The Medium

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates across the three resolutions reveal a clear pattern of GPU-bound performance at higher settings, with the scaling curve flattening as the workload shifts. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 142.4 FPS, which drops to 137.6 FPS at 1440p — a modest reduction of approximately 3.4%. Moving to 4K Low yields 110 FPS, representing a further 20.1% decline from the 1440p figure. This relatively gentle scaling at Low settings suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU adequately even at lower resolutions, where pixel throughput demands are lighter.

The picture changes dramatically when examining the High preset. At 1080p High, the average is 71.1 FPS. At 1440p High, it falls to 60.2 FPS — a 15.3% drop. The 4K High result of 51 FPS represents another 15.3% reduction from 1440p. This consistent percentage decline across each resolution step indicates the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor, as the render resolution increases the pixel shader workload proportionally.

The Medium preset shows similar behavior: 99.4 FPS at 1080p, 83.6 FPS at 1440p (a 15.9% drop), and 68.4 FPS at 4K (an 18.2% drop from 1440p). The Ultra preset follows the steepest curve, with 60.1 FPS at 1080p, 45.5 FPS at 1440p (24.3% lower), and 39.6 FPS at 4K (13.0% lower than 1440p). The Ultra scaling pattern suggests that at 1080p Ultra, the GPU is already heavily loaded, so the incremental cost of additional pixels is proportionally smaller than at lower presets where headroom exists.

The data strongly indicates that the RTX 5070 is the bottleneck across most of the tested configurations. The consistent 15-18% drops between 1080p and 1440p, and again between 1440p and 4K at Medium and High settings, align closely with the pixel count increase of 2.25x from 1080p to 1440p and 2.25x from 1440p to 4K. If the CPU were limiting, the scaling would show diminishing frame rate penalties as resolution rises, because the GPU would have more time to wait for CPU data. Instead, the near-linear scaling suggests the graphics pipeline is saturated.

At Low settings, the scaling pattern differs. The 1080p to 1440p delta is small (142.4 to 137.6), but the 1440p to 4K delta is larger (137.6 to 110). This could indicate that at 1080p Low, the CPU is occasionally limiting, but at 4K Low, the GPU workload increases enough to re-establish GPU dominance. The 110 FPS at 4K Low remains well above the 60 FPS threshold typically associated with smooth gameplay, so even the most demanding resolution tested with the lightest preset leaves substantial headroom.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for optimal playability. At 1080p, the Ultra preset delivers 60.1 FPS, which is right at the standard 60 FPS target. The High preset at 1080p produces 71.1 FPS, offering an 18.3% margin above the Ultra figure while presumably reducing some visual effects. For users prioritizing frame rate stability, Medium at 1080p yields 99.4 FPS, which is 65.4% higher than Ultra. The Low preset at 1080p reaches 142.4 FPS, which is more than double the Ultra figure and suitable for high-refresh-rate displays.

At 1440p, the situation becomes more constrained. Ultra produces 45.5 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold and would likely feel stuttery during fast-paced horror sequences. High at 1440p achieves 60.2 FPS, just barely clearing the 60 FPS bar. Medium at 1440p reaches 83.6 FPS, providing a comfortable 38.9% margin over High. Low at 1440p hits 137.6 FPS, which is excellent for competitive play but sacrifices most visual fidelity.

The 4K results are the most telling. Ultra at 4K produces 39.6 FPS, which is below playable thresholds for most users. High at 4K reaches 51 FPS, still short of 60 FPS. Medium at 4K yields 68.4 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS target with a 13.9% margin. Low at 4K delivers 110 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay. The data suggests that Medium is the optimal preset for 4K play, as it balances the need for visual quality with a playable frame rate. At 1440p, High appears to be the sweet spot, as it hits exactly 60.2 FPS while preserving more visual detail than Medium. At 1080p, Ultra is viable at 60.1 FPS, but High offers a safer margin for scenes with heavier load.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 331st out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the 80.4th percentile of all configurations. This position indicates that the pairing performs well above the median, with roughly four out of five tested combos delivering lower average frame rates. The rank is notable given the CPU's mid-range positioning; the i5-12400 sits at the 77th percentile against all CPUs in general benchmark scores, while the RTX 5070 ranks at the 83rd percentile against all GPUs. The combo's game-specific rank of 331 out of 1689 is slightly better than what either component's individual percentile would suggest, implying that the pairing is well-matched for this title.

The CPU's nearest rivals in general benchmarks show how close the competitive field is. The Intel Core i7-9700 scores 0.1% higher on average, the Intel Core i7-8700 scores 0.2% lower, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995WX scores 0.4% lower, and the Intel Core i5-11600K scores 0.4% higher. These deltas are within noise margins, meaning the i5-12400 is effectively tied with several older and newer processors in raw compute. For the GPU, the nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 at 0.2% higher, the NVIDIA Tesla M40 at 0.5% lower, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 at 0.6% higher, and the AMD Radeon Pro 580X at 0.7% lower. The RTX 5070 thus sits in a tight cluster where the RTX 3090, a previous-generation flagship, is only marginally ahead in aggregate GPU benchmarks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings sweep shows Low at 142.4 FPS, Medium at 99.4 FPS, High at 71.1 FPS, and Ultra at 60.1 FPS. The transition from Low to Medium costs 43.0 FPS (30.2%), from Medium to High costs 28.3 FPS (28.5%), and from High to Ultra costs 11.0 FPS (15.5%). The diminishing returns as settings increase are evident: the largest absolute drop occurs when moving from Low to Medium, while the smallest occurs from High to Ultra. This suggests that the Medium to High step adds significant visual features that impact performance, while the High to Ultra step is less demanding.

At 2560x1440, the measured values are Low at 137.6 FPS, Medium at 83.6 FPS, High at 60.2 FPS, and Ultra at 45.5 FPS. The Low to Medium drop is 54.0 FPS (39.2%), Medium to High drops 23.4 FPS (28.0%), and High to Ultra drops 14.7 FPS (24.4%). The Low to Medium penalty is more severe at 1440p than at 1080p, indicating that the Medium preset's features interact more heavily with the higher pixel count. The High to Ultra step at 1440p is proportionally larger than the same step at 1080p, suggesting that Ultra settings multiply geometric and shading costs that scale with resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are Low at 110 FPS, Medium at 68.4 FPS, High at 51 FPS, and Ultra at 39.6 FPS. The Low to Medium drop is 41.6 FPS (37.8%), Medium to High drops 17.4 FPS (25.4%), and High to Ultra drops 11.4 FPS (22.4%). The 4K Ultra result of 39.6 FPS is the lowest figure in the entire dataset, confirming that this preset is not viable at 4K. The 4K Low result of 110 FPS is the only 4K setting that approaches the 1440p Medium result of 83.6 FPS in terms of smoothness, highlighting how much headroom exists at lower settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, which translates to 28 Gbps effective. The GPU has 6144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. Its base clock is 2325 MHz with a boost clock of 2512 MHz. The chip is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, containing 31,100 million transistors on a 263 mm² die.

In The Medium, the 12 GB frame buffer is sufficient for the measured settings, as the game's horror environments typically require substantial texture memory. The 672.0 GB/s bandwidth appears adequate for the 4K Medium result of 68.4 FPS, which is the highest playable 4K preset. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 30.87 TFLOPS supports the pixel-heavy workloads, but the scaling data suggests that the RTX 5070's compute resources are the primary constraint at Ultra settings across all resolutions. The 39.6 FPS at 4K Ultra indicates that the GPU's 80 ROPs and 30.87 TFLOPS are insufficient for the combined load of Ultra effects and 4K resolution.

The GPU's benchmark scores show a Passmark G3D score of 29137 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5077. These general benchmarks place the RTX 5070 at the 83rd percentile against all GPUs, which is consistent with its game-specific behavior. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 185269 and Vulkan score of 179413 indicate strong compute capabilities, but The Medium's rendering pipeline appears to be more reliant on raw rasterization performance than on compute shaders. The GPU's 48 RT cores are present but the measured FPS data does not isolate ray tracing performance, so their impact cannot be directly quantified from the available rows.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400 has 6 cores and 12 threads, operating at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It features 18 MB of shared L3 cache, with 80 KB of L1 cache per core and 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core. The processor is built on Intel's 10 nm Alder Lake architecture, with a die size of 163 mm². It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, and its 65 W TDP keeps power draw modest.

The CPU's general benchmark performance shows a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15935 and a single-core score of 2249. The Passmark multi-thread score is 18747, with a single-thread score of 3456. In 3DMark, the 16-thread score is 5873, while the single-thread score is 910. These figures place the i5-12400 at the 77th percentile against all CPUs, which is a strong result for a 6-core part. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-9700, is effectively tied at 0.1% higher average score, while the Core i7-8700 is 0.2% lower.

In The Medium, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU based on the resolution scaling analysis. At 1080p Low, the 142.4 FPS result is high enough that the CPU could become a limiting factor in certain scenes, but the 3.4% drop from 1080p to 1440p Low suggests the CPU is keeping pace. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are adequate for the game's threading model, which typically utilizes multiple threads for scene management, audio, and physics. The 4.40 GHz boost clock provides strong single-thread performance for the main game loop, and the 18 MB L3 cache helps reduce memory latency for frequently accessed data.

The data does not indicate any CPU bottleneck at the higher settings, as the frame rates scale consistently with resolution changes. If the CPU were limiting, the 4K Ultra result would not degrade as much relative to 1080p Ultra, because the GPU would be waiting for CPU instructions. Instead, the 4K Ultra figure of 39.6 FPS versus 1080p Ultra's 60.1 FPS shows a 34.1% reduction, which is consistent with GPU-bound behavior. The i5-12400's 65 W TDP and dual-channel memory support are sufficient for maintaining stable frame delivery, and the benchmark results indicate the processor is a capable match for the RTX 5070 in this title.