The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F paired with the Intel Arc B370 produces a very specific performance profile in The Medium, a horror title that clearly stresses the graphics subsystem far more than the processor. The data places this combination at rank 2681 out of 2911 tested combos, placing it in the bottom portion of the database. This ranking suggests that while the CPU is a modern, capable six-core part, the integrated-class GPU holds the entire platform back, making this pairing unsuitable for smooth gameplay at most settings and resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The placement at rank 2681 out of 2911 combos for The Medium is a telling statistic. Benchmark results indicate that this system falls into the lower 8% of all tested hardware pairings for this specific title. That low standing is not a reflection of the processor, which performs well in synthetic tests, but rather a direct consequence of the graphics solution. The Intel Arc B370, with its 5th percentile ranking among all GPUs, is the clear bottleneck. The data shows that even at the lowest settings and resolution, the system only achieves an average of 46 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold many consider playable. At 4K, the situation becomes untenable, with the average FPS dropping to 30 on Low settings and falling to single digits on Ultra. The comparison with the 2911 total combos shows that a vast majority of other hardware configurations deliver higher frame rates in this game. This rank is a quantitative confirmation that the graphics component is severely underpowered for the demands of The Medium’s rendering engine. The CPU’s high percentile ranking (77th) versus all CPUs contrasts sharply with the GPU’s lowly 5th percentile, highlighting the massive imbalance in this pairing. The system is essentially a high-end processor waiting for a dedicated graphics card that never arrives. The data implies that any user relying on this combo for gaming will face a frustrating experience, as the GPU’s limitations are the primary determinant of the overall rank.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the dominant factor in this system’s The Medium performance, and its specifications explain why. The GPU’s memory configuration is "System Shared," meaning it has no dedicated VRAM and instead borrows from the system’s main memory. This architecture, coupled with a memory bandwidth described as "System Dependent," creates a significant performance ceiling. The shared memory bandwidth is a critical limitation for a game like The Medium, which likely requires substantial data transfer for its textures and geometry. The GPU’s clock speeds are also modest, with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz. While the boost clock is respectable, the low base clock and the fundamental limitation of shared memory mean the GPU cannot sustain high throughput. The pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s are the theoretical maximums, but in practice, the system memory bottleneck will prevent these from being reached consistently. The GPU’s 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs are modest numbers, adequate for basic tasks but insufficient for a demanding game like The Medium, which was released in 2021 and features complex lighting and shadow effects. The FP32 performance of 6.144 TFLOPS sounds notable, but it is undermined by the memory architecture. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark score of 1184, which places it at the 5th percentile of all GPUs, is a clear indicator of its overall compute capability. This score is nearly identical to the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (deltaPct -0.2%) and the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (deltaPct -0.5%), which are much older parts. This comparison demonstrates that the Arc B370’s raw performance is on par with graphics hardware from over a decade ago. The data shows a clear picture: the GPU’s lack of dedicated VRAM and its low performance tier are the primary reasons for the poor frame rates observed in the measured FPS data. The 25 W TDP and IGP slot width further confirm that this is not a component designed for high-end gaming. The system’s performance is therefore governed entirely by this GPU’s ability to process frames, which is severely limited.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo can achieve in The Medium?*

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 46, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the data that comes close to smooth playability, and it still falls short of a 60 FPS target.

Q: How does the CPU’s performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F has an average benchmark score of 24964. Its closest rival, the Intel Core i7-11850H, scores 24935, a delta of 0.1%. Another close rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F, scores 25005, which is -0.2% relative to the 7500F. These scores show that the CPU is well within the performance envelope of its direct competitors.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the game become completely unplayable?

A: The data shows that at 3840x2160 (4K) with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 11. At the same resolution with High settings, the average is 14 FPS. These are well below any playable threshold. Even at 1440p, Ultra settings yield an average of 14 FPS, and High settings produce only 17 FPS.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all GPUs, and what does that imply?

A: The Intel Arc B370 is in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. This indicates that 95% of all GPUs in the database perform better. Its average benchmark score of 1184 is nearly identical to that of the ATI Radeon HD 5770, which has a deltaPct of -0.5%, showing that its performance level is comparable to much older hardware.

Q: Is there a significant performance difference between Low and Medium settings at 1080p?

A: Yes. At 1920x1080, the average FPS on Low settings is 46, while on Medium settings it drops to 29. This is a substantial decrease of 17 FPS, indicating that the Medium preset introduces a significant additional load on the GPU that it cannot handle effectively.

Q: Does the measured FPS data show any minimum or maximum FPS values?

A: The data only provides minimum and maximum FPS values for the Medium settings at each resolution. For example, at 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 24 and the maximum is 33. For all other settings (Low, High, Ultra), only the average FPS is provided.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo’s performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. Starting at 1920x1080, the results are as follows. On Low settings, the system achieves an average of 46 FPS. This is the highest average recorded for this combo. Moving to Medium, the average drops to 29 FPS, with a minimum of 24 FPS and a maximum of 33 FPS. The High preset yields an average of 21 FPS, and the Ultra preset brings the average down to 16 FPS. This progression shows a steep decline in performance as the graphical load increases. At 2560x1440, the performance scales down further. The Low preset delivers an average of 39 FPS. Medium settings produce an average of 24 FPS, with a minimum of 21 and a maximum of 28. High settings reduce the average to 17 FPS, and Ultra settings bring it down to 14 FPS. The step from Low to Medium at this resolution is a drop of 15 FPS, which is significant. Finally, at 3840x2160, the results are mostly unplayable. Low settings yield an average of 30 FPS. Medium settings produce an average of 19 FPS, with a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 22. High settings drop to an average of 14 FPS, and Ultra settings produce just 11 FPS. The data shows a clear pattern: the system can only produce a remotely acceptable frame rate at 1080p with the lowest settings. Every other configuration results in averages below 30 FPS, which is often considered the minimum for a playable experience in a slow-paced game. The difference between 1080p Low (46 FPS) and 4K Low (30 FPS) shows the resolution’s impact. The difference between 1080p High (21 FPS) and 4K High (14 FPS) is less pronounced, suggesting that the GPU is already so saturated that adding more pixels has a diminishing relative effect. The data indicates that the GPU’s performance ceiling is very low, and any increase in resolution or settings quickly overwhelms it.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior of this combo reveals important insights about the limiting component. From 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, the average FPS drops by a factor of roughly 1.5 to 1.6 across most settings. For instance, on Low settings, the average FPS goes from 46 at 1080p to 30 at 4K, a reduction of about 35%. On High settings, the average goes from 21 FPS to 14 FPS, a 33% reduction. This scaling is far less than the 4x increase in pixel count (from ~2 million pixels at 1080p to ~8.3 million at 4K). If the GPU were the only limiting factor and had sufficient memory bandwidth, one might expect a more dramatic drop. However, the relatively modest drop suggests that the system is not purely pixel-bound. The fact that the FPS does not scale proportionally with resolution indicates that another bottleneck is at play. Given that the GPU uses system shared memory, the bottleneck is likely the memory bandwidth. The "System Dependent" bandwidth means the GPU is competing with the CPU for access to the same memory, and this shared resource becomes saturated regardless of resolution. As the resolution increases, the GPU needs to fetch more texture data, but the memory bus is already at its limit. This creates a situation where the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is not as steep as expected because the system is already constrained by memory throughput, not just pixel fill rate. Another way to look at this is that the GPU is so weak that even at 1080p, it is likely not fully utilizing its pixel rate. The 6.144 TFLOPS FP32 compute is insufficient to push high frame rates even at low resolutions. The data suggests that the limiting component is the GPU’s overall compute and memory architecture, not just the resolution. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the FPS to be similar across resolutions, as the CPU’s workload does not change as much with resolution. Instead, we see a clear drop, confirming the GPU is the primary constraint. The scaling pattern, therefore, points to a GPU that is underpowered for the game’s demands at any resolution, with the shared memory architecture compounding the issue.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a powerful processor that is completely underutilized in this pairing. The CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture (codename Raphael), with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and a theoretical bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. The L3 cache is a substantial 32 MB shared across the cores. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU performs very well. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 22799, and its single-core score is 3218. Its Geekbench multi-core score is 12362, and its single-core score is 2374. These scores place it in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, indicating that it is faster than a majority of processors on the market. Its average benchmark score of 24964 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i7-13620H, which has a deltaPct of 0.2%. This shows that the CPU’s performance is competitive with modern mid-range and high-end mobile and desktop parts. However, in The Medium, the CPU’s capabilities are never fully challenged. The measured FPS data shows that the system is heavily GPU-bound; even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would have the most relative influence, the average FPS is only 46. A processor like the 7500F is capable of delivering far more frames in less demanding games. The reason for the low FPS is that the Intel Arc B370 cannot keep up with the CPU’s processing speed. The CPU can prepare frames far faster than the GPU can render them. The data implies that the CPU is waiting for the GPU most of the time. For a game like The Medium, which is a third-person horror title, the CPU workload is likely moderate, involving game logic, physics, and AI. The 7500F’s 12 threads are more than sufficient for this task. The bottleneck is unequivocally the GPU. The CPU’s high benchmark scores and its performance relative to its rivals (e.g., being only 0.1% slower than the Intel Core i7-11850H) highlight its capability. Yet, in this specific game, that capability is wasted. The data shows a clear mismatch: a top-tier CPU paired with a bottom-tier GPU, resulting in performance that reflects the GPU’s limitations, not the CPU’s strengths.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the only viable configuration for this combo in The Medium is 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only setup that achieves an average FPS above 40, coming in at 46 FPS. While this is not ideal, it is the only setting that approaches playability. The minimum FPS is not recorded for this setting, but the average suggests that most of the time, the game will be running at a somewhat acceptable speed, though it will likely have noticeable stutters. All other settings are not recommended. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS drops to 29, with a minimum of 24 FPS, which will feel sluggish and unresponsive. At 1080p High (21 FPS) and Ultra (16 FPS), the game becomes a slideshow. At higher resolutions, the situation is worse. At 1440p, even Low settings only achieve an average of 39 FPS, and Medium drops to 24 FPS. At 4K, Low settings produce an average of 30 FPS, but Medium and above are all below 20 FPS. The data shows that the Ultra preset is entirely unplayable at all resolutions, with the highest average being 16 FPS at 1080p. The High preset is also unplayable, with a maximum average of 21 FPS at 1080p. Therefore, the recommendation is clear: if one must play The Medium with this hardware, the experience should be limited to 1080p and the Low preset. Even then, the user should expect a sub-60 FPS experience with potential frame pacing issues. The difference between Low and Medium at 1080p is a 17 FPS drop, which is too large to justify any visual improvement. The Low preset likely disables many of the game’s more demanding visual features, such as high-resolution shadows and reflections, which are necessary to reduce the GPU load. The data suggests that no amount of tweaking beyond the provided presets would yield a significantly better experience. The system’s GPU is simply too weak for this game. The user would need to accept a low-resolution, low-fidelity experience or consider upgrading the graphics component, as the CPU is more than capable of supporting a much more powerful GPU.