The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title from 2021, presents an unusual performance profile for the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER pairing. The data reveals a system where the aging six-core processor consistently throttles the potential of the flagship Ada Lovelace GPU, creating a bottleneck that becomes more pronounced at lower resolutions. This analysis examines the measured frames across three resolutions and four quality presets to understand the dynamic between this CPU-GPU combination.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K tells a clear story of CPU limitation. At 1080p High settings, the combo produces 63.8 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the average only drops slightly to 58.1 FPS, and at 4K High, it reaches 57.2 FPS. The delta between 1080p and 4K is a mere 6.6 FPS, which is remarkably small for a game that is typically GPU-intensive. This pattern suggests the processor is the limiting component, as the GPU has ample headroom to render higher resolutions without significant frame loss.

The Low preset reinforces this analysis. At 1080p Low, the system hits 88.8 FPS, but this drops to 81.4 FPS at 1440p and 74 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a 14.8 FPS reduction, which is still modest. If the RTX 4080 SUPER were the bottleneck, the drop from 1080p to 1440p would typically be much steeper, often exceeding 20% in demanding titles. Here, the 1440p Low result is 91.7% of the 1080p figure, indicating the CPU is preventing the GPU from pushing higher frame rates at lower resolutions.

The Ultra preset reveals the most dramatic scaling behavior. At 1080p Ultra, the system achieves 57.9 FPS. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 56.5 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it reaches 42.7 FPS. The 1080p to 1440p delta is just 1.4 FPS, essentially flat. This is a hallmark of a severe CPU bottleneck, as the increased pixel workload at 1440p is being absorbed by the GPU without affecting the CPU-bound frame rate. The larger drop to 4K Ultra suggests the GPU finally becomes more involved, but the overall curve remains atypical for a high-end graphics card.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 670 out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the 40th percentile of all systems. This is a surprisingly low position for a GPU that sits in the 88th percentile among all GPUs. The discrepancy highlights how the Intel Core i5-9400, which only reaches the 50th percentile among CPUs, drags down the overall experience. The data indicates that this pairing underperforms relative to what the GPU alone could achieve.

The CPU’s nearest rivals demonstrate the competitive landscape. The Intel Core i3-10305 scores 2300, which is 0.2% above the i5-9400’s 2305 average benchmark score. Similarly, the Intel Core i3-1125G4 and Intel Xeon E-2134 are within 0.4% of the i5-9400’s performance. The Intel Core i7-8809G scores 2319, which is 0.6% higher. These marginal differences in synthetic benchmarks translate to the real-world FPS results, where the i5-9400 cannot fully feed the RTX 4080 SUPER in The Medium.

The GPU’s rivals paint a different picture. The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT scores 53489, just 0.2% below the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 53610 average benchmark score. The AMD Radeon Pro W6600M and AMD Radeon RX 7700S are 0.4% and 2.1% lower, respectively. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is 2.9% lower. These close scores suggest the RTX 4080 SUPER should be capable of excellent performance, but the measured FPS in The Medium do not reflect this potential due to the CPU constraint.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows indicate that Medium settings provide the most balanced experience across resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the system achieves 69.9 FPS, which is close to the 70 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1440p Medium, it delivers 70.3 FPS, and at 4K Medium, it reaches 60.4 FPS. The Medium preset consistently outpaces High settings by roughly 6-10 FPS, while offering better visual fidelity than Low. This makes Medium the sweet spot for this combination.

For players prioritizing higher visual quality, High settings at 1440p produce 58.1 FPS, which is playable but not optimal for a horror game that benefits from smooth motion. The 4K High result of 57.2 FPS is marginally below 60 FPS, which could cause noticeable stuttering in tense scenes. Ultra settings are not recommended, as the 4K Ultra average of 42.7 FPS falls below the playable threshold, and even 1080p Ultra at 57.9 FPS offers no advantage over 1440p High.

Low settings serve as a diagnostic tool rather than a recommendation. The 1080p Low result of 88.8 FPS shows the maximum frame rate this CPU-GPU combo can achieve, but the visual downgrade in a game like The Medium, which relies heavily on atmosphere and lighting, is too severe. The data suggests that Medium at 1440p offers the best compromise between frame rate and visual fidelity, with 70.3 FPS providing headroom above the 60 FPS standard.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results show a clear hierarchy. Low settings produce 88.8 FPS, Medium reaches 69.9 FPS, High achieves 63.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 57.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 18.9 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 5.9 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra preset introduces heavy graphical effects that disproportionately impact performance on this CPU-limited system.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. Low settings deliver 81.4 FPS, Medium reaches 70.3 FPS, High achieves 58.1 FPS, and Ultra drops to 56.5 FPS. The 1080p to 1440p decrease for Low is 7.4 FPS, for Medium it is 0.4 FPS (essentially flat), for High it is 5.7 FPS, and for Ultra it is 1.4 FPS. The minimal drops for Medium and Ultra further confirm the CPU bottleneck, as these presets are not scaling with resolution as expected.

At 3840x2160, the results are as follows. Low settings produce 74 FPS, Medium reaches 60.4 FPS, High achieves 57.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 42.7 FPS. The 1440p to 4K decrease for Low is 7.4 FPS, for Medium it is 9.9 FPS, for High it is 0.9 FPS (nearly identical), and for Ultra it is 13.8 FPS. The High preset’s minimal drop from 1440p to 4K is notable, suggesting that at High settings, the CPU is the sole limiter, and the resolution increase has no effect on the frame rate.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is more than sufficient for The Medium, which is not known for extreme VRAM consumption. The GPU’s base clock of 2295 MHz and boost clock of 2550 MHz are substantial, and the 10240 shading units provide immense compute power. The 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance should theoretically crush this game’s requirements.

However, the measured FPS indicates the GPU is rarely the limiting factor. At 1080p High, the RTX 4080 SUPER is producing 63.8 FPS, which is far below what its specifications suggest it could achieve. The GPU’s benchmark scores confirm its capability, with a Passmark G3D score of 34245 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 246994. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6600 places it in the top tier of graphics cards. Yet, the CPU cannot feed it enough frames to utilize this power.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in benchmark scores, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT at 53489, would likely perform similarly in The Medium when paired with the same CPU. This suggests that upgrading the graphics card alone would not improve the measured FPS. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are underutilized in this scenario, as the game’s fixed-camera perspective does not demand the same level of geometry processing as modern first-person titles.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with 9 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor’s 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are modest by modern standards. The i5-9400’s benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 7969 and single-core score of 1125, place it in the 50th percentile of all CPUs.

In The Medium, the CPU’s six threads are likely insufficient for the game’s AI and physics calculations, particularly during the dual-world gameplay sequences that are signature to this title. The 1080p Low result of 88.8 FPS represents the ceiling for this processor, and it cannot push beyond this regardless of GPU capabilities. The near-identical frame rates between 1080p and 1440p at Medium and Ultra presets confirm that the CPU is saturated, as the GPU has spare capacity to handle additional pixels without affecting the CPU-bound frame generation.

The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i3-10305 and Intel Core i3-1125G4, are within 0.2% of the i5-9400’s average score, indicating they would exhibit similar bottleneck behavior. The Intel Core i7-8809G, which is 0.6% faster, might offer marginal improvements, but the delta is negligible. The data suggests that this CPU is the primary constraint in this pairing, and any performance gains would require a processor with higher multi-threaded capabilities.

FAQ

Q: Why does the FPS barely change from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the system achieves 69.9 FPS, while at 1440p Medium, it reaches 70.3 FPS. The 0.4 FPS difference indicates a CPU bottleneck, as the Intel Core i5-9400 cannot generate more frames regardless of the GPU’s available headroom.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER being fully utilized in The Medium?

A: No. The GPU’s 88th percentile ranking and high benchmark scores, such as 34245 in Passmark G3D, suggest it has massive potential. However, the measured FPS, particularly the 1080p High result of 63.8 FPS, shows the CPU limits the GPU’s output.

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

A: The data suggests 1440p Medium provides the best experience, with 70.3 FPS. This resolution balances the GPU’s capabilities with the CPU’s limitations, offering a playable frame rate without the visual compromises of 1080p.

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

A: The combo ranks 670 out of 1689 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the lower half of systems, which is surprising given the RTX 4080 SUPER’s high-end status, but expected when the CPU is only in the 50th percentile.

Q: Does the 16 GB VRAM of the RTX 4080 SUPER provide any benefit in this game?

A: The 16 GB GDDR6X memory with 736.3 GB/s bandwidth is more than sufficient for The Medium, but the data shows no VRAM-related bottleneck. The limiting factor is the CPU’s six threads, not memory capacity.

Q: What happens at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The 4K Ultra preset produces 42.7 FPS, which is the lowest measured result. This is the only configuration where the GPU appears to become a more significant factor, but the frame rate is still below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.