The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and Intel Arc B570 combination delivers a playable experience in The Medium only at lower settings, with the data showing a hard ceiling that prevents 60 FPS at higher presets across all tested resolutions. Measured results place this combo at rank 2999 out of 3724 tested configurations, indicating that while the hardware is capable of running the game, it sits in the lower third of performance brackets for this specific title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo reveals a consistent pattern: the Intel Arc B570 paired with the Ryzen 5 5600 struggles to maintain playable frame rates once settings rise above Low. At 1920x1080, the most forgiving resolution, the Low preset delivers an average of 78 FPS, which comfortably clears the 60 FPS playable threshold. The Medium preset drops to 49 FPS average with a minimum of 41 and maximum of 56, falling short of the target. High settings manage only 35 FPS average, while Ultra bottoms out at 28 FPS average. The gap between Low and Medium represents a 29 FPS drop, underscoring how quickly the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance picture worsens proportionally. The Low preset averages 66 FPS, still above the 60 FPS line but with less headroom than at 1080p. Medium falls to 41 FPS average (minimum 35, maximum 47), High drops to 29 FPS, and Ultra manages only 23 FPS average. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings shows an 12 FPS loss, suggesting the Arc B570's 10 GB GDDR6 memory and 160-bit bus are adequate for the lower preset but cannot compensate for the added pixel count at higher quality levels.

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves playable performance. Low settings average 52 FPS, which is 8 FPS short of the threshold, while Medium drops to 32 FPS average with a minimum of 27 and maximum of 37. High settings produce 23 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 18 FPS average. The 4K results demonstrate that this combination is not viable at this resolution for The Medium, regardless of settings. The progression from Low to Ultra at 4K shows a 34 FPS spread, with each step up in quality costing roughly 9-10 FPS on average.

The measured data includes min and max FPS only for Medium presets across all three resolutions, providing insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p Medium, the 41 to 56 FPS range indicates noticeable variance, while 1440p Medium shows 35 to 47 FPS, and 4K Medium ranges from 27 to 37 FPS. These ranges suggest that even the playable Low presets likely experience similar variance, though the averages stay high enough to mask most stuttering.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Benchmark data places the Ryzen 5 5600 at an average score of 20468, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (20454, 0.1% slower), AMD Ryzen 5 8500G (20425, 0.2% slower), AMD EPYC 9454P (20422, 0.2% slower), and AMD EPYC 7713 (20363, 0.5% slower). These CPUs would deliver nearly identical CPU-bound performance in The Medium, meaning any of these processors paired with the Arc B570 would produce similar frame rates. The 0.1% to 0.5% deltaPct values indicate that the Ryzen 5 5600 sits in a tightly clustered performance band, with no meaningful difference among these alternatives for gaming workloads.

On the GPU side, the Intel Arc B570 averages 20556 in benchmark scores, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, 0.1% slower), Intel Arc A750 (20582, 0.1% faster), NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480, 0.4% slower), and AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662, 0.5% faster). For The Medium specifically, swapping the Arc B570 for any of these GPUs would yield nearly identical FPS results. The Arc A750, being a previous-generation Intel product, represents the closest performance match with only a 0.1% delta, making it a direct substitute in terms of expected frame rates.

The percentile rankings contextualize these scores: the Ryzen 5 5600 sits at the 74th percentile among all CPUs, while the Arc B570 ranks at the 65th percentile among all GPUs. This combination of a higher-percentile CPU with a mid-range GPU explains why resolution and settings scaling behaves predictably—the CPU has headroom, but the GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher presets. A system built with any of the listed rival CPUs or GPUs would behave almost identically, with frame rates differing by less than 1% in most cases.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run The Medium at 1920x1080 with all settings maxed out?

A: No. The Ultra preset at 1920x1080 averages 28 FPS, which is 32 FPS below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The highest playable setting at this resolution is Low, averaging 78 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo if I want to stay above 60 FPS?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 66 FPS, clearing the threshold with 6 FPS of headroom. At 1920x1080, Low averages 78 FPS, providing more margin. 4K is not playable at any setting, with the best result being 52 FPS at Low.

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

A: The combination ranks 2999 out of 3724 tested combos, placing it in the lower 19.5% of configurations. This rank reflects the GPU's limitations at higher settings rather than CPU performance, since the Ryzen 5 5600 sits at the 74th percentile among all CPUs.

Q: Is the Intel Arc B570 the bottleneck in this system?

A: Benchmark data suggests yes. The GPU ranks at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU ranks at the 74th percentile. The measured FPS drops sharply between Low and Medium presets, which is characteristic of GPU-bound scenarios.

Q: What settings should I use at 2560x1440 to avoid frame drops?

A: The Medium preset at 1440p has a measured range of 35 to 47 FPS, with an average of 41 FPS. To stay above 60 FPS, you must use Low settings, which average 66 FPS but have no recorded min/max values in the data.

Q: Does the game's 2021 release date affect performance expectations?

A: The game launched on 2021-01-27, and this hardware combination reflects modern components running an older title. The measured data shows performance consistent with the GPU's bandwidth and shading capabilities, with no indication that driver maturity or game patches influence the results.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2999 out of 3724 tested configurations places this system in the bottom 19.5% of all tested combos for The Medium. This ranking is notably lower than what the individual component percentiles might suggest—the CPU at the 74th percentile and GPU at the 65th percentile would imply a mid-pack position, but the actual game performance tells a different story. The Medium appears to be particularly demanding on GPU resources, especially at higher preset levels, which drags the overall combo ranking down.

The rank distribution indicates that 725 tested combos perform worse than this configuration, while 2998 perform better. This places the Ryzen 5 5600 + Arc B570 in a position where it can handle the game at reduced settings but cannot compete with systems using higher-tier GPUs. The delta between the combo rank and component percentiles suggests that CPU performance is largely irrelevant for this title beyond a certain threshold, and the GPU's 10 GB memory capacity and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth become the determining factors.

In practical terms, this ranking means that users of this combo will need to accept significant visual compromises to achieve playable frame rates. The gap between the 65th percentile GPU ranking and the 19.5th percentile combo ranking highlights how The Medium's specific rendering demands—likely its dual-world mechanics and volumetric effects—penalize mid-range GPUs more heavily than synthetic benchmarks would predict.

The Verdict

The verdict data is unambiguous: this PC can run The Medium, but only under specific conditions. At 3840x2160, no settings achieve playable performance—the best result is 52 FPS at Low, which falls 8 FPS short of the 60 FPS threshold. The 2560x1440 resolution offers exactly one playable configuration: Low settings, averaging 66 FPS. Similarly, 1920x1080 has a single playable preset in Low, averaging 78 FPS.

The playable threshold is defined as 60 FPS, and the verdictByResolution data lists only Low as playable at both 1440p and 1080p. Neither resolution supports Medium, High, or Ultra settings while maintaining 60 FPS. The best settings field confirms Low as the optimal choice at both resolutions, with average FPS of 66 at 1440p and 78 at 1080p.

This means the system is technically capable of running The Medium, but the experience is constrained to the lowest quality preset for any resolution above 4K, and completely non-viable at 4K. The 18 FPS Ultra result at 4K and 23 FPS High at 1440p illustrate that higher settings are not merely below threshold—they are far from it, suggesting that even settings adjustments would not bridge the gap.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Low, with an average of 78 FPS. The next step up, Medium, averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 41 and maximum of 56, falling 11 FPS short of the threshold. The 29 FPS gap between Low and Medium at this resolution indicates that the Arc B570's 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate are sufficient only for the lowest quality level.

At 2560x1440, Low is again the only playable preset, averaging 66 FPS. Medium drops to 41 FPS average (minimum 35, maximum 47), which is 19 FPS below the threshold. The 25 FPS difference between Low and Medium at 1440p is slightly smaller than at 1080p, but the lower starting point makes the Medium preset even less viable relative to the 60 FPS target.

At 3840x2160, no preset clears 60 FPS, so there is no recommended setting. The closest option is Low at 52 FPS average, which is below threshold. The data shows a clear trend: each resolution step down from 4K to 1440p to 1080p gains roughly 14 FPS at Low settings (52 to 66 to 78), which means even at 1080p, the system cannot afford to increase quality settings without sacrificing frame rate. The best playable configuration across all resolutions is 1080p Low at 78 FPS, offering the greatest margin above the 60 FPS threshold.