The Medium

FAQ

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 1080p?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + Intel Arc B580 combo achieves 89.9 FPS on Low settings, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold. Medium settings drop to 55.2 FPS, so only Low is considered playable at this resolution.

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

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings deliver 74.3 FPS average, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings run at 45.5 FPS, so the database only lists Low as playable at this resolution.

Q: Is 4K playable with this hardware?

A: No. At 3840x2160, even Low settings produce only 58.3 FPS average, just below the 60 FPS threshold. High (28.4 FPS), Medium (36.5 FPS), and Ultra (20.4 FPS) all fall significantly short.

Q: How does the CPU compare to nearby alternatives?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 has an average benchmark score of 17035, placing it in the 71st percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-1260P, scores 17007 (0.2% lower), while the Intel Core i5-11400 scores 17067 (0.2% higher). These are essentially performance-equivalent chips.

Q: What about the GPU's standing among graphics cards?

A: The Intel Arc B580 sits in the 68th percentile for all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 23021. Its closest competitor, the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP, scores 23061 (0.2% higher), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 scores 22895 (0.6% lower).

Q: How does this combo rank overall in The Medium?

A: Out of 3724 tested combinations in the database, this CPU/GPU pairing ranks 2816th. That places it in the lower quarter of tested systems for this specific game, which aligns with the measured FPS results showing limited playability.

Best Settings per Resolution

The database identifies the most demanding preset that still maintains at least 60 FPS average at each resolution. For this hardware and game combination, the results are straightforward.

At 1920x1080, the only setting that stays above 60 FPS is Low, producing 89.9 FPS average. Medium falls to 55.2 FPS, which does not meet the playable threshold.

At 2560x1440, Low is again the sole playable option, delivering 74.3 FPS average. Medium runs at 45.5 FPS, High at 31.9 FPS, and Ultra at 28.9 FPS.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS. The highest average recorded is 58.3 FPS on Low, just below the threshold. Medium (36.5 FPS), High (28.4 FPS), and Ultra (20.4 FPS) all demonstrate that 4K is beyond this system's capabilities for The Medium.

CPU and GPU Roles

Examining the scaling between resolutions and presets reveals which component constrains performance in this game. The pattern across the measured data shows that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck at higher settings, while the CPU becomes relatively more relevant at lower settings.

At 1080p Low, the system produces 89.9 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops performance to 74.3 FPS, a 17.4% reduction as resolution increases. At 4K Low, it falls to 58.3 FPS, another 21.5% drop. This scaling behavior is typical of a GPU-bound workload at lower presets, where pixel throughput becomes the limiting factor.

However, the settings ladder tells a different story. At 1080p, going from Low to Medium reduces FPS from 89.9 to 55.2, a 38.6% decrease. Low to High drops to 36.7 FPS (59.2% decrease), and Low to Ultra reaches 30.6 FPS (66.0% decrease). These dramatic reductions with each preset tier indicate that the Arc B580's shading, texture, and rasterization resources are heavily taxed by The Medium's graphical features.

Comparing resolutions more directly: at High settings, 1080p yields 36.7 FPS, 1440p yields 31.9 FPS (13.1% lower), and 4K yields 28.4 FPS (22.6% lower than 1080p). At Ultra settings, the spread is 30.6 FPS at 1080p, 28.9 FPS at 1440p, and 20.4 FPS at 4K. The relatively modest differences between 1080p and 1440p at High and Ultra suggest that, once the preset demands exceed a certain threshold, the GPU is already saturated and additional pixels cause only incremental degradation.

The CPU's Ryzen 5 3600, with 6 cores and 12 threads, appears sufficient to feed the Arc B580 at Low presets, where the GPU has headroom. But at Medium and above, the measured FPS collapses regardless of resolution, indicating the game's rendering features overwhelm the graphics card. The data implies that for this title, the Intel Arc B580 is the primary performance ceiling; upgrading the CPU alone would not meaningfully improve frame rates at higher settings.

The Verdict

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + Intel Arc B580 can run The Medium, but with significant limitations. The database verdict confirms playability only at 1080p Low (89.9 FPS) and 1440p Low (74.3 FPS). Both configurations clear the 60 FPS threshold with margin.

At 4K, no setting reaches playable status. The closest is Low at 58.3 FPS, which misses the mark by just 1.7 FPS. Given the narrow gap, users might perceive 4K Low as borderline acceptable, but strictly by the database's 60 FPS criterion, it fails.

For players who prioritize smoothness over visual fidelity, 1080p Low offers the best experience with nearly 90 FPS average. Those wanting higher detail should consider that Medium at 1080p (55.2 FPS) and Medium at 1440p (45.5 FPS) both fall short of the threshold, so there is no headroom for quality improvements without accepting sub-60 FPS performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The recorded data presents a complete picture across three resolutions and four settings tiers. All measurements are average FPS values; minimum and maximum frame times were not recorded.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Ultra: 20.4 FPS
• High: 28.4 FPS
• Medium: 36.5 FPS
• Low: 58.3 FPS

The progression from Low to Ultra shows a consistent degradation, with each step costing roughly 20-30% performance. The jump from Medium (36.5) to High (28.4) is a 22.2% reduction, and High to Ultra (20.4) another 28.2% reduction.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Ultra: 28.9 FPS
• High: 31.9 FPS
• Medium: 45.5 FPS
• Low: 74.3 FPS

At 1440p, the gap between Low and Medium is substantial (74.3 to 45.5, a 38.8% drop), while the difference between High and Ultra is notably smaller (31.9 to 28.9, only 9.4%). This suggests diminishing returns from High to Ultra at this resolution.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Ultra: 30.6 FPS
• High: 36.7 FPS
• Medium: 55.2 FPS
• Low: 89.9 FPS

The 1080p results mirror the 1440p pattern: a large gap between Low and Medium (89.9 to 55.2, a 38.6% drop), a moderate drop to High (55.2 to 36.7, 33.5%), and a smaller decline to Ultra (36.7 to 30.6, 16.6%).

Across all resolutions, Low settings consistently deliver roughly double the frame rate of Ultra settings, highlighting the substantial cost of The Medium's higher-end graphical features on this hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested hardware combinations for The Medium, this pairing ranks 2816th out of 3724 total combinations. That places it in the 75.6th percentile of tested systems, meaning approximately three-quarters of tested configurations perform better.

This ranking aligns with the measured FPS data. The system can handle the game at lower settings and lower resolutions, but it does not deliver the kind of high-fidelity performance expected from mid-range or high-end systems. The combo's position suggests that while it is not among the weakest tested configurations, it clearly sits below the median for this particular game.

The rank reflects the combined capabilities of the Ryzen 5 3600 (71st percentile among CPUs) and the Arc B580 (68th percentile among GPUs). Both components are solidly mid-pack performers in isolation, but The Medium's demanding rendering requirements push the combined system down in the ranking.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the CPU and GPU provide useful context for what other hardware would behave similarly in this game.

On the CPU side, the Ryzen 5 3600's closest matches are the Intel Core i7-1260P (0.2% higher average score), the Intel Core i5-11400 (0.2% lower), the AMD EPYC 7573X (0.2% lower), and the AMD EPYC 7742 (0.2% higher). Systems using any of these processors paired with the Arc B580 would likely produce nearly identical frame rates in The Medium, since the differences are within measurement noise.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (0.2% higher average score), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (0.6% higher), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (0.7% lower), and the NVIDIA P106-100 (1.0% lower). A system with the Ryzen 5 3600 paired with any of these graphics cards would deliver similar performance to the Arc B580 configuration. The RTX 2080 and RTX 3080 are particularly interesting comparisons: despite being older architectures, they land within 1% of the Arc B580's average benchmark score, suggesting that users migrating from those cards would see little difference in The Medium.

It is important to note that these rival comparisons are based on synthetic benchmark averages, not game-specific measurements. Actual in-game performance in The Medium could vary based on driver optimizations and game-specific rendering paths. However, the closeness of these scores (all within 1% of each other) indicates that any of these alternative pairings would fall into the same general performance bracket for this title.