The Medium

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for The Medium on this Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination reveal a pronounced sensitivity to resolution changes, particularly when moving between the lower and higher settings presets. At the Low preset, the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 produces a drop from 103.3 FPS to 84.5 FPS, a reduction of approximately 18%. Continuing to 3840x2160 at Low yields 70.1 FPS, which represents a further 17% decline from the 1440p result. This scaling pattern suggests that even at the lowest quality settings, the rendering load is scaling relatively linearly with pixel count, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting factor even when the workload is light.

At the Medium preset, the scaling behavior shifts. The 1080p result of 62.1 FPS drops to 53.6 FPS at 1440p, a decrease of about 14%, and then falls to 43.4 FPS at 4K, another 19% reduction. The High preset tells a similar story: 43.8 FPS at 1080p, 38.1 FPS at 1440p, and 31.2 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset, however, shows the most dramatic absolute drop. Starting at 38.8 FPS in 1080p, it falls to 31.0 FPS at 1440p and then to 24.7 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that the gap between 1080p and 4K narrows as settings increase in terms of percentage loss, but the absolute frame rate deficit widens, making the higher presets increasingly untenable at higher resolutions.

The limiting component is clearly the GPU. The CPU, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, is unlikely to be the bottleneck at any of these resolutions, as the frame rates at Low settings scale predictably with pixel count. The fact that the 4K Low result (70.1 FPS) is still substantially higher than the 1080p Ultra result (38.8 FPS) reinforces this conclusion. The RTX 2070 SUPER's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256-bit bus are being pushed harder as resolution increases, and the measured data shows that the GPU's compute throughput, rated at 9.062 TFLOPS, is the constraining factor across all tested configurations.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture and features a TU104 chip manufactured on a 12 nm process. Its base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz, combined with 2560 shading units, provide the computational backbone for this combination's performance in The Medium. The GPU's memory configuration includes 8 GB of GDDR6 running at an effective 14 Gbps across a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. This memory bandwidth is critical for a title like The Medium, which is a horror game that likely relies on high-resolution textures to create its atmospheric environments.

The measured results show that the GPU's performance ceiling is reached at the Ultra preset, where even at 1080p the average frame rate is only 38.8 FPS. This is a significant drop from the High preset's 43.8 FPS at the same resolution, suggesting that the additional graphical features enabled by the Ultra preset place a heavy burden on the 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power. The RT cores, of which there are 40, and the 320 tensor cores are present, but their impact on this particular game's frame rates appears to be minimal based on the measured data, as the game may not heavily utilize ray tracing or DLSS features.

The GPU's overall standing in the benchmark database places it at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 22206. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A400, which scores 22307 (a 0.5% difference), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z at 22006 (0.9% higher). The RTX 2070 SUPER trails the RTX 4060 Mobile by 2.3% and leads the AMD Radeon RX 5700 by 2.5%. In the context of The Medium, these relative standings suggest that the GPU is a mid-to-upper tier product that can handle the game at playable frame rates only when settings are moderated, particularly at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a Raptor Lake-S architecture processor with 10 cores and 16 threads, a configuration that provides substantial multi-threaded headroom for gaming workloads. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz, combined with a 20 MB shared L3 cache, ensure that the CPU is not a limiting factor in The Medium's frame rates. The CPU's benchmark scores reflect its capability: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21279 and a single-core score of 3004, along with a Geekbench multi-core score of 10971 and single-core score of 2301. These figures place the i5-13400F at the 82nd percentile among all CPUs, indicating strong performance relative to the broader processor landscape.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the Intel Core i7-13620H, which scores 25201 (a 0.1% difference), and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D, which scores 25365 (0.5% higher). The data shows that the i5-13400F is essentially on par with these competitors, with deltas of less than one percent. This consistency suggests that for a game like The Medium, which is not typically CPU-bound at high resolutions, the processor's 16 threads provide ample capacity to feed the GPU without introducing stutter or frame pacing issues.

The CPU's TDP of 65 W and support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, with a dual-channel memory bus, contribute to its efficiency in gaming scenarios. The measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecks: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 103.3 FPS, which is well above the threshold where a weaker CPU might start to limit performance. Even at the highest settings, the frame rates are dictated by GPU load, not CPU throughput. The i5-13400F's 3DMark scores, including 7314 in the 16-thread test and 960 in single-thread, further confirm that it can handle the game's logic and rendering commands without becoming a constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for The Medium, this pairing of the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1011 out of 1689 total combinations. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the distribution, which is consistent with the GPU's 65th percentile standing and the CPU's 82nd percentile standing. The rank indicates that while the CPU is well above average, the GPU's age and performance level hold this combination back from achieving higher placement in the rankings.

The combo's rank of 1011 out of 1689 means that approximately 60% of tested combinations deliver better performance in this game. This is a notable observation given the CPU's strong benchmark scores, as it highlights the extent to which the RTX 2070 SUPER, released in 2019 and now end-of-life, limits the overall experience. The GPU's average benchmark score of 22206 is decent, but The Medium's demanding rendering requirements at higher settings and resolutions expose its limitations. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a more modern or higher-tier GPU would likely yield a significantly better rank, but as measured, this combination sits in the lower tier of the tested pool.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combination depend heavily on the target resolution and the desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 103.3 FPS, which is smooth and well above the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 62.1 FPS, still playable but with a noticeable drop. The High preset at 1080p produces 43.8 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay, while Ultra at 1080p drops to 38.8 FPS, making it the least desirable option at this resolution.

For 2560x1440, the Low preset is the only configuration that achieves a consistently high frame rate at 84.5 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p delivers 53.6 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced horror gameplay, but the High preset at 38.1 FPS and Ultra at 31.0 FPS are likely to feel sluggish. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only manages 70.1 FPS, and the Medium preset falls to 43.4 FPS. High at 4K is 31.2 FPS, and Ultra is 24.7 FPS, both of which are below the generally accepted threshold for smooth motion.

The best experience per the measured rows is achieved at 1080p with the Medium preset, which provides 62.1 FPS while maintaining a reasonable level of visual fidelity. For players prioritizing frame rate over visuals, the 1080p Low setting at 103.3 FPS is the clear choice. At 1440p, the Low preset is recommended for a smooth experience, while the Medium preset is viable for those who prefer better image quality. The 4K resolution is only playable at Low settings, and even then, the 70.1 FPS result is modest.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured average frame rates for this combination in The Medium is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 103.3 FPS, the Medium preset achieves 62.1 FPS, the High preset achieves 43.8 FPS, and the Ultra preset achieves 38.8 FPS. At 2560x1440, the Low preset delivers 84.5 FPS, Medium delivers 53.6 FPS, High delivers 38.1 FPS, and Ultra delivers 31.0 FPS. At 3840x2160, the Low preset yields 70.1 FPS, Medium yields 43.4 FPS, High yields 31.2 FPS, and Ultra yields 24.7 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern across all resolutions: the difference between Low and Medium is substantial, with Medium being approximately 40% slower than Low at each resolution. The transition from Medium to High is less severe, around 20-30%, while High to Ultra is the smallest step, typically around 10-15%. This suggests that the Low preset removes significant rendering workloads, while the Ultra preset adds diminishing returns for the performance cost. The 1080p Low result of 103.3 FPS is the only configuration that exceeds 100 FPS, and it is the only one that fully utilizes the CPU's potential without GPU limitations. All other configurations are GPU-bound, as evidenced by the consistent scaling with resolution changes.