The Medium

The Medium is a fixed-camera horror title that stresses the GPU heavily, and this pairing of an Intel Core i5-11400F with an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers a wide spread of performance depending on your resolution and quality targets. The data shows a combo that is capable of smooth 60 FPS gameplay at 1440p on High settings, but which requires careful settings management at 4K to avoid dipping below playable framerates. The measured results place this configuration in the upper tier of tested combinations, ranking 397th out of 1689, which puts it ahead of the majority of systems in the database.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 4K with High settings?

A: No, not at a smooth 60 FPS. The measured average at 3840x2160 with High settings is 47.1 FPS. To achieve a more consistent experience at 4K, you would need to lower the settings to Medium (63.4 FPS) or Low (104.6 FPS).

Q: What is the best resolution for this setup to hit 60 FPS with High settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the average FPS is 63.7. This is the highest resolution where the High preset comfortably clears the 60 FPS threshold. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the average rises to 70.2 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost by enabling the Ultra preset?

A: The Ultra preset is significantly more demanding. At 1920x1080, the average drops from 70.2 FPS on High to 56.5 FPS on Ultra. At 2560x1440, it drops from 63.7 FPS on High to 46.3 FPS on Ultra. At 4K, Ultra averages just 38.4 FPS, making it largely unsuitable for this title.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-11400F a bottleneck for the RX 7900 XT in this game?

A: The benchmark data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the GPU, as evidenced by the high FPS figures at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo reaches an average of 123.4 FPS, which shows the GPU is being fully utilized.

Q: How does this combo's overall rank compare to other tested systems?

A: The combo is ranked 397th out of 1689 tested combinations, placing it in the top 23% of all systems in the database. This is a strong showing, indicating that this pairing is well-suited for demanding games like The Medium.

Q: Does the GPU's 20 GB of VRAM provide any advantage in this title?

A: While the game’s specific VRAM usage is not listed, the RX 7900 XT’s 20 GB of GDDR6 memory is ample for high-resolution textures. The memory bus width of 320 bit and bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s provide the necessary throughput for the high polygon counts and detailed environments found in The Medium.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal balance of visual quality and performance is the High preset at 2560x1440. This configuration yields an average of 63.7 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target for a smooth experience. The High preset provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium without the steep performance penalty of Ultra.

For users with a 1920x1080 display, the High preset is also the best choice, averaging 70.2 FPS. This gives headroom for occasional dips in demanding scenes while maintaining excellent visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 1080p (56.5 FPS) is playable but may feel less consistent, and the jump in quality from High to Ultra is not worth the 13.7 FPS loss.

At 3840x2160, users must make a trade-off. The Medium preset (63.4 FPS) is the only way to achieve a near-60 FPS experience at 4K. The High preset (47.1 FPS) is playable for slower-paced exploration but will struggle in more intense sequences. The Low preset (104.6 FPS) is recommended only for users who prioritize framerate above all else, as it sacrifices most of the game’s atmospheric lighting and shadow effects.

Avoid the Ultra preset at all resolutions. It is the only preset that fails to reach 60 FPS at 1080p (56.5 FPS) and produces unplayable averages at 1440p (46.3 FPS) and 4K (38.4 FPS). The performance cost of Ultra is disproportionate to its visual gains.

How This Combo Ranks

The data places this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT at rank 397 out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium. This percentile placement indicates that this system outperforms roughly 76% of all configurations in the database for this specific title. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU’s 6-core, 12-thread architecture and the GPU’s raw rasterization power.

The RX 7900 XT is a high-end GPU, as evidenced by its 82nd percentile ranking among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (deltaPct 0) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (deltaPct 0.6), which shows the desktop RX 7900 XT is competitive with top-tier mobile parts. The CPU, while more modest, still sits in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, with its closest rival being the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (deltaPct 0).

The combo’s 397th rank out of 1689 is a solid result, showing that the i5-11400F does not hold back the RX 7900 XT in this title. The high FPS numbers at 1080p Low (123.4 FPS) confirm that the CPU can feed the GPU enough data to avoid creating a bottleneck, a common issue with older or lower-core-count processors in combination with high-end graphics cards.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured average FPS data for this combo is as follows:

• 3840x2160 (4K):
• Low: 104.6 FPS
• Medium: 63.4 FPS
• High: 47.1 FPS
• Ultra: 38.4 FPS

• 2560x1440 (1440p):
• Low: 115.8 FPS
• Medium: 82.3 FPS
• High: 63.7 FPS
• Ultra: 46.3 FPS

• 1920x1080 (1080p):
• Low: 123.4 FPS
• Medium: 99.5 FPS
• High: 70.2 FPS
• Ultra: 56.5 FPS

The scaling pattern across resolutions is consistent. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings results in a modest 6.5 FPS drop (70.2 to 63.7), but moving from 1440p to 4K at the same settings causes a much larger 16.6 FPS drop (63.7 to 47.1). This indicates that the game becomes heavily pixel-bound at 4K, requiring a significant reduction in settings to maintain playability.

The settings scaling is also informative. At 1440p, the jump from Low to Medium costs 33.5 FPS (115.8 to 82.3), while the jump from Medium to High costs 18.6 FPS (82.3 to 63.7). The jump from High to Ultra is the most punishing, costing 17.4 FPS (63.7 to 46.3). This non-linear scaling is typical of a game that uses high-end post-processing effects, which are enabled on the High and Ultra presets.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the primary driver of performance in The Medium. Its RDNA 3.0 architecture, built on a 5 nm process, includes 5376 shading units and 192 ROPs. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1387 MHz and a boost clock of 2394 MHz, with a game clock of 2025 MHz. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s.

The GPU’s memory subsystem is a key asset. With 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, the RX 7900 XT offers a bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s. While The Medium’s VRAM usage is not explicitly listed in the data, this large memory pool ensures that high-resolution textures and complex scenes do not cause memory swaps or stutters. The memory clock is listed at 2500 MHz with 20 Gbps effective speed.

The benchmark results show that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher settings. The substantial FPS drops when moving from High to Ultra across all resolutions indicate that the GPU’s compute units are saturated by the Ultra preset’s additional effects. The GPU’s 82nd percentile ranking versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 38358, confirms it is a top-tier part. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile (deltaPct 0) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (deltaPct 0.6), showing it is firmly in the high-performance class.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F plays a supporting role in this configuration. With 6 cores and 12 threads, the Rocket Lake processor runs at a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. The CPU is a 65 W part, which is modest compared to the GPU’s 300 W TDP, but it is sufficient for this title. The 12 MB of shared L3 cache helps with game logic and scene management.

The CPU’s benchmark scores are respectable for a mid-range desktop part. It achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14372 and a single-core score of 2029. Its 3DMark 16-thread score is 5619, and its single-thread score is 868. The CPU sits in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals being the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (deltaPct 0) and the Intel Core i5-1240U (deltaPct 0.2).

In The Medium, the CPU is not the bottleneck. The evidence for this is the high FPS at 1080p Low (123.4 FPS), which is far above the refresh rates of most monitors. If the CPU were limiting performance, the FPS would plateau regardless of resolution or settings. The fact that FPS scales down predictably as resolution increases confirms that the GPU is the primary constraint. The i5-11400F’s 6-core, 12-thread configuration is well-matched to the RX 7900 XT, as it provides enough processing power to ensure the GPU is consistently fed with draw calls and physics data.