The Medium

The Medium is a fixed-camera horror game that stresses both GPU throughput and CPU consistency, and the tested configuration—Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090—delivers a wide performance spread depending on resolution and preset. Benchmark results show this combo landing at rank 535 out of 2911 tested combinations, placing it in the top percentile of systems, yet the data also reveals that even this flagship mobile CPU and top-tier desktop GPU cannot hold 60 FPS at 4K Ultra in this title. The measured rows provide a clear picture: this is a system that excels at 1440p and 1080p, but requires careful settings selection for 4K play.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 98, with a minimum of 84 and a maximum of 113. This is the only preset at this resolution that includes min/max data, indicating a stable frame window.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H has an average benchmark score of 35670, which is 0.1% lower than the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 (35719), 0.2% lower than the Intel Core 7 250H (35728), 0.4% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 (35802), and 0.7% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X (35909). The deltas are all under one percent, making these effectively equivalent for this game.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested GPUs?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 sits at the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, scores 79605, a delta of 0.3%, showing the RTX 5090 is slightly ahead.

Q: What is the best average FPS recorded across all tested settings and resolutions?

A: The highest average FPS is 154, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next highest is 132 at 2560x1440 with Low settings, followed by 104 at 3840x2160 with Low settings, showing that Low preset consistently produces the fastest frames.

Q: Does the combo rank in the top half of all tested combinations?

A: Yes, the combo ranks 535 out of 2911 total combos, placing it well within the top 20% of all tested systems. This rank reflects the strong overall performance of the CPU-GPU pairing in this specific game.

Q: What is the FPS drop from 1080p Medium to 4K Medium?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 98 at 1920x1080 to 83 at 2560x1440, then to 65 at 3840x2160. This represents a 33.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating that the GPU is the primary scaling factor as resolution increases.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with a 5 nm process, featuring 21,760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output units. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz and boosts to 2407 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz, effectively 28 Gbps. The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for The Medium's high-resolution textures and the dual-reality rendering that the game uses for its parallel world mechanic.

In the measured results, the GPU's role becomes clear when examining the 4K data. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 37 at Ultra to 104 at Low, with Medium hitting 65. The gap between Low and Ultra is 67 FPS, a 2.8x difference, which shows how heavily the game scales with GPU load. The RTX 5090's ray tracing cores (170) and tensor cores (680) contribute to the game's lighting and post-processing effects, though the fixed-camera design means these features are used conservatively compared to open-world titles. The GPU's FP32 throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s are the key specifications that drive the high frame rates at lower resolutions, where the CPU becomes less of a limiting factor.

At 1080p Low, the average FPS of 154 demonstrates that the GPU has substantial headroom, suggesting that the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H is capable of feeding frames quickly enough to avoid bottlenecking. However, at 4K Ultra, the 37 FPS average indicates that the GPU is fully saturated, with the memory bandwidth and pixel rate (423.6 GPixel/s) becoming the binding constraints. The RTX 5090's 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842, confirms that this is a top-tier part, yet The Medium's Ultra preset is demanding enough to bring it below the 60 FPS threshold at 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, with the scaling varying by preset. At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 98 at 1920x1080 to 83 at 2560x1440, and then to 65 at 3840x2160. The percentage drops are 15.3% from 1080p to 1440p, and 21.7% from 1440p to 4K, totaling a 33.7% reduction from 1080p to 4K. This scaling is relatively linear, suggesting that the GPU is the dominant factor, with the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM ensuring that texture memory is never exhausted even at 4K Ultra.

For High settings, the progression is 70 FPS at 1080p, 59 at 1440p, and 47 at 4K, representing drops of 15.7% and 20.3% respectively. The Low preset shows a different pattern: 154 FPS at 1080p, 132 at 1440p, and 104 at 4K, with drops of 14.3% and 21.2%. The Ultra preset is the most punishing, with 56 FPS at 1080p, 47 at 1440p, and 37 at 4K—a 16.1% drop followed by a 21.3% drop. Across all presets, the 1440p to 4K transition consistently costs about 20-21% performance, which aligns with the pixel count increase from 3.7 million to 8.3 million (a 2.25x increase), though the actual FPS drop is less than the pixel ratio suggests, indicating that the game engine has other bottlenecks beyond raw fill rate.

The limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU's 16 cores and 22 threads (with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz) are sufficient to keep the GPU fed, as evidenced by the 154 FPS at Low. At 4K, however, the GPU's pixel rate and memory bandwidth become the constraints, with the RTX 5090's 423.6 GPixel/s and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth being pushed to their limits at Ultra settings. The 47 FPS average at 4K High versus 65 at 4K Medium shows that the GPU has a 38.3% performance headroom between these presets, implying that users should prioritize Medium or Low at 4K for smoother gameplay.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a combo rank of 535 out of 2911 tested combinations in The Medium. This places the system in the 81.6th percentile of all combos, meaning it outperforms roughly 82% of tested configurations. The rank is driven primarily by the GPU, given the RTX 5090's 92nd percentile standing, while the CPU sits at the 85th percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 35670.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals, the data shows that the Core Ultra 9 185H is virtually tied with several processors. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 has an average score of 35719 (0.1% higher), the Intel Core 7 250H scores 35728 (0.2% higher), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 scores 35802 (0.4% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X scores 35909 (0.7% higher). These sub-one-percent deltas mean that swapping the CPU for any of these alternatives would have a negligible impact on The Medium's performance, reinforcing that the RTX 5090 is the primary driver of the combo's rank.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (avg score 79605, 0.3% lower), the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79396, 0.6% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940, 1.1% lower), and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (80959, 1.4% higher). The RTX 5090's 79842 average score places it comfortably above the Tesla P100 variants and the RX 6850M XT, but slightly below the Pro Vega 64X. In practical terms, this means the combo's top-20% rank is secure, but there are a handful of GPU alternatives that could push it slightly higher.

The rank of 535 also reflects the game's specific optimization. The Medium is a 2021 horror title with fixed camera angles, which reduces the CPU's workload compared to open-world games. This allows the RTX 5090 to flex its muscle, particularly at lower resolutions, where the combo achieves frame rates well above 100 FPS on Medium and High presets. At 4K, however, the rank is less impressive, with Ultra settings dipping to 37 FPS, which would place the combo lower relative to systems with even faster GPUs (though the FACT PACK does not provide such comparisons).

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal preset depends on the target resolution and desired frame rate. For a 60 FPS target at 4K, the data shows that only the Low preset (104 FPS average) exceeds this threshold, while Medium falls short at 65 FPS. If the user has a 1440p display, Medium (83 FPS) is the best balance, as it provides a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while High (59 FPS) just misses the mark. For 1080p, Medium (98 FPS) and High (70 FPS) both clear 60 FPS, with Medium offering a smoother experience and High providing better visual fidelity.

The Ultra preset is not recommended for any resolution if frame rate is a priority, as it drops to 56 FPS at 1080p, 47 at 1440p, and 37 at 4K. These numbers are all below 60 FPS, which is a common target for horror games where smooth camera movement is essential for immersion. The Low preset, while delivering the highest FPS (154 at 1080p, 132 at 1440p, 104 at 4K), sacrifices visual quality significantly, which may detract from the game's atmospheric lighting and shadow work.

The Medium preset appears to be the sweet spot for this configuration. At 1080p, it delivers 98 FPS with a minimum of 84 and a maximum of 113, showing tight frame pacing. At 1440p, the 83 FPS average (min 70, max 95) is still well above 60, and at 4K, the 65 FPS average (min 55, max 75) is the only preset besides Low that maintains a playable frame rate above 60 on average. Given that the min FPS at 4K Medium is 55, users with variable refresh rate displays would see occasional dips below 60, but the overall experience remains smooth. For users who prioritize visuals over raw speed, High at 1440p (59 FPS) is acceptable, but the 70 FPS at 1080p High is the better choice.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average FPS across presets is: Low 154, Medium 98 (min 84, max 113), High 70, and Ultra 56. The spread from Low to Ultra is 98 FPS, with the largest single drop occurring between Medium and High (28 FPS) and between High and Ultra (14 FPS). The 154 FPS at Low indicates that the CPU-GPU combo has massive headroom at this resolution, with the RTX 5090's 104.8 TFLOPS of FP32 performance being underutilized.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 132, Medium 83 (min 70, max 95), High 59, and Ultra 47. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets: Low loses 22 FPS (14.3%), Medium loses 15 FPS (15.3%), High loses 11 FPS (15.7%), and Ultra loses 9 FPS (16.1%). The 1440p results show that Medium is the only preset that maintains a 60+ FPS average, while High and Ultra fall below the threshold.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low 104, Medium 65 (min 55, max 75), High 47, and Ultra 37. The transition from 1440p to 4K results in drops of 28 FPS (21.2%) for Low, 18 FPS (21.7%) for Medium, 12 FPS (20.3%) for High, and 10 FPS (21.3%) for Ultra. At 4K, even the Medium preset's minimum of 55 FPS dips below 60, meaning that only Low (104 FPS) provides a consistently smooth experience. The Ultra preset at 37 FPS is noticeably stutter-prone, and the High preset at 47 FPS is borderline.

The data also reveals that the 4K Low preset (104 FPS) outperforms both 1440p High (59 FPS) and 1440p Ultra (47 FPS), which is an unusual result that highlights how much of a GPU load the Ultra preset imposes. Similarly, 1440p Low (132 FPS) beats 1080p High (70 FPS) by a wide margin. This suggests that users who prioritize frame rate should consider lowering the preset rather than the resolution, as the performance gains from dropping from High to Low are larger than those from dropping from 1440p to 1080p at the same preset. Overall, the measured FPS breakdown confirms that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming at Medium or High settings, with 4K reserved for the Low preset or for users who accept sub-60 FPS averages.