The Medium

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 with Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2321 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places the pairing in the lower-middle portion of the database, with roughly 80% of tested configurations delivering higher average frame rates. The ranking reflects a system that can run the game, but with notable compromises at higher settings and resolutions.

The combo's position becomes clearer when examining the component-level percentiles. The Ryzen 7 7700 sits in the 87th percentile among all CPUs, indicating strong processor performance relative to the broader market. However, the Intel Arc B570 lands in the 65th percentile among GPUs, showing mid-pack graphics capability. The substantial gap between CPU and GPU percentiles suggests the graphics card is the primary constraint in this pairing, a pattern consistent with the measured frame rates across the tested configurations.

Comparing the GPU to its nearest rivals in the database, the Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile at 20534, a difference of just 0.1%. The Intel Arc A750 trails by a negligible 0.1% at 20582, while the AMD Radeon R9 M390X sits 0.5% behind at 20662. These razor-thin margins indicate the Arc B570 performs squarely within a tight competitive cluster, though the data does not extend to game-specific comparisons for these rivals.

For the CPU, the Ryzen 7 7700's average benchmark score of 40081 places it 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 at 40048, while the Intel Core 5 221E leads by 0.2% at 40144. The AMD Ryzen 9 270 and Intel Core i9-13905H are 0.4% and 0.6% ahead, respectively. These differences are minor, reinforcing that the processor is not the limiting factor in most gaming scenarios.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 brings 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, delivering 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is adequate for The Medium's requirements at 1080p and 1440p, but the data shows diminishing returns at 4K where the highest settings push the card beyond its comfort zone. The GPU's clock speeds are fixed at 2500 MHz for both base and boost, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective), providing a stable foundation for the measured results.

Architecturally, the Arc B570 uses the Xe2-HPG design (Battlemage generation) with 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operations pipelines. The 18 ray tracing cores and support for DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) mean the card is technically capable of modern rendering features, though the measured frame rates suggest the raw throughput limits how effectively these features can be utilized in The Medium. The GPU's 11.52 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 360.0 GTexel/s texture rate are moderate figures that align with its mid-pack percentile ranking.

The card's pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s becomes relevant when examining resolution scaling. At 1080p, the GPU can maintain playable frame rates across most settings, but the transition to 1440p and 4K reveals a steep performance cliff. The data shows the Arc B570's 150 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU are modest requirements, but the performance envelope is clearly oriented toward 1080p gaming rather than high-resolution experiences.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on optimal settings for each resolution. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers 78 FPS on average, while Medium drops to 49 FPS, High to 35 FPS, and Ultra to 28 FPS. For smooth gameplay at 1080p, the Medium preset offers the best balance, providing a 49 FPS average with minimums of 41 FPS and maximums of 56 FPS. This keeps the experience above 30 FPS consistently while maintaining visual quality beyond the Low preset.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset achieves 66 FPS average, but Medium falls to 41 FPS with a range of 35-47 FPS. The High and Ultra presets are less viable at 29 FPS and 23 FPS respectively. The Medium preset at 1440p remains the recommended choice for users prioritizing frame rate stability, as the 41 FPS average stays comfortably above playable thresholds, though minimums dip close to 30 FPS.

For 3840x2160, the situation is more constrained. Low settings produce 52 FPS average, while Medium drops to 32 FPS with a range of 27-37 FPS. High and Ultra are effectively unplayable at 23 FPS and 18 FPS. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this combo requires the Low preset for acceptable performance, and even then, the 52 FPS average is the only configuration above 30 FPS at this resolution.

The overall recommendation is to use Medium settings at 1080p or 1440p, or Low settings at 4K, depending on resolution preference. The Medium preset's measured minimums and maximums show the most consistent frame delivery across all resolutions, making it the safest choice for a stable experience.

FAQ

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its closest GPU rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 is within 0.5% of all four nearest rivals. It sits 0.1% above the RTX 3070 Mobile (20534), 0.1% below the Arc A750 (20582), 0.4% above the Quadro M4000M (20480), and 0.5% below the R9 M390X (20662).

Q: What is the best settings preset for playing The Medium at 1080p with this combo?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 provides a 49 FPS average with minimums of 41 FPS and maximums of 56 FPS. This offers the best balance between visual quality and frame rate stability, as Low delivers 78 FPS but with reduced graphics, while High and Ultra drop to 35 FPS and 28 FPS respectively.

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

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, which produce a 52 FPS average. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 32 FPS (27-37 FPS range), while High and Ultra are below playable thresholds at 23 FPS and 18 FPS respectively.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 7700's CPU performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 7700's average benchmark score of 40081 is 0.1% ahead of the Ryzen AI 9 365 (40048), 0.2% behind the Core 5 221E (40144), 0.4% behind the Ryzen 9 270 (40246), and 0.6% behind the Core i9-13905H (40313).

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested configurations in The Medium?

A: The combo ranks 2321 out of 2911 tested combos, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This rank reflects the GPU's mid-pack performance limiting the overall experience despite the CPU's strong 87th percentile standing.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 delivers a 41 FPS average with minimums of 35 FPS and maximums of 47 FPS. This is the recommended 1440p configuration, as Low offers 66 FPS but with reduced quality, while High and Ultra fall to 29 FPS and 23 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern in how performance scales with resolution. At Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 49 FPS at 1080p to 41 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 16.3%. Moving from 1440p to 4K, the average falls further to 32 FPS, a 22.0% decrease. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings is 34.7%, showing that the GPU becomes increasingly strained as pixel count rises.

The Low preset demonstrates different scaling behavior. At 1080p, Low achieves 78 FPS, dropping to 66 FPS at 1440p (15.4% decrease) and 52 FPS at 4K (21.2% decrease from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Low is 33.3%, similar to the Medium preset's scaling. This consistency suggests the limiting factor remains the GPU across all settings, as the CPU's strong performance does not compensate for the graphics card's bandwidth and throughput constraints.

The High preset shows more dramatic scaling. At 1080p, High delivers 35 FPS, falling to 29 FPS at 1440p (17.1% decrease) and 23 FPS at 4K (20.7% decrease from 1440p). The Ultra preset follows a similar trajectory with 28 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p (17.9% decrease), and 18 FPS at 4K (21.7% decrease). The steeper relative drops at higher settings indicate that the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading resources are exhausted more quickly as resolution increases.

The data indicates that the Arc B570's 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 200.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are the primary bottlenecks at higher resolutions. The 10 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient, but the 160-bit bus width limits how efficiently the card can feed the rendering pipeline at 4K. This conclusion is supported by the fact that even at Low settings, 4K performance (52 FPS) does not reach the 1080p Medium performance (49 FPS), showing that resolution alone imposes a significant penalty regardless of settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700 provides 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.30 GHz. The CPU's 32 MB shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 cache per core (64 KB L1 per core) offer substantial on-chip storage for game data. The 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth round out a specification sheet that places the CPU in the 87th percentile among all processors.

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU's capabilities across various workloads. In Cinebench R23, the multicore score of 18760 and single-core score of 1930 demonstrate strong threading performance and solid single-thread speed. Geekbench results show 15371 multicore and 2525 single-core, while 3DMark tests reveal scaling from 1049 single-thread to 8484 at 16 threads and 8479 at max threads. These figures indicate the CPU can handle both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads without significant bottlenecks.

In The Medium specifically, the CPU's performance appears more than adequate for the frame rates achieved. At 1080p Medium, the 49 FPS average is well within the CPU's capability to feed frames to the GPU. Even at 4K Low (52 FPS), the CPU maintains sufficient headroom. The nearest CPU rivals, all within 0.6% in average benchmark scores, reinforce that the processor is not the differentiator in this combo's performance.

The CPU's 5 nm process node and 6,570 million transistors on a 71 mm² die contribute to its efficiency, but the key takeaway from the data is that the Ryzen 7 7700's performance ceiling far exceeds what the Arc B570 can deliver in this game. The CPU's 87th percentile ranking versus the GPU's 65th percentile highlights this imbalance, with the measured FPS confirming that the graphics card is the limiting component across all tested settings and resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers a range of performance depending on settings. The Low preset achieves 78 FPS average, the highest measured in the entire dataset. Medium drops to 49 FPS with a range of 41-56 FPS, providing smooth gameplay. High falls to 35 FPS, while Ultra bottoms out at 28 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 64.1% reduction in average frame rate, illustrating the significant cost of higher visual quality at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the Low preset still delivers a playable 66 FPS average. Medium maintains 41 FPS with 35 FPS minimums and 47 FPS maximums, keeping the experience above 30 FPS. High drops to 29 FPS, and Ultra falls to 23 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at each setting is consistent, ranging from 15.4% (Low) to 20.7% (Ultra), indicating the GPU handles the increased pixel count predictably.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes more constrained. Low settings produce 52 FPS average, the only 4K preset above 30 FPS. Medium delivers 32 FPS with a range of 27-37 FPS, dipping below 30 FPS at minimums. High and Ultra are largely unplayable at 23 FPS and 18 FPS respectively. The data shows that 4K requires sacrificing visual quality to maintain acceptable frame rates, with Low settings offering the only consistently playable experience.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset provides the most balanced performance profile. At 1080p, it offers 49 FPS (vs 78 Low, 35 High, 28 Ultra); at 1440p, 41 FPS (vs 66 Low, 29 High, 23 Ultra); at 4K, 32 FPS (vs 52 Low, 23 High, 18 Ultra). The measured minimums and maximums for Medium settings show tighter variance (e.g., 41-56 FPS at 1080p) compared to the broader swings typical of higher presets, reinforcing the recommendation for Medium as the optimal settings choice across the board.