The Medium

The Medium presents a demanding dual-reality rendering workload, and the combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G with the Intel Arc B390 produces a dataset that is consistently constrained by the graphics processor. The measured frames per second across all resolutions and settings never reaches a level considered smooth, indicating a fundamental performance ceiling within this specific hardware pairing. The data shows a system that is functional for basic operation but significantly outmatched by the game's graphical requirements.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a classic pattern of graphics-bound scaling, where the load on the Intel Arc B390 increases dramatically as pixel count rises. At the Low settings preset, the transition from 1080p to 1440p results in a frame rate drop from 51 FPS to 43 FPS, a reduction of approximately 15.7%. The subsequent step to 4K reduces the average further to 34 FPS, representing a 20.9% decrease from the 1440p figure. This consistent decline indicates that the rendering pipeline is the primary bottleneck, with the GPU's shading units and memory bandwidth being saturated by the increasing resolution.

The scaling behavior at higher settings is even more pronounced, though the absolute numbers are lower. At the High preset, the average frame rate moves from 23 FPS at 1080p to 19 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 15 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is about 34.8%, demonstrating that the cost of rendering at higher resolutions is not linear but exponential in this scenario. The Ultra preset shows a similar pattern, with 18 FPS at 1080p falling to 15 FPS at 1440p and then to 12 FPS at 4K, a total reduction of 33.3% from the starting resolution.

The Medium preset, which includes measured minimum and maximum frame times, provides additional insight into this scaling. At 1080p, the average is 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS. This narrow band of 10 FPS suggests a relatively stable frame delivery, but the average itself is already below the threshold for comfortable play. When moving to 1440p, the average drops to 27 FPS, with the minimum at 23 FPS and maximum at 31 FPS, maintaining a similar 8 FPS spread. At 4K, the average falls to 21 FPS, with the minimum at 18 FPS and maximum at 24 FPS. The frame time consistency remains, but the overall performance is firmly in the field of a slideshow.

These results indicate that the limiting component is unambiguously the Intel Arc B390. The CPU, a 6-core/12-thread AMD Ryzen 5 4600G, has sufficient processing power for this title based on its benchmark scores, but the GPU's performance percentile of 9 versus all other GPUs places it in the bottom tier of hardware. The scaling patterns show no sign of a CPU bottleneck, as the frame rates do not plateau at lower resolutions; they simply continue to fall as the GPU workload increases.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all tested combinations for The Medium, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G and the Intel Arc B390 ranks at position 2581 out of 2911. This places the combo in the bottom 11.3% of all tested systems, a position that reflects the severe GPU limitation. The rank is a direct consequence of the graphics card's inability to maintain playable frame rates, regardless of the CPU's capabilities.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the primary factor in this low ranking. The Ryzen 5 4600G has an average benchmark score of 17507 and sits at the 71st percentile of all CPUs, indicating it is a mid-range processor that performs adequately in synthetic tests. However, the GPU's average benchmark score of 1482 and its 9th percentile ranking dominate the overall system performance. The combo's rank is therefore a signal of the overwhelming influence of the graphics solution in this game.

Looking at the nearest rivals for the GPU provides context for its performance level. The Intel Arc B390 scores 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M, and 2.5% to 2.7% higher than the GeForce GT 625 OEM and GT 710. These are all legacy or low-end parts, and the B390's performance is essentially in that same class. The fact that the combo ranks so low is unsurprising when the GPU's closest competitors are all several generations old and were never designed for modern gaming.

The CPU's nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE and the Intel Core 7 150U, have similar average scores with delta percentages of 0.1% and 0.6%, respectively. This indicates that the CPU is performing as expected for its class. The bottleneck is purely on the graphics side, and any improvement in the combo's rank would require a fundamentally different GPU.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured data, the only viable path to a marginally playable experience is to use the Low settings preset at 1920x1080. This configuration yields an average frame rate of 51 FPS, which is the only result in the entire dataset that approaches a standard for smooth motion. Even this figure is only just above 50 FPS, and it is likely to dip in more demanding scenes, but it is the best possible outcome for this hardware.

At the same 1080p resolution, the Medium preset drops to 32 FPS, which is a significant step down in playability. The High and Ultra presets fare even worse, with averages of 23 FPS and 18 FPS, respectively. None of these higher settings provide a satisfactory experience, making the Low preset the only sensible choice for anyone forced to use this combination.

Moving to higher resolutions with the Low preset does not offer any advantage. At 1440p, the average is 43 FPS, and at 4K, it falls to 34 FPS. While these numbers are technically above the 30 FPS threshold for some, the frame pacing and the game's reliance on quick camera cuts between two worlds make them less than ideal. The data does not support any setting other than Low at 1080p for a reasonable experience.

The Medium preset at any resolution provides minimum frame rates that are too low for consistent play. At 1080p, the minimum is 27 FPS, which is below the standard for smooth motion. At 1440p and 4K, the minimums drop to 23 FPS and 18 FPS, respectively. These lows are where the game becomes unresponsive, and they are common enough to make the preset unplayable. The recommendation is clear: Low settings at 1080p is the only viable configuration.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset for this combo shows a clear hierarchy of performance. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 51 FPS, the highest number recorded. The Medium preset follows at 32 FPS, with a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS. High drops to 23 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 18 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 19 FPS, indicating a steep performance cost for the visual improvements in the Medium preset.

At 2560x1440, all average frame rates decrease. Low leads with 43 FPS, followed by Medium at 27 FPS, with a minimum of 23 FPS and maximum of 31 FPS. High comes in at 19 FPS, and Ultra at 15 FPS. The relative ordering remains the same, but the distance between Low and Medium narrows to 16 FPS. This suggests that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor, reducing the impact of the settings changes.

The 3840x2160 resolution shows the most constrained results. Low is the only preset to break 30 FPS, with an average of 34 FPS. Medium averages 21 FPS, with a minimum of 18 FPS and maximum of 24 FPS. High falls to 15 FPS, and Ultra to 12 FPS. The data at 4K is uniformly poor, with no preset providing a playable frame rate. The Low preset at 4K is the only one that could be considered for a cinematic screenshot, but not for actual gameplay.

Analyzing the Medium preset across resolutions shows a consistent pattern. The 1080p result of 32 FPS (min 27, max 37) is the best of the three. The 1440p result of 27 FPS (min 23, max 31) is a 15.6% drop from 1080p. The 4K result of 21 FPS (min 18, max 24) is a 22.2% drop from 1440p. This scaling is expected for a GPU-bound scenario, but the absolute numbers are too low to recommend any of these configurations.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the dominant bottleneck in this system. Its benchmark scores place it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, with an average score of 1482 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test. This is a very low score, and the nearest rival data confirms its position. It is only 1.3% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX and 2.7% faster than the GeForce GT 710, both of which are considered entry-level parts from a bygone era.

The GPU's clock speeds show a base of 300 MHz and a boost of 2500 MHz. The boost clock is the figure that matters for gaming, but the architecture's low overall throughput means that even at its maximum frequency, it cannot handle the demands of The Medium. The memory is listed as "System Shared," which means it uses a portion of the system's DDR4 memory rather than dedicated VRAM. This shared memory configuration is a significant disadvantage, as it competes with the CPU for bandwidth and has higher latency than dedicated graphics memory.

The GPU has 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output units. It also has 12 ray tracing cores, but the game's use of ray tracing is not the primary issue here; the raw rasterization performance is simply insufficient. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, but these theoretical numbers are not realized in practice due to the shared memory bottleneck and the overall low performance class.

The fact that the GPU is an IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) with a TDP of 80 W and no power connectors is telling. It is designed for basic display output, not for gaming. The 3 nm process node and Xe3-LPG architecture are modern, but the implementation is severely limited in terms of memory bandwidth and compute units. The data shows that the GPU is the sole reason for the low frame rates, and its performance characteristics are consistent with a part that is several tiers below what The Medium requires.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, codenamed Renoir. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. Its benchmark results show a solid mid-range performance profile. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 13593, and the single-core score is 1919, both of which are respectable for a desktop part from its generation.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU. The game's heavy graphical load means that the CPU is rarely waiting for data, but rather the GPU is struggling to keep up. The processor's 8 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support are adequate for feeding the GPU, but the GPU's own memory limitations negate any CPU advantage.

The CPU's benchmark percentile of 71 versus all other CPUs indicates it is a capable processor for general tasks. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE and the Intel Core 7 150U, have nearly identical average scores, confirming it is in a well-populated performance tier. The data shows that the CPU is not the cause of the low frame rates; the processor has enough headroom to handle the game's logic and physics calculations, but it cannot compensate for the GPU's lack of rendering power.

The CPU's integrated graphics, Radeon Vega 7, is not used in this configuration since the system is paired with the Intel Arc B390. However, the CPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks, such as the PassMark multi-thread score of 15992 and the Geekbench multi-core score of 6637, confirms its ability to handle multi-threaded workloads. In this game, the CPU is effectively waiting on the GPU at every frame, making its performance largely irrelevant to the final outcome. The bottleneck is absolute, and no CPU-side adjustment can improve the measured frame rates.