The Medium

The Medium presents a punishing workload for the Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570. The measured frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings are consistently low, indicating a system that struggles to maintain playable performance. The data shows a configuration that is severely limited by its graphics subsystem, with the CPU providing ample headroom that the GPU cannot utilize.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 42.1 FPS. Moving to 1440p at the same Low preset, the average falls to 39.8 FPS, a modest decline of roughly 5%. However, the transition to 4K at Low settings shows a more severe collapse to 27.7 FPS, representing a 30% reduction from the 1080p figure. This pattern is consistent across all presets, confirming that the rendering resolution is the dominant factor in performance.

The scaling behavior indicates that the limiting component is the GPU. When the resolution increases, the demand on the Radeon RX 570's 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and its 256-bit bus grows rapidly. The data shows that the frame rate does not scale linearly with pixel count; instead, it drops disproportionately, which is characteristic of a graphics card reaching its memory bandwidth or fill-rate ceiling. For instance, at 1440p High the average is 19.7 FPS, while at 4K High it falls to 11.7 FPS, a 40% decline. This suggests that the GPU's resources are exhausted well before the CPU's capabilities come into play.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings also widens with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (42.1 FPS) and Ultra (18.9 FPS) is 23.2 FPS. At 4K, the spread between Low (27.7 FPS) and Ultra (12.7 FPS) narrows to 15 FPS. This compression at higher resolutions is a hallmark of a GPU bottleneck; the card is so overwhelmed by pixel throughput that additional graphical effects have less relative impact on the final frame rate. The data suggests that even dropping to Low settings cannot salvage a smooth experience at 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the primary constraint in this pairing. Its base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz are modest figures, and the benchmark results reflect this. The GPU's 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is insufficient for the demands of The Medium at higher resolutions. The 4 GB memory capacity is also a critical limitation, as the game's high-resolution textures likely exceed this amount, causing performance to plummet.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, with deltaPct values of 0.2% and 0.2% respectively. This indicates that despite its age, the RX 570's average benchmark score of 30158 places it in a similar performance tier to these modern cards in synthetic tests, but the measured FPS in this game tells a different story. The RX 570's percentile rank of 74 places it above the median, yet its real-world performance in The Medium is poor, underscoring that synthetic scores do not always translate to playable frame rates in demanding titles.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s is a key metric. At 4K, the card's inability to feed its 32 ROPs and 128 TMUs becomes apparent. The pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s are not enough to handle the game's rendering load, resulting in the low averages seen in the data. The 14 nm process node and 5,700 million transistors suggest an older architecture that lacks the efficiency of newer designs, further contributing to its struggles.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for The Medium, this pairing holds a rank of 1592 out of 1689 total combos. This places it in the bottom 6% of all tested systems, a remarkably low position that reflects the poor playability data. The comboRankInGame field confirms that this configuration is at the very low end of performance, with only 97 other combinations performing worse.

The rank is consistent with the measured FPS data. A combo that struggles to maintain 20 FPS at 1080p High (20.2 FPS) is naturally going to be outclassed by the vast majority of other systems in the database. The rank of 1592 indicates that the RX 570 is a severe bottleneck, dragging down the capable i5-12600KF. The CPU alone ranks in the 84th percentile among all processors, but the GPU's 74th percentile is not enough to compensate for its lack of raw gaming power in this specific title. The data suggests that this is a mismatched pairing for a game like The Medium, where the GPU's limitations are fully exposed.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo can achieve in The Medium?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 42.1, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 1440p with Ultra settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 10.4, which is the lowest recorded frame rate for this pairing.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. Frame rates drop significantly with resolution increases, and the CPU's high benchmark scores (e.g., 23444 in Cinebench R23 multicore) are not reflected in the gaming results.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The difference is 23.2 FPS, with Low producing 42.1 FPS and Ultra producing 18.9 FPS.

Q: Does raising the resolution from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings have a significant impact?

A: Yes, the average FPS falls from 23.4 at 1440p to 20.4 at 4K, a 13% reduction.

Q: What is the GPU's rank among all tested graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 570 has a percentile rank of 74, meaning it outperforms 74% of all GPUs in the database, yet this is insufficient for The Medium.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that playable frame rates are only achievable at the lowest settings and resolution. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 42.1 FPS, which is the only configuration that approaches a smooth experience. All other settings at 1080p fall below 31 FPS, with Medium at 30.8 FPS and High at 20.2 FPS. For a consistent frame rate, 1080p Low is the recommended preset.

At 1440p, the situation is worse. The Low preset at 39.8 FPS is the only option above 30 FPS, but it is still below the 1080p Low performance. The Medium preset at 23.4 FPS and High at 19.7 FPS are both questionable for a horror game that requires smooth camera movement. The Ultra setting at 10.4 FPS is effectively unplayable. At 4K, all settings produce averages below 28 FPS, with Low at 27.7 FPS being the best possible option, but still not recommended for a playable experience.

The data indicates that users should prioritize resolution over graphical fidelity. Dropping to 1080p Low yields the best performance, while any attempt to increase settings or resolution results in a substantial frame rate penalty. There is no setting combination that delivers 60 FPS, and the only way to achieve a stable 40+ FPS is to use the lowest preset at the lowest resolution. This suggests that the RX 570 is not suited for The Medium at higher quality levels.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF provides substantial computational headroom that remains largely unused in this game. With 10 cores and 16 threads, the CPU has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, which are strong figures for gaming. Its benchmark scores are impressive, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23444 and a single-core score of 3309, placing it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. The 20 MB of shared L3 cache and support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory indicate a modern, capable processor.

However, the measured FPS data shows that this CPU performance does not translate to higher frame rates in The Medium. The game's frame rates are consistently low across all resolutions, which points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i9-10900K with a deltaPct of 0% and the Intel Core i5-12600K with a deltaPct of -0.1%, all have similar average benchmark scores, but none of that matters when the GPU cannot keep up.

The CPU's role in this pairing is to feed the GPU with data, but the RX 570 is unable to process that data quickly enough. The 125 W TDP and Intel Socket 1700 platform are more than sufficient for this task. The data suggests that the i5-12600KF is not the limiting factor; in fact, it could support a much more powerful GPU in a different configuration. The low frame rates are entirely a function of the Radeon RX 570's inability to render the game at an acceptable speed, regardless of the CPU's capabilities.