The Medium

The Medium is a demanding horror title, and the pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400F with the AMD Radeon RX 570 produces a very specific performance envelope. The data shows this combination lands at rank 1617 out of 1689 combos, placing it in the bottom percentile of tested systems. This is not a configuration for high-refresh or high-resolution gaming; it is a setup that requires careful settings management to achieve playable frame rates, particularly at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium with this hardware?

A: The only resolution where the average frame rate exceeds 30 FPS is 1920x1080 at Low settings, which produces 43.8 FPS. All 1440p and 4K configurations fall below 36.1 FPS, making 1080p the only viable option for a consistently playable experience.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19221, placing it 77th percentile among all CPUs. It is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-8700K, which scores 19210 (0.1% slower), and the Intel Core i5-1335U, which scores 19167 (0.3% slower). It is slightly ahead of the AMD EPYC 7773X, which scores 18979 (1.3% slower).

Q: Is the RX 570's performance competitive with modern GPUs according to the data?

A: The RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 30158, placing it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, which scores 30109 (0.2% lower). It also sits close to the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, which scores 30097 (0.2% lower), suggesting the RX 570's synthetic scores are surprisingly strong despite its age.

Q: What is the biggest performance drop when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: The most significant drop occurs at High settings, where the average frame rate falls from 20.2 FPS at 1080p to 11.8 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 8.4 FPS. At Medium settings, the drop is from 28.9 FPS to 21 FPS, a smaller but still substantial 7.9 FPS decline.

Q: How much headroom does the CPU have for gaming workloads?

A: The Core i5-12400F shows strong multi-threaded capability, scoring 16518 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 5912 in 3DMark max threads. Its single-thread score of 2332 in Cinebench R23 indicates solid per-core performance, which is typically more important for gaming than multi-threaded throughput.

Q: Does the GPU have enough VRAM for The Medium?

A: The RX 570 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus. Given that the game's maximum measured average FPS is 43.8 at 1080p Low, the data suggests that the GPU's overall compute and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors, as the frame rates collapse when settings or resolution increase.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, running on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The processor supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory, which gives builders flexibility, though the game's performance data suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this configuration.

Synthetic benchmarks show this chip is a capable performer. It achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16518 and a single-core score of 2332. In Geekbench, it scores 9138 multi-core and 2221 single-core. These numbers position it well above the 50th percentile, and its nearest rivals in the data are all within a 1.3% margin, including the Intel Core i7-8700K and the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5895, compared to the single-thread score of 909, shows the chip scales effectively with additional threads, which is useful for the game's background loading processes.

However, the measured FPS in The Medium does not reflect a CPU-limited scenario. At 1080p Low, where the CPU would typically have the most influence, the average frame rate is 43.8 FPS. When the resolution increases to 1440p at the same Low settings, the frame rate drops to 36.1 FPS. This 7.7 FPS drop indicates that the GPU is already struggling to keep pace, even at lower resolutions. The CPU's 18 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support are more than sufficient for the game's logic; the data points to the GPU as the limiting component.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is built on the Polaris 20 chip using a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries. It features 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The GPU clock runs at 1168 MHz base and 1244 MHz boost, with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus. The memory operates at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective), delivering a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is the likely reason the GPU shows competitive synthetic scores, as the 256-bit bus provides significant throughput for its class.

The GPU's synthetic benchmarks are surprisingly strong. It scores 30158 on average, placing it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, which scores 30109, a delta of just 0.2%. This places the RX 570 in the same synthetic performance tier as much newer cards, yet the in-game data tells a different story. The FP32 performance is listed at 5.095 TFLOPS, which is modest by modern standards, and the 4 GB VRAM capacity is a hard ceiling for high-resolution textures.

In The Medium, the GPU's limitations are immediately visible. The game likely requires more than 4 GB of VRAM at higher settings, causing severe frame rate drops. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 18.4, while at 1080p High it is 20.2. The jump to Medium yields 28.9 FPS, and Low yields 43.8 FPS. This scaling pattern suggests that the GPU is being overwhelmed by the game's rendering demands, and the memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s is insufficient to maintain smooth performance at higher detail levels.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of the system's capabilities across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the results are as follows: Low settings produce an average of 43.8 FPS, Medium settings produce 28.9 FPS, High settings produce 20.2 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 18.4 FPS. This is the only resolution where the game approaches playability, and only at the Low preset.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance degrades significantly. Low settings average 36.1 FPS, which is still marginally playable for a slower-paced horror title. Medium settings drop to 20.7 FPS, High settings fall to 15.6 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 13.5 FPS. These numbers are consistently below the 30 FPS threshold that most players consider the minimum for a smooth experience.

At 3840x2160, the system is clearly overmatched. Low settings produce an average of 29.7 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that comes close to playability. Medium settings drop to 21 FPS, High settings fall to 11.8 FPS, and Ultra settings produce just 12.2 FPS. The frame rates at 4K are so low that the game would be nearly unplayable, even for a title with a slower pacing like The Medium.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data reveals a significant bottleneck in the GPU. When moving from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings, the average FPS drops from 43.8 to 36.1, a reduction of 7.7 FPS (roughly 18% slower). From 1440p to 4K at the same Low settings, the frame rate drops from 36.1 to 29.7, another 6.4 FPS reduction. This consistent decline indicates that the GPU is being pushed to its limits as pixel count increases.

The scaling is even more dramatic at higher settings. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 20.2 FPS at 1080p to 15.6 FPS at 1440p, and then to 11.8 FPS at 4K. This represents a cumulative drop of 8.4 FPS from 1080p to 4K, which is a 42% reduction in performance. The pattern suggests that the game is heavily GPU-bound, as the CPU's performance remains constant across resolutions but the frame rates do not.

This behavior points to the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth as the critical constraint. The Medium likely uses large texture assets, and when the resolution increases, the GPU must manage more data. The memory bandwidth is insufficient to keep up, causing frame rates to plummet. The data indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, and no amount of CPU headroom can compensate for this.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the only configuration that provides a consistently playable experience is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which yields an average of 43.8 FPS. This is the only preset across all tested resolutions and settings combinations that exceeds the 30 FPS threshold. For a horror game where atmosphere matters, this frame rate is acceptable, though not ideal.

At 1440p, the only preset that approaches playability is Low settings at 36.1 FPS. This is a viable option for players with 1440p monitors who are willing to sacrifice visual fidelity for a smoother experience. However, the frame rate is still below 40 FPS, which may cause noticeable stuttering in fast-moving scenes.

The data strongly suggests avoiding Medium, High, and Ultra presets at any resolution. Even at 1080p, Medium settings drop to 28.9 FPS, which is below the playability threshold. High and Ultra settings at 1080p produce 20.2 and 18.4 FPS respectively, which are too low for a responsive experience. The 4K and 1440p results are even worse, with all presets except 1440p Low falling below 30 FPS.

For the best experience, players should also consider the GPU's synthetic performance relative to its rivals. The RX 570's average benchmark score of 30158 places it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, but this does not translate to in-game performance. The synthetic scores likely reflect compute capabilities that are not directly applicable to this game's rendering pipeline. The practical advice is to run The Medium at 1080p Low to achieve a playable frame rate, and to accept that higher quality settings are not feasible with this hardware combination.