The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built around dual-reality rendering, presents a unique load profile that stresses both the GPU’s raw throughput and the CPU’s ability to feed it. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, using only the benchmark data provided to interpret how this combination behaves across resolutions and settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in The Medium?

A: The peak measured average is 189 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At 2560x1440 Low, it drops to 178 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low, it maintains 140 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combination ranks 84th out of 3,724 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.3% of all recorded systems for this game.

Q: What is the performance difference between Medium and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset delivers an average of 111 FPS, while Ultra drops to 63 FPS. This represents a 43% reduction in average frame rate when moving from Medium to Ultra.

Q: Does the RTX 4090 face any CPU limitation at 1080p?

A: Benchmark results suggest some degree of CPU limitation at lower resolutions. The jump from 1080p Low (189 FPS) to 1440p Low (178 FPS) is only a 5.8% drop, whereas the jump from 1440p Low to 4K Low (140 FPS) is a 21.3% drop, indicating the GPU becomes more dominant as resolution increases.

Q: What is the only resolution with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values?

A: The Medium preset at all three resolutions—1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160—includes min/max data. At 1080p, the range is 112 to 152 FPS; at 1440p, it is 95 to 128 FPS; and at 4K, it is 74 to 101 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU’s multi-threaded score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has an average benchmark score of 46,062. Its closest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, scores 46,030, a delta of just 0.1%. The Intel Core i9-13900HX is 0.1% higher.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process. It features 16,384 shading units, 512 texture mapping units, and 176 render output units. The GPU’s memory subsystem consists of 24 GB of GDDR6X on a 384-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. The core clocks are listed at a base of 2235 MHz and a boost of 2520 MHz.

In The Medium, the GPU’s role is paramount. The game’s hallmark is rendering two simultaneous perspectives, which effectively doubles the geometric and shading workload. The RTX 4090’s raw compute—82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance—directly translates to the high frame rates observed. At 4K Ultra, the combo still manages 50 FPS, a demanding scenario that stresses the GPU’s pixel fill rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s.

The GPU’s 24 GB frame buffer is ample for this title. The data shows no memory-related bottlenecks; even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 50 is a smooth playable experience, indicating the VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor. The 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth ensures that the dual-reality rendering pipeline, which requires rapid texture streaming, is fed without stutter.

Comparing to the GPU’s nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the RTX 4090’s average score is 60,347. The Intel Arc Pro A60 is at 60,326 (0% delta), and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 is at 60,140 (0.3% delta). The RTX 4090 sits 2.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M in raw score, but this synthetic delta does not reflect the massive real-world advantage the 4090 holds in gaming workloads like The Medium, where the measured FPS data shows its dominance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a rank of 84 out of 3,724 tested combos in The Medium. This places the system in the 97.7th percentile of all recorded configurations, a strong showing that reflects the high-end nature of both components.

The ranking is heavily influenced by the GPU. The RTX 4090 is an end-of-life product per its production status, but its performance remains top-tier. The data indicates that the GPU is the primary driver of this rank. At 4K Ultra, where the CPU matters less, the combo still achieves 50 FPS, a number that many lower-ranked combos cannot reach at that resolution and quality.

The CPU’s contribution to the rank is secondary but non-negligible. The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 has a percentile rank of 89 among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in the CPU benchmark list include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (0.1% higher score) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX (0.1% lower score). This places the CPU in a performance tier that avoids bottlenecking the RTX 4090 at most settings, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p.

However, the rank of 84 is not the top spot. The data suggests that a more powerful CPU, such as one with higher single-thread performance, could push the combo higher in the rankings, particularly at 1080p where the CPU overhead is more significant. The 189 FPS at 1080p Low is high, but it is not the highest possible, indicating a slight CPU ceiling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets.

1920x1080:

• Low: 189 FPS average.
• Medium: 132 FPS average (min 112, max 152).
• High: 95 FPS average.
• Ultra: 75 FPS average.

At 1080p, the combo is clearly GPU-bound at higher settings. The jump from Low to Medium is a 43 FPS drop, while the drop from High to Ultra is only 20 FPS. This suggests that the Ultra preset introduces effects that are less taxing than the jump from Low to Medium, which likely involves significant changes to shadow quality and post-processing.

2560x1440:

• Low: 178 FPS average.
• Medium: 111 FPS average (min 95, max 128).
• High: 80 FPS average.
• Ultra: 63 FPS average.

The 1440p results show a linear scaling pattern. Each step up in settings reduces the average by roughly 25-30 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum of 95 FPS indicates that even in heavy scenes, the combo stays above 90 FPS, providing a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate QHD monitors.

3840x2160:

• Low: 140 FPS average.
• Medium: 87 FPS average (min 74, max 101).
• High: 63 FPS average.
• Ultra: 50 FPS average.

At 4K, the Ultra preset drops to 50 FPS, which is the lowest measured average. The Medium preset at 87 FPS is the sweet spot for 4K, offering a high frame rate that is still well above the 60 FPS threshold. The Low preset’s 140 FPS shows that the RTX 4090 has massive headroom in this game when visual fidelity is reduced.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals distinct scaling characteristics that highlight the balance between CPU and GPU. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 189 FPS at 1080p to 178 FPS at 1440p—a 5.8% reduction—and then to 140 FPS at 4K—a 21.3% reduction from 1440p. This pattern indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is the primary limiter at 1080p and 1440p, as the GPU has enough headroom to render the scene quickly, but the CPU cannot issue draw calls fast enough to increase the FPS further.

At Medium settings, the scaling is more linear: 132 FPS at 1080p, 111 FPS at 1440p (a 15.9% drop), and 87 FPS at 4K (a 21.6% drop). This suggests that as the GPU load increases, the performance scaling becomes more resolution-dependent, but the CPU still plays a role at 1080p.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is steepest: 75 FPS at 1080p, 63 FPS at 1440p (a 16% drop), and 50 FPS at 4K (a 20.6% drop). The consistent percentage drops across Ultra settings indicate that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at this preset, with the CPU having sufficient headroom.

The limiting component is clear: at low resolutions and low settings, the CPU’s 14 cores and 14 threads (base clock 3.40 GHz, boost 5.00 GHz) are the bottleneck. At higher resolutions and settings, the GPU’s workload becomes dominant, and the RTX 4090’s capabilities are fully utilized. The 4K Low result of 140 FPS is particularly telling—it shows that the GPU can handle the resolution increase with ease, but the CPU limits the frame rate to 140 FPS, which is still a very high number.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and visual quality across all resolutions. At 1080p, it delivers 132 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target and provides a smooth experience for high-refresh-rate displays. At 1440p, the Medium preset’s 111 FPS (min 95, max 128) is ideal for 144Hz monitors, ensuring that frame times remain consistent.

At 4K, the Medium preset achieves 87 FPS (min 74, max 101). This is the only preset at 4K that stays comfortably above 60 FPS while still providing a quality visual experience. The High preset at 4K drops to 63 FPS, which is playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes, as evidenced by the lack of min/max data for High.

The Low preset is not recommended for this hardware, as it leaves significant performance on the table. At 1080p, Low yields 189 FPS, but the visual sacrifices are not worth the extra 57 FPS over Medium. The Ultra preset is only viable at 1080p, where 75 FPS is acceptable, but at 1440p (63 FPS) and 4K (50 FPS), it falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it unsuitable for a smooth experience.

The data suggests that Medium is the optimal preset for the RTX 4090 in The Medium. It provides a high frame rate at all resolutions without the degradation seen at Ultra, and it offers a substantial visual improvement over Low. For users with 120Hz or 144Hz monitors at 1440p, the Medium preset is the clear choice.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor from the Arrow Lake-S architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with 24 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is to handle the game’s physics, AI, and the logic for the dual-reality rendering system. The game’s fixed-camera angles reduce the CPU load compared to open-world titles, but the simultaneous rendering of two worlds increases the draw call count. The Core Ultra 5 235’s 14 cores are sufficient to handle this load, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p Low (189 FPS).

The CPU’s single-thread performance is critical for this game. The benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,085, which is a strong result. The multi-core score of 14,769 in Cinebench R23 is also robust. The CPU’s percentile rank of 89 among all CPUs indicates it is a high-end processor, and its nearest rivals in terms of average benchmark score include the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46,030 vs. 46,062, a 0.1% delta) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46,098 vs. 46,062, a -0.1% delta).

The data shows that the CPU is not a significant bottleneck in most scenarios. At 4K Ultra, the frame rate drops to 50 FPS, which is a GPU limitation. However, at 1080p Low, the 189 FPS ceiling suggests that the CPU is the limiting factor. The boost clock of 5.00 GHz helps in these scenarios, but the CPU’s performance is not unlimited.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s is adequate for The Medium’s requirements. The game does not appear to be memory-bandwidth sensitive, as the frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings changes. The CPU’s 24 MB of L3 cache is also sufficient, as the game’s asset streaming is handled primarily by the GPU’s 24 GB VRAM.

Overall, the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 provides a solid foundation for the RTX 4090 in The Medium. It does not hold the GPU back at higher resolutions and settings, and at lower resolutions, it still delivers frame rates well above the 60 FPS target. The pairing is a balanced one, with the GPU taking on the majority of the rendering workload while the CPU handles the game logic without issue.