The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X paired with the Intel Arc B580 is a combination that can run The Medium, but only under strict conditions. Benchmark data shows this setup is largely constrained by the graphics card, with playable performance (at or above 60 FPS) limited to Low settings at 1080p and 1440p. At 4K, no settings preset achieves the 60 FPS threshold, making that resolution impractical for this title. The data reveals a clear pattern: the Arc B580 struggles under the game's demanding rendering, while the Ryzen 9 5900X provides ample headroom that goes unused at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo show a steep performance cliff as resolution and graphical fidelity increase. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 86.8 FPS, which is the best result across all tested configurations. Moving to Medium drops the average to 55.5 FPS, just below the 60 FPS playable threshold. High settings at 1080p produce 38.9 FPS, and Ultra falls to 28.5 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is substantial, a 31.3 FPS difference, indicating a heavy cost for the first step up in quality.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats but with lower overall numbers. Low settings yield 72 FPS, which clears the threshold with a 12 FPS margin. Medium drops to 47.3 FPS, High to 31.7 FPS, and Ultra to 25.7 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is a reduction from 86.8 FPS to 72 FPS, a drop of 14.8 FPS (about 17%). At Medium, the drop is 8.2 FPS (from 55.5 to 47.3), and at High it is 7.2 FPS (from 38.9 to 31.7). The Ultra preset shows a smaller absolute decline of 2.8 FPS (from 28.5 to 25.7), suggesting the GPU is already so saturated that resolution changes have diminishing impact.

The 3840x2160 results are uniformly below playable levels. Low settings average 58.8 FPS, which is tantalizingly close to 60 but still short. Medium averages 34.2 FPS, High 28.8 FPS, and Ultra 22.3 FPS. The jump from Low to Medium at 4K is a massive 24.6 FPS drop, reinforcing that the B580 cannot sustain even mid-tier settings at this resolution. Notably, the 4K Low result (58.8 FPS) is nearly identical to the 1080p Medium result (55.5 FPS), showing that resolution and settings trade blows in a predictable manner for this GPU.

Across all resolutions, the minimum and maximum FPS fields are null in the data, so the analysis relies solely on average frame rates. The absence of min/max values means stutter or frame-time consistency cannot be assessed, but the averages alone are sufficient to categorize playability.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global database of tested CPU-GPU combinations for The Medium, this pairing ranks 2858 out of 3724 combos. That places it in the lower third of all tested systems, specifically at the 76.7th percentile from the bottom (or the 23.3rd percentile from the top). This rank reflects the Arc B580's mediocre performance in this title, as the CPU is a high-end part that would typically push a system much higher in the rankings if paired with a stronger GPU.

The combo's rank is consistent with the measured FPS data: it is a system that can handle the game at Low settings on 1080p and 1440p but fails at 4K and at higher presets. A rank of 2858 out of 3724 means roughly 866 combos perform worse, while 2858 combos perform better. This is not a bottom-tier result, but it is far from competitive. For context, the Ryzen 9 5900X alone sits in the 87th percentile of all CPUs, while the Arc B580 sits in the 68th percentile of all GPUs. The combo rank is dragged down by the GPU, which is the bottleneck in this pairing.

The data shows that most of the 3724 tested combos achieve better frame rates in The Medium. This suggests that the game is particularly demanding on the graphics card, and the B580's architecture does not handle its rendering pipeline efficiently. The combo rank would likely be significantly higher in less GPU-bound titles, but for this specific horror game, the results are mediocre.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results clearly indicate that the Intel Arc B580 is the limiting factor at every resolution and preset. The Ryzen 9 5900X, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, is a powerful processor that scores 16,262 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,527 in single-core. These scores place it well above the needs of The Medium, which is a game that primarily stresses the GPU.

Evidence for GPU-bound behavior comes from the resolution scaling. At Low settings, reducing resolution from 1440p to 1080p increases FPS by 14.8 FPS (from 72 to 86.8). This is a direct consequence of the GPU having fewer pixels to render. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS would remain flat across resolutions. The same pattern holds at Medium settings, where the 1080p result (55.5 FPS) is 8.2 FPS higher than 1440p (47.3 FPS). The fact that FPS scales with resolution confirms that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is less pronounced: 1080p gives 28.5 FPS, 1440p gives 25.7 FPS, and 4K gives 22.3 FPS. The tighter spread (a 6.2 FPS range across all resolutions) suggests that at Ultra, the GPU is so overloaded that even lowering resolution provides limited relief. This is a classic sign of a GPU that is completely saturated, where pixel count becomes secondary to the sheer computational load of the preset.

The CPU's role is minimal. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU has the least work, the FPS is 86.8, which is below what a high-end CPU like the Ryzen 9 5900X could feed to a faster GPU. The processor's benchmark scores—such as 3,469 in Passmark single-thread and 39,002 in multithread—indicate it has far more capacity than this game demands. Therefore, the data shows that upgrading the GPU would yield significant FPS gains, while upgrading the CPU would likely produce no measurable improvement in The Medium.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Based on the nearest rivals for each component, several alternative pairings would behave similarly in The Medium. For the CPU, the Ryzen 9 5900X's closest competitors are the Intel Core Ultra 7 366H (average score 41,263, a 0.3% difference), the Intel Core Ultra 7 356H (41,215, 0.4% difference), and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 440 (41,208, 0.4% difference). The Intel Core i7-14650HX is also close, scoring 41,576, which is 0.5% higher than the Ryzen 9's average benchmark score of 41,376. In practice, swapping the Ryzen 9 5900X for any of these CPUs would yield nearly identical frame rates in The Medium, as the game is not CPU-limited.

For the GPU, the Arc B580's nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (average score 23,061, a -0.2% difference), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22,895, 0.6% difference), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (23,172, -0.7% difference). The NVIDIA P106-100 scores 23,249, which is 1% higher than the B580's average of 23,021. This means that a system with an RTX 2080 or RTX 3080 would produce almost identical FPS numbers in The Medium as the Arc B580, despite the RTX 3080 being a much more expensive card in other contexts. The RX 580 2048SP, an older and cheaper GPU, would also perform within a fraction of a percent.

A combo using any of these rival CPUs with any of these rival GPUs would land in the same performance tier. For instance, an Intel Core Ultra 7 366H with an RTX 2080 would likely produce FPS numbers within 1% of the measured values for the Ryzen 9 5900X + Arc B580. This is useful for users who own these alternative parts, as they can expect the same playability profile: Low settings at 1080p and 1440p, no 4K playability.

Best Settings per Resolution

Given the 60 FPS playable threshold, the data identifies a single viable preset for most resolutions, and none for 4K.

At 1920x1080, the only setting that achieves 60 FPS or higher is Low, with an average of 86.8 FPS. This provides a comfortable margin above the threshold, leaving room for minor FPS drops without falling below playable levels. The next preset, Medium, averages 55.5 FPS, which is 4.5 FPS short of the threshold, so it is not recommended for a consistent 60 FPS experience.

At 2560x1440, Low is again the only playable preset, averaging 72 FPS. This is 12 FPS above the threshold, providing a reasonable buffer. Medium at 1440p averages 47.3 FPS, which is well below playable. The margin at Low is smaller than at 1080p, so users should expect occasional dips below 60 FPS in demanding scenes.

At 3840x2160, no preset meets the 60 FPS threshold. The closest is Low with 58.8 FPS, which is 1.2 FPS short. While this is almost playable, the data does not classify it as such, and the next preset, Medium, drops to 34.2 FPS, making any attempt at higher quality futile. Therefore, the best settings for 4K are effectively "none," as even the lowest preset fails to deliver consistent 60 FPS.

The Verdict

This PC can run The Medium, but with significant compromises. The verdict data confirms that 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 each have exactly one playable setting: Low, with average FPS of 86.8 and 72, respectively. At 3840x2160, there are zero playable settings, meaning the game is not playable at 4K with this hardware.

The practical takeaway is that users should play at 1080p Low for the best experience, as it offers the highest frame rate and the largest safety margin above 60 FPS. At 1440p Low, the game is still playable, but the tighter margin (72 FPS) means that heavy scenes could dip below the threshold. For those who prioritize visual quality over frame rate, the 1080p Medium preset (55.5 FPS) is close but not officially playable, and the 4K Low preset (58.8 FPS) is similarly just short of the mark.

The data does not support playing at High or Ultra at any resolution, as the best High result is 38.9 FPS at 1080p, and the best Ultra result is 28.5 FPS at 1080p. These are far below the 60 FPS threshold and would result in a noticeably stuttery experience. In summary, the Ryzen 9 5900X + Intel Arc B580 is a capable 1080p Low and 1440p Low machine for The Medium, but it cannot handle higher presets or 4K resolution. Users seeking higher quality must accept lower frame rates or consider a more powerful GPU.