The Medium

The Medium is a demanding fixed-camera horror title, and this pairing of an Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER lands in the lower half of tested combinations. With a combo rank of 1648 out of 2911 tested combos, the system sits just above the median, but the benchmark data reveals a configuration that is heavily constrained by the graphics card at higher resolutions, while the CPU remains mostly idle. This is a classic case of a modern, high-core-count processor paired with an aging mid-range GPU, and the measured frames reflect that bottleneck clearly.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER achieves a rank of 1648 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. That places it in the 56th percentile of all tested systems, meaning a slight majority of configurations deliver higher average frame rates. This is not a top-tier result, but it is far from the bottom of the pack. The ranking suggests that this system can play the game, but it will not excel at maximum settings or at 4K resolution.

Breaking down the components, the CPU is a strong performer in general benchmarks. The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus scores in the 96th percentile versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 93785. Its nearest rivals in synthetic testing are the Intel Xeon 6520P with a score of 93786 and a delta of 0%, the AMD EPYC 4564P with a score of 95183 and a delta of -1.5%, the AMD EPYC 9175F with a score of 95615 and a delta of -1.9%, and the AMD EPYC 4565P with a score of 95764 and a delta of -2.1%. This means the CPU is essentially on par with those server-class parts, trading blows within a 2% margin. It is a very capable processor by any measure.

The GPU, however, is an older design. The RTX 2070 SUPER sits in the 65th percentile versus all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20282. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480, -1% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, -1.2% delta), the Intel Arc B570 (20556, -1.3% delta), and the Intel Arc A750 (20582, -1.5% delta). This places the GPU in the same performance tier as those cards, all within a 1.5% window. The data shows a mismatch: a top-4% CPU paired with a mid-60s-percentile GPU. In The Medium, that mismatch manifests as a GPU-limited experience at most settings, which is why the combo rank is only slightly above average.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2 family, built on Arrow Lake Refresh at a 3 nm process node. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz, and it boosts to 5.50 GHz. The cache configuration includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with a bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s. It has 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes from the CPU. This is a desktop-class part with a TDP of 125 W, and it features an integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 64EU.

In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU is extremely strong. It scores 44253 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2439 in single-core. In Cinebench R20, it scores 24461 multi-core and 3453 single-core. Cinebench R15 results show 6656 multi-core and 354 single-core. PassMark results include a multi-thread score of 68574, a single-thread score of 5068, and a physics score of 4064. Other PassMark tests show data compression at 804322, data encryption at 59097, extended instructions at 63506, floating point math at 229491, integer math at 175986, and random string sorting at 96945. The CPU also scores 615 in find prime numbers. These numbers confirm a processor that is overkill for most gaming scenarios.

For The Medium specifically, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and handle the game’s logic. The game is not known for being CPU-intensive, and with 24 cores available, the workload is spread thin. The benchmark data does not show a CPU bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 101 FPS average, which is the highest measured result in the entire set. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see frame rates plateau across resolutions, but they drop sharply as resolution increases. The data indicates that the CPU has ample headroom. The high boost clock of 5.50 GHz helps in single-threaded scenarios, but The Medium’s fixed-camera angles and pre-rendered environments do not appear to tax the processor heavily. The 24 threads are more than sufficient, and the CPU’s performance percentile of 96 compared to the GPU’s 65 tells the story: this processor is not the bottleneck.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER is a Turing-architecture GPU based on the TU104 chip, manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units. The GPU features 40 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. Its base clock is 1605 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz. The memory subsystem consists of 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The memory clock is 1750 MHz, which translates to 14 Gbps effective. The card’s FP32 performance is 9.062 TFLOPS, and its texture rate is 283.2 GTexel/s with a pixel rate of 113.3 GPixel/s. The GPU has a TDP of 215 W and requires a 550 W power supply. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 2070 SUPER scores 18169 in PassMark G3D, 7557 in PassMark GPU compute, 83358 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 90637 in Geekbench Vulkan. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1651. PassMark DirectX tests show scores of 132 for DX10, 151 for DX11, 67 for DX12, and 223 for DX9. The GPU’s average benchmark score is 20282, placing it in the 65th percentile. This is a mid-range card from the 20-series, and its age shows in modern titles.

In The Medium, the GPU is the primary driver of performance. The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, average frame rates fall proportionally, which is the hallmark of GPU-bound rendering. The GPU’s 8 GB of VRAM is a consideration, but the game’s measured results do not show a hard VRAM cap at the tested settings. The GPU’s boost clock of 1770 MHz is modest by today’s standards, but it is consistent. The RTX 2070 SUPER’s role is to handle the game’s fixed-camera scenes, which often feature complex lighting and reflections. The ray tracing cores are present, but The Medium does not appear to leverage them heavily based on the measured frame rates. The data suggests the GPU is working at its limit, especially at 4K, where the average FPS drops to 30 on High settings and 24 on Ultra.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, and Ultra). The results are consistent with a GPU-bound scenario.

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its best performance. On Low settings, the average FPS is 101. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 63, with a minimum of 54 and a maximum of 72. On High settings, the average is 45 FPS. On Ultra, the average falls to 36 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium is a 38 FPS drop, which is significant, while the drop from Medium to High is 18 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 9 FPS. This indicates that the Medium preset offers a substantial visual upgrade over Low, but the GPU struggles to maintain high frame rates beyond that.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down. Low settings yield an average of 85 FPS, which is a 16 FPS drop from 1080p Low. Medium settings produce an average of 53 FPS, with a minimum of 45 and a maximum of 61. High settings average 38 FPS, and Ultra settings average 30 FPS. The pattern is similar to 1080p, with the Low-to-Medium gap being 32 FPS, the Medium-to-High gap being 15 FPS, and the High-to-Ultra gap being 8 FPS. The 1440p results are roughly 16-20% lower than the 1080p results at each setting.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly stretched. Low settings average 67 FPS, which is still playable. Medium settings average 42 FPS, with a minimum of 35 and a maximum of 48. High settings average 30 FPS, and Ultra settings average 24 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop is 25 FPS, Medium-to-High is 12 FPS, and High-to-Ultra is 6 FPS. The 4K results are significantly lower than 1080p, with the Low preset dropping from 101 to 67 FPS, a 34 FPS reduction.

The data shows that the combo can achieve 60 FPS only at 1080p Low or 1440p Low. At 1080p Medium, it manages 63 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold. For higher settings or resolutions, the frame rates fall below 60 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, the game becomes nearly unplayable at 24 FPS average. The minimum FPS values are only provided for Medium settings at each resolution: 54 at 1080p, 45 at 1440p, and 35 at 4K. These minimums indicate that even at Medium settings, there are frame dips, but they are not catastrophic.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior is a textbook example of GPU-bound performance. The data shows that as resolution increases, average FPS decreases in a predictable manner, with the CPU having little influence on the outcome.

Starting at 1080p Low, the combo averages 101 FPS. At 1440p Low, it drops to 85 FPS, a 15.8% decrease. At 4K Low, it falls to 67 FPS, a 21.2% decrease from 1440p and a 33.7% decrease from 1080p. This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is being pushed harder at each higher resolution. The same pattern holds for Medium settings: 63 FPS at 1080p, 53 FPS at 1440p (a 15.9% drop), and 42 FPS at 4K (a 20.8% drop from 1440p and a 33.3% drop from 1080p). High settings show 45 FPS at 1080p, 38 FPS at 1440p (a 15.6% drop), and 30 FPS at 4K (a 21.1% drop from 1440p and a 33.3% drop from 1080p). Ultra settings show 36 FPS at 1080p, 30 FPS at 1440p (a 16.7% drop), and 24 FPS at 4K (a 20.0% drop from 1440p and a 33.3% drop from 1080p).

The consistency of the percentage drops across settings is striking. For every preset, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is between 15.6% and 16.7%, and the drop from 1440p to 4K is between 20.0% and 21.2%. This uniformity indicates that the limiting component is the GPU, and the CPU is not introducing any variable overhead. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see smaller FPS differences at higher resolutions, as the CPU would cap frame rates regardless of resolution. Instead, the FPS scales inversely with the pixel count, confirming that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the sole limiting factor.

The data also suggests that the CPU is barely working. The 24-core Ultra 7 270K Plus is capable of far more than what The Medium demands. At 1080p Low, the GPU is rendering 101 FPS, but the CPU has headroom to push much higher if the GPU allowed it. The fact that the FPS drops by roughly one-third from 1080p to 4K across all settings is a clear indicator that the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth are the constraints. The 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance are simply not enough for 4K Ultra in this title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the best experience per the data is a trade-off between frame rate and visual quality. The combo cannot deliver a smooth 60 FPS at every setting, so the recommendation depends on the target resolution.

For 1080p, the Medium preset is the sweet spot. It delivers an average of 63 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold, with a minimum of 54 FPS. The Low preset at 101 FPS is smooth but sacrifices too much visual fidelity for a horror game that relies on atmosphere. High settings at 45 FPS are playable but not ideal for a genre where precise timing can be important. Ultra at 36 FPS is too low for a consistent experience. Therefore, Medium at 1080p offers the best balance, providing a playable frame rate while retaining more visual detail than Low.

For 1440p, the Low preset at 85 FPS is the only option that stays comfortably above 60 FPS. Medium settings at 53 FPS are borderline, with a minimum of 45 FPS, which could cause noticeable stutter in fast-moving scenes. High settings at 38 FPS and Ultra at 30 FPS are not recommended for a smooth experience. If the user has a 1440p display, the data suggests using Low settings to maintain high frame rates, or accepting the 53 FPS average on Medium if visual quality is prioritized over smoothness.

For 4K, the situation is more constrained. Low settings average 67 FPS, which is the only preset that exceeds 60 FPS. Medium settings average 42 FPS, High settings average 30 FPS, and Ultra averages 24 FPS. The 24 FPS average on Ultra is effectively a slideshow for a game that requires exploration and timing. The 30 FPS on High is at the edge of playability, but the 42 FPS on Medium is a more reasonable compromise, though it still falls short of 60 FPS. For a 4K display, the data indicates that Low settings are the only way to achieve a fluid 60 FPS experience, while Medium is the highest setting that remains playable.

Considering the overall dataset, the Medium preset at 1080p is the best experience this combo can offer. It is the only setting and resolution combination that delivers both an average FPS above 60 and a visual quality above the minimum. The 63 FPS average with a 54 FPS minimum means the game will feel responsive, and the Medium preset in The Medium likely includes enough lighting and shadow detail to maintain the horror atmosphere. If the user is willing to drop below 60 FPS, 1440p Medium at 53 FPS is a viable alternative for higher resolution, but 1080p Medium is the data-backed recommendation for the best overall experience.