The Medium

The Medium is a horror title that leans heavily on fixed camera angles, pre-rendered environments, and a dual-reality mechanic that renders two worlds simultaneously. For the hardware combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, the measured data shows a pairing that handles the game’s demands with predictable scaling across resolutions and settings. This combo ranks 1139th out of 3724 tested combinations, placing it in the upper third of all systems evaluated for this specific title. That position indicates a solid, mid-to-high-tier setup for The Medium, though not one that dominates at maximum settings on high-resolution displays. The following analysis breaks down exactly what each component contributes and where the practical performance limits lie.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT achieves a rank of 1139 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. That places it comfortably ahead of the median system, roughly in the 69th percentile of all tested pairings. In practical terms, this means the combo outperforms the majority of systems that have been benchmarked for this game, but it is not among the elite tier reserved for the highest-end CPUs and GPUs. The ranking reflects a balanced pairing where neither component is drastically over- or under-powered for the other, but the GPU’s age and the CPU’s mid-range positioning keep it from climbing higher.

Looking at the individual component standings, the GPU is the stronger performer relative to its peers. The Radeon RX 6800 XT sits at the 85th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 48477. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile (scoring 47743, a 1.5% deficit) and the Intel Arc A550M (scoring 49737, a 2.5% advantage). The GPU also trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti by 3% and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 by 3%, based on average scores. These deltas are small, indicating that the RX 6800 XT is clustered with other capable graphics cards, but it is not the top performer in its class. For The Medium specifically, this translates to strong 1080p and 1440p performance, with 4K requiring settings compromises.

The CPU, meanwhile, ranks at the 77th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 25292. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (25284, 0% delta), the Intel Core 5 120 (25362, -0.3% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365, -0.3% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (25201, 0.4% delta). These are all very close scores, meaning the i5-13400F is essentially on par with a range of mobile and desktop chips from both AMD and Intel. In The Medium, the CPU is rarely the primary bottleneck, as the game’s visual effects and dual-reality rendering put more stress on the GPU. The combo’s overall rank of 1139 out of 3724 reflects this balance—good enough for smooth gameplay at most settings, but not a top-500 system.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with the Navi 21 chip, manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC. It packs 4608 shading units, 288 texture mapping units, and 128 render output units, along with 72 ray tracing cores. The GPU has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Base clock is 1825 MHz, with a boost clock of 2250 MHz and a game clock of 2015 MHz. Memory runs at 2000 MHz, which translates to 16 Gbps effective. These specifications place the card in the upper echelon of the RX 6000 series, and the data confirms its role as the dominant component in this combo for The Medium.

In this game, the GPU’s 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for any resolution tested, as The Medium’s textures and dual-scene rendering do not appear to exceed that allocation at 4K Ultra. The card’s pixel rate of 288.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 648.0 GTexel/s are high enough to handle the game’s fixed-camera scenes without stuttering, provided the settings are not maxed out at 4K. The FP32 performance of 20.74 TFLOPS gives the card ample compute headroom for the game’s lighting and post-processing effects. Benchmark results show a PassMark G3D score of 24980 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 171304, both indicating strong raw performance.

The RX 6800 XT’s role becomes clear when looking at the FPS data. At 1080p, the GPU is rarely the limiting factor, as even Ultra settings produce 49 FPS average. At 1440p, the card still holds its own, with High settings yielding 52 FPS and Medium hitting 73 FPS. The real challenge appears at 4K, where Ultra drops to 33 FPS and High manages only 41 FPS. This is consistent with a GPU that is powerful but not modern by current standards—its 85th percentile ranking among all GPUs means it outperforms most cards, but newer models like the RTX 5070 Ti (which scores 3% higher on average) would handle 4K Ultra with more headroom. For this combo, the GPU is the primary driver of performance, and users should expect to adjust settings based on their target resolution.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel configuration, and it uses the Intel Socket 1700. The CPU’s 3DMark scores are notable: 7314 for 16 threads, 5591 for 8 threads, 3459 for 4 threads, and 960 for single-thread. Cinebench R23 results show 22604 for multicore and 3191 for single-core, while Geekbench reports 11068 multicore and 1996 single-core.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, but it is not negligible. The game’s dual-reality mechanic renders two perspectives simultaneously, which can increase CPU overhead for scene management and object culling. However, the measured FPS data shows that the i5-13400F is more than capable of feeding the RX 6800 XT at most settings. The CPU’s 77th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 25292, places it in the upper mid-range. Its nearest rivals—the Ryzen 9 6900HS, Core 5 120, Ryzen 5 5600X3D, and Ryzen 7 6800H—all score within 0.4% of each other, indicating that this is a tightly contested performance tier.

For this game, the CPU does not appear to be the bottleneck at any resolution. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 139 FPS, which suggests the CPU can drive high frame rates when the GPU load is light. Even at 4K Ultra, where the GPU is clearly struggling at 33 FPS, the CPU is not the limiting factor—the GPU is. The i5-13400F’s 10 cores and 16 threads provide enough parallelism for The Medium’s background tasks, and its single-thread performance (3191 in Cinebench R23) handles the game’s main logic without issue. Users should not expect CPU-related stutters or frame drops with this processor, regardless of the resolution or settings chosen.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions—1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160—each with four settings presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. The Medium preset includes min and max FPS values, providing a clearer picture of frame pacing, while the other presets report only average FPS.

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers strong performance across the board. Low settings produce an average of 139 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth for any display. Medium settings drop to 87 FPS average, with a minimum of 74 FPS and a maximum of 100 FPS—this indicates consistent frame delivery with no major dips. High settings yield 62 FPS average, which is still playable but noticeably lower than Medium. Ultra settings bring the average down to 49 FPS, which is borderline for a fast-paced horror game but acceptable for slower exploration scenes. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 90 FPS, showing a wide range of performance depending on how much visual fidelity the user prioritizes.

At 2560x1440, the numbers scale down as expected. Low settings produce 117 FPS average, which remains excellent for 1440p gaming. Medium settings yield 73 FPS average, with a minimum of 62 FPS and a maximum of 84 FPS—this is a very playable range, though the min-max spread of 22 FPS suggests some scene-to-scene variation. High settings drop to 52 FPS average, which is still smooth for most players. Ultra settings produce 42 FPS average, which is playable but requires a tolerance for occasional stutter in heavy scenes. The drop from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 75 FPS, similar in scale to 1080p but with lower absolute values.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to show its limits. Low settings produce 92 FPS average, which is surprisingly high for 4K and indicates the game is not overly demanding when effects are turned down. Medium settings yield 57 FPS average, with a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 66 FPS—this is a usable range, though the 17 FPS min-max delta indicates the GPU is working harder. High settings drop to 41 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS target most players prefer. Ultra settings produce 33 FPS average, which is barely playable and likely to cause frustration in action sequences. The drop from Low to Ultra at 4K is 59 FPS, showing that the GPU is the limiting factor at this resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals how the combo’s components interact under increasing load. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 139 at 1080p to 117 at 1440p (a 22 FPS decrease, or roughly 16%) and then to 92 at 4K (a 25 FPS decrease from 1440p, or roughly 21%). This is a relatively gentle scaling curve, indicating that at Low settings, the CPU still has headroom and the GPU is not being pushed to its limits until 4K. The fact that 4K Low still hits 92 FPS shows that the RX 6800 XT has substantial raw power, and the i5-13400F is not holding it back even at higher resolutions.

At Medium settings, the pattern is similar but steeper. 1080p produces 87 FPS, 1440p drops to 73 FPS (a 14 FPS decrease, or 16%), and 4K falls to 57 FPS (a 16 FPS decrease from 1440p, or 22%). The min and max values at Medium show that 1080p ranges from 74 to 100 FPS, 1440p ranges from 62 to 84 FPS, and 4K ranges from 49 to 66 FPS. These are all reasonably stable, but the 4K min of 49 FPS suggests occasional dips below the 60 FPS threshold. The scaling here indicates that the GPU is becoming more of a bottleneck as resolution increases, but the CPU is still keeping up.

At High settings, the scaling becomes more pronounced. 1080p yields 62 FPS, 1440p drops to 52 FPS (a 10 FPS decrease, or 16%), and 4K falls to 41 FPS (an 11 FPS decrease from 1440p, or 21%). The percentage drops are consistent with Medium, but the absolute values are lower, making the 4K result of 41 FPS feel less smooth. At Ultra settings, the pattern is stark: 1080p gives 49 FPS, 1440p gives 42 FPS (a 7 FPS decrease, or 14%), and 4K gives 33 FPS (a 9 FPS decrease, or 21%). The 4K Ultra result of 33 FPS is the weakest measured value, confirming that the GPU is the limiting component at this resolution and settings level.

The overall trend shows that the combo scales almost linearly with resolution, with percentage drops of roughly 16% from 1080p to 1440p and 21-22% from 1440p to 4K across all settings. This is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the CPU is not the primary constraint. The i5-13400F’s 10 cores are sufficient to feed the RX 6800 XT at any resolution, and the GPU’s 16 GB VRAM and 512 GB/s bandwidth are not exhausted until 4K Ultra. Users targeting 60 FPS should stick to Medium at 1440p or Low at 4K, while those willing to accept lower frame rates can push higher settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the user’s target resolution and tolerance for frame rate dips. At 1920x1080, Medium settings offer the best balance of visual quality and performance, with an average of 87 FPS and a minimum of 74 FPS. This preset provides smooth gameplay with no risk of dropping below 60 FPS, even in the most demanding scenes. For players who prioritize frame rate above all else, Low settings at 1080p deliver 139 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. High settings at 62 FPS are acceptable, but Ultra at 49 FPS is not recommended for consistent play, as it falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, Medium settings are again the sweet spot, yielding 73 FPS average with a minimum of 62 FPS. This preset keeps the game above 60 FPS in most scenarios, making it the best choice for a smooth 1440p experience. Low settings at 117 FPS are excellent for competitive play or high-refresh displays, but they sacrifice significant visual detail. High settings at 52 FPS are playable but may feel slightly less fluid, and Ultra at 42 FPS is best avoided unless the user is willing to tolerate sub-50 FPS in a slower-paced horror game. For most players, Medium at 1440p provides the best experience per the measured rows.

At 3840x2160, the recommendations shift downward. Medium settings produce 57 FPS average with a minimum of 49 FPS, which is the highest average above 50 FPS at 4K. This is the recommended preset for 4K, as it maintains playable frame rates while retaining moderate visual quality. Low settings at 92 FPS are excellent for 4K but require accepting minimal effects and textures. High settings at 41 FPS are not recommended, as they fall below the 60 FPS target and may cause noticeable stutter. Ultra at 33 FPS is effectively unplayable for a game that relies on atmosphere and timing, so users should avoid it entirely at 4K.

For the best overall experience, the data suggests that Medium settings at 1440p or 1080p are the most balanced choices, offering frame rates well above 60 FPS with good visual fidelity. At 4K, Medium settings are the only viable option for a stable experience, with Low settings as a fallback for those who prioritize smoothness over graphics. The combo’s 1139th rank out of 3724 systems reflects this versatility—it is not a top-tier 4K Ultra machine, but it handles the game well at mainstream resolutions and settings.