The Medium

The Medium, a fixed-camera horror title built on Unreal Engine 4, presents a unique stress profile for the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination. This pairing ranks 583rd out of 2911 tested combos in the database, placing it in the top 20% of all systems tested. The benchmark data reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but shows signs of CPU limitation at 1080p. The measured results demonstrate that while the RTX 4090 is the dominant component in most scenarios, the mobile Panther Lake processor's 16 threads play a critical role in maintaining frame pacing and preventing bottlenecking at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across the three tested resolutions shows a predictable scaling pattern that becomes steeper as the resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 150 FPS, which drops to 127 FPS at 1440p and further to 99 FPS at 4K. This represents a 15.3% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 22% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is a 34% reduction in frame rate, which is relatively moderate and suggests that the CPU is still providing enough headroom to keep the GPU fed even at lower resolutions.

Moving to Medium settings, the pattern changes significantly. At 1080p, the system produces 94 FPS, which drops to 79 FPS at 1440p (a 16% reduction) and then to 62 FPS at 4K (a 21.5% reduction from 1440p). The min FPS at Medium settings tells a more interesting story: at 1080p, the minimum is 80 FPS, but at 1440p it drops to 67 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 53 FPS. The gap between average and minimum FPS narrows as resolution increases, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary limiter at 4K, smoothing out frame time variance.

High settings show the most pronounced resolution scaling. The system produces 67 FPS at 1080p, 57 FPS at 1440p (a 14.9% drop), and 45 FPS at 4K (a 21% drop from 1440p). The drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 32.8%, which is consistent with the Low setting scaling. This consistency suggests that the game's rendering workload scales linearly with pixel count, and the RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory is not a limiting factor even at 4K.

Ultra settings produce the lowest frame rates, with 53 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and 35 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is 15.1%, and from 1440p to 4K is 22.2%. Interestingly, the 1080p Ultra result of 53 FPS is actually lower than the 1440p High result of 57 FPS, showing that the Ultra preset's additional graphical effects have a more significant impact on performance than a resolution increase. This indicates that at Ultra settings, the game's more demanding visual features—likely volumetric lighting and shadow quality—create a GPU bottleneck that is more severe than the pixel count increase from 1440p to 4K.

The data suggests that for this configuration, the limiting component shifts based on resolution. At 1080p, the system is lightly CPU-bound, as evidenced by the 150 FPS Low result being well below what the RTX 4090 could theoretically achieve if the CPU could feed it faster. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, with the 45 FPS High result showing that the RTX 4090 is working near its limits with the game's demanding fixed-camera rendering.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combination?

A: The highest recorded average FPS is 150 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The lowest recorded average is 35 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's VRAM capacity affect The Medium at 4K?

A: The GPU has 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth. The benchmark data shows no VRAM-related stuttering or performance collapse at 4K, as the average FPS at 4K Medium is 62 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS, indicating the memory subsystem is sufficient for the game's demands.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: Yes, the data suggests CPU limitation at 1080p. The CPU has 16 cores and 16 threads with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. The 150 FPS Low result at 1080p is lower than what the RTX 4090 is typically capable of, indicating the CPU cannot feed frames fast enough at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: High settings produce 57 FPS average, while Ultra settings produce 45 FPS average at 2560x1440. This represents a 21% performance decrease for the Ultra preset's additional visual features.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 583rd out of 2911 tested combos in the database, placing it in the top 20% of all systems tested for The Medium.

Q: Does the game show different scaling patterns between Low and Ultra settings?

A: No, the resolution scaling is consistent. From 1080p to 4K, Low settings drop 34%, Medium drops 34%, High drops 32.8%, and Ultra drops 34%. This uniform scaling indicates the game's rendering workload scales predictably with pixel count across all quality presets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a mobile processor from the Core Ultra Series 3, built on Intel's 3 nm Panther Lake architecture. It features 16 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. The CPU has 192 KB of L1 cache per core, 3 MB of L2 cache per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. Its memory support is LPDDR5X with dual-channel configuration and 153.6 GB/s bandwidth.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's role is most apparent at 1080p. The game's fixed-camera perspective means that the CPU must handle the game's logic and streaming of the dual-reality mechanic, where two worlds are rendered simultaneously. The 16 threads are likely being utilized for this purpose, as the game was released in 2021 and is known to scale with multi-core processors. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18911 and single-core score of 2200.5 indicate strong performance, but the 1080p Low result of 150 FPS suggests that the CPU's single-thread performance is the limiting factor at low resolutions.

The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 4280 and multi-thread score of 36811 help explain the scaling behavior. At 1080p, the game's logic and physics can be processed quickly enough to keep up with the GPU's frame output up to a point, but the 150 FPS ceiling suggests that the CPU cannot process the game's simulation fast enough to exceed this threshold. The boost clock of 5.10 GHz is impressive for a mobile chip, but the game's reliance on single-thread performance for certain tasks limits the benefit of the 16-core configuration.

At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes significantly. The 45 FPS High result at 4K is clearly GPU-limited, as the RTX 4090 is struggling to render the game's complex scenes. The CPU's 3 MB L2 cache per core and 18 MB shared L3 cache provide sufficient data locality for the game's assets, but the GPU's workload dominates the frame time budget. The CPU's TDP of 25 W is notably low, but this does not appear to cause thermal throttling issues, as the benchmark results are consistent across resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 583rd out of 2911 tested combos in the database for The Medium. This places the system in the 80th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning it outperforms 80% of all systems tested for this game. The ranking is based on the measured FPS data across all resolutions and settings, weighted by the game's typical usage patterns.

The CPU alone has an average benchmark score of 44466, with a percentile rank of 88 (meaning it outperforms 88% of all CPUs). Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D with an average score of 44573 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i9-13950HX with 44342 (0.3% lower), and the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 with 44309 (0.4% lower). These close margins indicate that the CPU is well-matched against its direct competitors in general computing tasks.

The GPU has an average benchmark score of 60347, with a percentile rank of 88. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Arc Pro A60 with 60326 (essentially identical), the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M with 61896 (2.5% higher), and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 with 58657 (2.9% lower). The RTX 4090's performance in general benchmarks is strong, but its ranking in The Medium specifically at 583rd out of 2911 suggests that the game's rendering engine does not fully exploit the GPU's capabilities.

The gap between the combo's top-20% ranking and the individual component rankings (both at 88th percentile) indicates that the game's performance is limited by factors beyond raw hardware capability. The Medium's fixed-camera rendering and dual-world mechanic likely create a unique performance profile that does not align perfectly with standard benchmark workloads. The combo ranking of 583rd suggests that many other system configurations with less powerful components achieve similar or better performance in this specific game, possibly due to differences in driver optimization or memory configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this configuration, featuring the AD102 chip on a 5 nm TSMC process with 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die. It has 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus with 1.01 TB/s bandwidth. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2235 MHz and boost clock of 2520 MHz, with memory running at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective). It has 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, 176 ROPs, 128 RT cores, and 512 tensor cores.

In The Medium, the GPU's role is most evident at 4K resolution. The game's fixed-camera perspective allows for extremely detailed static scenes, which places heavy demands on pixel fill rate and texture bandwidth. The RTX 4090's pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s provide ample bandwidth, but the game's complex lighting and shadow rendering at Ultra settings creates a bottleneck that reduces performance to 35 FPS at 4K.

The GPU's VRAM capacity of 24 GB is more than sufficient for The Medium. The game was released in 2021 and does not feature the massive texture sets that modern games use. The 4K Medium result of 62 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS indicates that the GPU's memory subsystem is not a limiting factor. The 384-bit memory bus and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth provide enough throughput for the game's asset streaming, even at 4K resolution.

The RTX 4090's 16384 shading units and 512 tensor cores are heavily utilized at higher resolutions. The benchmark data shows that at 1440p High, the system produces 57 FPS, which is 34% faster than the 4K High result. This scaling is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering workload increases proportionally with pixel count. The GPU's 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 performance provides raw compute power, but The Medium's fixed-camera rendering with dual-world simultaneous display creates a unique workload that does not scale linearly with traditional benchmark metrics.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its highest frame rates. Low settings yield an average of 150 FPS, which is the highest recorded result in the dataset. Medium settings produce 94 FPS with a minimum of 80 FPS and maximum of 108 FPS. High settings drop to 67 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 53 FPS average. The 1080p results show a clear pattern: each settings tier costs approximately 30-40 FPS, with Low to Medium being a 56 FPS drop, Medium to High being a 27 FPS drop, and High to Ultra being a 14 FPS drop.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates scale down proportionally. Low settings produce 127 FPS, which is 84.7% of the 1080p Low result. Medium settings produce 79 FPS with a minimum of 67 FPS and maximum of 91 FPS. High settings drop to 57 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 45 FPS average. The 1440p results show slightly steeper drops between settings tiers compared to 1080p, with Low to Medium being a 48 FPS drop, Medium to High being a 22 FPS drop, and High to Ultra being a 12 FPS drop.

At 3840x2160, the system shows its most GPU-bound behavior. Low settings produce 99 FPS, which is 66% of the 1080p Low result. Medium settings produce 62 FPS with a minimum of 53 FPS and maximum of 71 FPS. High settings drop to 45 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 35 FPS average. The 4K results show the smallest differences between settings tiers, with Low to Medium being a 37 FPS drop, Medium to High being a 17 FPS drop, and High to Ultra being a 10 FPS drop.

The complete dataset reveals that the Medium settings preset provides the most consistent frame pacing, as evidenced by the min/max FPS data. At 1080p Medium, the range is 80-108 FPS (28 FPS spread). At 1440p Medium, the range is 67-91 FPS (24 FPS spread). At 4K Medium, the range is 53-71 FPS (18 FPS spread). This tightening of the frame time variance as resolution increases confirms that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, which paradoxically provides smoother frame pacing despite lower average FPS.