The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine 4, presents a unique challenge for the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 combination. The measured data reveals a configuration that is heavily skewed toward GPU limitations at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides a robust foundation that prevents bottlenecks at lower settings. This analysis breaks down the measured performance across resolutions and presets, contextualizing the results against the hardware's synthetic benchmarks and rival components.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K clearly identifies the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 as the primary performance limiter at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 97 FPS, which drops to 81 FPS at 1440p Low and further to 64 FPS at 4K Low. This scaling pattern—a 16.5% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 21% drop from 1440p to 4K—is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario where pixel throughput becomes the bottleneck. The RTX 4060’s 8 GB GDDR6 memory with a 128-bit bus and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for Low presets, but the data suggests that even at Low, the GPU’s raw compute (15.11 TFLOPS FP32) is the constraining factor.

The scaling becomes more pronounced at higher presets. At Medium, the average FPS falls from 60 at 1080p to 51 at 1440p (a 15% reduction) and then to 40 at 4K (a 21.6% reduction). The High preset shows a steeper degradation: 43 FPS at 1080p, 36 at 1440p, and 29 at 4K. This trend indicates that as the preset increases, the GPU’s shading units (3072) and texture mapping units (96) are increasingly saturated. The 4K High result of 29 FPS is notably poor, suggesting that the game’s fixed-camera angles and complex lighting effects at High settings place a disproportionate load on the GPU’s 24 ray-tracing cores, even without explicit RT enabled.

At Ultra, the performance collapses: 34 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is only a 20.7% drop, which is shallower than the 1080p-to-1440p drop of 14.7%. This flattening curve suggests that at Ultra, the GPU is so heavily oversubscribed that the resolution increase has diminishing returns—the bottleneck shifts from pure pixel fill to the GPU’s fixed-function units (48 ROPs) and memory subsystem. The RTX 4060’s pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s are simply insufficient for Ultra presets beyond 1080p.

The CPU’s role in this scaling is minimal. The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, with 16 cores and 16 threads, provides ample headroom. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18911 and single-core score of 2200.5 are strong, and the PassMark single-thread score of 4280 indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor even at 1080p Low where the frame rate is highest. The data shows no anomalous FPS drops that would indicate a CPU stall, confirming that the GPU is the sole performance bottleneck across all tested resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for a consistent 60 FPS experience?

A: At 1080p Medium, the combo delivers an average of 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS. This is the only tested configuration that achieves a true 60 FPS average while maintaining a playable minimum. At 1080p Low, the average rises to 97 FPS, but the visual quality trade-off is significant.

Q: Can the combo handle 4K gaming in The Medium?

A: Only at Low settings, where it achieves 64 FPS average. At Medium, the average drops to 40 FPS, and at High it falls to 29 FPS, making 4K viable only for players who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 4K is not recommended, as it averages only 23 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 17639, placing it 0.2% behind the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666) and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Radeon 780M (17588). This places it in a narrow performance band, but the in-game results show that its real-world performance in The Medium is more dependent on the specific workload.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more important for this game?

A: The GPU is the definitive bottleneck. The CPU’s high single-thread performance (4280 PassMark) and multi-core capability (36811 PassMark multithread) ensure it never limits the frame rate, even at 1080p Low where the GPU is pushed to 97 FPS. The data shows that reducing resolution from 4K to 1080p yields significant FPS gains, confirming GPU-bound behavior.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Medium presets at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, the Low preset averages 81 FPS, while Medium averages 51 FPS. This 30 FPS gap (a 37% reduction) is substantial, indicating that Medium settings introduce significant shading and texture complexity that the RTX 4060 struggles to process at higher resolutions.

Q: Does the combo’s 1751st rank out of 2911 combos indicate poor performance?

A: The rank places this combo in the 60th percentile of all tested combinations, meaning 1160 combos perform worse and 1750 perform better. This is a mid-pack result, consistent with the RTX 4060’s 61st percentile ranking among all GPUs, but the CPU’s 88th percentile ranking suggests the combo is held back by the GPU.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 ranks 1751st out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places the system in the 60th percentile, meaning it outperforms 1160 combinations but lags behind 1750 others. The ranking is skewed by the GPU’s limitations: the RTX 4060 holds a 61st percentile rank among all GPUs, while the CPU achieves an 88th percentile rank among all CPUs. This disparity indicates that the combo’s mid-pack position is almost entirely attributable to the GPU.

The CPU’s nearest rivals provide context for its strength. The Core Ultra X9 388H has an average benchmark score of 44466, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (44573) and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i9-13950HX (44342). This places the CPU in a tight performance cluster where differences are negligible. However, this CPU strength does not translate into a high combo rank because The Medium’s performance is GPU-bound. The combo’s rank would likely improve significantly with a more powerful GPU, but the data shows that the current pairing is balanced toward CPU headroom rather than GPU capability.

The GPU’s nearest rivals further illustrate the bottleneck. The RTX 4060’s average benchmark score of 17639 is 0.2% below the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666) and 0.3% above the AMD Radeon 780M (17588). These are widely different architectures—the HD 7790 is a decade-old desktop part, while the 780M is a modern integrated GPU—yet their synthetic scores are nearly identical. In The Medium, the RTX 4060’s performance is consistent with its synthetic standing, but the game’s demands at higher presets push it beyond its comfort zone.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the user’s resolution and frame rate priorities. For 1080p, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation. It achieves an average of 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 FPS, providing a smooth experience without the visual degradation of Low. The High preset at 1080p drops to 43 FPS, which is playable but noticeably less fluid, while Ultra at 34 FPS is borderline. The Low preset at 97 FPS is excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much visual quality.

At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 51 FPS, which is acceptable for a slow-paced horror game but not ideal. The Low preset at 81 FPS is the better choice for maintaining a high frame rate, while High (36 FPS) and Ultra (29 FPS) are too demanding. For users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, Medium at 1440p is the maximum reasonable setting.

At 4K, only the Low preset is viable, delivering 64 FPS. Medium drops to 40 FPS, which is playable but inconsistent with the game’s atmospheric pacing. High (29 FPS) and Ultra (23 FPS) are not recommended due to the risk of noticeable stutter. The data suggests that 4K should be reserved for Low settings, and even then, the experience will be less stable than at lower resolutions.

The measured minimum FPS values for Medium presets provide additional guidance. At 1080p Medium, the minimum of 51 FPS ensures no major dips. At 1440p Medium, the minimum drops to 43 FPS, which is still acceptable. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 34 FPS, which may cause perceptible slowdowns in demanding scenes. These figures reinforce the recommendation to use Medium at 1080p and 1440p, and Low at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance. Low settings average 97 FPS, making it the only preset to exceed 90 FPS. Medium averages 60 FPS with a minimum of 51 FPS and a maximum of 69 FPS, providing a stable 60 FPS experience. High averages 43 FPS, a significant drop from Medium, while Ultra averages 34 FPS. The gap between Medium and High (17 FPS) is larger than the gap between High and Ultra (9 FPS), indicating that High introduces a substantial step in rendering complexity.

At 2560x1440, performance scales down predictably. Low averages 81 FPS, which is a 16.5% reduction from 1080p. Medium averages 51 FPS with a minimum of 43 FPS and a maximum of 59 FPS, making it the only 1440p preset to stay above 50 FPS. High averages 36 FPS, while Ultra averages 29 FPS. The drop from Medium to High at 1440p is 15 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 7 FPS, following a similar pattern to 1080p but with lower absolute values.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is heavily taxed. Low averages 64 FPS, which is the only 4K preset above 60 FPS. Medium averages 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS, indicating a wide variance that could be jarring. High averages 29 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steep for all presets: Low drops 21%, Medium drops 21.6%, High drops 19.4%, and Ultra drops 20.7%. This consistency across presets suggests that pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors at 4K.

The Medium preset’s min/max data provides insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p, the spread is 18 FPS (51-69), at 1440p it is 16 FPS (43-59), and at 4K it is 12 FPS (34-46). The narrowing spread at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is more consistently saturated, reducing the variability that comes from scene complexity changes.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor based on the Panther Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel’s 3 nm process. Its base clock of 2.10 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz provide a strong single-thread foundation, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2200.5 and PassMark single-thread score of 4280. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 192 KB L1 cache per core contribute to low-latency access to game data.

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and process game logic. The data shows no evidence of CPU limitation: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 97 FPS, and the frame rate scales consistently with resolution changes, which is a hallmark of GPU-bound performance. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18911 and PassMark multithread score of 36811 are high enough to handle the game’s threading model, even with the fixed-camera angles that can cause draw call spikes.

The CPU’s nearest rivals show it is competitively positioned. Its average benchmark score of 44466 is 0.2% below the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (44573) and 0.3% above the Intel Core i9-13950HX (44342). This places it in a performance tier where differences are within measurement error. The 88th percentile ranking among all CPUs confirms that the Core Ultra X9 388H is a high-end mobile processor, but its capabilities are underutilized in this game due to the GPU bottleneck.

The CPU’s 16 cores and 16 threads (with no hyper-threading) are sufficient for The Medium, which is not heavily multithreaded. The PassMark physics score of 3226 and integer math score of 90882 indicate robust general-purpose performance, but these metrics have little bearing on the game’s frame rate. The CPU’s 153.6 GB/s memory bandwidth and LPDDR5X support ensure that data can be fed to the GPU without stalling, but again, the GPU remains the limiting factor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is the dominant component in this combo’s gaming performance, and the measured FPS data confirms it is the bottleneck. The GPU features 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, with a boost clock of 2460 MHz. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 272.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is modest for 4K gaming. The Ada Lovelace architecture’s 24 ray-tracing cores and 96 tensor cores are present but do not significantly aid in The Medium’s rasterized workload.

The GPU’s synthetic benchmarks place it in the 61st percentile, with an average score of 17639. Its nearest rivals—the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666), AMD Radeon 780M (17588), AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17551), and AMD Radeon Pro 460 (17509)—are all within 0.7% of its score. This clustering suggests that the RTX 4060’s compute capabilities are average for its class, but the in-game results show that its memory subsystem and ROP count are insufficient for high-resolution high-preset gaming.

The RTX 4060’s 15.11 TFLOPS FP32 performance is its theoretical peak, but the game’s actual demands are more complex. At 4K Ultra, the GPU delivers only 23 FPS, which is a 76% reduction from 1080p Low. This dramatic drop indicates that the GPU’s 48 ROPs are overwhelmed by the pixel fill requirements at 4K, and the 272.0 GB/s memory bandwidth cannot sustain the texture and geometry data needed for Ultra settings.

The GPU’s 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for Low and Medium presets at all resolutions, but the data suggests that High and Ultra presets may exceed its capacity at 4K, causing texture streaming stalls. The measured minimum FPS of 34 at 4K Medium hints at these issues. The RTX 4060’s 159 mm² die size and 18,900 million transistors are efficient, but the 128-bit memory bus is a fundamental limitation for a game like The Medium that favors high-resolution textures and complex lighting. The GPU’s end-of-life production status and 299 USD launch MSRP are noted, but the performance data is clear: this GPU is best paired with a 1080p or 1440p display.