The Medium

The Medium is a fixed-camera horror title that leans heavily on atmosphere, and the data for the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 shows a combination that is playable at 1080p and 1440p, but struggles at 4K. The measured results across three resolutions and four quality presets indicate that this system’s performance is heavily dictated by the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and the game’s demanding rendering, rather than the CPU’s substantial 24-core architecture. This analysis uses only the provided benchmark data to interpret how this specific pairing behaves in The Medium.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU and GPU combination in The Medium?

A: The combo ranks 2260 out of 2911 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the lower half of all tested systems. This suggests that while the hardware is functional, it is not optimized for the highest-end experiences in this title.

Q: At which resolution and settings does this combo achieve the highest average frame rate?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 84 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only measured configuration that breaks past the 80 FPS mark, indicating that a smooth experience requires dropping the quality preset to its lowest at 1080p.

Q: How does the CPU’s benchmark performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus has an average benchmark score of 93785, which places it at the 96th percentile among all CPUs. Its closest rival, the Intel Xeon 6520P, scores 93786, showing a 0% delta. The AMD EPYC 4564P is 1.5% behind, the AMD EPYC 9175F is 1.9% behind, and the AMD EPYC 4565P is 2.1% behind.

Q: What is the GPU’s performance percentile and how does it compare to its closest rival?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 has an average benchmark score of 19036, placing it at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro K6000, scores 19030 with a 0% delta, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile is 0.1% behind.

Q: Is there a measurable difference between the Medium and High presets at 1440p?

A: Yes, the data shows a significant gap. At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the average frame rate is 44 FPS, with a minimum of 37 FPS and a maximum of 51 FPS. When switching to High settings at the same resolution, the average drops to 32 FPS. This represents a 12 FPS decrease, which is a substantial performance hit for one preset level.

Q: Does the data show any frame rate stability information for the 4K Medium setting?

A: Yes, the only 4K configuration with min and max frame data is at 3840x2160 with Medium settings. The average FPS is 35, with a minimum of 29 FPS and a maximum of 40 FPS. This indicates a relatively tight frame pacing window, but the average is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2260 out of 2911 tested combinations places this system in the 22nd percentile of all tested hardware pairings for The Medium. This is a low standing, but it does not tell the full story. The ranking reflects the raw performance ceiling of the hardware, which is constrained by the GPU’s capabilities. The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is a top-tier processor, sitting at the 96th percentile against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 93785. This puts it in the same performance class as server-grade Xeon and EPYC processors.

However, the AMD Radeon RX 6600 is a mid-range part, sitting at the 63rd percentile for GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 19036 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19030), which is a professional workstation card from a different era. The GPU is clearly the bottleneck in this pairing, and the game’s frame rates reflect that. The benchmark averages for the GPU show a 0% delta with the Quadro K6000, a -0.1% delta with the RTX 4050 Mobile, and a -0.3% delta with the Tesla K20m. This places the RX 6600 in a performance tier that is adequate for 1080p gaming but insufficient for higher resolutions in demanding titles.

The CPU’s score of 93785 is nearly five times higher than the GPU’s score of 19036, which creates a massive imbalance. In The Medium, this means that the CPU is never the limiting factor. The data shows that the frame rates scale dramatically with resolution, which is a classic sign of a GPU-bound workload. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 84 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to 20 FPS. This scaling pattern is directly tied to the GPU’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth, not the CPU’s core count or clock speed. The rank of 2260 is a reflection of this GPU limitation, as many other combos with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs would outrank it in this specific title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience for this combo depends heavily on the target resolution. For a 60 FPS experience, the only viable configuration is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which delivers an average of 84 FPS. This is the only preset that provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, with no minimum frame data recorded to suggest significant dips. If the user prefers Medium settings, the average at 1080p drops to 52 FPS, with a minimum of 44 FPS and a maximum of 60 FPS. This is still playable, but it sits below the 60 FPS target and may be noticeable in slower-paced horror scenes.

For 2560x1440, the data suggests that Low settings are the only reasonable choice for smooth gameplay, yielding an average of 71 FPS. Medium settings at 1440p drop the average to 44 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. High settings at 1440p are not recommended, as the average falls to 32 FPS, which is a stuttery experience for a game that relies on atmospheric pacing. The 4K resolution is largely impractical for this combo. Even at Low settings, the average FPS is 55, which is below the 60 FPS target. Medium settings at 4K average 35 FPS, and Ultra settings average 20 FPS, making them unsuitable for a playable experience.

The best balance of visual quality and performance appears to be 1920x1080 with Medium settings. The average of 52 FPS, with a minimum of 44 FPS, is close to the 60 FPS target, and the Medium preset likely provides a significant visual improvement over Low. The data shows that the jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 32 FPS on average (84 to 52), but the jump from Medium to High costs only 15 FPS (52 to 37). This suggests that Medium is the most efficient preset for this resolution, as it provides a substantial visual upgrade over Low without the steep performance penalty seen at High and Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a clear picture of how this combo performs across the three standard resolutions. At 3840x2160, the frame rates are consistently low. The Ultra preset averages 20 FPS, High averages 25 FPS, Medium averages 35 FPS, and Low averages 55 FPS. The Medium setting is the only one with frame time data, showing a minimum of 29 FPS and a maximum of 40 FPS. This indicates that even the most balanced 4K preset cannot hold a stable 30 FPS, making 4K gaming unrealistic for this hardware.

At 2560x1440, the performance improves but remains below optimal. The Low preset averages 71 FPS, which is the only 1440p configuration above 60 FPS. Medium averages 44 FPS, with a minimum of 37 FPS and a maximum of 51 FPS. High averages 32 FPS, and Ultra averages 25 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 1440p is 27 FPS, which is a significant drop, while the gap between Medium and High is 12 FPS. This suggests that Low is the only preset that offers a smooth experience at 1440p, and any higher quality setting will result in noticeable frame rate drops.

At 1920x1080, the results are more varied and playable. The Low preset averages 84 FPS, which is the highest score across all measured configurations. Medium averages 52 FPS, with a minimum of 44 FPS and a maximum of 60 FPS. High averages 37 FPS, and Ultra averages 30 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a clear degradation: 84 FPS to 52 FPS to 37 FPS to 30 FPS. The Medium setting provides a minimum of 44 FPS, which is the lowest recorded minimum for any 1080p preset, but it is still within a playable range. The data indicates that 1080p is the only resolution where this combo can access all presets, albeit with Ultra sitting at a marginal 30 FPS average.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is the primary determinant of frame rates in The Medium. Its specifications include 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 1626 MHz, a game clock of 2044 MHz, and a boost clock of 2491 MHz. The memory operates at 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. The GPU’s 1792 shading units and 64 ROPs are responsible for the pixel throughput, which is rated at 159.4 GPixel/s.

The 8 GB VRAM is a critical factor in this game’s performance. The data shows that at 4K resolution, the frame rates are exceptionally low, with the Ultra preset averaging 20 FPS and High averaging 25 FPS. This is likely due to the GPU hitting its memory capacity, as The Medium’s high-resolution textures and effects can exceed the 8 GB buffer. The 128-bit memory bus, which limits bandwidth to 224.0 GB/s, also constrains performance at higher resolutions, where the GPU must fetch more texture and geometry data.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reinforce its mid-range positioning. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1492, and its Passmark G3D score is 15096. The Geekbench Vulkan score is 67623, while the OpenCL score is 28850. These scores place the GPU at the 63rd percentile, with a 0% delta compared to the NVIDIA Quadro K6000. The RTX 4050 Mobile is 0.1% behind, and the Tesla K20m is 0.3% behind. This indicates that the RX 6600 is a capable 1080p card but not designed for high-resolution gaming.

The measured FPS data shows a strong correlation between resolution and performance, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario. The frame rate drops by roughly 40% when moving from 1080p to 1440p at the same settings (e.g., 84 FPS to 71 FPS at Low, 52 FPS to 44 FPS at Medium). The drop from 1440p to 4K is even more severe, with Low settings going from 71 FPS to 55 FPS. This scaling is a direct result of the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth limitations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is a high-end desktop processor with 24 cores and 24 threads, based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s. Its L3 cache is 36 MB shared, with 3 MB of L2 per core and 192 KB of L1 per core. The CPU’s TDP is 125 W, and it uses the Intel Socket 1851 interface.

In terms of raw compute, the CPU’s benchmark scores are exceptional. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 44253, and its single-core score is 2439. The Passmark multithread score is 68574, and the single-thread score is 5068. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 93785 places it at the 96th percentile, with a 0% delta against the Intel Xeon 6520P. This makes it one of the fastest consumer CPUs available, but its performance in The Medium is largely irrelevant due to the GPU bottleneck.

The data shows that the CPU does not constrain frame rates in any of the measured configurations. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 84 FPS, which is a high frame rate that would stress a weaker CPU. However, the CPU’s 24 cores and 5.50 GHz boost clock ensure that it can handle the game’s logic and rendering calls without becoming a limitation. The game’s fixed-camera perspective likely reduces the CPU’s workload compared to first-person titles, as the environment is pre-rendered and the camera movement is limited.

The CPU’s role is more about ensuring consistent frame pacing than maximizing average FPS. The data for the Medium preset at 1080p shows a minimum of 44 FPS and a maximum of 60 FPS, which is a 16 FPS range. This variation is likely due to the GPU, not the CPU, as the GPU’s frame time can fluctuate based on scene complexity. The CPU’s strong single-thread performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2439, ensures that it can quickly process draw calls and maintain a stable frame delivery to the GPU. The CPU’s 96th percentile ranking against all CPUs means it will not be the weak link in this system for The Medium or any other game, but its capabilities are wasted in this pairing where the GPU is the clear bottleneck.