The Medium

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

The measured frame rate data for The Medium reveals a steep resolution scaling curve that clearly identifies the integrated GPU as the primary performance bottleneck. Starting at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system delivers 45 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same preset drops performance to 38 FPS, a 15.6% reduction. At 3840x2160, the Low preset yields 30 FPS, which represents a 33.3% loss compared to 1080p.

The scaling pattern becomes more pronounced at higher quality settings. With the Medium preset, the frame rate falls from 28 FPS at 1080p to 24 FPS at 1440p (a 14.3% drop), and further to 19 FPS at 4K (a 32.1% drop from 1080p). The High preset shows a similar trajectory: 20 FPS at 1080p, 17 FPS at 1440p, and 13 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset follows the same downward trend, with 16 FPS at 1080p, 14 FPS at 1440p, and 11 FPS at 4K.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all four settings presets is notable. In every case, the 1440p to 4K transition costs roughly 20-27% of the 1440p frame rate, while the 1080p to 1440p transition costs approximately 12-15%. This uniform scaling behavior suggests that pixel throughput is the dominant constraint, which is typical for a system where the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU, with its 14 cores and 18 threads, is unlikely to be the bottleneck at any resolution in this title.

The fact that even at 1080p Low the system only achieves 45 FPS — and drops to 30 FPS at 4K — indicates that the AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics are being pushed to their limits by The Medium's rendering demands. The game's fixed camera angles and pre-rendered environments do not reduce the pixel shading workload enough to allow higher frame rates on this IGP. The data shows that resolution scaling is nearly linear, which is a hallmark of a fill-rate-bound scenario rather than a geometry or CPU-bound one.

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

The AMD Radeon 890M is built on the RDNA 3.5 architecture using TSMC's 4 nm process, with a die size of 233 mm² and 34,000 million transistors. Its clock behavior is defined by a 400 MHz base clock and a 2900 MHz boost clock. The memory configuration is entirely system-shared, meaning there is no dedicated VRAM; the GPU accesses main system memory with bandwidth that is "System Dependent." This shared memory arrangement directly impacts performance in The Medium, a game known for its split-screen rendering technique that effectively doubles the rendering workload.

The GPU's compute resources include 1024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operations units. The pixel rate is measured at 92.80 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 185.6 GTexel/s. Floating point performance is rated at 5.939 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16 (at a 1:1 ratio). The 16 ray tracing cores are present, but given the overall performance envelope, they are unlikely to contribute meaningfully to The Medium's frame rates at any resolution.

The benchmark data places this GPU at the 45th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 9210. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Vega 8 (avg score 9221, deltaPct -0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (avg score 9273, deltaPct -0.7%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 (avg score 9294, deltaPct -0.9%), and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M (avg score 9302, deltaPct -1%). These comparisons show that the 890M sits in the lower-middle tier of GPU performance, which aligns with the measured frame rates in The Medium.

The boost clock of 2900 MHz is relatively high for an integrated part, but the shared memory architecture and the 15 W TDP constrain sustained performance. In The Medium, the GPU's limited memory bandwidth becomes critical because the game renders two perspectives simultaneously in many scenes. The measured 13 FPS at 4K High and 11 FPS at 4K Ultra demonstrate that the GPU cannot maintain playable frame rates at high pixel counts, regardless of how aggressively the boost clock ramps up.

# How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and the AMD Radeon 890M ranks 2755 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places the combo in the bottom 5.4% of all tested configurations, which is consistent with the measured frame rates that rarely exceed 45 FPS even at the lowest settings and resolution.

The CPU component of this combo performs respectably in general benchmarks. The Core Ultra 5 135H has an average benchmark score of 29093, ranking at the 81st percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (avg score 29123, deltaPct -0.1%), the Intel Xeon Phi 7210 (avg score 29245, deltaPct -0.5%), the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (avg score 28940, deltaPct 0.5%), and the Intel Core i5-13500HX (avg score 29270, deltaPct -0.6%). These deltas are all within 1% of the 135H's score, indicating that the CPU is competitive with mid-range desktop and mobile parts from recent generations.

However, the GPU drags the overall gaming combo ranking down significantly. The Radeon 890M's 45th percentile ranking among GPUs, combined with the fact that The Medium is a GPU-intensive title, means the combo's in-game rank is far below what the CPU alone would suggest. The data indicates that in this specific game, the GPU is the overwhelming performance limiter. The combo rank of 2755 out of 2911 is a clear signal that this configuration is not suitable for smooth gameplay in The Medium at any of the tested settings.

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

Given the measured frame rates, the Low preset is the only viable option for achieving something close to playable performance. At 1920x1080 Low, the system delivers 45 FPS average, which is the highest frame rate recorded in any configuration. At 2560x1440 Low, the average drops to 38 FPS, and at 3840x2160 Low, it falls to 30 FPS. The Low preset provides the only measured results that exceed the 30 FPS threshold, and only at 1080p does it exceed 40 FPS.

The Medium preset offers a modest visual improvement but at a significant performance cost. At 1080p Medium, the average is 28 FPS, with a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 32. This is 37.8% slower than the Low preset at the same resolution. At 1440p Medium, the average is 24 FPS (min 20, max 27), and at 4K Medium, it is 19 FPS (min 16, max 21). The frame time consistency, as indicated by the min/max values, is tighter on Medium compared to the single averaged values of other presets, but the overall frame rates are too low for a smooth experience.

The High preset is not recommended for any resolution. At 1080p High, the average is 20 FPS; at 1440p High, it is 17 FPS; and at 4K High, it is 13 FPS. The Ultra preset performs even worse, with 16 FPS at 1080p, 14 FPS at 1440p, and 11 FPS at 4K. The data suggests that users should accept the Low preset at 1080p as the only configuration that approaches playability. The 45 FPS average at 1080p Low is still below the 60 FPS target that many players prefer, but it is the best this combo can achieve in The Medium.

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

1920x1080:

• Low: 45 FPS average
• Medium: 28 FPS average (minimum 24, maximum 32)
• High: 20 FPS average
• Ultra: 16 FPS average

2560x1440:

• Low: 38 FPS average
• Medium: 24 FPS average (minimum 20, maximum 27)
• High: 17 FPS average
• Ultra: 14 FPS average

3840x2160:

• Low: 30 FPS average
• Medium: 19 FPS average (minimum 16, maximum 21)
• High: 13 FPS average
• Ultra: 11 FPS average

The data shows a clear hierarchy: at every resolution, the Low preset delivers the highest frame rate, followed by Medium, then High, then Ultra. The gaps between presets are consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Medium is 17 FPS; at 1440p, it is 14 FPS; and at 4K, it is 11 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra is 4 FPS at 1080p, 3 FPS at 1440p, and 2 FPS at 4K.

The Medium preset is the only one with recorded minimum and maximum values, which allows for frame time analysis. At 1080p Medium, the spread between minimum and maximum is 8 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it is 7 FPS; and at 4K Medium, it is 5 FPS. This narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is becoming more consistently saturated, with less burst variation as pixel count increases.

# FAQ

*Q: What is the highest frame rate this combo can achieve in The Medium?*

A: The highest measured average is 45 FPS at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. No other settings or resolution combination exceeds this value.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the clear limiting factor. The CPU has an average benchmark score of 29093 and ranks at the 81st percentile, while the GPU ranks at the 45th percentile with an average score of 9210. The resolution scaling data shows uniform performance drops that are characteristic of GPU-bound rendering.

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

A: At 3840x2160, the best average is 30 FPS on Low settings. The Medium preset averages 19 FPS, High averages 13 FPS, and Ultra averages 11 FPS. None of these are comfortable for sustained play.

Q: How does the Radeon 890M compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Radeon 890M has an average benchmark score of 9210. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Vega 8 (9221, deltaPct -0.1%), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (9273, deltaPct -0.7%), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 (9294, deltaPct -0.9%), and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M (9302, deltaPct -1%). All are within 1% of the 890M's score.

Q: What settings preset provides the smoothest experience?

A: The Low preset at 1080p is the only measured configuration that exceeds 30 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p averages 28 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS threshold. All other presets and resolutions fall below 30 FPS.

Q: Does the combo's overall ranking reflect its gaming performance?

A: The combo ranks 2755 out of 2911 combos in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 5.4%. This ranking is consistent with the measured frame rates, which are below 45 FPS in all configurations.

# 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, manufactured on Intel's 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a TDP of 28 W. The cache hierarchy includes 112 KB of L1 per core, 2 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR5 with a dual-channel bus and a measured bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 135H performs strongly. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 11875.5, and single-core is 1700. Passmark multi-thread score is 22422, and single-thread is 3521. The average benchmark score of 29093 places it at the 81st percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (deltaPct -0.1%), Intel Xeon Phi 7210 (deltaPct -0.5%), AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (deltaPct 0.5%), and Intel Core i5-13500HX (deltaPct -0.6%).

Despite these strong CPU numbers, the measured frame rates in The Medium show no evidence of CPU limitation. The resolution scaling is consistent and predictable, which would not be the case if the CPU were struggling to feed the GPU. The game's dual-camera rendering technique is demanding on both CPU and GPU, but the data suggests that the GPU's pixel throughput is the binding constraint at all tested settings.

The CPU's 18 threads provide ample parallel processing capacity for The Medium's AI, physics, and scene management tasks. The boost clock of 4.60 GHz is sufficient for the game's single-threaded workloads, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates do not collapse at lower resolutions where CPU overhead would become relatively more significant. The comparison between 1080p Low (45 FPS) and 4K Low (30 FPS) shows that even at the lowest settings, the GPU remains the limiting component, as a CPU-bound scenario would show similar frame rates across resolutions.