The Medium

Settings Recommendations

The recorded data for The Medium with the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 shows a clear hierarchy among the four tested presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 123 FPS, Medium drops to 77 FPS, High sits at 55 FPS, and Ultra falls to 44 FPS. The Medium preset provides a balanced experience, with an average of 77 FPS and a minimum of 65 FPS at 1080p, which indicates consistent frame pacing without severe dips.

At 2560x1440, Medium averages 65 FPS with a minimum of 55 FPS, which remains within a playable range. High at this resolution averages 46 FPS, while Ultra averages 37 FPS. At 3840x2160, Medium averages 51 FPS with a minimum of 43 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that stays above 40 FPS on average. Low at 4K reaches 81 FPS, but that preset likely disables significant visual features. The data suggests that Medium is the optimal preset across all three resolutions, as it maintains frame rates above 50 FPS at 1080p and 1440p, and stays near 50 FPS at 4K, while High and Ultra drop below 46 FPS in most cases.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 uses the GA104 chip on the Ampere architecture, built on an 8 nm process from Samsung. It has 5888 shading units, 184 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output units. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1500 MHz and a boost clock of 1725 MHz. Memory runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed, across an 8 GB GDDR6 bus that is 256 bits wide. Bandwidth reaches 448.0 GB/s, which is substantial for a card of this class.

The RTX 3070 includes 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores, which are relevant for The Medium's use of fixed-camera angles and volumetric effects. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU becomes the primary constraint at higher resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the average is 77 FPS, but at 1440p Medium it drops to 65 FPS, and at 4K Medium it falls to 51 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates that the 8 GB VRAM and the memory bandwidth are sufficient for Medium settings, but the GPU's raw compute limits performance at 4K. The pixel rate is 165.6 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 317.4 GTexel/s, which supports the observed frame rates. At Ultra settings, the GPU cannot maintain 30 FPS at 4K, averaging only 29 FPS, which suggests that the highest preset demands more shading and ray tracing work than the RTX 3070 can deliver at that resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial. At Medium settings, the average goes from 77 FPS at 1080p to 65 FPS at 1440p, a 15.6% decrease, and then to 51 FPS at 4K, a 33.8% decrease from the 1440p figure. At High settings, the averages are 55 FPS at 1080p, 46 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K. The Low preset scales differently: 123 FPS at 1080p, 104 FPS at 1440p, and 81 FPS at 4K. The proportional drop from 1080p to 4K is larger at High (34.5% drop) than at Low (34.1% drop), but the Medium preset shows a 33.8% drop, which is similar.

This scaling behavior indicates that the limiting component shifts between settings. At Low, the CPU likely plays a larger role, since frame rates are high and the GPU has less work per frame. At Ultra, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, as the 4K average is only 29 FPS. The RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM may also be a factor at 4K Ultra, since the game's high-resolution textures could exceed that capacity. The data shows that the gap between Medium and High narrows as resolution increases: at 1080p, Medium beats High by 22 FPS, but at 4K, Medium beats High by 15 FPS. This suggests that the GPU's compute capacity, not memory bandwidth, is the dominant constraint at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 ranks 1570 out of 3724 tested combinations in The Medium. This places the combo in the 57.8th percentile of all tested systems, meaning it outperforms a majority of configurations but sits below the top tier. The CPU itself is strong, with a percentile of 96 against all CPUs, while the GPU has a percentile of 61 against all GPUs. The rank in-game reflects the GPU's mid-range position more than the CPU's high-end capability.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which has an average benchmark score of 83807, a 0.2% delta from the 290K Plus's 84003. The AMD EPYC 4584PX scores 83090, a 1.1% delta, and the AMD EPYC 9135 scores 82980, a 1.2% delta. The AMD EPYC 7F72 scores 85072, which is 1.3% higher. These deltas are small, indicating that the 290K Plus's CPU performance is not a differentiator in this game. The GPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT with an average score of 17083, a 0.7% delta from the RTX 3070's 17208. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 scores 17037, a 1% delta, and the AMD Radeon HD 7970M scores 17019, a 1.1% delta. The NVIDIA Tesla K40c scores 17468, which is 1.5% higher. These close margins confirm that the RTX 3070 is positioned in a crowded mid-range segment.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, based on the Arrow Lake Refresh codename. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. The TDP is 125 W, and it uses a 3 nm process from TSMC with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. L1 cache is 192 KB per core, L2 is 3 MB per core, and L3 is 36 MB shared. Memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel access and 115.2 GB/s bandwidth.

For The Medium, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU. The game's fixed-camera perspective and pre-rendered backgrounds reduce the need for complex physics or AI calculations. The measured FPS at Low settings shows the CPU's capability: at 1080p Low, the average reaches 123 FPS, which is the highest recorded value in the dataset. At 1440p Low, it drops to 104 FPS, and at 4K Low, it hits 81 FPS. The fact that Low settings at 1080p exceed 120 FPS indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently at lower resolutions. However, the CPU's benchmark scores, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51731 and single-core score of 7303, are far beyond what this game requires. The PassMark single-thread score of 4823 confirms strong per-core performance, but the game's engine does not appear to stress the CPU heavily.

The 24 cores and 24 threads are overkill for a title that likely uses fewer threads. The boost clock of 5.80 GHz helps with single-threaded scenes, but the data shows that the GPU is the bottleneck for most settings. At Medium 1080p, the average is 77 FPS, which is 46 FPS below the Low preset, indicating that the GPU's workload increase is what limits performance, not the CPU.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and preset combination for this system in The Medium?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 Medium delivers 77 FPS average with a minimum of 65 FPS, which is the highest average among Medium settings. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average is 65 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Medium, it is 51 FPS.

Q: Does the RTX 3070's 8 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The measured data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 29, which is below 30, and at 4K High, it is 36. The 4K Medium preset averages 51 FPS, suggesting that the VRAM capacity is sufficient for Medium but may be a limiting factor for higher presets.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84003. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285K scores 83807, which is 0.2% lower. The AMD EPYC 4584PX scores 83090 (1.1% lower), and the AMD EPYC 9135 scores 82980 (1.2% lower). The AMD EPYC 7F72 scores 85072, which is 1.3% higher.

Q: What is the FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 123 FPS, while Ultra averages 44 FPS. The difference is 79 FPS, which indicates that Ultra imposes a significant load on the GPU.

Q: Is this combo better than the average tested system for The Medium?

A: The combo ranks 1570 out of 3724 tested combinations, which places it above the median. The CPU performs in the 96th percentile against all CPUs, while the GPU performs in the 61st percentile against all GPUs.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 Medium, the minimum FPS is 65. At 2560x1440 Medium, the minimum is 55. At 3840x2160 Medium, the minimum is 43. No minimum FPS values are recorded for Low, High, or Ultra presets in the data.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table lists all recorded average FPS values for each resolution and settings combination. Minimum and maximum values are only available for the Medium preset.

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

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

| 3840x2160 | High | 36 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 81 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 51 | 43 | 58 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 29 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | High | 46 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 104 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 65 | 55 | 74 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 37 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | High | 55 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 123 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 77 | 65 | 88 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 44 | - | - |

The Medium preset shows the most complete data, with minimum and maximum values at every resolution. At 1080p, the frame time consistency is good, with a range of 23 FPS between the 65 FPS minimum and 88 FPS maximum. At 1440p, the range is 19 FPS (55 to 74), and at 4K, the range is 15 FPS (43 to 58). This narrowing range as resolution increases suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently loaded, with less variance due to CPU or scene complexity.

The Low preset shows the highest frame rates at every resolution, with 123 FPS at 1080p, 104 FPS at 1440p, and 81 FPS at 4K. The High preset drops to 55 FPS at 1080p, 46 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 44 FPS at 1080p, 37 FPS at 1440p, and 29 FPS at 4K. The data indicates that the gap between Low and Medium is larger than the gap between Medium and High. At 1080p, Low beats Medium by 46 FPS, while Medium beats High by 22 FPS. This suggests that the visual quality improvements from Low to Medium are more costly in terms of GPU load than the improvements from Medium to High.