The Medium

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rate data for this AMD Ryzen 7 7700 + Intel Arc B570 combination in The Medium shows a clear pattern: performance scales predictably with resolution and preset level, but the playable envelope is narrow. At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers an average of 23 FPS, which is well below the 60 FPS playability threshold. Dropping to Medium at 4K improves the average to 32 FPS, with a measured minimum of 27 FPS and maximum of 37 FPS, indicating consistent frame pacing but still far from smooth gameplay. The Low preset at 4K reaches 52 FPS on average, which is an improvement of 20 FPS over High, yet it still falls short of 60 FPS. The Ultra preset at 3840x2160 is the most demanding configuration tested, yielding only 18 FPS on average.

At 2560x1440, the picture improves but remains constrained. High settings produce an average of 29 FPS, while Medium lifts that to 41 FPS with a minimum of 35 FPS and maximum of 47 FPS. The Low preset at 1440p achieves 66 FPS on average, which is the first configuration in the dataset to cross the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra at this resolution drops to 23 FPS, mirroring the 4K High result in terms of playability. The scaling from High to Medium at 1440p is a 12 FPS gain, while Medium to Low adds another 25 FPS, showing that the Low preset is where the hardware finally has enough headroom to sustain fluent motion.

The 1920x1080 results follow the same trajectory. High settings average 35 FPS, Medium averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS and maximum of 56 FPS, and Low reaches 78 FPS. Ultra at 1080p produces 28 FPS on average. Notably, the Medium preset at 1080p has a maximum of 56 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target, while its minimum of 41 FPS shows significant variance. The Low preset at 1080p is the best measured result in the entire dataset, with an average of 78 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 29 FPS, the largest single-preset jump across all resolutions, indicating that the Medium preset introduces substantial rendering cost.

When comparing resolution scaling, the data shows that moving from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings reduces the average from 78 FPS to 66 FPS, a 12 FPS drop. At High settings, the same resolution change reduces performance from 35 FPS to 29 FPS. At Medium, the drop is from 49 FPS to 41 FPS. The Ultra preset falls from 28 FPS at 1080p to 23 FPS at 1440p. From 1440p to 4K, the Low preset drops from 66 FPS to 52 FPS, Medium from 41 FPS to 32 FPS, High from 29 FPS to 23 FPS, and Ultra from 23 FPS to 18 FPS. These scaling factors suggest that the game's rendering load increases roughly linearly with pixel count, with no anomalous bottlenecks appearing at any single resolution.

CPU and GPU Roles

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 is an 8-core, 16-thread processor with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, built on the Zen 4 architecture. It scores 18,760 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,930 in single-core, with a PassMark multi-thread score of 34,470. Its average benchmark score is 40,081, placing it at the 87th percentile among all CPUs. The Intel Arc B570, meanwhile, features 2,304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output pipelines, with a boost clock of 2500 MHz and 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus delivering 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Its PassMark G3D score is 14,195, and its average benchmark score is 20,556, placing it at the 65th percentile among all GPUs.

For The Medium, the benchmark data indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor across all resolutions. The evidence lies in the scaling between presets. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 50 FPS (78 vs. 28), which is a massive swing that can only be explained by GPU rendering load. The CPU, with its 8-core/16-thread configuration and high single-thread score of 1,930 in Cinebench R23, is likely not saturated by the game's logic. The fact that the Medium preset at 1080p yields a minimum of 41 FPS while the Low preset yields 78 FPS suggests that even moderate increases in shadow quality, texture filtering, or post-processing effects impose significant GPU work.

At 1440p, the same pattern holds. The Low preset achieves 66 FPS, while High drops to 29 FPS, a 37 FPS difference. At 4K, the spread is 34 FPS (52 at Low vs. 18 at Ultra). If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the frame rate to remain relatively constant across resolutions at a given preset, since the CPU work per frame does not scale with pixel count nearly as much as GPU work does. Instead, we see that at Low settings, performance falls from 78 FPS at 1080p to 66 FPS at 1440p and then to 52 FPS at 4K. That is a 33% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is consistent with GPU-bound rendering where pixel throughput is the limiting factor.

The CPU's role becomes more relevant at lower resolutions and lower presets, where the GPU has more headroom. At 1080p Low, the 78 FPS average suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU fast enough to sustain high frame rates. The Ryzen 7 7700's high boost clock of 5.30 GHz and its L3 cache of 32 MB shared across eight cores likely provide sufficient instruction throughput for the game's fixed-timestep logic. However, the data does not show any resolution where the frame rate plateaus, which would be the signature of a CPU bottleneck. Even at 1080p Low, the GPU is still the limiting factor, since dropping to 1440p Low reduces performance by 12 FPS.

The memory bandwidth of the GPU (380.0 GB/s) and its 10 GB frame buffer are also relevant. At 4K Ultra, the average of 18 FPS suggests that the game is demanding both raw compute and memory bandwidth beyond what the B570 can provide. The CPU's dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth is unlikely to be a constraint, since the game's asset streaming would fit within that envelope. In summary, the data indicates that the Intel Arc B570 is the binding constraint at all tested settings, with the CPU having ample margin to keep up.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves an average of 60 FPS or higher. The best measured result is the Low preset at 52 FPS, which is 8 FPS below the playability threshold. The verdict data confirms that the playable settings list for 4K is empty, with no best settings identified. Therefore, at this resolution, the combination cannot sustain 60 FPS at any quality level.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset is the only playable option, with an average of 66 FPS. This is 6 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold. The Medium preset at 41 FPS, High at 29 FPS, and Ultra at 23 FPS all fall short. The verdict data lists Low as the best settings for 1440p, with an average FPS of 66. This means that users targeting 1440p must accept the lowest graphical preset to maintain smooth gameplay.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 78 FPS on average, which is the highest measured frame rate in the dataset. This is the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS, and the verdict data confirms that Low is the best settings for 1080p with an average of 78 FPS. The Medium preset at 49 FPS is 11 FPS below the threshold, so it cannot be recommended for 60 FPS gameplay. The High preset at 35 FPS and Ultra at 28 FPS are even further from the target. Notably, the Medium preset at 1080p has a maximum of 56 FPS, which means it occasionally touches near-playable territory but does not sustain it.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700 and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2,999 out of 3,724 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the lower 19.5% of all tested systems, indicating that this is a below-average configuration for this specific game. The rank is driven primarily by the GPU's limitations, as the CPU's 87th percentile ranking among all CPUs is far stronger than the GPU's 65th percentile ranking. The gap between the two component percentiles suggests that the GPU is the weak link in this pairing for this title.

To contextualize this rank, consider that the game's playability threshold is 60 FPS. The combo achieves this threshold only at 1440p Low and 1080p Low, with no success at 4K or at any higher preset. This narrow playable envelope is consistent with a rank near the bottom quartile. The data shows that many other tested combos must be capable of higher frame rates at more demanding settings, given that this combo only manages 23 FPS at 4K High and 28 FPS at 1080p Ultra. The rank of 2,999 out of 3,724 is a clear signal that this hardware pairing is not well-suited to running The Medium at high visual fidelity.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearest rivals for the CPU, the AMD Ryzen 7 7700's average benchmark score of 40,081 is nearly identical to several alternatives. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 scores 40,048, which is 0.1% lower. The Intel Core 5 221E scores 40,144, which is 0.2% higher. The AMD Ryzen 9 270 scores 40,246, which is 0.4% higher. The Intel Core i9-13905H scores 40,313, which is 0.6% higher. These deltas are all within 0.6%, meaning that any of these CPUs would produce virtually identical CPU-bound performance in The Medium. Since the game is GPU-bound at all tested settings, swapping the CPU for any of these alternatives would have no measurable impact on the frame rates reported above.

For the GPU, the Intel Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20,556 is closely matched by several rivals. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile scores 20,534, which is 0.1% lower. The Intel Arc A750 scores 20,582, which is 0.1% higher. The NVIDIA Quadro M4000M scores 20,480, which is 0.4% lower. The AMD Radeon R9 M390X scores 20,662, which is 0.5% higher. These deltas are all within 0.5%, so any of these GPUs would deliver nearly identical frame rates in The Medium. The Intel Arc A750, being a desktop part like the B570, would be the most direct alternative, while the RTX 3070 Mobile is a laptop GPU that would behave similarly in terms of raw score but might have different thermal characteristics.

The practical implication is that if a user were to swap the Ryzen 7 7700 for any of its four nearest rivals, the measured FPS in The Medium would change by less than 1%. Similarly, swapping the Arc B570 for any of its four nearest rivals would change performance by less than 0.5%. Therefore, the playable settings and verdicts for this combo would remain identical with any of these alternative components.

The Verdict

Can this PC run The Medium? The answer is conditional on resolution and preset. At 3840x2160, the answer is no. No preset achieves 60 FPS, with the best result being 52 FPS at Low settings. This falls 8 FPS short of the playability threshold. The verdict data explicitly lists no playable settings for 4K, confirming that this resolution is not viable for smooth gameplay.

At 2560x1440, the answer is yes, but only at Low settings. The Low preset delivers 66 FPS on average, which clears the 60 FPS threshold by 6 FPS. This is the best settings for 1440p, and the verdict confirms that Low is the only playable preset at this resolution. Users who want to play at 1440p must accept the lowest graphical quality.

At 1920x1080, the answer is a clear yes, again only at Low settings. The Low preset achieves 78 FPS on average, which is 18 FPS above the threshold. This is the best settings for 1080p, and the verdict confirms that Low is the only playable preset. The Medium preset at 49 FPS is not playable, so there is no middle ground.

In summary, this hardware combination can run The Medium at 60 FPS, but only at 1080p Low or 1440p Low. It cannot run the game at 4K at any setting. The Ultra preset is unplayable at every resolution, with the best Ultra result being 28 FPS at 1080p. The data suggests that players seeking higher visual fidelity will need more powerful GPU hardware.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run The Medium at 4K?

A: No. The best 4K result is 52 FPS at Low settings, which is below the 60 FPS playability threshold. The verdict data lists no playable settings for 3840x2160.

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

A: The Low preset is the only playable setting at 1440p, achieving 66 FPS on average. Medium, High, and Ultra all fall below 60 FPS, with averages of 41, 29, and 23 FPS respectively.

Q: What frame rate does the Medium preset achieve at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 averages 49 FPS, with a minimum of 41 FPS and a maximum of 56 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS target, so it is not considered playable.

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

A: The Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20,556, while the Arc A750 scores 20,582, which is 0.1% higher. In The Medium, the A750 would deliver nearly identical frame rates, with less than 0.5% difference.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: The GPU is the bottleneck. Frame rates scale significantly with resolution and preset, dropping from 78 FPS at 1080p Low to 52 FPS at 4K Low, which is consistent with GPU-bound rendering. The CPU's high single-thread score of 1,930 in Cinebench R23 indicates ample headroom.

Q: What is the best playable config for this PC?

A: The best playable configuration is 1920x1080 at Low settings, which delivers 78 FPS on average. This is the highest frame rate among all playable settings, followed by 1440p Low at 66 FPS.