The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination delivers a highly capable, yet resolution-dependent, experience in The Medium. The measured data shows a system that can easily handle high-refresh-rate 1080p gaming but begins to strain at 4K Ultra settings, making preset selection critical for maintaining smooth gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rates, the Medium preset provides the most balanced experience across all three tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 86 FPS with a minimum of 73 FPS and a maximum of 99 FPS, ensuring a fluid and consistent experience that stays well above typical 60 FPS thresholds. Moving up to 2560x1440, the Medium preset maintains an average of 72 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS, which is still perfectly playable for most users, even during demanding scenes. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset produces an average of 57 FPS with a minimum of 48 FPS—a noticeable dip, but one that remains within the bounds of playability for a slower-paced horror title.

The High preset is a viable alternative at 1080p, offering 61 FPS on average, but it comes with a significant cost at higher resolutions. At 1440p, High drops to 52 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 41 FPS, which may introduce noticeable stutter during action sequences. The Ultra preset is only recommended for those with a tolerance for lower frame rates: it averages 49 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and a demanding 32 FPS at 4K. These numbers suggest that Ultra is best reserved for taking screenshots rather than for actual gameplay, as the visual fidelity gains do not justify the substantial performance penalty.

The Low preset offers the highest frame rates—137 FPS at 1080p, 116 FPS at 1440p, and 91 FPS at 4K—but it sacrifices the atmospheric lighting and shadow detail that are central to the horror genre experience. For the best overall experience, the data strongly favors the Medium preset. It is the only setting that keeps the minimum frame rate above 60 FPS at 1080p and above 48 FPS at 4K, providing a stable foundation for the game’s fixed-camera angles and environmental storytelling.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain why the performance scales so predictably with resolution. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s. This large memory pool and high bandwidth are crucial for The Medium, a game that relies on loading two simultaneous worlds for its dual-reality mechanic, which can be taxing on both memory capacity and throughput.

The GPU’s clock speeds are set at a base of 2205 MHz and a boost of 2505 MHz. These high clocks, combined with 9728 shading units and 76 RT cores, allow the card to process the game’s complex lighting and reflections efficiently. The data reflects this capability: the RTX 4080 achieves a passmark G3D score of 34457 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6567, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 54247 is a mere 0.1% behind the RTX 4080 SUPER, indicating that this card is near the top of the performance stack.

However, the GPU’s role is most clearly defined by the frame rate deltas across settings. At 1080p, the CPU can feed the GPU enough data to reach 137 FPS on Low settings, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck as settings increase, with the frame rate dropping to 61 FPS on High and 49 FPS on Ultra. This pattern is even more pronounced at 4K, where the GPU’s rendering load increases dramatically, causing the average frame rate to fall from 91 FPS on Low to 32 FPS on Ultra. The data suggests that while the RTX 4080 is powerful, the demands of 4K Ultra are simply too high for it to maintain playable frame rates in this specific title.

The GPU’s 16 GB of VRAM is not a limiting factor in any of the tested configurations, as the performance degradation from High to Ultra is consistent with the increased computational load rather than a memory capacity issue. The card’s 45,900 million transistors on a 5 nm process from TSMC, with a die size of 379 mm², provide the raw compute power needed to handle the game’s DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) API features, including ray-traced effects if enabled.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K with playable frame rates?*

A: Yes, but only on Medium settings, where it averages 57 FPS with a minimum of 48 FPS. On High settings, the average drops to 41 FPS, and on Ultra it falls to 32 FPS, which is generally not considered playable for a smooth experience.

Q: What is the best setting for a 1440p monitor?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice, providing an average of 72 FPS and a minimum of 61 FPS. This offers a good balance between visual fidelity and smoothness, while the High preset at 52 FPS may be preferable if you prioritize image quality over absolute smoothness.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 137 FPS, which is 88 FPS higher than the Ultra preset’s 49 FPS average. This represents a performance increase of roughly 180% for the Low preset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this test?

A: The GPU is the primary limiting factor, especially at higher resolutions. The data shows a clear performance drop when moving from 1080p to 4K, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5, is powerful enough to keep up with the GPU at lower resolutions.

Q: Does the RTX 4080’s 16 GB of VRAM cause any issues in this game?

A: No. The performance differences between settings are consistent with computational load scaling rather than VRAM limitations. The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is more than sufficient for the game’s requirements at all tested settings.

Q: How does this combo compare to other CPU-GPU pairings in terms of overall rank?

A: This combination ranks 872nd out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the top 30% of all configurations, indicating a strong but not top-tier performance level for this specific game.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested configurations, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 achieves a rank of 872 out of 2911 combos for The Medium. This places the system in the 70th percentile, meaning it outperforms roughly 70% of all tested configurations. The rank reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU: the processor is capable, but the 4080’s performance is not exceptional enough to push the combo into the top tier, likely due to the game’s heavy reliance on GPU rendering rather than multi-threaded CPU processing.

The CPU itself holds an 85th percentile rank against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35670. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350, scores 35719, a negligible 0.1% difference. The GPU, on the other hand, is in the 86th percentile, with an average score of 54247. The data shows that the GPU is the stronger component relative to its respective market, but the combo’s rank is pulled down by the fact that The Medium is not particularly CPU-intensive. In contrast, for a game that heavily leverages multi-core processing, this combo’s rank might be higher, but here, the GPU’s limits at 4K Ultra keep it from climbing higher.

The rank also suggests that other combinations with a more powerful GPU, such as one paired with the RTX 4080 SUPER (which scores 0.1% higher on average), could achieve a better position. However, for this specific setup, the 872nd rank is a solid result, indicating that the system will handle the game well on all but the most demanding settings. The fact that this is a measured result, rather than an estimate, adds credibility to the ranking.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1920x1080, the system achieves an average of 86 FPS on Medium settings. When moving to 2560x1440, the average drops to 72 FPS, a 16% decrease. Further scaling to 3840x2160 results in an average of 57 FPS, which is a 21% drop from 1440p and a 34% drop from 1080p. This trend is consistent across all settings: Low goes from 137 FPS at 1080p to 116 FPS at 1440p and 91 FPS at 4K, while Ultra drops from 49 FPS at 1080p to 41 FPS at 1440p and 32 FPS at 4K.

This scaling behavior is indicative of a GPU-limited system. The number of pixels increases by 1.78 times from 1080p to 1440p, and by 2.25 times from 1440p to 4K. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would remain relatively flat across resolutions, but the data shows a clear decline proportional to the pixel count increase. For example, the 4K Medium average of 57 FPS is roughly 66% of the 1080p Medium average of 86 FPS, which aligns with the 4.5x pixel increase, confirming that the RTX 4080’s rendering throughput is the primary constraint.

The min and max frame rates for the Medium preset also highlight the impact of resolution. At 1080p, the frame time variance is 26 FPS (73 to 99), while at 1440p it is 22 FPS (61 to 83), and at 4K it is 17 FPS (48 to 65). This shows that while the average frame rate drops, the relative consistency of frame delivery improves slightly at higher resolutions, likely because the GPU’s workload becomes more uniform. For users targeting high refresh rate monitors, 1080p is the clear choice, while 1440p offers a good balance, and 4K is only suitable for those who prioritize resolution over frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table outlines the exact average frame rates measured for each resolution and settings preset:

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|---|---|---|---|---|

| 1920x1080 | Low | 137 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 86 | 73 | 99 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 61 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 49 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 116 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 72 | 61 | 83 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 52 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 41 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 91 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 57 | 48 | 65 |

| 3840x2160 | High | 41 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 32 | - | - |

At 1080p, the system is exceptionally capable. The Low preset’s 137 FPS average is more than enough for a 144Hz monitor, while the Medium preset’s 86 FPS average provides a smooth experience with better visual quality. The High preset at 61 FPS is still playable but begins to show the GPU’s workload. Ultra at 49 FPS is the first sign of strain, though it remains acceptable for a slower-paced game.

At 1440p, the Medium preset is the sweet spot with 72 FPS, while High at 52 FPS and Ultra at 41 FPS require compromises. The Low preset’s 116 FPS shows the GPU still has headroom if you are willing to sacrifice visual features. At 4K, only the Low and Medium presets are viable for actual gameplay, with averages of 91 FPS and 57 FPS, respectively. The High preset at 41 FPS and Ultra at 32 FPS are not recommended for a comfortable experience, as the minimum frame rates would likely drop below 30 FPS in intense scenes, leading to noticeable stuttering. The data clearly shows that the Medium preset is the most versatile choice, offering playable frame rates across all three resolutions while maintaining the game’s intended visual atmosphere.