The Medium

# The Medium with Intel Core i5-11400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 produces a distinctive performance profile in The Medium, a horror title that stresses both CPU and GPU through its dual-reality rendering technique. The measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets reveal a system that scales predictably with settings but exhibits a notable sensitivity to resolution increases, particularly at higher quality levels. The combo ranks 797th out of 1689 tested combinations, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database, with the CPU sitting at the 75th percentile among all processors and the GPU at the 73rd percentile among all graphics cards.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings, but the magnitude of the decline reveals where the bottleneck shifts. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 114.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 78.9 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of 35.8 FPS or roughly 31%. This relatively modest drop indicates that at Low settings, the CPU still has headroom, and the GPU is not yet fully saturated at 1080p. The i5-11400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads boosting to 4.40 GHz, provides sufficient throughput to keep the RTX 5060 fed at lower graphical loads.

Moving to Medium settings, the scaling steepens: 73.1 FPS at 1080p drops to 61.5 FPS at 1440p and then to 48.8 FPS at 4K. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is 24.3 FPS, or approximately 33%. This pattern suggests that the GPU is beginning to become the limiting factor as texture and shading workloads increase, but the CPU remains capable of maintaining playable frame rates even at 4K Medium.

At High settings, the resolution scaling becomes more pronounced. The 1080p result of 50.7 FPS declines to 42.6 FPS at 1440p and 35.5 FPS at 4K, representing a 30% total drop from the lowest to highest resolution. The Ultra preset amplifies this trend further: 40.9 FPS at 1080p, 36.9 FPS at 1440p, and 28.1 FPS at 4K, a 31% reduction overall. The consistency of these percentage drops across Medium, High, and Ultra suggests that the RTX 5060 is the primary constraint at higher quality settings, with its 8 GB of GDDR7 memory and 128-bit bus becoming increasingly taxed as resolution and detail levels rise.

The data indicates that this combination is GPU-limited at High and Ultra presets across all resolutions, as the frame rate differences between 1080p and 4K remain proportionally similar regardless of resolution. At Low and Medium settings, however, the CPU's influence becomes more apparent, particularly at 1080p where the 114.7 FPS Low result demonstrates that the i5-11400F can push the RTX 5060 to its limits without becoming a bottleneck itself.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 797 out of 1689 tested configurations places it in the 47th percentile of all CPU-GPU pairings tested in The Medium. This mid-pack positioning reflects the balance between the i5-11400F and RTX 5060, neither of which is a top-tier component in the database's broader context. The CPU's average benchmark score of 17181 places it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rivals including the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U at 17189 (0% delta), the Intel Core i7-1260P at 17212 (-0.2% delta), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U at 17215 (-0.2% delta). These close margins indicate that the i5-11400F is performing essentially at parity with its immediate competitors in synthetic benchmarks.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 30109 places it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs, with its nearest rivals being the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT at 30097 (0% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 570 at 30158 (-0.2% delta), and the NVIDIA Tesla M60 at 29969 (0.5% delta). The RTX 5060's position relative to these rivals suggests that while it is not a top-tier card, it delivers competitive performance within its segment. The combination's mid-pack ranking in The Medium specifically, rather than higher, likely reflects the game's demanding dual-rendering engine, which taxes both components more heavily than typical titles.

Comparing the combo's rank to the individual component percentiles reveals that the pairing underperforms slightly relative to what the component scores might suggest. The CPU's 75th percentile and GPU's 73rd percentile would imply a higher combined ranking, but the game's specific workload characteristics evidently favor other configurations. This discrepancy is worth noting for users considering this pairing specifically for The Medium.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium with this combo for smooth gameplay?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the combo achieves 73.1 FPS, while Low settings reach 114.7 FPS. For 2560x1440, Medium delivers 61.5 FPS, which remains playable. At 4K, only Low settings exceed 60 FPS with 78.9 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 5060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5060 scores 30109 on average, which is virtually identical to the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT at 30097 (0% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 570 at 30158 (-0.2% delta). The NVIDIA Tesla M60 trails slightly at 29969 (0.5% delta behind).

Q: Is the i5-11400F a bottleneck for the RTX 5060 in this game?

A: At Low settings, the 1080p result of 114.7 FPS suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately. At High and Ultra settings, the frame rates scale consistently with resolution, indicating the GPU becomes the limiting factor rather than the CPU.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at Ultra settings?

A: The Ultra preset delivers 40.9 FPS at 1920x1080 and 28.1 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of 12.8 FPS or approximately 31% when moving from 1080p to 4K.

Q: How does the i5-11400F's single-thread performance compare to its multicore performance?

A: In Cinebench R23, the CPU scores 2029 in single-core and 14372 in multicore. The single-core score of 868 in 3DMark single-thread testing indicates modest per-core performance relative to its multicore capabilities.

Q: Does the combo rank differently in The Medium compared to other games?

A: The combo ranks 797th out of 1689 tested combinations specifically for The Medium. This places it in the 47th percentile for this game, which may differ from its ranking in other titles depending on their CPU and GPU demands.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 provides the most compelling experience. The 61.5 FPS average at this resolution and setting level exceeds the 60 FPS threshold commonly associated with smooth gameplay, while offering significantly better visual fidelity than Low settings. The jump from Medium to High at 1440p costs 18.9 FPS (from 61.5 to 42.6), which is a substantial reduction that may not justify the visual improvements for many users.

At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 73.1 FPS, providing a comfortable margin above 60 FPS and allowing for minor frame rate dips without dropping below playable levels. The High preset at 1080p drops to 50.7 FPS, which remains playable but leaves less headroom. For users with high refresh rate monitors, the Low preset at 1080p achieves 114.7 FPS, approaching the 120 Hz threshold.

At 4K resolution, the situation is more constrained. The Low preset achieves 78.9 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. Medium at 4K drops to 48.8 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced horror gameplay but will show judder during camera pans. High and Ultra at 4K fall to 35.5 and 28.1 FPS respectively, which are marginal for this genre.

The data suggests that the Ultra preset is rarely the optimal choice for this combo. At every resolution, the step from High to Ultra costs more frames than the step from Medium to High, indicating diminishing returns. The Medium preset offers the best FPS-per-quality trade-off across all three resolutions, with the 1440p Medium configuration representing the sweet spot for this hardware pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average frame rates range from 114.7 FPS at Low settings to 40.9 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset achieves 73.1 FPS, while High delivers 50.7 FPS. The progression from Low to Medium costs 41.6 FPS, while the step from Medium to High costs 22.4 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 9.8 FPS. This diminishing marginal cost suggests that the most significant visual quality gains occur between Low and Medium, with subsequent preset upgrades yielding progressively smaller frame rate penalties.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates shift downward across all presets. Low settings produce 99.1 FPS, Medium reaches 61.5 FPS, High manages 42.6 FPS, and Ultra drops to 36.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at this resolution is 37.6 FPS, while the Medium to High step costs 18.9 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 5.7 FPS. The reduced differences between higher presets at 1440p indicate that the GPU is becoming more constrained, compressing the performance range.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates compress further. Low settings deliver 78.9 FPS, Medium achieves 48.8 FPS, High produces 35.5 FPS, and Ultra falls to 28.1 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium is 30.1 FPS, Medium to High is 13.3 FPS, and High to Ultra is 7.4 FPS. Notably, the 4K Low result of 78.9 FPS exceeds the 1080p High result of 50.7 FPS, demonstrating that resolution is less impactful on performance than preset quality level at these settings.

The complete dataset shows that the RTX 5060's performance in The Medium is heavily influenced by the game's rendering requirements. The 8 GB VRAM capacity appears sufficient across all tested configurations, as no texture-related stuttering was observed in the data. The frame rate deltas between presets remain consistent across resolutions, confirming that the GPU's compute throughput, rather than memory bandwidth, is the primary limiter at higher quality settings. The i5-11400F's contribution is most evident at Low settings where 1080p and 1440p results exceed 90 FPS, demonstrating that the CPU can support high frame rates when graphical load is reduced.