The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 1,751st out of 2,911 tested combinations in The Medium. This places the combo in the 40th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 60% of configurations deliver higher average frame rates in this title. The ranking reflects a mid-pack position, which is consistent with the mobile RTX 4060's overall GPU percentile of 61, indicating the graphics card is the primary constraint in this pairing rather than the processor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1,751 out of 2,911 is a direct consequence of the RTX 4060's position in the broader GPU landscape. With an average benchmark score of 17,639, the RTX 4060 sits at the 61st percentile of all GPUs, placing it just above the AMD Radeon 780M (which scores 17,588, a 0.3% delta) and below the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17,666, a -0.2% delta). These are extremely tight margins — the difference between the RTX 4060 and its nearest rival is less than 0.3% in either direction, which in real-world gaming translates to nearly identical performance.

The CPU, by contrast, is a powerhouse. The Ryzen 9 8945HX achieves an average benchmark score of 76,212, placing it at the 95th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, scores 76,155 (a 0.1% delta), while the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D scores 75,779 (a 0.6% delta). This processor is not the bottleneck in The Medium; the data clearly shows the GPU is the limiting factor at every resolution tested.

The combination of a top-tier CPU with a mid-range GPU creates a system that is CPU-limited at low settings but GPU-limited at high and ultra settings. This imbalance is reflected in the combo's rank, which sits near the median of all tested configurations. For a game like The Medium, which relies heavily on fixed camera angles and pre-rendered environments, the GPU's rasterization performance is the dominant factor, and the RTX 4060's 15.11 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but struggles at 4K.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD107 chip on a 5nm TSMC process. It features 3,072 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output pipelines. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1,830 MHz and boosts to 2,460 MHz, with memory running at 2,125 MHz (17 Gbps effective). The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a modest figure for a modern GPU.

In The Medium, the RTX 4060's performance demonstrates a clear relationship between settings and frame rates. At 1080p, the GPU delivers 97 FPS on Low settings, which drops to 60 FPS on Medium and 43 FPS on High. The Ultra preset yields 34 FPS, showing a steep performance cliff as settings increase. This pattern suggests that the game's higher presets introduce computationally expensive effects that the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus struggle to handle.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is particularly relevant for The Medium, which is known for its dual-reality rendering technique that can double the memory footprint. At 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 23 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The GPU's 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for ray tracing and DLSS, but the measured data does not include these features enabled, so their impact cannot be quantified here. The GPU's pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s are adequate for 1080p and 1440p but insufficient for 4K at high quality settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 97 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 81 FPS (a 16.5% decrease), and at 4K Low, it reaches 64 FPS (a 34% decrease from 1080p). This scaling is nearly linear with the increase in pixel count, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor even at the lowest settings.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 60 FPS at 1080p, 51 FPS at 1440p (a 15% drop), and 40 FPS at 4K (a 33.3% drop from 1080p). The High preset shows 43 FPS at 1080p, 36 FPS at 1440p (a 16.3% drop), and 29 FPS at 4K (a 32.6% drop). The Ultra preset follows the same trend: 34 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K.

The consistency of these percentage drops across settings — roughly 15-16% from 1080p to 1440p and another 33-34% from 1440p to 4K — strongly indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck. If the CPU were limiting performance, the frame rate would not scale so consistently with resolution. The 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen 9 8945HX with a 5.40 GHz boost clock provides more than enough processing power to feed the GPU at all resolutions. The data shows that the RTX 4060's 272.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 128-bit bus are the primary constraints, as the game's texture and geometry demands increase with resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings at each resolution. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS, which is the sweet spot for smooth gameplay. The Low preset offers 97 FPS but sacrifices visual quality, while High drops to 43 FPS and Ultra to 34 FPS. For a horror game like The Medium, where atmosphere and visual fidelity are important, Medium at 1080p provides an excellent balance of performance and quality.

At 1440p, Medium delivers 51 FPS with a minimum of 43 FPS and a maximum of 59 FPS. This is playable but may not maintain a consistent 60 FPS experience. The Low preset at 81 FPS is the only 1440p option that guarantees smooth gameplay, but it compromises the game's visual presentation. High at 36 FPS and Ultra at 29 FPS are both below the 30 FPS threshold for acceptable playability.

At 4K, the situation is more challenging. The Low preset achieves 64 FPS, which is the only 4K option that provides smooth gameplay. Medium drops to 40 FPS, which is borderline playable, while High at 29 FPS and Ultra at 23 FPS are not recommended for a good experience. Given the data, the optimal configuration is 1080p Medium for the best balance, or 1440p Low if higher resolution is preferred. For 4K, Low is the only viable option.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware?

A: The data shows 1080p Medium delivers 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 FPS, providing the best balance of performance and visual quality. At 1440p, Medium achieves 51 FPS, while 4K requires Low settings (64 FPS) for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 17,639, placing it 0.3% above the AMD Radeon 780M (17,588) and 0.2% below the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17,666). The differences are negligible in real-world performance.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in The Medium?

A: The GPU is the limiting factor. The Ryzen 9 8945HX ranks at the 95th percentile of all CPUs, while the RTX 4060 ranks at the 61st percentile of all GPUs. The consistent FPS scaling across resolutions confirms the GPU is the bottleneck.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: At 4K, only Low settings (64 FPS) provide smooth gameplay. Medium delivers 40 FPS, High drops to 29 FPS, and Ultra falls to 23 FPS. The 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus limit 4K performance at higher settings.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 1,751st out of 2,911 tested combinations in The Medium, placing it in the 40th percentile. This reflects the RTX 4060's mid-range position rather than the CPU's high-end performance.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 8945HX compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The 8945HX scores 76,212 on average, which is 0.1% above the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (76,155) and 0.6% above the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (75,779). The differences are minimal, indicating these are all top-tier processors.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture (Dragon Range codename) built on TSMC's 5nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with 64 MB of L3 cache (1 MB L2 per core and 64 KB L1 per core). The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 28 lanes. Its TDP is 55W, which is modest for a 16-core mobile processor.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls, physics calculations, and game logic. The 8945HX's benchmark results are exceptional: it scores 42,713 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 6,030 in single-core, with a PassMark multithread score of 51,405 and a single-thread score of 3,907. These numbers place it at the 95th percentile of all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 95% of processors on the market.

The data indicates that the CPU is never the bottleneck in this game. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 97 FPS, which is a frame rate that would expose CPU limitations if they existed. The fact that performance scales consistently with resolution — dropping by roughly 16% from 1080p to 1440p and another 33% from 1440p to 4K — proves the GPU is the constraining component. The CPU's 32 threads and high boost clock ensure that even the most demanding scenes in The Medium, which can involve complex lighting and shadow calculations, do not cause processor-bound frame rate drops.

The Ryzen 9 8945HX's nearest CPU rivals — the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (0.1% lower score) and AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (0.6% lower score) — are all in the same performance tier. This means that swapping the CPU for any of these alternatives would produce nearly identical frame rates in The Medium, as the GPU would remain the limiting factor. The CPU's 13,140 million transistors across a dual-die design (2x 71 mm²) provide ample compute resources, but the game's demands are relatively modest on the CPU side, allowing the 8945HX to operate well below its maximum capacity.