The Medium

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance rank of the Intel Core i5-13400F with the AMD Radeon RX 570 in The Medium?

A: This combo ranks 1624 out of 1689 tested combinations in the database, placing it in the bottom 4% of all tested systems for this game.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-13400F has an average benchmark score of 25236, which is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-13620H (25201, 0.1% ahead) and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365, 0.5% behind). The AMD EPYC 9474F and AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 are also within 0.5% of this score.

Q: What is the GPU's performance position relative to other graphics cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 30158, placing it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs. It trades blows with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30109, 0.2% ahead) and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097, 0.2% ahead).

Q: What is the best playable setting at 1080p for this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 43 FPS average, which is the only setting that crosses the 30 FPS threshold. Medium yields 29.3 FPS, while High and Ultra drop to 22.9 and 18.6 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the 4K performance compare to 1080p performance?

A: At 4K, the Low preset achieves 30.9 FPS average, while at 1080p the same preset reaches 43 FPS. The gap narrows at higher settings: 4K High runs at 11.2 FPS versus 22.9 FPS at 1080p.

Q: Is the system more CPU-limited or GPU-limited in this game?

A: The data indicates a strong GPU limitation. At 4K Ultra the system produces 10.6 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it only reaches 18.6 FPS. This modest scaling from 4K to 1080p suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck across all tested configurations, despite the CPU's relatively strong 82nd percentile ranking among all processors.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 brings 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1168 MHz with a boost up to 1244 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective). These specifications define the graphics card's fundamental capabilities in The Medium.

The 4 GB VRAM capacity becomes a significant constraint in this horror title. The game's measured frame rates show a steep drop when moving from Low to Medium settings at any resolution. At 1080p, Low produces 43 FPS while Medium falls to 29.3 FPS, a reduction of roughly 32%. This pattern repeats at 1440p (37.2 to 21.8 FPS) and 4K (30.9 to 15.8 FPS). The consistent steep decline suggests that higher texture and geometry settings exceed the available VRAM, forcing the GPU to manage memory more inefficiently.

The Polaris 20 chip, built on a 14 nm process with 5,700 million transistors, provides 2048 shading units and 32 ROPs. The pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s indicate the card's raw fillrate capabilities. In The Medium's fixed-camera scenes, these fillrate metrics partially explain why the card performs better at lower resolutions where pixel throughput requirements are reduced.

The GPU's 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and its support for DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3 determine which rendering paths the game can utilize. Given the game's 2021 release date, the RX 570's architecture lacks modern features like hardware ray tracing, which likely affects the High and Ultra settings that may rely on more advanced lighting techniques.

The card's 150 W TDP and PCIe 3.0 x16 interface are worth noting in the context of The Medium's performance. The measured results show that even with a capable CPU like the Intel Core i5-13400F (which ranks in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs), the RX 570 becomes the limiting factor in every resolution and settings combination tested.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how performance scales across three resolutions: 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160. The scaling pattern differs depending on the settings preset, which provides insight into where the bottleneck lies.

At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 43 FPS at 1080p to 37.2 FPS at 1440p (a 13.5% reduction), then to 30.9 FPS at 4K (a 16.9% further reduction). This relatively gentle scaling curve suggests that at Low settings, the system is approaching a CPU or driver overhead limit at 1080p, with the GPU still able to handle the reduced graphical load.

At Medium settings, the progression is 29.3 FPS at 1080p, 21.8 FPS at 1440p (25.6% reduction), and 15.8 FPS at 4K (27.5% reduction). The steeper drops indicate that the GPU is becoming progressively more stressed as pixel count increases, with the 4K result falling below playable thresholds.

The High preset shows 22.9 FPS at 1080p, 16.4 FPS at 1440p (28.4% reduction), and 11.2 FPS at 4K (31.7% reduction). The Ultra preset follows a similar pattern: 18.6 FPS at 1080p, 12.5 FPS at 1440p (32.8% reduction), and 10.6 FPS at 4K (15.2% reduction from 1440p).

These scaling ratios indicate that the RX 570's performance degrades more steeply with resolution increases at higher settings. This is characteristic of a GPU that is memory-bandwidth or fillrate limited. The 224.0 GB/s bandwidth and 39.81 GPixel/s pixel rate become increasingly insufficient as the number of pixels to process multiplies. The CPU's strong synthetic scores (Cinebench R23 multicore of 21279, single-core of 3004) suggest it is not the limiting factor in these resolution transitions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its highest frame rates. The Low preset achieves an average of 43 FPS, which is the only configuration that approaches smooth gameplay. Medium delivers 29.3 FPS, High yields 22.9 FPS, and Ultra drops to 18.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium (13.7 FPS) is the largest single-settings jump at this resolution, indicating that Medium settings introduce a significant rendering load increase.

Moving to 2560x1440, all averages fall below 40 FPS. Low runs at 37.2 FPS, Medium at 21.8 FPS, High at 16.4 FPS, and Ultra at 12.5 FPS. The Low preset remains the only option that is marginally playable for slower-paced horror gameplay, though it still falls short of 60 FPS targets.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes marginal across all settings. Low achieves 30.9 FPS, which is technically playable but with frequent dips likely given the average. Medium produces 15.8 FPS, High runs at 11.2 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 10.6 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is minimal (0.6 FPS), suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are less impactful than the resolution's pixel demands.

Across all resolutions, the Low setting provides the most consistent experience relative to higher presets. The data shows that Medium settings consistently cost roughly 30-40% of the Low preset's frame rate, while High and Ultra progressively erode performance further. The measured FPS values show no minFPS or maxFPS data, so the analysis relies on averages, but the consistent pattern across all twelve measured configurations points to a system that is firmly GPU-bound in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 1624 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 4% of systems tested. This low ranking is notable given the CPU's strong synthetic performance. The Core i5-13400F sits in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 25236, nearly matching the Intel Core i7-13620H (25201, 0.1% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365, -0.5% delta).

The GPU, while ranking in the 74th percentile of all GPUs with an average score of 30158, is an older Polaris architecture card. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (30109, 0.2% delta) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (30097, 0.2% delta), which are significantly more modern parts. This suggests that the RX 570's average benchmark score is boosted by its performance in other workloads, but The Medium's specific rendering requirements expose its limitations.

The discrepancy between the CPU's strong standing and the combo's poor game ranking indicates that the GPU is the overwhelming bottleneck. A system with a CPU in the 82nd percentile should not rank in the bottom 4% of game performance unless the graphics card is severely mismatched. The measured FPS data confirms this: even at 1080p Low, the system only reaches 43 FPS, which is below what would be expected from a modern low-end GPU.

This ranking also implies that the vast majority of tested combos in the database use more capable graphics cards. The 65-combo gap from the bottom (1689 total minus 1624 rank) represents systems that perform even worse, likely with older or integrated graphics solutions. For owners of this combo, the ranking suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield far more significant gains in The Medium than replacing the CPU.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the only viable settings preset for this combo in The Medium is Low. At 1080p, Low delivers 43 FPS average, which provides a playable experience for the game's slow-paced horror gameplay. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 29.3 FPS, which falls below the 30 FPS threshold that most players consider the minimum for acceptable performance.

For players who prioritize visual quality over frame rate, the 1440p Low preset at 37.2 FPS offers a reasonable middle ground. The increased resolution provides sharper image quality while maintaining an average above 30 FPS. However, the 4K Low preset at 30.9 FPS is borderline and would likely experience noticeable stuttering during the game's more demanding scenes.

The High and Ultra presets are not recommended at any resolution. Even at 1080p, they produce averages of 22.9 and 18.6 FPS respectively, which are below playable thresholds for a game that requires timing-based interactions. At 1440p and 4K, these presets drop into the 10-16 FPS range, making the game effectively unplayable.

The data suggests that the Medium preset at 1080p (29.3 FPS) is close to playable but not quite there. Players who want to try Medium settings could potentially achieve playable frame rates by lowering the resolution below 1080p, though no sub-1080p measurements are available in the dataset. The steep performance drop from Low to Medium at all resolutions indicates that Medium settings introduce memory or shading demands that the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM and 5.095 TFLOPS compute cannot consistently handle.

For the best experience, the recommendation is clear: use the Low preset at 1080p for consistent gameplay, or consider 1440p Low if the display supports it and the player accepts lower average frame rates. The Ultra preset offers no meaningful benefit given its marginal performance advantage over High at 4K (10.6 vs 11.2 FPS) and its steep cost at lower resolutions.