The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 paired with the Intel Arc B370 produces a very specific performance envelope in The Medium, one defined by the GPU’s integrated-class design. The measured data shows that this combination is only viable at the lowest graphical preset, and even then, it is on the edge of playability. Benchmark results indicate that the system is heavily GPU-limited across all tested resolutions, with the CPU’s substantial multi-threaded headroom remaining largely untapped.

Settings Recommendations

The data for this combo shows a stark reality: the Intel Arc B370 is the limiting factor at every settings level. At 1920x1080, the most common resolution, the Low preset delivers an average of 46 FPS. This is the only preset in the entire measurement set that approaches a smooth experience. The Medium preset at the same resolution drops to 29 FPS, which is a 37% reduction in average frame rate, pushing the experience into a range where stutter and input lag become noticeable. The High and Ultra presets are effectively unplayable, with averages of 21 FPS and 16 FPS, respectively.

The data suggests that the Low preset is the only recommended configuration for this hardware. While 46 FPS is not a locked 60, it is the only measured point that provides a reasonably fluid frame pacing. Attempting to use Medium settings at 1920x1080 results in an average below 30 FPS, which is generally considered the minimum threshold for a playable action game. The 29 FPS average on Medium, with a minimum of 24 FPS, would result in frequent and noticeable hitches.

At higher resolutions, the situation becomes worse. At 2560x1440 with Low settings, the average drops to 39 FPS. At 3840x2160 with Low settings, the average is 30 FPS. The data indicates that to maintain a playable frame rate, the user must sacrifice resolution or settings; there is no headroom for quality improvements. The performance delta between Low and Medium is consistent across all resolutions, suggesting the GPU is rendering more complex shaders and effects that it cannot handle. For a playable experience, the Low preset is the only sensible choice.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics processor with a 25 W TDP and a boost clock of 2400 MHz. Its performance in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test is 1184 points, placing it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. The data shows this is a very low-performing part, and the FPS measurements in The Medium directly reflect that. The GPU’s memory is "System Shared", meaning it uses a portion of the system’s DDR4 RAM, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent". This architecture is a primary reason for the performance ceiling observed.

The GPU’s clock behavior is not detailed in the measured FPS data, but its raw specs are telling. With 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs, the Arc B370 has a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s. These are very low figures for a modern game. The FP32 performance is 6.144 TFLOPS, which is insufficient for the demands of The Medium at higher settings. The nearest rivals for this GPU, such as the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M, are all legacy parts from over a decade ago, confirming its position at the bottom of the performance stack.

The GPU’s role is the primary bottleneck. In the measured data, the FPS scales almost linearly with the resolution and settings. For example, at 1920x1080, the difference between Low (46 FPS) and Ultra (16 FPS) is a 65% drop in performance. This is a classic sign of a GPU that is starved for compute and memory bandwidth. The 10 RT cores are present for ray tracing, but given the overall performance, enabling such features would be catastrophic to the frame rate. The data does not include any ray tracing measurements, but the standard rasterization performance indicates the GPU is not suitable for any form of high-fidelity rendering.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable pattern when scaling resolution. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 46 FPS at 1920x1080 to 39 FPS at 2560x1440, a 15% reduction. Moving to 3840x2160 yields 30 FPS, a further 23% reduction from 1440p. This scaling is not linear with pixel count (4K has 4x the pixels of 1080p), but the drop is still severe. This indicates that while the GPU is the limit, the system memory bandwidth and the GPU’s compute units are all being saturated.

At Medium settings, the scaling is more dramatic. The average FPS is 29 at 1080p, 24 at 1440p, and 19 at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 34%. At High settings, the averages are 21, 17, and 14 FPS respectively, a 33% drop from 1080p to 4K. Finally, at Ultra, the averages are 16, 14, and 11 FPS, a 31% drop. The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings suggests that the bottleneck is uniform. The GPU is not running out of a specific resource (like VRAM or shader cores) at a certain resolution; instead, it is simply overwhelmed by the increasing pixel workload.

This data points to a GPU that is the limiting component at all times. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see the FPS remain relatively flat when lowering the resolution, as the CPU would still be the constraint. The data shows the opposite: FPS increases as resolution decreases, which is a textbook sign of a GPU-bound scenario. The combination is not viable for 4K gaming, and even 1440p is a stretch, as the only playable setting is Low at 39 FPS. The system is firmly a 1080p, Low-settings machine for this title.

FAQ

Q: What is the best playable settings preset for this CPU/GPU combo in The Medium?

A: The data indicates that the Low preset is the only viable option. At 1920x1080, it achieves an average of 46 FPS. The next step up, Medium, drops to 29 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is this combo capable of running The Medium at 4K resolution?

A: Technically, yes, but not playably. The best result at 3840x2160 is on the Low preset with an average of 30 FPS. The Medium, High, and Ultra presets yield averages of 19, 14, and 11 FPS, respectively, which are all unplayable.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B370 scores 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. This is within 1% of the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186) and the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190). It is 1.4% faster than the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168). This places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs, indicating entry-level integrated performance.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The average FPS drops from 46 on Low to 16 on Ultra. This is a 65% reduction in performance, demonstrating the GPU’s inability to handle the increased shader complexity and texture detail of higher presets.

Q: Does the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 CPU bottleneck the system in this game?

A: No. The data shows that FPS scales heavily with resolution and settings, which is a clear indicator of a GPU bottleneck. The CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads and scores 20655 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, showing it has ample processing power for this game.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only measured minimum FPS values are on the Medium preset. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 24 FPS; at 2560x1440, it is 21 FPS; and at 3840x2160, it is 16 FPS. These lows confirm that even the Medium preset is prone to significant frame drops.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 is a Zen 3 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, running on the AMD Socket AM4 platform. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. This is a powerful CPU for gaming, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20655 and single-core score of 2916. In the context of The Medium, the data shows that this CPU is not the limiting factor. The FPS measurements are consistently low across all settings, which indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck.

The CPU’s performance percentile is 78, meaning it is faster than 78% of all CPUs in the benchmark database. This places it in a strong position, with its nearest rivals being the Intel Xeon D-2752TER (0.1% slower) and the AMD Ryzen 5 6600H (0.1% slower). With a 65 W TDP and 16 MB of L3 cache, the Ryzen 7 5700 is a capable processor for any gaming workload. However, in this specific combo, its power is left unused.

The benchmark results for the CPU show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Passmark multithread score of 24303 and a Geekbench multi-core score of 9959. These scores suggest that even in CPU-intensive scenes, the Ryzen 7 5700 would be able to feed the GPU with data without becoming a bottleneck. The fact that the FPS drops so dramatically when moving from Low to Ultra settings (e.g., from 46 to 16 FPS at 1080p) proves that the GPU is being saturated, not the CPU. The CPU is likely idling, waiting for the Arc B370 to finish rendering each frame. This is a classic imbalance, where a high-end CPU is paired with a low-end integrated GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS data for this combo is as follows. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 46 FPS. The Medium preset averages 29 FPS, with a minimum of 24 FPS and a maximum of 33 FPS. The High preset averages 21 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 16 FPS. There are no minimum or maximum values recorded for the Low, High, or Ultra presets, only the average.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 39 FPS. The Medium preset averages 24 FPS, with a minimum of 21 FPS and a maximum of 28 FPS. The High preset averages 17 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 14 FPS. The pattern of performance is identical to 1080p, just shifted downward. The delta between Low and Medium is 15 FPS (39 to 24), which is a 38% drop. This is slightly larger than the 37% drop at 1080p, indicating the higher resolution exacerbates the GPU’s weakness.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 30 FPS. The Medium preset averages 19 FPS, with a minimum of 16 FPS and a maximum of 22 FPS. The High preset averages 14 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 11 FPS. At this resolution, even the Low preset is borderline unplayable, as 30 FPS is the bare minimum for a cinematic feel, but the frame time consistency is likely poor. The data shows a linear regression in performance across all settings and resolutions, with no anomalies. The Arc B370 is consistently overwhelmed, and the Ryzen 7 5700 is consistently waiting.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and the Intel Arc B370 ranks 2681st out of 2911 tested combinations in The Medium. This places it in the bottom 8% of all systems tested. This low ranking is entirely attributable to the GPU. The CPU is a high-performing part, ranking in the 78th percentile of all CPUs, but the GPU is in the 5th percentile. The pairing creates a massive imbalance that drags the overall system performance down.

The ranking indicates that 2680 other CPU/GPU combinations achieve higher frame rates in this game. This is not surprising given the GPU’s performance level. The Arc B370’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are all over a decade old, and those parts would not be expected to run a 2021 horror game well either. The combo rank is a direct reflection of the measured FPS data, which shows the system is only capable of playing the game at the lowest settings and resolution.

The data suggests that this is not a viable gaming configuration for The Medium. The 2681st rank out of 2911 is a clear verdict. While the CPU offers headroom for a much more powerful discrete GPU, the integrated Arc B370 is a severe bottleneck. The system is effectively limited to 1080p Low settings, and even then, it does not reach the 60 FPS mark. The combo is a demonstration of how a powerful processor cannot compensate for a weak graphics solution in a GPU-bound title. The benchmark results confirm that the user would need to significantly upgrade the GPU to achieve a playable experience at higher settings.