The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245, built on the Arrow Lake architecture, brings a 14-core, 14-thread configuration to this horror title. With a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, the processor operates on the Intel Socket 1851 platform, utilizing a 3 nm process node from TSMC. Its cache hierarchy includes a 24 MB shared L3 cache and a 3 MB per-core L2 cache, which provides ample headroom for the game's logic and asset streaming. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a multi-core score of 32,924 in Cinebench R23 and a single-core score of 4,648 in the same test, putting its average benchmark score at 48,995. This places the Ultra 5 245 in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, indicating that its compute capability is not a limiting factor in this title. Compared to its nearest rivals, it sits within a tight band: it is 0.4% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, 0.5% behind the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, 0.6% ahead of the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H, and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i5-14600K. These deltas are marginal, suggesting that in CPU-bound scenarios, swapping between these processors would yield nearly identical frame rates.

The game's measured results confirm this. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 180 FPS, a figure that demonstrates the CPU's strong single-thread performance. The processor's Passmark single-thread score of 4,394 reinforces its ability to handle the primary game thread efficiently. While the game is not officially a CPU benchmark, the scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p—dropping from 180 FPS to 64 FPS—shows that the CPU can feed the GPU with data up to a certain point before graphical settings become the bottleneck. The 14 threads align well with modern game engines that utilize a handful of cores heavily, and the 5.10 GHz boost ensures that the main render thread rarely stalls. The data indicates that this processor is more than sufficient for The Medium, as the FPS drops are almost entirely attributable to GPU load when settings increase.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture of which preset delivers the optimal experience for this hardware combination. Across all three resolutions, the Medium preset stands out as the most balanced, offering a significant frame rate improvement over High and Ultra while maintaining visual fidelity. At 1080p, Medium produces an average of 113 FPS, with a minimum of 96 FPS and a maximum of 130 FPS. This is a 28.4% improvement over High's 81 FPS, and it more than doubles the Ultra preset's 64 FPS. The minimum frame rate of 96 FPS ensures that even in demanding scenes, the game remains fluidly playable on a standard 60 Hz or 144 Hz display. The High preset, while visually superior, drops the average to 81 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for frame time spikes.

At 1440p, the Medium preset again proves to be the sweet spot, delivering an average of 95 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS and a maximum of 109 FPS. This represents a 28.4% advantage over High's 68 FPS and a 43.5% advantage over Ultra's 54 FPS. The minimum of 81 FPS is particularly noteworthy, as it keeps the experience above the 60 FPS threshold even during intense horror sequences where the game's fixed camera angles and volumetric effects can cause stutters. At 4K, the Medium preset yields an average of 74 FPS, with a minimum of 63 FPS and a maximum of 86 FPS. While this is lower than the lower resolutions, it still provides a playable experience on a 4K display, and the 63 FPS minimum is just above the 60 FPS target. Given that the Low preset at 4K produces 119 FPS, the Medium preset is clearly the recommended choice for maximizing visual quality without sacrificing smoothness. The data suggests that Medium is the best experience per the measured rows, as it consistently provides the highest minimum FPS relative to its average, ensuring a stable frame pacing.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a predictable pattern of GPU-bound behavior, with the CPU maintaining a stable baseline. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 113 at 1080p to 95 at 1440p (a 15.9% decrease) and further to 74 at 4K (a 22.1% decrease from 1440p). This scaling is nearly linear with pixel count, indicating that the RTX 5070 Ti is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions. The GPU's 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s, provides ample memory bandwidth for the game's textures, but the raw compute demand of 4K rendering overwhelms the GPU's 43.94 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

At Low settings, the scaling is more pronounced: 180 FPS at 1080p drops to 152 FPS at 1440p (a 15.6% decrease) and then to 119 FPS at 4K (a 21.7% decrease from 1440p). The fact that Low settings at 4K still achieve 119 FPS suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck even at this resolution, as the frame rate remains high. However, the gap between Low and Medium at 4K (119 FPS vs 74 FPS) shows how quickly the GPU becomes saturated as settings increase. The Ultra preset at 4K yields only 42 FPS, which is a 63.5% drop from the Medium preset's 74 FPS. This dramatic reduction indicates that the Ultra preset likely enables heavy ray tracing or volumetric effects that the GPU's 70 RT cores must process, causing a significant performance penalty. The data clearly shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this game; the RTX 5070 Ti's performance scales with resolution and settings as expected for a high-end GPU, and the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 provides a stable foundation that does not constrain frame rates even at 1080p Low.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain a 60 FPS average?

A: At Medium settings, the combo achieves above 60 FPS at all tested resolutions, with 113 FPS at 1080p, 95 FPS at 1440p, and 74 FPS at 4K. For a 60 FPS target, 4K Medium is the highest resolution that comfortably exceeds it. At High settings, only 1080p (81 FPS) and 1440p (68 FPS) exceed 60 FPS, while 4K High falls to 53 FPS. Ultra settings only exceed 60 FPS at 1080p with 64 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's single-core performance affect the game's frame rates?

A: The CPU's single-core Cinebench R23 score is 4,648, and its boost clock is 5.10 GHz. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 180 FPS, indicating that the primary game thread is well-served by this processor. The Passmark single-thread score of 4,394 places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, suggesting that the game's logic and draw calls are processed without creating a frame rate ceiling.

Q: Is the RTX 5070 Ti's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for The Medium at 4K?

A: The GPU has 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus. At 4K Medium, the combo achieves 74 FPS average with a 63 FPS minimum, which suggests that the VRAM capacity is sufficient for the game's texture loading at this resolution. The memory bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s also appears adequate, as the FPS scaling from 1440p to 4K is consistent with GPU compute limitations rather than memory capacity issues.

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

A: The Medium preset provides the most consistent frame times, with the minimum FPS being 84.9% of the average at 1080p (96 min vs 113 avg), 85.3% at 1440p (81 min vs 95 avg), and 85.1% at 4K (63 min vs 74 avg). This consistency indicates smooth gameplay without major stutters.

Q: How does the combo's 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the combo averages 42 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it averages 64 FPS. This represents a 34.4% performance drop when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings. The 4K Ultra result is below the 60 FPS target, suggesting that users should avoid Ultra at 4K with this hardware.

Q: Does the CPU's 14-thread count benefit this game?

A: The CPU has 14 threads, and the game's results at 1080p Low (180 FPS) show that it can utilize the available threads efficiently. The Passmark multithread score of 38,706 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,924 indicate strong parallel processing, but the game's modest thread usage means the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution or settings level tested.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the dominant component in this combo's performance, as evidenced by the FPS scaling across settings and resolutions. Built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB203 chip, this GPU features 8,960 shading units, 280 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. Its clock speeds are a base of 2295 MHz and a boost of 2452 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). The 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s, which is critical for the game's high-resolution textures and volumetric effects. The GPU's FP32 performance is 43.94 TFLOPS, and its pixel rate is 235.4 GPixel/s, with a texture rate of 686.6 GTexel/s.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 49,957. Its nearest rivals show a tight performance band: it is 0.1% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, 0.4% ahead of the Intel Arc A550M, 2% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, and 3.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. In The Medium, the GPU's role is clear from the measured FPS. At 1080p Low, the 180 FPS result is likely near the CPU's limit, but as settings increase to Medium, the GPU begins to take over, with the average FPS dropping to 113. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is fully saturated, producing only 42 FPS. This is a 76.7% drop from 1080p Low, demonstrating that the GPU's compute and memory subsystems are the limiting factors at high settings. The RTX 5070 Ti's 70 RT cores and 280 tensor cores are likely engaged at Ultra settings, given the significant performance penalty, though the game's specific feature usage is not detailed in the data. The GPU's 300 W TDP and dual-slot design are consistent with its high-end positioning, and the 16 GB VRAM ensures that memory capacity is not a constraint even at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 180 FPS. Moving up to Medium, the average is 113 FPS, with a minimum of 96 FPS and a maximum of 130 FPS. The High preset averages 81 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 64 FPS. This shows a steady decline of approximately 30-40 FPS per settings tier, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium (67 FPS difference). At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 152 FPS, which is a 15.6% decrease from 1080p Low. Medium at 1440p averages 95 FPS, with a minimum of 81 FPS and a maximum of 109 FPS. High averages 68 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The gap between Medium and High at 1440p is 27 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 14 FPS, indicating diminishing returns at the highest settings.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 119 FPS, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium at 4K averages 74 FPS, with a minimum of 63 FPS and a maximum of 86 FPS. High averages 53 FPS, and Ultra averages 42 FPS. The 4K Medium result is notable because it maintains a minimum above 60 FPS, making it the only 4K setting that provides a consistently smooth experience. The Ultra preset at 4K is the worst-performing configuration, with a 42 FPS average, which is 26.3% lower than the 4K High preset's 53 FPS. Across all resolutions, the Medium preset shows the most stable frame times, with the minimum FPS consistently above 80% of the average. The Low preset at 1080p (180 FPS) and 1440p (152 FPS) suggests that the CPU can push frame rates well beyond 144 Hz at lower settings, while the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher settings. The data confirms that this combo is best utilized with the Medium preset, as it balances the GPU's compute load with the CPU's capability, resulting in playable frame rates at all resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti ranks 209th out of 2,911 tested combinations in The Medium. This places it in the top 7.2% of all tested systems, indicating that it is a high-performing configuration for this game. The rank of 209 is significant because it suggests that while this combo is strong, there are 208 other combinations that deliver higher average frame rates. Given that the CPU is in the 90th percentile of all CPUs and the GPU is in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, the combo's rank is consistent with the expectation that the GPU is the limiting factor. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the combo would likely rank lower relative to systems with the same GPU but faster processors. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 180 FPS, which is likely near the upper limit for this CPU-GPU pairing, but at 4K Ultra, the 42 FPS result is more indicative of GPU-bound performance. The 209th rank out of 2,911 combos means that 2,702 other systems perform worse, which places this combo in the upper echelon of gaming rigs. However, the gap to the top-ranked combinations is likely driven by GPUs with higher compute throughput, as the RTX 5070 Ti's nearest rivals show a performance delta of up to 3.1%, which could translate to a few frames per second in this game. The combo's rank also benefits from the CPU's strong single-thread performance, which prevents the system from being held back in CPU-light scenes. Overall, this combo is a well-balanced pairing that delivers high frame rates across all tested settings, with its 209th rank reflecting the GPU's position in the broader market rather than any deficiency in the CPU.