The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title, presents a demanding load on this mobile platform pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080. The measured frame rates show a system that is consistently capable at lower resolutions and settings but is clearly constrained by the GPU at higher presets. The data indicates that the RTX 5080 is the primary bottleneck, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom for most configurations, though the overall combo ranks in the bottom quarter of all tested combinations.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At Medium settings, the average frame rate falls from 92 FPS at 1920x1080 to 78 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 14 FPS, and then drops further to 61 FPS at 3840x2160. This progression shows a loss of 31 FPS when moving from 1080p to 4K, which represents a 33.7% decrease in performance. The scaling is not linear, indicating that the additional pixel count at 4K places a disproportionate load on the graphics processor.

The trend is even more pronounced at High settings, where the average frame rate declines from 66 FPS at 1080p to 56 FPS at 1440p and then to 44 FPS at 4K. This 22 FPS drop from 1080p to 4K highlights that higher quality presets amplify the resolution penalty. For the Ultra preset, the situation becomes critical: the average frame rate plummets from 52 FPS at 1080p to 44 FPS at 1440p and finally to 35 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1080p and 4K at Ultra is 17 FPS, which is a 32.7% reduction, showing that the most demanding settings are heavily limited by the GPU's ability to fill pixels.

Interestingly, the Low preset shows a different pattern. The average frame rate at 1080p is 143 FPS, dropping to 124 FPS at 1440p and 97 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 4K is 46 FPS, which is a larger absolute decrease than at other settings, but the resulting frame rates remain high enough for smooth gameplay. This suggests that when the GPU load is reduced, the system can maintain higher throughput, but the relative scaling still points to the GPU being the limiting factor. The data across all presets consistently shows that the RTX 5080 is the component that dictates performance as resolution increases.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant performance driver in this configuration. Equipped with 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus, the GPU has a memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s, which is substantial for handling high-resolution textures. The GPU's core configuration includes 10752 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output pipelines, with a boost clock of 2617 MHz. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s, which are key metrics for a game like The Medium that relies heavily on visual fidelity.

The GPU's performance percentile of 87 places it well above average compared to all other GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 56083 is closely matched by its nearest rivals, with the AMD Radeon 8060S scoring 55757 (0.6% slower) and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB scoring 55698 (0.7% slower). The RTX 5080 also leads the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, which scores 54828, by a 2.3% margin. However, it trails the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE, which scores 57367, by 2.2%. This indicates that while the GPU is powerful, it is not at the absolute top of the performance hierarchy.

In the context of The Medium's measured results, the GPU's role is clear. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate of 35 FPS shows that the GPU is overwhelmed by the combination of high resolution and maximum settings. The fact that the game drops to 44 FPS at 4K High and 61 FPS at 4K Medium demonstrates that reducing the graphical load directly improves performance, which is a signature of a GPU-bound system. The VRAM capacity of 16 GB is not a limiting factor at these settings, as the game is unlikely to exceed that allocation at 4K, but the raw compute power of the GPU is what determines the final frame rate.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and performance for this hardware combination. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 92 FPS with a minimum of 78 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. This provides a smooth experience that is well above the threshold for comfortable play. Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset still delivers a respectable 78 FPS average, with minimum and maximum values of 66 and 89 FPS, respectively. Even at 3840x2160, the Medium preset achieves an average of 61 FPS, which is playable, though the minimum of 52 FPS suggests occasional dips that could be noticeable in slower scenes.

The High preset is a viable alternative for those prioritizing image quality, but it comes with a significant performance cost. At 1080p, High delivers 66 FPS, which is acceptable, but at 1440p it drops to 56 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 44 FPS. The Ultra preset is not recommended for this setup, as it only manages 52 FPS at 1080p and drops to 35 FPS at 4K, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The Low preset, while achieving high frame rates of 143 FPS at 1080p, sacrifices too much visual detail for a game that is heavily reliant on atmosphere and lighting.

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the sweet spot. It offers a 39.4% performance increase over High at 1080p (92 FPS vs 66 FPS) and a 76.9% increase over Ultra at the same resolution (92 FPS vs 52 FPS). At 1440p, Medium is 39.3% faster than High and 77.3% faster than Ultra. At 4K, Medium is 38.6% faster than High and 74.3% faster than Ultra. This consistent margin makes Medium the clear choice for maintaining a stable frame rate across all resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 714 out of 2911 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the 75th percentile of all combinations, meaning that 75% of tested systems perform better in this specific game. This ranking is lower than what the individual component benchmarks might suggest, indicating that the mobile nature of the CPU and the specific demands of the game create a bottleneck that prevents the GPU from reaching its full potential.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 32697 puts it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs, which is respectable. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14600T with a score of 32707 (0% difference), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 with a score of 32662 (0.1% faster), and the AMD Ryzen 5 7400F with a score of 32750 (0.2% slower). The GPU's average score of 56083 places it in the 87th percentile of all GPUs. Despite both components being above average individually, the combo rank of 714 suggests that the system is not well optimized for this particular game, possibly due to thermal constraints or power delivery limitations inherent to the mobile platform.

The ranking implies that while the RTX 5080 is a high-end GPU, its performance in The Medium is hampered by the CPU's ability to feed it data or by the system's overall design. The fact that the combo ranks in the bottom quarter is a strong indicator that this pairing is not ideal for achieving maximum frame rates in this title, and users should expect performance that is below what a desktop equivalent might deliver.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is a 16-core, 22-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. It has a 24 MB shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s. The CPU's benchmark scores show a strong single-thread performance of 1743 in Cinebench R23 and a multicore score of 15028 in the same test. Its Passmark multithread score of 24873 and single-thread score of 3468 further illustrate its capabilities.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is less prominent than the GPU's, as the game is primarily graphics-intensive. The measured frame rates indicate that the CPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions. For instance, at 1080p Low, the system achieves 143 FPS, which suggests the CPU can handle the game's logic and rendering calls without becoming a bottleneck. The CPU's performance percentile of 83 and its average score of 32697, which is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, show that it is a capable processor for gaming.

However, the CPU's mobile design, with a TDP of 28 W, may limit sustained performance under load. This could explain why the combo rank is lower than expected, as the CPU might throttle during extended gaming sessions, reducing the frame rates that the GPU could otherwise achieve. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s is also a potential limitation for a game that streams assets, but the data does not show a clear CPU bottleneck at any resolution. The results suggest that the CPU provides adequate support for the RTX 5080, but the overall system performance is still governed by the GPU's output.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers an average of 143 FPS on Low settings. The Medium preset produces an average of 92 FPS, with a minimum of 78 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS. High settings yield an average of 66 FPS, while Ultra drops to 52 FPS. This shows a clear progression where each increase in quality reduces performance by roughly 25-30 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average of 124 FPS. The Medium preset averages 78 FPS, with a minimum of 66 FPS and a maximum of 89 FPS. High settings average 56 FPS, and Ultra drops to 44 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 46 FPS, while the drop from Medium to High is 22 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 12 FPS, indicating diminishing returns at higher settings.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 97 FPS, which is still playable. The Medium preset averages 61 FPS, with a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS. High settings average 44 FPS, and Ultra drops to a marginal 35 FPS. The data shows that at 4K, only the Low and Medium presets provide frame rates that are suitable for a smooth experience, while High and Ultra are not recommended for consistent gameplay.

The minimum and maximum values for the Medium preset across all resolutions provide insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p, the range is 78-106 FPS, a spread of 28 FPS. At 1440p, the range is 66-89 FPS, a spread of 23 FPS. At 4K, the range is 52-70 FPS, a spread of 18 FPS. This tightening of the range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently loaded, reducing the variance in frame times. Overall, the measured data confirms that the RTX 5080 and Core Ultra 7 155H combination can handle The Medium at Medium settings across all resolutions, with playable performance at 1080p and 1440p on High, but requiring lower settings for 4K.