The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding workload for the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT combination. The benchmark data shows a system that is heavily influenced by graphics settings and resolution, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck in most scenarios. This pairing delivers playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p with adjusted settings, but struggles to maintain smooth performance at 4K Ultra.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is stark and reveals a clear GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the system delivers 109 FPS at 1920x1080, which falls to 94.5 FPS at 2560x1440, and then plummets to 74.8 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 31.4% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the Radeon RX 6700 XT is the limiting factor as resolution scales.

The scaling pattern becomes even more pronounced at higher settings. At Medium settings, the frame rate drops from 70.2 FPS at 1080p to 58.5 FPS at 1440p, and then to 43 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1440p and 4K narrows as settings increase, suggesting that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being saturated. At High settings, the system manages 46.8 FPS at 1080p, 42.2 FPS at 1440p, and 31.4 FPS at 4K. The relatively small difference between 1080p and 1440p at High settings (only 4.6 FPS) indicates that the CPU begins to play a more significant role at lower resolutions, while the GPU dominates the workload at 4K.

Ultra settings expose the most extreme scaling. The system produces 37.8 FPS at 1080p, 36.2 FPS at 1440p, and 23.6 FPS at 4K. The near-identical performance at 1080p and 1440p Ultra suggests that the game's Ultra preset introduces heavy effects that tax the GPU regardless of resolution, with the 4K result showing a 37.6% drop from 1440p. This pattern confirms that the Radeon RX 6700 XT, with its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth, is the primary constraint in this configuration.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT sits at the 77th percentile among all GPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 33721. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800, which scores 0.7% higher, and the NVIDIA RTX A5000, which trails by 1.3%. The GPU's 12 GB of VRAM is sufficient for The Medium's textures at 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K Ultra results suggest that memory capacity becomes a limiting factor at the highest settings.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a base clock of 2321 MHz, a game clock of 2424 MHz, and a boost clock of 2581 MHz. The 16 Gbps effective memory speed on a 192-bit bus provides 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which appears adequate for most scenarios but struggles with the 4K Ultra preset. The RDNA 2.0 architecture with 2560 shading units and 40 ray accelerators handles the game's fixed-camera horror aesthetic well, but the measured frame rates indicate that The Medium's use of dual-reality rendering (showing two worlds simultaneously) places unusual stress on the GPU.

The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the system achieves only 23.6 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The GPU's 13.21 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 165.2 GPixel/s pixel rate are insufficient for the game's most demanding mode. However, the GPU's performance at lower settings is respectable, with the 109 FPS result at 1080p Low demonstrating that the card has headroom when not pushed to its limits. The benchmark results indicate that the RX 6700 XT is best utilized at 1080p or 1440p with Medium or High settings, where it can maintain playable frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 70.2 FPS, which offers a smooth experience with improved visual quality over Low. The High preset at 1080p produces 46.8 FPS, which is playable but shows a significant 33.3% drop from Medium. For players prioritizing frame rate, Low at 1080p achieves 109 FPS, but the visual compromise may not be worth the extra 38.8 FPS over Medium.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 58.5 FPS, which is the sweet spot for this resolution. The High preset at 1440p drops to 42.2 FPS, a 27.9% reduction that may be noticeable in fast-paced scenes. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 94.5 FPS, providing a highly responsive experience but sacrificing the atmospheric lighting and shadow quality that define The Medium's horror aesthetic. The Ultra preset at 1440p produces 36.2 FPS, which is borderline playable but not recommended for consistent performance.

For 4K, the data suggests that only the Low preset (74.8 FPS) provides a smooth experience. The Medium preset at 4K delivers 43 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced horror gameplay, but the High preset (31.4 FPS) and Ultra preset (23.6 FPS) fall below comfortable playability thresholds. Given the game's genre, where deliberate pacing and atmosphere matter more than twitch reflexes, the Medium preset at 4K may be viable for players who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate smoothness.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete frame rate data reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 109 FPS on Low, 70.2 FPS on Medium, 46.8 FPS on High, and 37.8 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 65.3% reduction in performance, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High (23.4 FPS). This suggests that the High preset introduces significant graphical effects that disproportionately impact the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the results are 94.5 FPS on Low, 58.5 FPS on Medium, 42.2 FPS on High, and 36.2 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Medium narrows compared to 1080p, with a 36 FPS difference versus 38.8 FPS at the lower resolution. The High to Ultra transition at 1440p shows only a 6 FPS difference, indicating that the Ultra preset's additional effects have diminishing returns at this resolution.

The 3840x2160 results show 74.8 FPS on Low, 43 FPS on Medium, 31.4 FPS on High, and 23.6 FPS on Ultra. The Low to Medium drop of 31.8 FPS is the largest single setting transition in the entire dataset, highlighting how resolution scaling amplifies the cost of increased graphical fidelity. The High to Ultra transition at 4K shows an 7.8 FPS difference, which is proportionally similar to the 1440p results but with lower absolute values.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset consistently offers the best balance between visual quality and performance. The data shows that the CPU, an Intel Core i5-12400 with 6 cores and 12 threads, does not appear to bottleneck the system at any resolution or settings combination. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15935 and single-core score of 2249 indicate sufficient processing power for this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT combination ranks 934 out of 1689 tested configurations in The Medium, placing it in the 44.7th percentile of all combos. This mid-tier ranking reflects the system's ability to handle the game at moderate settings and resolutions, but its limitations at 4K Ultra prevent a higher placement.

The CPU component of this combo performs well relative to its peers. The Intel Core i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 19850, placing it at the 77th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-9700, which scores 0.1% higher, and the Intel Core i5-11600K, which trails by 0.4%. The CPU's performance is essentially tied with these alternatives, indicating that the Core i5-12400 provides competitive processing power for gaming workloads.

The GPU component also sits at the 77th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 33721. The Radeon RX 6700 XT's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6800 (0.7% higher), the AMD Radeon HD 7950 (1% lower), and the AMD Radeon RX 480 (1% lower). This clustering suggests that the RX 6700 XT occupies a well-populated performance tier, with its closest competitors offering similar raw compute capabilities.

The combo's rank of 934 out of 1689 suggests that while this pairing is capable of running The Medium, many other configurations deliver better performance. The system's strongest results occur at 1080p Low (109 FPS) and 1440p Low (94.5 FPS), where it outperforms a significant portion of the tested combos. However, the steep performance penalties at higher settings and resolutions drag the overall ranking down. The data indicates that this combo is best suited for players who prioritize resolution and detail settings that align with the card's strengths, rather than pushing for maximum visual fidelity.