The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER combination delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck across most settings. The data shows this pairing ranks in the 30th percentile of all tested combos, indicating that while it can run the game, users will need to make significant compromises on visual fidelity to achieve smooth frame rates, particularly at higher resolutions.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, which positions it as a strong mid-range desktop CPU with a single-thread performance percentile of 89 among all CPUs. The processor also features a 24 MB shared L3 cache and a dual-channel DDR5 memory interface with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, providing ample headroom for feeding data to the GPU.

In the context of The Medium, a horror title that relies heavily on its fixed camera angles and pre-rendered environments, the CPU's role is less about raw multi-core throughput and more about maintaining consistent frame pacing. The Core Ultra 5 235's single-core performance, reflected in a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2085, is the more critical metric here, as the game's engine tends to favor a few heavily loaded threads. The multi-core score of 14769 in Cinebench R23 is respectable, but the measured FPS data suggests that the CPU is rarely the limiting factor; the GPU reaches its ceiling long before the processor does.

The processor's 14 cores are split between performance and efficiency cores, though the game's workload appears to be light enough that even the efficiency cores can handle background tasks without affecting frame rates. The data reveals no scenario where the CPU's thread count or clock speed becomes a bottleneck, as the FPS scales almost entirely with GPU load across all resolutions. For instance, at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 92 FPS, while at 4K Ultra it drops to 21 FPS — a pattern that points squarely at the graphics card as the performance limiter. The CPU's 65 W TDP and 3 nm process node also ensure that it does not introduce thermal throttling issues that could indirectly impact gaming performance, though this is a qualitative assessment based on the architecture's efficiency.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across the four available presets, and the optimal choice depends heavily on the user's target resolution. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers 92 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo, but it comes at the cost of visual detail. The Medium preset at 1080p offers a more balanced experience with 57 FPS, which is above the threshold for smooth gameplay in a slow-paced horror title, while the High preset drops to 41 FPS and Ultra falls to 33 FPS.

For 1440p, the situation becomes more constrained. The Low preset still manages 77 FPS, but the Medium preset drops to 48 FPS, which is playable but begins to show the GPU's limitations. High at 1440p yields 35 FPS, and Ultra is nearly unplayable at 27 FPS. At 4K, the data shows that only the Low preset is viable, with 61 FPS, while Medium drops to 38 FPS, High to 27 FPS, and Ultra to a slideshow-like 21 FPS.

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this combo, but only at 1080p. At 1440p, users should stick with Low to maintain a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, while at 4K, Low is the only option that avoids severe frame rate dips. The Medium preset's measured frame times, with a min FPS of 49 at 1080p and 41 at 1440p, indicate that it can hold reasonably steady, but the High and Ultra presets lack the headroom to absorb scene complexity spikes, which are common in The Medium's dual-world rendering sequences. For the best experience per the measured rows, the recommendation is clear: 1080p Medium offers the ideal balance of visual quality and performance, while higher resolutions demand a sacrifice in settings.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The frame rate scaling across resolutions reveals a textbook GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the combo produces 92 FPS at 1080p, 77 FPS at 1440p, and 61 FPS at 4K. This represents a 17% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 34% drop from 1080p to 4K. The relatively modest decline in percentage terms suggests that even at Low settings, the RTX 2060 SUPER is struggling to maintain pixel throughput, but the game's rendering complexity is low enough that the GPU can still keep up at 4K.

At Medium settings, the scaling is steeper: 57 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p, and 38 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1440p to 4K is 21%, which is consistent with a GPU that is becoming increasingly overwhelmed by pixel count. However, the most telling data comes from the High and Ultra presets. At High, the combo achieves 41 FPS at 1080p, 35 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K — a 34% reduction from 1080p to 4K. At Ultra, the figures are 33 FPS, 27 FPS, and 21 FPS, respectively, with the 4K result being just barely above the threshold for a slideshow.

This scaling pattern is indicative of a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU's performance remains constant regardless of resolution. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would remain flat across resolutions, but the data shows a consistent decline as pixel count increases. The RTX 2060 SUPER's 8 GB of VRAM and 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are sufficient for the game's textures at 1080p, but at 4K Ultra, the GPU's 7.181 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is simply not enough to handle the pixel shading workload. The conclusion is unambiguous: the RTX 2060 SUPER is the limiting component in this pairing, and the CPU has ample headroom to spare.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER ranks 2026 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the 30th percentile of all tested configurations, which is a below-average result for a game that was released in 2021. The ranking reflects the GPU's age and mid-range positioning, as the RTX 2060 SUPER's percentile vs all GPUs is 62, while the CPU's percentile is 89. The disparity between the two components' relative strengths is a key factor in this ranking.

In terms of CPU rivals, the Core Ultra 5 235's average benchmark score of 46062 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030, a 0.1% difference), the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098, a -0.1% difference), and the AMD EPYC 4364P (45970, a 0.2% difference). This indicates that the CPU is performing at the level of a high-end laptop processor or a server chip, which is far more compute power than The Medium requires. The combo's low ranking is therefore not attributable to the CPU, but rather to the GPU's limitations.

For the GPU, the RTX 2060 SUPER's average benchmark score of 18093 is closely matched by the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile (18159, a -0.4% difference), the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 (18189, a -0.5% difference), and the AMD Radeon RX 460 (18373, a -1.5% difference). The fact that the RTX 2060 SUPER is outperformed by a mobile GPU and a budget desktop card in synthetic benchmarks underscores why this combo ranks so low in a demanding game like The Medium. The data suggests that users with this pairing are getting roughly the performance one would expect from a mid-range GPU from 2019, and the ranking reflects that reality.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with a 12 nm process node, featuring 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus. Its base clock is 1470 MHz with a boost clock of 1650 MHz, and the memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), yielding a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The GPU contains 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 raster output units, along with 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores. These specifications place it in the 62nd percentile of all GPUs, with a PassMark G3D score of 16462.

In The Medium, the GPU's role is dominant, as evidenced by the 27 FPS at 4K High and 21 FPS at 4K Ultra. The game's use of fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds means that the GPU is primarily responsible for resolution scaling, and the 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the game's textures at all settings, as evidenced by the fact that there are no crashes or texture pop-in reported in the data. However, the GPU's compute throughput of 7.181 TFLOPS is the limiting factor, particularly at higher resolutions where pixel fill rate becomes critical.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s is adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s struggle to keep up with the demand. The data shows that the GPU's performance scales almost linearly with resolution, indicating that it is compute-bound rather than memory-bound. The RTX 2060 SUPER's end-of-life production status and 175 W TDP also suggest that it is a mature design with no headroom for overclocking gains, meaning users are stuck with the measured performance. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 API compatibility ensure that it can handle the game's rendering features, but the raw horsepower is simply insufficient for high-end settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1080p, the measured average FPS for this combo is 92 on Low, 57 on Medium, 41 on High, and 33 on Ultra. The Medium preset has a recorded min FPS of 49 and a max FPS of 66, indicating some frame time variance but generally stable performance. The Low preset's 92 FPS is the only result that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS, while the High and Ultra presets fall below the 45 FPS threshold that is often considered the minimum for a playable horror experience due to the game's slow pacing.

At 1440p, the average FPS drops to 77 on Low, 48 on Medium, 35 on High, and 27 on Ultra. The Medium preset at 1440p has a min FPS of 41 and a max FPS of 55, which shows a wider variance than at 1080p, suggesting that the GPU is working harder to maintain frame times. The Low preset at 1440p is the only option that delivers a smooth experience, while High and Ultra are borderline unplayable, with the latter approaching the 20 FPS range.

At 4K, the data reveals a stark reality: Low averages 61 FPS, Medium averages 38 FPS, High averages 27 FPS, and Ultra averages 21 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K has a min FPS of 32 and a max FPS of 43, which is a significant variance that could lead to noticeable stuttering during intense scenes. The Low preset at 4K is the only playable option, and even then, the 61 FPS average is within 10% of the 60 FPS target, leaving no room for error. The Ultra preset's 21 FPS is below the 24 FPS standard for cinematic frame rates, making it effectively a screenshot tool rather than a playable mode. Across all resolutions, the data consistently shows that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the bottleneck, with the CPU's performance remaining constant and the GPU's frame rate dropping proportionally with pixel count.