The Medium

The Medium presents an unusually demanding workload for the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and Intel Arc B390 combination. The measured frame rates across all resolutions and settings presets indicate that this pairing operates at the extreme low end of playable performance, with the data suggesting a system that is fundamentally constrained by its graphics subsystem. The numbers reveal a clear pattern: the Arc B390, which benchmarks in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution increases, while the Ryzen 5 2600’s six cores and twelve threads appear sufficient for the game’s CPU demands but cannot compensate for the GPU’s limitations.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate degradation from 1080p to 4K is severe and consistent across every settings preset, which strongly indicates that the Intel Arc B390 is the limiting component in this configuration. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 51 at 1920x1080 to 43 at 2560x1440, a reduction of approximately 15.7%, and then falls further to 34 at 3840x2160, representing a 33.3% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU that is saturated even at lower resolutions, as the pixel throughput requirement increases by 2.25 times from 1080p to 1440p and by 4 times from 1080p to 4K, yet the frame rate does not drop proportionally—suggesting other bottlenecks come into play.

At Medium settings, the same trend emerges: 32 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p (a 15.6% drop), and 21 FPS at 4K (a 34.4% drop from 1080p). The High preset shows 23 FPS at 1080p, 19 FPS at 1440p (a 17.4% drop), and 15 FPS at 4K (a 34.8% drop). Ultra settings follow with 18 FPS at 1080p, 15 FPS at 1440p (a 16.7% drop), and 12 FPS at 4K (a 33.3% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops—roughly 15-17% from 1080p to 1440p and 33-35% from 1080p to 4K—across all presets is notable. If the CPU were the primary bottleneck, we would expect to see a much smaller difference between 1080p and 1440p, as the CPU workload would remain relatively constant while the GPU load increases. Instead, the data shows a steady decline that tracks closely with pixel count, confirming that the Arc B390’s rendering capabilities are exhausted early.

Further evidence of the GPU bottleneck comes from the 4K results. At 4K Ultra, the system produces only 12 FPS, while at 4K Low it reaches 34 FPS—a 183% improvement from lowering settings. This wide spread between Low and Ultra at a single resolution indicates that the GPU is highly sensitive to the shader and texture complexity changes between presets. The Ryzen 5 2600, with its base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 3.90 GHz, is not the limiting factor here; if it were, the difference between Low and Ultra at 4K would be much narrower, as the CPU would struggle to feed the GPU regardless of settings. The data points to a system where the Arc B390’s 1536 shading units and 24 ROPs are simply overwhelmed by The Medium’s rendering requirements, particularly at higher resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 with the Intel Arc B390 ranks 2581 out of 2911 combos for The Medium. This places it in the bottom 11.3% of all tested configurations, a position that reflects the GPU’s extremely low benchmark standing. The Arc B390’s average benchmark score is 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, and its percentile rank against all GPUs is 9, meaning 91% of tested graphics cards perform better. The nearest rivals to the B390 in the GPU benchmark list are all legacy NVIDIA parts: the GeForce GT 520MX (which is 1.3% slower), the GeForce 800M (1.5% slower), the GeForce GT 625 OEM (2.5% slower), and the GeForce GT 710 (2.7% slower). These comparisons place the B390 in the company of entry-level mobile and OEM graphics solutions from over a decade ago, which contextualizes its poor showing in The Medium.

The combo rank of 2581 is heavily influenced by the GPU’s percentile, not the CPU’s. The Ryzen 5 2600 sits in the 75th percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 21484, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (0.2% faster), Intel Core i9-11900H (0.5% faster), Intel Xeon D-1746TER (0.7% slower), and AMD EPYC 9454 (1.2% faster). These are all mid-range to high-end processors, showing that the 2600 is a competent CPU by modern standards. The fact that the combo still ranks near the bottom of the list for The Medium underscores that the Arc B390 is the dominant weak link. The data suggests that if the same CPU were paired with even a modestly better GPU, the combo rank would improve substantially, as the 2600’s processing power is not the constraint.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 provides six cores and twelve threads based on the Zen architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. Its cache hierarchy includes 96 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R15 multicore score of 1248 and a single-core score of 157.3, along with a Geekbench multicore score of 5648 and a single-core score of 1154. These numbers are respectable for a 2018-era processor, but they do not tell the full story for gaming. The PassMark multithread score of 13160 and single-thread score of 2239 indicate that the CPU has enough raw throughput for most game logic and physics calculations.

For The Medium specifically, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 51 FPS, which is the highest result in the entire dataset. This suggests that at lower resolutions and settings, the CPU is capable of driving the game at a reasonable frame rate, but the GPU cannot maintain this performance when the resolution or settings increase. The fact that the 1080p Low result (51 FPS) is nearly 50% higher than the 1080p Medium result (32 FPS) indicates that the GPU is the first component to hit its limit, not the CPU. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a plateau in FPS regardless of settings changes at a given resolution, which is not the case here.

The Ryzen 5 2600’s 12 threads are likely sufficient for The Medium’s multithreaded workload, as the game was released in 2021 and would have been designed to scale across multiple cores. The CPU’s 65-watt TDP and 12 nm process node are not performance-limiting factors in this context. The data suggests that the CPU is operating well within its capabilities, leaving headroom that the GPU cannot exploit. In fact, the gap between the 4K Low (34 FPS) and 1080p Low (51 FPS) results—a 33% difference—is entirely attributable to the GPU’s inability to handle the higher pixel count, not any CPU limitation. The CPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 75th percentile, which is a strong position, but the combo’s overall rank of 2581 out of 2911 shows that the CPU’s strength is negated by the GPU’s weakness.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the system produces its best results. Low settings yield an average of 51 FPS, which is the only preset to break the 50 FPS mark. Medium settings drop to 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 and a maximum of 37 FPS. High settings further reduce the average to 23 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 18 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 33 FPS, which is a 183% difference.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance declines across the board. Low settings average 43 FPS, a drop of 8 FPS from the 1080p result. Medium settings average 27 FPS with a range of 23 to 31 FPS. High settings fall to 19 FPS, and Ultra settings reach only 15 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 28 FPS, representing a 187% spread.

At 3840x2160, the results are marginal at best. Low settings produce an average of 34 FPS, which is the only 4K preset above 30 FPS. Medium settings drop to 21 FPS with a range of 18 to 24 FPS. High settings average 15 FPS, and Ultra settings manage just 12 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread at 4K is 22 FPS, a 183% difference.

The data shows a consistent pattern: each resolution step down from 1080p to 4K reduces the average FPS by roughly one-third to one-half across all settings. The Medium preset has the only complete min/max data, showing that at 1080p the frame times are relatively stable (27 to 37 FPS), but at 1440p they tighten slightly (23 to 31 FPS), and at 4K they compress further (18 to 24 FPS). This compression in frame time variance at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is consistently saturated, leaving little room for fluctuation.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on a 3 nm process node. It features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 ROPs, along with 12 ray tracing cores. The boost clock is 2500 MHz, with a base clock of 300 MHz, and the memory is system shared, meaning the bandwidth and capacity are dependent on the system’s RAM configuration. The GPU’s pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s, texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, and it delivers 7.680 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. Its TDP is 80 watts, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

Despite these specifications, the Arc B390’s benchmark performance is extremely poor. Its only listed 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals are all NVIDIA parts from the early 2010s: the GeForce GT 520MX (1.3% faster), GeForce 800M (1.5% faster), GeForce GT 625 OEM (2.5% faster), and GeForce GT 710 (2.7% faster). These are not modern gaming GPUs; they are entry-level mobile or OEM parts designed for basic display output, not intensive 3D rendering.

In The Medium, the GPU’s limitations are evident in every measured result. The highest FPS achieved at any settings level is 51 at 1080p Low, which is still below the 60 FPS target most gamers consider smooth. At 4K Ultra, the system produces a slideshow-like 12 FPS. The GPU’s system-shared memory architecture means it must contend with the CPU for memory bandwidth, which is a significant handicap for a game like The Medium that likely requires substantial texture memory. The 2500 MHz boost clock is relatively high, but the low number of shading units and ROPs limits the GPU’s ability to process the complex shaders and post-processing effects typical of a horror game released in 2021. The data shows that the Arc B390 is simply not equipped to handle The Medium’s graphical demands at any resolution above 1080p Low, and even at 720p (not tested), the results would likely be marginal.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo can achieve in The Medium?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 51, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only preset in the dataset that exceeds 50 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. The Intel Arc B390 ranks in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, while the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 ranks in the 75th percentile. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K shows a consistent drop of roughly 33% regardless of settings, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario.

Q: How does the Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark, the Arc B390 scores 1482. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX scores 1463 (1.3% slower), the GeForce 800M scores 1460 (1.5% slower), the GeForce GT 625 OEM scores 1446 (2.5% slower), and the GeForce GT 710 scores 1443 (2.7% slower).

Q: What settings are required to achieve 30 FPS at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160 resolution, only Low settings achieve an average of 34 FPS, which is above 30 FPS. Medium settings drop to 21 FPS, so Low is the only viable preset at 4K for a playable frame rate.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested configurations for The Medium?

A: The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2581 out of 2911 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 11.3% of all configurations.

Q: What is the frame time variance at Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset has complete min/max data. At 1080p, the range is 27 to 37 FPS (average 32). At 1440p, it is 23 to 31 FPS (average 27). At 4K, it is 18 to 24 FPS (average 21).

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the only playable configuration for this combo is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which produces an average of 51 FPS. This is the sole preset that approaches a smooth experience, and even it falls short of 60 FPS. At 1080p Medium, the average drops to 32 FPS, which is borderline playable for a slower-paced horror game but may feel stuttery during action sequences. The min FPS of 27 at this setting suggests occasional dips that could be noticeable.

At 1440p, no settings preset achieves a comfortable frame rate. Low settings average 43 FPS, which is playable but not ideal; Medium drops to 27 FPS, and High and Ultra fall to 19 and 15 FPS respectively. At 4K, only Low settings exceed 30 FPS (34 FPS), but this is likely to feel inconsistent given the GPU’s overall performance profile. The data shows that the Arc B390 is best utilized at 1080p with the lowest settings, and any attempt to increase resolution or quality will result in a significant frame rate penalty. For users forced to play at 1440p, Low settings are the only reasonable choice, and at 4K, the experience is marginal even at Low. The system-shared memory and low ROP count of the GPU make it ill-suited for The Medium’s visual fidelity, so the recommendation is to prioritize frame rate over visual quality, accepting Low settings at 1080p as the only viable option for a responsive experience.