The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti combination delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, with the data showing that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The measured frames per second (FPS) reveal a configuration that excels at 1080p and 1440p but struggles to maintain fluid motion at 4K, particularly on the highest presets. With a combo rank of 1045 out of 2911 tested combinations, this pairing sits in the upper third of all systems, though its performance profile is heavily dictated by the graphics settings chosen. The benchmark results clearly indicate that users should prioritize resolution scaling and preset selection to achieve their target frame rate.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe, confirming that the RTX 5070 Ti is the limiting component in this setup. At Medium settings, the average frame rate falls from 79 FPS at 1920x1080 to 66 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 13 FPS, and then plummets to 52 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 34% performance loss when moving from 1440p to 4K, a scaling pattern typical of a GPU-bound scenario where pixel count outpaces the card’s raw throughput. The transition from 1080p to 1440p is less punishing, with only a 16% drop, but the 4K jump is where the RTX 5070 Ti’s 16 GB of GDDR7 memory and 896.0 GB/s bandwidth begin to show their limits.

The High preset tells a similar story with even lower absolute numbers. At 1080p, the combo achieves 56 FPS, which drops to 47 FPS at 1440p and then to 37 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is particularly telling: a 21% decline from 1440p, indicating that the game’s higher-quality textures and effects at this preset are taxing the GPU’s 43.94 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power. Low settings, by contrast, show the most dramatic scaling, with 126 FPS at 1080p falling to 106 FPS at 1440p and 83 FPS at 4K. Even at Low, the 4K resolution still demands a 22% performance hit, proving that resolution itself is a dominant factor regardless of visual fidelity.

The frame time data at Medium settings provides further insight. At 1080p, the minimum FPS is 67 with a maximum of 90, a 23 FPS variance that suggests occasional stutters. At 1440p, the variance narrows to 20 FPS (56-76), while at 4K it tightens to 16 FPS (44-60). This trend indicates that as resolution increases, the frame pacing becomes more consistent, but the average FPS drops below the 60 FPS threshold at 4K. The 4K Medium result of 52 FPS is below the 60 FPS target, making 1440p the practical ceiling for this combo if smooth gameplay is the goal.

Settings Recommendations

The data strongly favors Medium settings as the optimal balance for this hardware combination. At 1440p, Medium delivers 66 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS playability threshold, while at 1080p it reaches 79 FPS. The Low preset offers higher frame rates—106 FPS at 1440p and 126 FPS at 1080p—but the visual compromise is significant for a horror game that relies on atmosphere. The High preset, meanwhile, drops to 47 FPS at 1440p and 56 FPS at 1080p, which is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes. Ultra is the least viable option, with 38 FPS at 1440p and 45 FPS at 1080p, both below the ideal 60 FPS mark.

For 4K users, the recommendation is unequivocal: Low settings are necessary for acceptable performance. The 83 FPS average at 4K Low is the only 4K preset that exceeds 60 FPS, while Medium (52 FPS), High (37 FPS), and Ultra (30 FPS) all fall short. This suggests that the RTX 5070 Ti, despite its 16 GB memory pool, cannot handle The Medium at native 4K with enhanced visuals on this CPU platform. The 1440p Medium setting appears to be the sweet spot, offering a 66 FPS average with a minimum of 56 FPS, which ensures that most scenes remain fluid without sacrificing the game’s shadow quality and texture detail.

The measured rows show a clear hierarchy: Low > Medium > High > Ultra, with the gaps between presets being substantial. Moving from Low to Medium costs roughly 20% performance at every resolution, while Medium to High costs another 20-30%. High to Ultra is the steepest drop, with a 30% reduction at 1080p (56 to 45 FPS) and a 24% reduction at 1440p (47 to 38 FPS). Players who prioritize frame rate consistency should stick with Medium, while those who can tolerate sub-60 FPS may explore High at 1080p only.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the dominant factor in this combo’s gaming performance, as evidenced by the resolution scaling patterns. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p but becomes strained at 4K where the game’s asset streaming demands more throughput. The GPU’s boost clock of 2452 MHz and base clock of 2295 MHz are high for a mobile-oriented part, yet the 43.94 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the key metric for The Medium’s fixed-function rendering. The benchmark shows that the GPU’s 70 RT cores and 280 tensor cores are not the limiting factor; rather, it is the raw rasterization performance that determines the FPS at high resolutions.

The GPU’s 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49957, places it in the upper tier, but its nearest rivals tell a nuanced story. The AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT scores 50951 (2% higher), while the RX 6800 XT scores 48477 (3.1% lower), and the Intel Arc A550M is nearly identical at 49737 (0.4% higher). These small deltas suggest that the RTX 5070 Ti’s performance in The Medium is not exceptional for its class, and the game’s engine appears to favor raw fill rate over the Blackwell 2.0 architecture’s newer features. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6604 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 225122 confirm a capable GPU, but the 4K results show it is not a 4K-class card for this title without compromises.

VRAM usage is not explicitly measured in the FPS data, but the 16 GB capacity is clearly adequate for all presets, as even the Ultra settings at 4K do not cause a catastrophic frame rate collapse—30 FPS is low but not a slideshow. The memory clock of 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective) is fast, yet the bandwidth appears to be a secondary bottleneck after the GPU’s compute units. The fact that Low settings at 4K achieve 83 FPS, while High at 4K drops to 37 FPS, points to the shading units (8960) and texture mapping units (280) being the primary constraint, as these are what scale with preset complexity.

How This Combo Ranks

With a rank of 1045 out of 2911 tested combinations, this CPU-GPU pairing sits in the 64th percentile of all systems tested for The Medium. This is a solid mid-to-upper tier position, but it is not a top-tier configuration. The rank of 1045 means that roughly 1,866 other combos perform better, which is surprising given the CPU’s 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 76212 places it just 0.1% behind the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (76155) and 0.6% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D (75779), indicating that the processor is not the limiting factor in this game.

The GPU’s 86th percentile ranking (average benchmark score 49957) is lower than the CPU’s 95th percentile, suggesting a mismatch in this combo’s overall capability. The combo rank of 1045 is heavily influenced by the GPU’s performance, as the CPU’s rivals (the Core Ultra 9 285HX and Ryzen 9 9950X3D) would pair with faster GPUs in higher-ranked systems. The delta between the CPU and GPU percentiles—9 percentage points—explains why this combo underperforms expectations: the 8945HX is a top-tier mobile processor, but the RTX 5070 Ti, while strong, is not a flagship desktop GPU. This pairing is therefore balanced for 1440p gaming but falls short of 4K dominance, which the rank reflects.

The measured FPS data reinforces this ranking. At 1080p Medium, the combo achieves 79 FPS, which is respectable but not outstanding for a system with a 16-core CPU and a 50-series GPU. The 4K Ultra result of 30 FPS is particularly weak for a combo ranked in the top 36% of tested systems. This suggests that The Medium is a demanding title that punishes mid-range GPUs at high resolutions, and the combo’s rank is more a reflection of the GPU’s limits than the CPU’s capabilities.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX is a 16-core, 32-thread processor with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, based on the Zen 4 architecture (Dragon Range). Its performance in The Medium is clearly secondary to the GPU, as the FPS scaling across resolutions is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU’s multi-core performance is exceptional, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713 and a Passmark multi-thread score of 51405. However, the game’s single-threaded nature is better reflected in the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 6030 and Passmark single-thread score of 3907, both of which are strong but not decisive for this title.

The CPU’s 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with a 0.1% delta to the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, indicates that it is not a bottleneck in this combo. The L3 cache of 64 MB and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth provide ample data throughput for the game’s streaming needs. However, the fact that the FPS does not improve dramatically at lower resolutions—where the CPU would typically become more relevant—suggests that The Medium is not CPU-intensive. At 1080p Low (126 FPS) versus 4K Low (83 FPS), the drop is 34%, which is purely GPU-driven. Even at 1080p, the CPU does not push the FPS beyond 126, indicating that the GPU’s pixel fill rate is the ceiling.

The CPU’s 16 cores and 32 threads are overkill for this game, as the benchmark data shows no sign of CPU limitation. The Passmark physics score of 2168 and data encryption score of 40836 are high, but these do not translate to gaming performance in The Medium. The CPU’s power draw of 55 W TDP is modest for a 16-core part, but the GPU’s 300 W TDP dominates the system’s power budget, further confirming that the RTX 5070 Ti is the performance arbiter. For this title, the 8945HX provides a stable foundation, but upgrading the GPU would yield far greater FPS gains than any CPU change.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium with this combo?*

A: The data shows that 2560x1440 with Medium settings delivers 66 FPS, which is the highest resolution and preset combination that consistently exceeds the 60 FPS threshold. At 4K, only Low settings (83 FPS) achieve 60+ FPS, while Medium (52 FPS) falls below.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in this game?

A: The GPU’s average benchmark score of 49957 is 2% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (50951) and 3.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (48477). It is nearly identical to the Intel Arc A550M, which scores 49737 (0.4% higher).

*Q: Is the Ryzen 9 8945HX a bottleneck for the RTX 5070 Ti in The Medium?*

A: No. The CPU’s 95th percentile ranking and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713 indicate it is not limiting. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are consistent with GPU-bound performance, and the CPU’s nearest rival (Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX) performs within 0.1%, showing no CPU constraint.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 67 and maximum is 90, a variance of 23 FPS. At 1440p, the range is 56-76 FPS (20 FPS variance), and at 4K it is 44-60 FPS (16 FPS variance). The variance shrinks as resolution increases, but the average FPS also drops.

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems for The Medium?*

A: It ranks 1045 out of 2911 tested combinations. This places it in the upper 36% of all systems, but the GPU’s 86th percentile ranking (versus the CPU’s 95th) means the combo is limited by the graphics card.

Q: Can this system handle Ultra settings at any resolution?

A: The data shows Ultra is not recommended. At 1080p, it achieves 45 FPS; at 1440p, 38 FPS; and at 4K, only 30 FPS. All results are below the 60 FPS target, and the 4K Ultra result is the lowest measured FPS in the entire dataset.