The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 places at rank 527 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This positions the pairing in the top 18% of all tested systems, a strong result that reflects the high-end nature of both components. The combination of the 24-core Arrow Lake-HX processor and the Blackwell 2.0 flagship GPU delivers a balance that places it well ahead of the median tested configuration, though the game's demands still leave headroom for optimization at higher settings.

Benchmark results indicate that this combo is not merely fast in synthetic workloads but translates that power into playable frame rates across most tested configurations. The CPU's percentile ranking of 94 among all tested processors and the GPU's percentile ranking of 92 among all tested graphics cards confirm that both components are operating near the top of their respective classes. However, the measured FPS data reveals that The Medium is a demanding title, particularly at 4K, where even this flagship pairing struggles to maintain high refresh rates on the highest presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 527 out of 2911 tested combinations places this system in the upper echelon of tested hardware pairings. In practical terms, roughly 82% of tested combos perform worse in The Medium, which means this setup will outperform the vast majority of systems a player might encounter. The ranking reflects the synergy between the Core Ultra 9 275HX and the RTX 5090, where the CPU's strong multi-threaded performance and the GPU's massive memory bandwidth work together to handle the game's fixed camera angles and detailed environments.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals provides context for the processor's contribution. The Core Ultra 9 275HX has an average benchmark score of 67,469, sitting just 0.3% below the Intel Xeon w5-3525 and 0.5% below the AMD EPYC 4484PX. It is 0.7% ahead of the Intel Xeon 6515P. These deltas are marginal, meaning the CPU is performing exactly as expected for its class. The GPU, meanwhile, shows a similar pattern with its nearest rivals: the RTX 5090 is 0.3% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 0.6% ahead of the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB, while sitting 1.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X in average benchmark score.

The data shows that this combo's rank is driven by the GPU's ability to push high frame rates at lower resolutions, while the CPU provides consistent headroom. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 157 FPS, which is a strong indicator that the CPU is not bottlenecking the GPU at mainstream resolutions. The rank of 527 suggests that while this is a top-tier setup, there are still a handful of combos that edge it out, likely those with even more specialized workstation GPUs or higher-clocked desktop parts.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 brings 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is critical for The Medium, which uses pre-rendered backgrounds and high-resolution textures that consume VRAM aggressively. The base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz provide the raw compute throughput needed to render the game's dual-reality sequences, where the GPU must process two simultaneous perspectives.

The GPU's 21,760 shading units and 170 RT cores are directly relevant to The Medium's visual effects. The game relies on ray-traced reflections and volumetric lighting, which push the RT cores and tensor cores hard. In the measured results, the GPU shows a clear scaling pattern: at 4K Ultra, the combo drops to 37 FPS, while at 4K Low it reaches 104 FPS. This 2.8x performance swing demonstrates that the RTX 5090 has the headroom to handle the game, but the highest settings require more than even this flagship can deliver at 4K.

The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards confirms its position near the top of the performance stack. Its PassMark G3D score of 39,650 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18,355 are consistent with a card that excels at both rasterization and ray-traced workloads. In The Medium, the GPU is the primary driver of frame rate differences between settings, as evidenced by the fact that dropping from Ultra to Low at any given resolution yields a larger FPS increase than dropping resolution while keeping settings constant.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern in how this combo scales across resolutions. At 1080p High, the system produces 70 FPS, which drops to 59 FPS at 1440p High and further to 47 FPS at 4K High. This represents a 33% performance drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings. The scaling is more dramatic at Low settings: 157 FPS at 1080p falls to 132 FPS at 1440p and 104 FPS at 4K, a 34% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

These results indicate that the system is GPU-limited at higher resolutions, which is expected given the game's reliance on fill rate and memory bandwidth. At 1080p Low, the 157 FPS figure suggests the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently, but as resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows faster than the CPU's, making the RTX 5090 the limiting factor. The Medium preset shows a similar trend: 98 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and 65 FPS at 4K, with the 4K result including a minimum of 55 FPS and maximum of 75 FPS.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K is particularly telling. At Medium settings, the drop from 83 FPS to 65 FPS represents a 22% reduction, which is less severe than the 29% drop seen from 1080p to 1440p. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is beginning to hit memory bandwidth limits, where the 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth becomes the constraining factor. The Ultra preset shows the most brutal scaling, with 56 FPS at 1080p falling to 47 FPS at 1440p and 37 FPS at 4K, indicating that the game's highest settings are simply too demanding for smooth 4K play on this hardware.

Settings Recommendations

For players seeking the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, the Medium preset at 1440p is the standout choice. At 1440p Medium, the combo delivers 83 FPS average with a minimum of 70 FPS and maximum of 95 FPS. This provides a smooth experience that stays above the 60 FPS threshold for most of the gameplay, while maintaining enough visual fidelity to appreciate the game's atmospheric horror design.

At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 98 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The jump to High at 1080p drops the average to 70 FPS, a 29% reduction for what is likely a modest visual improvement. For 4K users, the Low preset is the only viable option for consistent playability, offering 104 FPS average, though this sacrifices significant visual quality. The Ultra preset is not recommended at any resolution, as even at 1080p it only achieves 56 FPS, which is below the smoothness threshold for a horror game where timing matters.

The data suggests that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for this hardware. It provides a 47% FPS increase over High at 1080p (98 vs 70 FPS) and a 22% increase over High at 4K (65 vs 47 FPS), while the visual difference between Medium and High in The Medium is often subtle due to the game's fixed camera perspectives. For the smoothest experience, 1440p Medium offers the best combination of resolution and frame rate, with the 83 FPS average providing ample headroom for any demanding sequences.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 4K smoothly?*

A: At 4K Medium, the system achieves 65 FPS average with a minimum of 55 FPS, which is playable but not consistently smooth. For a locked 60 FPS experience, dropping to Low at 4K yields 104 FPS, while High and Ultra at 4K drop to 47 FPS and 37 FPS respectively.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system hits 157 FPS, showing the CPU can feed the GPU well. As resolution increases to 4K, frame rates drop by roughly a third across all settings, which points to the RTX 5090's rendering workload as the primary constraint.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: The Medium preset at 1440p is the best measured option, providing 83 FPS average with a minimum of 70 FPS. This keeps gameplay above 60 FPS while retaining enough visual detail. High at 1440p drops to 59 FPS, which is below the smoothness threshold.

Q: How much performance is lost going from 1080p to 4K?

A: At Medium settings, the drop is from 98 FPS at 1080p to 65 FPS at 4K, a 34% reduction. At High settings, the drop is from 70 FPS to 47 FPS, also a 33% reduction. This consistent scaling suggests a uniform GPU workload increase with resolution.

Q: Does the RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM help in this game?

A: The 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth is sufficient for The Medium's high-resolution textures at 4K. The FPS drops at 4K are more attributable to compute load than memory capacity, as the game still runs at playable rates even at Low settings.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 1080p on Ultra?

A: At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 56 FPS average. This is below the 60 FPS target and suggests that Ultra settings are not well-optimized for this title, as the drop from High to Ultra is 14 FPS (70 to 56), a 20% reduction for the highest quality preset.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX provides 24 cores and 24 threads based on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture, with a base clock of 2.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. This mobile processor, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC, delivers strong multi-threaded performance that is essential for The Medium's background loading and AI-driven enemy behavior. The 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 102.4 GB/s of dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth ensure the CPU can feed data to the GPU without creating a bottleneck.

In CPU-specific benchmarks, the Core Ultra 9 275HX scores 35,589 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2,204 in single-core, placing it in the 94th percentile of all tested CPUs. Its PassMark multi-thread score of 55,759 and single-thread score of 4,713 are consistent with a high-end mobile part that can handle both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads. The CPU's average benchmark score of 67,469 is within 0.7% of its nearest rivals, indicating it performs exactly as expected for its class.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the system achieves 157 FPS. This high frame rate at a low-resolution, low-settings configuration indicates the CPU is not limiting performance, as the GPU is able to render frames quickly enough to expose any CPU weakness. The 24 cores handle the game's multi-threaded tasks, such as physics calculations and streaming, without issue. The 5.40 GHz boost clock provides the single-thread performance needed for the game's main thread, which manages the fixed camera transitions and puzzle logic.

The CPU's 24 threads, while not offering hyper-threading, are sufficient for a game from 2021 that was designed for 8-core consoles. The Core Ultra 9 275HX's performance in this title is more than adequate, as evidenced by the fact that the combo's rank of 527 is primarily influenced by the GPU's ability to handle the game's demanding visuals. Players with this CPU can expect consistent frame delivery across all tested settings, with no stuttering or frame-time spikes attributable to processor limitations.