The Medium

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run The Medium at 60 FPS in 1080p?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings. The recorded average frame rate at 1920x1080 with Low settings is 78 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold. Medium settings drop to 49 FPS, so Low is the only playable preset at this resolution.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 1440p?

A: Low settings at 2560x1440 produce an average of 66 FPS, which is the only preset that stays at or above 60 FPS at this resolution. Medium falls to 41 FPS, High to 29 FPS, and Ultra to 23 FPS.

Q: Is 4K playable with this hardware?

A: No. At 3840x2160, even Low settings only reach 52 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium averages 32 FPS, High averages 23 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS. The verdict list for 4K shows no playable settings.

Q: How much faster is Low compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: Low settings at 1920x1080 average 78 FPS, while Ultra averages 28 FPS. That is a 50 FPS difference, meaning Low is roughly 2.8 times faster in average frame rate than Ultra at this resolution.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum frame rates recorded at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 41 FPS and the maximum is 56 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 35 FPS and the maximum is 47 FPS. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 27 FPS and the maximum is 37 FPS.

Q: Where does this CPU and GPU combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the Intel Arc B570 ranks 2999 out of 3724 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the lower portion of the database.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, no preset reaches the 60 FPS playable threshold. The closest is Low with an average of 52 FPS, but that is still 8 FPS short. Medium averages 32 FPS, High averages 23 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS. The database records no playable settings for 4K with this combination.

At 2560x1440, the only preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Low, with an average of 66 FPS. This gives a small 6 FPS margin over the threshold. Medium averages 41 FPS, which is not playable, and High and Ultra average 29 FPS and 23 FPS respectively. The best settings designation for 1440p is Low.

At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver an average of 78 FPS, which is the best playable configuration. This provides an 18 FPS cushion above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium falls to 49 FPS, High to 35 FPS, and Ultra to 28 FPS. Only Low qualifies as playable at 1080p, despite the resolution being the least demanding of the three tested.

The pattern is consistent: the game requires the lowest preset at every resolution to stay above 60 FPS, and at 4K even that is insufficient.

CPU and GPU Roles

The measured data shows that resolution scaling behaves as expected for a GPU-bound title, but the CPU still plays a meaningful role at lower settings. Moving from 1080p Low to 1440p Low, the average frame rate drops from 78 FPS to 66 FPS, a 12 FPS reduction. Moving from 1440p Low to 4K Low, the average drops from 66 FPS to 52 FPS, another 14 FPS reduction. This steady decline across resolutions indicates that the Intel Arc B570 is the primary limiter even at Low settings.

At Medium settings, the resolution scaling is steeper in percentage terms. 1080p Medium averages 49 FPS, 1440p Medium averages 41 FPS, and 4K Medium averages 32 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 4K at Medium is 17 FPS, compared to 26 FPS at Low. This suggests that as the preset becomes more demanding, the GPU workload grows faster than the CPU can compensate, reinforcing the GPU-bound nature of the game.

The CPU, an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 with 6 cores and 12 threads, does not appear to be the bottleneck at any resolution. If the CPU were limiting performance, frame rates would cluster more tightly across resolutions at the same preset. Instead, the data shows a consistent decline as pixel count rises, which is characteristic of a graphics card limitation. The Ryzen 5 2600's benchmark scores, including a Passmark multithread score of 13160 and a Geekbench multicore score of 5648, are sufficient to feed the Arc B570 at these frame rates.

At Ultra settings, the frame rates are uniformly low across all resolutions: 28 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. The small absolute differences between resolutions at Ultra suggest that the GPU is heavily saturated and the CPU has little influence on the outcome. The game's demands at Ultra exceed what this combination can deliver at any resolution, and the bottleneck is firmly on the graphics side.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the AMD Ryzen 5 2600, based on average benchmark scores, include the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V with a score of 21440 and a delta of 0.2% higher, and the Intel Core i9-11900H with a score of 21367 and a delta of 0.5% higher. On the other side, the Intel Xeon D-1746TER scores 21635, which is 0.7% lower than the Ryzen 5 2600, and the AMD EPYC 9454 scores 21223, which is 1.2% lower. These small deltas mean any of these CPUs would likely produce nearly identical frame rates in The Medium when paired with the same GPU.

For the Intel Arc B570, the closest GPU rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile with an average score of 20534 and a delta of 0.1% higher, and the Intel Arc A750 with a score of 20582 and a delta of 0.1% lower. The NVIDIA Quadro M4000M scores 20480, which is 0.4% higher, and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X scores 20662, which is 0.5% lower. These delta values are all within half a percent, so swapping the Arc B570 for any of these cards would yield essentially the same performance profile in this game.

A system with an Intel Core Ultra 5 228V or Intel Core i9-11900H paired with the Arc B570 should behave almost identically to the tested Ryzen 5 2600 combination, given the sub-1% differences in CPU benchmark scores. Similarly, keeping the Ryzen 5 2600 and swapping the GPU to an Arc A750 or RTX 3070 Mobile would not meaningfully change the playability verdict: Low settings at 1080p and 1440p would still be the only playable presets, and 4K would remain out of reach.

The Verdict

This PC can run The Medium, but only under strict conditions. At 1920x1080, Low settings produce an average of 78 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold by a comfortable margin. At 2560x1440, Low settings average 66 FPS, still above 60 FPS but with a thinner cushion. At 3840x2160, no settings are playable; the best case is Low at 52 FPS, which falls short of the threshold.

The verdict by resolution lists 1080p Low and 1440p Low as the only playable configurations. Medium, High, and Ultra settings fail to reach 60 FPS at every resolution. The game is playable, but users must accept the lowest visual preset and cannot use 4K at all.

The margin at 1440p is worth noting: 66 FPS average means occasional dips below 60 FPS are possible, though the database does not record minimum frame rates for Low settings. At 1080p, the 78 FPS average provides more headroom, making it the safer choice for consistent playability.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2999 out of 3724 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the 20th percentile of tested systems, meaning roughly 80% of combinations in the database deliver better performance in this game. The rank reflects the combination's inability to handle Medium or higher presets at any resolution and its failure to reach 60 FPS at 4K even on Low.

The rank is consistent with the individual component percentiles. The Ryzen 5 2600 sits at the 75th percentile among all CPUs, while the Arc B570 sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs. The combo rank being lower than either individual percentile suggests that The Medium is particularly demanding on the GPU, and the Arc B570's mid-range standing becomes the limiting factor. The game's horror genre often relies on heavy visual effects, and the measured frame rates indicate that this combination is not well suited to high-fidelity play.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the recorded average frame rates are 23 FPS on High, 52 FPS on Low, 32 FPS on Medium, and 18 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K has a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS. No minimum or maximum values are recorded for the other 4K presets.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 29 FPS on High, 66 FPS on Low, 41 FPS on Medium, and 23 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset at 1440p has a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 47 FPS. Low settings at 1440p is the only playable configuration at this resolution.

At 1920x1080, the averages are 35 FPS on High, 78 FPS on Low, 49 FPS on Medium, and 28 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset at 1080p has a minimum of 41 FPS and a maximum of 56 FPS. Low settings at 1080p delivers the highest average frame rate of any configuration tested, at 78 FPS.

The data shows a clear and consistent hierarchy: Low is always the fastest preset, followed by Medium, then High, then Ultra. The gaps between presets grow as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 50 FPS. At 1440p, it is 43 FPS. At 4K, it is 34 FPS. This narrowing gap at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly saturated, reducing the relative impact of preset changes.