The Medium

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H is a 14-core, 18-thread mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a 28 W TDP. The chip carries 18 MB of shared L3 cache, plus 2 MB of L2 and 112 KB of L1 per core. In synthetic testing, this CPU posts a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11875.5 and a single-core score of 1700. Its PassMark multi-thread score of 22422 and single-thread score of 3521 place it in the 81st percentile among all CPUs, indicating a solidly above-average processor for mobile workloads.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, but not irrelevant. The game's measured FPS at 1080p Low is 31 FPS, which is the highest result across all tested settings and resolutions. That figure is still low by any playability standard, suggesting the bottleneck is not the processor. The Core Ultra 5 135H's single-thread performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 at 1700, is sufficient for the game's logic and camera systems; the limitation is clearly elsewhere. The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (average score 29123, delta -0.1%), the Intel Xeon Phi 7210 (29245, -0.5%), the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (28940, +0.5%), and the Intel Core i5-13500HX (29270, -0.6%). These deltas are all within one percent, meaning the 135H is effectively performance-equivalent to those desktop and mobile parts in aggregate CPU benchmarks.

What matters for this game is that the CPU is not the limiting factor. The data shows that increasing graphical settings from Low to Ultra at any resolution produces a steep FPS drop, while decreasing resolution from 4K to 1080p at the same settings yields only modest gains. That pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's 14 cores and 18 threads are more than adequate for a horror title like The Medium, which does not demand extreme multi-threaded throughput. The processor's PassMark physics score of 1482 and integer math score of 73509 indicate robust general-purpose compute, but those capabilities are not exercised heavily here. In short, the CPU is ready to feed frames; the integrated GPU cannot keep up.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon 760M is an integrated GPU based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, built on TSMC's 4 nm process. It features 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output units, along with 8 ray tracing cores. The GPU runs at a base clock of 800 MHz and a boost clock of 2599 MHz, with a 15 W TDP. Its memory is system-shared, meaning there is no dedicated VRAM; bandwidth is system-dependent. The GPU posts a PassMark G3D score of 5310 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 400. Its percentile ranking among all GPUs is 35, placing it in the lower third of the performance distribution. Nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6400 (average score 6001, delta +0.3%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M (6000, +0.3%), the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server (5996, +0.4%), and the NVIDIA Quadro P2000 (6049, -0.5%). These deltas are tiny, indicating the 760M sits in a tightly packed cluster of low-end GPUs.

In The Medium, the GPU's role is decisive. The highest measured FPS across all configurations is 31 FPS at 1080p Low. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 19 FPS, and at High it falls to 14 FPS. The Ultra preset yields just 11 FPS. These numbers demonstrate that the Radeon 760M is severely underpowered for this game, which is a demanding horror title with fixed camera angles and heavy post-processing. The system-shared memory is a particular liability: with no dedicated VRAM, the GPU must contend with the CPU for memory bandwidth, and the game's texture streaming at higher settings will exacerbate that contention. The boost clock of 2599 MHz is respectable for an iGPU, but the 512 shading units and 16 ROPs are simply too few to sustain playable frame rates. The GPU's PassMark DirectX 11 score of 52 and DirectX 12 score of 25 further confirm its limited rendering throughput. For this combo, the GPU is the clear bottleneck at every resolution and setting.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured FPS data shows a consistent and predictable pattern across all four settings presets: performance degrades as resolution increases, but the degradation is steep even at the lowest setting. At Low settings, the average FPS moves from 31 at 1080p to 26 at 1440p, then to 21 at 4K. That represents a 16% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 32% drop from 1080p to 4K. At Medium settings, the numbers are 19 FPS at 1080p, 16 FPS at 1440p, and 13 FPS at 4K — a 16% drop and then a 32% drop again. High settings show 14 FPS at 1080p, 12 FPS at 1440p, and 9 FPS at 4K, which is a 14% and then a 36% reduction. Ultra settings produce 11 FPS at 1080p, 9 FPS at 1440p, and 7 FPS at 4K, for a 18% and then a 36% drop.

The relative consistency of these percentage drops across settings is telling. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect resolution to have a negligible effect on FPS — the same frame rate regardless of pixel count. Instead, the data shows a clear and monotonic decline with resolution, which is the classic signature of a GPU-limited workload. The Radeon 760M's pixel rate of 41.58 GPixel/s and texture rate of 83.17 GTexel/s are simply insufficient to fill 4K frames at interactive speeds. Even at 1080p Low, the GPU is barely managing 31 FPS, so the additional pixel workload at 1440p and 4K pushes it further into sub-20 FPS territory. The scaling behavior confirms that the integrated GPU is the limiting component, and that no amount of CPU headroom — the Core Ultra 5 135H has plenty — can compensate for the GPU's fill-rate and shader limitations.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

Based on the measured FPS data, the only configuration that approaches a minimally acceptable experience is 1080p Low, which delivers 31 FPS on average. That is the highest frame rate recorded for this combo. Every other setting and resolution combination falls below 30 FPS, with most falling below 20 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the average is 19 FPS, which is a 39% drop from Low — a substantial penalty for what is likely a modest visual improvement on an integrated GPU. At 1080p High, the average is 14 FPS, and at Ultra it is 11 FPS. The trend is clear: the visual quality gains from Medium to High to Ultra are not worth the frame rate losses.

At 1440p, the situation is worse. Low settings yield 26 FPS, Medium 16 FPS, High 12 FPS, and Ultra 9 FPS. None of these are playable for a horror game that requires timing-based interactions. At 4K, all settings produce single-digit to low-20s frame rates: Low at 21 FPS, Medium at 13 FPS, High at 9 FPS, and Ultra at 7 FPS. The recommendation is unambiguous: if the goal is the smoothest possible experience, 1080p Low is the only viable choice, and even that is borderline. The data shows that the delta between Low and Medium at 1080p is 12 FPS, which is the largest single-step improvement available in this dataset. There is no preset that provides both acceptable visual fidelity and playable performance; users should prioritize frame rate and accept the lowest settings. The Medium preset at 1080p, with its 19 FPS average and 17-22 FPS range, is the only other option that stays in double digits, but it remains below the generally accepted 30 FPS threshold for playability.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo can achieve in The Medium?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 31, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the Radeon 760M compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The Radeon 760M's average benchmark score is 6019, which is within 0.5% of the AMD Radeon RX 6400 (6001, +0.3%), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M (6000, +0.3%), NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server (5996, +0.4%), and NVIDIA Quadro P2000 (6049, -0.5%).

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H a high-performing CPU relative to others?

A: The CPU is in the 81st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29093. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, scores 29123, a delta of -0.1%.

Q: Does increasing resolution from 1080p to 4K have a significant impact on FPS?

A: Yes. At Low settings, FPS drops from 31 at 1080p to 21 at 4K, a 32% reduction. At Ultra settings, it drops from 11 to 7, a 36% reduction.

Q: Which settings preset provides the best performance?

A: Low settings at 1920x1080 provide the best performance at 31 FPS. All other settings and resolutions yield lower frame rates.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations for this game?

A: This combo ranks 2900 out of 2911 tested combinations, placing it near the very bottom of the performance ladder.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

The measured data provides a complete grid of average FPS across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 7 FPS, High delivers 9 FPS, Medium delivers 13 FPS with a range of 11 to 15 FPS, and Low delivers 21 FPS. At 2560x1440, Ultra yields 9 FPS, High yields 12 FPS, Medium yields 16 FPS with a range of 14 to 19 FPS, and Low yields 26 FPS. At 1920x1080, Ultra produces 11 FPS, High produces 14 FPS, Medium produces 19 FPS with a range of 17 to 22 FPS, and Low produces 31 FPS.

The pattern is monotonic across every axis. For any given resolution, increasing settings from Low to Ultra reduces average FPS by roughly two-thirds. For example, at 1080p, the spread from Low (31 FPS) to Ultra (11 FPS) is a 65% reduction. At 1440p, the spread is from 26 FPS to 9 FPS, a 65% reduction. At 4K, the spread is from 21 FPS to 7 FPS, a 67% reduction. Similarly, for any given setting, increasing resolution from 1080p to 4K reduces FPS by roughly one-third. The consistency of these ratios underscores the GPU-bound nature of the workload. The minimum and maximum FPS data, available only for Medium settings, show tight ranges: 17-22 FPS at 1080p, 14-19 FPS at 1440p, and 11-15 FPS at 4K. These narrow ranges suggest that frame pacing is stable, but the absolute values are too low for a playable experience. No other setting preset includes min/max data, so the Medium range is the only frame-time variance information available in this dataset.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and AMD Radeon 760M ranks 2900 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. That places it in the bottom 0.4% of all configurations tested, meaning only 11 other combos performed worse. The rank is a stark reflection of the measured FPS data: no configuration in this dataset exceeds 31 FPS on average, and most fall below 20 FPS. The CPU's 81st percentile ranking among all CPUs is irrelevant in this context because the GPU's 35th percentile ranking dominates the outcome. The Radeon 760M, as an integrated graphics solution with system-shared memory, is simply not equipped for a game like The Medium, which was released in 2021 and demands dedicated GPU resources.

The combo's position near the bottom of the ranking is consistent with its component-level benchmarks. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 5310 and its nearest rivals (all within 0.5% of 6000-6050) place it in a class of low-end discrete and integrated parts. The CPU's nearest rivals, conversely, are all high-performing desktop and mobile processors within 0.6% of its average score. This creates a large gap between CPU capability and GPU capability, and the game's performance is governed by the weaker link. The 2900th rank out of 2911 is a quantitative verdict: this combo is not suitable for The Medium at any tested setting or resolution. For context, the delta between the CPU and its nearest rival (AMD Ryzen 7 5800X) is -0.1%, while the delta between the GPU and its nearest rival (AMD Radeon RX 6400) is +0.3%. These near-zero deltas confirm that both components are average for their respective classes, but the GPU's class is too low for this game's requirements. The data is measured, not estimated, so the 2900th rank reflects actual tested performance rather than theoretical projection.