The Medium

FAQ

Q: What is the best performance this combo can achieve in The Medium?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded across all tested configurations is 45 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only measured result that approaches a playable baseline, with all other presets falling below 40 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 32697 places it essentially at parity with the Intel Core i5-14600T (32707, 0% delta) and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (32662, 0.1% delta). It trails the AMD Ryzen 5 7400F by 0.2% and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H by 0.4%, which are negligible differences.

Q: What is the GPU's standing relative to other graphics processors?

A: The AMD Radeon 890M sits in the 45th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 9210. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Vega 8, scores 9221, a delta of -0.1%, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 is -0.7% behind this iGPU.

Q: Does the GPU have dedicated VRAM?

A: No, the AMD Radeon 890M uses System Shared memory for both its memory size and type, with bandwidth described as System Dependent. This is an integrated graphics processor, so it relies on the system's main memory rather than a dedicated pool.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested configurations in this game?

A: This combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and AMD Radeon 890M ranks 2755 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 5% of all systems tested for this title.

Q: Are there any measured frame time variance data points?

A: The dataset only includes minimum and maximum FPS values for Medium settings. At 1920x1080 Medium, the range is 24 to 32 FPS; at 2560x1440 Medium, it is 20 to 27 FPS; and at 3840x2160 Medium, it is 16 to 21 FPS. No variance data is available for Low, High, or Ultra presets.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data presents a clear hierarchy across presets, but none of them deliver a consistently smooth experience. At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 45 FPS, which is the only configuration that exceeds the 30 FPS threshold typically associated with minimum playability. The next step up, Medium, drops to 28 FPS, while High falls to 20 FPS and Ultra bottoms out at 16 FPS. Given that the frame rate nearly halves when moving from Low to Medium, the cost of visual fidelity is steep.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with more severity. Low delivers 38 FPS, Medium manages 24 FPS, High drops to 17 FPS, and Ultra hits 14 FPS. The 1440p Low result is technically playable, but the 7 FPS penalty compared to 1080p Low suggests the system is already straining. At 3840x2160, only Low achieves 30 FPS; Medium falls to 19 FPS, High to 13 FPS, and Ultra to 11 FPS. The 4K Low number is borderline, but the minimum FPS for 4K Medium (16) hints at stutter potential.

The data implies that Low settings are the only viable option across all resolutions. The jump from Low to Medium costs 17 FPS at 1080p, 14 FPS at 1440p, and 11 FPS at 4K — a consistent penalty of roughly 37-40%. High and Ultra presets are effectively unplayable at any resolution, with all results below 20 FPS. For users who prioritize frame rate over visuals, Low at 1080p is the best measured experience, though even that falls short of the 60 FPS target. If visual quality is non-negotiable, Medium at 1080p (28 FPS) is the highest preset that stays above 25 FPS, but the trade-off is a 17 FPS loss from Low.

The data suggests that this iGPU is not suited for The Medium at higher presets. The gap between Low and Medium is far larger than the gap between Medium and High, indicating that the Medium preset introduces rendering features that disproportionately tax the Radeon 890M. There is no measured configuration that achieves 60 FPS, and only three of twelve rows reach at least 30 FPS (1080p Low, 1440p Low, 4K Low). For a horror game that relies on atmosphere, the Low preset may strip away some visual intent, but the alternative is a slideshow.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H is a 16-core, 22-thread mobile processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture, built on a 7 nm process. Its base clock is 3.80 GHz with a boost clock of 4.80 GHz, and it carries a 24 MB shared L3 cache. In synthetic tests, the CPU posts a multi-threaded Cinebench R23 score of 15028 and a single-thread score of 1743, which places it in the 83rd percentile among all CPUs. These are respectable numbers for a mobile part, but they do not translate into gaming performance for this title.

The CPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score are the Intel Core i5-14600T (32707, 0% delta) and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (32662, 0.1% delta). The differences are within a fraction of a percent, meaning the Ultra 7 155H is statistically tied with these alternatives in general compute workloads. However, the measured FPS in The Medium is primarily constrained by the GPU, as evidenced by the dramatic frame rate drops when resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the CPU has to feed the GPU with 45 FPS worth of frames; at 4K Low, that drops to 30 FPS. The CPU is not the bottleneck here — the iGPU is.

The cache hierarchy is substantial: 112 KB L1 per core and 2 MB L2 per core, with 24 MB shared L3. This configuration supports the 22 threads, which is beneficial for heavily threaded workloads like Cinebench R23 multi-core (15028). But The Medium's engine does not appear to leverage this thread count effectively at lower resolutions, or the GPU simply cannot keep up. The PassMark multi-thread score of 24873 and physics score of 1727 indicate strong general processing power, yet the game's frame rates suggest the rendering pipeline is the limiting factor.

What is curious is the delta between the CPU's percentile (83rd) and the combo's rank in-game (2755th out of 2911). This disconnect implies that pairing a high-percentile CPU with a mid-tier iGPU yields poor gaming results. The CPU is capable, but it is paired with a GPU that ranks in the 45th percentile. In this context, the CPU's role is to avoid being a bottleneck, and the data shows it is not — but it also cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations. The 4.80 GHz boost clock and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth provide enough headroom for the iGPU, yet the game's demands outstrip what the Radeon 890M can deliver.

How This Combo Ranks

This combo ranks 2755 out of 2911 tested configurations in The Medium, which places it in the bottom 5.4% of all systems. The rank reflects the combined performance of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and AMD Radeon 890M, and it is a poor showing for a CPU that individually sits in the 83rd percentile. The GPU's 45th percentile ranking drags the overall result down significantly, as the game is clearly GPU-bound.

The gap between the CPU's capabilities and the combo's game ranking is stark. A CPU in the top 17% of all processors, when paired with an iGPU in the 45th percentile, produces a system that struggles to maintain 30 FPS at 1080p Low. This suggests that for The Medium, the GPU is the dominant factor in determining playability, and the CPU's headroom is irrelevant once the GPU saturates. The nearest GPU rivals — AMD Radeon Vega 8 (-0.1% delta), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (-0.7%), and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 (-0.9%) — all score similarly in synthetic benchmarks, yet none of them would be considered gaming-grade by modern standards.

The rank of 2755 out of 2911 means that only 156 tested combos perform worse. This is a bottom-tier result for a 2023-era CPU paired with a 2024-era iGPU. The data implies that users seeking to play The Medium should not consider this combination, as even the best measured preset (1080p Low at 45 FPS) is far from smooth. The CPU's high percentile is misleading in this context — it does not translate to in-game performance when the GPU is the constraint. For comparison, a system with a weaker CPU but a discrete GPU would likely rank much higher, underscoring that the iGPU is the bottleneck.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 890M is an integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, built on a 4 nm process at TSMC. It features 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with 16 ray tracing cores. The GPU clocks at a base of 400 MHz and boosts to 2900 MHz, delivering 5.939 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. Its memory is System Shared, meaning it draws from the system's DDR5 pool, with bandwidth dependent on the motherboard configuration.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Radeon 890M scores 8076 in PassMark G3D and 4157 in GPU compute, placing it in the 45th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Vega 8 (9221, -0.1% delta) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (9273, -0.7% delta). These are iGPU and older discrete GPU parts, respectively, and the 890M's scores are within 1% of all four rivals listed. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 590 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 40808 provide additional context, but the PassMark numbers are the most telling.

The GPU's role in The Medium is decisive. The measured FPS across all resolutions and presets shows a clear ceiling: 45 FPS at 1080p Low is the maximum, and every other configuration falls below 40 FPS. The 2900 MHz boost clock is high for an iGPU, but the 1024 shading units and 32 ROPs limit fill rate and pixel throughput. The pixel rate of 92.80 GPixel/s and texture rate of 185.6 GTexel/s sound respectable on paper, yet the game's rendering demands exceed these capabilities at higher presets.

The lack of dedicated VRAM is a critical factor. The System Shared memory means the GPU competes with the CPU for bandwidth, and the "System Dependent" bandwidth figure suggests performance varies with the system's memory configuration. The Medium is a horror game with fixed camera angles and layered scenes, which can be memory-intensive. The data shows that reducing resolution from 1080p to 4K at Low settings drops FPS from 45 to 30, a 33% penalty, which is less severe than the 60%+ penalty seen at Medium and above. This indicates that the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints, not the CPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings achieve 45 FPS average, Medium drops to 28 FPS (min 24, max 32), High falls to 20 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 16 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 29 FPS swing, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium (17 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers: Low delivers 38 FPS, Medium manages 24 FPS (min 20, max 27), High reaches 17 FPS, and Ultra hits 14 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium is 14 FPS, slightly less than at 1080p, but the overall ceiling is 7 FPS lower than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the results are marginal: Low achieves 30 FPS, Medium falls to 19 FPS (min 16, max 21), High drops to 13 FPS, and Ultra reaches only 11 FPS. The 4K Low result is the only one at this resolution that touches 30 FPS, and even that is barely playable.

The data reveals that resolution scaling is not linear. From 1080p to 1440p, Low settings lose 7 FPS (45 to 38), a 15.6% drop. From 1440p to 4K, Low loses 8 FPS (38 to 30), a 21.1% drop. For Medium, the drops are 4 FPS (28 to 24) and 5 FPS (24 to 19), respectively. High loses 3 FPS at each step (20 to 17 to 13), and Ultra loses 2 FPS at each step (16 to 14 to 11). The relative penalties suggest that the GPU's fill rate is the limiting factor, as higher resolutions disproportionately impact lower presets.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS from 1080p to 4K exposes the GPU's limitations. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 45 FPS at 1080p to 38 FPS at 1440p (15.6% loss) and then to 30 FPS at 4K (21.1% loss from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 15 FPS, or 33.3%. This is a relatively moderate decline compared to higher presets, suggesting that Low settings are less fill-rate bound.

At Medium settings, the drop is from 28 FPS at 1080p to 24 FPS at 1440p (14.3% loss) and then to 19 FPS at 4K (20.8% loss from 1440p). The total drop is 9 FPS, or 32.1%. This is similar in percentage terms to Low, but the absolute numbers are lower, making the experience worse in practice. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (16) indicates significant frame pacing issues, with the max of 21 FPS still below playable thresholds.

High settings show a drop from 20 FPS at 1080p to 17 FPS at 1440p (15% loss) and then to 13 FPS at 4K (23.5% loss from 1440p). Ultra drops from 16 FPS at 1080p to 14 FPS at 1440p (12.5% loss) and then to 11 FPS at 4K (21.4% loss from 1440p). The consistency of the percentage drops across presets (roughly 12-15% for 1080p to 1440p and 21-24% for 1440p to 4K) points to a GPU that is uniformly constrained by pixel throughput.

The scaling behavior indicates that the GPU is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see smaller FPS drops at higher resolutions, as the GPU would be doing more work while the CPU waits. Instead, the FPS drops are consistent with a GPU that is saturated at all resolutions. The 2900 MHz boost clock is not enough to overcome the 32 ROPs and System Shared memory bandwidth. The Radeon 890M is an iGPU with a 15 W TDP, and The Medium's rendering requirements — likely including complex lighting and particle effects — simply exceed what this part can deliver. Users targeting 60 FPS would need to drastically reduce resolution or settings, but even 1080p Low falls short, indicating that this game is beyond the reach of this integrated solution.