The Medium

The Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable experience in The Medium only at its lowest settings, and even then, only below 4K resolution. At 1080p and 1440p with Low settings, the combo achieves 78 and 66 FPS respectively, comfortably clearing the 60 FPS playability threshold. However, any attempt to raise quality to Medium or higher drops performance below 60 FPS at every resolution, with Ultra settings proving entirely unplayable, ranging from 18 to 28 FPS. This pairing is firmly a Low-preset machine for this horror title, with the data showing a steep and consistent performance penalty for each step up in graphical fidelity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combo show a clear and predictable pattern: resolution and settings both heavily impact performance, with no configuration exceeding 78 FPS. At 1920x1080, the lowest tested settings yield 78 FPS average, which is the best result across the entire test matrix. Dropping to Medium settings at this resolution produces 49 FPS average, with a minimum of 41 FPS and a maximum of 56 FPS. High settings at 1080p reduce the average to 35 FPS, while Ultra settings plummet to 28 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is a stark 50 FPS, indicating that the Arc B570's rendering workload scales dramatically with preset quality.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance hits a wall. Low settings still manage 66 FPS average, which is above the 60 FPS threshold, but only just. Medium settings at 1440p drop to 41 FPS average, with a recorded range of 35 to 47 FPS. High settings produce 29 FPS average, and Ultra falls to 23 FPS. The delta between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings is 12 FPS, while at High settings it is only 6 FPS — suggesting that at higher presets, the GPU is already so saturated that resolution scaling has diminishing returns.

At 3840x2160, the combo cannot maintain playable frame rates under any setting. Low settings produce 52 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings yield 32 FPS average, with min/max of 27 and 37 FPS. High settings fall to 23 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 18 FPS. The 4K data shows that even the lowest preset fails to reach playability, and the gap between Low (52 FPS) and Medium (32 FPS) at this resolution is a massive 20 FPS drop, highlighting the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading limitations at high pixel counts.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Based on the nearestRivals data for the CPU, the Intel Core i7-12700K's performance is nearly identical to several other processors. The Intel Core i5-13600T has an average benchmark score of 35305, which is only 0.1% lower than the 12700K's 35287. The Intel Core i7-12700KF scores 35365, a 0.2% difference, meaning it would behave essentially the same in this game. The Intel Core i7-13700T (35403, 0.3% higher) and Intel Core 5 213PE (35428, 0.4% higher) are also within a rounding error of the 12700K's compute performance. For gaming, any of these CPUs would deliver effectively identical CPU-bound frame rates in The Medium, given that the game's engine does not appear to stress the processor beyond what these chips can handle.

On the GPU side, the Intel Arc B570's nearest rivals are a mixed group. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile scores 20534, which is 0.1% lower than the B570's 20556 average benchmark score. This mobile GPU would produce nearly identical frame rates in The Medium, though its thermal and power characteristics differ. The Intel Arc A750 is the closest desktop equivalent, with a score of 20582, just 0.1% higher than the B570. Users with an Arc A750 should expect the same playability verdict: Low settings only at 1080p and 1440p. The AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662, 0.5% higher) and NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480, 0.4% lower) are also within 1% of the B570's performance, though these are older architectures that may have different driver-level behavior in DirectX 12 titles like The Medium.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data indicates that the GPU is the dominant bottleneck for this combo in The Medium, particularly at higher resolutions and presets. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings shows a drop from 78 to 52 FPS, a 33% reduction, which is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario where pixel throughput is the limiting factor. However, the CPU does contribute at lower settings, as evidenced by the fact that 1080p Low (78 FPS) is significantly higher than 1440p Low (66 FPS) and 4K Low (52 FPS). If the CPU were the sole constraint, these numbers would be closer together.

At Medium settings, the resolution scaling becomes more severe: 1080p Medium (49 FPS) drops to 1440p Medium (41 FPS, a 16% loss) and then to 4K Medium (32 FPS, a 35% loss from 1080p). This non-linear scaling suggests that the Arc B570's 10 GB GDDR6 memory and 160-bit bus are increasingly strained as resolution increases, with the 380.0 GB/s bandwidth becoming a limiting factor. The CPU's role is less pronounced at higher presets, as the 12700K's 12 cores and 20 threads provide ample headroom for the game's logic, but the GPU cannot keep up with the increased shading and texture work.

The verdict data confirms this split: at 1440p and 1080p, only Low settings are playable, and the best FPS at those settings (66 and 78 respectively) are both below what the CPU alone could deliver if the GPU were not the constraint. The fact that no 4K setting is playable, even Low at 52 FPS, points squarely at the GPU as the performance limiter. The i7-12700K, with its 84th percentile ranking among all CPUs, is more than capable for this title; the Arc B570, at the 65th percentile among GPUs, is the component holding back higher settings.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run The Medium at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: No. At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 49, which falls below the 60 FPS playability threshold. The minimum recorded FPS is 41, so there will be noticeable stutter during demanding scenes.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 1440p?

A: The only playable setting at 2560x1440 is Low, which achieves an average of 66 FPS. Medium settings drop to 41 FPS, making them unplayable by the 60 FPS standard.

Q: Is 4K gaming possible with this hardware?

A: No. At 3840x2160, even Low settings only reach 52 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. Ultra settings fall to 18 FPS, making the game effectively unplayable at this resolution.

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

A: The Arc A750 has an average benchmark score of 20582, which is 0.1% higher than the B570's 20556. In practical terms, both GPUs would deliver nearly identical frame rates in The Medium, meaning the A750 would also be limited to Low settings at 1080p and 1440p.

Q: Does the CPU matter for this game's performance?

A: The i7-12700K is not the bottleneck. Its nearest rival, the i7-12700KF, has a benchmark score only 0.2% higher, and all four nearest CPU rivals are within 0.4% of its performance. The frame rate drops are driven by the GPU, especially since 4K Low (52 FPS) is far below what this CPU could support.

Q: What is the maximum FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 78, at 1920x1080 with Low settings. No other configuration exceeds 66 FPS.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the best playable setting is Low, which delivers an average of 78 FPS. This is the only preset at this resolution that stays above the 60 FPS threshold; Medium (49 FPS), High (35 FPS), and Ultra (28 FPS) all fail to meet playability standards.

At 2560x1440, the best playable setting is also Low, with an average of 66 FPS. This is just above the 60 FPS minimum, but any higher preset — Medium (41 FPS), High (29 FPS), or Ultra (23 FPS) — drops below playable levels.

At 3840x2160, no setting is playable. The closest is Low, which achieves 52 FPS average, but this falls short of the 60 FPS threshold. Medium (32 FPS), High (23 FPS), and Ultra (18 FPS) are all significantly below playability, meaning users must drop resolution or upgrade hardware for 4K play.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2999 out of 3724 tested combos for The Medium, placing it in the bottom 20% of all configurations. This low ranking is consistent with the measured FPS data, which shows the combo struggling to maintain playable frame rates outside of the lowest settings. The ranking is driven primarily by the GPU's limitations, as the CPU's 84th percentile standing among all processors is not enough to compensate for the Arc B570's 65th percentile GPU performance. In the context of the benchmark database, this combo sits well below average for this title, making it suitable only for players willing to accept Low presets at 1080p or 1440p. The data suggests that for The Medium, this hardware pairing is a marginal performer, best suited for older or less demanding titles, rather than this particular horror game at higher visual fidelity.