The Medium

The Medium, a horror title built around fixed camera angles and heavy atmospheric effects, presents a demanding workload that shifts dramatically between resolutions and presets. For the combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT, the measured data reveals a system that is highly capable at standard settings but quickly loses headroom as fidelity demands increase.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data indicates that the Low preset is the only consistently fluid experience across all tested resolutions, delivering an average of 93.9 FPS at 1920x1080 and 78.2 FPS at 2560x1440. Even at 3840x2160, the Low preset maintains a playable 61.9 FPS average, which is a stark contrast to the higher presets that fall below 36 FPS at that resolution.

For users prioritizing visual fidelity at 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers the best compromise, producing a 59.5 FPS average. This is just shy of the 60 FPS target but remains comfortable for a slow-paced horror title. The jump to High at 1080p yields 42.7 FPS, a significant drop of 16.8 FPS over Medium, making the extra graphical cost difficult to justify when the frame rate penalty is so steep.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the highest viable option, with a 47.6 FPS average. The High preset at this resolution drops to 35.8 FPS, which introduces noticeable stutter during camera transitions. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution; it produces 29.5 FPS at 1080p, 27.4 FPS at 1440p, and 21.9 FPS at 4K, all of which fall below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

The data suggests a clear pattern: the RX 6600 XT is not equipped to handle the higher presets in The Medium without significant frame rate compromises. The Low preset is the only setting that guarantees a 60+ FPS experience across all resolutions, while Medium is acceptable for 1080p and 1440p users who can tolerate frame rates in the 47-60 range.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the primary bottleneck in this pairing, evidenced by the sharp FPS declines as settings increase. The GPU’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth appears strained by the game’s high-resolution textures and volumetric effects. This is particularly apparent at 3840x2160, where the High preset produces only 29.6 FPS and Ultra drops to 21.9 FPS, indicating memory bandwidth saturation.

The clock speeds are notable: the GPU operates at a base of 1968 MHz, with a game clock of 2359 MHz and a boost clock of 2589 MHz. The gap between the game clock and boost clock (230 MHz) suggests thermal and power headroom exists, but the benchmark results indicate the card is consistently hitting performance walls regardless of clock boosts. The 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs are insufficient for the shader-heavy rendering The Medium employs, particularly when the game’s fixed camera angles render large, detailed scenes simultaneously.

Interestingly, the GPU’s architecture supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, which the game can leverage, yet the measured FPS at Ultra settings across all resolutions remains below 30 FPS. This indicates the bottleneck is raw compute throughput rather than API feature support. The 10.60 TFLOPS FP32 performance is simply not enough for the game’s highest preset, which appears to require more than double the computational resources to maintain 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for The Medium, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT ranks 1154 out of 1689 total combos, placing it in the lower third of all configurations. This ranking reflects the GPU’s limitations more than the CPU, as the i5-12400 performs admirably in synthetic benchmarks with a 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs.

The CPU’s nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-9700, which scores within 0.1% of the i5-12400’s average benchmark score, and the Intel Core i5-11600K, which is 0.4% behind. This indicates the processor is not a limiting factor in the combo’s ranking. Conversely, the GPU’s nearest rivals show a wider spread: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti is 0.1% ahead, while the AMD FirePro S7150 is 1.5% behind. The RX 6600 XT sits just 0.9% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 in average score, yet in The Medium’s actual gameplay, the 8 GB memory allocation and bus width constraints become apparent.

The combo’s low rank is consistent with the measured FPS data, which shows the system struggling to maintain high frame rates at higher presets. This ranking suggests that users seeking a smoother experience in The Medium would need to step up to a GPU with more memory bandwidth, as the CPU has ample headroom to support a faster graphics card.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The resolution provides the most usable results. Low settings deliver 93.9 FPS, which is the highest average in the entire dataset. Medium drops to 59.5 FPS, a 34.4 FPS reduction. High further reduces to 42.7 FPS, while Ultra falls to 29.5 FPS. The performance delta between Low and Medium (34.4 FPS) is nearly double the delta between Medium and High (16.8 FPS), indicating the game’s graphical effects scale aggressively at this resolution.

2560x1440: Low settings maintain a strong 78.2 FPS average, still above the 60 FPS target. Medium drops to 47.6 FPS, which is a 30.6 FPS loss from Low. High falls to 35.8 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 27.4 FPS. The scaling pattern mirrors 1080p, but with an additional 10-15% performance penalty at each preset level due to the increased pixel count.

3840x2160: This resolution exposes the GPU’s limitations. Low is the only playable preset at 61.9 FPS. Medium drops to 35.9 FPS, a 26 FPS reduction. High falls to 29.6 FPS, and Ultra is nearly unplayable at 21.9 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K produces less than a quarter of the frame rate of Low at 1080p, illustrating the extreme scaling demands.

The transition from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings results in a 11.7 FPS drop (from 47.6 to 35.9), while the same transition at High produces a 6.2 FPS drop (from 35.8 to 29.6). This indicates that at higher presets, the resolution increase has a diminishing absolute impact because the GPU is already heavily constrained.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 60 FPS in 4K?

A: Only with the Low preset, which delivers 61.9 FPS on average. Medium drops to 35.9 FPS, High to 29.6 FPS, and Ultra to 21.9 FPS, none of which approach 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best preset for a consistent 60 FPS experience?

A: The Low preset is the only setting that guarantees 60+ FPS across all resolutions, with a minimum of 61.9 FPS at 4K and a maximum of 93.9 FPS at 1080p.

Q: How does the CPU’s performance compare to its direct rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400 scores within 0.1% of the Intel Core i7-9700 and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core i5-11600K, showing it is not a bottleneck in this configuration.

Q: Is the GPU’s 8 GB memory sufficient for this game?

A: The 8 GB GDDR6 memory with 256.0 GB/s bandwidth appears inadequate for higher presets, as FPS drops sharply between Medium and High at all resolutions, suggesting memory pressure.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 47.6 FPS, which is playable but not silky smooth. Users seeking higher frame rates must drop to Low, which yields 78.2 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 1154 out of 1689 total combos, placing it in the lower third of tested systems for The Medium.