The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, where the GPU is the clear performance arbiter. The data indicates that this combination ranks in the 46th percentile of tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier for this specific title. The benchmark results show a system that is consistently GPU-bound across all resolutions, with the CPU's substantial headroom doing little to alleviate the graphics card's limitations at higher settings.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is severe and unequivocally points to the GPU as the limiting component. At Medium settings, the average frame rate falls from 68 FPS at 1920x1080 to 57 FPS at 2560x1440, and finally to 45 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 33.8% reduction in performance from 1080p to 4K, a scaling pattern typical of a system where the graphics processor is saturated.

The trend is even more pronounced at Ultra settings, where the frame rate plummets from 39 FPS at 1080p to 32 FPS at 1440p, and bottoms out at 25 FPS at 4K. This 35.9% drop from 1080p to 4K at Ultra settings confirms that the RTX 4070 Mobile's compute and memory resources are the bottleneck. The game's reliance on heavy visual effects and high-resolution textures overwhelms the 8 GB VRAM buffer and the 256.0 GB/s memory bandwidth at 4K, causing the frame rate to collapse to an unplayable level.

Conversely, the scaling at Low settings tells a different story. The jump from 1080p (108 FPS) to 1440p (91 FPS) is a 15.7% drop, while moving to 4K (72 FPS) results in a 33.3% reduction from the 1080p baseline. While the GPU is still the primary constraint, the lower fidelity settings allow the CPU to contribute more significantly to frame generation. The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, with its 16 cores and 22 threads, is more than capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions, but the graphics card's raw throughput caps the maximum output.

The data shows a clear inflection point at 1440p. At this resolution, the Medium preset yields 57 FPS, which is respectable, but High settings drop to 41 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS. This suggests that 1440p is the practical ceiling for this combo if the user desires high visual fidelity. The 4K results are consistently below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, even at Low settings, where the 72 FPS average is an outlier that requires significant visual compromises.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 108 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the data that exceeds the 100 FPS mark.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in The Medium?*

A: Yes, but with significant caveats. At 4K with Low settings, the system achieves 72 FPS, which is playable. However, at Medium settings, the average drops to 45 FPS, and at Ultra, it falls to 25 FPS, indicating that high-fidelity 4K gaming is not viable.

Q: How does the Medium preset compare to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers 57 FPS, while the High preset delivers 41 FPS. This represents a 16 FPS difference, or a 28.1% performance penalty for moving up one preset level.

Q: Is the frame rate stable at 1080p Medium settings?

A: The data shows an average of 68 FPS with a minimum of 58 FPS and a maximum of 78 FPS. This indicates a stable frame delivery with a 20 FPS variance, suggesting consistent performance without major stutters.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 108 FPS, while Ultra achieves 39 FPS. This is a 69 FPS difference, meaning Ultra settings are 63.9% slower than Low settings at this resolution.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No, the benchmark results indicate the opposite. The frame rate scales significantly with resolution and settings, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's high multi-core scores, such as 17984.5 in Cinebench R23, provide ample headroom that is not fully utilized.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal balance between visual quality and performance is achieved with the Medium preset. At 1920x1080, this preset delivers a smooth 68 FPS average with a minimum of 58 FPS, ensuring a consistent gameplay experience. The jump to High settings costs 19 FPS, a 27.9% reduction, yielding 49 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less margin for demanding scenes.

For users prioritizing frame rate, the Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration that approaches the high-refresh-rate territory, hitting 108 FPS. However, this comes at the cost of visual fidelity, which may detract from the game's atmospheric horror presentation. The Medium preset is the sweet spot, offering a substantial improvement in visual quality over Low while maintaining a frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, producing 57 FPS. This is a borderline playable frame rate, and the minimum of 49 FPS suggests occasional dips that could be noticeable. Users with displays that support adaptive sync will find this acceptable, but those sensitive to frame drops should consider lowering to Low settings, which yields 91 FPS.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for any resolution. At 1080p, it produces 39 FPS, which is below the standard for smooth action. At 1440p and 4K, it falls to 32 FPS and 25 FPS respectively, rendering the game unplayable. The performance cost of Ultra settings is too high relative to the visual improvements over High or Medium, making it a poor choice for this hardware combination.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and RTX 4070 Mobile combination ranks 1999th out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the 46.3rd percentile, meaning it outperforms slightly less than half of all tested systems. This ranking is notably lower than what the individual component benchmark scores might suggest, indicating that the game's specific demands are not well-matched to this hardware configuration.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 85th among all processors suggests it is a high-end part, but this does not translate to a top-tier gaming result. The GPU's percentile ranking of 73rd is also respectable, yet the combination still lands in the middle of the pack for this title. This discrepancy highlights that The Medium is a demanding game that requires a more powerful graphics solution to achieve higher rankings.

The nearest rivals for the CPU, such as the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 with a deltaPct of -0.1%, show that the Ultra 9 185H is competitive in synthetic benchmarks. However, the game's performance is limited by the GPU, which sits near the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT in average benchmark score with a deltaPct of 0%. This suggests that the system's gaming performance is more closely tied to the GPU's capabilities than the CPU's raw processing power.

The 3724-combo pool includes a wide range of hardware, from budget laptops to high-end desktops. A rank of 1999 places this combo firmly in the mainstream segment, capable of running the game but not excelling at it. Users seeking higher frame rates or the ability to max out settings would need to look at systems with more powerful GPUs, as the current configuration is clearly constrained by the graphics card.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Mobile is the decisive factor in this combo's performance in The Medium. The GPU's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s, which proves insufficient for the game's highest settings at higher resolutions. This is evident in the 4K Ultra result of 25 FPS, where the memory subsystem is likely overwhelmed by the demand for high-resolution textures.

The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 1395 MHz and a boost of 1695 MHz, are modest for the Ada Lovelace architecture. The 4608 shading units and 144 tensor cores provide substantial compute capability, but the 48 ROPs limit pixel throughput. This is reflected in the pixel rate of 81.36 GPixel/s, which constrains performance at high resolutions where the number of pixels to be rendered increases exponentially.

The GPU's benchmark scores show a Passmark G3D score of 19587, placing it in the 73rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, has a deltaPct of -0.5%, indicating near-identical average performance. However, the RTX 3090 has significantly more memory bandwidth and VRAM, which would likely give it an advantage in a VRAM-heavy game like The Medium at 4K.

The 115 W TDP suggests this is a mobile GPU operating within a constrained power envelope. The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K shows that the GPU is being pushed to its limits, with the frame rate dropping by over half at the highest resolution. The GPU's 15.62 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is adequate for the game's effects, but the memory bandwidth is the clear bottleneck, preventing the GPU from maintaining high frame rates at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the benchmark results show a clear hierarchy across the four settings presets. Low settings produce an average of 108 FPS, which is the highest score recorded for this combo. Medium settings reduce this to 68 FPS, with a minimum of 58 and a maximum of 78. High settings yield 49 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 39 FPS. The 69 FPS difference between Low and Ultra demonstrates the significant impact of visual fidelity on performance.

The 2560x1440 results show a similar pattern, with Low settings achieving 91 FPS. Medium settings average 57 FPS, with a minimum of 49 and a maximum of 66. High settings produce 41 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 32 FPS. The performance gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 59 FPS, slightly less than at 1080p but still substantial.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings deliver 72 FPS, which is the only 4K configuration above 60 FPS. Medium settings average 45 FPS, with a minimum of 38 and a maximum of 52. High settings drop to 32 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 25 FPS. The 47 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is the smallest absolute gap, but the low overall scores make all settings except Low unsuitable for smooth gameplay.

The data reveals that the Medium preset consistently provides the most balanced performance, with the minimum frame rate staying above 38 FPS at all resolutions. The High and Ultra presets show diminishing returns, with the performance penalty not justified by the visual improvements. The Low preset is the only option for users targeting 4K or high refresh rates, but it sacrifices the game's detailed environments. The measured results indicate that this combo is best utilized at 1080p with Medium or High settings, where it can deliver a solid gaming experience without compromising too heavily on visual quality.