The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and Intel Arc B570 pairing is a mid-range desktop combination aimed at 1080p and 1440p gaming. In The Medium, a horror title with demanding fixed-camera scenes and heavy volumetric effects, this combo delivers a clear but narrow path to playable frame rates. The data shows that only the Low preset at 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 crosses the 60 FPS threshold, while higher settings fall short across all resolutions. This is a system that requires settings discipline rather than brute force.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured performance data for The Medium reveals a steep cost for graphical fidelity. At 1920x1080, the lowest preset yields an average of 78 FPS, which is the only setting at this resolution that comfortably clears the 60 FPS playable threshold. The Medium preset drops to 49 FPS average, with a minimum of 41 FPS and a maximum of 56 FPS. High settings reduce the average further to 35 FPS, and Ultra falls to 28 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 50 FPS, indicating that the game's higher presets place a heavy load on the GPU.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower overall numbers. Low settings produce a 66 FPS average, which remains above the 60 FPS line. Medium averages 41 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 47 FPS. High settings drop to 29 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 23 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 43 FPS, showing that the resolution increase from 1080p costs roughly 12 FPS on the Low preset and 6 FPS on the High preset.

At 3840x2160, no preset reaches a playable average. Low settings manage 52 FPS, which is close to but still below the 60 FPS target. Medium averages 32 FPS, with a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS. High settings fall to 23 FPS, and Ultra drops to 18 FPS. The 4K results demonstrate a dramatic scaling penalty: the Low preset at 4K is 26 FPS slower than the same preset at 1080p, and 14 FPS slower than at 1440p.

For the Medium preset, where min and max data exists, the frame time consistency is worth noting. At 1080p Medium, the range from 41 to 56 FPS shows a 15 FPS spread, while at 1440p Medium the spread narrows to 12 FPS (35 to 47). At 4K Medium, the spread is 10 FPS (27 to 37). This tightening of the min-max range at higher resolutions suggests that the bottleneck shifts more uniformly to the GPU as resolution increases, reducing CPU-driven frame time spikes.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results indicate that the Intel Arc B570 is the primary limiting factor in this pairing for The Medium. The evidence lies in the scaling pattern: as resolution increases from 1080p to 1440p to 4K, the average FPS drops consistently across all presets. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 12 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is another 14 FPS. This linear degradation is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering load scales directly with pixel count.

The Ryzen 5 9600X, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, shows it has ample headroom in this title. The 78 FPS result at 1080p Low is likely near the CPU's practical limit for frame pacing in this game, but the fact that the GPU still drops to 23 FPS at 4K Ultra confirms that the graphics card is the bottleneck. The CPU's single-thread performance, as indicated by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 1253 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2183.5, is sufficient to feed the Arc B570 at lower resolutions.

The role of the CPU becomes more apparent when comparing preset scaling at the same resolution. At 1080p, going from Low to Medium costs 29 FPS, from Medium to High costs 14 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 7 FPS. This diminishing returns curve is typical of GPU-bound workloads where the pixel shader complexity increases with each preset tier. The CPU's contribution is relatively constant, as evidenced by the fact that the min FPS values at Medium settings (41 at 1080p, 35 at 1440p, 27 at 4K) scale proportionally with resolution.

At 4K, the CPU's role diminishes further. The Arc B570's raw throughput, measured at 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 and a 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, is simply insufficient to maintain playable frame rates at this resolution regardless of the Ryzen 5 9600X's capabilities. The data shows that even the Low preset at 4K fails to hit 60 FPS, which is a clear indicator that the GPU is the binding constraint.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Based on the nearestRivals data for the Intel Arc B570, the closest performance match is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, with a delta of 0.1% higher average score. This means the Arc B570 should produce nearly identical frame rates in The Medium as a laptop RTX 3070. The Intel Arc A750 is also very close, sitting at 0.1% lower average score, making it a near-direct desktop equivalent. The AMD Radeon R9 M390X is 0.5% lower, and the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M is 0.4% higher, though these are older mobile parts that would behave similarly in this title.

For the CPU side, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE is the nearest rival at 0.2% higher average score. The AMD Ryzen 7 7840H and Ryzen 7 5800XT are 0.5% and 0.6% lower respectively, while the Ryzen 7 8845HS sits 0.8% lower. These processors would all feed the Arc B570 with essentially identical performance in The Medium, meaning the frame rates reported for the 9600X + B570 combo would be reproducible with any of these CPUs.

The practical implication is that if a builder already owns an RTX 3070 Mobile or Arc A750, swapping in the Arc B570 would yield no measurable change in The Medium performance. Conversely, upgrading from a Ryzen 7 5800XT to the 9600X would not improve frame rates in this game, since the GPU remains the limiting factor. The data shows that the combo's performance is defined by the GPU's position in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU sits in the 81st percentile of all CPUs.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank for this pairing in The Medium is 2999 out of 3724 tested combinations. This places it in the bottom 20% of all tested systems, which is a stark reflection of the GPU's limitations in this specific title. The percentileVsAllGpus of 65 suggests the Arc B570 is a mid-tier card overall, but The Medium appears to be a particularly demanding workload for it.

The ranking disparity between CPU and GPU is instructive. The Ryzen 5 9600X's 81st percentile among CPUs would suggest a capable processor, but the combo's overall rank is dragged down by the GPU. In games where the CPU is the bottleneck, this pairing would rank much higher, but The Medium is clearly GPU-bound. The 3724 total combos represent a wide range of hardware, and this pairing's position near the bottom indicates that most other tested systems outperform it in this game.

The verdict data confirms this ranking. At 3840x2160, no playable settings exist, which is unusual even for mid-range hardware. At 2560x1440, only Low is playable, and at 1920x1080, only Low is playable. The fact that Medium settings fail to reach 60 FPS at any resolution is a significant finding, as many other games would allow Medium at 1080p with this class of GPU. This suggests The Medium has particularly heavy rendering requirements that tax the Arc B570's 10 GB GDDR6 memory and 160-bit bus.

The Verdict

This PC can run The Medium, but only under specific conditions. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves a 78 FPS average, which is 18 FPS above the 60 FPS playable threshold. At 2560x1440 with Low settings, the average drops to 66 FPS, still clearing the threshold by 6 FPS. These are the only two configurations that are playable according to the data.

At 3840x2160, no settings achieve 60 FPS. The closest is Low at 52 FPS, which is 8 FPS short. Medium, High, and Ultra at 4K produce 32, 23, and 18 FPS respectively, all well below playable. At 1440p, Medium produces 41 FPS, High produces 29 FPS, and Ultra produces 23 FPS, none of which are playable. At 1080p, Medium produces 49 FPS, High produces 35 FPS, and Ultra produces 28 FPS, all below the threshold.

The practical takeaway is that this system is a 1080p Low or 1440p Low machine for The Medium. The game's Ultra preset is essentially unplayable at any resolution, and even High is only borderline for 30 FPS gaming at 1080p. The best playable experience is at 1080p Low, where the 78 FPS average provides a smooth experience with some headroom for frame drops. For 1440p users, the 66 FPS Low preset is acceptable, but there is no margin for error in demanding scenes.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 60 FPS on 1920x1080?

A: Yes, but only on the Low preset, which produces an average of 78 FPS. Medium drops to 49 FPS, High to 35 FPS, and Ultra to 28 FPS, all below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 2560x1440?

A: Low is the only playable preset at 1440p, yielding a 66 FPS average. Medium averages 41 FPS, High averages 29 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS.

Q: Is 3840x2160 playable with this hardware?

A: No. The highest average at 4K is 52 FPS on Low, which is 8 FPS below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium, High, and Ultra produce 32, 23, and 18 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to the Intel Arc A750 in this game?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20556, while the Arc A750's is 20582, a delta of 0.1%. In The Medium, this means frame rates would be essentially identical, within 1 FPS at any given setting.

Q: What CPU performance is needed to avoid bottlenecking the Arc B570 in this title?

A: The Ryzen 5 9600X, with a 3dmark_single_thread score of 1253 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2183.5, is sufficient. The nearest rival CPUs, such as the Ryzen 7 5800XT (0.6% lower score), would perform the same in this game since the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What frame times can be expected at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the average is 49 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS and maximum of 56 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average is 41 FPS with a range of 35 to 47 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average is 32 FPS with a range of 27 to 37 FPS.