The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a narrow but functional window of playability in The Medium, a horror title that demands more from the GPU than the CPU at higher settings. The benchmark data shows this combination is strictly a low-settings machine at 1080p and 1440p, while 4K remains entirely out of reach for smooth gameplay. The measured results tell a clear story about where this hardware lands relative to the 60 FPS threshold.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves the 60 FPS target. The most demanding preset that comes closest to playability is Low, which produces an average of 52 FPS. This falls 8 FPS short of the playable threshold, so the best settings at 4K are effectively none — the data indicates no settings are playable at this resolution. The next step down, Medium, drops to an average of 32 FPS, so Low is the only preset worth considering, even though it misses the mark.

At 2560x1440, the situation improves. The Low preset reaches an average of 66 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold by 6 FPS. This is the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS at this resolution. Medium falls to 41 FPS average, High to 29 FPS, and Ultra to 23 FPS, so Low is the sole viable option.

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 78 FPS, comfortably above the 60 FPS line. This is the best playable setting at 1080p. Medium averages 49 FPS, High averages 35 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS, so again only Low meets the performance bar. The gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 29 FPS, which highlights how steeply performance degrades as settings rise.

The Verdict

Can this PC run The Medium? Yes, but with significant limitations. The verdict data lists playable settings only at 2560x1440 and 1920x1080, and in both cases the only playable preset is Low. At 2560x1440, the average FPS at Low is 66, which is 6 FPS above the 60 FPS playable threshold. At 1920x1080, the average FPS at Low is 78, which is 18 FPS above the threshold.

At 3840x2160, the verdict is unambiguous: no playable settings exist. The best average FPS across all 4K presets is 52 at Low, which falls short of the 60 FPS requirement. Medium averages 32 FPS, High averages 23 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS. The data shows this combination cannot maintain a smooth experience at 4K under any tested configuration.

The practical takeaway is that this system is a 1080p Low-settings machine for The Medium, with 1440p Low as a secondary option for users willing to accept a slimmer margin above the threshold. The game’s demanding rendering at higher presets quickly overwhelms the Intel Arc B570, pushing frame rates well below playable levels.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the dominant bottleneck in this pairing for The Medium. Evidence comes from the scaling patterns across resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080, dropping from High to Low raises the average FPS from 35 to 78 — a 43 FPS swing that points to the graphics card struggling with the higher settings. At 2560x1440, the same preset change moves the average from 29 to 66 FPS, a 37 FPS improvement. At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 52 FPS versus 23 FPS at High, a 29 FPS difference.

The resolution scaling further confirms the GPU-centric nature of the workload. Moving from 1920x1080 Low (78 FPS) to 2560x1440 Low (66 FPS) costs 12 FPS, and then to 3840x2160 Low (52 FPS) costs another 14 FPS. This progressive decline with increasing pixel count is classic GPU-bound behavior. The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, with 12 cores and 24 threads, is unlikely to be the limiting factor at these frame rates, especially since even the highest FPS measured (78 at 1080p Low) is well within what a modern mid-range CPU can feed.

Preset scaling reinforces this. At 1080p, the jump from Low to Medium costs 29 FPS, from Medium to High costs 14 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 7 FPS. The largest penalty occurs at the low-to-medium transition, suggesting the Arc B570’s memory bandwidth and shading resources are quickly saturated. The GPU’s 10 GB GDDR6 memory and 160-bit bus are adequate for Low settings but struggle as texture and lighting complexity increases.

The CPU’s role appears secondary, but not negligible. The Ryzen 9 5900X’s single-thread performance, as reflected in a Geekbench single-core score of 2083, is sufficient to avoid obvious stalling at the measured frame rates. However, the data does not isolate CPU-specific bottlenecks, so the conclusion remains that the GPU dictates overall performance in this title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the measured data shows a steep cliff as settings increase. Low averages 52 FPS (min and max not recorded). Medium averages 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 and a maximum of 37. High averages 23 FPS (min/max not recorded). Ultra averages 18 FPS (min/max not recorded). The Medium preset’s min/max range of 27-37 FPS indicates noticeable frame pacing variance, which would be perceptible in a horror game where smooth motion matters for atmosphere.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with slightly higher numbers. Low averages 66 FPS (min/max not recorded). Medium averages 41 FPS with a minimum of 35 and a maximum of 47. High averages 29 FPS (min/max not recorded). Ultra averages 23 FPS (min/max not recorded). The Medium preset’s 12 FPS spread between min and max suggests occasional dips that could cause judder, though the average stays above 40 FPS.

At 1920x1080, the results are the most playable. Low averages 78 FPS (min/max not recorded). Medium averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 41 and a maximum of 56. High averages 35 FPS (min/max not recorded). Ultra averages 28 FPS (min/max not recorded). The Medium preset’s min/max range of 41-56 FPS shows that even this setting cannot hold 60 FPS consistently, with the average landing 11 FPS short of the threshold.

The pattern across all resolutions is consistent: Low is the only preset with an average above 60 FPS, and only at 1080p and 1440p. The Medium preset never reaches 60 FPS at any resolution, with its best average being 49 FPS at 1080p. The data makes clear that this game’s visual fidelity at medium and higher settings is too demanding for the Arc B570’s 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, the nearest rivals in average benchmark score are the Intel Core Ultra 7 366H (0.3% higher score), the Intel Core Ultra 7 356H (0.4% higher), the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 440 (0.4% higher), and the Intel Core i7-14650HX (0.5% lower). These deltas are negligible, meaning any of these CPUs would deliver nearly identical CPU-side performance in The Medium. The Ryzen 9 5900X’s percentile ranking of 87 among all CPUs indicates it sits in the upper tier, so swapping to any of these rivals would not change the overall verdict — the GPU remains the constraint.

For the Intel Arc B570, the nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% higher score), the Intel Arc A750 (0.1% lower), the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (0.4% higher), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (0.5% lower). The Arc A750 is particularly relevant as a desktop alternative with essentially identical average performance (20582 vs 20556). A system with a Ryzen 9 5900X and an Arc A750 would likely produce nearly identical FPS numbers in The Medium, given the sub-1% score differences. The RTX 3070 Mobile is a laptop part, so its performance characteristics may differ in sustained workloads, but the synthetic scores suggest similar capability.

Users considering this combo should expect that any of these rival GPUs would land within a few tenths of a percent in overall performance. The practical implication is that the playable settings would remain the same: Low at 1080p and 1440p, with no playable 4K option. Upgrading to a substantially faster GPU would be required to unlock Medium or High presets.

FAQ

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

A: No. At 3840x2160, the best average FPS is 52 at Low settings, which falls short of the 60 FPS playable threshold. Medium averages 32 FPS, High averages 23 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS.

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

A: Low is the only playable preset at 1440p, with an average of 66 FPS. Medium drops to 41 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How much FPS does the system lose when going from 1080p Low to 1440p Low?

A: The average FPS drops from 78 at 1920x1080 Low to 66 at 2560x1440 Low, a loss of 12 FPS. The further drop to 3840x2160 Low brings the average down to 52 FPS, another 14 FPS loss.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 5900X or the Arc B570 the bottleneck in this game?

A: The data points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck. Resolution scaling shows consistent FPS losses with increasing pixel counts, and preset scaling shows the largest penalty between Low and Medium settings, which is characteristic of GPU-bound rendering.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 2999 out of 3724 tested combinations for The Medium. This places it in the lower third of systems, consistent with its limited playability at only Low presets.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the Medium preset at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 has a minimum FPS of 41 and a maximum of 56, with an average of 49 FPS. This shows that even the best non-Low setting cannot consistently hold 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X + Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2999 out of 3724 tested combos for The Medium. This places it in the 20th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly 80% of configurations perform better. The ranking reflects the GPU’s mid-tier position — the Arc B570 sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 9 5900X sits at the 87th percentile among all CPUs. The mismatch between a high-end CPU and a mid-range GPU results in a system that is CPU-strong but GPU-limited for this title.

The rank position aligns with the measured performance: this is a system capable of playable frame rates only at Low settings, and only at resolutions below 4K. The 3724-combo context shows that many alternative pairings, likely those with faster GPUs, would achieve Medium or High presets at 1080p or 1440p. The data suggests that for The Medium specifically, investing in a stronger GPU rather than the CPU would yield a greater playability improvement. The Ryzen 9 5900X’s high CPU percentile (87) does not translate into better frame rates here because the game’s demands are overwhelmingly graphical. Users with this combo should target 1080p Low for a stable experience, or 1440p Low if they accept a smaller margin above 60 FPS.