The Medium

The Medium is a demanding horror title, and the combination of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H with the AMD Radeon 760M produces a very constrained experience. The measured data shows a system that is fundamentally limited by its graphics solution, with frame rates that struggle to maintain playability even at lower resolutions. The benchmark results indicate that this combo ranks at 2900 out of 2911 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom percentile of all systems evaluated for this game.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a steep decline in performance as resolution increases, which is a classic indicator of a GPU-bound scenario. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 31 FPS. Moving up to 2560x1440 at the same Low preset drops the average to 26 FPS, a reduction of roughly 16%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 at Low settings yields an average of 21 FPS, which is another significant drop of approximately 19% from the 1440p figure. This scaling pattern shows that the rendering pipeline is heavily taxed by the increasing pixel count.

The trend becomes even more pronounced when examining the higher quality presets. At Medium settings, the average frame rate falls from 19 FPS at 1080p to 16 FPS at 1440p, and then to 13 FPS at 4K. The jump from 1440p to 4K represents a 19% loss in performance, while the overall reduction from 1080p to 4K is a 32% decrease in average FPS. This consistent degradation across all resolution steps points directly to the AMD Radeon 760M as the limiting component, as the CPU is not showing signs of bottlenecking at these frame rates.

The High preset tells a similar story, with averages of 14 FPS at 1080p, 12 FPS at 1440p, and 9 FPS at 4K. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, producing averages of 11 FPS at 1080p, 9 FPS at 1440p, and just 7 FPS at 4K. The data shows that even the smallest resolution step from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 14-18% of performance across all settings. This behavior is characteristic of a system where the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are exhausted, and the resolution scaling has a direct and predictable impact on the final frame rate.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core processor with 16 threads, based on the Panther Lake architecture and manufactured on a 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a shared L3 cache of 18 MB. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18911 and a single-core score of 2200.5, placing it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 44466 puts it within 0.5% of rivals like the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and the Intel Core i9-13950HX.

Despite this strong processing power, the game's measured frame rates do not reflect a CPU limitation. The fact that performance scales so dramatically with resolution changes indicates that the processor is not the primary constraint. At 1080p Low, the system produces 31 FPS, which is a modest result for a CPU that scores in the top 12% of all processors. The data suggests that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU with data, but the graphics unit cannot keep up with the demands of rendering the game's scenes.

The core configuration of 16 cores and 16 threads is more than adequate for a horror title like The Medium, which typically relies on a few heavily threaded tasks. The processor's high boost clock of 5.10 GHz also ensures that single-threaded performance is strong, as evidenced by its Passmark single-thread score of 4280. However, these characteristics have little bearing on the final FPS numbers because the GPU is the bottleneck. The benchmark results indicate that the CPU role is largely passive in this configuration, providing enough headroom that the Radeon 760M becomes the sole limiting factor.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 760M is an integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, using the Phoenix chip manufactured on a 4 nm process. It has 512 shading units and a boost clock of 2599 MHz, with a base clock of 800 MHz. The GPU's memory is system-shared, meaning its bandwidth is system-dependent, which is a critical weakness for a game like The Medium that requires substantial texture and geometry data. The GPU scores 5310 in Passmark G3D and 400 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, placing it in the 35th percentile of all GPUs.

The GPU's performance is the deciding factor in every measured scenario. Its average benchmark score of 6019 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 6400, which has a delta of 0.3%, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M, also at 0.3%. This places the Radeon 760M in a performance class that is simply insufficient for The Medium at playable frame rates. The pixel rate of 41.58 GPixel/s and texture rate of 83.17 GTexel/s are theoretical figures that do not translate into real-world performance here, as the system-shared memory becomes a severe constraint.

The data shows that the GPU is overwhelmed even at the lowest settings. At 1080p Low, the average FPS of 31 is barely above the threshold for consistent motion, and any increase in visual fidelity causes a rapid collapse in performance. The GPU's FP32 compute of 5.323 TFLOPS is not enough to handle the game's rendering effects, and the lack of dedicated VRAM means that the system must rely on slower shared memory. The benchmark results clearly indicate that the Radeon 760M is the primary reason for the low frame rates across all resolutions and settings.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for The Medium, this specific pairing of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and AMD Radeon 760M ranks 2900 out of 2911 combos. This places it in the bottom 0.4% of all systems tested, which is a stark indicator of its overall performance level. The rank is heavily influenced by the GPU, as the CPU alone would rank much higher, but the combination produces some of the lowest frame rates recorded for this game.

The ranking reflects the fundamental mismatch between the CPU's capability and the GPU's limitations. While the processor is in the 88th percentile of all CPUs, the GPU sits in the 35th percentile, and the game's performance is dominated by the weaker component. The combo's rank of 2900 means it is outperformed by 2909 other configurations, and only 11 other combos produce worse results. This suggests that the Radeon 760M is one of the least capable GPUs for this title, and no amount of CPU power can compensate for its lack of rendering throughput.

The data shows that this combo is not suitable for playing The Medium at any resolution or quality setting that would be considered acceptable. The best measured result is 31 FPS at 1080p Low, which is still below the standard for smooth gameplay. The rank of 2900 out of 2911 is a clear verdict: this configuration is among the worst performers for this game, and users should expect significant compromises in visual quality and resolution to achieve even marginal playability.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved by this combo in The Medium?

A: The highest average frame rate is 31 FPS, which is achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has an average benchmark score of 44466, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i9-13950HX.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile relative to all other GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon 760M is in the 35th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 6019.

Q: What is the lowest average frame rate measured for this combo?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 7 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 with the Ultra settings preset.

Q: How does this combo's rank in The Medium compare to other tested combos?

A: This combo ranks 2900 out of 2911 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 0.4% of all systems for this game.

Q: Does the CPU show signs of bottlenecking at any tested resolution?

A: No, the data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor, as frame rates scale consistently with resolution changes, showing no signs of CPU constraint.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the only viable settings for this combo are at the Low preset, and even then, only at 1920x1080. At this resolution and setting, the average frame rate is 31 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire dataset. The Low preset at 2560x1440 produces 26 FPS, which is still playable but with noticeable stutter, while the 3840x2160 Low setting drops to 21 FPS, which is borderline unplayable.

The Medium preset at 1080p yields 19 FPS, which is a significant drop from the Low setting and not recommended for any smooth experience. The High preset at 1080p produces 14 FPS, and the Ultra preset at 1080p results in 11 FPS. At 4K, all settings produce average frame rates below 21 FPS, with the High preset at 9 FPS and the Ultra preset at 7 FPS. The data suggests that users should avoid the Medium, High, and Ultra presets entirely, as they all result in frame rates below 20 FPS even at 1080p.

The best experience per the measured rows is achieved with the Low preset at 1920x1080, which offers the highest average frame rate of 31 FPS. Any other combination of resolution and settings results in a lower average frame rate, with the 1440p Low setting being the second-best option at 26 FPS. The benchmark results indicate that this combo is only suitable for the most basic visual configuration, and users should prioritize resolution over quality to maintain any semblance of playability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured data shows a clear progression across settings. The Low preset delivers an average of 31 FPS, which is the best result for this combo. The Medium preset drops to 19 FPS, with a minimum of 17 FPS and a maximum of 22 FPS. The High preset produces 14 FPS, and the Ultra preset yields 11 FPS. The frame rate variance at Medium settings indicates some instability, but all presets at this resolution are below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves an average of 26 FPS, which is a 16% reduction from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset at 1440p produces 16 FPS, with a minimum of 14 FPS and a maximum of 19 FPS. The High preset drops to 12 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 9 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 4-5 FPS across all presets, showing that the GPU is the limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset is the only setting that produces a double-digit average, at 21 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K yields 13 FPS, with a minimum of 11 FPS and a maximum of 15 FPS. The High preset drops to 9 FPS, and the Ultra preset produces just 7 FPS. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with the maximum frame rate of 15 FPS at Medium settings being the only instance where the frame rate exceeds the average of the High preset. The data shows that this combo cannot handle 4K rendering in The Medium, regardless of the quality settings selected.