The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 combination delivers a playable experience in The Medium primarily at 1080p with Medium settings, where the measured average of 50 FPS provides a balanced compromise between visual fidelity and smoothness. While the Low preset at 1080p achieves a higher 80 FPS average, the Medium preset’s 42 FPS minimum frame rate remains above the critical 30 FPS threshold, making it the recommended starting point for most users. At 1440p, the Medium preset drops to a 42 FPS average with a 36 FPS minimum, which is still technically playable but noticeably less fluid. The Ultra preset is not viable at any resolution, with averages ranging from 19 FPS at 4K to 28 FPS at 1080p, indicating that the settings scaling is heavily weighted toward GPU load rather than CPU performance. The data suggests that the optimal experience prioritizes Medium settings at 1080p, with a potential fallback to Low at 1440p if higher resolution is preferred over visual detail.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows across four presets and three resolutions reveal a clear hierarchy for this specific hardware combination. The Medium preset at 1920x1080 stands out as the sweet spot, delivering a 50 FPS average with a minimum of 42 FPS and a maximum of 57 FPS. This performance envelope keeps the game above the 40 FPS threshold for most of the play session, which is particularly important for a horror title where frame pacing affects atmospheric tension. The 42 FPS minimum is notably higher than the 36 FPS minimum seen at 1440p Medium, indicating that the 1080p resolution is better suited to this GPU’s 8 GB VRAM capacity and 128-bit memory interface.

For users with displays capable of 1440p, the Low preset at 2560x1440 yields a 67 FPS average, which is smoother than the Medium preset at the same resolution (42 FPS). However, the visual downgrade from Medium to Low is significant, and the data shows that the GPU’s 13.17 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is the limiting factor rather than the CPU. The High preset is consistently poor, with averages of 36 FPS at 1080p, 30 FPS at 1440p, and 24 FPS at 4K, suggesting that the preset’s additional effects (likely shadows and reflections) disproportionately tax the 2560 shading units. The Ultra preset should be avoided entirely, as its 28 FPS average at 1080p is below the playable threshold, and the 19 FPS at 4K is effectively a slideshow.

The recommendation is to start with 1080p Medium. If the user prioritizes frame rate over detail, 1080p Low offers an 80 FPS average, which is 60% higher than Medium. Conversely, if resolution is non-negotiable, 1440p Low at 67 FPS is the only viable option above 60 FPS, though the visual sacrifice is substantial. The data does not support any configuration above Medium at 1080p or Low at 1440p for consistent gameplay.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware in The Medium?*

A: The 1920x1080 Medium preset provides the best balance, with a 50 FPS average, 42 FPS minimum, and 57 FPS maximum. This is the only configuration that maintains a minimum frame rate above 40 FPS while retaining Medium-level visual quality.

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

A: No. The highest average at 3840x2160 is 53 FPS with Low settings, but that drops to 33 FPS on Medium and 24 FPS on High. The Ultra preset at 4K averages only 19 FPS, making the resolution impractical for this GPU.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance in this game?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H has 16 cores and 16 threads with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28221 and single-core score of 3984 place it in the 87th percentile of all CPUs. The measured FPS data shows no CPU bottleneck, as performance scales directly with resolution and settings, indicating GPU limitation.

*Q: Is the RTX 5050’s 8 GB VRAM sufficient for The Medium?*

A: The 8 GB GDDR6 memory with 320.0 GB/s bandwidth appears adequate for Medium settings at 1080p and 1440p, but the significant FPS drop at High and Ultra suggests that VRAM capacity or memory bandwidth becomes a constraint at higher presets. The 4K Low result (53 FPS) versus 4K Medium (33 FPS) indicates a steep penalty for increased texture detail.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The Low preset averages 80 FPS, while Ultra averages 28 FPS, a 52 FPS difference. This represents a 65% performance decrease, highlighting that the Ultra preset’s graphical enhancements are not optimized for this GPU class.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 2309 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 21% of systems. This low ranking is consistent with the RTX 5050’s 66th percentile among all GPUs, suggesting that the game is particularly demanding on this hardware.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a consistent pattern of GPU-bound scaling. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 50 at 1920x1080 to 42 at 2560x1440 (a 16% decrease), then to 33 at 3840x2160 (a 34% decrease from 1440p). This scaling is steeper than the pixel count increase would suggest, indicating that the GPU’s 13.17 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 320.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are insufficient for higher resolutions. The Low preset shows a similar trend: 80 FPS at 1080p, 67 FPS at 1440p (16% drop), and 53 FPS at 4K (21% drop from 1440p). The smaller relative drop at 4K Low versus 4K Medium suggests that the Low preset’s reduced texture memory usage (due to the 8 GB VRAM) mitigates some of the bandwidth pressure.

The High preset exhibits the worst scaling behavior, with 36 FPS at 1080p, 30 FPS at 1440p (17% drop), and 24 FPS at 4K (20% drop). This consistent linear decline across resolutions indicates that the High preset’s effects are uniformly expensive, likely due to the 20 RT cores being engaged for ray-traced features. The Ultra preset’s 28 FPS at 1080p dropping to 19 FPS at 4K (32% drop) shows that the highest settings push the GPU beyond its memory interface’s capability, as the 128-bit bus cannot feed the shading units efficiently at high pixel counts. The limiting component is definitively the GPU, as the CPU’s 16-core configuration with 18 MB of L3 cache shows no signs of bottlenecking—the FPS scales predictably with pixel load rather than fluctuating due to CPU thread saturation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear gradient: Low averages 80 FPS, Medium averages 50 FPS (minimum 42, maximum 57), High averages 36 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 42 FPS is the highest minimum among all presets at this resolution, making it the most consistent option. The gap between Low and Medium (30 FPS) is larger than the gap between Medium and High (14 FPS), suggesting that the Medium preset adds significant visual features that heavily impact performance.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts: Low averages 67 FPS, Medium averages 42 FPS (minimum 36, maximum 48), High averages 30 FPS, and Ultra averages 24 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 36 FPS is still above the 30 FPS playability threshold, but the 42 FPS average is noticeably less smooth than the 1080p result. The High preset at 30 FPS is marginal, and the Ultra preset at 24 FPS is below acceptable playability. The 1440p Low result of 67 FPS is the only configuration at this resolution that exceeds 60 FPS, but the visual compromise is considerable.

At 3840x2160, the results are mostly impractical: Low averages 53 FPS, Medium averages 33 FPS (minimum 28, maximum 38), High averages 24 FPS, and Ultra averages 19 FPS. The Low preset is the only option above 30 FPS, and even then, the 53 FPS average is below the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset’s minimum of 28 FPS falls below the playability threshold, and High and Ultra are effectively unplayable. The 4K data confirms that this GPU is not designed for 4K gaming in The Medium, as even the lowest settings cannot maintain a stable 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2309 out of 2911 tested combinations places this system in the bottom 21% of all hardware configurations for The Medium. This ranking is more severe than the individual component percentiles would suggest, as the RTX 5050’s 66th percentile among GPUs and the CPU’s 87th percentile among CPUs would imply a mid-range system. The discrepancy indicates that The Medium is particularly demanding on GPU resources, and the RTX 5050’s 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are inadequate for the game’s high-resolution textures and effects. The nearest GPU rivals—AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (21153 avg score, -0.6% delta), AMD Radeon HD 8970M (21237 avg score, -1% delta), AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (20713 avg score, 1.6% delta), and NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (21379 avg score, -1.6% delta)—all have similar average benchmark scores, yet the RTX 5050’s performance in this specific game is lower than expected, suggesting that the Blackwell 2.0 architecture’s features are not well-optimized for this title.

The CPU’s nearest rivals—Intel Core 7 253PE (40557 avg score, -0.1% delta), Intel Core 5 223PE (40585 avg score, -0.2% delta), AMD Ryzen 9 7940H (40431 avg score, 0.2% delta), and Intel Xeon 6507P (40426 avg score, 0.2% delta)—are all within 0.2% of the Ultra X7 368H’s average benchmark score, indicating that CPU performance is not a differentiating factor. The low combo rank is therefore almost entirely attributable to the GPU’s limitations in this game, particularly its inability to maintain playable frame rates at higher settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H’s specifications are robust for a mobile processor: 16 cores and 16 threads, a base clock of 2.00 GHz, and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 2.5 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration yields a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28221 and a single-core score of 3984, placing it in the 87th percentile of all CPUs. The PassMark multi-thread score of 32956 and single-thread score of 4005 further confirm its capability.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role appears minimal based on the measured FPS data. The frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU’s 16 threads are more than sufficient for the game’s threading model, and the 5.00 GHz boost clock ensures that single-threaded tasks, such as game logic and AI, are handled without delay. The 18 MB of L3 cache likely helps with the game’s level streaming, but there is no evidence of CPU-induced stuttering or frame drops in the data. The nearest CPU rivals all have similar average benchmark scores, and the FPS results do not show any variance that would indicate CPU bottlenecks. The data implies that the Ultra X7 368H is over-provisioned for this game, and a lower-end CPU would likely produce identical frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050’s specifications are the primary determinant of performance in The Medium. The GPU features 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with 20 RT cores and 80 tensor cores. The base clock is 2317 MHz, boosting to 2572 MHz, and the memory runs at 2500 MHz (20 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, yielding 320.0 GB/s bandwidth. The 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM is a critical limitation, as the game’s High and Ultra presets likely exceed this capacity, causing significant performance degradation.

The GPU’s benchmark scores—PassMark G3D of 17326, 3DMark Steel Nomad of 2502, and Geekbench Vulkan of 89381—place it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (21153 avg score, -0.6% delta) and AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (20713 avg score, 1.6% delta), indicating that the RTX 5050 is a mid-range part. In The Medium, the GPU’s 13.17 TFLOPS FP32 performance is insufficient for high-fidelity rendering at resolutions above 1080p. The 128-bit memory interface and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth create a bottleneck when texture demands increase, as evidenced by the steep FPS drop from Medium to High settings. The 20 RT cores are likely engaged in High and Ultra presets, further reducing performance. The pixel rate of 82.30 GPixel/s and texture rate of 205.8 GTexel/s are adequate for 1080p but struggle at 4K, where the 24 FPS average on High settings demonstrates the GPU’s limits. The data clearly identifies the RTX 5050 as the limiting component, with the CPU providing ample headroom.