The Medium

# The Medium with Intel Core Ultra 5 235 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

This combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers a 12th-place ranking among 2,911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 0.4% of all configurations. The pairing shows a clear GPU-bound pattern across most settings, though the CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads prove sufficient to keep frame rates from becoming processor-limited at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 12th out of 2,911 tested configurations in The Medium, a strong result that places it well within the top percentile of systems. This ranking reflects the substantial GPU performance of the RTX 5090 D, which sits at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs in the database. The GPU's average benchmark score of 77,712 places it within 1.6% of the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940) and 2.4% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605), though the deltaPct values indicate the 5090 D trails those two rivals slightly in raw aggregate benchmarks.

The CPU contributes to this high rank as well, with the Core Ultra 5 235 sitting at the 89th percentile among all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 46,062 is effectively tied with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46,030, +0.1% delta) and the Intel Core i9-13900HX (46,098, -0.1% delta). This near-parity in CPU performance means the combo's 12th-place finish in The Medium is driven primarily by the GPU's capabilities rather than any CPU advantage.

What the ranking does not show is headroom — the gap between this combo and the top 11 configurations may be narrow given the high GPU percentile, but the measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings suggest this system is optimized for high-refresh-rate play at 1440p and smooth 4K experiences at medium to high settings.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this pairing, built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB202 chip containing 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is critical for The Medium's fixed-camera horror scenes that often render complex environments with high-resolution textures.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a base of 2017 MHz and a boost of 2407 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). These clocks, combined with 21,760 shading units and 680 texture mapping units, yield a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s. The 170 RT cores and 680 tensor cores support the game's use of ray-traced effects, though the measured data does not isolate RT-specific performance.

The GPU's FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS (with FP16 at a 1:1 ratio) provides ample compute headroom for the game's rendering demands. In the database benchmarks, the GPU scores 44,065 in Passmark G3D and 28,396 in Passmark GPU compute, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14,326. These figures align with the measured in-game performance, where the GPU consistently delivers playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra (54 FPS average).

The 575 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate this is a high-power part, and the 1x 16-pin power connector with a suggested 950 W PSU reflects its energy demands. The PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensures no bandwidth bottleneck, though The Medium's engine is unlikely to saturate even PCIe 4.0 lanes.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the system scales across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions. At Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 144 FPS at 1920x1080 to 122 FPS at 2560x1440 (a 15.3% reduction) and then to 95 FPS at 3840x2160 (a 22.1% reduction from 1440p). This scaling pattern indicates the GPU remains the primary limiter throughout, as the CPU-side workload in The Medium does not bottleneck even at 1080p.

At High settings, the scaling is steeper: 103 FPS at 1080p drops to 87 FPS at 1440p (15.5% decrease) and then to 68 FPS at 4K (21.8% decrease from 1440p). The consistent percentage drops across resolution steps suggest a purely GPU-bound scenario — if the CPU were limiting at lower resolutions, the 1080p-to-1440p drop would be smaller than the 1440p-to-4K drop.

Low settings show the largest absolute frame rates but the same proportional pattern: 189 FPS at 1080p, 178 FPS at 1440p (5.8% drop), and 153 FPS at 4K (14.0% drop). The smaller percentage drops at Low settings hint that the CPU begins to exert some influence at 1080p Low, where the GPU can render frames faster than the processor can feed it.

Ultra settings produce the lowest frame rates across the board: 82 FPS at 1080p, 69 FPS at 1440p (15.9% drop), and 54 FPS at 4K (21.7% drop). This preset likely enables the most demanding effects, pushing the GPU to its limits regardless of resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 189 FPS average, while Medium reaches 144 FPS with a minimum of 123 FPS and a maximum of 166 FPS. High settings yield 103 FPS, and Ultra drops to 82 FPS. All 1080p presets exceed 60 FPS, making this resolution suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 178 FPS (Low), 122 FPS (Medium, with min 103 and max 140), 87 FPS (High), and 69 FPS (Ultra). The Medium preset's minimum of 103 FPS remains above 100, indicating consistent frame pacing, while Ultra's 69 FPS average stays comfortably above 60.

At 3840x2160, the system manages 153 FPS (Low), 95 FPS (Medium, with min 81 and max 110), 68 FPS (High), and 54 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Medium preset shows a minimum of 81 FPS, which is still well within playable territory, but 4K Ultra dips below 60 FPS with a 54 FPS average — the only preset where the system fails to maintain 60 FPS.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values across all three resolutions, providing insight into frame consistency. At 1080p, the range from 123 to 166 FPS shows a 43 FPS spread; at 1440p, the 103-to-140 range spans 37 FPS; at 4K, the 81-to-110 range spans 29 FPS. The narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates the GPU's workload becomes more uniform as resolution increases.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all three resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 144 FPS average with a minimum of 123 FPS, providing a smooth experience on high-refresh-rate displays while retaining more visual fidelity than Low. At 1440p, Medium's 122 FPS average with a 103 FPS minimum keeps gameplay fluid without requiring a drop to Low. At 4K, Medium achieves 95 FPS average with an 81 FPS minimum, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for comfortable play.

High settings are viable for players prioritizing visual quality over frame rate headroom. At 1080p, High yields 103 FPS average; at 1440p, 87 FPS; at 4K, 68 FPS. The 4K High result remains above 60 FPS, though with less margin than Medium. Ultra settings are only recommended for 1080p play, where the 82 FPS average still clears 60 FPS, or for players who accept 54 FPS at 4K in exchange for maximum visual fidelity.

Low settings are unnecessary for this configuration except in scenarios where extremely high frame rates are desired. The 189 FPS at 1080p Low could benefit competitive play, but The Medium is a horror title where visual atmosphere matters more than reaction-time performance. The data suggests Medium at 4K or High at 1440p are the sweet spots for this hardware.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K with smooth frame rates?

A: Yes, at Medium settings the system achieves 95 FPS average with an 81 FPS minimum at 3840x2160. High settings also clear 60 FPS with a 68 FPS average, but Ultra drops to 54 FPS average.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 12th out of 2,911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 0.4% of all configurations.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming?

A: Medium settings provide 122 FPS average with a 103 FPS minimum at 2560x1440, offering a smooth experience. High settings yield 87 FPS average, and Ultra delivers 69 FPS average.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at 1080p?

A: At Low settings, the 1080p average of 189 FPS drops only 5.8% to 178 FPS at 1440p, suggesting the CPU may impose some limit at very high frame rates. At Medium and above, the scaling pattern indicates GPU-bound performance.

Q: What is the frame consistency like on this system?

A: The Medium preset shows a 43 FPS spread at 1080p (123-166), a 37 FPS spread at 1440p (103-140), and a 29 FPS spread at 4K (81-110). Higher resolutions show tighter frame ranges.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score of 77,712 is 1.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904) and 1.6% below the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940), with a 2.1% gap to the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396).

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 provides 14 cores and 14 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This Arrow Lake-S architecture chip, built on a 3 nm process with 17,800 million transistors, features a 24 MB shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 per core. The CPU's benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14,769 and a single-core score of 2,085, with a Passmark multithread score of 37,816 and single-thread score of 4,516.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is secondary but not negligible. The measured frame rates at 1080p Low (189 FPS) approach the range where CPU limitations typically emerge, and the modest 5.8% drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings suggests some processor influence at that preset. However, at Medium settings and above, the scaling pattern indicates the GPU is the definitive bottleneck.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth provide adequate memory throughput for the game's streaming needs. The integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 24EU is present but irrelevant for this discrete GPU configuration. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking and near-parity with rivals like the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (within 0.1%) and Intel Core i9-13900HX (within 0.1%) confirm it is not a weak link in this pairing.

The Passmark data compression score of 390,711 and encryption score of 29,293 indicate strong general compute capabilities, though these are unlikely to impact The Medium's performance directly. The CPU's physics score of 2,570 and find prime numbers score of 371 reflect its integer throughput, which can matter for game logic and AI calculations. For a horror title like The Medium, which relies on fixed camera angles and scripted sequences rather than complex physics simulations, the CPU's 14 threads are more than sufficient.