The Medium

Measured FPS Breakdown

The recorded data for The Medium on this combination of an Intel Core i5-11400F and Intel Arc B570 shows a clear pattern: playable frame rates appear only at the lowest preset, and only when resolution drops below 4K. The measured results are spread across three resolutions and four quality presets, with average, minimum, and maximum frame rates captured where available.

At 3840x2160, the performance curve is steep. The High preset delivers an average of 23 FPS, which falls far below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The Medium preset improves this to an average of 32 FPS, with a recorded minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS. Dropping to Low raises the average to 52 FPS, still short of the target. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding only 18 FPS on average. No settings at this resolution clear the playable threshold.

At 2560x1440, the results improve but remain constrained. The Low preset is the only configuration that reaches playable territory, averaging 66 FPS. The Medium preset averages 41 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 47 FPS. High averages 29 FPS, while Ultra drops to 23 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is substantial, indicating that the game's medium-quality settings impose a significant load increase at this resolution.

At 1920x1080, the same pattern holds. Low averages 78 FPS, the highest recorded result across all tested configurations. Medium averages 49 FPS, with a minimum of 41 FPS and a maximum of 56 FPS. High averages 35 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS. The scaling from Low to Medium represents a drop of 29 FPS, while moving from Medium to High costs another 14 FPS. The step from High to Ultra is smaller, a 7 FPS reduction, suggesting diminishing returns in visual fidelity relative to performance cost at the top end.

The data indicates that the Arc B570 has enough headroom to handle the Low preset comfortably at 1080p and 1440p, but the jump to Medium settings roughly halves the frame rate. The minimum FPS readings at Medium settings, 41 FPS at 1080p and 35 FPS at 1440p, show that even the smoother configurations have occasional dips that would be noticeable during gameplay.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The database places this CPU and GPU pairing within a specific performance envelope based on their aggregate benchmark scores. For the Intel Core i5-11400F, the nearest rivals in overall CPU benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 7H12, which scores 0.3% higher, and the Intel Core i5-12450H, which scores 0.4% lower. The AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G is 0.6% lower, while the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U is 0.6% higher. These deltas are all within roughly one percent, meaning any of these processors would produce nearly identical frame rates in The Medium when paired with the same graphics card.

For the Intel Arc B570, the nearest GPU rivals are equally close. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile scores 0.1% higher in aggregate benchmarks, while the Intel Arc A750 scores 0.1% lower. The NVIDIA Quadro M4000M is 0.4% higher, and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X is 0.5% lower. In practical terms, a system using any of these GPUs alongside the i5-11400F would deliver frame rates within a few percent of the measured results. The Arc A750 in particular, being an Intel product from the previous generation, would be a direct substitute with nearly identical performance characteristics.

The percentile rankings reinforce this picture. The CPU sits at the 71st percentile among all tested processors, while the GPU sits at the 65th percentile among all tested graphics cards. Neither component is a top-tier part, but both are comfortably above the midpoint, which explains why the combination can handle low settings at mainstream resolutions but struggles with higher presets.

FAQ

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

A: No. At 3840x2160, the highest average frame rate recorded is 52 FPS on Low settings. Medium averages 32 FPS, High averages 23 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS. None of these configurations reach the 60 FPS playable threshold.

Q: What is the best settings preset at 1080p?

A: The Low preset is the only playable option at 1920x1080, delivering an average of 78 FPS. Medium averages 49 FPS, which falls below the 60 FPS threshold, so it cannot be recommended for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the frame rate scale between 1080p and 1440p on Low settings?

A: At 1080p Low, the average is 78 FPS. At 1440p Low, the average drops to 66 FPS. This represents a 12 FPS reduction, or roughly a 15% decrease, when moving to the higher resolution.

Q: What minimum frame rates can be expected on Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the minimum recorded FPS is 41. At 1440p Medium, the minimum drops to 35. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 27. These lows indicate that even when the average is close to playable, there are noticeable dips.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever playable at any resolution?

A: No. The highest average frame rate on Ultra is 28 FPS at 1080p. At 1440p it drops to 23 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 18 FPS. Ultra settings are not viable for this combination.

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

A: The combination ranks 2999 out of 3724 tested combos for this game. This places it in the lower portion of the database, consistent with its inability to run higher presets at acceptable frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The recorded rank for this specific CPU and GPU pairing in The Medium is 2999 out of 3724 tested combinations. This places the system in the 20th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning roughly 80% of the combos in the database deliver better performance for this game. The rank reflects the measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings, and it aligns with the observed behavior: the system can manage playable performance only on Low settings at 1080p and 1440p.

The ranking is driven primarily by the GPU's limitations at higher presets. The CPU, which sits at the 71st percentile among all processors, is not the bottleneck in most configurations. The GPU, at the 65th percentile, is a mid-range part that cannot sustain 60 FPS when the game's visual complexity increases. The measured frame rates show that the step from Low to Medium settings imposes a heavy penalty, which is a characteristic of a GPU-bound workload rather than a CPU-bound one.

Compared to the nearest rival combinations in the database, this system would perform nearly identically. A setup with an Intel Core i5-12450H or an AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G, paired with an Intel Arc A750 or an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, would land within a few FPS of the measurements recorded here. The rank of 2999 is therefore representative of a broad cluster of mid-range systems rather than an outlier.

The Verdict

The verdict from the recorded data is straightforward: this PC can run The Medium only at the Low preset, and only at 1080p or 1440p. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 78 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold by a comfortable margin. At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 66 FPS, still above the threshold but with less headroom. At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS; the best result is 52 FPS on Low, which is below the playable threshold.

The verdict by resolution confirms this. At 4K, there are no playable settings. At 1440p, Low is the only playable preset, with an average of 66 FPS. At 1080p, Low is again the only playable preset, with an average of 78 FPS. There is no configuration where Medium or higher settings achieve the target frame rate. The system is therefore suitable for playing The Medium at lower fidelity settings, but not for experiencing the game with its higher-quality visual presets.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, there is no recommended setting because none of the presets reach 60 FPS. The closest is Low at 52 FPS average, but the verdict explicitly lists no playable settings at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the best playable setting is Low, with an average of 66 FPS. This is the only preset that clears the 60 FPS threshold, and it does so with a 6 FPS margin. Medium averages 41 FPS, High averages 29 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS, all of which are below the playable threshold.

At 1920x1080, the best playable setting is also Low, with an average of 78 FPS. This provides an 18 FPS margin over the threshold, which is the most comfortable performance envelope in the entire dataset. Medium averages 49 FPS, High averages 35 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS, none of which are playable.

The pattern is consistent: Low is the ceiling for this hardware. Players who want higher visual fidelity would need to consider a more powerful GPU, as the recorded data shows that the jump to Medium settings consistently drops frame rates below 60 FPS at every resolution.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data shows that the GPU is the dominant factor in this game's performance, while the CPU plays a secondary role. This conclusion is drawn from the frame rate scaling across resolutions and presets. When the resolution increases from 1080p to 1440p and then to 4K, the frame rates drop consistently, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering. The CPU's workload, which is largely resolution-independent, would not cause such steep declines.

At 1080p Low, the average is 78 FPS. At 1440p Low, it drops to 66 FPS. At 4K Low, it falls to 52 FPS. The decline from 1080p to 4K on the same preset is 26 FPS, a 33% reduction, which indicates that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors. The Arc B570 has 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth, but this is insufficient to maintain high frame rates when pixel count increases significantly.

The preset scaling reinforces this interpretation. Moving from Low to Medium at 1080p drops the average from 78 FPS to 49 FPS, a 37% reduction. At 1440p, the same preset change drops from 66 FPS to 41 FPS, a 38% reduction. These large penalties are caused by the GPU's shader and texture throughput limits, not by CPU processing. The CPU's benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 14340 and a single-core score of 2024, indicate that it has ample headroom for a game like The Medium, which is not known for extreme CPU demands.

The CPU's role becomes more relevant only in the sense that it must keep up with the GPU's frame delivery. At 78 FPS on 1080p Low, the i5-11400F's six cores and twelve threads are sufficient to feed the Arc B570 without bottlenecking. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5619 and the Passmark multithread score of 16908 confirm that the CPU can handle multi-threaded game workloads. The GPU, with its FP32 throughput of 11.52 TFLOPS and 2304 shading units, is the component that determines whether the game stays playable.

In summary, the recorded data indicates that the Intel Core i5-11400F is not the limiting factor at any tested resolution or preset. The Intel Arc B570 is the component that determines the playable envelope, and its performance ceiling is reached at Low settings. Higher presets or higher resolutions exceed what the GPU can deliver, regardless of the CPU's capabilities.