The Medium

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, a horror title from 2021 that clearly stresses the GPU more than the CPU. The benchmark data shows that settings and resolution choices drastically alter performance, with the sweet spot being a balance between visual fidelity and frame rate. For most users, the Medium preset at 1440p or the High preset at 1080p offers the most consistent experience without dipping into unplayable territory.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows make it clear that the Ultra preset is not a viable option for this combination in The Medium. At 1080p, Ultra produces an average of 34 FPS, and at 1440p, it drops to 27.5 FPS. At 4K, the Ultra preset falls to 24.7 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The data suggests that Ultra is reserved for systems with significantly more GPU headroom.

The High preset provides a more balanced experience, but only at lower resolutions. At 1080p, High yields 42.8 FPS, which is playable but not silky smooth. At 1440p, High averages 36 FPS, and at 4K, it drops to 30.9 FPS. These numbers indicate that High is a marginal choice for this hardware, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

The Medium preset offers the best trade-off for this specific configuration. At 1080p, it delivers 57.6 FPS, which is a comfortable frame rate for a horror game that relies on atmosphere rather than twitch reflexes. At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 49.6 FPS, which remains smooth enough for the genre. Even at 4K, the Medium preset manages 41.7 FPS, which is surprisingly playable given the resolution. This suggests that the Medium preset is the recommended starting point for this combo.

The Low preset shows what the hardware is capable of when visuals are stripped back. At 1080p, Low hits 94 FPS, at 1440p it reaches 80.3 FPS, and at 4K it still achieves 65.3 FPS. These numbers indicate that the GPU has raw power that is being held back by the higher presets. For players who prioritize frame rate over visual quality, Low is the only preset that consistently exceeds 60 FPS across all resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Is the Ultra preset playable with this CPU and GPU combination?

A: No. The measured FPS shows Ultra averages of 34 FPS at 1080p, 27.5 FPS at 1440p, and 24.7 FPS at 4K. These frame rates are below the 30 FPS baseline typically considered minimum for playability, making Ultra a poor choice for this combo.

*Q: What is the best resolution for this hardware in The Medium?*

A: The data shows that 1080p with the Medium preset gives 57.6 FPS, while 1440p with the same preset gives 49.6 FPS. Both are playable, but 1080p offers a higher frame rate. At 4K, the Medium preset still manages 41.7 FPS, which is acceptable for a slower-paced horror game.

Q: How much performance difference is there between the Low and Medium presets?

A: At 1080p, the difference is significant: Low achieves 94 FPS while Medium drops to 57.6 FPS, a reduction of roughly 36%. At 1440p, the gap narrows slightly: Low gets 80.3 FPS and Medium gets 49.6 FPS. At 4K, Low gets 65.3 FPS and Medium gets 41.7 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: The benchmark data does not show a CPU bottleneck. The FPS drops are proportional to resolution increases, which is typical of GPU-bound workloads. The i5-12400F has 6 cores and 12 threads, which appears sufficient for this title based on the measured results.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 4K with the High preset?

A: The measured average FPS for 4K High is 30.9 FPS. This is borderline playable, but it is very close to the 30 FPS minimum threshold and may feel choppy in fast-moving scenes.

Q: Is the Low preset necessary for 4K gaming?

A: No. The Medium preset at 4K provides 41.7 FPS, which is above the 30 FPS minimum. The Low preset at 4K gives 65.3 FPS, but the visual sacrifice may not be worth the frame rate gain for a horror game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake generation, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark scores show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16518 and a single-core score of 2332. The processor sits at the 77th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is a solid mid-range part.

In The Medium, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS scales with resolution in a way that points to GPU limitations rather than CPU constraints. For example, at 1080p Low the system achieves 94 FPS, but at 4K Low it drops to 65.3 FPS. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would remain relatively flat across resolutions. Instead, the data shows a steady decline, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario.

The nearest rivals to the i5-12400F, based on average benchmark scores, include the Intel Core i7-8700K (0.1% delta) and the Intel Core i5-1335U (0.3% delta). These comparisons suggest that the i5-12400F is competitive with older high-end parts and newer mobile chips. For The Medium, this CPU has enough single-thread and multi-thread performance to feed the GPU adequately, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates are not limited by processor capabilities.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the i5-12400F and the RX 7600 XT ranks 1067 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the database, which is consistent with the GPU's performance percentile. The RX 7600 XT sits at the 63rd percentile of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 20146 is close to the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (deltaPct -0.6%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER (deltaPct 1.9%).

The ranking suggests that while this combo is not a top-tier performer, it is not a weak one either. The measured FPS data supports this: the system can handle 1080p Medium at nearly 60 FPS and 1440p Medium at nearly 50 FPS. The GPU's nearest rivals, such as the RX 7600 (20258 avg score) and the RTX 3070 Mobile (20534 avg score), would likely produce similar results in The Medium, given their close average scores.

The combo rank is heavily influenced by the GPU's performance, as the CPU is clearly not the limiting factor. The i5-12400F's percentile rank of 77 is higher than the GPU's percentile of 63, indicating that the GPU is the weaker link in this pairing. This is typical for a mid-range CPU paired with a mid-range GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases. Going from 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by roughly 10-15% across all settings. For example, at Medium settings, 1080p yields 57.6 FPS while 1440p yields 49.6 FPS, a reduction of about 14%. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is more pronounced. At Medium settings, 4K yields 41.7 FPS, which is about 16% lower than 1440p.

This scaling behavior indicates that the RX 7600 XT is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would not decrease as much when moving from 1440p to 4K. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s and its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory are sufficient for high-resolution textures, but the raw compute power (22.57 TFLOPS FP32) appears to be the constraint at higher resolutions.

At 4K, the Low preset still achieves 65.3 FPS, which shows that the GPU has enough power to drive the game at high frame rates when the visual load is reduced. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is stark: 65.3 FPS versus 24.7 FPS. This 40+ FPS gap highlights how much the GPU struggles with the more demanding settings at 4K, making it clear that the GPU is the primary factor in performance scaling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS ranges from 34 FPS on Ultra to 94 FPS on Low. The Medium preset delivers 57.6 FPS, and High delivers 42.8 FPS. This resolution offers the widest range of playable options, with only the Ultra preset falling below the 30 FPS minimum.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS ranges from 27.5 FPS on Ultra to 80.3 FPS on Low. The Medium preset averages 49.6 FPS, and High averages 36 FPS. This resolution is playable on Medium and Low, but High and Ultra are borderline or unplayable.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 24.7 FPS on Ultra to 65.3 FPS on Low. The Medium preset averages 41.7 FPS, and High averages 30.9 FPS. This resolution is only consistently playable on Low and Medium, with High being marginal and Ultra being unplayable.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the RX 7600 XT provides enough performance for 1080p and 1440p gaming on medium settings, but it struggles at 4K with anything above the Medium preset. The CPU's performance is adequate across all resolutions, as the frame rates scale with the GPU's workload rather than being capped by processor limitations. For the best experience, players should target 1080p or 1440p with the Medium preset, which delivers the most stable frame rates without sacrificing too much visual quality.