The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title from 2021, presents an interesting test for this pairing of an Intel Core i5-12400F with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D. The measured data shows a configuration that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher settings, yet also reveals the CPU's capability to push very high frame rates at lower presets. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS across resolutions and settings to understand where the bottleneck lies and how to best configure the game for this specific hardware combo.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K in The Medium is steep and clearly indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the primary limiting factor as resolution increases. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 103 FPS at 1920x1080 to 87 FPS at 2560x1440, and then further down to 68 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 34% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K, a significant hit that is typical for a game with demanding rendering techniques like fixed-camera pre-baked lighting and volumetric effects.

The pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 146 at 1080p to 138 at 1440p, and then to 127 at 4K. That is a 13% drop from 1080p to 4K, which is less severe than at High settings but still shows a scaling cost. At Medium settings, the 1080p average of 122 FPS falls to 115 at 1440p and then to 95 at 4K, a 22% reduction overall. The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, with 82 FPS at 1080p dropping to 69 at 1440p and finally to 54 at 4K, a 34% decrease.

The data suggests that the RTX 5090 D's architecture, with its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, has ample bandwidth for this game, but the sheer computational load of rendering at 4K with higher presets is what drives the frame rate down. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is consistently more punishing than from 1080p to 1440p, indicating that the GPU's pixel throughput is the bottleneck. For example, at High settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 16 FPS, but the drop from 1440p to 4K is 19 FPS. This shows that the cost per pixel increases at higher resolutions, a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured data, the optimal balance of visual quality and frame rate for this combo is the Medium preset at 1440p or High at 1080p. The Medium preset at 2560x1440 yields an average of 115 FPS with a minimum of 98 FPS and a maximum of 132 FPS. This is a very playable range for a horror game, where smoothness is less critical than consistent frame pacing, but it provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS for any display. The minimum FPS of 98 indicates that even in the most demanding scenes, the frame rate does not dip into stutter territory.

At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers an average of 103 FPS, which is also excellent. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs 19 FPS on average (from 122 to 103), but the visual improvements in shadow quality and texture filtering are often worth it for a game like this, which relies on atmospheric detail. The Ultra preset, however, is not recommended for this pairing. At 1080p, it drops the average to 82 FPS, and at 4K, it brings the average down to 54 FPS. The performance cost of Ultra is steep, and the visual difference over High is often subtle in a game with this art style.

For 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only one that provides a high frame rate, averaging 127 FPS. However, using Low settings in a horror game significantly diminishes the atmosphere. The Medium preset at 4K is a more balanced choice, offering an average of 95 FPS and a minimum of 81 FPS. This keeps the game above 60 FPS at all times while preserving a reasonable level of visual fidelity. The data shows that 4K High is playable at 68 FPS, but it is close to the edge of what many consider smooth for a slower-paced title. In summary, the best experience is either 1080p High for maximum visual quality with high frame rates, or 1440p Medium for a resolution bump with a still-high frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for The Medium, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 93rd out of 2911 tested combos. This places it in the top 3.2% of all configurations tested for this game, which is an exceptionally high standing. The high rank is largely due to the GPU's raw power, but the CPU's ability to feed it at lower resolutions is also a factor.

The combo's ranking is more impressive when considering the CPU's place in the market. The i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19039 and sits in the 73rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS with an average score of 19047 (a 0% delta), the Intel Core 3 201E with a score of 19056 (-0.1% delta), and the Intel Core i5-1335U with a score of 18982 (0.3% delta). This shows that the CPU is a solid mid-range performer, but it is not the primary reason this combo ranks so high. The GPU, on the other hand, is in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (score 76904, 1.1% delta), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (score 78940, -1.6% delta), and the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (score 79396, -2.1% delta). The RTX 5090 D is clearly a top-tier component, and its performance is the main driver of the combo's high rank.

The rank of 93 out of 2911 means that only 92 other tested combinations of CPU and GPU produced higher average frame rates in The Medium. This is a strong result, but it also implies that the i5-12400F is not holding the RTX 5090 D back in most scenarios, or else the rank would be lower. The data suggests that this is a well-balanced pairing for this specific game, despite the apparent generational and tier gap between the two components.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following is a detailed breakdown of the measured average frame rates for this combo in The Medium. The data is organized by resolution and settings preset.

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 82 FPS. The High preset improves this to 103 FPS. The Medium preset is significantly faster, with an average of 122 FPS, a minimum of 104 FPS, and a maximum of 140 FPS. The Low preset is the fastest, with an average of 146 FPS. The spread from Ultra to Low is 64 FPS, showing a wide range of performance headroom.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 69 FPS. High settings produce an average of 87 FPS. Medium settings yield an average of 115 FPS, with a minimum of 98 FPS and a maximum of 132 FPS. The Low preset averages 138 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is more noticeable at Ultra (from 82 to 69) than at Low (from 146 to 138), again confirming the GPU's role as the primary bottleneck at higher quality settings.

At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 54 FPS, which is the lowest measured result. High settings average 68 FPS. Medium settings provide a playable average of 95 FPS, with a minimum of 81 FPS and a maximum of 110 FPS. The Low preset averages 127 FPS. The data at 4K shows that the Medium preset is the only one that offers a high refresh rate experience without going to the visual extremes of the Low preset.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D plays the dominant role in this configuration's performance in The Medium. The GPU's specifications, including 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, provide a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This is more than sufficient for the game's textures and assets at any resolution, which is why the frame rate scaling is primarily tied to the GPU's compute capabilities rather than memory limitations. The GPU's boost clock of 2407 MHz and its 21760 shading units are responsible for the raw pixel and shader processing that drives the frame rate at higher settings.

The benchmark results for the GPU show it is a powerhouse. Its Passmark G3D score is 44065, and its Geekbench OpenCL score is 310674. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14326 confirms its high-end DirectX 12 performance. These scores place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, making it one of the fastest cards available. In The Medium, this power translates to the ability to run the game at 4K Medium with a smooth 95 FPS, a feat that would be impossible for most other graphics cards.

The GPU's role is most evident when comparing the 1080p and 4K results at the same settings. The fact that the average FPS drops by 34% at High settings from 1080p to 4K shows that the GPU is being fully utilized. There is no indication of a CPU bottleneck at these settings, as the i5-12400F would likely be able to handle a higher frame rate if the GPU could produce it. The RTX 5090 D's performance is the ceiling for this combo, and it is a very high ceiling indeed.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F serves as a capable but secondary component in this pairing for The Medium. With 6 cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, it provides ample processing power for the game's logic and scene management. The CPU's L3 cache of 18 MB (shared) is also adequate for this title. Its benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 12380 and a single-core score of 1680, indicate a solid mid-range performer that will not struggle with the game's CPU demands.

The CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 146 FPS, and at 1440p Low, it achieves 138 FPS. These are high frame rates that require a CPU capable of submitting draw calls and processing game state quickly. The i5-12400F is able to keep up with the RTX 5090 D in these scenarios, as the GPU is not being pushed as hard. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5895 and the Passmark multithread score of 19433 suggest that the CPU has enough headroom for this workload.

However, the CPU is not the limiting factor in most cases. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 54, which is clearly a GPU limitation. The data shows that the CPU is capable of providing frames faster than the GPU can render them at higher settings. The fact that the combo ranks 93rd overall, rather than higher, is not a reflection of the CPU's weakness, but rather the sheer number of other configurations that also pair top-tier GPUs with very fast CPUs. The i5-12400F is a good match for the RTX 5090 D in this game, providing enough speed to avoid being a bottleneck at most settings while not contributing as much to the overall score as the GPU does.