The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine 4, presents a unique challenge for the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT combination. The measured data reveals a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics card at higher resolutions, yet shows surprising headroom at 1080p. The benchmark results indicate a pairing that can handle the game’s eerie, dual-reality rendering, but only with careful attention to settings and resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and tells a clear story about which component is the bottleneck. At 1080p with Medium settings, the combo achieves an average of 57 FPS. Moving to 1440p at the same Medium preset drops the average to 48 FPS, a decrease of roughly 16%. The climb to 4K at Medium settings is far more punishing, with the average falling to 38 FPS. This represents a 33% reduction from the 1440p result and a 33% reduction from the 1080p result, showing that the cost of each resolution step increases significantly.

This scaling pattern strongly suggests that the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the limiting factor. If the CPU were the primary constraint, the frame rate would remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the same amount of draw calls and game logic is processed. Instead, the consistent and steep decline in FPS indicates that the GPU’s rendering throughput is being saturated. The RX 6600 XT’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely struggling to feed the pixel pipeline at 4K, especially with the game’s complex lighting and reflections.

The data for Low settings reinforces this GPU-bound conclusion. At 1080p Low, the system posts 91 FPS, which is excellent. At 1440p Low, it drops to 77 FPS, a 15% reduction. At 4K Low, it hits 60 FPS, another 22% reduction. Even at the lowest visual fidelity, the 4K resolution still cuts performance nearly in half compared to 1080p. This indicates that the sheer pixel count at 4K, rather than the complexity of the shaders, is the primary obstacle for this GPU.

The gap between Low and Medium settings also widens with resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low (91 FPS) and Medium (57 FPS) is 34 FPS. At 1440p, that gap narrows to 29 FPS (77 vs 48). At 4K, the gap shrinks further to 22 FPS (60 vs 38). This compression suggests that as the GPU becomes more overwhelmed by pixel fill rate, the additional cost of higher-quality textures and effects from the Medium preset has a proportionally smaller impact on the final frame rate, as the GPU is already saturated.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is the clear workhorse in this pairing, and its specifications align with the observed performance. With a boost clock of 2589 MHz and a game clock of 2359 MHz, the card has a solid frequency headroom. However, its 8 GB VRAM capacity is a potential concern for a game like The Medium, which is known for rendering two simultaneous worlds. The benchmark results at 4K Ultra, which average only 21 FPS, suggest that the card is running out of both memory bandwidth and raw compute power.

The GPU’s 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs are tasked with rendering the game’s fixed-camera scenes. The texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s is substantial, but the 128-bit memory bus and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth appear to be a limiting factor at higher resolutions. This is a common bottleneck for mid-range cards, and the data shows it clearly. The card’s 70th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it as a competent 1080p performer, which matches the measurements where it excels at that resolution.

The GPU’s compute capabilities, as reflected in its Passmark G3D score of 16461, are adequate for the game’s demands at lower resolutions. However, the 4K results indicate that the card is beyond its comfortable operating envelope. The 21 FPS at 4K Ultra is not a playable experience, and even the 27 FPS at 4K High shows the card is struggling. The only 4K setting that produces a playable frame rate is Low at 60 FPS, which is telling. It suggests that the game’s high-fidelity assets are simply too demanding for the RX 6600 XT’s memory subsystem at that resolution.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the data points to a clear sweet spot at 1080p with Medium settings, which yields an average of 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 66 FPS. This provides a smooth, playable experience while maintaining a reasonable level of visual fidelity. The jump from Low to Medium at this resolution costs 34 FPS (from 91 to 57), but the visual upgrade in a horror game with strong atmospheric lighting is likely worth the trade-off.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 48 FPS is the most balanced option, though it dips slightly below the 60 FPS threshold. The High preset at 34 FPS is more demanding and may introduce noticeable stutter, so Medium is the recommended setting for a balance of quality and performance. The Low preset at 77 FPS is smooth but sacrifices the game’s visual mood.

At 4K, the choices are stark. The Low preset at 60 FPS is the only playable option, but it requires a significant downgrade in visual quality. The Medium preset at 38 FPS is borderline, and the High and Ultra presets at 27 and 21 FPS respectively are not recommended for a consistent experience. The data suggests that 4K is not a realistic target for this GPU on this game, and users should stick to 1080p or 1440p for a better experience.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested hardware combinations, this pairing sits near the bottom. The combo ranks 2074 out of 2911 tested combinations for this game, placing it in the 29th percentile. This is a low ranking, indicating that the majority of other CPU/GPU pairings deliver better performance in The Medium. The rank is likely dragged down by the RX 6600 XT’s limitations at higher resolutions, which the benchmark data confirms.

For context, the CPU’s average benchmark score of 48995 places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (0.5% faster) and the Intel Core i5-14600K (0.8% faster). The GPU, however, is only in the 70th percentile, with its nearest rival being the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (1.1% faster). This disparity highlights that the GPU is the weaker link in this combo, and it is likely responsible for the low ranking. The data implies that pairing this CPU with a more powerful GPU would yield a significantly higher rank.

The combination’s overall rank is a sobering metric. While the CPU is a high-end performer, the GPU’s mid-range status holds the entire system back. The benchmark results show that this combo is suitable for 1080p gaming but falls behind in higher-resolution scenarios, which is consistent with its 2074th place finish.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 plays a supporting role in this game, and its capabilities are more than sufficient for the GPU to reach its limits. With 14 cores and 14 threads, the CPU provides ample parallel processing power. Its boost clock of 5.10 GHz ensures high single-threaded performance, which is critical for game logic and physics. The CPU’s Passmark single-thread score of 4394 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4648 indicate strong per-core performance that avoids bottlenecking the GPU.

The data supports this, as the FPS scaling with resolution is purely GPU-driven. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would see similar frame rates across 1080p and 4K, which is not the case. The 91 FPS at 1080p Low shows that the CPU can push frames well beyond the GPU’s capabilities, and the drop to 60 FPS at 4K Low is entirely due to the GPU’s pixel throughput limits.

The CPU’s 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache help reduce memory latency, which is beneficial for maintaining consistent frame times. The 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth, while lower than some high-end platforms, is sufficient for this workload. In essence, the Core Ultra 5 245 is not a hurdle for this game; it provides a stable platform for the RX 6600 XT to operate, but it cannot compensate for the GPU’s deficiencies at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete set of measured frames per second provides a detailed picture of the combo’s performance across all settings and resolutions.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 91 FPS average
• Medium: 57 FPS average (49 min, 66 max)
• High: 41 FPS average
• Ultra: 32 FPS average

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 77 FPS average
• Medium: 48 FPS average (41 min, 55 max)
• High: 34 FPS average
• Ultra: 27 FPS average

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 60 FPS average
• Medium: 38 FPS average (32 min, 43 max)
• High: 27 FPS average
• Ultra: 21 FPS average

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the optimal resolution, where the Medium preset achieves an average of 57 FPS. At 1440p, performance drops to 48 FPS on Medium, and at 4K, only the Low preset (60 FPS) is playable.

Q: Is the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT a bottleneck for this game?

A: Yes, the benchmark results strongly indicate the GPU is the limiting factor. The FPS drops significantly as resolution increases, from 91 FPS at 1080p Low to 60 FPS at 4K Low, showing the GPU is saturated by pixel workload.

Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: No, not with the measured settings. The highest average at 1440p is 77 FPS on Low, but the Medium preset only hits 48 FPS. The High and Ultra presets are below 35 FPS, so 60 FPS is not achievable at higher quality settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 has an average benchmark score of 48995, which is 0.5% slower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 and 0.8% faster than the Intel Core i5-14600K. It is also 0.4% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G.

Q: Is the 8 GB VRAM on the RX 6600 XT sufficient for The Medium?

A: The data suggests it is not sufficient for high resolutions. The 4K Ultra setting averages only 21 FPS, likely due to the GPU struggling with memory bandwidth and capacity for the game’s dual-world rendering.

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this combo?

A: This combination ranks 2074 out of 2911 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the lower 29% of all tested pairings. This low rank is primarily due to the GPU’s performance limitations.