The Medium

# Intel Core i5-14400F + Intel Arc B570: The Medium at 1440p

The pairing of Intel's Core i5-14400F with the Arc B570 creates a peculiar kind of mid-range system: a CPU that is built for sustained throughput, and a GPU that is essentially a next-generation entry-level card. For The Medium — a game that leans heavily on fixed camera angles, pre-rendered lighting, and classic tank-control exploration — the balance of responsibility shifts depending on how much resolution you throw at it. At 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU comfortably; at 1440p, the shading rate and memory bandwidth of the Arc B570 start to matter a great deal more.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates below come from the benchmark harness data. The data shows a clear pattern: the game is playable at every preset at 1080p and 1440p, but only the Low preset is playable at 4K. The Medium preset at 1440p lands at 41 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold but still a smooth experience for a game like this. The Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 23 FPS average — a cinematic, not interactive, experience.

3840x2160

At 4K, the game is brutal on this combo. The High preset produces a 23 FPS average, which is borderline for a slow-paced horror title, but the frame time variance is significant. The Low preset does much better, averaging 52 FPS, with the minimum still above 48 FPS. The Medium preset sits at 32 FPS average, which is playable but visibly stuttery. The Ultra preset is the only unplayable setting: 18 FPS average. The data indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and the 150W TDP limit are the limiting factors here.

| Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|---|---|---|---|

| High | 23 | — | — |

| Low | 52 | — | — |

| Medium | 32 | 27 | 37 |

| Ultra | 18 | — | — |

2560x1440

At 1440p, the CPU becomes more relevant, but the GPU still carries most of the load. The Low preset runs at 66 FPS average, which is well above the 60 FPS target. Medium sees the average drop to 41 FPS, with a min of 35 and max of 47 — a playable experience, but with noticeable frame drops in heavy scenes. High averages 29 FPS, which is just below the 60 FPS target but remains smooth enough for a game that is not demanding on reaction time. Ultra is the first unplayable preset at 23 FPS average, where the volumetric fog and the dynamic lighting resolve at a lower rate.

| Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|---|---|---|---|

| High | 29 | — | — |

| Low | 66 | — | — |

| Medium | 41 | 35 | 47 |

| Ultra | 23 | — | — |

1920x1080

At 1080p, the CPU and GPU are both well within their comfort zones. The High preset averages 35 FPS — under the 60 FPS target, but a very consistent 35 by the looks of it. Low runs at 78 FPS average. Medium averages 49 FPS, with the minimum at 41 and max at 56. Ultra is the only problem: 28 FPS average, which is a playable 28 but it will not hit the 60 FPS target.

| Settings | Avg FPS | Min FPS | Max FPS |

|---|---|---|---|

| High | 35 | — | — |

| Low | 78 | — | — |

| Medium | 49 | 41 | 56 |

| Ultra | 28 | — | — |

CPU and GPU Roles

The data shows that at 1080p, the Intel Core i5-14400F is the limiting factor. The CPU is the bottleneck, not the Arc B570. The difference between Low and Medium is only the GPU load, and the fact that the CPU needs to process draw calls and game logic. The jump from Low to Medium is 29 FPS, which is a CPU limit. The game at 1080p is not GPU-bound at all. At 1440p, the game starts to become more GPU-bound, but the CPU still matters: the difference between Low and Medium at this resolution is 25 FPS. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The difference from Low to Medium at 4K is just 20 FPS, and the GPU utilization is high.

The Arc B570 is doing most of the heavy lifting at 4K. Its 380 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput are enough to keep the frame rate just above 30 FPS on Low. But when you ask for High settings at 4K, the frame rate drops to 23 FPS. The CPU is not the bottleneck at 4K. The GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU's 10 cores and 16 threads are enough to feed the GPU at all settings at this resolution.

The game's fixed camera angles and limited object count make the CPU relatively less important at high resolution. At 1080p and 1440p, the CPU and GPU must both work. The PCIe 4.0 x8 interface is not a bottleneck at any resolution.

FAQ

Q: Can the Core i5-14400F run The Medium at 60 FPS at 1080p?

A: No. At the High preset it averages 35 FPS. At Low, it averages 78 FPS. The CPU is not powerful enough to maintain 60 FPS at High 1080p.

Q: Is 4K gaming possible on the Arc B570?

A: Yes, if you lower settings to Low. The data shows 52 FPS average at 4K Low, which is playable. Medium and High at 4K are also playable but they do not reach the 60 FPS target.

Q: How much VRAM does the Arc B570 have?

A: The GPU has 10 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 160-bit bus and 380 GB/s of bandwidth. The game uses roughly 6-7 GB at 4K Ultra.

Q: What is the difference between the Arc B570 and the A750?

A: The B570 is a cut-down version of the A750. It has 2,304 shading units, 144 TMUs and 80 ROPs — the same as the A750. The difference is clock speed: 2500 MHz on both, but the B570 has a lower FP32 throughput.

Q: Does The Medium support ray tracing?

A: Yes. The Arc B570 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4 and OpenGL 4.6. The game uses software ray tracing at the default.

The Verdict

Can the Intel Core i5-14400F and Arc B570 run The Medium? Yes, with conditions.

At 1080p, the Medium preset is the best experience. The data shows 49 FPS average on Medium, which is a smooth experience for this type of game. The High preset at 1080p is not ideal — 35 FPS — but still playable. The 1440p resolution is best played at Low (66 FPS average). The Medium preset at 1440p is a 41 FPS average, and it is playable, but with some drops. The Ultra preset at 1440p is not recommended at 23 FPS.

At 4K, only Low is worth using: 52 FPS average. Medium at 4K is a 32 FPS average, which is playable but not great. High and Ultra at 4K should be avoided.

The verdict: this combo is a 1440p machine and a 1080p machine. It plays The Medium at 1080p Medium comfortably, and at 1440p Low. 4K is possible only on Low settings. This is not a 4K GPU for this game.

Similar Performance Alternatives

If you are looking at other CPUs and GPUs that would perform similarly, the nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840U (average score 32279, 0.1% higher than the Core i5) and the Intel Core i9-11900 (32226, 0.2% higher). Both CPUs would behave nearly identically in this game.

On the GPU side, the closest rivals to the Arc B570 are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (average 20534, 0.1% lower), the Intel Arc A750 (20582, 0.1% higher), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662, 0.5% higher). The RTX 3070 Mobile is a slightly faster card in this game, while the A750 is a bit slower but matches the B570's characteristics.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank in-game is 2999 out of 3724 tested systems. This puts it in the upper 20% of tested systems. It is not a top-tier combo — those are reserved for 4090-class GPUs and 14900K-class CPUs — but it is a very capable 1080p and 1440p system. The combination of the Core i5-14400F and the Arc B570 is well-balanced. The CPU is not too slow for the GPU, and the GPU is not too weak for the CPU. For the horror genre, where atmosphere is more important than raw frame rate, this is a good enough combination.