The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and AMD Radeon RX 570 combination delivers playable frame rates only at the lowest settings in The Medium, with results that place it in the bottom 5% of all tested hardware pairings. The data shows a system that is fundamentally GPU-bound at every resolution, where the RX 570’s 4 GB VRAM and Polaris architecture struggle against a horror title that demands more graphical headroom than this 2017-era card can provide. At 1080p Low, the combo manages 44 FPS, but any increase in visual fidelity or resolution causes a precipitous drop that pushes the experience into single-digit or low-teen territory, making this pairing suitable only for players willing to accept significant visual compromises.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide substantial single-thread performance, which is reflected in its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4648 and its Passmark single-thread score of 4394. In multi-threaded workloads, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924 and a Passmark multithread score of 38706, placing it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. This processor is not the bottleneck in The Medium; its nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (delta -0.4%), AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (delta -0.5%), and Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (delta +0.6%), all of which are within 1% of the Core Ultra 5 245’s performance.

The CPU’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help with data throughput, but the game’s frame rates do not scale with these resources. At 1080p Low, the system produces 44 FPS; when the resolution is raised to 1440p Low, the frame rate drops to 37 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls to 29 FPS. This consistent degradation across resolutions indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor—if it were, the frame rates would remain relatively flat as resolution increases. The Core Ultra 5 245’s Passmark physics score of 2569 and integer math score of 91187 suggest ample computational headroom for the game’s logic and AI, but the measured FPS data shows that the graphics card is the component that dictates performance. The processor’s DDR5 memory support with dual-channel configuration and 102.4 GB/s bandwidth provides a solid foundation, yet it cannot compensate for the GPU’s limitations in this title.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a Polaris 20 chip built on a 14 nm process from GlobalFoundries, featuring 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Its base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz drive a GPU that delivers 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, with a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s. The card comes with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is the primary constraint in The Medium, as the game’s high-resolution textures and effects exceed the 4 GB VRAM capacity at higher settings, causing frame rates to collapse.

The GPU’s benchmarks show it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28766. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (delta -0.4%), AMD Radeon R9 M295X (delta +0.7%), and AMD Radeon RX 470 (delta -0.8%), indicating that the RX 570 is positioned near the mid-range of the performance spectrum. However, in The Medium specifically, the card’s age and VRAM limitation become starkly apparent. At 1080p High, the average FPS is 20; at 1080p Medium, it is 28; and at 1080p Low, it reaches 44. The jump from Low to Medium settings causes a 36% drop, and from Medium to High, another 29% drop. This sensitivity to settings is a hallmark of a GPU that is running out of memory bandwidth or capacity, rather than raw compute power.

The GPU’s DirectX 12 (12_0) support and Vulkan 1.3 compatibility are adequate for the game, but the Polaris architecture’s lack of dedicated ray tracing cores and older GCN 4.0 design means it processes the game’s fixed-function lighting and shadows with less efficiency than modern cards. The 150 W TDP and dual-slot design are modest, but the performance envelope is simply not sufficient for a game released four years after the GPU’s 2017 launch. At 4K Ultra, the card produces a mere 10 FPS, which is unplayable by any standard, and even at 1080p Ultra, it only manages 16 FPS. The data clearly shows that the RX 570 is the limiting component in this pairing, with the CPU’s capabilities largely untapped.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which strongly indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck. At Low settings, the frame rates scale from 44 FPS at 1080p to 37 FPS at 1440p (a 16% drop) and then to 29 FPS at 4K (a 22% drop from 1440p). This scaling is relatively gentle compared to higher settings, suggesting that at Low, the game is less VRAM-intensive and the GPU’s compute units are partially able to keep up. However, at Medium settings, the drop is more severe: 28 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p (an 18% drop), and 18 FPS at 4K (a 22% drop from 1440p). The minimum FPS at Medium settings also shows this trend, with 23 FPS at 1080p, 20 FPS at 1440p, and 15 FPS at 4K.

High settings tell a more dramatic story. The frame rates fall from 20 FPS at 1080p to 17 FPS at 1440p (a 15% drop) and then to 13 FPS at 4K (a 24% drop from 1440p). This steeper decline at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s is being saturated, and the 4 GB VRAM is likely spilling over into system memory, causing additional latency. At Ultra settings, the results are even more dire: 16 FPS at 1080p, 13 FPS at 1440p (a 19% drop), and 10 FPS at 4K (a 23% drop from 1440p). The absolute values are so low that the percentage drops are less meaningful, but the trend is clear—the GPU cannot handle the workload at any resolution above 1080p Low.

If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see frame rates that remain roughly constant across resolutions, because the CPU’s workload (game logic, draw calls) does not increase with resolution. Instead, the data shows a steady decline with every resolution increase, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario. The Core Ultra 5 245’s boost clock of 5.10 GHz and strong single-thread scores provide no benefit here because the GPU is the one struggling to fill frames. This is further corroborated by the fact that the game’s minimum FPS at Medium settings (23 FPS at 1080p, 20 FPS at 1440p, 15 FPS at 4K) tracks closely with the average FPS, indicating that the GPU is consistently maxed out rather than experiencing intermittent CPU stalls.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 2793 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 4% of all hardware pairings. This ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU’s performance ceiling, as the CPU is a modern, high-end part that would rank much higher if paired with a more capable graphics card. The data shows that this combo is outperformed by 2792 other combinations, which means that a vast majority of systems—even those with older or less powerful CPUs—are able to achieve better frame rates in this game, provided they have a stronger GPU.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the AMD Radeon RX 470 (delta -0.8%), which is essentially a sibling card with similar performance, and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (delta +1.2%), which is a professional-grade card with much higher performance in other workloads. The fact that the RX 570 is only 0.8% behind the RX 470 and 1.2% ahead of the RTX 8000 in average benchmarks does not translate to playable performance in The Medium. The combo’s rank of 2793 suggests that the game’s specific demands—likely related to VRAM capacity and memory bandwidth—are particularly punishing for this GPU generation.

The CPU’s percentile ranking of 90th among all CPUs contrasts sharply with the combo’s 4th percentile ranking, highlighting the massive imbalance in this pairing. The Core Ultra 5 245 is a top-tier processor, but it is being held back by a GPU that was released in 2017 and is now end-of-life. This mismatch means that the system’s overall performance in The Medium is dictated entirely by the GPU, and any upgrade to a more modern graphics card would yield substantial improvements. The data suggests that this combination is best suited for older games or less demanding titles, as The Medium’s horror setting and visual effects push the RX 570 beyond its limits.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1080p Low is the only configuration that produces a consistently playable frame rate, with an average of 44 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 28 FPS, which is borderline, and any higher settings or resolutions result in averages below 20 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU’s performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 has an average benchmark score of 48995, which is 0.4% below the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G and 0.5% below the AMD Ryzen 9 7900. It is 0.6% above the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H and 0.8% above the Intel Core i5-14600K. These differences are minimal and do not affect gaming performance in this title.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The frame rates drop consistently as resolution increases, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance. The CPU’s strong single-thread and multi-thread scores, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32924, are not utilized because the RX 570 cannot keep up with the game’s demands.

Q: Why does the frame rate drop so much from Low to Medium settings?

A: At 1080p, the average FPS drops from 44 at Low to 28 at Medium, a 36% reduction. This is likely due to the increased VRAM usage at Medium settings, which pushes the RX 570’s 4 GB GDDR5 memory to its limit, causing the GPU to access slower system memory and reducing overall throughput.

Q: What is the combo’s ranking among all tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 2793 out of 2911 tested combinations in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 4% of all systems. This low ranking is primarily attributed to the GPU’s performance, as the CPU is in the 90th percentile of all processors.

Q: Does the GPU’s memory bandwidth affect the frame rates?

A: Yes, the RX 570 has a memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s, which is insufficient for the game’s high-resolution textures. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 10, and at 1440p Ultra, it is 13, indicating that the memory subsystem is a critical limiting factor.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured FPS data for this combo in The Medium is as follows, presented by resolution and settings:

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the system achieves an average of 44 FPS on Low settings. On Medium settings, the average drops to 28 FPS, with a minimum of 23 FPS and a maximum of 32 FPS. High settings yield an average of 20 FPS, and Ultra settings produce an average of 16 FPS. This resolution is the only one that offers playable frame rates, and only at Low settings.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the performance declines further. Low settings produce an average of 37 FPS, which is still below the 1080p Low result by 16%. Medium settings average 23 FPS, with a minimum of 20 FPS and a maximum of 27 FPS. High settings average 17 FPS, and Ultra settings average 13 FPS. These numbers indicate that 1440p is only viable at Low settings, and even then, the frame rate is borderline for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings average 29 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS threshold typically considered playable. Medium settings average 18 FPS, with a minimum of 15 FPS and a maximum of 21 FPS. High settings average 13 FPS, and Ultra settings average 10 FPS. The data shows that 4K is not a viable resolution for this combo, as even the lowest settings produce frame rates that are too low for a smooth experience.

The progression from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent pattern of degradation, with the percentage drop from Low to Ultra settings varying by resolution. At 1080p, the drop from Low to Ultra is 64% (from 44 to 16 FPS). At 1440p, the drop is 65% (from 37 to 13 FPS). At 4K, the drop is 66% (from 29 to 10 FPS). This consistency suggests that the GPU’s compute and memory resources are the limiting factors across all settings, with no resolution providing a sweet spot where the CPU can take over. The minimum FPS values at Medium settings—23 FPS at 1080p, 20 FPS at 1440p, and 15 FPS at 4K—further confirm that the system is consistently GPU-bound, as the frame times are likely to be stuttery at these low rates.