The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built around dual-reality rendering, presents a demanding workload that scales steeply with resolution. On the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, the measured data reveals a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while still delivering playable frame rates across all tested configurations. This analysis breaks down the measured performance, focusing on how the game responds to resolution changes, the role of the GPU’s core specifications, and the optimal settings for a balanced experience.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is significant, but the pattern is not linear, indicating a complex interaction between the game’s rendering engine and the hardware. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 95.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 79.5 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 16.8%. Moving to 3840x2160, the frame rate drops further to 60.6 FPS, a 23.8% decrease from the 1440p figure and a 36.5% decline from the 1080p baseline. This scaling suggests that the RTX 4090’s immense compute resources are being taxed heavily by the pixel count, but the game’s fixed-camera angles and specific rendering techniques prevent a purely linear relationship.

The data shows that the gap between 1080p and 1440p is smaller than the gap between 1440p and 4K at High settings. This is a classic sign of a GPU that is still comfortably within its limits at the lower resolutions, with the bottleneck shifting more aggressively towards the graphics card as the pixel output increases. At Ultra settings, the trend is even more pronounced: 77.4 FPS at 1080p drops to 63.2 FPS at 1440p (an 18.4% decline) and then to 48.1 FPS at 4K (a 23.9% decline from 1440p). The overall drop from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra is 37.9%, which is a substantial hit but still leaves the game in a playable state.

Interestingly, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings shows a much smaller relative drop, from 206.4 FPS to 177.6 FPS (a 14.0% decline), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is a steeper 22.0% (from 177.6 to 138.5 FPS). This pattern reinforces the idea that at lower settings, the CPU has more headroom to feed the GPU, and the scaling becomes more purely pixel-bound. The fact that 4K Low still produces 138.5 FPS—more than double the 4K Ultra result—underscores how much of the performance cost at 4K is tied to the advanced visual effects and shading enabled by the higher presets, rather than just the raw pixel count.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this configuration, and its specifications directly explain the measured results. The card features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This massive memory subsystem is crucial for a game like The Medium, which renders two simultaneous viewpoints for its signature dual-reality mechanic, potentially doubling the memory footprint for textures and scene data. The high bandwidth ensures that the GPU’s 16,384 shading units and 512 texture mapping units are kept fed, allowing for the high frame rates observed even at 1440p.

The GPU’s clock speeds, with a base of 2235 MHz and a boost of 2520 MHz, are high for a flagship card, and the data suggests they are being utilized effectively. The difference between the 1080p and 1440p results at High settings (95.5 vs 79.5 FPS) indicates that the card is not hitting a hard architectural limit, but rather is scaling its workload with the output resolution. The card’s 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores are present, but the benchmark results do not isolate ray tracing or DLSS usage, so their impact on these specific frame rates cannot be quantified from the data. However, the raw FP32 throughput of 82.58 TFLOPS provides the raw shader power needed for the game’s complex lighting and post-processing effects.

The GPU’s performance percentile of 91 vs all GPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 66473, positions it as a top-tier part, but the nearestRivals data shows a tight cluster. The RTX 4090 is only 0.4% behind the NVIDIA Tesla T4 and 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P40 in average benchmark scores. This is a unique comparison, as the Tesla parts are professional compute cards, not gaming-focused. In the context of The Medium, the 4090’s gaming-oriented drivers and high clock speeds are more relevant than its raw compute score, and the measured FPS data confirms its strength. The 24 GB memory buffer is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any of the tested settings, leaving the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth as the primary determinants of performance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual fidelity and performance for this hardware. At 3840x2160, Medium produces an average of 89.8 FPS, which is a 48.2% improvement over the Ultra preset’s 48.1 FPS. This is a significant jump that ensures a smoother experience without the substantial visual cost of the highest settings. The High preset at 4K (60.6 FPS) is also viable, but it sits closer to the 60 FPS threshold, leaving less headroom for demanding scenes. The data shows that the jump from Medium to High at 4K is a 32.5% reduction in frame rate (from 89.8 to 60.6), while the jump from High to Ultra is a 20.6% reduction (from 60.6 to 48.1). This indicates that the cost of the Ultra preset is disproportionately high.

At 2560x1440, Medium delivers an excellent 110.6 FPS, which is a 43.0% increase over High’s 79.5 FPS. For users with high-refresh-rate monitors, this is the clear choice. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 177.6 FPS, but the visual compromise is likely too severe for a game that relies heavily on atmosphere and lighting. At 1920x1080, all presets are playable, but Medium’s 131.5 FPS is a strong middle ground. The Ultra preset at 1080p (77.4 FPS) is actually slower than the High preset at 1440p (79.5 FPS), which suggests that the Ultra preset’s effects are more demanding than a simple resolution increase.

For the best experience, the data suggests using Medium at 4K to prioritize frame rate stability, or High at 1440p for a balance of fidelity and speed. The Ultra preset is only recommended if visual fidelity is absolutely paramount and a 48.1 FPS average is acceptable. Given that the RTX 4090 is an end-of-life product, its performance is fixed, and the measured values show that Medium is the most efficient preset in terms of frame rate per setting tier.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the average frame rates for each combination of resolution and settings.

| Resolution | Settings | Average FPS |

|:-----------|:---------|------------:|

| 1920x1080 | Low | 206.4 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 131.5 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 95.5 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 77.4 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 177.6 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 110.6 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 79.5 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 63.2 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 138.5 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 89.8 |

| 3840x2160 | High | 60.6 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 48.1 |

The data shows a clear hierarchy. At 1080p, the system is capable of exceeding 200 FPS only at Low settings, but even at Ultra, it maintains a solid 77.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p, the Low preset still breaks the 170 FPS mark, while Ultra drops to 63.2 FPS. The 4K resolution is where the scaling becomes most evident, with the Ultra preset barely holding above 48 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra settings is consistent across resolutions: a 62.4% difference at 1080p (from 206.4 to 77.4), a 64.4% difference at 1440p (from 177.6 to 63.2), and a 65.3% difference at 4K (from 138.5 to 48.1). This consistency shows that the visual presets have a similar relative impact regardless of resolution.

The performance rank for this combo is 10 out of 1689 tested combos, placing it in the top 0.6% of all configurations. This high rank is expected given the flagship nature of the CPU and GPU. The CPU’s benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 50009 and a single-core score of 7060, indicate it is not a bottleneck in this scenario. The GPU’s own benchmark scores, including a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9223, are consistent with its dominant role in determining the final frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this system can achieve in The Medium?

A: The highest measured average is 206.4 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

Q: Can this system maintain a 60 FPS average at 4K with the highest settings?

A: No. At 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset, the measured average frame rate is 48.1 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. The High preset at 4K does achieve an average of 60.6 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the Medium preset compared to Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset yields an average of 110.6 FPS, while the Ultra preset yields 63.2 FPS. This represents a 75.0% performance advantage for the Medium preset.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1080p and 4K at the High preset?

A: At the High preset, the average frame rate drops from 95.5 FPS at 1920x1080 to 60.6 FPS at 3840x2160, a decrease of 36.5%.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K a limiting factor for this game?

A: The benchmark data indicates that the GPU is the primary limiter. The CPU’s high multi-core and single-core scores (e.g., 50009 in Cinebench R23 multi-core) and its 97th percentile ranking suggest it provides ample headroom, as evidenced by the significant frame rate drops when resolution increases, which is a GPU-bound characteristic.

Q: How does this RTX 4090 configuration rank among all tested combos?

A: The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is ranked 10th out of 1689 tested configurations for this game, placing it in the top percentile of all systems.