even at the lowest resolution.

At 2560x1440, the values are 112 FPS for Low, 69 FPS for Medium, 48.6 FPS for High, and 37.7 FPS for Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 74.3 FPS, but the relative drop from Low to Medium is 38.4%, which is steeper than the 31.0% drop seen at 1080p. This suggests that medium-quality textures and lighting effects become more expensive at higher pixel counts.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 92.2 FPS, Medium averages 53.6 FPS, High averages 38.2 FPS, and Ultra averages 30.9 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra gap here is 61.3 FPS, which is smaller in absolute terms but represents a 66.5% reduction from Low to Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K (53.6 FPS) is the only 4K configuration that remains above the 50 FPS mark, while High and Ultra both fall below 40 FPS.

The data shows a clear trend: the percentage cost of each preset step increases with resolution. At 1080p, Medium is 31.0% slower than Low, High is 26.7% slower than Medium, and Ultra is 20.0% slower than High. At 4K, Medium is 41.9% slower than Low, High is 28.7% slower than Medium, and Ultra is 19.1% slower than High. The first preset step (Low to Medium) is consistently the most expensive, likely due to the activation of higher-resolution textures and more complex lighting models.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS, the data indicates that 1080p Medium (84.6 FPS) and 1080p High (62 FPS) are viable options. The 1440p Medium preset (69 FPS) also clears the 60 FPS threshold, making it the highest resolution that can sustain smooth gameplay while retaining moderate visual fidelity. At 4K, only the Low preset (92.2 FPS) provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, while Medium (53.6 FPS) falls short.

The best balance between visual quality and performance appears to be 1440p Medium. This configuration delivers 69 FPS, which is 15% faster than 1080p High (62 FPS) while offering a higher resolution. The step from 1440p Medium to 1440p High costs 20.4 FPS (from 69 to 48.6), which is a significant sacrifice for the additional graphical detail. Similarly, 1080p High at 62 FPS is preferable to 1080p Ultra at 49.6 FPS, as the latter fails to maintain a consistent 60 FPS experience.

For users with 4K displays, the choice is stark: Low settings provide 92.2 FPS, but Medium drops to 53.6 FPS, a 41.9% reduction. Given that the game is a slow-paced horror title with fixed cameras, the 53.6 FPS at 4K Medium may be acceptable for some, but the data suggests that 1440p Medium offers the best combination of sharpness and frame rate. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as even at 1080p it only achieves 49.6 FPS, which is below the standard 60 FPS target. The measured 30.9 FPS at 4K Ultra confirms that this preset is intended for systems with more GPU headroom than this configuration provides.