The Medium

The Medium is a horror title that leans heavily on fixed camera angles and atmospheric rendering, and the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D produces a wide spread of frame rates depending on where you set the dial. The data shows this pairing is capable of very high refresh rates at lower settings, but the most balanced experience for visual fidelity and smoothness lies in the Medium preset. Across all three resolutions tested, the Medium setting delivers a playable frame rate with a noticeable jump in quality over Low, while avoiding the heavy performance penalty that Ultra imposes. For a game like this, where mood and lighting matter more than competitive response times, Medium is the practical sweet spot.

Settings Recommendations

Looking at the measured rows, the Medium preset is the only setting where the data includes both minimum and maximum FPS values, which indicates a stable frame time envelope. At 1920x1080, Medium produces an average of 144 FPS with a minimum of 123 FPS and a maximum of 166 FPS. That minimum is well above the refresh rate of most standard monitors, and the consistency suggests the game is not stuttering in scene transitions. At 2560x1440, Medium averages 122 FPS with a minimum of 103 FPS, which is still comfortably smooth for a horror game that benefits from fluid camera movement. Even at 3840x2160, Medium holds an average of 95 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS, making it the only preset at 4K that stays above the 60 FPS threshold without question.

High settings, by contrast, are a clear step down: 103 FPS at 1080p, 87 FPS at 1440p, and 68 FPS at 4K. Those numbers are playable, but they lack the headroom of Medium, and the drop from Medium to High is larger than the visual uplift typically justifies in a game with The Medium’s static camera work. Low settings push frame rates to 185 FPS at 1080p, 174 FPS at 1440p, and 153 FPS at 4K, but that requires sacrificing the shadow quality and texture detail that define the horror atmosphere. Ultra is the opposite: it drops to 82 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result dips below 60 FPS, which is a critical threshold for smooth motion in a game that uses slow pans and zooms. So the recommendation is clear: use Medium for the best balance, especially if you are targeting 1440p or 4K. If you must push visuals, High at 1440p is the most acceptable compromise, but Ultra is only viable at 1080p and even then not by a wide margin.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 16th out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. That places this pairing in the top 0.5% of all configurations in the database, which is an exceptional result for a game that is not typically used as a benchmark staple. The rank reflects the RTX 5090 D’s raw rasterization power, which the data shows is the dominant factor in this title. The CPU, while not the bottleneck, contributes enough to keep the GPU fed at lower resolutions, where the frame rates are highest.

The GPU’s standalone benchmark percentile is 92, meaning it outperforms 92% of all GPUs tested, and its average benchmark score of 77712 places it near the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, which scores 78940 (a delta of -1.6%), and ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT at 76904 (a delta of 1.1%). Those rival comparisons are for synthetic workloads, but in this game, the RTX 5090 D’s performance is consistent with its high percentile. The CPU’s percentile is 85, and its average benchmark score of 36938 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, which scores 36945 (a delta of 0%). That means the Core Ultra 5 225 is not a weak link; it is a solid mid-range processor that matches a last-generation rival in general compute, which is sufficient for a GPU-bound title like The Medium.

The 16th place ranking out of 2911 combos is notable because it shows that the pairing works well together without obvious imbalances. Many high-end GPUs are held back by older CPUs in CPU-bound scenarios, but the data here shows that the Core Ultra 5 225’s 10 cores and 10 threads, with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, are enough to avoid limiting the RTX 5090 D at any resolution tested. The only scenario where the CPU might matter more is at 1080p Low, where the GPU is less stressed, but even there the average of 185 FPS indicates no severe bottleneck.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for The Medium with this hardware?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice. At 1920x1080 it averages 144 FPS, at 2560x1440 it averages 122 FPS, and at 3840x2160 it averages 95 FPS, all with minimum frame rates above 80 FPS. This gives a smooth experience while retaining more visual quality than Low.

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 4K smoothly?

A: Yes, but only on Medium settings. The 4K Medium row shows an average of 95 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS. High settings at 4K drop to 68 FPS, and Ultra falls to 54 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the Core Ultra 5 225 compare to its closest CPU rivals in terms of general performance?

A: The Core Ultra 5 225 has an average benchmark score of 36938, which is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F at 36945 (a delta of 0%). It is also slightly ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D, which scores 37018 (a delta of -0.2%), and the Intel Core i9-12900T at 37112 (a delta of -0.5%). This means the CPU is competitive with those parts.

Q: Is the RTX 5090 D the main performance driver in this game?

A: Yes. The GPU has a percentile ranking of 92 among all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 77712 is higher than its closest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, which scores 78940 (the RTX 5090 D is -1.6% behind that part, but ahead of several others). The frame rates scale with resolution in a way that indicates GPU limitation, not CPU limitation.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The data shows an average of 185 FPS at 1920x1080 on Low. This is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo in the game, and it suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU well beyond typical display refresh rates.

Q: Does the combo rank high among all tested configurations?

A: Yes. The combo ranks 16th out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium, which places it in the top percentile of all pairings in the database. This is a very strong result for a game that is not heavily optimized for high-end hardware.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear progression across settings. Low settings produce an average of 185 FPS, which is the maximum observed for this resolution. Medium settings average 144 FPS, with a minimum of 123 FPS and a maximum of 166 FPS. High settings drop to an average of 103 FPS, and Ultra settings average 82 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 41 FPS, which is significant, but the gap between Medium and High is also 41 FPS, indicating that each step up in quality costs a similar amount of performance until you reach Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers. Low averages 174 FPS, Medium averages 122 FPS with a minimum of 103 FPS and a maximum of 140 FPS, High averages 87 FPS, and Ultra averages 69 FPS. The difference between 1080p and 1440p is roughly 10-15% across settings, which is modest and suggests that the GPU has enough headroom to handle the extra pixels without a massive penalty.

At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more pronounced. Low averages 153 FPS, Medium averages 95 FPS with a minimum of 81 FPS and a maximum of 110 FPS, High averages 68 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The 4K Medium result is the most important data point because it is the only 4K setting that maintains a minimum above 80 FPS. The 4K Ultra result at 54 FPS is below the 60 FPS target, and the 4K High result at 68 FPS is just barely above it. The data shows that this combo is capable of 4K gaming, but only if you are willing to use Medium settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K reveal how the workload shifts between CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 185 at 1080p to 174 at 1440p to 153 at 4K. That is a drop of 11 FPS from 1080p to 1440p (about 6%) and another 21 FPS from 1440p to 4K (about 12%). The relatively small penalty at 1440p suggests that the CPU is still a significant contributor at Low settings, where the GPU is not fully saturated. The larger drop at 4K indicates that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor, as expected.

At Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 144 at 1080p to 122 at 1440p to 95 at 4K. That is a drop of 22 FPS from 1080p to 1440p (about 15%) and another 27 FPS from 1440p to 4K (about 22%). The scaling is more linear here, which is typical when the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The minimum FPS values follow a similar trend: 123 at 1080p, 103 at 1440p, and 81 at 4K. The fact that the minimum FPS stays above 80 at 4K Medium is a strong indicator that the frame pacing is stable.

At High settings, the average FPS goes from 103 at 1080p to 87 at 1440p to 68 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 16 FPS (about 15%), and the drop from 1440p to 4K is 19 FPS (about 22%). This is consistent with the Medium scaling, confirming that the GPU is the limiting component. At Ultra settings, the average FPS goes from 82 at 1080p to 69 at 1440p to 54 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 13 FPS (about 16%), and the drop from 1440p to 4K is 15 FPS (about 22%). The pattern is consistent across all settings: the GPU is the bottleneck, and the CPU is not holding the system back.

The data suggests that the RTX 5090 D’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 512-bit bus width are more than sufficient for 4K textures, and the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth means that memory bandwidth is not a constraint in this game. The resolution scaling shows that the GPU’s raw compute power, with 21760 shading units and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, is what determines the frame rate. The CPU, with its 10 cores and 10 threads, is never the limiting factor, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates scale down smoothly with resolution rather than hitting a CPU-imposed ceiling.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock is 3.30 GHz and its boost clock is 4.90 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 25891 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 3655 in Cinebench R23 singlecore. These numbers are not exceptional for a modern desktop CPU, but they are sufficient for this game. The Medium is not a CPU-intensive title; it relies more on GPU rendering for its fixed-camera scenes and pre-baked lighting.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, which has an average benchmark score of 36945 (a delta of 0% from the Core Ultra 5 225’s 36938), and the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D at 37018 (a delta of -0.2%). This means the Core Ultra 5 225 performs essentially identically to a last-generation AMD part in general compute tasks. In this game, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics data, and the fact that the combo ranks 16th out of 2911 suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck.

At 1080p Low, the average FPS of 185 is likely near the CPU’s limit for this game, but since the GPU is still able to reach such a high number, the CPU is clearly doing its job. At higher settings and resolutions, the GPU takes over as the limiting factor, and the CPU’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support (with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth) are more than adequate. The CPU’s integrated graphics, Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 16EU, are irrelevant for this test since the discrete GPU is always used, but the fact that the CPU has a 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicates it is a capable part for gaming, even if it is not top-tier. The data shows no evidence of CPU-induced stuttering or frame rate dips, as the minimum FPS values at all settings are proportionally close to the averages.