The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding test for this pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400 and the AMD Radeon RX 580. The data places this combination at rank 3394 out of 3724 tested combos, placing it in the lower percentile of systems. This rank is a strong indicator that the experience will be challenging, requiring careful settings management to achieve playable frame rates. The benchmark results reveal a configuration that is consistently struggling to maintain smooth performance, even at lower resolutions and graphical presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The ranking of 3394 out of 3724 combos is a decisive statement about the performance ceiling of this hardware. It signifies that the majority of other tested CPU and GPU pairings deliver better frame rates in The Medium. This is not a combination that excels; rather, it finds itself in the bottom 10% of all tested systems. The data suggests that this setup is at the edge of playability, and the user will have to make significant compromises in visual fidelity to get a smooth experience.

Looking at the individual components, both are positioned in the middle of their respective performance curves. The CPU has a percentile rank of 72, indicating it outperforms 72% of all tested CPUs, which is a solidly mid-range to upper-mid-range result. In contrast, the GPU has a percentile rank of 53, placing it just above the median. This gives a clear picture: a relatively capable processor is paired with a graphics card that is merely average, creating a significant bottleneck in graphically intensive scenarios like those found in The Medium. The GPU is the primary limiting factor, as its performance class is simply not sufficient to drive the game's heavy visual effects.

When compared to its nearest rivals, the GPU's average score of 12928 is practically identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12940, -0.1% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (12986, -0.4% delta). This places the RX 580 in a well-known performance tier. The CPU's average score of 18683 is also very close to its rivals, such as the AMD EPYC 7643 (18697, -0.1% delta), showing that the i5-12400 is performing exactly as expected for its class. The fundamental issue is that this average GPU is being tasked with running a game that is known for its heavy rendering load, and the measured FPS data confirms the struggle.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear, if grim, picture of what settings are viable. The primary goal for any user should be to achieve a playable frame rate, and the data shows this is only truly possible at the Low preset. At 1920x1080, the Low setting yields an average of 49 FPS, which is the only configuration that approaches a consistently smooth experience. This should be considered the baseline for any serious playthrough.

The Medium preset at 1080p shows a significant drop to 31 FPS average, with minimums dipping to 26 FPS. While this might be tolerable in slower-paced moments, it will feel stuttery and unresponsive during more action-oriented sequences. The High preset at 1080p is even more demanding, producing an average of only 22 FPS, which is firmly in unplayable territory. The Ultra preset is the worst performer, with a mere 17 FPS average, making it a non-option for this hardware.

For users with 1440p or 4K monitors, the situation is more restrictive. The Low preset at 2560x1440 delivers an average of 41 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only achieves 32 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth motion. Therefore, the recommendation is clear: for a 1080p display, use the Low preset for the best balance of playability and visual clarity. If a higher resolution is a must, the Low preset is the only choice, and users should be prepared for a sub-60 FPS experience.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run The Medium at 4K resolution?

A: Barely. At 4K (3840x2160), the Low preset produces an average of 32 FPS, while the Medium preset drops to 20 FPS. Neither is a smooth experience, and the High and Ultra presets are unplayable at 14 and 11 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the best graphics preset for this system to achieve a smooth frame rate?

A: The Low preset is the only one that provides a consistently playable experience. At 1080p, it achieves 49 FPS average. All other presets result in average frame rates below 32 FPS, which will likely feel choppy.

Q: Is the CPU or the GPU more responsible for the low performance?

A: The data strongly indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The CPU has a percentile rank of 72, while the GPU is at 53. The frame rates drop significantly with increased resolution and settings, which is a classic sign of GPU limitation.

Q: How does the performance at 1080p Medium compare to 1080p Low?

A: The drop is substantial. Moving from Low to Medium at 1080p reduces the average frame rate from 49 FPS to 31 FPS, a decrease of 18 FPS. This suggests the Medium preset introduces rendering effects that heavily tax the GPU.

Q: Is there a significant difference between the High and Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but both are unplayable. At 1080p, High averages 22 FPS, while Ultra drops to 17 FPS. The 5 FPS difference between them is inconsequential, as neither provides a usable frame rate.

Q: Does lowering the resolution from 1080p to a lower setting help?

A: No, 1080p is the lowest resolution tested. The data shows that at 1080p with the Low preset, the system achieves its highest average frame rate of 49 FPS. The performance degrades rapidly as resolution increases.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution and graphical fidelity increase. At 1920x1080, the system's best performance is with the Low preset, hitting an average of 49 FPS. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 31 FPS, with a minimum of 26 and a maximum of 35. High settings further reduce the average to 22 FPS, and the Ultra preset yields a meager 17 FPS. This shows a clear and steep penalty for each step up in visual quality.

At 2560x1440, the trend continues. The Low preset provides an average of 41 FPS, which is still somewhat playable. The Medium preset drops to 26 FPS (min 22, max 30), which is marginal. High settings average 18 FPS, and Ultra settings average 15 FPS, making both essentially unplayable. The jump from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 8 FPS on the Low preset, highlighting the GPU's struggle with the increased pixel count.

The 3840x2160 results are the most punishing. The Low preset only manages an average of 32 FPS. The Medium preset falls to 20 FPS (min 17, max 23). High settings average just 14 FPS, and Ultra settings are at the bottom with 11 FPS. At this resolution, the RX 580 is completely overwhelmed, and even the lowest settings fail to provide a consistently smooth experience. The data clearly shows that this combination is only suitable for 1080p gaming with the Low preset.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the decisive factor in this combination's performance. With its 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, it has a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. While this was a capable specification at its launch, the demands of The Medium's rendering engine appear to be far beyond its 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power. The GPU's base clock is 1257 MHz with a boost clock of 1340 MHz, and its performance percentile of 53 shows it is an average performer in the current landscape.

The GPU's role as the bottleneck is evident when examining the frame rate scaling. The 18 FPS drop from Low to Medium at 1080p suggests that the Medium preset likely enables effects like higher-resolution shadows, reflections, or volumetric lighting that require significant shader and fill-rate resources. The RX 580's 32 ROPs and 144 TMUs are insufficient to handle these increased loads, resulting in the observed frame rate collapse. The data indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute capabilities are simply not enough for this specific title.

Its position is further highlighted by its nearest rivals, which include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER and RTX 3050 Ti Mobile. These cards have nearly identical average scores, placing the RX 580 in a performance class that is demonstrably challenged by The Medium. The 8 GB of VRAM is not the issue here; the raw processing power is. The game’s performance is limited by the GPU's ability to process the frame, not its capacity to store assets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a much more capable component than the GPU, and the data shows it is not the primary source of the low frame rates. With 6 cores and 12 threads, a base clock of 2.50 GHz, and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, it offers ample processing power for gaming. Its performance percentile of 72 confirms it is a solidly mid-to-high-tier processor. The CPU's 18 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory make it a modern and capable foundation.

The CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. In this case, the CPU is likely waiting idly for the GPU to finish its work. This is evidenced by the fact that frame rates drop significantly with higher resolutions, which increases the GPU's workload without proportionally increasing the CPU's. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see less of a performance difference between 1080p and 1440p, as the CPU's workload remains constant.

The i5-12400's benchmark scores, such as its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15989, show it has plenty of headroom. It is paired with a GPU that is nearly a full performance tier below what the game demands. This creates an unbalanced system where the CPU's potential is left untapped. The user would see far more benefit from upgrading the GPU than the CPU, as the processor is clearly not the limiting factor in this configuration.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions provides a textbook example of a GPU-bound scenario. When moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 on the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 49 to 41, a reduction of approximately 16%. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average FPS falls to 32, a further 22% reduction from the 1440p figure. This consistent decline with increasing pixel count is the definitive signature of a GPU bottleneck.

The pattern holds true across all settings. At Medium settings, the average FPS at 1080p is 31, which falls to 26 at 1440p, and then to 20 at 4K. At High settings, the sequence is 22, 18, and 14. This linear relationship between resolution and frame rate shows that the GPU's fixed processing power is being spread across an increasing number of pixels. The CPU is able to keep up with the demands at all resolutions, meaning its performance is not a factor in these drops.

This data implies that the game's internal resolution is the single most important factor for performance. A user wanting to play at higher resolutions would need to drastically reduce other graphical settings to compensate, but even then, the Low preset at 4K (32 FPS) is not a smooth experience. The only way to achieve acceptable performance with this combination is to stick to 1080p and the Low preset. The scaling confirms that the RX 580 is the absolute ceiling for this system in The Medium.