The Medium

How This Combo Ranks

The database ranks this combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 as the top performer for The Medium, holding the number 1 position out of 3,724 tested CPU and GPU combos. This is a decisive placement at the very apex of the database's recorded configurations for this title. The rank is derived from the aggregate benchmark scores of both components, not from direct frame rate captures, as no measured FPS rows exist for this specific pairing. The combination of a processor that sits in the 81st percentile among all CPUs and a graphics card in the 82nd percentile among all GPUs creates a platform with no obvious bottleneck in synthetic testing, which translates to the highest projected performance tier in this game's ranking table.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 carries the primary rendering workload in The Medium, a game that leans heavily on GPU throughput for its fixed-camera horror scenes and layered world rendering. The card uses the Blackwell 2.0 architecture on a 5 nm process from TSMC, with a die size of 263 mm² containing 31,100 million transistors. Its memory configuration is substantial: 12 GB of GDDR7 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. That memory capacity and speed matter for The Medium, which streams high-resolution textures and maintains two simultaneous perspectives during key gameplay segments, a feature that pressures VRAM usage more than typical third-person horror titles.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a base of 2325 MHz and a boost of 2512 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz or 28 Gbps effective. These clocks are moderate for the GeForce 50-series, but the architecture's efficiency compensates. The card has 6,144 shading units, 192 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units, producing a pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s. For a game like The Medium, which uses volumetric lighting and film-grain effects, the pixel rate is particularly relevant: higher pixel throughput allows smoother full-screen post-processing without frame drops. The 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores also play a role, as The Medium uses ray-traced reflections and shadows in certain scenes, though not as aggressively as newer AAA releases.

In the database's synthetic benchmarks, the RTX 5070 posts an average benchmark score of 40,377, placing it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival in the database is the AMD Radeon Pro 580, with an average score of 40,318, which is only 0.1% lower, indicating that the RTX 5070's lead over that card is marginal in raw compute terms. The AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 trails by 0.8% with a score of 40,063, while the NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile sits 2% behind at 39,568. The AMD Radeon Pro 5300 is slightly ahead in the synthetic score at 40,870, a 1.2% delta, but that card does not share the RTX 5070's memory bandwidth or RT capabilities, which are more consequential in The Medium's actual rendering paths. The PassMark G3D score of 29,137 reinforces the GPU's strong position, while the DirectX 12 score of 108 and the Vulkan score of 178,923 from Geekbench suggest that the card handles modern APIs well, which is essential for The Medium's DirectX 12 implementation.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H serves as the companion processor, and in The Medium, its role is to feed the GPU with scene data, manage the game's AI-driven narrative beats, and handle the dual-world rendering logic that the game uses when the protagonist shifts between realities. The CPU has 14 cores and 18 threads, based on the Meteor Lake architecture on Intel's 7 nm process. Its base clock is 3.60 GHz, rising to 4.60 GHz on the boost clock. The cache hierarchy is generous: 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. That L3 capacity helps keep frequently accessed game assets closer to the cores, reducing memory stalls during scene transitions.

The CPU's memory interface is dual-channel DDR5, with a bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, which is adequate for feeding the RTX 5070's 672.0 GB/s GPU memory bandwidth without creating a systemic bottleneck in most scenarios. The processor's integrated graphics, Arc Xe-LPG with 96 execution units, are present but irrelevant for this combination since the discrete GPU handles all rendering. The CPU's TDP is 28 W, a modest figure that reflects its mobile segment design, but the Core Ultra 5 135H is not a low-power part in practice: its multi-threaded scores are strong for a mobile chip.

In the database, the Core Ultra 5 135H achieves an average benchmark score of 29,093, placing it in the 81st percentile of all CPUs. Its closest rival is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, which scores 29,123, a negligible 0.1% difference. The Intel Xeon Phi 7210 is 0.5% higher at 29,245, while the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT is 0.5% lower at 28,940. The Intel Core i5-13500HX scores 29,270, which is 0.6% higher, making it the only rival in the nearest group to edge out the Core Ultra 5 135H by a meaningful margin. In synthetic tests, the Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 11,875.5, and the single-core score is 1,700. The PassMark multi-thread score is 22,422, with a single-thread score of 3,521. These numbers indicate that the CPU can sustain high frame pacing in The Medium's CPU-bound sections, such as when the camera pans across large, detailed environments with many interactive objects.

The CPU's 18 threads are particularly useful for The Medium, which uses multiple background threads for audio, physics, and streaming. The game's horror pacing relies on consistent frame times, and a processor with 14 physical cores reduces the risk of thread contention during intense scenes. The boost clock of 4.60 GHz is sufficient for single-threaded game logic, and the database's Cinebench R20 single-core score of 1,105 confirms that the CPU's per-core performance is respectable, though not class-leading. For The Medium, which is not a heavily multi-threaded title compared to simulation games, the CPU's single-core strength is the more critical factor, and the recorded scores support a smooth experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The database contains no measured FPS rows for this exact combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 in The Medium. The measuredFps array is empty, and the dataIsMeasured flag is false, confirming that all frame rate figures in this analysis are estimates derived from the benchmark scores of the individual components, not from direct gameplay capture. The database's ranking system uses these aggregate scores to project performance tiers, and the top-1 rank out of 3,724 combos indicates that this pairing is expected to deliver frame rates at the high end of the scale, but exact numbers cannot be stated with certainty.

Given the GPU's average benchmark score of 40,377 and its 82nd percentile standing, the RTX 5070 is projected to handle The Medium's most demanding settings comfortably. At 1080p with high settings, the estimated frame rate would likely exceed 100 FPS, given that the game's system requirements are modest relative to the GPU's compute capacity. At 1440p, the estimate would remain above 80 FPS, as the GPU's 12 GB memory and high bandwidth prevent VRAM-related stutters. At 4K, the estimate would drop to around 60 FPS, still playable but with more variance in scenes that use heavy ray tracing or dual-world rendering. These are projections, not measurements, and the absence of recorded FPS means the database cannot confirm any specific value.

The CPU's role in these estimates is secondary but non-trivial. The Core Ultra 5 135H's multi-thread score of 22,422 in PassMark suggests that it will not bottleneck the GPU at 1080p in most scenarios, but at very high frame rates above 120 FPS, the CPU's single-core score of 3,521 could become a limiting factor in scenes with dense AI or scripted events. The database's ranking does not separate these effects, but the top-1 position implies that the CPU is also above average for this title's requirements.

Resolution Scaling

Without measured FPS data, resolution scaling must be inferred from the component specifications and benchmark scores. The RTX 5070's 672.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is a strong indicator of 4K capability, as higher resolutions require more texture data per frame. The 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for 4K in The Medium, which is not a VRAM-hungry title compared to recent open-world games. The GPU's pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s suggests that at 4K, the card can process the full frame buffer without excessive pixel shader stalls, but the fill rate will be the first bottleneck as resolution increases.

From 1080p to 1440p, the frame rate drop is typically 25-30% for a GPU of this class, as the pixel count increases by about 78%. From 1440p to 4K, the drop is another 30-40%, as the pixel count doubles again. The database's synthetic scores do not directly capture these scaling factors, but the GPU's 82nd percentile rank and its nearest rival deltas (within 2% of several pro cards) suggest that the RTX 5070's scaling is consistent with mid-range Blackwell parts. The CPU becomes less relevant at higher resolutions: at 4K, the GPU is almost certainly the limiting component, and the Core Ultra 5 135H's 14 cores would have ample headroom to maintain frame pacing.

The absence of measured FPS rows means resolution scaling cannot be quantified precisely, but the hardware profile points to a system where 1080p and 1440p performance are excellent, and 4K is viable at high settings with some adjustments. The game's 2021 release date also means it does not use the most demanding modern rendering techniques, so the scaling is likely more forgiving than in newer titles.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the recorded benchmark scores, the database suggests that this combination can run The Medium at its highest settings across all resolutions without significant compromise. The GPU's 12 GB VRAM and 672.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game's texture streaming and dual-world rendering, which are the two most memory-intensive features. The CPU's 18 threads and 18 MB of L3 cache handle the game's background simulation tasks, so there is no reason to disable any CPU-dependent features.

At 1080p, the recommended preset is Ultra, as the RTX 5070's compute and pixel rates are far above what the game demands at this resolution. At 1440p, Ultra is also recommended, with the expectation that frame rates remain smooth due to the GPU's high texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s. At 4K, the database would suggest High settings instead of Ultra, primarily to reduce the pixel shader load and keep frame times consistent, though Ultra may be playable with ray tracing off. The game's ray-traced effects are not pervasive, so disabling them at 4K would yield a significant performance boost without a noticeable visual penalty.

The CPU's integrated graphics are not a factor, and the 28 W TDP means power delivery is not a concern for sustained gaming sessions. The database's top-1 rank for this combo supports the recommendation of high settings, as no other tested combination in the database scores higher for this game.

FAQ

Q: Does the database have any measured frame rate data for this CPU and GPU combination in The Medium?

A: No, the database contains no measured FPS rows for this exact combination. The measuredFps array is empty, and the dataIsMeasured flag is false, so all FPS discussion is based on estimated performance from the benchmark scores.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations for The Medium?

A: This combination ranks 1st out of 3,724 tested combos, placing it at the top of the database's performance table for this game.

Q: What is the GPU's average benchmark score and percentile?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 has an average benchmark score of 40,377 and sits in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs in the database.

Q: What is the CPU's average benchmark score and percentile?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H has an average benchmark score of 29,093 and sits in the 81st percentile of all CPUs in the database.

Q: Which GPU rival is closest to the RTX 5070 in synthetic score?

A: The AMD Radeon Pro 580 is the closest, with an average score of 40,318, which is 0.1% lower than the RTX 5070's 40,377.

Q: How much VRAM does the RTX 5070 have, and what is its memory clock?

A: The RTX 5070 has 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, with a memory clock of 1750 MHz, effective at 28 Gbps, producing a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s.