The Medium

The Medium presents a significant challenge to the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination. The measured frame rates reveal a system that is heavily constrained by the graphics card, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. This analysis breaks down the performance data to show exactly where the bottleneck lies and what users can expect from this pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, indicating a GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 47.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 38.9 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 9 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160, the average drops further to 30.6 FPS. This scaling pattern shows that the RTX 2070 SUPER’s rendering throughput is the limiting factor, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions. The delta between 1440p and 4K is 8.3 FPS, which is smaller than the 9 FPS delta between 1080p and 1440p, suggesting that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute units are being saturated progressively.

At Low settings, the scaling is more dramatic. The 1080p average of 102 FPS falls to 87.8 FPS at 1440p, a 14.2 FPS drop. The 4K Low average is 68.1 FPS, which is 33.9 FPS lower than the 1080p result. This wider spread indicates that when the graphical load is reduced, the GPU still cannot keep up with the increasing pixel count, but the relative performance loss is more pronounced because the initial load is lighter. The data shows that this combo is not viable for 4K gaming at anything above Low settings, as even Medium settings at 4K yield only 43.6 FPS.

The difference between 1080p and 4K at Ultra settings is 12.6 FPS (37.9 to 25.3). This smaller absolute difference compared to Low settings is because the Ultra preset already maxes out the GPU at all resolutions, making the frame rate more dependent on the raw pixel throughput. The pattern confirms that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary constraint, and the CPU’s role diminishes as resolution and settings increase.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is the dominant factor in this combo’s performance. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at 4K with higher settings. The GPU’s base clock of 1605 MHz and boost clock of 1770 MHz are relatively modest by modern standards, and the 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is reflected in the measured frame rates. At 4K Ultra, the average of 25.3 FPS is below playable thresholds, indicating that the GPU’s shading units and ROPs are overwhelmed.

The GPU’s 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are present, but The Medium’s implementation of ray tracing and DLSS is not reflected in the measured data, as all rows show standard rasterization performance. The 12 nm process node and 13,600 million transistors contribute to a 215 W TDP, which is typical for this class of card. The data shows that the RTX 2070 SUPER sits in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals include the RTX 4060 Mobile and RX 5700, with delta percentages of -2.3% and +2.5% respectively. This places it in the mid-range tier, which aligns with the measured FPS that are adequate for 1080p but struggle at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s memory configuration is also telling. With 8 GB of VRAM, the card can handle textures at 1080p and 1440p without issue, but at 4K with High or Ultra settings, the memory capacity may cause asset thrashing, contributing to the low averages. The 448.0 GB/s bandwidth is a bottleneck for the 4K pixel count, as the GPU must move large amounts of texture data to fill the frame buffer. This is evident in the 4K High result of 30.6 FPS, which is barely above the 4K Medium result of 43.6 FPS, showing a steep falloff as settings increase.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal balance of visual quality and performance for this combo is the Medium preset at 1920x1080, which yields an average of 64.5 FPS. This is a solid frame rate for a horror game where smoothness is important for atmosphere, and it is 16.6 FPS higher than the High preset at the same resolution. At 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 54.6 FPS, which is acceptable for slower-paced gameplay, but the High preset at 1440p drops to 38.9 FPS, which may feel stuttery. The Low preset at 1080p provides 102 FPS, but the visual quality is likely too degraded for a horror title that relies on lighting and shadows.

For users prioritizing visual fidelity, the High preset at 1080p with 47.9 FPS is the highest quality option that remains playable. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields only 37.9 FPS, which is below the 40 FPS threshold that many consider the minimum for a smooth experience. At 4K, the data suggests that even Low settings (68.1 FPS) are the only viable option, but the resolution scaling shows that the GPU is still being pushed hard. The Medium preset at 4K (43.6 FPS) is borderline, but the High (30.6 FPS) and Ultra (25.3 FPS) presets are not recommended for any serious gameplay.

The data indicates that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this combo, offering a 64.5 FPS average at 1080p and 54.6 FPS at 1440p. This represents a 34.6% improvement over High at 1080p (47.9 FPS), making it the clear choice for a responsive experience. The Low preset is only recommended for competitive play or if the user is sensitive to frame drops, as the 102 FPS at 1080p provides a large headroom for erratic scenes.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates are consistent across the resolution and settings matrix. At 1920x1080, the progression from Low to Medium to High to Ultra is 102, 64.5, 47.9, and 37.9 FPS respectively. This shows a clear linear degradation as settings increase, with the largest drop occurring between Low and Medium (37.5 FPS). At 2560x1440, the same progression yields 87.8, 54.6, 38.9, and 27.8 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium is 33.2 FPS, and between High and Ultra is 11.1 FPS, indicating that the Ultra preset is disproportionately expensive.

At 3840x2160, the results are 68.1, 43.6, 30.6, and 25.3 FPS for Low, Medium, High, and Ultra respectively. The gap between Medium and High is 13 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 5.3 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset at 4K is hitting a hard wall of the GPU’s compute limits, where additional features provide diminishing returns. The 1080p Low result of 102 FPS is the only row that exceeds the 100 FPS mark, which confirms the CPU’s ability to push high frame rates when the GPU is not the bottleneck.

The data also shows that the 1440p Medium result of 54.6 FPS is nearly identical to the 1080p High result of 47.9 FPS, with a 6.7 FPS difference. This implies that users can achieve similar performance by either lowering resolution or settings, but the visual impact may differ. The 4K Low result of 68.1 FPS is higher than the 1080p High result, which is counterintuitive but highlights the GPU’s ability to handle lower settings efficiently even at high pixel counts, as long as the memory bandwidth is not saturated.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1007 out of 1689 combos tested for The Medium. This places it in the bottom 40% of all tested configurations, which is a poor showing given the CPU’s high-end positioning. The rank reflects the GPU’s mid-range capabilities, as the CPU is in the 97th percentile of all CPUs, but the GPU is only in the 65th percentile. This disparity is a clear indicator that the pairing is unbalanced for this game, as the CPU’s potential is wasted by the GPU’s limitations.

The combo’s rank of 1007 out of 1689 means that approximately 60% of tested combos perform better, which aligns with the measured FPS that are below average for modern standards. The CPU’s nearest rivals, such as the Core Ultra 7 265KF and Core i9-14900KF, have average scores that are 0.2% and 0.2% lower respectively, but these differences are negligible in gaming. The GPU’s nearest rivals, including the RTX A400 and GTX TITAN Z, have similar average scores, but the RTX 2070 SUPER’s 65th percentile ranking shows that it is not a top-tier card.

The rank suggests that users with this combo should not expect high-end performance in The Medium. The data shows that the combo is adequate for 1080p gaming at Medium settings, but it will struggle at higher resolutions or settings. The rank is a direct consequence of the GPU’s 8 GB memory and 9.062 TFLOPS compute, which are insufficient for the game’s demanding visuals. The CPU’s 20 cores and 30 MB of L3 cache provide no benefit in this scenario, as the game is not CPU-bound.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K plays a minimal role in this game’s performance, as the measured FPS are consistently GPU-limited. The CPU’s 20 cores and 20 threads, with a base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz, provide more than enough processing power for The Medium’s single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. The 30 MB of shared L3 cache and 102.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth are also more than sufficient, as the game’s engine does not appear to tax the CPU heavily.

The CPU’s benchmark scores, such as the Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 50009 and single-core score of 7060, place it in the 97th percentile of all CPUs, but these numbers do not translate to gaming performance in this title. The data shows that the FPS at 1080p Low (102 FPS) is the only row where the CPU might be a factor, but even then, the GPU is still the limiting component. The CPU’s nearest rivals, including the Core Ultra 7 265KF and Core i9-14900KF, have nearly identical average scores, but their gaming performance would be similar to this combo given the same GPU.

The CPU’s architecture, based on Arrow Lake-S and manufactured on a 3 nm process, is designed for high multi-threaded performance, but The Medium does not utilize this capability. The game’s horror genre typically relies on lighting and shadow effects, which are GPU-intensive, and the measured data confirms that the CPU is not the bottleneck. The CPU’s 125 W TDP and PCIe Gen 5 support are irrelevant in this context, as the GPU is using PCIe 3.0 x16. In summary, the CPU is a high-end component that is wasted in this pairing, and users would see no benefit from upgrading it without also upgrading the GPU.