The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding fixed-camera horror experience where the choice of graphics preset dramatically outweighs resolution scaling in determining playability. For the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, the measured data shows that the Low preset is the only reliable path to smooth performance across all resolutions, while higher settings quickly push frame rates below playable thresholds. This combination ranks in the lower third of tested systems, suggesting that while the hardware is competent, the game’s specific rendering load exposes its limitations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data indicates a clear hierarchy: Low settings are the only preset that consistently delivers playable frame rates at every resolution. At 1920x1080, Low produces an average of 89.9 FPS, which drops to 75.4 at 2560x1440 and 58.6 at 3840x2160. These numbers suggest that Low is the default choice for any resolution above 1080p, as it maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS even at 4K.

Medium settings present a compromise that only works at 1080p, where the average of 58 FPS is borderline playable. At higher resolutions, Medium falls to 46.3 FPS at 1440p and 36.2 FPS at 4K, which are both below the smoothness threshold for a game with this atmospheric pacing. High settings are even more restrictive: 39.2 FPS at 1080p, 34.9 at 1440p, and 28.4 at 4K. These numbers indicate that High is only suitable for players who prioritize visual fidelity over responsiveness and are willing to accept stutter-heavy gameplay.

Ultra settings are effectively unplayable across the board, with 34.8 FPS at 1080p, 28.1 at 1440p, and 18.5 at 4K. The data suggests that the gap between Medium and High is smaller than the gap between High and Ultra, but the overall trend is consistent: the RTX 2060 SUPER simply does not have enough headroom for this game’s higher presets. The optimal experience for this combo is Low at 1440p, which balances the 75.4 FPS average with the resolution’s improved image clarity over 1080p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its Turing architecture includes 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, with base and boost clocks of 1470 MHz and 1650 MHz respectively. The GPU’s 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 34 RT cores suggest it was designed for ray tracing at 1080p, but The Medium’s fixed-camera angles and complex lighting seem to amplify its workload.

The measured FPS scaling reveals that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher settings. From Low to Ultra at 1080p, the average drops from 89.9 to 34.8 FPS, a reduction of over 55 FPS for a single preset change. This steep decline indicates that the game’s rendering features—likely including volumetric effects and screen-space reflections—are heavily taxing the 2060 SUPER’s shading units and memory bandwidth. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for 1080p, but the game’s texture streaming at 4K may be constrained, as evidenced by the 58.6 FPS at Low versus 28.4 FPS at High.

The GPU’s 63rd percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the mid-range tier, and its nearest rivals—the GTX TITAN (0.3% slower) and RTX 2070 (0.5% faster)—show that it sits just below the next performance bracket. This positioning explains why High and Ultra settings struggle: the 2060 SUPER is competitive with last-generation flagship cards but lacks the raw throughput needed for modern horror titles at maximum quality.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its Alder Lake architecture includes 18 MB of shared L3 cache and an 80 KB L1 cache per core, with support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. The CPU’s benchmark scores, such as 15935 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2249 in single-core, demonstrate solid mainstream performance, but The Medium’s measured results suggest the CPU is rarely the limiting factor.

Across all resolutions and settings, the FPS differences between 1080p and 4K are relatively modest when the preset is held constant. For example, at Low settings, the average drops from 89.9 FPS at 1080p to 58.6 FPS at 4K, a 35% reduction. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU becomes more dominant at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s 6 cores are sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p. The 12 threads handle the game’s background streaming and AI logic without creating a bottleneck, as evidenced by the fact that Low at 4K still achieves nearly 60 FPS.

The i5-12400’s 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs places it above the majority of processors, and its nearest rivals—the i7-9700 (0.1% slower) and i7-8700 (0.2% faster)—show that it competes with older high-end chips. This strong CPU performance means that upgrading the GPU would yield immediate FPS gains, as the processor has headroom to support a faster graphics card without becoming a constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 1276 out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the bottom 25th percentile. This rank reflects the GPU’s mid-tier status and the game’s demanding nature, as many systems with newer or higher-end graphics cards achieve significantly better results. The CPU’s strong performance cannot compensate for the GPU’s limitations in this title.

The rank suggests that this combo is better suited for older or less demanding games, but for The Medium specifically, players must accept significant compromises. The data shows that even at 1080p with Low settings, the 89.9 FPS average is respectable, but this represents the ceiling for this hardware. The 1276th rank out of 1689 indicates that roughly 75% of tested configurations outperform this combo, which is consistent with the GPU’s 63rd percentile and CPU’s 77th percentile when combined.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo at 1080p?

A: The Low preset delivers an average of 89.9 FPS at 1920x1080, which is the highest measured value for this resolution. Medium provides 58 FPS and is playable, while High drops to 39.2 FPS and Ultra falls to 34.8 FPS.

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

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 58.6 FPS, which is playable. Medium drops to 36.2 FPS, High to 28.4 FPS, and Ultra to 18.5 FPS, making higher presets impractical at 4K.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER compare to its closest rival?

A: The RTX 2070 is 0.5% faster in average benchmark score, while the GTX TITAN is 0.3% slower. This indicates the 2060 SUPER sits in a tight competitive cluster with these older cards.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the CPU delivers 89.9 FPS, but increasing settings to Ultra drops the average to 34.8 FPS, showing that the GPU’s workload scaling is the dominant constraint.

Q: What is the CPU’s single-thread performance level?

A: The i5-12400 scores 2249 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 910 in 3DMark single-thread, with a 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs, indicating strong per-core performance for gaming.

Q: How much performance is lost moving from 1080p to 4K at Low settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 89.9 at 1920x1080 to 58.6 at 3840x2160, a 31.3 FPS reduction that represents a 35% decrease in frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are 89.9 FPS on Low, 58 FPS on Medium, 39.2 FPS on High, and 34.8 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Medium involves a 31.9 FPS drop, while Medium to High loses 18.8 FPS, and High to Ultra loses only 4.4 FPS. This pattern shows diminishing returns for the highest preset, as Ultra provides little visual gain for a significant performance cost.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 75.4 FPS on Low, 46.3 FPS on Medium, 34.9 FPS on High, and 28.1 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Medium drop is 29.1 FPS, Medium-to-High is 11.4 FPS, and High-to-Ultra is 6.8 FPS. The 1440p numbers are roughly 15-20% lower than 1080p for each preset, indicating a consistent resolution penalty.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 58.6 FPS on Low, 36.2 FPS on Medium, 28.4 FPS on High, and 18.5 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Medium drop is 22.4 FPS, Medium-to-High is 7.8 FPS, and High-to-Ultra is 9.9 FPS. Interestingly, the 4K High-to-Ultra drop is larger than at lower resolutions, suggesting that the game’s memory footprint at Ultra exceeds the 8 GB VRAM capacity, causing additional stutters.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound performance. At Low settings, the average drops from 89.9 FPS at 1080p to 75.4 FPS at 1440p, then to 58.6 FPS at 4K. This represents a 16% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 35% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is roughly proportional to the pixel count increase, indicating that the GPU is fully utilized at all resolutions when settings are low.

At Medium settings, the scaling is steeper: 58 FPS at 1080p, 46.3 FPS at 1440p, and 36.2 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-4K drop is 37.6%, slightly higher than Low, suggesting that the additional rendering features at Medium amplify the resolution burden. At High settings, the averages are 39.2, 34.9, and 28.4 FPS for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively, with a 27.6% drop from 1080p to 4K. This smaller percentage drop indicates that the GPU is already so stressed at 1080p High that the resolution increase has less relative impact.

Ultra settings show the most erratic scaling: 34.8 FPS at 1080p, 28.1 FPS at 1440p, and 18.5 FPS at 4K, a 46.8% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The steep decline at 4K Ultra suggests that the 8 GB VRAM is exhausted, forcing the GPU to spill memory traffic to system RAM. This data implies that the RTX 2060 SUPER’s memory subsystem is the ultimate limiting factor at the highest settings, while at lower presets, the shading units become the primary constraint.