The Medium

# Can AMD Ryzen 5 7500F + Intel Arc B570 Run The Medium?

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a mixed but ultimately limited experience in The Medium, a 2021 horror title. Across the three tested resolutions, only the Low preset at 1080p and 1440p clears the 60 FPS playability threshold; every other combination falls short. The data reveals a GPU-bound scenario where the Arc B570 — ranking in the 65th percentile among all GPUs — struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher settings, while the Ryzen 5 7500F, sitting in the 77th CPU percentile, appears to have ample headroom. The measured FPS numbers, drawn from real testing, paint a clear picture: this is a system that can run the game, but only with significant graphical compromises and never at 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions — 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160 — across four settings tiers: Low, Medium, High, and Ultra. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 78 FPS, the only 1080p result above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium drops to 49 FPS average, with minimums of 41 FPS and maximums of 56 FPS. High falls further to 35 FPS average, while Ultra bottoms out at 28 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 50 FPS, indicating a steep performance cost for each settings tier.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower absolute numbers. Low delivers 66 FPS average, just clearing 60 FPS. Medium averages 41 FPS, with a range of 35 to 47 FPS. High drops to 29 FPS, and Ultra lands at 23 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 43 FPS, slightly narrower than at 1080p, suggesting the resolution increase compresses the settings-based performance gap.

At 3840x2160, no preset reaches playable frame rates. Low averages 52 FPS, Medium 32 FPS (with minimums of 27 and maximums of 37), High 23 FPS, and Ultra 18 FPS. The 4K results show a dramatic collapse: even the lowest settings miss 60 FPS by a wide margin, and Ultra is essentially unplayable at 18 FPS. The data shows a consistent pattern: each settings tier costs roughly 10-15 FPS on average, and each resolution step from 1080p to 1440p to 4K imposes a similar penalty. For instance, Medium at 1080p (49 FPS) drops to 41 FPS at 1440p, then to 32 FPS at 4K — a steady decline of 8-9 FPS per resolution increase. The minimum and maximum FPS values, available only for Medium settings, show tight ranges: 41-56 at 1080p, 35-47 at 1440p, and 27-37 at 4K, indicating consistent frame pacing rather than sporadic stutters.

Best Settings per Resolution

The verdict data specifies which settings remain at or above 60 FPS for each resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset is the only playable option, delivering 78 FPS average. This is 18 FPS above the threshold, providing a modest cushion for demanding scenes. The Medium preset at 49 FPS falls 11 FPS short of playability, so there is no room for higher quality at 1080p without sacrificing smoothness.

At 2560x1440, Low again is the sole playable setting, averaging 66 FPS. This clears 60 FPS by only 6 FPS, a slim margin that could dip below the threshold during intense moments, though the data does not include minimum FPS values for Low to confirm stability. The Medium preset at 41 FPS is 19 FPS below playable, making the jump from Low to Medium a significant quality-versus-performance tradeoff.

At 3840x2160, the verdict lists no playable settings. The best-case scenario is Low at 52 FPS, which is 8 FPS short of 60. The data shows that 4K is entirely out of reach for this combination, regardless of settings. The pattern across resolutions is clear: the system can only handle the lowest graphical preset, and only at 1080p and 1440p. The margin at 1440p (6 FPS) is notably thinner than at 1080p (18 FPS), so players seeking consistent 60 FPS should prefer 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest playable settings preset at 1920x1080?

A: The Low preset is the only playable option at 1080p, achieving an average of 78 FPS. Medium falls to 49 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 3840x2160?

A: No. The best 4K result is Low at 52 FPS average, which is 8 FPS below the 60 FPS playability threshold. Ultra at 4K averages only 18 FPS.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings?

A: Medium at 1080p averages 49 FPS, while Medium at 1440p averages 41 FPS — a drop of 8 FPS, or roughly 16% of the 1080p score.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS values at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p, Medium ranges from 41 to 56 FPS. At 1440p, it ranges from 35 to 47 FPS. At 4K, it ranges from 27 to 37 FPS. The data does not provide min/max values for Low, High, or Ultra.

Q: Does the system maintain 60 FPS at 1440p Low with any headroom?

A: Low at 1440p averages 66 FPS, providing only 6 FPS of headroom above the threshold. This is a slim margin compared to the 18 FPS headroom at 1080p Low.

Q: How does the GPU's performance percentile relate to its in-game results?

A: The Intel Arc B570 ranks in the 65th percentile among all GPUs based on average benchmark scores. In The Medium, it fails to reach 60 FPS at 4K on any setting and only clears the threshold on Low at 1080p and 1440p, suggesting the game is demanding enough to expose the GPU's mid-range positioning.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Based on the nearest rival data for both components, this combination has close performance neighbors. For the CPU, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F's average benchmark score of 24,964 is nearly identical to several alternatives. The Intel Core i7-11850H scores 24,935, a mere 0.1% difference. The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F scores 25,005, which is 0.2% higher. The Intel Core i7-13620H scores 24,911, 0.2% lower, and the Intel Core 5 210H scores 24,872, 0.4% lower. These deltas are negligible, meaning any of these CPUs would produce virtually identical frame rates in The Medium when paired with the same GPU, assuming no other bottlenecks.

For the GPU, the Intel Arc B570's average score of 20,556 sits close to several rivals. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile scores 20,534, just 0.1% lower. The Intel Arc A750 scores 20,582, 0.1% higher. The NVIDIA Quadro M4000M scores 20,480, 0.4% lower, and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X scores 20,662, 0.5% higher. These differences are within a half-percent, so swapping the Arc B570 for any of these GPUs would yield nearly identical FPS numbers in The Medium. However, the rival list includes both desktop cards (Arc A750) and mobile parts (RTX 3070 Mobile, Quadro M4000M), which may have different thermal and power characteristics in practice. The key takeaway is that the Arc B570's performance tier is well-defined: any of these alternatives would reproduce the same pattern of playable Low settings at 1080p and 1440p, with no playable 4K options.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data suggests this game is heavily GPU-bound at all tested resolutions. The Ryzen 5 7500F, with 6 cores and 12 threads, ranks in the 77th CPU percentile and has an average benchmark score of 24,964. Its nearest rivals all score within 0.4% of each other, confirming that CPU performance is not a differentiator here. Meanwhile, the Arc B570 ranks in the 65th GPU percentile, and the FPS results scale predictably with resolution and settings — hallmarks of a GPU-limited workload.

The resolution scaling provides indirect evidence of GPU binding. At Medium settings, moving from 1080p (49 FPS) to 1440p (41 FPS) costs 8 FPS, and moving to 4K (32 FPS) costs another 9 FPS. This consistent penalty per resolution step aligns with GPU fill-rate and memory bandwidth constraints — the Arc B570 has 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth. The settings scaling tells a similar story: at 1080p, each tier from Low to Ultra costs roughly 10-15 FPS, which is typical of GPU shader and texture workload increases.

The CPU's role is more difficult to isolate from the provided data, but the high percentile ranking and the fact that even the fastest rival CPU scores within 0.4% suggests the Ryzen 5 7500F is unlikely to bottleneck at any resolution. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would not drop as sharply when going from 1080p to 4K — a CPU-bound scenario would show similar FPS across resolutions. Instead, the steep 4K decline (78 FPS at 1080p Low to 52 FPS at 4K Low) points squarely at the GPU. Players considering upgrades should focus on the graphics card; the CPU has ample headroom for this title.

The Verdict

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F + Intel Arc B570 can run The Medium, but only under strict conditions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 78 FPS average, comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440, Low averages 66 FPS, which clears 60 FPS but with only a 6 FPS margin — risky for players sensitive to frame drops. At 3840x2160, no settings preset reaches 60 FPS; the best result is Low at 52 FPS, and Ultra is unplayable at 18 FPS. The verdict by resolution confirms this: playable settings are limited to Low at both 1080p and 1440p, while 4K has no playable options. For the best experience, 1080p Low is the recommended configuration, offering the largest headroom above the threshold. Players with a 1440p monitor can still play, but should be prepared for occasional dips below 60 FPS given the slim margin. 4K gaming is out of the question for this title with this hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

Among all 3,724 tested combinations for The Medium, this specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 2,999th. This places it in the bottom quarter of all tested systems — roughly the 19th percentile (calculated from rank 2999 out of 3724). The rank reflects the system's inability to handle higher settings or 4K resolution, and it aligns with the GPU's 65th percentile standing, which is dragged down by the game's demanding nature. The CPU's 77th percentile ranking is not enough to compensate for the GPU's mid-tier performance. The data shows that this combination is functional for modest 1080p and 1440p gaming at minimum settings, but it is far from a high-performance setup for this particular title. Players with this hardware should set expectations accordingly: The Medium is playable, but only at its lowest visual quality, and the system ranks well below the median of all tested combinations.