The Medium

The RTX 4070 SUPER paired with the Core i5-12400F delivers a solid 1080p and 1440p experience in The Medium, but the data shows that 4K Ultra settings push this combination to its limits. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Ultra settings costs 82.7 FPS, dropping from 143.7 FPS to 61 FPS. This scaling is steep, indicating that the GPU is the primary driver of performance at this resolution, as the CPU has enough headroom to feed the graphics card. Moving to 1440p, the pattern holds: Low settings produce 136.1 FPS, while Ultra dips to 51.8 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows slightly at 1440p, but the trend is consistent with GPU-bound rendering.

The most demanding scenario is 4K, where the Ultra preset yields only 38.5 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. High settings at 4K fare better at 49.9 FPS, but this is still marginal. Interestingly, the 4K Low setting achieves 111.5 FPS, which is higher than the 1080p Ultra result of 61 FPS. This suggests that the game’s visual quality settings have a more profound impact on frame rate than resolution alone, highlighting the GPU’s raw compute power. The scaling from 1080p High (72.3 FPS) to 4K High (49.9 FPS) is a 31% reduction, which is moderate and indicates that the RTX 4070 SUPER is not fully overwhelmed until the highest resolution and quality settings are combined.

Resolution Scaling

The benchmark data reveals that The Medium is heavily GPU-dependent, with resolution scaling following a predictable curve. At 1080p, the average frame rate ranges from 143.7 FPS on Low to 61 FPS on Ultra, showing a 57.5% performance drop when quality is maxed out. This is a typical pattern for a horror title with demanding visual effects. At 1440p, the same settings produce 136.1 FPS (Low) and 51.8 FPS (Ultra), which is a 62% drop. The consistency between 1080p and 1440p suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck at these resolutions, as the frame rates scale almost linearly with the pixel count.

However, the 4K results tell a different story. The Ultra preset at 4K (38.5 FPS) is only 63% of the 1440p Ultra score (51.8 FPS), indicating a more pronounced scaling penalty. This is likely due to the increased memory bandwidth demands and the 12 GB VRAM capacity being tested. The RTX 4070 SUPER has a 192-bit memory bus and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at 4K Ultra. The 4K Medium setting (71.6 FPS) is notably higher than 4K High (49.9 FPS), showing that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance at this resolution. The data indicates that for 4K gaming, users should stick to Medium or High settings to maintain playable frame rates, while 1080p and 1440p can handle Ultra with ease.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the star of this combo, and its specifications align well with the measured FPS. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, as evidenced by the high frame rates in those resolutions. The 4K Ultra result of 38.5 FPS suggests that the 12 GB VRAM and 192-bit bus are the limiting factors, as the game likely requires more memory bandwidth to maintain high frame rates at that resolution.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2475 MHz and base clock of 1980 MHz are typical for the Ada Lovelace architecture, and the 7168 shading units provide ample compute power. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 4627 places the GPU in the 84th percentile among all GPUs, which is strong. Its average benchmark score of 42576 is just 0.2% below the NVIDIA RTX A6000, indicating that it trades blows with a workstation-class card. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 35.48 TFLOPS is substantial, and the 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores enhance ray tracing and DLSS capabilities, though these are not directly measured in the FPS data.

The measured FPS shows that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K Ultra, but it also demonstrates its efficiency at lower resolutions. The 1080p Low setting achieves 143.7 FPS, which is close to the 144Hz refresh rate of many monitors. The 1440p High setting (64.6 FPS) is playable, but the 4K High (49.9 FPS) is less so. The GPU’s 220 W TDP and 550 W suggested PSU are reasonable for this performance class, and the dual-slot design with a 16-pin connector is standard. Overall, the RTX 4070 SUPER is a capable card that excels at 1080p and 1440p, but 4K Ultra is beyond its comfort zone without DLSS or reduced settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. Its 18 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support are adequate for gaming. In the benchmark data, the CPU’s role is less prominent than the GPU, as the frame rates scale primarily with resolution. At 1080p Low, the CPU can deliver 143.7 FPS, which suggests it is not a bottleneck even at high frame rates. The 3DMark single-thread score of 909 and multi-thread score of 5912 indicate solid single-core performance, which is crucial for gaming.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 19221 places it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the Intel Core i7-8700K, which scores 19210 (a 0.1% delta). This shows that the i5-12400F is competitive with older high-end chips. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16518 and single-core score of 2332 further confirm its capability. The 65 W TDP is low, making it an efficient choice. The 2.50 GHz base clock is modest, but the 4.40 GHz boost clock ensures that demanding single-threaded tasks are handled well.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with enough data to avoid stalling. The data shows that at 1080p Ultra, the frame rate is 61 FPS, which is 44% lower than 1080p Low (143.7 FPS). This drop is entirely attributable to GPU load, not CPU limitations. The 4K Ultra result of 38.5 FPS is also GPU-bound, as the CPU has more than enough headroom at that resolution. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for this game, which likely does not scale beyond 8 threads. The 3DMark 8-thread score of 4779 is close to the max-thread score of 5912, indicating that the CPU’s performance plateaus after 8 threads. This means that the i5-12400F is well-matched with the RTX 4070 SUPER for this title, as neither component consistently bottlenecks the other.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this combo in The Medium?*

A: The data shows that 1440p Medium (87.2 FPS) and 1080p Ultra (61 FPS) are both playable. For a balance of quality and frame rate, 1440p High (64.6 FPS) is recommended, while 4K Ultra (38.5 FPS) is not ideal.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 SUPER compare to its nearest rival, the RTX A6000?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 42576, which is 0.2% lower than the RTX A6000’s score of 42653. In practice, this means they are nearly identical in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Is the Core i5-12400F a bottleneck for the RTX 4070 SUPER?

A: No. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 19221 is within 0.7% of AMD’s Ryzen 5 7533HS, and its single-thread score of 909 is strong. The frame rates in the data show GPU-bound scaling, so the CPU is not the limiting factor.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p Low and 4K Ultra?

A: The 1080p Low setting achieves 143.7 FPS, while 4K Ultra achieves 38.5 FPS. This is a 105.2 FPS difference, representing a 73% reduction in performance.

Q: Does the 12 GB VRAM limit 4K performance?

A: The data suggests yes. The 4K Ultra result of 38.5 FPS is significantly lower than 1440p Ultra (51.8 FPS), and the 192-bit bus with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth appears insufficient for the highest settings at 4K.

Q: How does the CPU’s multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The i5-12400F’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16518 is higher than its nearest rival, the Core i7-8700K, which scores 19210 on average. The i5 is only 0.1% faster than the i7-8700K in the average benchmark score.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 281st out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 16.6% of all configurations. This is a strong ranking, indicating that the pairing is well-balanced for this game. The GPU’s 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs is the primary driver, while the CPU’s 77th percentile ranking is also respectable. The combo’s rank suggests that it outperforms the majority of systems tested, but it is not among the absolute top-tier configurations.

The rank of 281 out of 1689 means there are 280 combos that perform better, likely featuring higher-end GPUs like the RTX 4080 or RTX 4090, or CPUs with more cores. However, the data shows that the RTX 4070 SUPER is within 1.6% of the AMD Radeon Pro 580X in average benchmark score, and the i5-12400F is within 1.3% of the AMD EPYC 7773X. This indicates that the combo is competitive with workstation hardware. The measured FPS results confirm that the combo is capable of delivering smooth gameplay at 1080p and 1440p, with the only weakness being 4K Ultra. The 281st rank reflects the balance of the two components, as neither is a weak link. For users targeting high refresh rate 1080p or 1440p gaming, this combo ranks highly and delivers consistent performance.