The Medium

# The Medium: Intel Core i5-9400 + AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT

The Medium presents a demanding fixed-camera horror experience where the split-screen mechanic doubles the rendering workload, and this combination of a six-core Intel Core i5-9400 with the Radeon RX 7700 XT lands at rank 1836 out of 3724 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier of all system pairings. The measured data reveals a system that can handle 1080p and 1440p gaming comfortably at medium settings, but struggles to maintain playable framerates at 4K with higher presets, suggesting a balance that leans more toward GPU-bound behavior at higher resolutions while exposing CPU limitations at the lower end.

Resolution Scaling

The framerate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings presets, but the magnitude of that drop varies significantly depending on the quality level. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 87 at 1080p to 76 at 4K, a decline of 11 frames that represents only a 12.6% reduction. This relatively modest scaling indicates that at Low settings, the system is not overwhelmingly GPU-limited at 1080p, and the RX 7700 XT has enough headroom to absorb much of the resolution increase before hitting a wall.

Moving to Medium settings, the scaling becomes more pronounced: 72 FPS at 1080p drops to 66 at 1440p, then to 52 at 4K. The 4K figure represents a 27.8% drop from 1440p and a 38.9% drop from 1080p. The min FPS at 4K Medium is 44, which means the experience is playable but with noticeable dips during heavy scenes. At High settings, the pattern continues with 56 FPS at 1080p, 47 at 1440p, and 37 at 4K — the latter being a marginal 16.1% drop from 1440p but a 33.9% drop from 1080p.

Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling behavior. The system produces 45 FPS at 1080p, 38 at 1440p, and only 30 at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 30 FPS is exactly at the threshold of what many consider the minimum for acceptable gaming, and the drop from 1080p to 4K represents a 33.3% reduction in performance. What makes this interesting is that the gap between High and Ultra at 4K is only 7 FPS (37 vs 30), while at 1080p the gap is 11 FPS (56 vs 45). This convergence at 4K suggests that the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck at the highest resolution, with the additional rendering cost of Ultra settings having diminishing relative impact when the GPU is already saturated.

The data implies that The Medium's split-screen rendering is heavily resolution-dependent. At 1080p Low, the CPU can feed frames quickly enough that the GPU isn't fully utilized, but by 4K Ultra, the RX 7700 XT is clearly the limiting component. The fact that Low settings at 4K (76 FPS) outperform Ultra settings at 1080p (45 FPS) by a 68.9% margin reveals just how much the quality preset matters relative to resolution in this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor from the Coffee Lake Refresh generation, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It has 9 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration, with a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. Its benchmark scores show a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 6629 and a single-core score of 935, with a Geekbench multi-core score of 5141 and single-core score of 1389. The processor sits at the 47th percentile among all CPUs, indicating it is roughly average in the broader market landscape.

The nearest rivals to the i5-9400 in average benchmark score include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7, which is 0.2% slower, and the Intel Core i7-10710U, which is 0.3% faster. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 is 0.4% faster, while the Intel Core i3-10305 is 0.4% slower. These extremely tight margins — all within 0.4% — suggest that the i5-9400's performance profile is well understood and sits in a densely populated performance band.

In The Medium, the CPU's role becomes most apparent at lower resolutions and settings where the GPU has spare capacity. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 87 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire measured set. This suggests the CPU can sustain that level, but it's worth questioning whether the CPU is the ceiling here or if the GPU is still doing most of the work. The 1080p Ultra result of 45 FPS is exactly 48.3% lower than the Low result, which is a larger proportional drop than seen at 4K (30 vs 76, a 60.5% drop). The larger relative drop at 4K indicates the GPU is the dominant factor there, while the smaller relative drop at 1080p hints that the CPU may be starting to contribute to the bottleneck at higher settings.

With only six threads and no hyper-threading, the i5-9400 could be a limiting factor in The Medium's split-screen rendering, which requires rendering two perspectives simultaneously. The benchmark data supports this: at 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 42 FPS, but at 4K, the difference is only 46 FPS. If the CPU were completely uninvolved, one would expect the gap to grow substantially with resolution. The fact that it doesn't grow more suggests the CPU is constraining performance at 1080p Ultra, preventing the GPU from stretching its legs fully.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU features 3456 shading units, 216 texture mapping units, and 96 raster operation pipelines, along with 54 ray tracing cores. Its boost clock is 2544 MHz, with a game clock of 2171 MHz and a base clock of 1435 MHz. The card has a TDP of 245 W and uses dual 8-pin power connectors.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RX 7700 XT achieves a Passmark G3D score of 22547 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3316. It ranks at the 67th percentile among all GPUs, which is notably higher than the CPU's 47th percentile placement. This percentile gap hints that the GPU is the stronger component in this pairing, and the gaming results generally bear this out. The nearest GPU rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile, which is 0.5% faster, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile, which is 0.8% slower. The RTX 2080 is 1.5% faster, while the AMD Radeon RX 5700 is 1.7% slower.

The GPU's 12 GB of VRAM is a relevant factor for The Medium, which is known for loading extensive textures and environments. At 4K Ultra, the system manages only 30 FPS, which suggests the GPU is struggling with both the resolution and the quality settings. The memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s should be sufficient for most scenes, but the 192-bit bus may become a constraint at 4K with high-resolution textures. The fact that 4K Low achieves 76 FPS while 4K Ultra drops to 30 FPS — a 60.5% reduction — shows how sensitive this GPU is to quality settings at high resolution.

The GPU's ray tracing capabilities (54 RT cores) are present but The Medium's implementation may not heavily utilize them, given the game's fixed camera angles. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) is current, and the GPU supports Vulkan 1.4, which could matter if the game uses any of these modern APIs. The measured data shows the GPU can deliver playable framerates at 1440p Medium (66 FPS) and even 4K Medium (52 FPS), but the Ultra preset at any resolution pushes it below 45 FPS, with 4K Ultra being the only unplayable result at 30 FPS.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1080p Medium delivers 72 FPS average with a min of 62 FPS, while 1440p Medium achieves 66 FPS average with a min of 56 FPS. Both are smooth, but 1440p Medium offers a better balance of visual fidelity and performance, staying above 55 FPS throughout.

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

A: Yes, but only at Low or Medium settings. 4K Low achieves 76 FPS, and 4K Medium hits 52 FPS average with a 44 FPS minimum. 4K High drops to 37 FPS, and 4K Ultra falls to 30 FPS, which is borderline unplayable.

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

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 is within 0.4% of all four nearest rivals in average benchmark score. The Intel Core i7-1068NG7 is 0.2% slower, the Intel Core i7-10710U is 0.3% faster, the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 is 0.4% faster, and the Intel Core i3-10305 is 0.4% slower.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: The GPU is the stronger component, ranking in the 67th percentile versus the CPU's 47th percentile. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiter, but at 1080p with Ultra settings, the CPU's six threads may constrain performance, as evidenced by the smaller relative drop between Low and Ultra at 1080p compared to 4K.

Q: What is the difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, Medium delivers 66 FPS average while High drops to 47 FPS, a 28.8% reduction. The 1440p Medium result also has a min FPS of 56, whereas the High setting has no min FPS recorded, suggesting the Medium preset provides a more stable experience.

Q: How much VRAM does this GPU have, and does it matter?

A: The RX 7700 XT has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory. Given that 4K Ultra produces only 30 FPS, the VRAM capacity is likely sufficient, but the GPU's compute capabilities and memory bandwidth of 432.0 GB/s are the limiting factors at extreme settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its best results across all presets. Low settings hit 87 FPS average, which is the highest frame rate in the entire measured dataset. Medium settings deliver 72 FPS average with a minimum of 62 FPS and a maximum of 83 FPS, providing a smooth experience with modest variance. High settings drop to 56 FPS average, and Ultra settings fall to 45 FPS average. The step from Medium to High at 1080p costs 16 FPS (22.2%), while the step from High to Ultra costs another 11 FPS (19.6%).

At 2560x1440, the performance profile shifts downward but remains playable at most settings. Low settings achieve 82 FPS average, only 5 FPS below the 1080p result, indicating the GPU can handle the resolution increase at low quality. Medium settings deliver 66 FPS average with a minimum of 56 FPS and a maximum of 76 FPS, which is a 8.3% drop from the 1080p Medium result. High settings produce 47 FPS average, and Ultra settings drop to 38 FPS average. The gap between Medium and High at 1440p is 19 FPS (28.8%), which is larger than the 1080p gap, suggesting the GPU is working harder at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the system's limitations become evident. Low settings still manage 76 FPS average, which is surprising and indicates the RX 7700 XT has substantial raw power. Medium settings deliver 52 FPS average with a minimum of 44 FPS and a maximum of 60 FPS, providing a playable but not consistently smooth experience. High settings drop to 37 FPS average, and Ultra settings fall to 30 FPS average, which is the lowest result in the entire dataset. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings costs 14 FPS (21.2%), while at High settings it costs 10 FPS (21.3%), and at Ultra settings it costs 8 FPS (21.1%). These nearly identical percentage drops across presets indicate that the resolution scaling is consistent regardless of quality level.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to Medium settings as the sweet spot for this system across all three resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the system delivers 72 FPS average with a minimum of 62 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1440p Medium, the 66 FPS average with a 56 FPS minimum remains playable, though the occasional dip below 60 FPS may be noticeable in demanding scenes. At 4K Medium, the 52 FPS average with a 44 FPS minimum is acceptable for a slower-paced horror title, though it falls short of ideal smoothness.

The High preset offers diminishing returns for its performance cost. At 1080p, High delivers 56 FPS versus Medium's 72 FPS, a 22.2% reduction for what is likely a modest visual improvement. At 1440p, High drops to 47 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. At 4K, High falls to 37 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. The Ultra preset should be avoided entirely, as it produces 45 FPS at 1080p, 38 FPS at 1440p, and only 30 FPS at 4K — none of which provide a consistently smooth experience.

For players prioritizing frame rate, Low settings provide the highest performance at all resolutions, with 87 FPS at 1080p, 82 FPS at 1440p, and 76 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is particularly impressive, showing that the system can handle 4K if the player is willing to accept reduced visual quality. However, for the best balance of visuals and performance, Medium settings at 1440p represent the optimal configuration, offering a 66 FPS average with a 56 FPS minimum while maintaining a higher resolution than 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

This pairing of the Intel Core i5-9400 with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT achieves rank 1836 out of 3724 tested combinations in The Medium, placing it in the 49.3rd percentile of all combos. This is a middle-of-the-pack result, which is somewhat surprising given that the GPU alone ranks in the 67th percentile. The discrepancy suggests that the CPU is holding back the system's overall gaming performance in this particular title.

The combo's ranking implies that roughly half of all tested system pairings perform better in The Medium, while the other half perform worse. Given that the GPU is a relatively strong component (67th percentile) and the CPU is average (47th percentile), the overall ranking of 49.3rd percentile closely mirrors the CPU's positioning. This alignment suggests that The Medium is CPU-sensitive, and the i5-9400's six threads without hyper-threading may be insufficient for the game's split-screen rendering demands.

When considering upgrades, the data suggests that improving the CPU would likely yield the greatest benefit to this system's ranking in The Medium. The GPU has demonstrated it can deliver 76 FPS at 4K Low, which is a strong result, but the CPU's limitations at lower resolutions and settings prevent the system from achieving higher overall scores. The tight clustering of the CPU's nearest rivals (all within 0.4% in benchmark scores) indicates that simply swapping to a slightly different mid-range processor would not meaningfully change the outcome — a more substantial CPU upgrade would be needed to move the needle significantly in this game.