The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a playable but highly settings-dependent experience in The Medium. The data shows this combo ranks in the 40th percentile overall (1751st out of 2911 tested combinations), indicating that while the hardware is capable, it demands careful configuration to hit smooth frame rates. The benchmark results reveal a system that is clearly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet shows surprising headroom at lower settings, making it a versatile, if not top-tier, option for this horror title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory interface as the primary limiting factors. At Medium settings, the average FPS falls from 60 at 1920x1080 to 51 at 2560x1440—a 15% reduction—and then plummets to 40 at 3840x2160, which is a 33% drop from the 1440p figure. This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU that is running out of memory bandwidth and capacity as pixel count increases.

The gap widens dramatically at Ultra settings. The transition from 1080p to 1440p sees the average FPS drop from 34 to 29, but the jump to 4K is catastrophic, with the average falling to 23 FPS—a 32% decline from 1440p that pushes the experience into unplayable territory. This non-linear degradation suggests that at 4K Ultra, the game is exceeding the GPU's memory limits, causing significant performance collapse rather than a smooth scaling curve.

At Low settings, the resolution scaling is far more forgiving. The 1080p average of 97 FPS drops to 81 at 1440p (a 16% decrease) and then to 64 at 4K (a 21% decrease from 1440p). This indicates that when the GPU is not stressed by high-quality textures and effects, it has enough headroom to handle the increased pixel count more gracefully. However, the fact that even at Low settings the 4K frame rate is only 64 FPS suggests that the GPU is still the bottleneck, as a CPU-limited scenario would show much smaller differences between resolutions.

The data clearly indicates that 1080p and 1440p are the sweet spots for this combo. At 4K, the system struggles to maintain 60 FPS even at Low settings, and at Medium settings, the 40 FPS average with a minimum of 34 FPS is below the threshold for a consistently smooth experience. The RTX 4060's 272.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 GB GDDR6 memory are simply insufficient for 4K gaming in this title, making 1440p the practical ceiling for this hardware combination.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data points to Medium settings as the optimal balance for this combo, particularly at 1080p and 1440p. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers a 60 FPS average with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS, providing a stable and responsive experience that stays above the 60 FPS threshold for most of the gameplay. The 1440p Medium result of 51 FPS average (minimum 43, maximum 59) is still playable, though it dips below 60 FPS, making it acceptable for a slower-paced horror title where frame rate fluctuations are less critical than in fast-action games.

High settings at 1080p yield 43 FPS average, which is a 28% reduction from Medium. This drop is substantial and pushes the experience into a range where motion smoothness suffers, particularly during camera panning and quick scene transitions common in horror games. At 1440p High, the 36 FPS average is borderline, and at 4K High, the 29 FPS average is clearly inadequate. The performance cost of moving from Medium to High is not justified by the visual improvements, especially given the game's atmospheric nature where Medium settings still provide a compelling visual presentation.

Low settings offer the highest frame rates—97 FPS at 1080p, 81 FPS at 1440p, and 64 FPS at 4K—but the visual quality degradation in a game like The Medium, which relies heavily on lighting and shadow effects for its horror atmosphere, is significant. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 37 FPS (from 97 to 60), which is a 38% penalty, but the visual uplift in terms of texture detail, shadow quality, and post-processing effects is substantial enough to warrant the trade-off for most players.

Ultra settings are not recommended for any resolution. Even at 1080p, the 34 FPS average is below the playability threshold, and the 4K Ultra result of 23 FPS is a slideshow. The data shows that Medium settings provide the best experience per the measured rows, offering a playable frame rate at both 1080p and 1440p while maintaining visual fidelity appropriate for the game's genre. Players with 4K displays should either drop to Low settings or accept a sub-30 FPS experience, as no preset provides a smooth 4K experience with this hardware.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 165H brings 16 cores and 22 threads to the table, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This Meteor Lake processor, built on Intel's 7 nm process, shows strong multi-threaded performance in synthetic benchmarks, scoring 14,551 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,759 in single-core. The 24 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support contribute to its capability as a gaming processor.

In The Medium, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the FPS scaling patterns across resolutions. The fact that frame rates drop so dramatically as resolution increases—from 60 FPS at 1080p Medium to 40 FPS at 4K Medium—indicates that the GPU is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see similar frame rates across different resolutions, as the CPU workload does not change significantly with resolution.

However, the CPU's performance is still relevant. The 16-core, 22-thread configuration ensures that the game's background processes, AI computations, and streaming tasks are handled without introducing stuttering or frame time spikes. The minimum FPS figures at Medium settings—51 at 1080p, 43 at 1440p, and 34 at 4K—suggest that the CPU is maintaining consistent frame delivery even when the GPU is under heavy load.

The processor's single-thread performance, measured at 1,759 in Cinebench R23, is adequate for The Medium's game logic and rendering thread. The 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates that this processor outperforms the majority of installed hardware, ensuring that it does not hold back the RTX 4060 in most scenarios. In the context of this game, the CPU provides ample headroom, as evidenced by the fact that even at Low settings with 97 FPS at 1080p, the frame rate is not CPU-limited—a CPU bottleneck would cap the FPS regardless of GPU load.

The nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score—the Intel Core Ultra 5 338H (0.3% ahead), AMD EPYC 4244P (0.4% behind), AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (0.4% behind), and AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (0.5% behind)—all show performance within a narrow band. This indicates that the Core Ultra 7 165H is competitively positioned, and any differences in gaming performance among these processors would be negligible in The Medium.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 1751st out of 2911 tested combinations, placing it in the 40th percentile of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the RTX 4060's mid-range positioning, as the GPU itself ranks in the 61st percentile of all GPUs but is paired with a CPU that ranks in the 84th percentile. The combination's overall ranking is dragged down by the GPU's limitations, particularly at higher resolutions.

This ranking suggests that while the CPU is a strong performer, the GPU holds the system back from achieving higher standings. The RTX 4060's nearest GPU rivals—the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (0.2% behind), AMD Radeon 780M (0.3% ahead), AMD Radeon Pro 560 (0.5% ahead), and AMD Radeon Pro 460 (0.7% ahead)—all show similar average benchmark scores, but the RTX 4060's real-world gaming performance in The Medium is constrained by its 8 GB VRAM capacity and 128-bit memory bus.

In the context of this game specifically, the combo's ranking indicates that there are 1,750 combinations that perform better, likely featuring higher-tier GPUs with more VRAM and wider memory interfaces. The data suggests that this combo is better suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where the GPU's limitations are less pronounced. The 4K results, which show sub-30 FPS at High and Ultra settings, are consistent with a combo ranked in the 40th percentile, as higher-ranked systems would be expected to handle 4K more gracefully.

The gap between the CPU's 84th percentile ranking and the combo's 40th percentile ranking highlights the GPU as the limiting factor. This is a common pattern in gaming systems where a mid-range GPU is paired with a higher-end CPU. The RTX 4060's performance in The Medium is sufficient for a playable experience at medium settings, but it does not boost the combo into the upper echelons of the rankings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD107 chip, is the defining component in this combo's gaming performance. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves to be the critical constraint in The Medium at higher resolutions. The GPU's 3,072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs deliver a peak FP32 performance of 15.11 TFLOPS, with a boost clock of 2460 MHz.

The GPU's memory configuration is the primary bottleneck in this game. At 4K, the 8 GB VRAM capacity is insufficient for high-quality textures, causing the performance collapse observed in the data. The 4K Medium average of 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS, compared to the 4K Low average of 64 FPS, demonstrates that texture quality and memory usage have an outsized impact on performance. The 128-bit memory bus, which limits bandwidth to 272.0 GB/s, further constrains performance at high resolutions where the GPU must access more data per frame.

The RTX 4060's 61st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17,639, positions it as a solid mid-range performer. Its nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (0.2% behind), AMD Radeon 780M (0.3% ahead), AMD Radeon Pro 560 (0.5% ahead), and AMD Radeon Pro 460 (0.7% ahead)—all show comparable synthetic benchmark scores, but the RTX 4060's real-world gaming performance is enhanced by its modern architecture and features like DLSS, even if those features are not reflected in the measured FPS data.

The GPU's role in The Medium is clear: it provides sufficient performance for 1080p and 1440p gaming at medium settings, but struggles at 4K and at higher quality presets. The 5 nm TSMC process node and 18,900 million transistors packed into a 159 mm² die allow for efficient operation, but the fundamental memory limitations cannot be overcome by architectural efficiency alone. The GPU's 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores, while capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing and DLSS, are not fully utilized in this game, as the measured data does not include ray-traced or DLSS-enhanced modes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance. Low settings achieve an average of 97 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded across all configurations. Medium settings drop to 60 FPS average (minimum 51, maximum 69), providing a smooth experience. High settings reduce the average to 43 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 34 FPS. The 1080p data shows a clear linear progression: each step up in quality costs approximately 15-20 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High (17 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the performance decreases across all settings. Low settings average 81 FPS, maintaining playability. Medium settings average 51 FPS (minimum 43, maximum 59), which is acceptable for a horror game with slower pacing. High settings drop to 36 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 29 FPS, both below the 30 FPS threshold for consistent smoothness. The 1440p results show a similar pattern to 1080p, with a 30 FPS difference between Low and Medium settings.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become severe. Low settings average 64 FPS, which is the only playable option at this resolution. Medium settings drop to 40 FPS (minimum 34, maximum 46), which is borderline playable but with noticeable frame rate variations. High settings fall to 29 FPS, and Ultra settings collapse to 23 FPS. The 4K data demonstrates a non-linear scaling pattern: the gap between Low and Medium is 24 FPS, but the gap between Medium and High is only 11 FPS, suggesting that the GPU is hitting a memory bandwidth wall.

The complete dataset reveals that the combo is capable of 60 FPS gaming only at 1080p Medium and 1080p Low, and at 1440p Low. The 4K resolution is only viable at Low settings, and even then, the 64 FPS average is achieved with significant visual compromises. The minimum FPS figures, which are only recorded for Medium settings, show that the combo maintains reasonably stable frame delivery at this preset: 51 FPS at 1080p, 43 FPS at 1440p, and 34 FPS at 4K, indicating that the frame pacing is consistent even when the GPU is under heavy load.