The Medium

The Medium is a demanding horror title, and the benchmark data for the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX paired with the AMD Radeon 760M reveals a system that is overwhelmingly constrained by its integrated graphics. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings are exceptionally low, placing this combo in the bottom percentile of all tested configurations. This analysis breaks down the performance characteristics, focusing on how the GPU and CPU each contribute to the experience and what settings are viable.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data shows a clear and dramatic collapse as resolution increases, a classic symptom of a GPU-bound scenario. At the native 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings, the combo achieves its peak average of 31 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same Low preset drops the average to 26 FPS, a reduction of roughly 16%. The most severe penalty comes from the jump to 3840x2160, where the Low preset manages only 21 FPS, a further 19% decline from the 1440p result. This scaling pattern indicates that the rendering pipeline is saturated; the Radeon 760M's shading units and ROPs are simply overwhelmed by the increasing pixel count.

The trend is consistent across all settings presets. For instance, the Medium preset yields 19 FPS at 1080p, 16 FPS at 1440p, and 13 FPS at 4K. The High preset produces 14, 12, and 9 FPS respectively. This linear degradation with pixel count strongly suggests that the limiting component is the GPU's fillrate and compute throughput, not the CPU or memory bandwidth. If the system were CPU-limited, we would expect to see less variation between 1080p and 1440p, as the CPU workload would remain relatively constant while the GPU workload scales. The data shows the opposite, confirming that every resolution increase directly translates to a significant FPS loss.

The difference between 1080p and 4K at Low settings is a 10 FPS gap (from 31 to 21 FPS), which represents a 32% performance drop. At Medium settings, the gap is 6 FPS (from 19 to 13 FPS), a 32% drop as well. This proportional decline highlights that the bottleneck is purely graphical. For a game like The Medium, which relies on fixed camera angles and pre-rendered environments, the cost of rendering at higher resolutions is purely on the GPU. The data shows no scenario where the Ultra 9 275HX's processing power can compensate for the GPU's inability to push pixels, making the resolution scaling the single most defining characteristic of this configuration's performance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 760M is an integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, built on a 4 nm process. It features 512 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 render output units, with a boost clock rated up to 2599 MHz. The benchmark data places this GPU at the 35th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 6019. Its nearest rivals in aggregate performance include the AMD Radeon RX 6400 and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M, indicating it sits in the entry-level performance tier.

In this specific game, the GPU's role is the primary determining factor for the playable experience. The maximum FPS recorded in any configuration is 31 FPS at 1080p Low. This is below the threshold for smooth, responsive gameplay. The data shows that the GPU's compute capabilities, rated at 5.323 TFLOPS for FP32 operations, are insufficient for The Medium's graphical demands. The game's horror atmosphere likely uses complex lighting and post-processing effects, which are costly for an IGP with 16 ROPs. The pixel rate of 41.58 GPixel/s and texture rate of 83.17 GTexel/s are theoretical maximums that are clearly not being sustained in real-world gameplay.

The GPU's memory configuration is "System Shared," meaning it relies on the host system's DDR5 memory rather than dedicated VRAM. This creates a potential bandwidth bottleneck, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory access. The memory bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent," which in a mobile platform with a 102.4 GB/s memory bus for the CPU, leaves limited headroom for the GPU. This shared memory architecture is a likely contributor to the low frame rates, as texture streaming and frame buffer access are slower than they would be on a discrete graphics card with its own high-speed memory. The data suggests that the Radeon 760M is not just slow in raw compute, but also hampered by its dependency on system memory.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a high-end mobile processor with 24 cores and 24 threads, based on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture. It has a base clock of 2.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a 36 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU benchmarks are strong, placing it at the 94th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 67469. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon w5-3525 and the AMD EPYC 4484PX, showing it competes with workstation-class silicon. In multi-core workloads like Cinebench R23, it scores 35589, and in single-core tests, it reaches 2204.

Despite this formidable processing power, the CPU's role in The Medium is almost entirely passive due to the GPU bottleneck. The benchmark results show that the CPU is not limiting performance at any tested setting. For example, moving from 1080p Low to 1080p Ultra only changes the FPS from 31 to 11, a drop that is entirely attributable to the increased graphical load. The Ultra 9 275HX is capable of feeding the Radeon 760M with draw calls and game logic data far faster than the GPU can render it. This is evidenced by the fact that the FPS does not improve when lowering resolution; it only worsens when raising it.

The CPU's high single-thread performance (2809 in Cinebench R20) and multi-thread performance (19899 in Cinebench R20) are irrelevant to the final frame rate here. The game's engine is likely not stressing the 24 cores of the Ultra 9, and the bottleneck is firmly on the graphics side. The data implies that a less powerful CPU could deliver identical frame rates in this configuration, as the GPU is the constraining factor. The Ultra 9 275HX's role is to ensure there are no CPU-side hitches or stutters, but it cannot uplift the average FPS beyond what the GPU can physically render.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the only configuration that approaches a playable state is 1920x1080 with the Low preset, which achieves an average of 31 FPS. This is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo. While 31 FPS is not ideal for a smooth experience, it is the only setting where the game is marginally interactive. All other settings and resolutions produce averages below 30 FPS, which will result in noticeable judder and a poor experience.

The Low preset at 1440p yields 26 FPS, which is a significant drop from the 1080p result. The Medium preset at 1080p provides 19 FPS, which is a 12 FPS decrease from Low at the same resolution. This indicates that the step from Low to Medium is very costly for the GPU. The High and Ultra presets are essentially unplayable, with frame rates ranging from 14 FPS down to 7 FPS at 4K. The data suggests that users should avoid the High and Ultra presets entirely.

For the best experience, the recommendation is to use 1920x1080 with Low settings. This provides the highest FPS and the most responsive gameplay. If a user prioritizes visual quality over frame rate, the Medium preset at 1080p offers a 19 FPS average, but this comes with a 39% performance penalty. The Ultra preset at any resolution should be avoided, as the 7-11 FPS range is a slideshow. Given the data, the playable window is extremely narrow, limited to the lowest settings at the lowest resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX and the AMD Radeon 760M ranks 2900 out of 2911 tested combos for this game. This places it in the 0.4th percentile of all configurations, meaning it outperforms only 11 other combinations. This is a remarkably poor ranking, highlighting that this specific pairing is fundamentally unsuitable for The Medium. The ranking is not a reflection of the CPU, which is a top-tier processor, but rather a direct consequence of the extremely weak integrated GPU.

The data shows that the CPU's high benchmark scores have no bearing on this game's performance. The combo's rank is determined almost entirely by the GPU's capabilities. The Radeon 760M's 35th percentile standing among all GPUs is a good indicator of its expected performance, but in this specific title, it performs even worse relative to other systems. This suggests that The Medium is particularly demanding on GPU features like ray tracing or specific shader effects that the 760M handles inefficiently. The delta between the CPU's high rank (94th percentile) and the combo's low rank (0.4th percentile) is a stark illustration of a severe bottleneck.

Compared to other combos, this system is at the very bottom of the barrel. The nearest CPU rivals for the Ultra 9 275HX, such as the Intel Xeon w5-3525, are within 0.7% of its average benchmark score, but they would typically be paired with discrete GPUs. This combo's ranking is so low because the integrated GPU cannot handle the game's load. The data confirms that this is a productivity-focused CPU paired with a basic IGP, and it is not designed for gaming workloads like The Medium. Users with this hardware should expect a severely compromised experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact average frame rates measured for each resolution and settings preset combination.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

| :--------- | :------- | :------ | :------ | :------ |

| 3840x2160 | High | 9 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 21 | - | - |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 13 | 11 | 15 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 7 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | High | 12 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 26 | - | - |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 16 | 14 | 19 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 9 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | High | 14 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 31 | - | - |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 19 | 17 | 22 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 11 | - | - |

The best-case scenario is the 1080p Low setting with an average of 31 FPS. The worst-case is the 4K Ultra setting with an average of 7 FPS. The Medium preset provides the only data with min and max FPS readings, showing a narrow band of 11-15 FPS at 4K, 14-19 FPS at 1440p, and 17-22 FPS at 1080p. This indicates that the frame times are relatively stable, but the overall average is far too low. Across all twelve measured configurations, the average FPS never exceeds 31, confirming that this hardware combination fails to deliver a playable experience for The Medium.