The Medium

The Medium is a fixed-camera horror title that leans heavily on atmosphere, and the benchmark data for the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX paired with the AMD Radeon 890M shows a system that is firmly constrained by its integrated graphics at every resolution. Across the measured presets, the frame rates tell a consistent story: this is a combo built for playable low-to-medium settings at 1080p, with higher resolutions pushing the Radeon 890M well past its comfort zone. The data indicates a clear GPU-bound scenario, where the CPU's substantial processing power has little room to influence the final output once the render load increases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS values reveal a steep performance cliff as resolution climbs, which is the classic signature of an integrated GPU struggling to keep up with pixel throughput. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo delivers an average of 45 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded across the entire test matrix. Dropping to 2560x1440 at the same Low preset yields 38 FPS, a reduction of roughly 15.5% from the 1080p result. Moving to 3840x2160 at Low brings the average down to 30 FPS, which is a 33% drop from the 1440p figure and a 33.3% drop from the 1080p baseline. This linear degradation pattern indicates that the Radeon 890M is scaling with the pixel count, but the absolute numbers are too low for anything beyond 1080p to be considered smooth.

The Medium preset shows a similar trend but with lower absolute values. At 1080p Medium, the average is 28 FPS, with a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 32. At 1440p Medium, the average falls to 24 FPS, with a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 27. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 19 FPS, with a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 21. The gap between 1080p and 4K at Medium settings is 9 FPS, which represents a 32.1% reduction. This consistency across presets suggests that the limiting factor is the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity, not any particular setting.

High settings produce a more pronounced drop. At 1080p High, the average is 20 FPS. At 1440p High, it falls to 17 FPS, and at 4K High, the average bottoms out at 13 FPS. The difference between 1080p and 4K at High is 7 FPS, a 35% reduction. Ultra settings are the most demanding, with 1080p Ultra averaging 16 FPS, 1440p Ultra averaging 14 FPS, and 4K Ultra averaging just 11 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra is a 31.3% drop, which is less severe in percentage terms than the High preset but results in an unplayable experience at every resolution.

The data shows that the Radeon 890M is the bottleneck at all tested resolutions. The frame rate reductions track closely with the increase in pixel count, which would not be the case if the CPU were the limiting factor. A CPU-bound scenario would show relatively flat FPS across resolutions, but here the averages decline steadily from 1080p to 4K. This indicates that the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX has ample headroom, and the integrated GPU is saturated even at the lowest tested settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 890M is an integrated graphics processor built on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, using a 4 nm process node from TSMC. It features 1024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 render output units, along with 16 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 400 MHz and a boost clock of 2900 MHz, which is a significant boost ratio that allows the chip to ramp up under load. The memory configuration is listed as System Shared, meaning the GPU relies on the host system’s DDR5 memory rather than dedicated VRAM. The memory bus width is also System Shared, and the bandwidth is System Dependent, which means performance can vary based on the memory configuration of the host platform.

The pixel rate is rated at 92.80 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 185.6 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 5.939 TFLOPS. These specifications place the Radeon 890M in the mid-range of integrated graphics, but the benchmark results indicate that they are insufficient for The Medium at higher settings. The GPU’s percentile ranking among all GPUs is 45, which means it sits just below the median, and its average benchmark score is 9210. The nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon Vega 8, which has an average score of 9221 and a deltaPct of -0.1%, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, which scores 9273 with a deltaPct of -0.7%. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465 and GTX 850M are also close, with scores of 9294 and 9302 respectively. This clustering suggests that the Radeon 890M is roughly comparable to older discrete GPUs from several generations ago, which explains its difficulty with a demanding title like The Medium.

The VRAM situation is particularly relevant for this game. Since the memory is System Shared, the GPU competes with the CPU for the same memory bandwidth. The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and a peak bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, but the effective bandwidth available to the GPU is System Dependent. In a horror game with fixed camera angles, texture streaming and memory allocation are critical, and the shared memory architecture can introduce latency and bandwidth contention. The benchmark data shows that the GPU’s performance degrades significantly at higher resolutions, which is consistent with a system that cannot feed the render pipeline fast enough.

The boost clock of 2900 MHz is relatively high for an integrated GPU, and the 5.939 TFLOPS FP32 figure indicates a capable compute unit. However, the measured FPS in The Medium suggest that the GPU is hitting its limits quickly. At 1080p Low, the 45 FPS average is just above the threshold for playable, but at 1080p Medium, the average drops to 28 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS standard for smooth gameplay. The GPU’s role in this combo is to provide a baseline experience, and the data shows that it can only achieve that at the lowest settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX and the AMD Radeon 890M ranks 2755 out of 2911 tested combos for The Medium. This places the system in the bottom 5.4% of all tested configurations, which is a poor showing for a CPU that is otherwise a top-tier mobile processor. The combo rank is heavily influenced by the GPU, as the Radeon 890M’s integrated nature limits the overall performance to a level far below what the CPU could support in a discrete GPU configuration.

The CPU itself ranks in the 94th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 67469. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon w5-3525, which has an average score of 67673 and a deltaPct of -0.3%, and the AMD EPYC 4484PX, which scores 67822 with a deltaPct of -0.5%. The AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX is also close, with a score of 67868 and a deltaPct of -0.6%, while the Intel Xeon 6515P scores 67006 with a deltaPct of 0.7%. This indicates that the Core Ultra 9 275HX is a high-performing CPU, but its capabilities are largely wasted in this combo because the GPU cannot keep up.

The GPU’s percentile ranking of 45 places it in the lower half of all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 9210 is only slightly below that of the Radeon Vega 8 and GTX 960. In the context of The Medium, this GPU is not designed for high-fidelity gaming at high resolutions. The combo rank of 2755 out of 2911 reflects the reality that this system is positioned at the low end of gaming performance, despite the CPU’s strength.

The disparity between the CPU’s high percentile and the combo’s low rank highlights the importance of balanced hardware. The data shows that the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is capable of driving much more powerful GPUs, but when paired with the Radeon 890M, the system’s gaming performance is limited to the GPU’s capabilities. This is a common scenario with integrated graphics, where the CPU is often overqualified for the task at hand.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 45 FPS, which is the only preset to cross the 40 FPS threshold. There is no minimum or maximum recorded for this setting, indicating a stable frame rate. Moving to Medium at the same resolution, the average drops to 28 FPS, with a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 32. The 17 FPS difference between Low and Medium is substantial, representing a 37.8% reduction in performance. High settings at 1080p produce an average of 20 FPS, a further 8 FPS drop from Medium. Ultra settings at 1080p yield an average of 16 FPS, which is below the threshold for acceptable gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 38 FPS, which is 7 FPS lower than the 1080p Low result. Medium settings average 24 FPS, with a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 27. High settings drop to 17 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 14 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 24 FPS, which is a 63.2% reduction. The 1440p results are consistently lower than the 1080p results by roughly 15-20%, which tracks with the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 30 FPS, which is just at the edge of playability. Medium settings average 19 FPS, with a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 21. High settings average 13 FPS, and Ultra settings average 11 FPS. The 4K results are the weakest of the entire test matrix, with no preset reaching even 31 FPS. The difference between 1080p Low and 4K Low is 15 FPS, a 33.3% reduction, while the difference between 1080p Ultra and 4K Ultra is 5 FPS, a 31.3% reduction.

The data shows a consistent pattern across all settings: the system loses approximately one-third of its performance when moving from 1080p to 4K. This is expected for a GPU that is memory-bound, as the shared memory bandwidth becomes a greater bottleneck at higher resolutions. The minimum and maximum values recorded for the Medium preset at each resolution indicate some frame pacing variability, with the spread between min and max being 8 FPS at 1080p, 7 FPS at 1440p, and 5 FPS at 4K. This suggests that the frame times are relatively stable, but the low averages make the experience feel stuttery regardless.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS values, the only viable configuration for this combo is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which yields an average of 45 FPS. This is the only preset that approaches a smooth 60 FPS experience, though it falls short of that target. For players who prefer a slightly better visual quality, 1080p Medium at 28 FPS is border-line playable, but the frame rate dips to 24 FPS at the minimum, which can cause noticeable judder in a horror game with slow camera movements.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 38 FPS, which is technically playable but not ideal for a game that relies on atmosphere and timing. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 24 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable gameplay. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 30 FPS, but this is the absolute lowest acceptable frame rate, and the Medium preset at 19 FPS is not recommended.

The data suggests that the best experience is achieved at 1080p Low, where the 45 FPS average provides a reasonably smooth experience. However, even this setting is not optimal, as the frame rate is still below the 60 FPS target that many players prefer. The High and Ultra presets are not recommended at any resolution, as they produce averages below 20 FPS at 1080p and below 17 FPS at higher resolutions.

For players who are willing to accept lower visual fidelity, the 1080p Low setting is the only choice that offers a playable experience. The Medium preset at 1080p could be considered for players who prioritize visual quality over frame rate, but the 28 FPS average and 24 FPS minimum make it a risky choice for a game that features quick-time events or timing-based mechanics. The data does not support any settings above Medium, as the frame rates drop too low to maintain a consistent experience.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process node by TSMC. It has a base clock of 2.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with a TDP of 55 W. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and a peak bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. It features an integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 64EU unit, which is separate from the discrete Radeon 890M in this combo.

In benchmark tests, the Core Ultra 9 275HX scores 35589 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2204 in single-core. It also achieves 19899 in Cinebench R20 multi-core and 2809 in single-core, along with 5619.5 in Cinebench R15 multi-core and 334 in single-core. Geekbench scores are 20795 for multi-core and 2458 for single-core. PassMark results show a multi-thread score of 55759 and a single-thread score of 4713. These figures place the CPU in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, indicating that it is a top-tier mobile processor.

However, in The Medium, the CPU’s role is largely secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS values show that the system is GPU-bound at all resolutions, meaning the CPU is not the limiting factor. The high core count and clock speeds are more than sufficient to handle the game’s logic and physics, but the integrated Radeon 890M cannot translate that processing power into higher frame rates. The data suggests that the CPU has significant headroom, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates drop uniformly with resolution increases, which is a GPU-bound behavior.

The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s is shared with the GPU, and this could be a contributing factor to the performance limitations. The System Shared memory configuration means that the GPU’s bandwidth is System Dependent, and if the system memory is not configured optimally, the GPU could be further constrained. However, the benchmark data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck, as the frame rates are consistently low across all settings and resolutions.

In comparison to its nearest rivals, the Core Ultra 9 275HX is essentially on par with the Intel Xeon w5-3525, which has an average score of 67673 and a deltaPct of -0.3%. The AMD EPYC 4484PX and Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX are also within 0.6% of the CPU’s average score. This indicates that the CPU is a strong performer, but its capabilities are wasted in a combo with an integrated GPU. For a game like The Medium, which demands significant GPU resources, the CPU’s 24 cores and 5.40 GHz boost clock provide no benefit when the GPU is limited to 45 FPS at 1080p Low.

The data shows that the CPU’s role in this combo is to provide a stable platform for the integrated GPU, but it cannot compensate for the GPU’s limitations. The 36 MB of L3 cache and high clock speeds help with system responsiveness, but they do not translate into higher frame rates in this game. The benchmark results indicate that the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a powerful processor, but when paired with the AMD Radeon 890M, the system is firmly entry-level for gaming.