The Medium

# The Medium with Intel Core Ultra 7 265 + AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

The benchmark data for The Medium with this combination reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, yet surprisingly CPU-limited at 1080p Low settings. The measured FPS across twelve distinct configurations shows a clear pattern: the RX 7900 XTX delivers playable frame rates through Medium settings at 4K, but the Ultra preset becomes a slideshow. This analysis examines what the numbers say about where the bottleneck lives, how settings scaling behaves, and what the frame rate breakdown implies for both component roles.

Resolution Scaling

The drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not uniform across settings. At Low settings, the system produces 175 FPS at 1920x1080, falls to 147 FPS at 2560x1440, and lands at 115 FPS on 3840x2160. That is a 34% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 22% drop to 4K. The scaling suggests that even at Low, the GPU still has headroom at 1080p, but the 115 FPS at 4K Low shows the renderer is doing substantial work per frame.

At Medium settings, the pattern tightens. The 109 FPS at 1080p drops to 92 FPS at 1440p (a 16% loss), then to 72 FPS at 4K (a 22% loss from 1440p). The Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot where the GPU load is balanced enough that resolution scaling is predictable and proportional to pixel count. The 4K Medium result of 72 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS suggests the frame pacing holds up even when the resolution increases.

High settings show a more dramatic collapse. At 1080p, the system manages 78 FPS. At 1440p, that falls to 66 FPS — a 15% reduction. But at 4K, the score plummets to 52 FPS, which is only 67% of the 1080p result. The gap between 1440p and 4K at High is 21%, but the gap between 1080p and 1440p is smaller, indicating the GPU is starting to hit its compute ceiling as pixel count rises.

Ultra settings are where the curve bends hardest. The 1080p Ultra result is 62 FPS, which drops to 52 FPS at 1440p (a 16% loss), then to 41 FPS at 4K (a 21% loss from 1440p). The 4K Ultra result of 41 FPS is barely above the threshold for smooth play, and the fact that the delta between resolutions remains roughly 20% suggests the bottleneck is consistently the GPU's raw throughput rather than any specific memory or bandwidth constraint.

The data implies that the limiting component at 4K is clearly the GPU. The RX 7900 XTX, with its 24 GB of GDDR6 memory and 384-bit bus, has the capacity to hold all textures, but the compute load of The Medium's horror rendering — likely heavy on volumetric effects and lighting — pushes the RDNA 3 architecture to its limits. At 1080p Low, however, the 175 FPS result hints that the CPU might be the ceiling, since the GPU could theoretically push higher if the processor could feed it faster.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows offer a clear hierarchy for playability. At 4K, Medium is the only preset that delivers a comfortable experience: 72 FPS average with a 61 FPS minimum. The High preset at 4K yields 52 FPS, which is playable but close to the edge of smooth motion, while Ultra at 41 FPS would feel stuttery in a game that relies on atmosphere and tension. Low at 4K produces 115 FPS, but the visual compromise at that resolution is likely severe given how much detail the Low preset strips out.

At 1440p, the situation improves. Medium runs at 92 FPS with a 78 FPS floor, which is excellent for a horror title. High at 66 FPS is solid, and Low at 147 FPS is overkill for any display. The Ultra preset at 52 FPS is marginal, but if the player values visual fidelity over smoothness, it might suffice. The data suggests that 1440p Medium is the best balance of quality and performance, offering nearly 50% more frame rate than Ultra at the same resolution.

At 1080p, all presets are playable. Low hits 175 FPS, Medium achieves 109 FPS, High reaches 78 FPS, and Ultra still manages 62 FPS. The interesting case is 1080p High versus 1440p Medium: both produce roughly 70-80 FPS, but the latter gives a higher resolution. The benchmark results indicate that for this combination, dropping from High to Medium at 1440p yields a 39% frame rate increase, which is a better trade than staying at High and accepting 66 FPS.

The best experience per the measured rows is 1440p Medium. It delivers 92 FPS with a 78 FPS minimum, which is smooth, responsive, and visually rich without the heavy cost of Ultra. For players with a 4K display, 4K Medium at 72 FPS is the only sensible choice — it is the only 4K preset that clears the 60 FPS threshold comfortably. The Ultra preset at any resolution is not recommended from the data, as it costs 30-40% of the frame rate compared to Medium while only adding incremental visual gains.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and setting combination for this hardware in The Medium?

A: The data shows 1440p Medium delivers 92 FPS average with a 78 FPS minimum, which is the best balance of smoothness and visual quality. At 4K, Medium at 72 FPS is the only preset that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 7900 XTX perform at 4K in this game?

A: The GPU produces 115 FPS at Low, 72 FPS at Medium, 52 FPS at High, and 41 FPS at Ultra on 3840x2160. The Medium preset is the only 4K option that stays above 60 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this combination?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiter at 4K and at higher settings, but at 1080p Low the 175 FPS result suggests the CPU may cap performance, given the Intel Core Ultra 7 265's 20 cores and 5.30 GHz boost clock.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p Ultra?

A: The measured result is 62 FPS average at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This is playable but not as smooth as 1440p Medium, which achieves 92 FPS.

Q: Does the 24 GB VRAM help at 4K?

A: The 24 GB GDDR6 memory on the RX 7900 XTX ensures no VRAM capacity limit at 4K, but the GPU's compute throughput still caps performance at 41-115 FPS depending on settings, so memory is not the limiting factor.

Q: How does the performance change from Medium to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Medium runs at 92 FPS while High drops to 66 FPS, a 28% reduction. This suggests High settings introduce significantly more rendering work per frame.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX ranks 288 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 10% of all configurations. This rank reflects the GPU's strong showing at medium resolutions, but the data implies there is room for improvement — many of the 2623 combos ranked above this one likely pair the RX 7900 XTX with a faster CPU or use lower settings to push higher frame rates.

The percentile position of 288 out of 2911 means this combo outperforms roughly 90% of all tested systems in this game. However, the rank is not uniform across settings. At 1080p Low, the 175 FPS result would place this combo near the top tier, but at 4K Ultra, the 41 FPS result drags the overall rank down. This suggests the combo is well-balanced for high-refresh 1440p gaming but less competitive at extreme 4K presets where the GPU becomes the sole bottleneck.

The nearest CPU rivals for the Ultra 7 265 — the AMD EPYC 4464P and Intel Core Ultra 7 265F — have average benchmark scores within 0.3-0.7% of this chip, so the CPU is not a differentiator in the ranking. The GPU's nearest rivals, including the GTX 1060 3 GB and TITAN Xp, are far below its performance level, but the 64th percentile ranking for the GPU alone suggests that in this specific game, the RX 7900 XTX is not delivering top-tier results relative to other GPUs tested.

The rank of 288 out of 2911 is respectable, but the data reveals that the combo's performance is most competitive at 1440p Medium, where the 92 FPS result is likely near the top of the distribution. At 4K Ultra, the 41 FPS score would rank much lower, indicating that this combo is optimized for mid-resolution gaming rather than maximum fidelity.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX brings substantial specifications to The Medium: 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU runs at a base clock of 1929 MHz, boosts to 2498 MHz, and has a game clock of 2365 MHz. With 6144 shading units and 96 ray tracing cores, the card is well-equipped for modern rendering, but the measured FPS data shows that The Medium's workload is demanding enough to push the GPU to its limits at 4K.

The VRAM capacity is never a bottleneck in this game — even at 4K Ultra with all textures loaded, the 24 GB allocation is far more than what The Medium would require. The bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s is also ample, as the resolution scaling pattern shows that the frame rate drops are proportional to pixel count, not memory pressure. This indicates the limiting factor is the GPU's compute throughput, specifically the shader and rasterization units.

The GPU's performance in The Medium is lower than its average benchmark scores might suggest. The card ranks in the 64th percentile of all GPUs based on its average benchmark score of 19410, but its nearest rivals in that benchmark — the GTX 1060 3 GB and Quadro K5200 — are far less powerful. This discrepancy implies that The Medium is a particularly heavy title for the RDNA 3 architecture, possibly due to its use of fixed-function ray tracing or volumetric effects that do not scale well with the GPU's raw compute.

The FP32 throughput of 61.39 TFLOPS is impressive on paper, but the 4K Ultra result of 41 FPS suggests that the game's renderer is not fully utilizing the GPU's parallel compute capabilities. The pixel rate of 479.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 959.2 GTexel/s are high, yet the 4K results indicate that the GPU is spending most of its time on shading work rather than memory access, which aligns with the resolution scaling showing consistent 20% drops per step.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces 175 FPS on Low, 109 FPS on Medium, 78 FPS on High, and 62 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset records a minimum of 93 FPS and a maximum of 125 FPS, showing a tight frame pacing window. The jump from Low to Medium costs 66 FPS (a 38% reduction), while the jump from High to Ultra costs 16 FPS (a 21% reduction), indicating diminishing returns on the highest preset.

At 2560x1440, the results are 147 FPS on Low, 92 FPS on Medium, 66 FPS on High, and 52 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 78 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS, which is a 28 FPS spread — wider than at 1080p but still acceptable. The 1440p Ultra result of 52 FPS is identical to the 4K High result, suggesting that the Ultra preset at 1440p imposes the same rendering load as High at 4K.

At 3840x2160, the system manages 115 FPS on Low, 72 FPS on Medium, 52 FPS on High, and 41 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset records a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 83 FPS, which is the only 4K configuration that stays above 60 FPS throughout. The 4K Low result of 115 FPS is notable because it is higher than the 1440p Ultra result of 52 FPS, showing that resolution has less impact than settings in this game.

The full matrix reveals a consistent hierarchy: Low is always 50-60% faster than Medium, Medium is 30-40% faster than High, and High is 20-25% faster than Ultra. This pattern holds across all three resolutions, indicating that the game's settings scaling is uniform regardless of pixel count. The minimum FPS data, only available for Medium presets, shows that the frame pacing degrades slightly as resolution increases — the 1080p minimum is 93 FPS, the 1440p minimum is 78 FPS, and the 4K minimum is 61 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It runs at a 2.40 GHz base clock and boosts to 5.30 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU has 30 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth. These specifications place it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 64640.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the system produces 175 FPS. This is the only configuration where the frame rate exceeds what the GPU could theoretically deliver at higher settings, suggesting the CPU is feeding the GPU fast enough to hit this ceiling. The 20 cores and 20 threads — with no hyperthreading — are sufficient for the game's main thread plus background tasks, but the 5.30 GHz boost clock is likely the key factor in maintaining high frame rates at lower resolutions.

The CPU's nearest rivals in benchmark scores are the AMD EPYC 4464P (64823 score, -0.3% delta) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (64438 score, +0.3% delta). These are within 0.7% of this chip's performance, meaning the CPU is not a significant differentiator in this combo's ranking. The passmark single-thread score of 4689 and multi-thread score of 49682 indicate strong per-core performance, which matters for a game like The Medium that likely has a dominant render thread.

The data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck at 4K, where the GPU is clearly limiting performance. But at 1080p Low, the 175 FPS result suggests the CPU could handle even higher frame rates if the GPU were faster. The 20-core configuration with a 5.30 GHz boost is a strong pairing for this GPU, as it provides enough single-thread speed to avoid holding back the RX 7900 XTX at lower resolutions. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU's 30 MB L3 cache and dual-channel memory bandwidth are sufficient to feed the GPU's 960.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, as the FPS drops are consistent with GPU-bound behavior.