Minimum

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS for this combo at 1080p with Low settings?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX paired with the AMD Radeon 890M delivers an average of 84 FPS at 1920x1080 on Low settings, making it the only tested preset in this configuration that exceeds 80 FPS.

Q: How does this CPU compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Core Ultra 9 275HX has an average benchmark score of 67469, which is 0.3% lower than the Intel Xeon w5-3525 (67673) and 0.5% lower than the AMD EPYC 4484PX (67822). It sits 0.7% above the Intel Xeon 6515P (67006).

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

A: The AMD Radeon 890M falls into the 45th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 9210. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon Vega 8, scores 9221, a delta of just 0.1%.

Q: Is there a measurable FPS difference between Medium and High settings at 1440p?

A: Yes. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 41 FPS (with a minimum of 35 and maximum of 48), while High averages 35 FPS. That is a 6 FPS drop, or approximately 15%, when moving from Medium to High.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded across all tested settings?

A: The lowest average is 14 FPS, observed at 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset. This is the only measured result below 20 FPS in the entire dataset.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations in this game?

A: This specific CPU-GPU pair ranks 3491 out of 3712 tested combos for Minimum, placing it in the lower 6% of all configurations tested.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a 24-core, 24-thread mobile processor based on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 2.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a thermal design power of 55 W. The chip carries 36 MB of shared L3 cache, along with 192 KB of L1 and 3 MB of L2 per core. It supports dual-channel DDR5 memory with a theoretical bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 35589 and a single-core score of 2204. Its Geekbench results are 20795 multicore and 2458 single-core. The processor sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 67469. Compared to its nearest rivals, it trails the AMD EPYC 4484PX by 0.5% and the Intel Xeon w5-3525 by 0.3%, while leading the Intel Xeon 6515P by 0.7%.

For a game like Minimum, a third-person shooter from 2014, the CPU's high single-core performance (2204 in Cinebench R23 single-core) is more relevant than its massive thread count. The game's engine was designed in an era when quad-core processors were the norm, so the 275HX's 5.40 GHz boost clock ensures that any CPU-bound frame pacing is handled with substantial headroom. The data supports this: at 1080p Low, where the GPU is less stressed, the combo reaches 84 FPS, indicating that the CPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution. The 24 threads are largely idle in this workload, but the architecture's efficiency at lower power states helps maintain consistent frame delivery without thermal throttling.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 890M is an integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, manufactured on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It features 1024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operation units, along with 16 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 400 MHz and boosts up to 2900 MHz. Memory is system-shared, meaning capacity and bandwidth depend entirely on the installed DDR5 system memory, with a bus width that is likewise system dependent.

The 890M's compute throughput is rated at 5.939 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16 (1:1 ratio). Its pixel rate is 92.80 GPixel/s and texture rate is 185.6 GTexel/s. In API support, it covers DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The GPU holds a 45th percentile ranking among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 9210. Its nearest rival is the AMD Radeon Vega 8, which scores 9221 (0.1% higher), followed by the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 at 9273 (0.7% higher).

For Minimum, the 890M's 2900 MHz boost clock is the key specification. This iGPU is clocked aggressively to compensate for its limited shading unit count. The performance data shows a clear pattern: at 1080p Low, the GPU delivers 84 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra, it drops to 41 FPS. This 43 FPS swing across presets indicates that the GPU's fill rate and shading throughput are the primary bottlenecks at higher quality settings. The 32 ROPs are particularly stressed at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the steep drop to 14 FPS at 4K Ultra, where pixel fill requirements exceed what this iGPU can deliver.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured results show a clear progression across presets. On Low settings, the average FPS is 84. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 64 FPS, with a minimum of 55 and maximum of 74. High settings produce an average of 54 FPS, while Ultra averages 41 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra is 43 FPS, meaning Ultra delivers roughly half the frame rate of Low.

At 2560x1440, the same preset ladder shows a compressed range. Low averages 54 FPS, Medium averages 41 FPS (minimum 35, maximum 48), High averages 35 FPS, and Ultra averages 27 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 27 FPS. Compared to 1080p, each preset loses roughly 30-35% of its frame rate when resolution increases to 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the 890M struggles to maintain playability. Low averages 29 FPS, Medium averages 22 FPS (minimum 19, maximum 26), High averages 19 FPS, and Ultra averages 14 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra shrinks to just 15 FPS, indicating that the GPU is hitting a hard ceiling regardless of settings at this resolution. Even the most aggressive quality reduction cannot push the average above 30 FPS at 4K.

The minimum FPS data is only available for Medium presets: 55 at 1080p, 35 at 1440p, and 19 at 4K. These minimums suggest that frame pacing remains consistent, with no severe stuttering, but the absolute values at 1440p and 4K fall below what most players would consider smooth.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 1440p is steep across all presets. At Low, 84 FPS at 1080p becomes 54 FPS at 1440p, a 35.7% reduction. At Medium, the drop is from 64 to 41 FPS, a 35.9% reduction. High goes from 54 to 35 FPS, a 35.2% drop, and Ultra from 41 to 27 FPS, a 34.1% reduction. These consistent ~35% declines indicate that the GPU is the limiting component, as pixel count increases by 78% from 1080p to 1440p, yet the frame rate does not drop proportionally — suggesting some headroom in the GPU's geometry and shading units before fill-rate limits dominate.

Moving from 1440p to 4K, the drops become even more pronounced. At Low, 54 FPS at 1440p becomes 29 FPS at 4K, a 46.3% reduction. Medium drops from 41 to 22 FPS, a 46.3% reduction. High goes from 35 to 19 FPS, a 45.7% drop, and Ultra from 27 to 14 FPS, a 48.1% reduction. The 4K resolution has 2.25 times the pixels of 1440p, and the observed ~46% FPS drop is roughly half the pixel increase, pointing squarely at the 890M's 32 ROPs and system-shared memory bandwidth as the bottleneck. The CPU's role diminishes further at 4K, as the data shows the frame rate is almost entirely dictated by GPU fill rate at this resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual quality and playability for this combo. At 1080p, Medium delivers 64 FPS with a minimum of 55, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. High settings at 1080p drop to 54 FPS, sacrificing 10 FPS for marginal visual gains. At 1440p, Medium averages 41 FPS with a minimum of 35, which is borderline but playable for a slower-paced third-person shooter. Low settings at 1440p reach 54 FPS, but the visual downgrade is substantial.

For players prioritizing frame rate, Low at 1080p is the only preset that exceeds 80 FPS, hitting 84 FPS. This is the recommended preset for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays. Ultra settings are not recommended at any resolution: at 1080p it yields 41 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 27 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 14 FPS. The Ultra preset's additional quality features do not justify the 43 FPS loss compared to Low at 1080p.

At 4K, no preset achieves playable frame rates. The highest average is 29 FPS on Low, which is below the 30 FPS minimum for acceptable console-like performance. Medium at 4K averages 22 FPS, and High and Ultra are in the teens. The data suggests that 4K gaming is not viable with this integrated GPU, regardless of settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In Minimum, this combination of Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX and AMD Radeon 890M ranks 3491 out of 3712 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 6% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the GPU's limitations rather than the CPU's capabilities. The 890M's 45th percentile GPU ranking is the primary drag on this combo's performance in a game that is clearly GPU-bound at higher settings.

Comparing to the CPU's standalone performance, the 275HX sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, yet the combo rank is near the bottom. This discrepancy highlights a severe bottleneck imbalance: the CPU has far more compute headroom than the iGPU can utilize. In synthetic GPU benchmarks, the 890M scores 8076 in Passmark G3D and 590 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, figures that align with its low percentile ranking.

The combo's position among 3712 configurations suggests that most other tested systems — likely featuring discrete GPUs — outperform this integrated solution by a wide margin. Even the closest GPU rivals (AMD Radeon Vega 8, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960) score within 1% of the 890M in synthetic tests, yet discrete options in the broader test pool would push frame rates significantly higher. For Minimum specifically, the 890M's 5.939 TFLOPS of compute is insufficient for high-fidelity rendering at modern resolutions, and the combo rank of 3491 reflects this hardware ceiling rather than any inefficiency in the pairing itself.