The Medium

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and Intel Arc B570 combination lands at rank 2999 out of 3724 tested combos for The Medium. That places this pairing in the bottom fifth of all tested configurations, which is a direct reflection of the GPU’s limitations rather than the CPU’s capabilities. The Arc B570 sits at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 9 9900X3D ranks in the 91st percentile among all CPUs — a stark imbalance that shows the graphics card is the clear bottleneck in this pairing. The data confirms this: at 1080p Low the combo reaches 78 FPS average, but every other preset at every resolution falls below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The CPU is not the limiting factor here; the Arc B570 simply cannot push The Medium’s demanding rendering load at higher settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 2999 out of 3724 tested combinations places it in the 19th percentile of all pairings tested for this game. That is a low position, but it is not catastrophic — the system is fully playable at 1080p Low and 1440p Low, so it is not a “doesn’t run” scenario. The rank reflects that most other tested combos achieve higher average FPS across the preset ladder, largely because the Arc B570’s 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 10 GB GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus are modest by modern standards. The CPU’s massive 128 MB L3 cache and 12-core/24-thread design do not help much in this title, which appears to be GPU-bound across all tested scenarios.

What is telling is how the CPU’s benchmark scores compare to the GPU’s. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D scores 47737 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 6739 in single-core, while the Arc B570’s best 3DMark Steel Nomad result is 2649. The GPU’s PassMark G3D score of 14195 is solid for its class, but The Medium’s rendering demands clearly exceed what this GPU can deliver at higher presets. The combo’s rank would improve dramatically with a stronger GPU, as the CPU has ample headroom — its 13795 3DMark max-threads score and 56154 PassMark multithread score indicate it can feed far more capable graphics hardware without breaking a sweat.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the CPU and GPU provide a useful frame of reference for what this combo behaves like in practice. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D’s closest competitors — Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF at -0.6% average benchmark score delta, Intel Core Ultra 5 245K at +1.3%, Intel Xeon 6505P at +2%, and Intel Core i7-14700F at +2.1% — all fall within a narrow performance band. Swapping the 9900X3D for any of these would produce nearly identical results in The Medium, since the game is GPU-bound. The 245KF is effectively a dead tie, while the 14700F is only 2.1% slower on average, which would translate to roughly 1-2 FPS difference at any given setting.

On the GPU side, the Arc B570’s nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at +0.1% delta, Intel Arc A750 at -0.1%, NVIDIA Quadro M4000M at +0.4%, and AMD Radeon R9 M390X at -0.5%. The Arc A750 is the most interesting comparison because it is the same manufacturer and a near-exact performance match — within 0.1% average benchmark score. If a builder already has an Arc A750, upgrading to the B570 would yield no measurable improvement in The Medium. The RTX 3070 Mobile being this close is notable because it means the B570 roughly matches a mobile 3070, which is a mid-range laptop GPU. None of these rivals would change the playability picture: they all sit in the same 65th-percentile GPU tier, so any of them paired with this CPU would produce the same “Low settings only” outcome.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data shows a clear GPU-bound scenario for every resolution and preset tested. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 78 FPS average, but dropping to 1440p Low reduces that to 66 FPS — a 12 FPS loss from resolution scaling alone. Moving from 1080p Low to 1080p Medium drops the average from 78 to 49 FPS, a 29 FPS penalty that is purely a graphics settings effect. The CPU’s 3DMark scores (12490 at 16 threads, 13795 at max threads) are far above what any game at these settings would need, while the GPU’s 11.52 TFLOPS is the limiting factor.

The scaling pattern across resolutions is telling. At Low settings, the progression is 78 FPS (1080p) → 66 FPS (1440p) → 52 FPS (4K), which shows a steady GPU load increase. At Medium settings, the numbers are 49 FPS (1080p) → 41 FPS (1440p) → 32 FPS (4K), with the 4K Medium result showing min/max of 27/37 FPS — a tight range that indicates consistent GPU saturation. At High settings, the combo manages only 35 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K. The CPU is never the constraint; if it were, we would see smaller FPS drops when increasing resolution at the same preset, because the CPU work stays roughly constant while GPU work rises.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings. The measured results show 78 FPS average at 1080p Low and 66 FPS average at 1440p Low. Every other preset at every resolution falls below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The verdict data confirms only Low is playable at 1080p and 1440p, with no playable settings at 4K.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 9900X3D wasted in this pairing?

A: The benchmark data strongly suggests yes. The CPU ranks at the 91st percentile among all CPUs with a 47737 Cinebench R23 multicore score, while the GPU ranks at the 65th percentile. The game is consistently GPU-bound, so the CPU’s 12 cores, 24 threads, and 128 MB L3 cache are not being utilized to their potential in The Medium.

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

A: The two GPUs are effectively identical in performance. The Arc A750 has an average benchmark score of 20582 versus the B570’s 20556, a delta of -0.1%. In practical terms, swapping between them would change The Medium’s average FPS by less than 1 frame at any given setting.

Q: What is the best resolution to play at with this combo?

A: 1080p Low is the best experience, delivering 78 FPS average. 1440p Low is also playable at 66 FPS average, which is a reasonable trade-off if you prefer higher resolution over higher frame rate. 4K is not playable at any preset, with the best case being 52 FPS average at Low settings.

Q: Does the 4K result improve with different settings?

A: No. The 4K results are uniformly below playable: 52 FPS at Low, 32 FPS at Medium (with min/max of 27/37), 23 FPS at High, and 18 FPS at Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a consistent GPU bottleneck with no preset achieving 60 FPS.

Q: What does the combo’s rank of 2999 out of 3724 mean for future games?

A: It indicates this pairing is below average for demanding titles. The rank is driven by the GPU’s 65th-percentile standing, so more GPU-bound games will likely produce similar low rankings. The CPU’s 91st-percentile score means it will not hold back future upgrades — a stronger GPU would dramatically improve the rank in any game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce 78 FPS average, which is the only playable preset at this resolution. Medium settings drop to 49 FPS average with a min/max of 41/56, High settings yield 35 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 28 FPS average. The gap between Low and Medium (29 FPS) is the largest single preset jump in the entire dataset, indicating that Medium settings impose a significant additional GPU load.

At 2560x1440, the pattern repeats with lower absolute numbers. Low settings achieve 66 FPS average, still playable. Medium settings drop to 41 FPS average with a min/max of 35/47, High settings produce 29 FPS average, and Ultra bottoms out at 23 FPS average. The delta between Low and Medium is 25 FPS, slightly smaller than at 1080p, which suggests the GPU is already becoming more saturated at the higher resolution.

At 3840x2160, no preset is playable. Low settings reach 52 FPS average, Medium falls to 32 FPS average with a min/max of 27/37, High drops to 23 FPS average, and Ultra is 18 FPS average. The 4K Low result is the closest to the 60 FPS threshold, but the 8 FPS shortfall confirms the GPU lacks the bandwidth and compute for 4K in this title. The 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 160-bit bus are simply insufficient for 4K rendering loads.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the only playable preset is Low, delivering 78 FPS average. This is the recommended configuration for smooth gameplay, with 18 FPS of headroom above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings at 49 FPS average are not playable by the definition used here, so Low is the clear choice.

At 2560x1440, Low settings again are the only playable option, with 66 FPS average. This provides 6 FPS of headroom, which is workable but leaves little margin for demanding scenes. Medium settings at 41 FPS average are not playable, so 1440p requires accepting Low quality for 60 FPS.

At 3840x2160, no preset reaches the 60 FPS playable threshold. The best-case scenario is Low at 52 FPS average, which is 8 FPS short. Medium, High, and Ultra all fall further behind at 32, 23, and 18 FPS respectively. The verdict data confirms there are zero playable settings at 4K for this combo, so 4K gaming in The Medium is not viable without lowering the resolution or upgrading the GPU.