The Medium

The Arc B570 paired with the Ryzen 5 7600 delivers a playable experience in The Medium only when settings are managed carefully, with the data showing that the Low preset is the only reliable path to smooth frame rates across all resolutions. The Ultra preset is essentially unplayable at every tested resolution, and the High preset fails to maintain 30 FPS even at 1080p, making the Medium preset the highest visual quality option that approaches acceptable performance.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the Low preset is the only settings configuration that consistently delivers frame rates above 60 FPS in this pairing. At 1920x1080, Low produces 78 FPS average, which drops to 66 FPS at 2560x1440 and 52 FPS at 3840x2160. These are the only measured results that clear the 60 FPS threshold at any resolution, and even at 4K, the Low preset provides a smooth experience.

For players prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rate, the Medium preset is the compromise choice. It delivers 49 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result includes a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS, indicating noticeable frame pacing inconsistency. At 1080p and 1440p, Medium is playable, though the 41 FPS at 1440p hovers near the edge of what most players would consider smooth.

The High preset should be avoided entirely. It produces 35 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K — all below the 30 FPS playability threshold except the 1080p result, which barely clears it. The Ultra preset is the worst performer, with 28 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. These numbers make Ultra a showcase mode only, not a functional gameplay setting.

The optimal experience balances the Medium preset at 1080p, where the 49 FPS average with a 41 FPS minimum provides the best combination of visual quality and smoothness. Players with 1440p displays should also consider Medium, accepting the 41 FPS average as a reasonable trade-off. The 4K Medium result at 32 FPS is borderline, but the 27 FPS minimum suggests occasional stutter that may detract from the horror atmosphere.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570's memory configuration and clock speeds directly explain its performance ceiling in The Medium. The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, delivering 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base and boost clocks are identical at 2500 MHz, which simplifies performance prediction but also means there is no dynamic clock headroom to exploit under load.

The GPU's 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units provide the raw compute foundation for this game's rendering workload. The 18 ray tracing cores are present but the game's fixed-camera horror presentation likely does not leverage them heavily. The pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s are the specifications that matter most for this title's resolution scaling.

The 10 GB memory capacity is sufficient for the game's texture requirements, as evidenced by the playable Low and Medium results at all resolutions. The bandwidth figure of 380.0 GB/s becomes the limiting factor at higher settings, where the game demands more memory throughput. The dramatic FPS drop from Low to High settings at each resolution — from 78 to 35 FPS at 1080p, 66 to 29 FPS at 1440p, and 52 to 23 FPS at 4K — points to the memory subsystem struggling with the higher-quality assets.

The GPU's benchmark profile places it at the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 20556. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at 20534, a 0.1% difference. The Intel Arc A750 scores 20582, outperforming the B570 by 0.1%. These close margins indicate the B570 sits in a competitive performance band, but The Medium's specific demands expose its limitations at higher presets.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K?*

A: Yes, but only with the Low preset, which produces 52 FPS average. The Medium preset at 4K manages 32 FPS with a 27 FPS minimum, while High and Ultra dip to 23 FPS and 18 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gameplay?

A: The Medium preset is the optimal choice at 1080p, delivering 49 FPS average with a 41 FPS minimum. Low produces 78 FPS but sacrifices visual quality, while High drops to 35 FPS and Ultra to 28 FPS.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 is 0.1% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and 0.1% below the Intel Arc A750 (20582). The NVIDIA Quadro M4000M trails by 0.4% at 20480, while the AMD Radeon R9 M390X leads by 0.5% at 20662.

Q: Is the Ultra preset ever playable with this hardware?

A: No. The Ultra preset produces 28 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. None of these results approach the 30 FPS threshold, making Ultra a non-functional setting for actual gameplay.

Q: What frame rates does the High preset achieve?

A: High delivers 35 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K. Only the 1080p result exceeds 30 FPS, and it does so marginally. The High preset is not recommended for any resolution.

Q: How much performance does the Medium preset lose compared to Low?

A: At 1080p, Medium drops from 78 FPS to 49 FPS, a reduction of 29 FPS. At 1440p, it falls from 66 FPS to 41 FPS. At 4K, it goes from 52 FPS to 32 FPS. The consistent pattern shows roughly a 37% performance penalty for the visual upgrade.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rate data covers twelve configurations across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 78 FPS average, the highest result in the entire dataset. Medium produces 49 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS and maximum of 56 FPS. High drops to 35 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 28 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, Low remains the strongest performer at 66 FPS. Medium delivers 41 FPS with a 35 FPS minimum and 47 FPS maximum. High falls to 29 FPS, and Ultra reaches only 23 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1440p shows a consistent degradation pattern, with each preset tier costing approximately 20-25 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope narrows significantly. Low produces 52 FPS, Medium drops to 32 FPS with a 27 FPS minimum and 37 FPS maximum, High manages 23 FPS, and Ultra falls to 18 FPS. The 4K results reveal the hardware's limits, as even the Medium preset's minimum of 27 FPS approaches the unplayable threshold.

The minimum and maximum frame rate data is only available for the Medium preset at each resolution. At 1080p, the range spans 41 to 56 FPS, a 15 FPS spread. At 1440p, the range narrows to 35 to 47 FPS, a 12 FPS spread. At 4K, the range compresses to 27 to 37 FPS, a 10 FPS spread. The narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates the GPU becomes more consistently bottlenecked, reducing frame time variance but also lowering overall performance.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate degradation from 1080p to 4K follows a predictable pattern that reveals the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At Low settings, the 78 FPS at 1080p drops to 66 FPS at 1440p (a 12 FPS reduction) and then to 52 FPS at 4K (a further 14 FPS reduction). The total loss from 1080p to 4K is 26 FPS, representing a 33% performance decrease.

The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory: 49 FPS at 1080p, 41 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K. The absolute losses are 8 FPS and 9 FPS respectively, totaling 17 FPS lost from 1080p to 4K. The High preset starts at 35 FPS, drops to 29 FPS at 1440p, and reaches 23 FPS at 4K — a total loss of 12 FPS. Ultra follows the same pattern, going from 28 FPS to 23 FPS to 18 FPS.

The diminishing absolute losses at higher settings suggest that at Ultra, the GPU is already so saturated at 1080p that additional resolution has less marginal impact. Conversely, the larger absolute drops at Low settings indicate the GPU has more headroom to lose when resolution increases. This pattern strongly indicates the Arc B570's rendering pipeline — its 2304 shading units and 80 ROPs — is the limiting component, not the Ryzen 5 7600's processing power.

The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is steepest at Low settings (33% reduction) and shallowest at Ultra (36% reduction is actually the same relative loss as Low). The consistent relative degradation across all presets confirms that resolution scaling is the dominant factor, independent of settings complexity.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 provides ample processing headroom for The Medium, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate patterns that scale primarily with resolution and GPU settings rather than CPU-bound scenarios. The processor's 6 cores and 12 threads, based on the Zen 4 architecture codenamed Raphael, represent a modern mid-range configuration that comfortably handles this game's fixed-camera horror presentation.

The CPU's clock speeds of 3.80 GHz base and 5.10 GHz boost provide strong single-thread performance, which is reflected in its benchmark results. The single-thread score of 1852 in Cinebench R23 and 999 in 3DMark place it well above the threshold needed for game logic and rendering command processing. The multi-threaded performance, highlighted by a 12735 Cinebench R23 multicore score and a 13413 Geekbench multicore score, ensures the CPU does not become a bottleneck even when the game's background processes compete for resources.

The processor's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB per-core L2 cache provide fast access to frequently used data, which is crucial for maintaining consistent frame times. The DDR5 memory support with dual-channel configuration and 83.2 GB/s bandwidth aligns well with the GPU's 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, preventing a memory subsystem mismatch that could create stalls.

The Ryzen 5 7600's benchmark profile places it at the 78th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26324. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, scores 26274, a 0.2% difference. The Intel Core i9-11900KF trails by 0.4% at 26212, while the AMD Ryzen 5 8540U leads by 0.5% at 26187. These close margins confirm the 7600 sits in a competitive performance band where CPU limitations are unlikely to manifest in this game.

The fact that the Low preset at 1080p achieves 78 FPS while the same settings at 4K reach only 52 FPS underscores that the GPU is the performance limiter. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would remain relatively constant across resolutions since the CPU workload is largely resolution-independent. The data shows a clear resolution-based drop, confirming the Arc B570 is the component that determines playability in The Medium.