The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title from 2021, presents an unusual performance profile for the Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti combination. The data reveals a system that is heavily constrained by graphics settings, with frame rates swinging from a highly playable 147.3 FPS at 1080p Low to a demanding 38 FPS at 4K Ultra. This benchmark set, which places the combo at rank 430 out of 1689 tested configurations, offers a clear look at how this hardware handles a game that prioritizes visual atmosphere over raw action.

FAQ

Q: What is the best 1080p setting for this combo in The Medium?

A: The data shows that the Medium preset delivers 94.9 FPS at 1920x1080, which is the highest average frame rate that maintains a balanced visual load. The Low preset reaches 147.3 FPS, but the Medium preset offers a more reasonable compromise for a horror game where visual detail contributes to the experience.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in The Medium?

A: Yes, but with significant caveats. At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves 101.9 FPS, while the Medium preset produces 60.4 FPS. However, the High and Ultra presets drop to 42.2 and 38 FPS respectively, suggesting that 4K is only viable with reduced settings.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The Core i5-13400F scores 25,236 in its average benchmark, which is essentially tied with the Intel Core i7-13620H (0.1% faster) and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (0.5% slower). This indicates the CPU is not a bottleneck in this game, as its compute capabilities are closely matched with several other processors.

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

A: The RTX 3080 Ti holds an 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 41,224 is within 1.6% of the NVIDIA Tesla M40 and within 1.1% of the RTX 5070, placing it in a competitive tier for high-end rendering.

Q: What is the largest FPS drop between settings at a single resolution?

A: At 2560x1440, moving from Low to Ultra settings results in a drop from 124.6 FPS down to 44.6 FPS, a decrease of 80 FPS. This highlights how dramatically the game's visual presets affect performance on this hardware.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the limiting factor in this game?

A: The evidence points to the GPU. The CPU's benchmark scores are closely grouped with its rivals, and the GPU's scores show a similar pattern. However, the massive FPS swings across resolutions and settings—from 147.3 to 38 FPS—indicate that the graphics card is the primary driver of performance changes.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the dominant component in this configuration, and its specifications explain the wide range of measured frame rates. With 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, the card provides a bandwidth of 912.4 GB/s, which is substantial for feeding the high-resolution textures in The Medium. The GPU's boost clock of 1665 MHz, combined with 10,240 shading units, delivers 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power, a figure that directly influences the game's rendering of complex lighting and shadow effects.

The data shows that this card is sensitive to the game's preset choices. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 93.7 FPS, indicating that the GPU's workload scales dramatically with visual fidelity. The card's 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present, though The Medium's fixed-camera angles may not fully utilize ray tracing features, making raw rasterization performance more critical. The GPU's 83rd percentile ranking, with an average benchmark score of 41,224, shows it sits just 0.5% behind the RTX 3090, making it a capable but not top-tier option for this title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data suggests that the Medium preset is the optimal choice for most users. At 1920x1080, it provides 94.9 FPS, which is smooth and responsive, while the High preset drops to 65.2 FPS. The Ultra preset at 53.6 FPS is still playable but offers diminishing returns for the performance cost. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 75.5 FPS, which is a solid experience for a horror game where frame pacing is important for atmosphere.

For 4K displays, the Medium preset at 60.4 FPS is the highest setting that maintains a playable frame rate. The High preset at 42.2 FPS and Ultra at 38 FPS fall below the 60 FPS threshold, making them less desirable for smooth camera movement. The Low preset at 101.9 FPS is viable but sacrifices visual quality. The data indicates that Medium is the "sweet spot" across all resolutions, offering a balance between the game's atmospheric visuals and performance.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-13400F and RTX 3080 Ti achieves a rank of 430 out of 1,689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the top 25% of all configurations, which is a strong showing given the game's demanding nature. The rank reflects the GPU's high percentile (83) and the CPU's solid performance (82nd percentile), but the game's results suggest that the GPU is the primary driver of this ranking.

The combo's position is likely influenced by the CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads, which provide enough processing power to avoid bottlenecking the GPU. The CPU's average benchmark score of 25,236 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D, which is only 0.5% faster. This parity means the GPU can operate at its full potential, allowing the RTX 3080 Ti to showcase its capabilities. The rank of 430 suggests that while this is a high-end pairing, there are 429 other combinations that deliver better performance in this specific game, likely with more powerful GPUs.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F plays a supporting role in The Medium, but its specifications are still relevant. With 10 cores and 16 threads, the CPU offers a mix of performance and efficiency cores that handle background tasks and game logic. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz provide sufficient single-threaded performance for the game's fixed-camera mechanics, which often rely on a single primary thread for scene management.

The CPU's benchmark scores show it is well-matched with its rivals. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21,279 and single-core score of 3,004 indicate strong performance, but the game's FPS data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 147.3 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's limit for this game, but at higher settings, the GPU takes over as the limiting factor. The CPU's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory ensure that it can feed the GPU efficiently, but the data suggests that upgrading the CPU would not yield significant FPS gains in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 147.3 FPS on Low, 94.9 FPS on Medium, 65.2 FPS on High, and 53.6 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers drop to 124.6 FPS on Low, 75.5 FPS on Medium, 57.4 FPS on High, and 44.6 FPS on Ultra. At 3840x2160, the performance falls further to 101.9 FPS on Low, 60.4 FPS on Medium, 42.2 FPS on High, and 38 FPS on Ultra.

The progression from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows a consistent performance penalty. At 1080p, the drop from Low to Ultra is 93.7 FPS, a 63.6% reduction. At 1440p, the drop is 80 FPS, a 64.3% reduction. At 4K, the drop is 63.9 FPS, a 62.8% reduction. This consistency suggests that the game's graphics settings scale uniformly across resolutions, with the GPU handling the increased load in a predictable manner. The minimum FPS values are not recorded, but the average FPS data provides a reliable indication of the system's performance.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K provides insight into which component is the limiting factor. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 147.3 FPS at 1080p to 101.9 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 45.4 FPS (30.8%). At Medium settings, the drop is from 94.9 to 60.4 FPS, a 34.5 FPS decrease (36.4%). At High settings, the drop is from 65.2 to 42.2 FPS, a 23 FPS decrease (35.3%). At Ultra settings, the drop is from 53.6 to 38 FPS, a 15.6 FPS decrease (29.1%).

These reductions are not proportional to the pixel count increase. Going from 1080p to 4K quadruples the pixel count, but the FPS does not drop by a factor of four. This indicates that the GPU is not fully saturated at lower resolutions, and the CPU is capable of maintaining high frame rates. However, the fact that the FPS drops are larger at lower settings (Low and Medium) suggests that the GPU becomes more of a bottleneck as resolution increases, but it still has headroom. The RTX 3080 Ti's 12 GB of VRAM and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 4K, but the game's engine appears to scale well with the GPU's compute resources, leading to a predictable performance curve. The data implies that the GPU is the primary limiting factor at all resolutions, with the CPU providing adequate support.