The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination produces a highly variable experience in The Medium, swinging from a smooth 92 FPS at 1080p Low to a slideshow-like 21 FPS at 4K Ultra. The data indicates a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck, but the CPU’s substantial core count ensures it is rarely the limiting factor. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across all resolutions and settings, contextualizing the results against the hardware’s broader benchmark profiles.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo achieves in The Medium?*

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 92 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

Q: At which resolution and settings does this combo fail to maintain a playable frame rate?

A: At 3840x2160 (4K) with the Ultra preset, the combo averages only 21 FPS. The 4K High preset is also problematic, averaging 27 FPS. Both fall well below standard playability thresholds.

Q: How does the CPU's benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 has an average benchmark score of 64640. This places it 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, 0.7% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7343, and 0.3% behind the AMD EPYC 4464P.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile relative to all other GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER sits in the 62nd percentile among all GPUs, indicating it is a mid-range performer in the broader market.

Q: Does the GPU have enough VRAM for the highest settings in this game?

A: The GPU has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. While the data shows playable frame rates at 1080p Medium, the significant drop to 21 FPS at 4K Ultra suggests that the combination of resolution and settings overwhelms the GPU's memory bandwidth and processing power, not necessarily just capacity.

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate recorded at 2560x1440?

A: The lowest average at 2560x1440 is 27 FPS, which occurs with the Ultra settings preset.

Settings Recommendations

The data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across presets. The most balanced experience is found at the Medium preset. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS, indicating a stable and playable experience. Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium preset drops to 48 FPS average with a 41 FPS minimum, which remains consistent but pushes the lower bounds of smooth gameplay. At 3840x2160, Medium averages 38 FPS, which is borderline.

The High preset offers a marginal visual improvement over Medium but at a significant performance cost. At 1080p, High drops to 41 FPS, and at 1440p it falls to 35 FPS. The Low preset, while providing high frame rates (92 FPS at 1080p, 77 FPS at 1440p), likely sacrifices too much visual fidelity.

The Ultra preset is not viable for this combination. It produces the lowest frame rates at every resolution, including 33 FPS at 1080p and 27 FPS at 1440p. The data suggests that for the best balance of visual quality and performance, the Medium preset is the recommended choice. For users prioritizing frame rate over visuals, the Low preset is the only option that consistently delivers high refresh rate performance. The High preset presents a middle ground but its lower frame rates make it a less attractive option than Medium.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. At the Medium preset, performance drops from 57 FPS at 1920x1080 to 48 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 38 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 33% decrease in average FPS from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is consistent, with each step up in resolution exacting a predictable toll on the frame rate.

This pattern indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the primary limiting component. The Intel Core Ultra 7 265, with its 20 cores and 20 threads, has ample processing headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions. However, as the pixel count increases, the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become the bottleneck. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 105.6 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply not sufficient to maintain higher frame rates at 4K.

The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings is 9 FPS (57 to 48), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 10 FPS (48 to 38). This shows that the GPU's workload scales almost linearly with the number of pixels, further confirming that the graphics card is the limiting factor. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a smaller performance delta at higher resolutions, as the GPU's workload would increase without stressing the CPU further.

How This Combo Ranks

The data places this specific combination at rank 2026 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This puts it in the lower-middle tier of all possible configurations, indicating that while it can run the game, it is far from an optimal pairing. The rank reflects the GPU's limitations at higher settings, which drags down the overall performance potential of the system.

The CPU itself is a high-end part, performing in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. This is a stark contrast to the GPU, which only achieves the 62nd percentile. This mismatch means the system is severely unbalanced for this game. The CPU is capable of far more than the GPU can deliver. The combo rank of 2026 out of 2911 suggests that many other pairings, likely those with a more balanced CPU-GPU relationship, achieve better in-game results. The low rank is a direct consequence of the GPU bottlenecking the powerful CPU, preventing the system from reaching the performance levels its processor alone could support.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is the decisive component in this configuration's performance. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The core operates at a base clock of 1470 MHz and a boost clock of 1650 MHz. These specifications define its processing capability.

In The Medium, the GPU's role is clear. The benchmark results show that it is the limiting factor at all resolutions above 1080p Low. The data shows the GPU's average benchmark score is 18093, placing it in the 62nd percentile. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile, has an average score of 18159, which is 0.4% higher. This indicates the desktop RTX 2060 SUPER is performing as expected, but that performance is firmly in the mid-range.

The frame rate drops are more closely tied to the GPU's rendering capabilities than its VRAM capacity. While 8 GB is a standard capacity, the game's demands at 4K Ultra likely exceed what the TU106 chip can process in real-time. The boost clock of 1650 MHz is a key factor; when the GPU is under load, it will boost to this frequency, but the sheer number of pixels and effects at 4K overwhelm its 2176 shading units and 64 ROPs. The result is the observed 21 FPS at 4K Ultra. The GPU is simply not fast enough to handle the highest workload, regardless of the CPU's readiness.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete picture of performance across all twelve tested configurations. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are as follows: Low averages 92 FPS, Medium averages 57 FPS with a minimum of 49 FPS and a maximum of 66 FPS, High averages 41 FPS, and Ultra averages 33 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, we see a uniform decrease. Low averages 77 FPS. Medium averages 48 FPS, with a minimum of 41 FPS and a maximum of 55 FPS. High averages 35 FPS, and Ultra averages 27 FPS. The minimum and maximum data for Medium at 1440p shows a 14 FPS variance, suggesting some scene complexity is causing frame time spikes.

At 3840x2160, the performance collapses. Low averages 61 FPS, which is the only playable result at this resolution. Medium averages 38 FPS, with a minimum of 32 FPS and a maximum of 43 FPS. High averages 27 FPS, and Ultra averages 21 FPS. The data shows a clear trend: the step from Low to Medium is the most significant performance hit at every resolution, representing a 38% decrease at 1080p, 38% at 1440p, and 38% at 4K. The step from Medium to High is also steep, with a 28% decrease at 1080p, 27% at 1440p, and 29% at 4K. This indicates that the Medium and High presets introduce a substantial increase in graphical effects that the RTX 2060 SUPER struggles to process.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a 30 MB shared L3 cache. Its benchmark scores are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42216 and a single-core score of 5960. The CPU's average benchmark score is 64640, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and game logic. Given the performance data, it is evident that the CPU is not the bottleneck. The frame rates are consistently low enough that the CPU has idle capacity. The CPU's high single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5960, ensures that the game's main thread is well-served. Its massive multi-core capability, shown in the 42216 multi-core score, is more than sufficient for any background tasks or secondary threads the game might spawn.

The data suggests that the CPU could support much higher frame rates than the GPU can deliver. For example, at 1080p Low, the GPU manages 92 FPS. If the GPU were more powerful, the CPU would likely be able to push this number much higher. The CPU's 93rd percentile ranking, contrasted with the GPU's 62nd percentile, quantifies this imbalance. The CPU is not the limiting factor; it is waiting on the GPU to complete its rendering tasks. This is a textbook case of a GPU bottleneck in a gaming system.