The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D paired with the Intel Arc B570 presents a fascinating study in system bottlenecks when running The Medium. The benchmark data reveals a configuration that is heavily constrained by the graphics card at higher resolutions, yet shows surprising headroom in specific settings, placing the combo in the 79th percentile of all tested configurations. This analysis breaks down the measured performance to understand where the limits lie and what the data implies for playability.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, revealing a classic GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 78 FPS at 1920x1080 to 66 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 12 FPS. Moving to 4K (3840x2160) under the same Low preset, the average plummets to 52 FPS, a 26 FPS drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern indicates that the Intel Arc B570's rendering throughput is the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases.

The trend becomes even more pronounced when examining the Medium preset, where the average FPS goes from 49 at 1080p to 41 at 1440p, and then drops to 32 at 4K. The 4K result represents a 34.7% decrease from the 1440p figure, a larger relative jump than the 16.3% decrease seen when moving from 1080p to 1440p. This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU is not just struggling with raw pixel count, but also with the memory bandwidth and fill rate demands that 4K resolution places on the 10 GB VRAM buffer and 160-bit bus.

High and Ultra settings show the same pattern, with High falling from 35 FPS at 1080p to 29 FPS at 1440p, and then to 23 FPS at 4K. Ultra is the most demanding, dropping from 28 FPS at 1080p to 18 FPS at 4K, which is a 35.7% reduction. The consistency of this scaling across all presets confirms that the CPU, with its 8 cores and 16 threads from the Zen 3 architecture, is not the bottleneck here; the game's engine is clearly scaling its workload in a way that disproportionately taxes the GPU as resolution increases.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D's specifications suggest it should be more than capable of feeding the Arc B570 in The Medium. With a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, along with a massive 96 MB of shared L3 cache, the CPU has ample resources for game logic and draw calls. The benchmark data for the CPU shows a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14317 and a single-core score of 1452, placing it in the 80th percentile of all CPUs. This indicates strong raw processing power that is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any of the tested resolutions.

The fact that the FPS scales so consistently with resolution—rather than staying flat or fluctuating wildly—is the key indicator that the CPU is not the constraint. In a CPU-bound scenario, we would expect to see similar FPS at 1080p and 1440p, with the GPU only becoming the limiter at very high resolutions. Instead, the data shows a smooth, predictable drop in performance as resolution increases, which is the hallmark of a GPU-limited workload.

Furthermore, the CPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals is telling. The 5800X3D's average benchmark score of 27896 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (27887) and Intel Core i9-10900K (27872), with delta percentages of 0.0% and 0.1% respectively. This places it in a performance tier where it is unlikely to hold back a mid-range GPU like the Arc B570, especially in a game that primarily stresses the graphics pipeline with its fixed camera angles and pre-rendered environments.

How This Combo Ranks

The combined system ranks 2321 out of 2911 tested combinations in The Medium, placing it in the 79th percentile of all possible pairings. This is a solid result, indicating that while the combo is not at the top tier of performance, it is significantly better than a large portion of the tested hardware configurations. The rank suggests that this pairing is well-balanced for the game's requirements, though the GPU is clearly the limiting factor in achieving higher frame rates.

This ranking is somewhat surprising given the CPU's strength and the GPU's mid-range positioning. The data implies that the Arc B570 is holding the combo back from a higher ranking, as the 5800X3D is capable of driving much more powerful graphics cards. The percentile ranking of the GPU itself is 65, which is lower than the CPU's 80, further confirming that the graphics card is the weaker link in this pairing.

When considering the combo's position, it is useful to think about what it would take to improve the ranking. Swapping the Arc B570 for a more powerful GPU would likely push the combo into a higher percentile, as the CPU has significant headroom. However, as configured, the system delivers a playable experience at lower settings and resolutions, making it a viable option for those prioritizing CPU-heavy tasks outside of gaming while still enjoying The Medium at acceptable frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system achieves an average of 78 FPS on Low, 49 FPS on Medium, 35 FPS on High, and 28 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset at this resolution shows a minimum of 41 FPS and a maximum of 56 FPS, indicating a playable range for most of the experience.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop to 66 FPS on Low, 41 FPS on Medium, 29 FPS on High, and 23 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset at 1440p shows a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 47 FPS, which is still within the territory of playability for a slower-paced horror title. At 3840x2160, the performance becomes more challenging: Low averages 52 FPS, Medium averages 32 FPS, High averages 23 FPS, and Ultra drops to a mere 18 FPS.

The Medium preset at 4K shows a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS, suggesting that even the minimum frame rate is low enough to be noticeably stuttery. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is significant, with a 20 FPS difference, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 5 FPS. This indicates that the game's Ultra preset imposes a heavy cost for marginal visual gains, while the jump from Low to Medium is more demanding but also provides a more substantial visual improvement.

FAQ

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

A: At 1920x1080, the system delivers 78 FPS on Low and 49 FPS on Medium, making it the most fluid experience. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 41 FPS, which is still playable, while 3840x2160 only offers 32 FPS on Medium, which is borderline.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck for this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the bottleneck. FPS scales consistently with resolution, dropping from 78 FPS at 1080p Low to 52 FPS at 4K Low. This pattern is characteristic of a graphics-bound workload, not a CPU-bound one.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High?

A: The Ultra preset is significantly more demanding. At 1080p, Ultra averages 28 FPS compared to High's 35 FPS. At 4K, Ultra drops to 18 FPS while High manages 23 FPS, showing a consistent 5-7 FPS penalty for the highest settings.

Q: Can this system run the game at 4K?

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, where it achieves 52 FPS. At Medium, the average drops to 32 FPS, which may be acceptable for some, but High and Ultra are not recommended due to averages of 23 and 18 FPS respectively.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1080p and 1440p?

A: At Medium settings, the average FPS drops from 49 at 1080p to 41 at 1440p, an 8 FPS difference. At Low settings, the drop is 12 FPS (78 to 66). The relative decrease is similar across all presets, around 15-20%.

Q: How does the Arc B570's performance compare to its rivals?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20556, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and the Intel Arc A750 (20582), with delta percentages of 0.1% and -0.1% respectively. This indicates the B570 is on par with those GPUs in general compute tasks.

Settings Recommendations

The data strongly suggests that the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and playability for this combo. At 1080p, Medium averages 49 FPS with a minimum of 41 FPS, which is smooth enough for the game's deliberate pacing. At 1440p, Medium averages 41 FPS, which is still acceptable, and even at 4K, it manages 32 FPS, though the minimum of 27 FPS means occasional dips into stutter territory.

For a more consistent 60 FPS experience, the Low preset is the only option, delivering 78 FPS at 1080p and 66 FPS at 1440p. However, this comes at a significant visual cost, likely reducing texture quality and shadow fidelity. The High preset is a middle ground, offering 35 FPS at 1080p, but it falls to 23 FPS at 4K, making it less viable for higher resolutions. Ultra is not recommended for this GPU, as it only achieves 28 FPS at 1080p and drops below 20 FPS at 4K.

Given the horror genre's reliance on atmosphere, the Medium preset at 1080p or 1440p seems like the sweet spot. It provides enough detail to maintain immersion while keeping the frame rate in a playable range. Players with a high refresh rate monitor should stick to 1080p Low for maximum smoothness, while those with a 1440p display can use Medium without major compromises.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570's role in this combo is to render the game's fixed-camera scenes, and its specifications show a capable mid-range part that is stretched at higher resolutions. With 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, the GPU has a memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s, which is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming but becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The 2304 shading units and 80 ROPs provide a theoretical pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s, which helps explain the consistent performance scaling.

The GPU's boost clock of 2500 MHz and 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power are respectable for the segment, but the data shows they are not enough to maintain high frame rates in The Medium at max settings. The GPU's passmark G3D score of 14195 and its 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs place it below the top tier, which is consistent with the measured FPS results. The GPU's nearest rivals, the RTX 3070 Mobile and Arc A750, show nearly identical average scores, indicating that this level of performance is expected from this class of hardware.

The 18 ray tracing cores are present, but the game's performance at Ultra settings suggests that even without heavy RT workloads, the GPU is taxed. The memory clock of 2375 MHz and 19 Gbps effective speed are standard for GDDR6, and the bandwidth is likely the key constraint at 4K, where the 10 GB VRAM buffer may also be close to capacity. The data implies that the GPU is the definitive limiting component in this pairing, and its performance dictates that players must make significant compromises in settings to achieve playable frame rates at higher resolutions.