The Medium

The Medium is a horror title that places significant demands on both the GPU and CPU, and the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces a wide spectrum of performance depending on the resolution and quality preset selected. Benchmark data shows this specific hardware pairing ranks 42nd out of 3724 tested combinations for this game, placing it in the top 1.1% of all tested systems, a position that reflects the raw capabilities of both components.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that at 1440p with Medium settings, the system achieves 114 FPS on average, which is a strong balance between visual fidelity and smoothness. At 4K with Medium settings, the average drops to 90 FPS, still playable but with a noticeable reduction in headroom.

Q: How much faster is the RTX 5090 compared to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score is 79842, which is 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (score of 79605) and 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (score of 78940). The data indicates it trails the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 1.4%.

Q: Does the Core Ultra 7 265K bottleneck the RTX 5090 in this game?

A: The evidence suggests a balanced pairing. At 1080p Low settings, the system hits 206 FPS, which is high enough to indicate the CPU is keeping up with the GPU's output. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35850 and single-core score of 2020 are robust enough to feed the graphics card in most scenarios.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: The gap is substantial. At 4K, Low settings produce an average of 143 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to just 51 FPS. This represents a 64% reduction in average frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Q: Is the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM necessary for The Medium?

A: The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory with a 512-bit bus and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is far more than The Medium requires. The game runs at 4K Ultra with 51 FPS, indicating that raw compute power, not memory capacity, is the limiting factor at that setting.

Q: How does the Core Ultra 7 265K compare to the Intel Core i7-14700KF in processing power?

A: The average benchmark score for the Core Ultra 7 265K is 70879, which is 1% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700KF's score of 70163. The data also shows it is 0.2% behind the Intel Xeon 6511P and 1.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant force in this configuration, and its specifications explain the measured frame rates in The Medium. The GPU is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process node from TSMC, housing 92,200 million transistors on a 750 mm² die. It operates with a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, which are the frequencies that determine its raw shader output. The card carries 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster operation processors, which directly translate to the pixel and texture fill rates of 423.6 GPixel/s and 1,636.8 GTexel/s respectively.

The memory subsystem is equally impressive. The RTX 5090 features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This is critical for high-resolution gaming, as the GPU must rapidly access texture data and frame buffers. The memory clock is rated at 1750 MHz with 28 Gbps effective speed. In The Medium, the GPU's compute capabilities are the primary driver of performance differences between settings. At 4K Ultra, the game demands maximum shader work and memory throughput, resulting in 51 FPS average. Dropping to Low settings at the same resolution yields 143 FPS, showing how the GPU scales with reduced workload.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores corroborate its gaming performance. It achieves a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18355, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 334370, and a Vulkan score of 376728. The Passmark G3D score is 39650, placing the GPU in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. The RTX 5090's nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, has an average score of 79605, which is 0.3% lower, confirming the 5090's position at the top of the performance hierarchy. The GPU's FP32 compute of 104.8 TFLOPS and FP16 of 104.8 TFLOPS (1:1) provide the mathematical throughput needed for the complex lighting and shadow calculations in this horror title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, which is expected given the fixed pixel count growth. At Medium settings, the system produces 135 FPS at 1080p, 114 FPS at 1440p, and 90 FPS at 4K. This represents a 16% reduction moving from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 21% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, indicating that the GPU is becoming increasingly saturated at higher resolutions.

The Low settings preset shows a similar trend but with more dramatic numbers. At 1080p Low, the system hits 206 FPS, which drops to 182 FPS at 1440p (a 12% decrease) and further to 143 FPS at 4K (a 21% decrease). The fact that 1080p Low exceeds 200 FPS suggests that at this resolution and quality level, the CPU is starting to become a factor, as the GPU has enough headroom to render frames faster than the processor can issue draw calls. The Core Ultra 7 265K's boost clock of 5.50 GHz and single-core Cinebench R23 score of 2020 help maintain high frame rates, but the ceiling is evident.

At Ultra settings, the resolution scaling is steeper in percentage terms. The system delivers 77 FPS at 1080p, 65 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 16%, and the 1440p to 4K drop is 22%. This pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting component at Ultra settings across all resolutions, as the increased shader and texture work scales directly with pixel count. The RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM is never a bottleneck here, as even the highest settings at 4K do not exceed the available memory, meaning the FPS drops are purely a function of compute throughput.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset for The Medium with the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 reveals the following measured average frame rates across all resolutions and settings:

At 1920x1080, the system achieves 97 FPS on High settings, 206 FPS on Low, 135 FPS on Medium, and 77 FPS on Ultra. The Medium setting row includes minimum and maximum values of 115 FPS and 156 FPS respectively, showing a frame time variance of 41 FPS. This is the only setting at any resolution with min/max data provided.

Moving to 2560x1440, High settings produce 82 FPS, Low produces 182 FPS, Medium produces 114 FPS, and Ultra produces 65 FPS. The Medium preset at this resolution has a minimum of 97 FPS and a maximum of 131 FPS, a spread of 34 FPS. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p at High settings is 15 FPS, which is a 15% performance loss, while the Low setting loses 24 FPS, an 12% decrease.

At 3840x2160, the highest resolution tested, High settings yield 64 FPS, Low yields 143 FPS, Medium yields 90 FPS, and Ultra yields 51 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 76 FPS and a maximum of 103 FPS, a variance of 27 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 92 FPS, demonstrating the massive performance cost of enabling the highest quality effects. The 4K High setting at 64 FPS is right at the edge of smooth playability, while 4K Ultra at 51 FPS may feel sluggish for action sequences.

The data shows that the Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max information, and it consistently offers a middle ground between the high frame rates of Low and the visual quality of High. At 1080p Medium, the 135 FPS average with a 115 FPS minimum provides a solid experience. At 1440p Medium, the 114 FPS average with a 97 FPS minimum is still well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 4K Medium, the 90 FPS average with a 76 FPS minimum is playable, though the minimum dips closer to the 60 FPS line.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a 20-core, 20-thread processor from the Core Ultra Series 2, built on the Arrow Lake architecture with a TSMC 3 nm process node. It has a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a TDP of 125 W. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 30 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration is designed to handle both high single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads, which is relevant for a game like The Medium that may utilize multiple threads for rendering and physics.

The CPU's benchmark results place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 70879. Its Cinebench R23 scores are 35850 for multi-core and 2020 for single-core, while Geekbench scores are 23085 for multi-core and 2713 for single-core. The Passmark multithread score is 58594, and the single-thread score is 4928. These numbers indicate strong performance across the board, with the single-core performance being particularly important for game logic and draw call submission.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's role is to feed the RTX 5090 with enough data to keep it busy. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 206 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's practical limit for this game engine. The boost clock of 5.50 GHz helps in this scenario, as higher clock speeds reduce the time needed to process each frame's instructions. The 20 cores and 20 threads provide ample parallel processing capability, though the game may not fully utilize all of them. The nearest rivals show the 265K is 1% faster than the Intel Core i7-14700KF and 1.3% faster than the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F, confirming its position as a high-end desktop processor. The CPU's 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth with dual-channel DDR5 support ensures that data can flow quickly to the GPU, avoiding potential stutters in texture streaming.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience depends on the user's priority between frame rate and visual quality. For competitive or high-refresh-rate play, the Low preset at 1080p offers 206 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors. However, this setting likely disables many of the visual effects that make The Medium atmospheric.

The Medium preset is the most balanced option across all resolutions. At 1080p, it delivers 135 FPS with a minimum of 115 FPS, providing smooth gameplay with better visuals than Low. At 1440p, the 114 FPS average and 97 FPS minimum are both well above the 60 FPS standard, making this the recommended resolution for a high-quality experience. The 1440p Medium combination offers a 65% improvement over 1440p Ultra (114 FPS vs 65 FPS) while still maintaining a frame rate that feels responsive.

For those who prioritize visual fidelity, the High preset at 1440p provides 82 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced scenes. The 4K High setting at 64 FPS is borderline, and 4K Ultra at 51 FPS is only suitable for slow, cinematic moments. The data suggests that 4K Medium at 90 FPS is the best way to experience the game at its highest resolution, as it offers a 76% performance improvement over Ultra while maintaining a frame rate that is consistently above 60 FPS. The min FPS of 76 at 4K Medium ensures that even the most demanding scenes remain fluid. The Ultra preset is only recommended for players with variable refresh rate monitors and a tolerance for sub-60 FPS averages, as the 51 FPS at 4K and 65 FPS at 1440p are the weakest results in the dataset.