The Medium

# The Medium with Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050

The Medium is a fixed-camera horror title that places heavy demands on both GPU and CPU, and the measured results for this Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 combination reveal a system that is playable at 1080p but struggles at higher resolutions. The combo ranks 2309 out of 2911 tested configurations, placing it in the lower third of all systems tested for this game. This ranking reflects the RTX 5050's position at the 66th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU sits higher at the 93rd percentile among all processors—a gap that suggests the GPU is the primary constraint in most scenarios.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear pattern: Low settings provide the only consistently playable experience across all resolutions, while Medium is viable only at 1080p. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system delivers 80 FPS average, which is the highest measured frame rate for this combo. Dropping to Medium at 1080p yields 50 FPS average with a minimum of 42 FPS and maximum of 57 FPS—still within acceptable range for a horror title where atmosphere matters more than twitch reflexes.

At 2560x1440, the situation tightens considerably. Low settings produce 67 FPS average, which remains smooth, but Medium drops to 42 FPS with a 36 FPS minimum—borderline for a game that benefits from sustained frame pacing. At 3840x2160, even Low settings only muster 53 FPS average, and Medium falls to 33 FPS with a 28 FPS minimum, which will be noticeable during camera transitions.

For the best experience per the measured rows, the recommendation is clear: 1080p with Medium settings offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, delivering 50 FPS average with a 42 FPS floor. If frame rate is paramount, 1080p Low at 80 FPS is the smoothest option. At 1440p, Low settings at 67 FPS is the only recommendation; Medium at 1440p risks dipping below 40 FPS. At 4K, no setting achieves a consistently smooth experience—Low at 53 FPS is the least objectionable, but users should expect occasional stutter.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K?

A: Technically yes, but not comfortably. At 3840x2160, the best measured result is 53 FPS on Low settings. Medium drops to 33 FPS average with a 28 FPS minimum, and High and Ultra fall to 24 FPS and 19 FPS respectively. For a horror game with fixed camera angles, 4K Low is playable but far from ideal.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the sweet spot. At 1080p, all four settings presets are measured: Low at 80 FPS, Medium at 50 FPS, High at 36 FPS, and Ultra at 28 FPS. This is the only resolution where Medium exceeds 50 FPS average.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 compare to its nearest rivals in general GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5050's average benchmark score is 21035, placing it at the 66th percentile. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL, scores 21153 (0.6% higher), while the AMD Radeon HD 8970M scores 21237 (1% higher). The AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT scores 20713, which is 1.6% lower, and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile scores 21379, 1.6% higher. These are all within a narrow band.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary constraint. The CPU holds a 93rd percentile ranking among all processors, while the GPU sits at the 66th percentile. This is corroborated by the resolution scaling: dropping from 1080p to 4K reduces FPS by roughly 34-37% at most settings, which is characteristic of GPU-bound scenarios.

Q: What is the difference between Low and High settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Low delivers 80 FPS average while High delivers 36 FPS—a 44 FPS difference. The gap between Low and Medium is 30 FPS (80 to 50), while the gap between Medium and High is 14 FPS (50 to 36). Ultra falls to 28 FPS, only 8 FPS below High.

Q: Does the CPU's 20-core configuration help in this game?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX has 20 cores and 20 threads with a 2.60 GHz base clock and 5.30 GHz boost. Given the GPU-bound nature indicated by the resolution scaling, the CPU's substantial multi-core capability—evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 40642—likely provides ample headroom. The game's demands appear to fall on the GPU, not the processor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 2309 out of 2911 tested combinations for The Medium, placing it in the 21st percentile of all tested systems. This is a low ranking that reflects the GPU's modest position rather than the CPU's strength. The RTX 5050's general benchmark average of 21035 and 66th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicates it is an entry-level to mid-range part, and the game's measured results align with that positioning.

The CPU, by contrast, is a high-end mobile processor. Its average benchmark score of 63173 places it at the 93rd percentile, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core i7-13790F (63080, 0.1% higher), AMD Ryzen AI 7 450G (63331, 0.2% higher), AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P185 (62839, 0.5% lower), and Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX (62738, 0.7% lower). The 265HX essentially trades blows with these parts, but none of that CPU headroom translates to high frame rates when the GPU is the bottleneck.

The disparity between CPU and GPU performance tiers explains the combo's low rank. In a game like The Medium, which is demanding on both components, the weaker link determines the experience. Here, that weaker link is unequivocally the RTX 5050. Users with this combo should expect performance in line with other RTX 5050 systems, not with systems featuring the 265HX paired with stronger GPUs.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full settings range was measured. Low produces 80 FPS average, Medium delivers 50 FPS with a 42 FPS minimum and 57 FPS maximum, High yields 36 FPS, and Ultra drops to 28 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 37.5% reduction, while Medium to High is a 28% reduction, and High to Ultra is a 22% reduction. The minimum FPS at Medium (42) is above the minimum at High and Ultra, which were not recorded but are implied to be lower.

At 2560x1440, Low produces 67 FPS, Medium delivers 42 FPS with a 36 FPS minimum and 48 FPS maximum, High yields 30 FPS, and Ultra drops to 24 FPS. The 1440p Medium result is notably 8 FPS lower than the 1080p Medium result, and the 1440p Low result is 13 FPS lower than 1080p Low. The minimum at 1440p Medium (36 FPS) is below the 1080p Medium minimum (42 FPS), indicating less headroom.

At 3840x2160, Low produces 53 FPS, Medium delivers 33 FPS with a 28 FPS minimum and 38 FPS maximum, High yields 24 FPS, and Ultra drops to 19 FPS. The 4K Low result is the only 4K setting that exceeds 30 FPS. The 4K Medium minimum of 28 FPS is close to the average, suggesting consistent but low frame delivery. High and Ultra at 4K are effectively unplayable, with averages below 25 FPS.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Low settings roughly double the frame rate of Ultra settings. At 1080p, 80 vs 28 FPS; at 1440p, 67 vs 24 FPS; at 4K, 53 vs 19 FPS. This indicates that the game's ultra settings impose a heavy load that this GPU cannot sustain at any resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a GPU-bound system. At Low settings, the drop is from 80 FPS at 1080p to 67 FPS at 1440p (a 16.3% reduction) and then to 53 FPS at 4K (a 33.8% reduction from 1080p). At Medium settings, the progression goes from 50 FPS at 1080p to 42 FPS at 1440p (16% reduction) and 33 FPS at 4K (34% reduction). High settings move from 36 to 30 to 24 FPS, a 33.3% total reduction, and Ultra goes from 28 to 24 to 19 FPS, a 32.1% reduction.

The consistent ~33-34% drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings is a classic sign of GPU limitation. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the scaling would be less pronounced at lower resolutions, with frame rates staying flat until the GPU became saturated. Instead, every resolution step produces a proportional drop in FPS, indicating that the RTX 5050's rendering throughput—its 13.17 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 320.0 GB/s memory bandwidth—is the determining factor.

The 4K results are particularly telling. At 4K Low, the system manages 53 FPS, which is only 66% of the 1080p Low result. At 4K Medium, it falls to 33 FPS, which is 66% of 1080p Medium. This linear scaling suggests the GPU is operating at its compute limit across all settings, with no CPU-induced plateau. For users targeting 1440p, the Low settings result of 67 FPS is the only option that clears 60 FPS, while Medium at 42 FPS requires a tolerance for sub-60 frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265HX is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU's general benchmark scores are strong: Cinebench R23 multi-core of 40642, single-core of 5737, and Passmark multi-thread of 47985.

In The Medium, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU. The resolution scaling pattern—consistent FPS drops proportional to pixel count—indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution. At 1080p Low, the system hits 80 FPS, which is a respectable frame rate that suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately at lower settings. If the CPU were struggling, we would expect to see frame rates plateau or drop disproportionately at lower resolutions where CPU overhead becomes more significant.

The CPU's 20 cores and 20 threads are more than sufficient for a game released in 2021. The Medium's fixed-camera presentation likely leverages multiple threads for scene loading and AI, but the measured data does not show any CPU-related bottleneck. The Passmark physics score of 2978 and integer math score of 126954 indicate strong general-purpose compute, which should handle any game logic demands. The single-core performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 5737, is also robust for a mobile part.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s with dual-channel DDR5 support is adequate for feeding the GPU, though the RTX 5050's own 320.0 GB/s bandwidth is the more relevant figure for frame delivery. The 265HX's position at the 93rd percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 63173, places it well above the GPU's 66th percentile, confirming that the processor is not the weak link in this combo.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using a 5 nm TSMC process, with 16,900 million transistors on a 149 mm² die. It has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 320.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GPU's clocks are 2317 MHz base and 2572 MHz boost, with a 130 W TDP. Its FP32 performance is 13.17 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6.

In The Medium, the RTX 5050 is the determining factor in every measured scenario. The GPU's 66th percentile ranking (average benchmark score 21035) is consistent with the observed frame rates. At 1080p Ultra, the system only manages 28 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS threshold typically considered minimally playable. At 4K Ultra, the result is 19 FPS, a slideshow by any standard.

The GPU's nearest rivals in general benchmarks are all within 1.6% of its average score, indicating it sits in a tightly packed performance tier. The AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (21153, 0.6% higher), AMD Radeon HD 8970M (21237, 1% higher), AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (20713, 1.6% lower), and NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (21379, 1.6% higher) all occupy the same band. This means the RTX 5050's performance in The Medium should be representative of this entire group.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for The Medium at 1080p and 1440p, as evidenced by the successful measurements at those resolutions. At 4K, the 33 FPS Medium result with a 28 FPS minimum suggests the VRAM is not exhausted, but the GPU's compute throughput is insufficient for higher settings. The 320.0 GB/s bandwidth, while modest, does not appear to be a specific bottleneck; the consistent resolution scaling points to raw shading and rasterization throughput as the limit. The 2560 shading units and 80 TMUs at 205.8 GTexel/s provide the texture throughput, but the 32 ROPs at 82.30 GPixel/s may constrain fill-rate-heavy scenes common in horror titles with detailed environments.