The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti combination delivers a playable, though not exceptional, experience in The Medium. The data set shows a clear pattern where the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions, while the CPU's strong multi-threaded performance ensures consistent frame pacing at lower settings. This analysis examines the measured performance metrics to determine the optimal configuration for this specific hardware pairing.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain a 60 FPS average?

A: Based on the measured average FPS, only the 1920x1080 Low preset achieves a 60+ FPS average (129 FPS) with certainty. The 2560x1440 Low preset reaches 109 FPS, and the 3840x2160 Low preset hits 85 FPS, all of which surpass the 60 FPS threshold. However, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 yields 81 FPS, while at 2560x1440 it drops to 68 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it falls to 53 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 3070 Ti compared to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 29945, which places it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile (score 29928) and 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti (score 29783). It trails the AMD Radeon RX 6800 by 0.5% (score 30095) and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 by 1.6% (score 30433).

Q: Does the CPU hold back the GPU in this game?

A: The data suggests not at lower resolutions. At 1920x1080 Low, the combo achieves 129 FPS, which is a 51% increase over the 2560x1440 Low result (109 FPS). This scaling indicates the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently at 1080p, as the bottleneck shifts to the GPU when resolution increases.

Q: What is the performance difference between the Ultra and High presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 39 FPS, while the High preset averages 49 FPS. This represents a 10 FPS (or approximately 25.6%) advantage for High over Ultra. The Medium preset at this resolution averages 68 FPS, which is 29 FPS higher than Ultra.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded score compare to its single-threaded score?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42216 and a single-core score of 5960. This indicates a multi-threaded performance that is roughly 7.1 times its single-core result, reflecting its 20 cores and 20 threads configuration.

Q: Is this combination ranked highly among all tested combos?

A: The combo ranks 978 out of 2911 tested combinations. This places it in the 66th percentile of all combos, indicating it performs better than the median system but is not near the top tier.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the primary driver of frame rates in The Medium at higher resolutions. Its 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the game's texture-heavy horror environments. The GPU's base clock of 1575 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz are modest, but the Ampere architecture's 6144 shading units and 48 RT cores allow for substantial throughput.

The synthetic benchmarks reinforce this card's mid-to-high tier position. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 119718 and Vulkan score of 139541 show strong compute capabilities. The Passmark G3D score of 23356 places the card at the 75th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 29945 is nearly identical to the RTX 5070 Mobile (29928) and RTX 2080 Ti (29783), confirming this GPU's performance class.

In The Medium, the GPU's role becomes evident in the scaling between presets. At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops from 85 on Low to 38 on High, a 55.3% reduction. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the card's fill rate and memory bandwidth are saturated by the game's rendering demands. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a potential constraint at 4K Ultra settings, where the 30 FPS average suggests the card is struggling to maintain both visual fidelity and frame throughput.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti ranks 978 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This ranking places the system in the upper-middle tier of performance, below the top 33.6% of configurations. The rank is determined by the measured FPS across all resolution and settings combinations.

This mid-tier ranking is consistent with the individual component percentiles. The CPU sits at the 93rd percentile of all processors, while the GPU is at the 75th percentile. The combination of a high-end CPU with a mid-high-end GPU creates a system where the GPU is often the limiting factor, particularly at higher resolutions. The data shows that the combo's performance is competitive with systems featuring the RTX 3070 Ti's nearest rivals, such as the RX 6800 and RTX 2080 Ti, which have similar average benchmark scores.

The ranking suggests that while the CPU provides ample headroom, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and compute throughput cap the system's ability to achieve top-tier frame rates in The Medium. This is especially true at 4K, where the combo falls below the 60 FPS target on all presets except Low.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 129 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this combo. The Medium preset drops to 81 FPS, High to 58 FPS, and Ultra to 46 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p shows a minimum of 69 FPS and a maximum of 93 FPS, indicating a stable frame pacing with a 24 FPS variance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 109 FPS, a 15.5% decrease from 1080p Low. The Medium preset averages 68 FPS with a minimum of 58 FPS and a maximum of 78 FPS. The High preset averages 49 FPS, and Ultra drops to 39 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p reduces performance by approximately 15-20% across all presets.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset still manages an average of 85 FPS, which is playable. However, the Medium preset drops to 53 FPS with a minimum of 45 FPS and a maximum of 61 FPS. The High preset averages 38 FPS, and Ultra falls to 30 FPS. The 4K resolution clearly stresses the GPU, as the average FPS for High at 4K is 34.7% lower than at 1440p High.

The data reveals a consistent pattern: the Low preset provides the most significant FPS headroom, while the Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p for a smooth experience. The Medium preset offers a balanced compromise, with 81 FPS at 1080p and 68 FPS at 1440p, both above the 60 FPS threshold.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the Medium preset at 2560x1440 is the optimal configuration for this combo. This setting achieves an average of 68 FPS with a minimum of 58 FPS, which remains above the playability threshold of 60 FPS for the average frame rate. The variance between minimum and maximum (58-78 FPS) suggests acceptable frame pacing for a horror game that relies on atmospheric tension rather than fast-paced action.

For users prioritizing performance, the Low preset at 3840x2160 provides an average of 85 FPS, which is the highest 4K performance available. This configuration leverages the CPU's strength to maintain high frame rates while sacrificing visual quality. The Low preset at 1080p (129 FPS) is recommended for competitive or high-refresh-rate displays, though this is likely unnecessary for a horror title.

The High preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it offers only marginal visual improvements over Medium while incurring a significant performance penalty. At 1440p, High averages 49 FPS, which is 19 FPS lower than Medium. The Ultra preset should only be considered at 1080p, where it averages 46 FPS, though this falls below the ideal 60 FPS target.

The data indicates that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this hardware, balancing visual fidelity with playable frame rates. At 1080p Medium (81 FPS), users can enable additional graphical effects without dropping below 60 FPS. At 1440p Medium (68 FPS), the experience remains smooth, making this the recommended default.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 provides substantial computational headroom for The Medium. With 20 cores and 20 threads, the CPU is well-suited for the game's multi-threaded rendering pipeline. The base clock of 2.40 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz demonstrate a wide frequency range that can adapt to varying workloads. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache helps reduce memory latency during scene transitions.

The CPU's benchmark scores confirm its high-end positioning. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42216 places it at the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. The single-core score of 5960 is equally impressive, ensuring that the game's main thread is not a bottleneck. The Passmark multi-thread score of 49682 and single-thread score of 4689 further validate this.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 4464P (avg score 64823, 0.3% lower) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F (avg score 64438, 0.3% higher). This indicates that the 265 is well within the expected performance envelope for its class. The CPU's TDP of 65 W suggests it operates efficiently, providing high performance without excessive power draw.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is most apparent at lower resolutions and settings where the GPU is less stressed. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 129 FPS, indicating that the CPU can drive frame rates above 120 FPS when the GPU is not the bottleneck. This headroom ensures that the system remains responsive even during complex scenes with multiple entities or physics calculations.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data from 1080p to 4K reveals the scaling behavior of this combo in The Medium. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 129 at 1080p to 109 at 1440p and 85 at 4K. This represents a 15.5% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a 22.0% decrease from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is relatively linear, suggesting a balanced workload between CPU and GPU at this preset.

The Medium preset shows a similar pattern: 81 FPS at 1080p, 68 FPS at 1440p, and 53 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 16.0% and 22.1% respectively. This consistency indicates that the game scales predictably with resolution, and the GPU becomes more dominant as pixel count increases.

The High preset exhibits steeper declines: 58 FPS at 1080p, 49 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 15.5%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 22.4%. This pattern suggests that at High settings, the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading resources are more heavily taxed, leading to a slightly faster decline at higher resolutions.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 46 FPS at 1080p, 39 FPS at 1440p, and 30 FPS at 4K. The 4K result is 34.8% lower than the 1080p result, indicating that the GPU is severely constrained at this setting. The data suggests that the GPU is the limiting component at resolutions above 1080p, as the CPU's performance headroom is not fully utilized when the GPU is saturated. The 8 GB VRAM capacity likely contributes to this limitation at 4K Ultra, where texture data exceeds the available memory.