The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding workload for the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, with benchmark results showing a configuration that is firmly GPU-limited at higher resolutions but becomes more balanced at 1080p. The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1440p gaming, where it maintains playable frame rates across most settings, while 4K remains a challenge reserved for the lowest presets.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep, revealing a system where the graphics card is the primary bottleneck. At Medium settings, the average frame rate falls from 69 FPS at 1920x1080 to 58 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 11 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average plummets to 45 FPS, representing a 24 FPS loss from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU that is being pushed to its limits, as the pixel count increases by 2.25x from 1080p to 1440p and another 2.25x from 1440p to 4K, yet the frame rate does not drop proportionally. The RX 6700 XT’s 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the data demands, but the raw compute throughput of 13.21 TFLOPS is the limiting factor.

The scaling behavior is even more pronounced at Ultra settings. The average frame rate at 1080p Ultra is 39 FPS, which drops to 33 FPS at 1440p and further to 26 FPS at 4K. This represents a 33% performance loss from 1080p to 4K, a relatively shallow curve that suggests the game’s Ultra preset introduces effects that are heavily dependent on GPU compute rather than memory bandwidth. In contrast, the Low preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 110 FPS at 1080p, 92 FPS at 1440p, and 73 FPS at 4K. The 37 FPS difference between 1080p Low and 4K Low highlights how the GPU’s shading units and ROPs become the dominant constraint as resolution rises, with the 64 ROPs and 165.2 GPixel/s pixel rate struggling to fill the larger frame buffer.

The High preset tells a similar story, with 49 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K. The consistent pattern across all presets confirms that resolution scaling is the single most important factor for this combo in The Medium. The CPU, with its 10 cores and 10 threads, is not the limiting component at any resolution, as evidenced by the fact that even at 4K Ultra, the frame rate remains above 25 FPS, indicating the GPU is still the primary bottleneck. The data suggests that for a smoother 4K experience, users would need to rely on upscaling technologies, though no such features are measured in this dataset.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is the workhorse of this configuration, and its specifications directly explain the measured results. With a boost clock of 2581 MHz and a game clock of 2424 MHz, the GPU operates at high frequencies, but the RDNA 2.0 architecture’s 2560 shading units must process the game’s fixed camera angles and heavy post-processing effects. The 40 ray tracing cores are present but are unlikely to be heavily utilized in The Medium, which relies more on traditional rasterization and pre-baked lighting for its horror atmosphere.

The 12 GB VRAM capacity is a notable asset for this game, as The Medium is known for its dual-reality rendering technique that can require substantial memory for textures and scene data. The 192-bit memory bus and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth provide adequate throughput for 1080p and 1440p, but the 4K results suggest that memory bandwidth becomes a secondary constraint. At 4K Medium, the average FPS of 45 with a minimum of 39 and maximum of 52 shows some frame pacing variance, though not severe enough to indicate a hard VRAM capacity limit. The GPU’s 13.21 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the more likely bottleneck at 4K, as the shader workload increases significantly with resolution.

The GPU’s percentile ranking of 72nd among all GPUs places it in the upper-midrange tier, and its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 with a deltaPct of -0.5, meaning the RX 6700 XT performs essentially on par with that much larger card in synthetic benchmarks. This reflects the efficiency of the RDNA 2.0 architecture, but in The Medium specifically, the results show that the card is not a 4K powerhouse. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra (26 FPS) is below the generally accepted playability threshold, while 4K Low (73 FPS) is perfectly smooth, indicating that the GPU can handle the resolution but only when graphical features are reduced.

The GPU’s 72nd percentile ranking is respectable, but the combo’s overall rank of 1486 out of 2911 tested combinations suggests that the pairing with the Core Ultra 5 225 is not exceptional for this particular game. The GPU’s performance in The Medium is consistent with its synthetic benchmarks, which show a Passmark G3D score of 19786 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 2435. These numbers indicate a capable mid-range card, and the game’s results confirm that it delivers playable performance at 1440p but struggles at 4K with higher presets.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on the optimal settings for this combo. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers 69 FPS average with a minimum of 58 and maximum of 79, offering a smooth experience with a reasonable balance between visual quality and performance. The High preset at 1080p drops to 49 FPS, which is still playable but noticeably less fluid, while Ultra at 39 FPS may be acceptable for a slower-paced horror game but is borderline. The Low preset at 110 FPS is excessively high for a game like The Medium, where the atmosphere is more important than raw frame rate, so the visual sacrifices are not worth the performance gain.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset stands out as the sweet spot. The 58 FPS average with a minimum of 49 and maximum of 66 provides a stable experience that takes advantage of the higher resolution without compromising playability. The High preset at 41 FPS is on the edge of acceptability, while Ultra at 33 FPS and Low at 92 FPS represent the extremes. For most players, Medium at 1440p is the recommended configuration, as it offers the best balance of visual fidelity and smoothness. The game’s horror genre benefits from higher resolutions to appreciate the detailed environments, and 1440p Medium delivers that without sacrificing frame rate stability.

At 3840x2160, the options are more limited. The Low preset at 73 FPS is the only setting that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, while Medium at 45 FPS is playable but with noticeable dips to 39 FPS. High at 32 FPS and Ultra at 26 FPS are below the threshold for a satisfying experience, even for a slower-paced game. The recommendation for 4K is to use the Low preset if resolution is the priority, or to drop to 1440p Medium for a better overall experience. The data suggests that this combo is not well-suited for 4K gaming with The Medium, and users should target 1440p as their primary resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT ranks 1486th out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the 49th percentile of all tested configurations. This is a middling result, indicating that while the combo is capable, it is not particularly well-optimized for this specific game. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 85th among all CPUs is significantly higher than the GPU’s 72nd percentile, which suggests that the processor is capable of feeding the graphics card adequately but the GPU’s performance is the limiting factor in this pairing.

The CPU’s nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F with a deltaPct of 0, meaning they have essentially identical average benchmark scores. The Intel Core i9-12900T is only 0.5% behind, while the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is 0.2% behind and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 is 0.4% behind. These close margins indicate that the Core Ultra 5 225 is a solid mid-range processor, but it does not offer a significant advantage over its competitors in general compute tasks. In The Medium, the CPU’s 10 cores and 10 threads at a boost clock of 4.90 GHz are sufficient for the game’s demands, but the combo’s rank suggests that the GPU is the bottleneck.

The GPU’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile with a deltaPct of 0, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 with a deltaPct of -0.5. The fact that the RX 6700 XT performs on par with the RTX 3090 in synthetic benchmarks is impressive, but the RTX 3090 has more VRAM and bandwidth, which could give it an edge in games like The Medium that are memory-intensive. The combo’s 1486th rank out of 2911 suggests that there are many other pairings that perform better, likely due to the GPU being a mid-range part that is paired with a CPU that, while capable, does not compensate for the GPU’s limitations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 plays a supporting role in this configuration, and the benchmark data shows that it is more than adequate for The Medium. With 10 cores and 10 threads, the CPU provides enough parallelism for the game’s logic and physics, while the 3.30 GHz base clock and 4.90 GHz boost clock ensure strong single-threaded performance when needed. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 scores of 25891 multi-core and 3655 single-core indicate a well-balanced processor, and its Passmark single-thread score of 4412 places it in the upper echelon for gaming workloads.

The CPU’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data storage for game assets, reducing the need to access system memory. The 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth on the dual-channel DDR5 interface is sufficient for feeding the GPU, and the PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 lanes ensures that the RX 6700 XT can communicate with the CPU at full bandwidth. In The Medium, the CPU’s role is to maintain a steady frame delivery, and the fact that the frame rates scale consistently with resolution indicates that the CPU is not causing any bottlenecks.

The CPU’s 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs further confirms its capability, and its nearest rivals all have deltaPct values within 0.5% of its average benchmark score. This means that swapping the Core Ultra 5 225 for a Ryzen 5 5600F or a Core i9-12900T would likely result in nearly identical performance in The Medium, as the game is not CPU-intensive. The 10-core, 10-thread configuration is more than sufficient for a game that primarily relies on GPU rendering, and the CPU’s 65W TDP suggests that it is an efficient part that does not generate excessive heat. The data indicates that users looking to improve performance in The Medium should focus on upgrading the GPU rather than the CPU, as the Core Ultra 5 225 is not the limiting factor in this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The detailed FPS measurements provide a comprehensive view of this combo’s performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 110 FPS, which is the highest frame rate measured for this configuration. The Medium preset drops to 69 FPS with a minimum of 58 and a maximum of 79, providing a solid 60+ FPS experience. The High preset at 49 FPS is still playable, while Ultra at 39 FPS is the lowest result at this resolution. The 71 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p illustrates the significant impact of graphical settings on performance.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 92 FPS, which is still very smooth. Medium drops to 58 FPS with a minimum of 49 and maximum of 66, which is the recommended setting for this resolution. High at 41 FPS is marginal, and Ultra at 33 FPS is below the ideal threshold for smooth gameplay. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a consistent reduction of approximately 16-18% across all presets, which is reasonable given the 78% increase in pixel count. The Medium preset’s minimum of 49 FPS is the lowest measured at 1440p, but it still provides acceptable performance for a horror game.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 73 FPS, which is surprisingly high for a 4K resolution. Medium drops to 45 FPS with a minimum of 39 and maximum of 52, which is playable but with some noticeable frame dips. High at 32 FPS and Ultra at 26 FPS are both below the 30 FPS threshold that is often considered the minimum for playable console-quality experiences. The 47 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is the largest absolute spread across all resolutions, emphasizing the GPU’s struggle with the higher pixel count. The data shows that this combo is best used at 1440p Medium, where it delivers 58 FPS average with a minimum of 49, providing a stable and enjoyable experience in The Medium.