The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built around atmosphere rather than twitch reflexes, proves surprisingly demanding on the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti combination. The measured frame rates across resolutions and presets reveal a system that is capable of smooth play but requires careful attention to settings, particularly at higher resolutions where the GPU’s 8 GB memory buffer becomes a critical factor. The data indicates that this pairing sits in the 58th percentile of all tested combinations for this specific game, holding a rank of 986 out of 1689, which places it firmly in the upper-middle tier of the database.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K under the High preset tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies in this configuration. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo delivers an average of 48.9 FPS, which drops to 42.5 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 13 percent. Moving to 3840x2160, the average falls further to 31.9 FPS, representing a substantial 35 percent decline from the 1440p figure and a 35 percent drop from 1080p. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 3060 Ti is the primary limiting factor, as the frame rate degrades proportionally with the pixel count increase, a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering.

The gap between Low and Ultra presets widens dramatically as resolution increases, further reinforcing the GPU-centric nature of the load. At 1080p, the spread from Low to Ultra spans 44.7 FPS (84.7 down to 40), while at 4K that same spread expands to 50.6 FPS (74.1 down to 23.5). Interestingly, the Low preset at 4K achieves 74.1 FPS, which is actually higher than the High preset at 1080p, demonstrating that the settings menu has a far more significant impact on performance than resolution alone. This suggests that the game’s graphical features, such as volumetric lighting and shadow quality, impose a heavier cost than raw pixel throughput.

The Medium preset offers the most linear scaling across resolutions: 67.9 FPS at 1080p, 56.6 FPS at 1440p, and 49.9 FPS at 4K. This consistent degradation of roughly 17 percent per step up in resolution indicates a balanced load that keeps both the CPU and GPU engaged without either component becoming a severe constraint. In contrast, the Ultra preset collapses more abruptly, with the 4K result of 23.5 FPS falling below playable thresholds, while the High preset maintains a playable, if not ideal, 31.9 FPS at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti carries the bulk of the rendering workload in this pairing, and its specifications align with the observed performance patterns. The card features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is particularly relevant for The Medium, a game known for its dual-reality rendering technique that can stress memory capacity. The fact that 4K High produces 31.9 FPS while 4K Low jumps to 74.1 FPS suggests that texture streaming and memory allocation are heavily influencing the results, as the lower preset likely reduces the memory footprint enough to avoid capacity-related stutters.

The GPU’s clock behavior, with a base of 1410 MHz and a boost of 1665 MHz, is typical for the Ampere architecture. The card’s 4864 shading units and 80 ROPs provide ample compute throughput, but the measured results indicate that raw compute is not the limiting factor at higher presets. The RTX 3060 Ti’s 16.20 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is substantial, yet the 4K Ultra result of 23.5 FPS reveals that the card is overwhelmed by the game’s most demanding settings, likely due to the combination of high-resolution textures and advanced lighting effects.

The GPU’s benchmark percentile of 69 places it above the majority of installed graphics cards, and its nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon RX 6700M and AMD Radeon RX 6600, with delta percentages of -0.2 and -0.5 respectively. This indicates that the RTX 3060 Ti sits in a competitive performance tier, and the measured FPS in The Medium reflects this positioning. The card’s 200 W TDP and dual-slot design are consistent with a mid-range to upper-mid-range part, and the 8 GB memory capacity proves adequate for 1440p play but becomes a liability at 4K with higher presets.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points provide a clear hierarchy of playable configurations for this combo. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 67.9 FPS, which is smooth for a horror title where frame pacing matters more than raw speed. The High preset at 48.9 FPS remains playable, but the jump to Ultra at 40 FPS introduces noticeable dips that could hurt the atmospheric experience. For 1080p users, the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual fidelity and sustained frame rates, as it sits comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold while still providing enhanced textures over Low.

At 1440p, the Medium preset achieves 56.6 FPS, which is close to the ideal 60 FPS target but not quite there. The High preset at 42.5 FPS is acceptable for a slower-paced horror game, though it lacks the headroom for demanding scenes. The data suggests that 1440p Medium is the sweet spot, as it maintains a playable frame rate while the Low preset at 83.1 FPS sacrifices too much visual quality for a game that relies heavily on lighting and shadow detail to build tension.

For 4K, the situation becomes more restrictive. The Medium preset at 49.9 FPS is the only viable option above the Low setting, and even this falls short of 60 FPS. The High preset at 31.9 FPS is borderline, and Ultra at 23.5 FPS is effectively unplayable. The Low preset at 74.1 FPS provides smooth performance but strips away the visual atmosphere that defines The Medium. Given these measurements, 4K users should select the Medium preset, as it delivers the best compromise between the game’s artistic direction and a frame rate that remains consistently above 45 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-9400 and RTX 3060 Ti combination holds a rank of 986 out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the 58th percentile of all configurations in the database. This ranking reflects a system that delivers solid, if not exceptional, performance in this title. The rank suggests that while this combo is not among the top tier of gaming rigs, it outperforms a significant majority of tested systems, making it a viable option for players who prioritize a balance between resolution and settings.

The CPU’s individual benchmark scores contribute to this overall ranking. The i5-9400 achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125, with an average benchmark score of 2305 that places it in the 50th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i3-10305 and Intel Core i3-1125G4, with delta percentages of 0.2 for both, indicating that the i5-9400 is essentially performance-equivalent to these newer parts in general workloads. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 25120 places it in the 69th percentile, and its rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6700M and AMD Radeon RX 6600, are within a half-percent of its performance.

The combination of a mid-range CPU and an upper-mid-range GPU results in a system that is well-suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming in The Medium, with the 4K experience requiring settings compromises. The rank of 986 out of 1689 indicates that this combo is not a top performer, but it comfortably handles the majority of the game’s content at reasonable settings, making it a sensible choice for players who do not demand maximum graphical fidelity.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides the processing foundation for this combo, and its specifications indicate that it is not the primary bottleneck in The Medium. The CPU features 6 cores and 6 threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. This configuration is adequate for a game that, while not heavily multithreaded, still requires consistent single-thread performance for game logic and AI. The lack of Hyper-Threading means the CPU relies on its physical cores, but the measured frame rates suggest that this does not significantly hamper performance at the resolutions tested.

The CPU’s L3 cache of 9 MB shared across all cores is modest by modern standards, but it proves sufficient for the game’s data access patterns. The memory support for DDR4 in dual-channel configuration, providing 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth, is likely a non-issue given that the GPU’s 448.0 GB/s bandwidth dwarfs this figure. The i5-9400’s Cinebench R20 multi-core score of 3346 and single-core score of 472 indicate a processor that delivers balanced performance, though it trails newer six-core parts that offer higher IPC and thread counts.

In practice, the CPU’s role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 84.7 FPS, which is the highest measured result across all configurations. This suggests that at this resolution, the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU sufficiently, and the frame rate is not artificially limited by processor performance. The fact that the 4K Low preset achieves 74.1 FPS, only 10.6 FPS lower than 1080p Low, indicates that the GPU is still the dominant constraint even at lower settings. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and Coffee Lake architecture, while dated, do not present a significant obstacle in this specific title, as the game’s fixed-camera perspective reduces the CPU load compared to open-world titles with dynamic physics and large draw distances.