The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G and Intel Arc B580 combination produces a highly variable experience in The Medium, with average frame rates ranging from 23.1 FPS at 4K Ultra to 90.1 FPS at 1080p Low. The data indicates a system that is heavily constrained by graphics settings and resolution, yet shows surprising headroom at lower presets. This analysis breaks down the measured performance, the roles of the CPU and GPU, and how this specific pairing ranks among all tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, but the shape of that cliff changes dramatically depending on the quality preset. At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 90.1 FPS at 1920x1080 to 76.2 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 15%. Moving further to 3840x2160, the average falls to 56.8 FPS, which is still quite playable and represents a 37% drop from the 1080p baseline. This pattern suggests that at Low settings, the system is not entirely overwhelmed by pixel count, and the GPU retains enough headroom to manage the increased load.

However, the scaling behavior at higher presets tells a different story. At High settings, the frame rate barely moves between 1080p and 1440p: 36.9 FPS at 1080p versus 36.2 FPS at 1440p. This near-flat line indicates that the bottleneck is no longer the resolution but rather the scene complexity and shading load, which do not scale linearly with pixel count. The 4K High result of 29.1 FPS confirms this, as the drop from 1440p is only about 20%, far less than the 2.25x pixel increase would suggest.

The Ultra preset shows the most severe degradation. Starting at 33.9 FPS at 1080p, it falls to 27.8 FPS at 1440p and finally to 23.1 FPS at 4K. The 1080p Ultra score is already lower than the 1440p High score, which strongly implies that the game's Ultra settings introduce effects that tax the GPU's compute and memory subsystems far more than the raw resolution does. The 4K Ultra result of 23.1 FPS is below the threshold for smooth gameplay, making it the only preset where the system becomes effectively unplayable across all resolutions.

The Medium preset occupies a middle ground, with 55.4 FPS at 1080p, 44.6 FPS at 1440p, and 34.6 FPS at 4K. This shows a more linear scaling pattern, suggesting that Medium balances the load between resolution and shading effects. The data points to the GPU as the primary limiting factor at 4K, since even the Low preset cannot reach 60 FPS at that resolution, while the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where the frame rate ceiling is higher.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications align with the observed scaling. With 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, the card offers 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is substantial, but the game's demands at Ultra settings likely exceed the effective throughput, explaining why the 4K Ultra score collapses to 23.1 FPS. The GPU's 2560 shading units and 80 ROPs are tasked with rendering the dual-world mechanics of The Medium, which likely explains the heavy performance penalty at higher presets.

The card's clock behavior is notable: both base and boost clocks are listed at 2670 MHz, which is a narrow operating range. The FP32 performance of 13.67 TFLOPS and texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s provide the raw compute necessary for the game's fixed-camera scenes but appear insufficient for maintaining high frame rates at 4K. The measured data confirms this: the difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 90.1 FPS versus 33.9 FPS, a 62% reduction, which indicates a massive increase in per-pixel work that the GPU cannot hide.

The GPU's benchmark scores place it in context. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 3068 and Passmark G3D score of 15748 are modest, and its percentile rank of 66 among all GPUs shows it is a mid-tier part. When compared to its nearest rivals, the Arc B580 sits within 1.3% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile and within 0.7% of the desktop RTX 4060, but the deltaPct values are small, meaning the performance class is similar. However, the measured FPS in The Medium shows that this GPU, when paired with the 5700G, cannot deliver a locked 60 FPS at any preset above 1080p Low, which is a critical limitation for a game that relies on atmospheric tension over fast action.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G is a 5000-series processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its Zen 3 architecture on the Cezanne die is built on a 7 nm process. In this game, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, but its capabilities still define the upper bound of performance at lower resolutions. The 5700G's Cinebench R23 multicore score of 20755 and Passmark multithread score of 24419 indicate strong multi-threaded throughput, which is relevant for a game that must manage two simultaneous worlds.

The single-thread performance, measured by a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2930 and a Passmark single-thread score of 3283, is adequate for the game's logic but not exceptional. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 90.1 FPS, which suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at moderate frame rates. However, the fact that the 1080p High and 1440p High scores are nearly identical (36.9 vs 36.2 FPS) implies that the CPU is not the bottleneck in these cases; the GPU is. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect a more significant FPS drop when moving from 1080p to 1440p, as the CPU would have to prepare more frames per second.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s and dual-channel DDR4 support are modest, but they do not appear to be the limiting factor in this test. The 5700G's integrated graphics are present, but the discrete Arc B580 handles all rendering, so the CPU's 16 MB of L3 cache and 512 KB per core L2 cache are the relevant specs for game logic. The CPU's percentile rank of 83 versus all CPUs and its nearest rival deltas (within 0.6% of the AMD Ryzen 5 7640U) show that it is a solid performer, but it is not a high-end part that would push frame rates beyond what the GPU allows.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combo?

A: The highest measured average is 90.1 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

*Q: Is this combo capable of 4K gaming in The Medium?*

A: At 4K, the combo reaches 56.8 FPS on Low and 34.6 FPS on Medium, but drops to 23.1 FPS on Ultra, indicating that playable 4K is only possible on Low settings.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rival in terms of benchmark scores?

A: The Intel Arc B580 has an average benchmark score of 23021, which is 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060's score of 23181.

Q: What is the CPU's multi-threaded performance level?

A: The Ryzen 7 5700G scores 20755 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 24419 in Passmark multithread, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs.

Q: Does the frame rate scale linearly with resolution?

A: No, the scaling is non-linear. At High settings, the FPS is nearly identical between 1080p (36.9) and 1440p (36.2), showing a GPU bottleneck independent of resolution.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 1292 out of 1689 total tested combos, placing it in the lower 25% of all configurations.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G + Intel Arc B580 combo is ranked 1292 out of 1689 tested combinations, which places it in the bottom quarter of the database. This rank is a direct reflection of the measured performance in The Medium, where the average FPS across all settings and resolutions is skewed by the very low scores at 4K Ultra and 1440p Ultra. The rank of 1292 indicates that a majority of other CPU-GPU pairings can deliver higher frame rates in this specific title, likely because they feature more powerful graphics cards or better-balanced CPUs.

The gap between this combo and the top performers is significant, but the data also shows that it is not the worst option. With 397 combos ranking below it, there are many systems that perform worse. The combo's position is driven by the GPU's mid-tier status (66th percentile) and the CPU's solid but not elite performance (83rd percentile). The pairing of a strong CPU with a mid-range GPU creates a situation where the GPU is almost always the limiting factor, as evidenced by the lack of FPS scaling between 1080p and 1440p at High settings. For a user seeking to play The Medium at high frame rates, this rank suggests that a more powerful GPU would be a better investment than a faster CPU, given the current bottleneck.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings based on resolution and target frame rate. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the only consistently smooth experience, with an average of 90.1 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 55.4 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for a game with frequent scene transitions. High and Ultra at 1080p fall to 36.9 and 33.9 FPS respectively, which are below the 60 FPS threshold and should be avoided if smoothness is a priority.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset is the only viable option for high refresh rate gaming, achieving 76.2 FPS. The Medium preset at 44.6 FPS is borderline acceptable, but the High and Ultra presets (36.2 and 27.8 FPS) are too slow for comfortable play. The data suggests that 1440p is only recommended with Low settings, as the GPU cannot handle higher presets at this resolution without significant frame drops.

For 3840x2160, the Low preset is the only setting that approaches playability, with an average of 56.8 FPS. This is a surprising result, as it shows the combo can handle 4K if the visual features are stripped down. The Medium preset at 34.6 FPS and High at 29.1 FPS are not recommended, and Ultra at 23.1 FPS is entirely unplayable. The overall recommendation is to use Low settings at any resolution above 1080p, and to accept Medium only at 1080p if 55 FPS is sufficient. The data shows that the Arc B580's 12 GB of VRAM is not the limiting factor, but rather the shading and compute load of higher presets, so users should prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity with this hardware.