The Medium

# The Medium: Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 — Benchmark Analysis

This combination of Intel's Arrow Lake desktop processor and NVIDIA's Turing-generation GPU delivers playable frame rates in The Medium, but only within specific settings and resolution boundaries. The measured data shows a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher resolutions, with the RTX 2060's 6 GB GDDR6 memory and TU106 chip becoming the primary constraint as pixel count rises. The Core Ultra 5 235, with its 14 cores and 24 MB of shared L3 cache, provides ample headroom for the game's fixed-camera horror rendering, but the pairing lands in the 78.6th percentile of tested combos for this title, indicating significant room for GPU upgrades.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for The Medium reveals a clear hierarchy across four quality presets: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 83 FPS average, which is the only configuration in the entire measurement set that approaches high-refresh-rate territory. The Medium preset at 1080p drops to 52 FPS average, with a minimum of 44 FPS and maximum of 60 FPS, providing a smooth experience on standard 60 Hz displays. High settings at 1080p yield 37 FPS average, which is playable but noticeably less fluid, while Ultra at 1080p falls to 30 FPS average, right at the edge of acceptable motion smoothness.

For the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, the Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the recommended starting point. The 52 FPS average with a 44 FPS minimum ensures that the game remains responsive during the fixed-camera transitions and loading of new areas that characterize The Medium's dual-world mechanic. The 44 FPS floor is particularly important because this game frequently shifts between two simultaneously rendered scenes, and frame time spikes are more noticeable in horror titles where camera movement is deliberate and atmospheric.

At 1440p, the Medium preset produces 44 FPS average with a 37 FPS minimum and 50 FPS maximum. This is workable for players who prioritize resolution over smoothness, but the 37 FPS floor approaches the threshold where input lag becomes perceptible. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 70 FPS average, making it the only 1440p option that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. However, the visual downgrade from Low to Medium is substantial in a game that relies heavily on volumetric lighting and shadow detail to create its oppressive atmosphere.

For 4K resolution, the data strongly suggests avoiding anything above Low settings. The Low preset at 3840x2160 produces 55 FPS average, which is surprisingly playable given the RTX 2060's modest 6 GB frame buffer. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 34 FPS average with a 29 FPS minimum, which is borderline for a horror game where precise camera control matters during puzzle sections. High and Ultra at 4K fall to 25 FPS and 20 FPS average respectively, making them effectively unplayable for sustained sessions.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination ranks 2287 out of 2911 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the 78.6th percentile from the top. This ranking reflects the GPU's age and performance tier more than the CPU's capability. The RTX 2060 sits at the 58th percentile among all GPUs in the benchmark database, while the Core Ultra 5 235 ranks at the 89th percentile among all CPUs. This disparity indicates a significant bottleneck at the graphics card level.

Looking at the GPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmark scores, the RTX 2060's average score of 15290 is essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 at 15283 (0% delta), the AMD Radeon 680M at 15270 (0.1% delta), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM at 15199 (0.6% delta). The AMD Radeon RX 7600 scores 15171, a 0.8% delta. This clustering means that in The Medium, the RTX 2060 performs as expected for its tier — neither a standout nor a laggard.

The CPU's benchmark position is more favorable. The Core Ultra 5 235's average benchmark score of 46062 places it just 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030) and 0.1% behind the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098). It also edges out the AMD EPYC 4364P by 0.2% (45970) and the AMD EPYC 7303 by 0.2% (45960). This tight grouping at the top of the CPU rankings suggests that the Ultra 5 235 is not the limiting factor in this combination's 2287th rank.

The measured FPS data reinforces this interpretation. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 83 FPS, which is far below what the CPU's single-thread performance would suggest for a 2021 horror title. The game's rendering engine appears to place heavy demands on the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth, with the RTX 2060's 336.0 GB/s bandwidth becoming a constraint as resolution increases.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play The Medium with this hardware combination?

A: The measured data shows 1920x1080 with Medium settings provides 52 FPS average with a 44 FPS minimum, making it the most balanced option. At 1440p, Medium drops to 44 FPS average with a 37 FPS minimum. For 4K, only Low settings achieve a playable 55 FPS average.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its closest competitors in aggregate benchmarks?

A: The RTX 2060's average benchmark score of 15290 is within 0.8% of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (15171), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (15199), the AMD Radeon 680M (15270), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (15283). This places it in a tightly clustered performance tier.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 bottlenecking the RTX 2060 in this game?

A: No. The CPU ranks at the 89th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 46062, while the GPU ranks at the 58th percentile. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows classic GPU-limited behavior, with frame rates dropping by roughly 34% from 1080p to 1440p and another 39% from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at Ultra settings?

A: Ultra settings produce 30 FPS average at 1080p, 25 FPS average at 1440p, and 20 FPS average at 4K. None of these configurations provide a consistently smooth experience, and the 4K Ultra result of 20 FPS is below the threshold for acceptable playability.

Q: How does the Core Ultra 5 235's multi-core performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 46062 is 0.1% higher than the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030), 0.1% lower than the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098), and 0.2% higher than both the AMD EPYC 4364P (45970) and AMD EPYC 7303 (45960). These differences are within measurement noise.

Q: Does the RTX 2060's 6 GB memory capacity affect 4K performance?

A: The data indicates that 4K Low (55 FPS) is substantially faster than 4K Medium (34 FPS) and 4K High (25 FPS), suggesting that the 6 GB GDDR6 frame buffer is sufficient for Low settings but becomes a limiting factor as texture quality and memory usage increase at higher presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combination covers 12 configurations across three resolutions and four quality settings. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 83 FPS average, the highest result in the entire dataset. Medium at 1080p produces 52 FPS average with a 44-60 FPS range. High at 1080p drops to 37 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 30 FPS average. The 1080p results show a clear 61% performance penalty from Low to Medium, followed by a 29% drop from Medium to High, and a 19% drop from High to Ultra.

At 2560x1440, Low settings achieve 70 FPS average, which is 15.7% lower than the same settings at 1080p. Medium at 1440p produces 44 FPS average with a 37-50 FPS range, representing a 15.4% decrease from the 1080p Medium result. High at 1440p yields 31 FPS average, a 16.2% drop from 1080p High. Ultra at 1440p falls to 25 FPS average, a 16.7% reduction from 1080p Ultra. The consistent 15-17% scaling penalty across all settings from 1080p to 1440p indicates a uniform resolution-dependent cost.

At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more severe. Low at 4K produces 55 FPS average, a 21.4% drop from 1440p Low. Medium at 4K yields 34 FPS average with a 29-40 FPS range, a 22.7% reduction from 1440p Medium. High at 4K drops to 25 FPS average, a 19.4% decrease from 1440p High. Ultra at 4K falls to 20 FPS average, a 20% reduction from 1440p Ultra. The 4K penalties are consistently 19-23% across settings, showing that the doubling of pixel count from 1440p to 4K exacts a proportionally larger toll than the 1.78x increase from 1080p to 1440p.

The Medium settings row provides the only complete min/max data in the dataset. At 1080p Medium, the 44 FPS minimum and 60 FPS maximum create a 16 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the 37 FPS minimum and 50 FPS maximum show a 13 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the 29 FPS minimum and 40 FPS maximum produce an 11 FPS spread. The narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently saturated, reducing frame time variance even as average performance declines.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how this combination scales across the three tested resolutions. Using the Medium preset as the reference point, the system delivers 52 FPS at 1080p, 44 FPS at 1440p, and 34 FPS at 4K. This represents a 15.4% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 22.7% drop from 1440p to 4K. The cumulative penalty from 1080p to 4K is 34.6%, meaning the system retains roughly two-thirds of its 1080p performance when pushing four times the pixel count.

The Low preset shows a different scaling pattern. From 83 FPS at 1080p to 70 FPS at 1440p is a 15.7% drop, and from 70 FPS to 55 FPS at 4K is a 21.4% drop. The total 1080p-to-4K penalty for Low is 33.7%, very similar to Medium. However, the High preset scales slightly worse: 37 FPS at 1080p drops to 31 FPS at 1440p (16.2%) and then to 25 FPS at 4K (19.4%), for a total penalty of 32.4%. Ultra shows the smallest percentage drop: 30 FPS to 25 FPS (16.7%) from 1080p to 1440p, then 25 FPS to 20 FPS (20%) from 1440p to 4K, totaling 33.3%.

The consistency of these scaling penalties — all falling between 32% and 35% from 1080p to 4K — points to a purely GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were a significant contributor, the scaling would show nonlinear behavior with larger penalties at lower resolutions where the CPU has more influence. Instead, the system behaves as if the RTX 2060's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the sole determinants of frame rate, with the Core Ultra 5 235's 14 threads remaining idle relative to the graphics workload.

The RTX 2060's 336.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 192-bit bus width become increasingly taxed as resolution rises. The 6 GB GDDR6 frame buffer at 4K forces the game to either reduce texture residency or spill to system memory, which explains why 4K Low (55 FPS) outperforms 4K Medium (34 FPS) by such a wide margin. The data suggests that at 4K, the Low preset's reduced memory footprint allows the GPU to operate closer to its theoretical peak, while higher presets trigger memory capacity limits that disproportionately impact performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 brings 14 cores and 14 threads to this pairing, running at a 3.40 GHz base clock with a 5.00 GHz boost clock. Its Arrow Lake architecture, built on TSMC's 3 nm process with 17,800 million transistors across a 243 mm² die, positions it as a high-end desktop part. The 24 MB shared L3 cache and 102.4 GB/s dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth provide substantial data throughput for gaming workloads, though The Medium's requirements are modest by 2025 standards.

In benchmark terms, the CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14769 and single-core score of 2085 demonstrate strong performance. The PassMark single-thread score of 4516 and multi-thread score of 37816 further confirm its capability. However, the measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU limitation. At 1080p Low, where CPU overhead is typically highest, the system achieves 83 FPS — a respectable number but not indicative of a CPU bottleneck, which would typically manifest as frame rates well above 100 FPS with a powerful GPU at low settings.

The CPU's nearest rival comparisons show it sitting in elite company. Its average benchmark score of 46062 is effectively identical to the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030, +0.1%), Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098, -0.1%), AMD EPYC 4364P (45970, +0.2%), and AMD EPYC 7303 (45960, +0.2%). This grouping at the 89th percentile of all CPUs means the Ultra 5 235 is more than adequate for The Medium's fixed-camera horror gameplay, which rarely demands high thread counts.

The game's 2021 release date and horror genre suggest it was designed to run on hardware from that era, making the RTX 2060 a contemporaneous match. The Core Ultra 5 235, released in January 2025 with a launch MSRP of $257, brings four years of architectural improvements to the pairing. The result is a system where the GPU's Turing architecture, with 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, becomes the sole performance arbiter. The CPU's 5.00 GHz boost clock and 14 threads ensure that even the most complex scenes with dual-world rendering never starve the GPU of draw calls, but the data confirms that upgrading the graphics card would yield far larger FPS gains than any CPU change.