The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title, presents a unique load profile that shifts dramatically between resolution and quality presets. On the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combination, the data reveals a system capable of high refresh-rate play at 1080p, but one that quickly becomes bound by the GPU’s capabilities as resolution scales. The measured results show a clear hierarchy where the CPU’s strong single-threaded performance handles the game’s logic, while the RTX 4070 Ti’s 12 GB frame buffer and memory bandwidth dictate the ceiling at higher resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data shows a steep and consistent decline as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound workload. At Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 110 FPS at 1080p to 92 FPS at 1440p, a 16% reduction, and then falls further to 73 FPS at 4K, a 21% drop from the 1440p figure. This scaling is linear and pronounced, indicating that the rendering pipeline is saturated by pixel throughput rather than CPU instruction execution.

The Low preset exhibits the most extreme scaling behavior. At 1080p Low, the system produces 175 FPS, which falls to 148 FPS at 1440p and then plummets to 116 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result (116 FPS) is still higher than the 1080p Ultra result (62 FPS), which underscores that the quality preset has a more substantial impact on the rendering load than the resolution itself. This is typical for a game with heavy post-processing and volumetric effects, where lowering settings reduces the per-pixel cost more effectively than lowering the pixel count.

The High and Ultra presets tell a similar story but with lower absolute values. High settings yield 79 FPS at 1080p, 66 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1440p and 4K on High is 14 FPS, which is proportional to the gap seen on Medium. Ultra settings, however, show a severe bottleneck at 4K, with an average of 41 FPS. This is the only configuration that dips below the 60 FPS threshold, and the 11 FPS difference between 1440p Ultra (52 FPS) and 4K Ultra (41 FPS) suggests that the GPU is running out of memory bandwidth or fill rate, rather than just raw shader throughput.

Interpreting the limiting component is straightforward: the CPU is not the primary constraint at any resolution. The 1080p Low result of 175 FPS demonstrates that the Core Ultra 5 245 can feed the GPU far more frames than the RTX 4070 Ti can render at higher settings. The scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all presets, which means the GPU’s compute and memory subsystems are the determining factors. The only scenario where the CPU might start to matter is at 1080p Low, where the 175 FPS figure approaches the upper limits of what many games can produce, but even here the data does not indicate a CPU stall.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 is the sweet spot. At Medium settings, the system achieves 110 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS target. Even at 4K Medium, the average sits at 73 FPS, so 1440p Medium (92 FPS) offers a strong balance between visual fidelity and smoothness.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 110 FPS at 1080p to 73 FPS at 4K, a 34% reduction. On Low settings, the drop is from 175 FPS to 116 FPS, a 34% reduction as well. The scaling is consistent across presets, indicating a uniform GPU load increase.

Q: Can this system handle 4K Ultra settings?

A: The data shows 41 FPS average at 3840x2160 Ultra, which is below the 60 FPS standard for smooth play. This configuration is not recommended for a comfortable experience, as the frame rate will likely feel stuttery during fast camera transitions.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Ti compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti has an average benchmark score of 44795, which is 1.6% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (44075) and 0.8% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile (45152). This places it in a competitive mid-range position.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 a strong CPU for gaming?

A: Yes. Its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4648 and multi-core score of 32924 place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. It is 0.8% faster than the Intel Core i5-14600K in average score, which indicates it has sufficient headroom for most gaming workloads.

Q: What does the 12 GB VRAM mean for this game?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti’s 12 GB GDDR6X memory is sufficient for The Medium’s presets. The 4K Ultra result of 41 FPS is likely limited by compute and bandwidth (504.2 GB/s) rather than capacity, as the game’s fixed-camera scenes do not typically require massive texture pools.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the measured frame rates. The GPU features 7680 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units, which are substantial counts for a 40-series card. The measured performance in The Medium aligns with the GPU’s synthetic benchmark standing: it holds an average score of 44795, which places it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, and it is 1.6% ahead of the RTX A6000 in the nearest rivals list.

The memory subsystem is a critical factor for The Medium. The 12 GB GDDR6X frame buffer is paired with a 192-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. This bandwidth is what allows the GPU to maintain playable frame rates at 4K Medium (73 FPS), but it appears to be a limiting factor at 4K Ultra (41 FPS). The Ultra preset likely increases texture resolution and shadow detail, which amplifies memory traffic and causes the steep 22% drop from 1440p Ultra (52 FPS) to 4K Ultra (41 FPS). The 21 Gbps effective memory clock is high, but the narrow bus width restricts total throughput.

The GPU’s clock speeds also play a role. The base clock of 2310 MHz and boost clock of 2610 MHz are typical for the Ada Lovelace architecture, and the 40.09 TFLOPS FP32 throughput provides ample compute for the game’s shader work. The pixel rate of 208.8 GPixel/s and texture rate of 626.4 GTexel/s are high enough to handle the fixed-camera scenes, which often render large, complex backdrops. The data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck at all resolutions above 1080p Low, as the frame rate scales inversely with pixel count.

The GPU’s ray tracing cores (60) and tensor cores (240) are present in the hardware, but The Medium does not heavily utilize these features, as the game relies on pre-baked lighting and static cameras. The DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) is available, but the benchmark results do not indicate that the game pushes the GPU’s RT or DLSS capabilities. Instead, the performance is dictated by raw rasterization and memory bandwidth, which is why the 4K Ultra preset falls below 60 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows provide a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience. The Low preset is the only one that consistently delivers high frame rates across all resolutions, but it likely sacrifices visual quality that the game’s horror atmosphere relies on. At 1080p Low, the system produces 175 FPS, which is far more than necessary for a title like this, so players should consider higher settings.

The Medium preset offers the best balance between performance and visual fidelity. At 1080p, it achieves 110 FPS, which is smooth and leaves headroom for frame time spikes. At 1440p, the average of 92 FPS is still excellent, and even at 4K, the 73 FPS average is playable. The Medium preset also provides the only min/max data in the pack: at 1080p, the minimum is 93 FPS and maximum is 126 FPS; at 1440p, the range is 79 to 106 FPS; and at 4K, the range is 62 to 83 FPS. These ranges are tight, indicating consistent frame pacing.

High settings are a viable alternative for users with 1440p monitors, as the 66 FPS average is above the 60 FPS threshold. However, at 4K High, the 52 FPS average dips below that threshold, making Medium the recommended choice for 4K displays. Ultra settings are only advisable for 1080p users who prioritize image quality over frame rate, as the 62 FPS average at 1080p Ultra is borderline, and the 41 FPS at 4K Ultra is not recommended.

For the best experience per the measured rows, the recommendation is to use Medium settings at 1440p. This configuration delivers 92 FPS average with a minimum of 79 FPS, which ensures that the game remains smooth during dramatic camera shifts. If the display is 1080p, Medium settings at 110 FPS provide an excellent experience with room to enable additional features. For 4K, Medium settings at 73 FPS are the highest playable option, as High and Ultra fall below 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces the highest average at 175 FPS, followed by Medium at 110 FPS, High at 79 FPS, and Ultra at 62 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 65 FPS, which is significant and suggests that the Medium preset introduces substantial rendering effects. The gap between High and Ultra is 17 FPS, which is smaller but still noticeable.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 148 FPS for Low, 92 FPS for Medium, 66 FPS for High, and 52 FPS for Ultra. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is uniform: Low drops by 27 FPS (15%), Medium drops by 18 FPS (16%), High drops by 13 FPS (16%), and Ultra drops by 10 FPS (16%). This uniformity confirms that the GPU load scales linearly with pixel count, and the CPU is not introducing a bottleneck.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 116 FPS for Low, 73 FPS for Medium, 52 FPS for High, and 41 FPS for Ultra. The drop from 1440p to 4K is more severe for Medium (19 FPS, or 21%) and Ultra (11 FPS, or 21%), while Low drops by 32 FPS (22%) and High drops by 14 FPS (21%). The 4K Low result of 116 FPS is still higher than the 1080p High result of 79 FPS, which demonstrates that the Low preset is computationally inexpensive. The 4K Ultra result of 41 FPS is the only configuration that falls below 45 FPS, indicating a hard limit for this GPU.

The Medium preset, which has complete min/max data, shows the most stability. At 1080p, the average is 110 FPS with a minimum of 93 FPS and maximum of 126 FPS. At 1440p, the average is 92 FPS with a range of 79 to 106 FPS. At 4K, the average is 73 FPS with a range of 62 to 83 FPS. The minimum frame rates are all within 15% of the averages, which suggests that the game does not have severe frame time spikes, even at 4K.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 plays a supporting role in this configuration, but its specifications are robust enough to avoid being a limiting factor. The CPU features 14 cores and 14 threads, which is an unusual configuration that prioritizes single-thread performance over multi-thread scaling. The base clock of 3.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz are high, and the 24 MB shared L3 cache is ample for game data.

The CPU’s benchmark results show it is well-suited for gaming. Its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 4648 is strong, and its multi-core score of 32924 is competitive. More importantly, its Passmark single-thread score of 4394 and multithread score of 38706 place it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rivals list shows it is only 0.4% slower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G and 0.5% slower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, but it is 0.6% faster than the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H and 0.8% faster than the Intel Core i5-14600K. This indicates that the CPU is a high mid-range part that can handle any game logic.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is to manage the game’s fixed-camera logic, AI, and streaming. The game is not known for heavy physics or simulation, so the 14 threads are more than sufficient. The measured FPS data supports this conclusion: the difference between 1080p Low (175 FPS) and 1080p Medium (110 FPS) is entirely due to GPU load, not CPU limitations. If the CPU were a bottleneck, the frame rate would plateau at a certain threshold regardless of resolution or settings, but the data shows continuous scaling.

The CPU’s memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 102.4 GB/s bandwidth. This is adequate for feeding the GPU’s 504.2 GB/s bandwidth, as the game’s data sets are not large enough to saturate the CPU’s memory bus. The 14 threads are also beneficial for background tasks, but the game’s performance is not dependent on them. The data indicates that the Core Ultra 5 245 is a capable partner for the RTX 4070 Ti, providing enough headroom to ensure the GPU is always the primary performance driver.