The Medium

The Intel Core i5-12400 and Intel Arc B570 combination delivers a playable experience in The Medium only at lower graphical presets, with 1080p Low and 1440p Low being the sole configurations that consistently hit the 60 FPS threshold. At 4K, no settings achieve playable frame rates, and even the most demanding presets at lower resolutions fall well short of smooth performance.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU and GPU in this system sit within tightly contested performance brackets, meaning nearby hardware would produce nearly identical results in The Medium. The Intel Core i5-12400 has an average benchmark score of 18683, placing it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7643 with an average score of 18697 (a negligible 0.1% difference), the Intel Core i7-1355U at 18730 (0.3% higher), and the AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 at 18811 (0.7% higher). On the lower side, the Intel Core i3-14100F scores 18519, which is 0.9% below the i5-12400. These deltas are all under one percent, so swapping to any of these processors would yield effectively indistinguishable frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios.

For the graphics card, the Intel Arc B570 achieves an average benchmark score of 20556, ranking in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest competitors are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at 20534 (0.1% higher), the Intel Arc A750 at 20582 (0.1% lower), the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M at 20480 (0.4% higher), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X at 20662 (0.5% lower). The Arc B570 essentially trades blows with these cards, meaning a system with any of these GPUs paired with a similarly performing CPU would land in the same performance tier. In practical terms, a gamer moving from an Arc A750 to an Arc B570 would see no meaningful change in The Medium’s frame rates, and the same applies to swapping the i5-12400 for an i3-14100F.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the only setting that clears the 60 FPS playability threshold is Low, which delivers an average of 78 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 49 FPS average, with minimums of 41 and maximums of 56, so it falls well short of smooth gameplay. High settings manage only 35 FPS average, and Ultra is borderline unplayable at 28 FPS. The data is unambiguous: for 1080p, Low is the sole viable option.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern repeats but with lower headroom. Low settings produce an average of 66 FPS, just above the 60 FPS target. The Medium preset averages 41 FPS with a range of 35 to 47, while High drops to 29 FPS and Ultra to 23 FPS. At this resolution, Low is again the only playable preset, though the margin above 60 FPS is slimmer than at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the situation is dire. No settings achieve playable performance. Low averages 52 FPS, Medium 32 FPS (with a minimum of 27 and maximum of 37), High 23 FPS, and Ultra 18 FPS. Even the lowest preset misses the 60 FPS target by a substantial margin, making 4K a non-starter for this combination in The Medium.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results reveal a clear pattern: the GPU is the primary bottleneck at every resolution, but the CPU’s role becomes relatively more important as resolution decreases. At 4K, the frame rate collapses from 52 FPS on Low to 23 FPS on High, a 56% drop purely from graphical settings. This steep scaling indicates the Arc B570 is overwhelmed by the pixel count and shader complexity, with the i5-12400 having ample headroom to feed frames.

At 1440p, the same settings progression shows 66 FPS on Low versus 29 FPS on High, a 56% reduction. The similarity to 4K scaling suggests the GPU remains the dominant constraint. However, at 1080p, the Low preset hits 78 FPS while High drops to 35 FPS, a 55% decline. The absolute numbers are higher across the board, which hints that the CPU is starting to contribute more meaningfully, but the proportional drop remains consistent.

The most telling comparison comes from the Medium preset across resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the average is 49 FPS; at 1440p Medium, it falls to 41 FPS; at 4K Medium, it plummets to 32 FPS. This 35% reduction from 1080p to 4K at identical settings is almost entirely attributable to the GPU’s rendering load. The i5-12400’s 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, are sufficient to keep up with the Arc B570’s output at lower resolutions, but they cannot compensate for the graphics card’s lack of raw throughput at higher pixel densities. In short, the Arc B570 is the limiting factor, and the CPU only becomes relevant when the GPU is already near its ceiling at 1080p Low, where 78 FPS suggests the processor is not holding back performance.

The Verdict

This PC can run The Medium, but only under strict conditions. The verdict by resolution is clear: at 3840x2160, there are no playable settings, meaning the game is effectively unplayable at 4K. At 2560x1440, Low settings deliver 66 FPS average, which clears the 60 FPS threshold. At 1920x1080, Low settings achieve 78 FPS average, providing a comfortable margin above the playability target.

The practical takeaway is that this system is a 1080p and 1440p machine for The Medium, but only on the lowest graphical preset. Medium settings at 1080p (49 FPS) and 1440p (41 FPS) are noticeably below 60 FPS, and High or Ultra are not viable at any resolution. For players who prioritize smooth frame rates over visual fidelity, the Low preset at 1080p or 1440p is the only path to a satisfying experience. Those who demand Medium or higher quality will need more powerful hardware, as the Arc B570 simply does not have the compute resources to handle The Medium’s demanding rendering at higher settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates provide a complete picture of performance across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, Low settings produce an average of 78 FPS. Medium averages 49 FPS, with a minimum of 41 and a maximum of 56. High averages 35 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is substantial at 29 FPS, indicating a steep performance cliff when moving off the lowest preset.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 66 FPS. Medium averages 41 FPS, with a range of 35 to 47. High averages 29 FPS, and Ultra averages 23 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium here is 25 FPS, slightly narrower than at 1080p but still significant. The minimum frame rates for Medium (35 FPS) and the average for High (29 FPS) confirm that these presets are far from smooth.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 52 FPS. Medium averages 32 FPS, with a minimum of 27 and a maximum of 37. High averages 23 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS. Notably, the 4K Low average of 52 FPS is the closest any setting comes to 60 FPS at this resolution, but it still falls 8 FPS short. The Medium preset’s minimum of 27 FPS highlights the severe frame time spikes that would make gameplay feel stuttery and unresponsive.

Across all resolutions, the pattern is consistent: Low is the only preset with average FPS above 60, and the drop from Low to Medium is always larger than the drop from Medium to High or High to Ultra. This suggests that The Medium has a particularly demanding rendering feature that is disabled or simplified on Low, and once enabled, it exacts a heavy toll on the Arc B570.

How This Combo Ranks

Among all tested CPU and GPU combinations in The Medium, this pairing ranks 2999 out of 3724 total combos. That places it in the bottom 20% of all systems tested, which aligns with the measured frame rates showing only Low presets are playable. The rank of 2999 indicates that the vast majority of other hardware configurations deliver better performance in this game, likely because The Medium is a demanding title that favors higher-end GPUs.

The percentile data reinforces this position: the CPU ranks in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, which is solidly mid-range, while the GPU ranks in the 65th percentile of all GPUs. Yet the combination lands in the 20th percentile of tested combos for this specific game. This discrepancy suggests that The Medium is particularly sensitive to GPU performance, and the Arc B570’s strengths in synthetic benchmarks do not translate to strong results in this title. The 10 GB GDDR6 memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate, but the 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 18 RT cores are insufficient for the game’s higher presets. In practical terms, a gamer with this combo should expect performance comparable to the bottom fifth of all systems tested, and should plan to play on Low settings at 1080p or 1440p to maintain 60 FPS.