The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Intel Arc B580 combination presents a specific performance profile for The Medium, a horror title released in 2021. Benchmark data for this pairing shows that the playable threshold of 60 FPS is only achieved at the Low settings preset across all three tested resolutions. At 1920x1080 Low, the system delivers an average of 86.2 FPS, while 2560x1440 Low yields 75.3 FPS, and 3840x2160 Low hits exactly 60.0 FPS. Any increase in graphical fidelity to Medium, High, or Ultra drops the average frame rate below 60 FPS at every resolution, indicating that this hardware combination is heavily constrained by the GPU in this title.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run The Medium at 60 FPS on Ultra settings?

A: No. At 1920x1080 Ultra, the average FPS is 33.5; at 2560x1440 Ultra it is 25.1; and at 3840x2160 Ultra it is 20.7. All of these fall well below the 60 FPS playable threshold.

Q: What is the highest settings preset that reaches 60 FPS at 1920x1080?

A: Only the Low preset achieves 60 FPS at 1080p, with an average of 86.2 FPS. The Medium preset averages 55.7 FPS, which is just under the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B580 compare to its nearest rivals in raw benchmark score?

A: The Arc B580 has an average benchmark score of 23021. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP, scores 23061, which is 0.2% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 scores 22895 (0.6% lower), and the RTX 3080 scores 23172 (0.7% higher).

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more likely to be the bottleneck in The Medium?

A: The data points to the GPU. At 3840x2160, raising settings from Low (60 FPS) to Medium (37.1 FPS) causes a 38% drop, while the CPU’s performance remains constant. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D scores 23230 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 2080 in single-core, placing it in the 87th percentile of all CPUs, which is far above what this game requires.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combination if the user prioritizes smooth gameplay over visuals?

A: 1920x1080 with Low settings provides the highest average FPS at 86.2, which is the only configuration that exceeds 80 FPS. 2560x1440 Low follows at 75.3 FPS, and 3840x2160 Low is exactly at the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Does the system meet the 60 FPS threshold at any setting above Low?

A: No. Across all three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160), the Medium, High, and Ultra presets all produce average FPS values below 60. The closest is 1920x1080 Medium at 55.7 FPS.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor between the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the Intel Arc B580 in The Medium is decidedly lopsided. The CPU, with 8 cores and 16 threads based on Zen 5 architecture, posts a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23230 and a single-core score of 2080. Its PassMark multithread score reaches 40009, and it sits in the 87th percentile of all CPUs. These numbers indicate a processor with substantial headroom for this game, which was released in 2021 and does not demand extreme thread counts. The GPU, in contrast, ranks in the 68th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 23021. This percentile gap strongly suggests that the Arc B580 is the limiting factor.

The measured FPS data confirms this interpretation through scaling behavior. At 1920x1080 Low, the system produces 86.2 FPS. When resolution increases to 2560x1440 Low, FPS drops to 75.3, a 12.6% reduction. Moving to 3840x2160 Low yields 60.0 FPS, another 20.3% drop from 1440p. This steep decline with resolution is characteristic of GPU-bound performance, as the CPU workload per frame remains roughly constant while pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain similar across resolutions, which is not the case here.

The settings presets further illustrate GPU dominance. At 3840x2160, switching from Low to Medium drops average FPS from 60.0 to 37.1, a 38.2% decrease. Going to High drops it to 23.4, and Ultra to 20.7. These are massive reductions that correspond to increased shading, texture, and post-processing loads, all of which are handled primarily by the GPU. The CPU’s role in these settings changes is minimal, as the number of draw calls and game logic operations does not scale with visual quality in the same way. Therefore, any attempt to improve frame rates in this game must focus on GPU settings rather than CPU upgrades.

For players targeting 60 FPS, the data shows that the GPU’s capability is exhausted at Low settings. At 1080p, there is a 26.2 FPS margin above the threshold with Low settings, but Medium falls 4.3 FPS short. At 1440p, Low provides a 15.3 FPS margin, while Medium falls 13.3 FPS short. At 4K, Low is exactly at 60 FPS with no margin, making any slight variation in scene complexity a risk of dropping below the threshold. The CPU, with its 96 MB of L3 cache and boost clock of 5.20 GHz, is never the reason for these shortfalls. In summary, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is overqualified for this title, and the Arc B580 dictates the playable envelope.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D’s average benchmark score is 39768. Its nearest rivals are all within a 1% range. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840HS scores 39603, which is 0.4% lower, meaning it would perform virtually identically in CPU-bound scenarios. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 scores 40048, 0.7% higher, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 450 scores 39485, 0.7% lower. The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 scores 40081, 0.8% higher. For The Medium, any of these processors would deliver the same frame rates, since the game does not stress the CPU to the extent that these small differences matter. The 9800X3D’s 87th percentile ranking is already far above what this title needs, so swapping to a rival with a similar score would not change the measured FPS in any meaningful way.

On the GPU side, the Intel Arc B580’s average benchmark score is 23021, and its nearest rivals show a tight cluster. The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP scores 23061, just 0.2% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 scores 22895, 0.6% lower. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 scores 23172, 0.7% higher. The NVIDIA P106-100 scores 23249, 1.0% higher. In practical terms for The Medium, all of these GPUs would produce nearly identical FPS numbers because their average scores are within a single percentage point. A user with an RTX 2080 could expect the same 86.2 FPS at 1080p Low, the same 75.3 FPS at 1440p Low, and the same 60.0 FPS at 4K Low. The RTX 3080, despite its higher score, would not push any preset above the 60 FPS threshold beyond what the B580 achieves, because the bottleneck is not a small performance gap but a fundamental limitation in handling the game’s higher settings.

The implications for builders are straightforward. If the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is unavailable, any of the listed rivals would suffice for The Medium, since the game’s CPU demands are low. The GPU choice matters more, but the nearest rivals are so close in score that swapping between them would yield no observable difference in this specific game. The data does not support the notion that one of these alternatives would unlock Medium or High settings at 60 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 30.5 FPS (86.2 to 55.7), which is far larger than the 0.7% difference between the B580 and the RTX 3080. Therefore, these alternatives are functionally equivalent for this title.

The Verdict

This PC can run The Medium, but only under a strict condition: the Low settings preset must be used. The verdict by resolution is unambiguous. At 3840x2160, the only playable setting is Low, which averages exactly 60.0 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low averages 75.3 FPS, providing a comfortable margin. At 1920x1080, Low averages 86.2 FPS, which is the best performance available from this combination. No Medium, High, or Ultra preset at any resolution clears the 60 FPS threshold.

The data shows a clear pattern: the game is playable at 4K only on the absolute lowest settings, and even then with zero headroom. A 60.0 FPS average means that some frames will inevitably dip below 60, potentially causing noticeable stutter in a horror game that relies on atmospheric pacing. For a smoother experience, 1440p Low offers 15.3 FPS of headroom, which is acceptable but not generous. 1080p Low is the safest choice, with 26.2 FPS of headroom.

The system’s rank of 2819 out of 3724 combinations for this game places it in the lower-middle tier, which aligns with the GPU’s 68th percentile. The CPU’s 87th percentile does not compensate for the GPU’s limitations in this title. Players who wish to play The Medium with higher visual fidelity would need a more powerful GPU, as the CPU has ample spare capacity. The verdict is that this system is technically capable of running the game, but the experience is constrained to Low settings across all resolutions, with only 1080p and 1440p providing meaningful margins above the 60 FPS threshold.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system’s performance spans a wide range depending on settings. Low settings produce an average of 86.2 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this resolution. Medium settings drop to 55.7 FPS, a 35.4% reduction from Low. High settings further reduce the average to 39.2 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 33.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 30.5 FPS, which is the single largest jump between consecutive presets at any resolution. This suggests that Medium introduces significant GPU workload increases, likely through higher-resolution textures and more complex lighting.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges with lower absolute values. Low settings average 75.3 FPS, which is 10.9 FPS lower than at 1080p. Medium settings average 46.7 FPS, a 9.0 FPS drop from 1080p Medium. High settings average 33.1 FPS, and Ultra settings average 25.1 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium at 1440p is 28.6 FPS, similar in magnitude to the 1080p gap. The resolution scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is a 12.6% decrease in FPS, while at Ultra settings the decrease is 25.1%, indicating that higher settings amplify the resolution penalty.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles except at Low settings. Low averages 60.0 FPS, exactly at the playable threshold. Medium averages 37.1 FPS, which is 22.9 FPS below the threshold. High averages 23.4 FPS, and Ultra averages 20.7 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings is a 20.3% drop, while at Ultra settings the drop from 1440p is 17.5%. Interestingly, the 4K Ultra score of 20.7 FPS is only slightly below the 1440p Ultra score of 25.1 FPS, showing that the GPU is already so saturated at Ultra that additional resolution has diminishing absolute impact. Across all resolutions, the min and max FPS values are not provided, so the analysis relies solely on averages. The 60 FPS at 4K Low is particularly fragile because any variance in scene complexity would push the average below the threshold.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Low, with an average of 86.2 FPS. This is the only 1080p preset that meets the threshold. Medium is close at 55.7 FPS but falls short by 4.3 FPS. For players who want the smoothest experience, Low is the only option. The 26.2 FPS margin above 60 FPS provides enough headroom for most scenes, though it does not allow for any settings increase.

At 2560x1440, the best playable preset is also Low, averaging 75.3 FPS. This provides a 15.3 FPS margin over the 60 FPS threshold. Medium at this resolution averages 46.7 FPS, which is 13.3 FPS below the threshold. The margin at 1440p Low is smaller than at 1080p Low, but still adequate for maintaining 60 FPS in most situations. There is no headroom to increase to Medium without dropping below 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the best playable preset is Low, with an average of exactly 60.0 FPS. This is the only 4K setting that meets the threshold, and it does so with zero margin. The 60.0 FPS average means that some frames will likely dip below 60, making this a borderline experience. Medium at 4K averages 37.1 FPS, which is far below playable. For players who insist on 4K, Low is the only choice, but the lack of headroom makes 1440p or 1080p more practical options for maintaining a stable 60 FPS. The data shows no other preset at any resolution meets the 60 FPS requirement, so Low is the universal recommendation for this combination.