The Medium

The Medium, a horror title built around fixed camera angles and dual-reality rendering, presents a demanding workload that scales heavily with resolution and settings. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core i5-9400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions, using only the recorded benchmark data.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, with the most significant drops occurring when moving from 1440p to 4K. At High settings, the combo delivers 60.7 FPS at 1920x1080, which drops to 55.2 FPS at 2560x1440, and then falls sharply to 39.1 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 9% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, but a 29% reduction from 1440p to 4K, indicating that the rendering load at 4K begins to overwhelm the GPU's capabilities.

The Ultra preset tells a similar story with even lower absolute numbers. At 1080p, the combo manages 48.9 FPS, which falls to 42.7 FPS at 1440p and bottoms out at 36 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 26% total drop, while the High preset sees a 36% total drop across the same resolution range. This suggests that Ultra settings introduce additional effects that disproportionately impact higher resolutions, whereas High settings show a more predictable linear scaling pattern.

Low settings provide the highest frame rates across all resolutions, with 87 FPS at 1080p, 79.9 FPS at 1440p, and 75.9 FPS at 4K. Interestingly, the drop from 1080p to 4K at Low is only 13%, compared to 36% at High. This indicates that at Low settings, the game becomes less GPU-bound and more dependent on other system components, allowing the RX 6800 XT to maintain relatively consistent performance even at 4K.

The Medium preset shows a middle-ground scaling pattern: 74.1 FPS at 1080p, 70.3 FPS at 1440p, and 56.7 FPS at 4K. The 4K figure represents a 19% drop from 1440p, which is less severe than the High preset's 29% drop but more pronounced than Low's 5% drop between those same resolutions. This variation across presets suggests that the limiting component shifts depending on the settings level, with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck at higher presets and higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a high-end graphics card with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its boost clock reaches 2250 MHz, with a game clock of 2015 MHz and base clock of 1825 MHz. The card's 4608 shading units and 128 ROPs contribute to its 20.74 TFLOPS FP32 performance. The GPU sits in the 87th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49982.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU's performance ceiling is not fully utilized at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 87 FPS, but the card is capable of much more in less demanding scenarios. The 4K Ultra result of 36 FPS represents the hardest workload, where the GPU's raw throughput becomes the limiting factor. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the game's textures and effects at all tested settings, as no memory-related stuttering or frame drops appear in the data.

The RX 6800 XT's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Arc A550M with an average score of 49737 (0.5% delta) and the NVIDIA RTX A1000 at 50826 (-1.7% delta). The NVIDIA CMP 50HX scores 49071 (1.9% delta), while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER achieves 48704 (2.6% delta). These close scores indicate that the RX 6800 XT is positioned in a competitive performance tier, though the actual in-game results depend heavily on driver optimization and game-specific rendering paths.

Settings Recommendations

The data shows a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate. At 1080p, the High preset delivers 60.7 FPS, which is already above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset drops to 48.9 FPS, which may be acceptable for a slower-paced horror title but falls below the ideal smoothness benchmark. The Medium preset at 74.1 FPS offers a substantial margin above 60 FPS, making it the most balanced choice for 1080p displays.

At 1440p, the High preset provides 55.2 FPS, which is slightly below 60 FPS but remains playable for a horror game with atmospheric pacing. The Medium preset at 70.3 FPS is the strongest recommendation for 1440p, offering both a comfortable frame rate and moderate visual improvements over Low. The Ultra preset at 42.7 FPS is likely too demanding for consistent gameplay, while Low at 79.9 FPS sacrifices too much visual quality for the performance gain.

For 4K displays, the situation becomes more constrained. The High preset at 39.1 FPS and Ultra at 36 FPS both fall below 40 FPS, which may be tolerable for a story-driven horror experience but lacks smoothness. The Medium preset at 56.7 FPS is the best option for 4K, providing playable performance while retaining reasonable visual detail. The Low preset at 75.9 FPS offers the smoothest experience but with significantly reduced graphics quality.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of Intel Core i5-9400 and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ranks 793rd out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium. This places the combo in the upper-middle portion of the overall distribution, indicating that while the GPU is powerful, the CPU pairing holds back the system's full potential in this particular game. The rank position suggests that many other combinations, likely with more modern or higher-core-count processors, achieve better performance despite using similar or even lesser GPUs.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 50 among all processors highlights its mid-tier position. The i5-9400's synthetic benchmarks show a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125. Its average benchmark score of 2305 places it within 0.2% of the Intel Core i3-10305 and Intel Core i3-1125G4, and within 0.4% of the Intel Xeon E-2134. The Intel Core i7-8809G scores 2319, which is 0.6% higher, showing that the i5-9400 is clustered tightly with its immediate rivals.

The GPU's 87th percentile ranking is substantially higher than the CPU's 50th percentile, creating an imbalance where the graphics card's capabilities exceed what the processor can consistently feed in CPU-bound scenarios. This is reflected in the measured FPS data, where even at 1080p Low, the combo reaches only 87 FPS rather than significantly higher values that a more capable CPU might enable.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. It operates at a base clock of 2.90 GHz with a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, and its 65 W TDP indicates modest power requirements. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth, and it provides PCIe Gen 3 with 16 lanes for the GPU.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic testing include the Intel Core i3-10305 with an average score of 2300 (0.2% delta), the Intel Core i3-1125G4 at 2299 (0.2% delta), and the Intel Xeon E-2134 at 2295 (0.4% delta). The Intel Core i7-8809G scores 2319, which is 0.6% higher. These tight deltas confirm that the i5-9400 performs at the level of entry-level i3 processors and older Xeon workstation chips, despite having more physical cores.

In The Medium, the CPU's role becomes apparent when examining the scaling behavior across resolutions. At Low settings, the frame rate only drops from 87 FPS at 1080p to 75.9 FPS at 4K, a 13% reduction that suggests the CPU is able to maintain enough throughput to feed the GPU at all resolutions. However, at Ultra settings, the frame rate drops from 48.9 FPS at 1080p to 36 FPS at 4K, a 26% reduction that indicates the GPU is fully saturated and the CPU's limitations become less relevant at the highest visual quality presets. The 6-core, 6-thread configuration without hyper-threading may struggle with the game's dual-reality rendering techniques, which could explain why the combo does not rank higher despite the powerful GPU.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Medium?

A: The data shows that 1440p with Medium settings provides 70.3 FPS, which is the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 74.1 FPS, while 4K Medium drops to 56.7 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 6800 XT compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 6800 XT has an average benchmark score of 49982, which is 0.5% higher than the Intel Arc A550M (49737) and 1.7% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A1000 (50826). It is 1.9% higher than the NVIDIA CMP 50HX (49071) and 2.6% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER (48704).

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among tested configurations?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 with AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ranks 793rd out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the upper-middle portion of the performance distribution.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any settings?

A: The data indicates that at Low settings, frame rates remain high across all resolutions (87 FPS at 1080p to 75.9 FPS at 4K), suggesting the CPU can keep up. At Ultra settings, frame rates are low across all resolutions (48.9 FPS at 1080p to 36 FPS at 4K), indicating the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, Low settings produce 75.9 FPS while Ultra settings produce 36 FPS. This represents a 52.6% reduction in frame rate when switching from Low to Ultra at 4K resolution.

Q: How does the i5-9400's synthetic performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2305, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i3-10305 (2300) and Intel Core i3-1125G4 (2299), 0.4% higher than the Intel Xeon E-2134 (2295), and 0.6% lower than the Intel Core i7-8809G (2319).