The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine, presents a unique stress profile that heavily favors the GPU. The pairing of the six-core Intel Core i5-9400 with the flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D produces a dataset that is almost entirely constrained by the graphics card, with the CPU rarely becoming the primary bottleneck. Benchmark results indicate a system that delivers playable, though not exceptionally high, frame rates across all tested configurations, with performance scaling that follows the expected pattern of decreasing FPS as resolution and settings increase.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and consistent drop in performance as resolution scales from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 64 FPS at 1080p to 60 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 56 FPS at 4K. This represents a 12.5% decrease from 1080p to 4K, a relatively modest decline that strongly indicates the GPU is the limiting component. A CPU-bound scenario would typically show a much flatter curve across resolutions, as the processor’s workload remains constant while the GPU’s workload increases.

The pattern is even more pronounced at Low settings, where the average FPS drops from 87 at 1080p to 82 at 1440p and then to 76 at 4K. This 11 FPS gap between the lowest and highest resolution is the largest absolute difference seen in the dataset. The fact that even at Low settings the frame rate does not skyrocket at 1080p suggests that the game’s engine or the CPU is imposing a ceiling, but the consistent downward slope as resolution climbs confirms that the RTX 5090 D’s rendering workload is the primary variable driving performance.

The Medium and Ultra settings tell a similar story. At Medium, the average FPS goes from 72 at 1080p to 68 at 1440p and 63 at 4K. At Ultra, the numbers are 59, 56, and 51 respectively. The delta between 1080p and 4K remains consistently around 8-13% across all settings, which is a hallmark of a GPU-limited scenario. The scaling is not perfectly linear, but the trend is unmistakable: the RTX 5090 D is responsible for the vast majority of the performance variance, and the i5-9400 is not holding back the system, even at lower resolutions where CPU load is typically higher.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor from the Coffee Lake generation, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. It lacks Hyper-Threading, which limits its ability to handle heavily multithreaded workloads, but its benchmark scores place it at the 47th percentile among all CPUs. The data shows that this is sufficient for The Medium, as the game does not appear to push the CPU to its limits. The modest resolution scaling observed suggests that the processor is not the limiting factor.

The i5-9400’s performance profile is closely matched by its nearest rivals. Its average benchmark score of 2254 is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259, -0.2%) and the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248, +0.3%). It also sits just above the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 (2246, +0.4%) and below the Intel Core i3-10305 (2264, -0.4%). These sub-1% differences indicate that the i5-9400 is a solid, mid-pack performer for its generation, but it is not a standout. In the context of this game, however, that is enough.

Benchmark results indicate that the CPU’s 6 cores and 6 threads are adequate for The Medium’s demands. The game’s fixed-camera angles and pre-rendered environments likely reduce the CPU’s burden compared to open-world titles. The fact that FPS at 1080p Low is 87, which is not a particularly high number for a flagship GPU, hints that there is some form of bottleneck, but the data does not support the conclusion that the i5-9400 is the sole cause. The CPU’s single-core performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935, is also adequate for the game’s logic and physics calculations. The processor’s end-of-life status and 65 W TDP suggest it is not a high-end part, but it performs its role without being the dominant constraint in this specific title.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the clear star of this configuration, and the data shows it is the primary driver of performance. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, it offers a staggering 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. Its 21760 shading units and 680 tensor cores make it a compute monster, and its 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs confirms its position near the top of the performance hierarchy. The launch MSRP is 2,299 USD.

The GPU’s clocks are equally impressive, with a base of 2017 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz. This allows it to maintain high throughput even under heavy load. In The Medium, the GPU is clearly the limiting component, as evidenced by the resolution scaling analysis. The fact that average FPS at 4K Ultra is 51, while at 1080p Low it is 87, shows that the GPU’s workload is the swing factor. The RTX 5090 D is so powerful that it is essentially never idle, and the game’s settings and resolution directly translate to its output.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database are not direct competitors in the same tier. The AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76904, +1.1%), AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940, -1.6%), and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants (79396, -2.1% and 79605, -2.4%) all have average scores within a few percentage points of the RTX 5090 D’s 77712. This is a statistical anomaly, as those are mobile or data-center parts, but it underscores that the RTX 5090 D’s raw compute power is immense. In this game, that power translates into a consistent frame rate that is limited primarily by the render resolution, not by the GPU’s ability to process the scene.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 960th out of 2911 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the 67th percentile of all tested systems, which is a strong showing given that the CPU is a mid-range part from 2018. The data suggests that the GPU is doing most of the heavy lifting, pulling the combo’s rank up significantly from where it would be if paired with a weaker graphics card.

The rank of 960 out of 2911 indicates that there are 959 combos that perform better, and 1951 that perform worse. This is a respectable position, but it is not at the top. The bottleneck is clearly the CPU, as a combo with a more modern processor and the same GPU would likely rank much higher. However, the data shows that the i5-9400 does not cripple the RTX 5090 D to the point of making the combo an outlier. The system delivers playable frame rates at all settings, and the rank reflects a system that is balanced enough to avoid severe stuttering or unplayable lows.

The measured FPS data confirms this ranking. At 4K Ultra, the combo achieves 51 FPS, which is above the threshold for smooth gameplay on most displays. At 1440p High, it hits 60 FPS, and at 1080p High, it reaches 64 FPS. These numbers are consistent with a system that is performing as expected for its component mix. The combo’s rank is not a reflection of poor optimization, but rather a result of the CPU’s age and its inability to feed the GPU at higher frame rates in less demanding scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The dataset provides exact average FPS figures for all combinations of three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the Low setting delivers the highest average at 87 FPS, followed by Medium at 72 FPS, High at 64 FPS, and Ultra at 59 FPS. The Medium setting also has a recorded minimum of 62 FPS and a maximum of 83 FPS, showing some variance but no severe dips.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS decreases across the board. Low drops to 82, Medium to 68, High to 60, and Ultra to 56. The Medium setting again provides the min/max data, with a minimum of 58 FPS and a maximum of 79 FPS. The 1440p results are only slightly lower than 1080p, reinforcing the GPU-bound nature of the system. The drop from High to Ultra at this resolution is just 4 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset’s additional effects are not particularly taxing on the RTX 5090 D.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS falls further. Low is 76, Medium is 63, High is 56, and Ultra is 51. The Medium setting at 4K has a minimum of 54 FPS and a maximum of 73 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 25 FPS, which is the largest spread in the dataset. This shows that at higher resolutions, the graphics settings have a more pronounced impact on performance, as the GPU is working harder to fill the additional pixels. The 4K Ultra result of 51 FPS is the lowest recorded average, but it is still playable.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combo in The Medium?

A: The highest average FPS is 87, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the main bottleneck. The FPS drops consistently as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, which is a classic sign of GPU limitation.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded, and at what settings?

A: The lowest average FPS is 51, recorded at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: How does the i5-9400 compare to its closest rival in the benchmark database?

A: The i5-9400 has an average benchmark score of 2254, which is 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 (2259) and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i7-10710U (2248).

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested systems for this game?

A: The combo ranks 960th out of 2911 tested combos, placing it in the 67th percentile.

Q: Does the RTX 5090 D have enough memory for 4K gaming in this title?

A: Yes, the RTX 5090 D has 32 GB of GDDR7 memory, which is more than sufficient for 4K gaming. The 4K Ultra average of 51 FPS confirms that memory capacity is not a limiting factor.