The Medium

The Medium is a demanding horror title, and the pairing of the Intel Core i5-11400F with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 produces a specific performance profile. The data shows this combination ranks 1368th out of 1689 tested configurations for this game, placing it in the lower half of the performance spectrum. The CPU, which sits at the 75th percentile among all processors, provides adequate compute headroom, while the GPU, at the 58th percentile, becomes the primary constraint in this configuration.

FAQ

Q: What is the best performance this system can achieve in The Medium?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system reaches an average of 85.2 FPS. This is the only configuration in the measured data that exceeds 60 FPS, making it the sole playable option for high-refresh-rate displays.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17181, which is statistically identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (17189, 0% delta). It trails the Intel Core i7-1260P by just 0.2% and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U by 0.2%, while edging out the Intel Core i5-1240U by 0.2%.

Q: Is the GPU performance consistent with its direct competitors?

A: The RTX 2060's average benchmark score of 16074 places it close to the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, which scores 15996 and is 0.5% slower. The AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700 both score 16351, making them 1.7% faster than the RTX 2060.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in The Medium?

A: At 3840x2160, the highest playable average is 33.8 FPS on Medium settings. High settings drop to 28 FPS, and Ultra falls to 20.2 FPS. Only Low settings at 4K achieve a playable 56.5 FPS average.

Q: What is the most balanced resolution and settings combination?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the system delivers 45.5 FPS. This offers a moderate visual upgrade over 1080p while maintaining a framerate that is more consistent than the 29.9 FPS seen at High settings.

Q: How large is the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The difference is substantial. Low settings yield 85.2 FPS, while Ultra settings produce only 32.9 FPS. This represents a 52.3 FPS drop, indicating that the GPU's 6 GB VRAM and computational resources are heavily taxed by the highest quality presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is the defining component in this system's The Medium performance. Its 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for the game's streaming of high-resolution textures. The GPU's base clock of 1365 MHz and boost clock of 1680 MHz drive its 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. The data indicates that the GPU's capabilities are the limiting factor at higher settings. When moving from Medium to High at 1080p, the average FPS drops from 50.6 to 36, a 28.8% reduction. This suggests that the increased texture detail and shadow complexity in the High preset saturate the available memory bandwidth and shading throughput.

The RTX 2060's 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores are present but have a limited impact on this title's measured results. The benchmark scores show a PassMark G3D score of 14111 and a DirectX 12 score of 53, which places it in the 58th percentile of all GPUs. The GPU's compute capability is further shown by its Geekbench OpenCL score of 71278 and Vulkan score of 67425. In practical terms, the 6 GB VRAM capacity is a significant factor at 4K resolution, where the gap between Low (56.5 FPS) and Medium (33.8 FPS) is a stark 22.7 FPS difference. This indicates that the memory bus and capacity are overwhelmed when the game attempts to load more detailed assets.

The GPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals is consistent. The data shows the RTX 2060 is 0.5% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, but 1.7% slower than both the AMD Radeon Pro 5600M and Pro 5700. This places the GPU in a narrow competitive band, where its specific architectural advantages are not enough to overcome the raw compute or memory advantages of its competitors in this game's workload.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, confirming that the RTX 2060 is the bottleneck. At Low settings, the system achieves 85.2 FPS at 1920x1080. Moving to 2560x1440 drops this to 69.3 FPS, a reduction of 15.9 FPS or approximately 18.7%. At 3840x2160, the framerate falls to 56.5 FPS, a further 12.8 FPS decline. This scaling is relatively linear, indicating that the GPU is operating near its pixel throughput limits.

With Medium settings, the resolution scaling becomes more severe. The 1080p result is 50.6 FPS. At 1440p, this falls to 45.5 FPS, a 5.1 FPS decrease. However, the jump to 4K is dramatic, with the average plummeting to 33.8 FPS. This 11.7 FPS drop between 1440p and 4K highlights how the increased pixel count combined with medium-quality effects quickly exhausts the GPU's resources. The High settings preset shows a similar pattern, with 36 FPS at 1080p, 29.9 FPS at 1440p, and 28 FPS at 4K. The relatively small difference between 1440p and 4K at High settings (1.9 FPS) suggests that the GPU is already so heavily loaded that additional pixels have a diminishing impact on the already-low framerate.

Ultra settings exhibit the worst scaling behavior. At 1080p, the system manages 32.9 FPS. This drops to 22.7 FPS at 1440p and 20.2 FPS at 4K. The data shows that the Ultra preset is simply too demanding for this GPU at any resolution above 1080p, with all results falling below the 30 FPS threshold for playability. The resolution scaling analysis indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints, as the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads provide sufficient processing power to avoid becoming the limiting factor.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings based on the target resolution. For 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the only consistently smooth experience at 85.2 FPS. However, the Medium preset at 50.6 FPS offers a more visually acceptable experience while still maintaining a framerate that is responsive enough for the game's fixed-camera horror sequences. The High preset at 36 FPS is playable but shows noticeable frame pacing issues, while Ultra at 32.9 FPS is borderline.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, delivering 45.5 FPS. This provides a significant visual upgrade over 1080p while maintaining a playable framerate. The Low preset at 69.3 FPS is smoother but sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a horror game that relies on atmospheric detail. The High preset at 29.9 FPS is not recommended, as it falls below the 30 FPS threshold and introduces stutter in demanding scenes.

For 3840x2160, the data strongly suggests that the Low preset at 56.5 FPS is the only viable option if 4K output is required. The Medium preset at 33.8 FPS is playable but will struggle during scenes with heavy particle effects or dynamic lighting. The High and Ultra presets at 28 FPS and 20.2 FPS respectively are not recommended, as they result in a slideshow-like experience. For most users, the best overall experience is achieved at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, which balances visual quality and performance at 45.5 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset reveals a consistent performance hierarchy across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the system produces an average of 85.2 FPS on Low, 50.6 FPS on Medium, 36 FPS on High, and 32.9 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium is 34.6 FPS, showing that the Medium preset introduces substantial computational overhead.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 69.3 FPS on Low, 45.5 FPS on Medium, 29.9 FPS on High, and 22.7 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Medium is 23.8 FPS, while the drop from High to Ultra is 7.2 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset is less efficient than High, providing diminishing returns for the additional performance cost.

At 3840x2160, the system manages 56.5 FPS on Low, 33.8 FPS on Medium, 28 FPS on High, and 20.2 FPS on Ultra. The Low to Medium gap is 22.7 FPS, which is the largest absolute difference at 4K. The High to Ultra gap is 7.8 FPS. Across all resolutions, the Low preset is the only one that consistently stays above 50 FPS, while the Ultra preset never exceeds 32.9 FPS. The data conclusively shows that the RTX 2060 is a 1080p-class GPU for The Medium, with acceptable performance at 1440p only when settings are reduced to Medium or lower.