The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and Intel Arc B580 pairing delivers a decidedly mid-pack experience in The Medium, ranking 1328th out of 1689 tested combos. This places it in the lower third of all configurations, a position driven primarily by the GPU’s inability to maintain high frame rates at demanding settings, rather than a CPU bottleneck. The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p and 1440p gaming with moderate graphical presets, where it can achieve playable performance.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, built on a 5 nm process. With a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, it offers strong single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 974 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3218. The CPU has 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core, which helps reduce memory latency in gaming workloads.

In the context of The Medium, a horror title that is typically more GPU-bound, the 7500F’s capabilities are more than sufficient. Its processor benchmarks place it at the 82nd percentile compared to all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24993. The nearest rivals in CPU performance are the Intel Core i7-11850H (deltaPct 0.1), the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (deltaPct -0.3), and the AMD Ryzen 5 8400F (deltaPct -0.3). These differences are negligible, indicating that the 7500F’s compute power is not a limiting factor in this game’s measured results.

The CPU’s high single-thread score of 3841 in Passmark further supports the conclusion that it can feed the GPU adequately. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 88.3 FPS, which is a clear indicator that the CPU is not holding back performance at lower graphical loads. The bottleneck emerges at higher settings and resolutions, where the GPU’s rendering workload increases significantly.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is the clear performance limiter in this pairing. It features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 456.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU has a base and boost clock of 2670 MHz, with 2560 shading units and 80 ROPs. Its FP32 compute throughput is 13.67 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6.

The B580’s average benchmark score is 23021, placing it at the 66th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon 760M (deltaPct 0.1), the NVIDIA P106-100 (deltaPct 0.3), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (deltaPct -0.7). The close margins to these competitors suggest the B580 is positioned in the mid-range segment, but its performance in The Medium reveals a significant drop-off at higher settings.

The GPU’s memory capacity of 12 GB is generous for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the measured frame rates indicate that raw compute power is insufficient for demanding presets. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS falls to 33.0, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. The B580’s 190 W TDP and PCIe 4.0 x8 interface are standard for its class, yet the data shows it struggles to maintain 60 FPS at any resolution above 1080p with Medium or higher settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1328 out of 1689 places this system in the 21st percentile of all tested configurations. This is a low position, reflecting the GPU’s limitations. The ranking indicates that a significant majority of other CPU-GPU pairings outperform this one in The Medium. The data suggests that the CPU is not the culprit; the 7500F’s strong multi-threaded scores, such as 22799 in Cinebench R23 and 26825 in Passmark multithread, would typically support higher frame rates.

The gap between this combo and higher-ranked ones is likely attributable to the B580’s mid-tier performance. The GPU’s passmark G3D score of 15748 and 3dmark Steel Nomad score of 3068 show it is a capable 1080p card, but not one designed for high-refresh-rate or high-resolution gaming. The rank of 1328 out of 1689 is a verdict: this pairing is entry-level for modern titles, and The Medium’s optimized scenes expose its weaknesses.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern: performance scales inversely with both resolution and graphical settings. At 1920x1080, the combo achieves 88.3 FPS on Low, 53.0 FPS on Medium, 38.4 FPS on High, and 33.0 FPS on Ultra. The drop from Low to Ultra is 55.3 FPS, a 62.6% reduction, indicating that the GPU’s shading and texture units are heavily taxed by higher settings.

At 2560x1440, the scores are 76.5 FPS on Low, 48.1 FPS on Medium, 31.7 FPS on High, and 24.1 FPS on Ultra. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings costs 11.8 FPS, a 13.4% decrease, which is moderate. However, at Ultra settings, the drop is 8.9 FPS, from 33.0 to 24.1, a 27.0% decrease, showing that higher resolutions amplify the GPU load.

At 3840x2160, the results are 56.2 FPS on Low, 33.8 FPS on Medium, 27.1 FPS on High, and 21.1 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Low setting is the only 4K configuration that remains playable, while 4K Ultra is barely functional at 21.1 FPS. The data shows that the combo is not viable for 4K gaming unless the user is willing to accept Low settings, which still yields less than 60 FPS.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in The Medium?*

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the combo can exceed 60 FPS, specifically at Low settings (88.3 FPS). At 2560x1440, the maximum is 76.5 FPS on Low, while 3840x2160 tops out at 56.2 FPS on Low.

Q: Can this system handle Ultra settings?

A: No. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 33.0, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. At 1440p Ultra, it drops to 24.1 FPS, and at 4K Ultra, it falls to 21.1 FPS.

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

A: The Ryzen 5 7500F has an average benchmark score of 24993, which is nearly identical to the Intel Core i7-11850H (24974, deltaPct 0.1) and the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (25057, deltaPct -0.3). These differences are within 0.4%, meaning the CPU performance is equivalent.

Q: Is the GPU the limiting factor?

A: Yes. The GPU’s average benchmark score of 23021 is 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (23181), but the measured FPS in The Medium shows that higher settings cause drastic drops. The CPU’s 82nd percentile ranking suggests it is not the bottleneck.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: The combo achieves 88.3 FPS on Low and 33.0 FPS on Ultra at 1920x1080, a difference of 55.3 FPS. This represents a 62.6% performance decrease when moving to the highest preset.

Q: Is 4K gaming possible with this setup?

A: Only at Low settings, where the average FPS is 56.2 at 3840x2160. Medium settings drop to 33.8 FPS, which is not smooth, and High (27.1 FPS) and Ultra (21.1 FPS) are unplayable.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience is at 1920x1080 with Low settings, yielding 88.3 FPS. This is the only configuration that provides a consistently smooth frame rate above 85 FPS. For users seeking better visual fidelity, Medium settings at 1080p offer 53.0 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action.

At 2560x1440, Low settings (76.5 FPS) are the only playable option, as Medium drops to 48.1 FPS. At 3840x2160, Low settings (56.2 FPS) are borderline acceptable, but Medium (33.8 FPS) is not recommended. The data clearly shows that High and Ultra presets should be avoided at all resolutions, as they consistently produce average FPS below 40.

The best balance between performance and quality is 1080p Medium, which offers a 53.0 FPS average. This is 40.0% higher than High settings (38.4 FPS) and 60.7% higher than Ultra (33.0 FPS), while providing a significant visual upgrade over Low. For 1440p users, the only viable choice is Low settings, as the 48.1 FPS on Medium is too close to the 30 FPS threshold.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and non-linear, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiting component. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (88.3 FPS) to 2560x1440 (76.5 FPS) is a 13.4% decrease, and further to 3840x2160 (56.2 FPS) is a 26.5% decrease from 1440p. This scaling is consistent with a GPU that has limited pixel throughput, as the B580’s 213.6 GPixel/s pixel rate is not sufficient for higher resolutions.

At Ultra settings, the scaling is more severe: 1080p yields 33.0 FPS, 1440p yields 24.1 FPS (a 27.0% drop), and 4K yields 21.1 FPS (a 12.4% drop from 1440p). The smaller percentage drop from 1440p to 4K at Ultra suggests the game becomes less resolution-dependent and more compute-bound at extreme settings, but the absolute values are all unplayable.

The data shows that the combo is heavily resolution-sensitive. The 1080p to 4K difference at Low settings is 32.1 FPS, while at Ultra it is 11.9 FPS. This indicates that at Low settings, the GPU’s memory bandwidth (456.0 GB/s) is sufficient, but at higher settings, the compute units become saturated. The CPU’s performance remains consistent across resolutions, confirming that the 7500F is not the cause of the FPS drops. The limiting component is unequivocally the Intel Arc B580.