The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and Intel Arc B570 combination delivers a strictly limited experience in The Medium, with benchmark data showing that only the lowest graphical preset at 1080p and 1440p manages to sustain a playable frame rate. The system ranks 2999th out of 3724 tested combinations, placing it in the lower third of the database, and the measured FPS data confirms that higher settings push the GPU past its comfort zone at every resolution.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the only preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Low, which produces an average of 78 FPS. The next step up, Medium, drops to 49 FPS average, which falls well below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The higher presets are not viable: High averages 35 FPS and Ultra averages 28 FPS. For a locked 60 FPS experience at 1080p, Low is the sole option.

At 2560x1440, the situation narrows further. The Low preset achieves an average of 66 FPS, clearing the 60 FPS bar with a small margin. Medium falls to 41 FPS, High to 29 FPS, and Ultra to 23 FPS. The verdict data confirms that Low is the best playable setting at this resolution, with no other preset reaching the threshold.

At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS. The closest is Low, which averages 52 FPS — still 8 FPS short of the playable threshold. Medium averages 32 FPS, High averages 23 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS. The verdictByResolution data lists no playable settings for 4K, meaning this combination cannot deliver a smooth experience at that resolution under any preset.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data shows a clear pattern: the Intel Arc B570 is the dominant bottleneck across all resolutions, and the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X has ample headroom. The CPU's benchmark scores — including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 15236 and a single-core score of 1965 — position it well above the demands of this title. The GPU, by contrast, holds only a 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20556.

The scaling between presets reveals the GPU's limitations. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 29 FPS (from 78 to 49), and from Medium to High costs another 14 FPS (from 49 to 35). This steep drop-off with each graphical step suggests the GPU's rendering throughput — rated at 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate — is the limiting factor. The CPU's role is minimal here; its 6 cores and 12 threads with a 4.70 GHz base clock are more than sufficient for the game's demands.

Resolution scaling reinforces this conclusion. From 1080p Low to 1440p Low, the average FPS drops from 78 to 66 (a 15% decrease), and from 1440p Low to 4K Low, it drops from 66 to 52 (a 21% decrease). These proportional losses track closely with pixel count increases, which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s and PCIe Gen 5 interface are not stressed by this workload, and the 32 MB shared L3 cache provides adequate data locality for the game's threaded tasks.

The fact that the 4K Medium preset shows a minimum FPS of 27 and maximum of 37 — a narrow 10 FPS range — further indicates the GPU is hitting a hard performance ceiling rather than experiencing CPU-related frame time spikes. The CPU's 3DMark 16-thread score of 6879 and max-thread score of 6845 show consistent multi-threaded performance that would not introduce stutter in a horror title with predictable asset streaming.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The Low preset delivers an average of 78 FPS with no reported minimum or maximum values, indicating stable frame pacing. Medium averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 41 and maximum of 56 — a 15 FPS range that suggests occasional dips below the average. High averages 35 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS, both without min/max data. The spread from Low to Ultra is 50 FPS, demonstrating how dramatically the GPU's performance collapses as settings increase.

2560x1440: Low averages 66 FPS, the only playable preset at this resolution. Medium averages 41 FPS with a minimum of 35 and maximum of 47 — the 12 FPS variance indicates the GPU is struggling to maintain consistent frame times. High averages 29 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium here is 25 FPS, proportionally larger than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU's memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s becomes more strained at higher pixel counts.

3840x2160: Low averages 52 FPS, just below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium averages 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 and maximum of 37 — the 10 FPS range is the tightest of any preset in the dataset, implying a consistent but low performance ceiling. High averages 23 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS. None of these presets reach playable levels, and the 34 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is the largest absolute spread across all resolutions, underscoring the GPU's inability to handle high-fidelity rendering at this pixel count.

The data shows no min/max values for Low, High, or Ultra presets at any resolution, which means the database only captured averages for those configurations. The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all three resolutions, providing a consistent reference point: 1080p Medium (41-56), 1440p Medium (35-47), and 4K Medium (27-37). These ranges scale almost linearly with resolution, reinforcing that the GPU is the sole performance arbiter.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X's nearest rivals are all within a fraction of a percent in average benchmark score. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X and Intel Core i5-12600K both score 27578, a 0.2% delta from the 7600X's 27636 average. The AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE scores 27712, a -0.3% delta, and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 scores 27535, a 0.4% delta. In practical terms, any of these CPUs would produce identical frame rates in The Medium when paired with the same GPU, since the game is not CPU-bound in this configuration.

For the GPU, the Intel Arc B570's nearest rivals show similar clustering. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile scores 20534, a 0.1% delta from the B570's 20556 average. The Intel Arc A750 scores 20582, a -0.1% delta, making it the closest match. The NVIDIA Quadro M4000M scores 20480 (0.4% delta) and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X scores 20662 (-0.5% delta). The Arc A750 is particularly notable as a desktop card with a 0.1% performance difference, meaning users swapping between these two Intel GPUs would see virtually identical FPS in this game.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 79th among all CPUs versus the GPU's 65th percentile highlights the performance gap in this pairing. The CPU sits comfortably in the upper quartile while the GPU is in the lower third, and the measured FPS data reflects this imbalance — the CPU never becomes a limiting factor, and the GPU's ceiling defines the playable settings.

The Verdict

This PC can run The Medium, but only under strict conditions. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 78 FPS average, clearing the 60 FPS threshold with a 30% margin. At 2560x1440, Low averages 66 FPS, just 10% above the threshold. At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS — the best case is Low at 52 FPS, which falls short.

The verdictByResolution data confirms this: playable settings exist for 1080p and 1440p (both only Low), while 4K has no playable options. For users who prioritize visual fidelity, the system cannot handle Medium or higher presets at any resolution without dropping below 60 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p averages 49 FPS, which is playable for some genres but not for a horror game where frame pacing matters. The data suggests this combination is suitable for 1080p Low or 1440p Low gaming, with no headroom for higher quality settings.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system achieve 60 FPS at 4K in The Medium?*

A: No. The best 4K result is the Low preset at 52 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. All other 4K presets average between 18 and 32 FPS.

Q: What is the highest playable setting at 1080p?

A: Low is the only preset that clears 60 FPS, averaging 78 FPS. Medium falls to 49 FPS, which is below the playable threshold.

Q: How much faster is the CPU compared to its nearest rival?

A: The Ryzen 5 7600X's average benchmark score of 27636 is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (27578) and Intel Core i5-12600K (27578). The performance difference is negligible.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The CPU's 79th percentile ranking and high multi-threaded scores indicate ample headroom, while the GPU's 65th percentile ranking and the steep FPS drops with resolution and settings increases show it is the constraint.

Q: What GPU performs nearly identically to the Arc B570?

A: The Intel Arc A750 has an average score of 20582, a -0.1% delta from the B570's 20556. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile is also close at 20534 (0.1% delta).

Q: Does the Medium preset have consistent frame times at 1440p?

A: No. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 41 FPS with a minimum of 35 and maximum of 47, showing a 12 FPS variance that indicates unstable frame pacing.