The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a high-end desktop combination that delivers a compelling experience in The Medium, a horror title that stresses both rendering fidelity and CPU throughput. The benchmark data indicates this combo finishes in the 24th position out of 3,724 tested configurations, placing it in the top 1% of all systems measured for this specific game. This ranking is supported by strong average frame rates across all tested resolutions and settings, although the performance scaling reveals a nuanced story about where the bottleneck lies at different graphical loads.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s overall rank of 24 out of 3,724 tested combinations places it in the 99th percentile of all systems benchmarked for The Medium. This is an exceptional result, driven by the synergy between the Core Ultra 5 245 processor and the RTX 5090 D graphics card. The data shows this pairing is not merely capable but is positioned among the elite for this title, outperforming the vast majority of the 3,700+ other CPU-GPU combinations in the database.

Looking at the individual components, the CPU’s average benchmark score of 48,995 places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, while its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 and the Intel Core i5-14600K, with negligible performance deltas of -0.5% and +0.8%, respectively. The GPU is even more dominant, with an average benchmark score of 77,712 that lands it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUsBOB; its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, trail by a delta of -1.6%. This combination of top-tier component scores directly translates into the high combo ranking, as the system consistently achieves high frame rates without either component dragging the other down.

Furthermore, the rank is not just a function of raw component power but also of their balanced interaction in The Medium. The game’s fixed-camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds can be CPU-intensive, and the Core Ultra 5 245’s 14 cores and 14 threads, running at a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, provide ample headroom. Meanwhile, the RTX 5090 D’s 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance ensure that the GPU is never the limiting factor at lower resolutions, allowing the system to achieve its top-tier rank.

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance rank of this CPU-GPU combo in The Medium?

A: The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 24th out of 3,724 tested combos, placing it in the top 1% of all systems benchmarked for this game.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core Ultra 5 245 has an average benchmark score of 48,995. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, scores 49,228, a delta of -0.5%, while the Intel Core i5-14600K scores 48,618, a delta of +0.8%. This shows performance is nearly identical to its closest competitors.

Q: What is the GPU’s performance percentile relative to all other graphics cards?

A: The RTX 5090 D achieves a 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712)Skip, placing it well ahead of most other graphics cards in the database.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo achieves an average of 103 FPS. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average drops to 68 FPS. This represents a 35 FPS decrease when moving from 1080p to 4K.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the combo achieve its highest average frame rate?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 192 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is significantly higher than the 4K Low average of 153 FPS.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and what is its memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 5090 D is equipped with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a total memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This large capacity and high bandwidth are more than sufficient for The Medium’s textures and effects.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that points to the GPU as the primary performance limiter at higher resolutions, while the CPU holds the system back at lower ones. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average frame rate drops from 103 FPS to 87 FPS, a 16 FPS decline. Scaling further to 3840x2160 results in an average of 68 FPS, a further 19 FPS drop. This consistent decline as pixel count increases is a classic sign of GPU-bound performance.

However, the scaling is not perfectly linear, suggesting that the CPU’s influence wanes as resolution climbs. At 1080p Low, the system hits 192 FPS, which is a very high frame rate that often becomes CPU-limited. The jump from 1080p Low to 1440p Low results in a drop to 181 FPS, a modest 11 FPS decrease. In contrast, the jump from 1440p High to 4K High is a larger 19 FPS drop. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is nearing its limit in feeding frames to the GPU, preventing it from reaching even higher numbers. At 4K, the GPU’s rendering workload becomes the dominant factor, and the CPU’s headroom becomes less relevant.

The data shows that the Core Ultra 5 245, with its 14 cores and 5.10 GHz boost clock, is powerful enough to handle the game’s CPU demands at 1080p, but the RTX 5090 D is so fast that it can outpace the CPU’s frame generation in lighter scenes. This is why the 1080p Low result of 192 FPS is the ceiling, while the 4K Ultra result of 54 FPS is purely a measure of the GPU’s rendering capability. The system is balanced, but the bottleneck shifts from the CPU at low resolutions to the GPU at high resolutions, which is the expected behavior for a high-end combination.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark data provides a comprehensive look at the combo’s performance across three resolutions and four quality settings. At 1920x1080, the system is exceptionally fast. With Low settings, it averages 192 FPS. Moving to Medium yields an average of 144 FPS with a minimum of 123 and a maximum of 166 FPS. High settings produce an average of 103 FPS, while Ultra drops to 82 FPS. This shows a steep performance cost for each quality tier, with a 110 FPS difference between Low and Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU’s workload. Low settings average 181 FPS, a mere 11 FPS drop from 1080p. Medium averages 122 FPS (min 103, max 140), while High averages 87 FPS. Ultra settings at 1440p yield 69 FPS, which is still very playable. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra is 13 FPS, indicating the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the scaling becomes more pronounced. Low settings average 153 FPS, which is a significant 28 FPS drop from 1440p Low. Medium settings average 95 FPS (min 81, max 110), while High drops to 68 FPS. Ultra at 4K averages 54 FPS, which is the lowest recorded result but still a playable frame rate for a horror title. The data shows a clear pattern: the higher the resolution, the more demanding the GPU load, and the closer the performance comes to the GPU’s limits, as evidenced by the Ultra 4K result being less than a third of the 1080p Low result.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is the dominant component in this combo, and its specifications directly explain the benchmark results. The GPU is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a GB202 chip, and it features 21,760 shading units and 170 RT cores. Its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides a massive 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is crucial for a game like The Medium that uses high-resolution textures and streaming.

The GPU’s clock speeds are also a factor, with a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. These clocks, combined with the 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, allow the RTX 5090 D to handle the game’s most demanding scenes at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 54 FPS, while the lowest in the set, is still a signal of the raw power on hand; many lesser GPUs would struggle to maintain playable frame rates at that setting. The GPU’s 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77,712, confirms its high-end status.

The GPU’s role is most evident in the resolution scaling. As the resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, the average FPS drops consistently, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher pixel counts. The 32 GB VRAM capacity ensures that the game never runs out of memory, preventing stuttering and texture pop-in, even at 4K Ultra with the highest quality assets. The GPU’s performance is the single biggest reason the combo ranks 24th overall, as it provides the raw rendering power necessary to achieve high frame rates at all settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 plays a supporting but critical role in this combo, ensuring the RTX 5090 D is fed with data. The CPU is based on the Arrow Lake architecture with a 3 nm process node from TSMC. It has 14 cores and 14 threads, a configuration that lacks Hyper-Threading, but this is compensated by its high clock speeds. With a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, the processor is capable of excellent single-threaded performance, which is essential for game logic and physics.

The CPU’s average benchmark score of 48,995 places it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K, being nearly identical in performance with a delta of +0.8%. The Core Ultra 5 245 also has 24 MB of shared L3 cacheopera, which helps reduce memory latency and improve performance in gaming workloads. Its memory support for DDR5 with a dual-channel bus provides a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, ensuring the GPU has access to data quickly.

The CPU’s influence on the game’s performance is most apparent at 1080p, where the frame rates are extremely high. The 192 FPS result at Low settings is likely close to the limit of what the CPU can generate, as the GPU is underutilized at that resolution. This is a sign of a well-balanced system; the CPU is not a bottleneck in a negative way, but it does define the ceiling for maximum frame rates. At 4K, the CPU’s role diminishes as the GPU becomes the limiting factor, but the Core Ultra 5 245’s strong single-threaded performance ensures that there are no frame hitches or stutters, allowing the GPU to work at its full potential.