The Medium

# The Medium with Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a playable but resolution-sensitive experience in The Medium, with the data showing that 1080p and 1440p are the sweet spots while 4K demands settings compromises. The combo ranks 614th out of 2,911 tested configurations, placing it in the top 21% of all recorded systems for this horror title. Benchmark results indicate that the RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM and Ada Lovelace architecture handle the game's fixed-camera scenes well, but the frame rate curve across resolutions reveals where the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep performance drop as resolution increases, which is classic GPU-bound behavior. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 150 FPS at 1920x1080 to 126 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 16%, and then to 99 FPS at 3840x2160, another 21% drop. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4070 is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, with the CPU's 24 cores and 24 threads providing ample headroom even at 1080p.

The Medium preset tells a similar story with tighter margins. At 1920x1080 Medium, the system averages 93 FPS, which drops to 79 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 15% decline) and then to 62 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 22% further decline). The min-to-max range at Medium settings narrows as resolution climbs: 79–108 FPS at 1080p, 67–91 FPS at 1440p, and 53–71 FPS at 4K. This compression of the frame time distribution at higher resolutions suggests the GPU is working closer to its saturation point, reducing the variance caused by scene complexity.

High settings show the most dramatic resolution penalty. The average FPS goes from 67 at 1080p to 56 at 1440p (a 16% drop) and then to 44 at 4K (a 21% drop from 1440p). The absolute difference between 1080p and 4K at High is 23 FPS, which represents a 34% reduction in performance. This is steeper than the Low preset's 34% total drop (from 150 to 99 FPS), indicating that the higher-quality textures and lighting effects at High settings amplify the GPU's workload disproportionately at 4K.

Ultra settings push the system to its limits. The average FPS at 1080p Ultra is 53, which falls to 45 at 1440p and 35 at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 34% reduction, nearly identical to the Low preset's percentage drop, but the starting point is far lower. At 4K Ultra, the 35 FPS average is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, and even 1440p Ultra at 45 FPS would feel sluggish in a horror title where camera movement needs to be fluid.

The data reveals that the scaling factor between 1080p and 1440p is roughly 75–84% across all settings, while the factor between 1440p and 4K is 78–79%. This consistency suggests that the RTX 4070's memory bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s and its 192-bit bus width are adequate for the game's data demands, but the raw shader throughput of 29.15 TFLOPS becomes the bottleneck as pixel count increases. The 4K results at every setting show that this resolution is only viable at Low or Medium presets, with the latter providing a playable 62 FPS average.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070, built on the 5 nm Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip, is the dominant factor in this combo's game performance. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for The Medium's texture streaming and fixed-camera scene transitions. The data shows no signs of VRAM-related stuttering or texture pop-in, as the min FPS values at Medium settings remain within a reasonable range of the averages: 53 FPS min vs 62 FPS average at 4K, 67 vs 79 at 1440p, and 79 vs 93 at 1080p.

Clock speeds of 1920 MHz base and 2475 MHz boost give the RTX 4070 substantial headroom for sustained loads. The boost clock is 29% above the base clock, and benchmark results indicate the GPU can maintain high frequencies under the game's load, as evidenced by the consistent frame times across repeated scene transitions. The 5,888 shading units and 184 texture mapping units handle the game's fixed-camera rendering efficiently, while the 64 ROPs manage the pixel output at 4K without becoming a limiting factor until Ultra settings.

The GPU's 46 ray tracing cores are not heavily utilized in The Medium, as the game's horror atmosphere relies more on pre-baked lighting and volumetric effects than real-time ray tracing. The benchmark data shows that the performance gap between Medium and Ultra settings (62 vs 35 FPS at 4K) is substantial, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects—likely shadow quality and post-processing—place a significant load on the GPU's compute units. The RTX 4070's 29.15 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the theoretical ceiling, and the game's Ultra preset at 4K appears to approach that limit.

The GPU's percentile rank of 81 among all GPUs places it in the upper quintile, though its nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks include the NVIDIA Tesla P4 (0.1% faster) and AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (0.4% slower). These comparisons are based on synthetic benchmarks, but in The Medium specifically, the RTX 4070's modern architecture with DirectX 12 Ultimate support and 12 GB VRAM gives it advantages that older cards cannot match. The 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die provide the computational density needed for the game's cinematic camera angles and layered audio-visual effects.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data clearly identifies Medium as the optimal preset for this combo across all three resolutions. At 1920x1080 Medium, the system delivers 93 FPS average with a min of 79 and max of 108, providing smooth gameplay with comfortable headroom above 60 FPS. At 2560x1440 Medium, the 79 FPS average with 67–91 range remains well within playable territory, while at 3840x2160 Medium, the 62 FPS average with 53–71 range is borderline but acceptable for a slow-paced horror game.

High settings are only recommended for 1080p, where the 67 FPS average is playable but leaves little margin for demanding scenes. At 1440p High, the 56 FPS average dips below 60, and at 4K High, the 44 FPS average would be noticeable in camera pans. Ultra settings should be avoided entirely; even at 1080p, the 53 FPS average is below the preferred threshold, and the 4K Ultra result of 35 FPS is not a viable experience.

Low settings provide the highest frame rates—150 FPS at 1080p, 126 FPS at 1440p, and 99 FPS at 4K—but the visual quality trade-off is unnecessary given the Medium preset's performance. The data shows that Medium at 4K (62 FPS) outperforms High at 1440p (56 FPS) and matches Ultra at 1080p (53 FPS) in terms of frame rate, while likely offering better visual fidelity than Low. For players prioritizing smoothness above all, Low at 4K provides a 99 FPS average, but Medium at 1440p offers a better balance of quality and speed.

The min FPS data at Medium settings is particularly telling: the 79 FPS minimum at 1080p ensures no frame drops below the refresh rate of standard 60 Hz monitors, while the 67 FPS minimum at 1440p keeps gameplay fluid on higher-refresh displays. Even the 4K Medium minimum of 53 FPS stays above the absolute playability threshold, though it would be marginal on displays with variable refresh rate support. The recommendation is clear: Medium preset for all resolutions, with the understanding that 1440p Medium provides the best overall experience, and 4K Medium is acceptable for players who prioritize resolution over frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system shows a wide performance envelope across settings. Low settings produce an average of 150 FPS, which suggests the game is heavily GPU-bound even at this resolution, as the CPU's 24 threads are more than adequate. Medium settings yield 93 FPS average with a measured range of 79–108 FPS, indicating consistent frame pacing. High settings drop to 67 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 53 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 97 FPS, demonstrating that the preset choice has a massive impact on performance.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower absolute numbers. Low settings average 126 FPS, Medium averages 79 FPS with a 67–91 range, High drops to 56 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 45 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 81 FPS, slightly smaller than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is becoming more of a constraint at this resolution. The Medium preset's 79 FPS average is 26% higher than High's 56 FPS, making Medium the clear choice for 1440p gaming.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4070 is firmly the limiting factor. Low settings average 99 FPS, which is still highly playable, but Medium drops to 62 FPS with a 53–71 range, High falls to 44 FPS, and Ultra reaches just 35 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at each preset is consistent: Low loses 34% (150 to 99 FPS), Medium loses 33% (93 to 62 FPS), High loses 34% (67 to 44 FPS), and Ultra loses 34% (53 to 35 FPS). This uniformity confirms that the GPU's pixel throughput is the bottleneck, not memory bandwidth or CPU processing.

The min-to-max ranges at Medium settings reveal how the game's fixed-camera scenes affect frame pacing. At 1080p, the 79–108 FPS range shows a 29 FPS spread, which narrows to 24 FPS at 1440p (67–91) and 18 FPS at 4K (53–71). This tightening of the range at higher resolutions is counterintuitive but suggests that at 4K, the GPU is consistently saturated, reducing the impact of scene complexity on frame times. At 1080p, the GPU has more headroom to vary its output based on what the game renders.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 614th out of 2,911 tested combinations for The Medium, placing it in the 79th percentile of all recorded systems. This is a strong result, but not exceptional, given that the RTX 4070's percentile rank among all GPUs is 81 and the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus's percentile rank among all CPUs is 96. The gap between the CPU's high percentile and the combo's lower rank indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing, consistent with the resolution scaling analysis.

The CPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks provide context for its performance ceiling. The Intel Xeon 6520P scores nearly identically (93,786 vs 93,785, a 0% delta), while the AMD EPYC 4564P is 1.5% faster, the EPYC 9175F is 1.9% faster, and the EPYC 4565P is 2.1% faster. These are all server-class processors, which highlights how competitive the Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is in multi-threaded workloads. However, The Medium's performance is not CPU-limited, as evidenced by the frame rates scaling consistently with resolution.

The GPU's nearest rivals show that the RTX 4070 sits in a competitive mid-range position. The NVIDIA Tesla P4 is 0.1% faster in aggregate benchmarks, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 is 0.4% faster, the RTX 4080 Mobile is 1.3% faster, and the Radeon PRO W6400 is 1.3% slower. These are synthetic benchmark comparisons, and in The Medium specifically, the RTX 4070's 12 GB VRAM and modern feature set likely provide advantages over older architectures. The combo's 614th rank out of 2,911 suggests that roughly 23% of tested systems outperform it in this game.

The rank of 614 is respectable but not top-tier, aligning with the GPU's 81st percentile rather than the CPU's 96th percentile. This indicates that upgrading the GPU would yield larger frame rate gains in The Medium than upgrading the CPU, as the data shows the system is GPU-bound at all resolutions above 1080p Low. The combo's position in the middle-upper range of the database makes it a solid but not exceptional choice for this horror title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, with 24 cores and 24 threads, is a formidable processor that far exceeds The Medium's requirements. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz provide strong single-threaded performance, as reflected in its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,439 and PassMark single-thread score of 5,068. The CPU's 96th percentile rank among all processors indicates it is among the fastest available, and the game's performance data shows no signs of CPU bottlenecking.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are substantial, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 44,253 and a PassMark multi-thread score of 68,574. These figures place it in the upper echelon of desktop processors, but The Medium is not a multi-threaded game that would leverage 24 cores effectively. The game's fixed-camera scenes and linear level design likely use only a few threads, meaning the CPU's additional cores provide little benefit beyond ensuring no frame drops from background tasks or system overhead.

The 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core provide ample data storage for game assets, while the 115.2 GB/s memory bandwidth on dual-channel DDR5 is more than sufficient for this title. The CPU's 3 nm process node from TSMC with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die delivers high efficiency, though the 125 W TDP indicates it draws moderate power. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 64EU is irrelevant for this gaming scenario, as the RTX 4070 handles all rendering.

In terms of CPU-bound scenarios, the data shows that even at 1080p Low (150 FPS), the frame rate is not limited by the processor. The consistent 34% performance drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings confirms that the GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU's 24 threads are likely idle or lightly loaded during gameplay, and the boost clock of 5.50 GHz ensures that any single-threaded game logic runs at maximum speed. The Core Ultra 7 270K Plus's 96th percentile ranking is far above what this game requires, making it a future-proof choice for more demanding titles even if it does not contribute directly to The Medium's frame rates.