The Medium

# The Medium with Intel Core Ultra 7 265 + AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT

The data presents a fixed benchmark set for The Medium, a horror title released on 2021-01-27, running on an Intel Core Ultra 7 265 processor paired with an AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card. Across four settings presets and three resolutions, the measured frames per second reveal a system that is consistently GPU-bound at higher quality levels, while CPU headroom becomes apparent only at the lowest settings. The combination ranks 631st out of 2911 tested combos in this game, placing it in the 78th percentile of all tested configurations, which indicates a strong but not elite standing for this title.

Resolution Scaling

Resolution scaling in The Medium follows a predictable pattern: as pixel count increases, average FPS drops, but the rate of decline depends heavily on the settings preset. At Low settings, the system delivers 149 FPS at 1920x1080, 126 FPS at 2560x1440, and 99 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 15% decline from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 21% decline from 1440p to 4K, for a total drop of 34% from 1080p to 4K. This relatively modest scaling suggests that at Low settings, the CPU is still contributing meaningfully to frame delivery, preventing the GPU from being the sole bottleneck.

At Medium settings, the scaling is steeper. The system produces 93 FPS at 1080p, 79 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 15%, and from 1440p to 4K is 22%, totaling a 33% reduction at 4K compared to 1080p. The pattern shifts more dramatically at High settings, where 1080p yields 67 FPS, 1440p yields 56 FPS, and 4K yields 44 FPS. Here, the 1080p-to-1440p drop is 16%, and the 1440p-to-4K drop is 21%, for a total of 34% at 4K.

Ultra settings show the most severe scaling, with 53 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and 35 FPS at 4K. The 15% decline from 1080p to 1440p and 22% decline from 1440p to 4K result in a 34% total reduction. Across all presets, the resolution scaling is remarkably consistent at roughly 33-34% total drop from 1080p to 4K, which indicates that the limiting component shifts uniformly with resolution. The data suggests that at Ultra and High settings, the GPU is the dominant constraint, as the FPS values are low enough that CPU overhead is unlikely to be a factor. At Low settings, the higher absolute FPS values (149 at 1080p) approach the range where a 20-core processor begins to matter, but the 99 FPS at 4K Low still suggests GPU limitation persists even there.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT achieves a combo rank of 631 out of 2911 configurations tested in The Medium. This places the system in the upper 21.7% of all tested combos, meaning that roughly 78% of configurations tested perform worse in this game. The rank reflects the measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings, and it positions this combo as a high-performing but not top-tier option for this specific title.

Interpreting this rank requires context from the individual component benchmarks. The CPU holds a percentile rank of 93 against all processors, with an average benchmark score of 64640. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 4464P (average score 64823, delta -0.3%), the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (average score 64438, delta +0.3%), the AMD EPYC 7343 (average score 64202, delta +0.7%), and the AMD EPYC 9124 (average score 65104, delta -0.7%). This clustering within a 0.7% band indicates that the CPU's compute performance is well-matched to its peers, all of which are server or workstation-class parts.

The GPU, by contrast, has a percentile rank of only 55 against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13543. Its nearest rivals are far older and less capable cards: the AMD Radeon HD 7770M (score 13536, delta +0.1%), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (score 13515, delta +0.2%), NVIDIA P106-090 (score 13470, delta +0.5%), and AMD Radeon Pro 555 (score 13407, delta +1%). This suggests that the RX 9070 XT's average benchmark score is dragged down by compute-oriented tests, but in gaming workloads like The Medium, its 16 GB of VRAM and RDNA 4.0 architecture deliver results that justify the 631st overall rank. The combination outranks 2280 other combos, which is a substantial margin given the large pool of tested systems.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor built on the Arrow Lake architecture using a 3 nm process node from TSMC. It has a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is dual-channel DDR5 with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. This configuration is designed for high multithreaded throughput, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 42216 and single-core score of 5960.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic, and the measured FPS data shows that this processor is more than adequate for the task. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 149 FPS, which is the highest measured value across all configurations in this dataset. This suggests that the CPU can push well beyond 149 FPS in this game if the GPU were not a limiting factor, but the exact ceiling is not measurable from the provided data. The single-thread performance, reflected in the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5960, is strong enough to handle the game's main thread, while the 20 cores provide ample headroom for background tasks and any multithreaded rendering features.

The PassMark multithread score of 49682 and single-thread score of 4689 further corroborate the CPU's capability. The data compression score of 522983 and integer math score of 134773 indicate strong general-purpose compute, which is relevant for games that use CPU-based physics or asset decompression. However, The Medium is not a CPU-intensive title in the same way as simulation or strategy games, and the FPS scaling across resolutions confirms that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher settings. At Ultra settings, the FPS drops to 53 at 1080p, which is only 36% of the Low-setting value (149 FPS), indicating that the GPU workload dominates and the CPU is not constraining performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across all combinations of resolution and settings. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 149 FPS on Low, 93 FPS on Medium, 67 FPS on High, and 53 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 79 FPS and a maximum of 107 FPS, giving a 28 FPS range that indicates some frame pacing variance. At 2560x1440, the values are 126 FPS on Low, 79 FPS on Medium, 56 FPS on High, and 45 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting at 1440p has a minimum of 67 FPS and a maximum of 90 FPS, a 23 FPS range. At 3840x2160, the system achieves 99 FPS on Low, 62 FPS on Medium, 44 FPS on High, and 35 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting at 4K shows a minimum of 53 FPS and a maximum of 71 FPS, an 18 FPS range.

The step from Low to Medium is significant at every resolution: 56 FPS drop at 1080p, 47 FPS drop at 1440p, and 37 FPS drop at 4K. This indicates that the Medium preset introduces substantial GPU workload increases, likely through higher-resolution textures and additional shading effects. The step from Medium to High is smaller: 26 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. The step from High to Ultra is the smallest: 14 FPS at 1080p, 11 FPS at 1440p, and 9 FPS at 4K. This diminishing return pattern suggests that Ultra offers incremental visual improvements over High for a relatively modest FPS cost, whereas the jump from Low to Medium is the most demanding.

The minimum FPS data, only provided for Medium settings, reveals that the system maintains playable frame rates even in demanding scenes. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 79 FPS ensures smooth gameplay on standard 60 Hz displays. At 1440p Medium, the minimum of 67 FPS still exceeds 60 FPS, while at 4K Medium, the minimum of 53 FPS dips below the 60 FPS threshold but remains within a range where adaptive sync technologies could smooth the experience. The maximum FPS values show headroom: 107 FPS at 1080p, 90 FPS at 1440p, and 71 FPS at 4K, indicating that less demanding scenes can push well above the average.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture using a 4 nm process node from TSMC, with 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die. It features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU has 4096 shading units, 256 texture mapping units, 128 render output units, and 64 ray tracing cores. Its base clock is 1660 MHz, with a boost clock of 2970 MHz and a game clock of 2400 MHz. The memory operates at 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective), and the GPU's FP32 performance is rated at 48.66 TFLOPS. The pixel rate is 380.2 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 760.3 GTexel/s.

In The Medium, the GPU's role is dominant across all measured configurations. The FPS scaling with resolution and settings clearly shows that the RX 9070 XT determines the upper bound of performance. At 4K Ultra, the system delivers only 35 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay. At 4K High, the 44 FPS average is also sub-60, while 4K Medium at 62 FPS just crosses the threshold. At 4K Low, the 99 FPS average indicates that the GPU has significant headroom when visual effects are reduced.

The 16 GB of VRAM is a notable asset for The Medium, which is a horror game with detailed environments and potentially large textures. The measured FPS data does not indicate any VRAM-related stutters or crashes, but the minimum FPS values at Medium settings (53 FPS at 4K, 67 FPS at 1440p, 79 FPS at 1080p) suggest that memory bandwidth and capacity are not limiting factors. The GPU's 644.6 GB/s bandwidth is substantial, and the 256-bit bus provides adequate throughput for the game's rendering demands. The ray tracing cores, while not directly benchmarked in this dataset, are present in the hardware, and The Medium's use of fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds may not heavily stress ray tracing performance.

The GPU's benchmark scores provide context: its PassMark G3D score of 26795 is strong, but its average benchmark score of 13543 is dragged down by compute tests like PassMark DirectX 9 (353) and PassMark DirectX 10 (154). These older API tests are not representative of modern gaming workloads, and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 7260 suggests strong performance in current-generation APIs. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 65879 further confirms the GPU's capability in modern graphics workloads.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For 1080p displays, the High preset at 67 FPS provides a good balance of visual quality and performance, comfortably exceeding 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at 53 FPS is playable but dips below 60 FPS, which may be noticeable on high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 93 FPS is the best choice for players prioritizing smoothness, as it offers 39% more FPS than High while still providing decent visual fidelity.

For 1440p displays, the Medium preset at 79 FPS is the recommended choice, as it maintains a healthy margin above 60 FPS while offering better visual quality than Low (126 FPS). The High preset at 56 FPS is borderline, and players with adaptive sync displays may find it acceptable, but the Medium preset provides a more consistent experience. The Ultra preset at 45 FPS is not recommended for 1440p, as it falls well below the 60 FPS target.

For 4K displays, the Medium preset at 62 FPS is the only viable option that exceeds 60 FPS on average. The Low preset at 99 FPS offers even higher performance but at a significant visual quality cost. The High preset at 44 FPS and Ultra preset at 35 FPS are both below playable thresholds for most users, making them unsuitable for 4K gaming unless the player accepts frame rates in the 30-45 FPS range. The minimum FPS data for Medium settings (53 FPS at 4K) indicates that even this preset can dip below 60 FPS in demanding scenes, so players with strict frame rate requirements may need to consider the Low preset or reduce resolution.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: The Medium preset at 3840x2160 delivers an average of 62 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS, making it the only 4K preset that averages above 60 FPS. The Low preset achieves 99 FPS but at reduced visual quality, while High (44 FPS) and Ultra (35 FPS) fall below playable thresholds.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 has an average benchmark score of 64640, which is within 0.7% of its nearest rivals: the AMD EPYC 4464P (64823, -0.3%), Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (64438, +0.3%), AMD EPYC 7343 (64202, +0.7%), and AMD EPYC 9124 (65104, -0.7%). This places it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs.

Q: Does the RX 9070 XT bottleneck the system in The Medium?

A: Yes, the GPU is the primary bottleneck at High and Ultra settings across all resolutions. The FPS drops from 149 at 1080p Low to 53 at 1080p Ultra, and from 99 at 4K Low to 35 at 4K Ultra, indicating that the GPU workload dictates performance. The CPU has sufficient headroom, as evidenced by the high FPS at Low settings.

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

A: At Medium settings, the FPS range is 79-107 at 1080p, 67-90 at 1440p, and 53-71 at 4K. This corresponds to ranges of 28, 23, and 18 FPS respectively, indicating tighter frame pacing at higher resolutions.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in The Medium?

A: This combination ranks 631st out of 2911 tested combos, placing it in the upper 21.7% of all configurations. The rank reflects the measured FPS across all resolutions and settings, and it outperforms 2280 other combos in this game.

Q: Is the 16 GB VRAM sufficient for The Medium at 4K?

A: The measured data shows no indication of VRAM-related issues at any resolution. The 4K Medium preset achieves 62 FPS average with a minimum of 53 FPS, and the 644.6 GB/s memory bandwidth provides adequate throughput for the game's texture and geometry demands.