The Medium

FAQ

Q: What kind of game is The Medium?

A: The Medium is a Horror game that was released on 2021-01-27T17:00:00.000Z. The benchmark data in this database measures performance for the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 paired with the Intel Arc B390.

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 5600 has an average benchmark score of 20468, which places it in the 74th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V with an average score of 20454 (0.1% slower), the AMD Ryzen 5 8500G with 20425 (0.2% slower), the AMD EPYC 9454P with 20422 (0.2% slower), and the AMD EPYC 7713 with 20363 (0.5% slower). The Ryzen 5 5600 essentially matches these processors in overall CPU performance.

Q: What is the Intel Arc B390's performance class relative to other GPUs?

A: The Intel Arc B390 has an average benchmark score of 1482 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, placing it in the 9th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463, 1.3% slower), the NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1460, 1.5% slower), the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446, 2.5% slower), and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 (1443, 2.7% slower).

Q: Can this combo achieve 60 FPS at 1080p in The Medium?

A: No. The highest average FPS recorded at 1920x1080 is 51 FPS at Low settings. At Medium settings, the average drops to 32 FPS, at High it is 23 FPS, and at Ultra it is 18 FPS. The playable threshold is 60 FPS, and the data shows no settings preset reaches that mark at any resolution.

Q: Which resolution/settings combination gives the best frame rate?

A: The best measured performance is 51 FPS average at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next best is 43 FPS at 2560x1440 with Low settings, followed by 34 FPS at 3840x2160 with Low settings. All other settings presets at all resolutions fall below 34 FPS.

Q: What are the key specifications of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a Zen 3 architecture processor from the 5000 series, manufactured on a 7 nm process by TSMC. It has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It has a 65 W TDP, uses the AMD Socket AM4, and supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth.

CPU and GPU Roles

The measured FPS data across resolutions and presets reveals a clear picture: the Intel Arc B390 is the dominant bottleneck in The Medium. The CPU, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600, sits in the 74th percentile of all CPUs and posts strong synthetic scores, but the GPU sits in the 9th percentile. This massive gap means the frame rate is almost entirely governed by graphics workload.

Looking at the scaling from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, the frame rates drop steadily at every settings preset. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 51 at 1920x1080 to 43 at 2560x1440 to 34 at 3840x2160. That is a 16% drop when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 21% drop when moving from 1440p to 4K. At Medium settings, the averages are 32 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p, and 21 FPS at 4K. The High preset yields 23 FPS at 1080p, 19 FPS at 1440p, and 15 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings produce 18 FPS at 1080p, 15 FPS at 1440p, and 12 FPS at 4K.

The resolution scaling behavior indicates that the GPU is fully saturated at all tested configurations. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the frame rate deltas between resolutions would be smaller, since CPU load does not scale as dramatically with pixel count. Instead, the consistent and substantial drops at each higher resolution point directly to GPU-bound rendering. The Arc B390's 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 60.00 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply insufficient for this game's demands.

The settings presets further confirm this. Moving from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 19 FPS (51 to 32), from Medium to High costs another 9 FPS (32 to 23), and from High to Ultra costs another 5 FPS (23 to 18). These steep penalties for each quality tier indicate that the GPU's shading units, texture mapping units, and raster operations pipelines are all heavily taxed. The CPU, with its 12 threads and 32 MB of shared L3 cache, has ample headroom; the recorded data shows no scenario where the processor becomes the constraining factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and the Intel Arc B390 ranks 3314 out of 3724 tested combos in this database for The Medium. That places this pairing in the bottom 11% of all tested systems, which is consistent with the GPU's low percentile ranking.

The rank is driven almost entirely by the graphics card. The Intel Arc B390's 9th percentile standing among all GPUs means it is outperformed by roughly 91% of the GPUs in the database. The Ryzen 5 5600, by contrast, sits comfortably in the upper quartile of CPUs. When a high-performing CPU is paired with a very low-performing GPU, the overall system rank tends to reflect the weaker component, and that is exactly what the data shows here.

In practical terms, a rank of 3314 out of 3724 means that most other CPU and GPU combinations tested in this game will deliver higher frame rates. This is not a system that can handle The Medium at playable frame rates, regardless of resolution or settings, as the verdict data confirms.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU side, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 has near-identical synthetic performance to several other processors. The Intel Core Ultra 7 258V scores 20454, just 0.1% lower. The AMD Ryzen 5 8500G scores 20425, 0.2% lower. The AMD EPYC 9454P scores 20422, 0.2% lower, and the AMD EPYC 7713 scores 20363, 0.5% lower. Any of these CPUs paired with the same graphics card would produce essentially the same frame rates in The Medium, since the CPU is not the limiting factor in this configuration.

For the GPU side, the Intel Arc B390's nearest rivals are all NVIDIA parts from older generations. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX scores 1463, which is 1.3% lower. The NVIDIA GeForce 800M scores 1460, 1.5% lower. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM scores 1446, 2.5% lower, and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 scores 1443, 2.7% lower. These GPUs would all perform within a few percent of the Arc B390 in this game, meaning the measured frame rates would be nearly identical across all of them. The differences are small enough that the user experience would be effectively the same: sub-60 FPS at every resolution and preset.

It is importantly the Arc B390 uses system shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth, which further ties its performance to the host platform. The GPU's memory size, type, and bus width are all listed as system shared, and the bandwidth is system dependent. This design means the measured performance in The Medium could vary somewhat across different systems, even with the same CPU and GPU combination.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the recorded frame rates are consistently low. The Low preset averages 34 FPS. The Medium preset averages 21 FPS, with a minimum of 18 FPS and a maximum of 24 FPS. The High preset averages 15 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 12 FPS. No data was recorded for minimum or maximum values on the Low, High, or Ultra presets at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 43 FPS. The Medium preset averages 27 FPS, with a minimum of 23 FPS and a maximum of 31 FPS. The High preset averages 19 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 15 FPS. As with 4K, minimum and maximum values are only available for the Medium preset.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 51 FPS. The Medium preset averages 32 FPS, with a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS. The High preset averages 23 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 18 FPS. The 1080p Low preset is the single best result in the entire dataset, and it still falls 9 FPS short of the 60 FPS playable threshold.

The frame time consistency, where measurable, shows a moderate variance. At 1080p Medium, the spread between minimum and maximum is 10 FPS (27 to 37). At 1440p Medium, the spread is 8 FPS (23 to 31). At 4K Medium, the spread is 6 FPS (18 to 24). These ranges suggest that the frame pacing is relatively stable for a given preset, but the overall performance level is too low to matter for playability.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: this PC cannot run The Medium at playable frame rates. The playable threshold is 60 FPS, and the verdict by resolution shows no playable settings at any resolution.

At 1920x1080, the best recorded average is 51 FPS at Low settings. That is 9 FPS below the threshold. Medium settings drop to 32 FPS, High to 23 FPS, and Ultra to 18 FPS. At 2560x1440, the best average is 43 FPS at Low settings, with Medium at 27 FPS, High at 19 FPS, and Ultra at 15 FPS. At 3840x2160, the best average is 34 FPS at Low settings, with Medium at 21 FPS, High at 15 FPS, and Ultra at 12 FPS.

The verdictByResolution data lists empty playableSettings arrays for all three resolutions, confirming that no preset at any resolution achieves the 60 FPS target. The bestSettings field is null for every resolution, meaning there is no settings configuration that can be recommended for a playable experience.

The bottleneck is clearly the Intel Arc B390. Its 9th percentile ranking, 1482 average benchmark score, and nearest rivals from the GeForce GT 7xx era all point to a GPU that is fundamentally underpowered for a 2021 horror title like The Medium. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600, with its 74th percentile CPU ranking and strong multi-threaded scores, is not the issue. Swapping the GPU for a more capable part would be the only path to playable frame rates, while keeping the CPU would preserve the system's strong synthetic performance.

For anyone considering this combination for The Medium, the recorded data provides a clear answer: expect sub-60 FPS at all settings, and at higher resolutions and quality presets, expect frame rates in the teens and low twenties. This is a system for less demanding titles, not for this game.