The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built around atmospheric tension, places a distinctive load on the hardware it runs on. In this configuration, the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti produce a set of benchmark results that reveal a system where the graphics card is the dominant factor, particularly at higher resolutions. The data indicates that this pairing is capable of smooth gameplay at lower settings, but the experience degrades significantly as visual fidelity and resolution increase.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture. It operates at a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. This configuration, lacking Hyper-Threading, provides a solid foundation for gaming workloads, but its performance ceiling is defined by its six physical cores. In synthetic benchmarks, it achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and a single-core score of 1125, placing it at the 50th percentile among all CPUs. This mid-pack positioning is reflected in its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i3-10305, which scores 2300 on average (a 0.2% delta), and the Intel Core i7-8809G, which scores 2319 (a -0.6% delta).

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's role is less about raw multi-threaded throughput and more about maintaining consistent frame pacing. The game's fixed-camera angles and puzzle-driven exploration often shift the bottleneck to the GPU, but the i5-9400 must still feed the RTX 3070 Ti with enough draw calls and physics data. The measured FPS data suggests that this is not a significant constraint at lower resolutions where the GPU has more headroom, but the CPU's limited thread count could become a factor in complex scenes. The 9 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4-2666 memory support (42.7 GB/s bandwidth) are standard for its generation, providing adequate bandwidth for the GPU to access textures and geometry.

The relationship between CPU and GPU here is one of balance at 1080p. The i5-9400's single-core performance is sufficient to drive the RTX 3070 Ti to its limits in most scenarios, as evidenced by the high FPS at Low settings. However, the benchmark results show that as resolution scales up, the GPU's workload increases exponentially, making the CPU's contribution relatively less significant. The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck at 4K, as the frame rates drop uniformly with resolution, pointing to the GPU as the primary limiting factor.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium with this CPU and GPU combo?

A: Based on the measured FPS, 1920x1080 with Low settings achieves an average of 89.7 FPS, which is the highest average across all tested configurations. For a balance of visual quality and performance, 2560x1440 with Medium settings yields 65.5 FPS, while 3840x2160 with Low settings hits 74.5 FPS. The data shows that 4K is viable only at lower presets.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 55.9 at 1920x1080 to 49.5 at 2560x1440, and further to 37.7 at 3840x2160. This represents a significant reduction of 18.2 FPS when going from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the RTX 3070 Ti's 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and 608.3 GB/s bandwidth are being heavily taxed at the higher resolution.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for the RTX 3070 Ti in this game?

A: The benchmark data does not support a CPU bottleneck. At Low settings, where the GPU load is lighter, the FPS scales predictably with resolution (89.7 at 1080p, 83.2 at 1440p, 74.5 at 4K). If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would plateau regardless of resolution. The consistent scaling indicates the GPU is the primary constraint.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 836 out of 1689 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the upper-middle tier of systems, indicating that it performs adequately but is not at the top end of the spectrum. The rank suggests there are many other hardware pairings that deliver higher average frame rates.

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable at 4K, and at what settings?

A: The highest average FPS at 3840x2160 is 74.5, achieved with Low settings. This is a playable frame rate for most users. The Medium preset at 4K yields 54.7 FPS, while High and Ultra drop to 37.7 and 29.2 FPS, respectively, which are less ideal for smooth gameplay.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data provides a clear picture of how the settings presets impact performance across the three resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 89.7 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth. The Medium preset drops to 72.5 FPS, still well above the 60 FPS threshold, while High and Ultra fall to 55.9 and 48.3 FPS, respectively. For a 1080p display, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and fluidity, as the 72.5 FPS average is smooth and the graphical improvements over Low are noticeable in a horror game like The Medium, which relies heavily on lighting and shadow effects.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance curve shifts. Low settings produce 83.2 FPS, which is excellent. Medium settings yield 65.5 FPS, providing a good balance for 1440p gaming. High settings drop to 49.5 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced horror gameplay, but the 65.5 FPS of Medium is the recommended sweet spot for a responsive experience. Ultra at 39 FPS is too low for comfortable play, as it may introduce noticeable stutter in camera movements.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 3070 Ti's 8 GB frame buffer is under severe stress. Low settings are the only preset that delivers a consistently playable experience, with an average of 74.5 FPS. Medium settings drop to 54.7 FPS, which is borderline, and High (37.7 FPS) and Ultra (29.2 FPS) are not recommended due to the significant frame rate hit. The data suggests that 4K gaming on this combo requires sacrificing visual fidelity to maintain smoothness, with Low being the only viable option for a effortless experience.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combo of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti holds a rank of 836 out of 1689 tested combinations in The Medium. This places it in the 49.5th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it performs better than roughly half of the configurations tested. While this is a mid-pack ranking, it is important to contextualize this within the game's specific demands. The Medium is known for its use of dual-world rendering, which can be computationally expensive, and the rank reflects that this system, while competent, does not have the headroom of higher-end CPUs and GPUs.

The nearest rivals for the GPU, based on average benchmark scores, include the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME (30755, +0.3% delta) and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 (31112, -0.8% delta). These GPUs are in a similar performance tier, which explains why the combo's rank is not higher. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i3-10305 and Intel Core i7-8809G, also show that the i5-9400 is in a competitive but not dominant position. The rank suggests that for The Medium, the RTX 3070 Ti is being held back by the CPU's six-core, six-thread configuration, which may limit performance in scenes with heavy CPU-bound logic or physics calculations.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The resolution scaling data reveals a clear trend: the FPS drops are significant but not linear, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting component. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 89.7 at 1920x1080 to 83.2 at 2560x1440 (a 7.2% drop), and then to 74.5 at 3840x2160 (a 17% drop from 1440p). This scaling pattern shows that the RTX 3070 Ti has sufficient memory bandwidth and processing power to handle the transition from 1080p to 1440p with relative ease, but the jump to 4K demands a much larger increase in pixel throughput, which the GPU struggles to maintain.

At Medium settings, the FPS drops from 72.5 at 1080p to 65.5 at 1440p (a 9.7% drop), and then to 54.7 at 4K (a 16.5% drop from 1440p). This indicates that the GPU's shading units and ROPs are being fully utilized, and the 4K resolution pushes the 21.75 TFLOPS FP32 performance to its limits. At High settings, the drop is more pronounced: 55.9 to 49.5 (an 11.4% drop) and then to 37.7 (a 23.8% drop from 1440p). This suggests that the high-quality textures and effects at this preset are heavily taxing the 8 GB memory buffer and the 608.3 GB/s bandwidth, causing a more severe performance hit at 4K.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, with FPS dropping from 48.3 at 1080p to 39 at 1440p (a 19.2% drop) and then to 29.2 at 4K (a 25.1% drop from 1440p). This pattern strongly indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck, as the CPU's performance is largely independent of resolution. The i5-9400's single-core score of 1125 in Cinebench R23 suggests it can handle the game's logic at all resolutions, but the RTX 3070 Ti's raw pixel-pushing capability is what determines the final frame rate. The data confirms that for this combo, the user must choose between high resolution and high fidelity, as the GPU cannot deliver both simultaneously.