The Medium

The Medium is a demanding horror title, and the data for the Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB shows a system that is heavily constrained by its graphics card. The measured results across all settings and resolutions indicate that while the CPU is capable, the GPU's 4 GB VRAM and modest compute power dictate the playable envelope, making preset selection and resolution the primary levers for a smooth experience.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data presents a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 63.7 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset that approaches a high-refresh rate experience. This stands in stark contrast to the Medium preset, which drops to 40.3 FPS, and the High preset, which falls to 30.2 FPS. The Ultra preset at this resolution yields only 22.7 FPS, making it unsuitable for consistent play.

For the best balance of visual fidelity and playability, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the recommended starting point. The 40.3 FPS average is a significant improvement over the High preset's 30.2 FPS, representing a 33% performance uplift, while still offering a more detailed image than Low. If a smoother experience is prioritized over visual quality, the Low preset is the only option that consistently stays above 60 FPS, but the jump to Medium is substantial for a relatively smaller visual compromise. The data suggests that High and Ultra presets are not viable for this combination, as they consistently fail to reach 30 FPS at any resolution tested.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is the definitive bottleneck in this configuration. Its specifications, including a 4 GB GDDR6 memory capacity on a 128-bit bus with 192.0 GB/s bandwidth, are the primary limiting factor. This is particularly evident in the dramatic frame rate collapses at higher resolutions and settings. For instance, moving from 1920x1080 High (30.2 FPS) to 2560x1440 High (22.9 FPS) results in a 24% drop, and the subsequent jump to 3840x2160 High (17.6 FPS) shows another 23% decline. This scaling pattern points squarely at the GPU struggling to manage the increasing memory and fill-rate demands.

The card's core architecture, with 2048 shading units and 32 ROPs, provides a theoretical pixel rate of 55.68 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 111.4 GTexel/s. While these figures are respectable for 1080p, they are insufficient for 4K. The benchmark results confirm this, as the Ultra preset at 3840x2160 yields just 15.3 FPS. The 4 GB VRAM is also a likely culprit for the steep penalties seen when moving from Low to Medium settings, as the higher-detail textures and assets can exceed the memory buffer, forcing the system to rely on slower data transfers. The data indicates that the GPU's capabilities are best utilized at 1080p, where it can provide a playable, if not always smooth, experience on Medium settings.

CPU Role

In contrast to the GPU, the Intel Core i5-12400F demonstrates it is more than capable of keeping up with the demands of The Medium. The processor features 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16518 and a single-core score of 2332, indicate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. The processor's 77th percentile ranking against all CPUs further confirms its solid standing.

The data suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this game. This is most apparent when observing the frame rate differences between presets at the same resolution. For example, at 1920x1080, the difference between the Low (63.7 FPS) and Medium (40.3 FPS) presets is a massive 37% drop. This kind of performance penalty is characteristic of a GPU-side limitation, such as increased shader complexity or VRAM pressure, rather than a CPU bottleneck. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the performance gap between Low and Medium would be much smaller. The CPU's 3DMark scores, including a max-thread score of 5912 and a single-thread score of 909, show it has ample headroom for handling the game's logic and physics, leaving the GPU as the clear primary constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Core i5-12400F and the RTX 3050 4 GB holds a rank of 1545 out of 1689 tested combos for this game. This places it in the bottom 9% of all configurations, a position that reflects the GPU's limitations rather than the CPU's. This ranking is a critical context for interpreting the performance data; while the individual components have their strengths, their pairing results in a system that is outclassed by most others in the database for this specific title.

The CPU's own rival data shows it is competitive with other processors, sitting within 1% of the Intel Core i7-8700K and AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS in average benchmark scores. This reinforces that the processor is not the weak link. The low combo rank is almost entirely attributable to the RTX 3050 4 GB, which holds a 50th percentile ranking among all GPUs. This pairing creates a significant imbalance where a mid-pack GPU is paired with a near-top-tier CPU, resulting in a system that is severely GPU-bound. The data indicates that this combo is not optimized for The Medium, and users would see a more balanced performance profile with a more powerful graphics card.

Resolution Scaling

The performance degradation from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, further confirming the GPU bottleneck. At the Low preset, the system delivers 63.7 FPS at 1920x1080, which falls to 51.6 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 19% drop), and then to 46.1 FPS at 3840x2160 (an additional 11% drop). While the percentage decline is smaller at higher resolutions, the absolute frame rates are still low. The pattern is more dramatic on the Medium preset, where 40.3 FPS at 1080p falls to 33.9 FPS at 1440p (a 16% drop) and then plummets to 24.4 FPS at 4K (a 28% drop).

The scaling behavior at the High and Ultra presets is even more telling. At High, the system moves from 30.2 FPS at 1080p to 22.9 FPS at 1440p and finally to 17.6 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset starts at just 22.7 FPS at 1080p and falls to 15.3 FPS at 4K. The fact that the frame rate drops are so pronounced when increasing resolution, even on the Low preset where VRAM usage is lower, points to the GPU's raw computational limits. The 4K results, which are all below 50 FPS even on Low, demonstrate that this hardware combination is not designed for modern high-resolution gaming. The data clearly shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where this combo can provide an acceptable experience, and only on the Low or Medium presets.