The Medium

The Medium presents a uniquely demanding scenario for the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D paired with the Intel Arc B370. This combination, ranked 2681 out of 2911 tested combos for this title, places it in the bottom percentile of systems, indicating a severe bottleneck that stems almost entirely from the graphics processor. The data reveals a system where the CPU’s substantial processing power is rendered largely irrelevant by the GPU’s inability to keep pace, particularly at higher resolutions and quality settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo achieves in The Medium?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 46 FPS, which occurs at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the measured data that approaches playable territory.

Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested combinations in this game?

A: The combo holds a rank of 2681 out of 2911 total tested combos. This places it in the bottom 8% of all systems tested, highlighting its status as a very low-performing configuration for this specific title.

Q: At which resolution and settings does the system achieve its lowest performance?

A: The lowest average frame rate is 11 FPS, recorded at 3840x2160 (4K) resolution with Ultra settings. This indicates that the GPU is completely overwhelmed by the demands of 4K and maximum graphical fidelity.

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

A: At 1920x1080, the average frame rate drops from 46 FPS on Low settings to 16 FPS on Ultra settings. This represents a 65% reduction in performance, demonstrating the massive cost of higher graphical presets on this GPU.

Q: Does the CPU show any signs of being the limiting factor in this game?

A: No, the benchmark results indicate the opposite. The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D has a strong average benchmark score of 33079 and an 83rd percentile ranking among all CPUs. The dramatic frame rate drops with resolution and settings clearly point to the Intel Arc B370 as the primary constraint.

Q: Is the frame rate at 1440p with Medium settings stable?

A: The data shows an average of 24 FPS at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, with a minimum of 21 FPS and a maximum of 28 FPS. This indicates a relatively narrow frame time variance, but the overall performance level is still very low.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a desktop processor built on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Raphael. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its defining characteristic is the large 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is designed to give a significant performance advantage in gaming workloads. The processor's benchmark scores are robust, including a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 16817 and a single-core score of 1713. Its 3DMark scores scale from 959 for a single thread up to 7980 for 16 threads, showing strong multi-threaded capabilities.

In the context of The Medium, however, this CPU power is not being utilized. The game’s performance is not determined by the processor’s ability to handle game logic or physics, but rather by the GPU’s capacity to render frames. The processor sits at the 83rd percentile compared to all other CPUs, meaning it is more powerful than the vast majority of its peers. Despite this, the system’s frame rates are among the lowest ever recorded for this game.

This suggests that The Medium is a title where the graphical load is so heavy that even a top-tier CPU like the 7800X3D is left waiting for the GPU to finish its work. The CPU’s 83.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth and support for DDR5 memory are also irrelevant when the GPU is the clear bottleneck. The data indicates that this processor is not a limiting factor in any of the tested configurations; the GPU is the sole reason for the low frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across the four tested presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset yields an average of 46 FPS, which is the only setting that provides a somewhat fluid experience. The Medium preset drops to 29 FPS, High to 21 FPS, and Ultra to 16 FPS. The pattern is consistent across all resolutions: each step up in quality yields a significant reduction in performance.

For 2560x1440, the Low preset still manages an average of 39 FPS, which is the only viable option at this resolution. The Medium preset falls to 24 FPS, while High and Ultra are at 17 and 14 FPS respectively. The situation is even more challenging at 3840x2160, where even the Low preset only achieves an average of 30 FPS. The Medium preset drops to 19 FPS, with High at 14 FPS and Ultra at a mere 11 FPS.

The best experience, according to the data, is to play at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. This is the only configuration that offers an average frame rate above 40 FPS. At 1440p, the Low preset is also the most sensible choice, though it comes with a noticeable performance penalty compared to 1080p. Given the steep performance cost of the Medium, High, and Ultra presets, they cannot be recommended for any playable experience with this hardware. The data suggests that users should prioritize resolution and preset to maximize frame rate, settling for the Low preset even at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Intel Arc B370 combination ranks 2681 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the bottom 8% of all systems tested, a very poor result that underscores the GPU’s limitations. The ranking is a direct consequence of the low frame rates achieved across all tested settings.

The CPU's individual performance is not the issue. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D sits in the 83rd percentile for all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 33079. Its nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Intel Core i7-13650HX, have nearly identical average scores with a 0% delta. This shows that the processor is a high-end part that should not be the cause of such a low in-game rank.

In contrast, the Intel Arc B370 is in the 5th percentile for all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1184. Its nearest rivals are older, low-power parts like the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 and ATI Radeon HD 5770, with deltas of -0.2% and -0.5% respectively. This GPU is clearly a low-performance component, and its capability is the primary reason for the combo’s low rank. The data implies that this processor is being held back by an extremely weak graphics solution, resulting in a system that is fundamentally unbalanced for a demanding game like The Medium.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics processor (IGP) based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz. Its memory is "System Shared," meaning it uses a portion of the system's main memory rather than having its own dedicated VRAM. The bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent," which indicates it relies on the speed of the system's memory bus.

The GPU’s performance in The Medium is very poor. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1184, which places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. It has 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs, with a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s. Its FP32 compute power is 6.144 TFLOPS. These figures are all quite low for a modern game, and the benchmark results in The Medium reflect this. The GPU is the definitive bottleneck, as evidenced by the massive frame rate drops when resolution and settings are increased.

The fact that the GPU relies on shared system memory is a likely contributor to its weak performance. The data shows that at 1080p, increasing the preset from Low to Ultra reduces the average frame rate from 46 to 16. At 4K, the same preset change drops the average from 30 to 11. This pattern shows a GPU that is quickly overwhelmed by the increasing memory bandwidth and shader demands of higher resolutions and quality settings. The GPU's low percentile ranking and its proximity in performance to much older, discrete parts like the ATI Radeon HD 5770 confirm its status as a very weak component for this workload.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its best results. With Low settings, the average frame rate is 46 FPS. Switching to Medium drops the average to 29 FPS, with a minimum of 24 and a maximum of 33 FPS. The High preset yields an average of 21 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 16 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance decreases across the board. The Low preset averages 39 FPS. The Medium preset averages 24 FPS, with a minimum of 21 and a maximum of 28 FPS. High settings result in an average of 17 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to an average of 14 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the performance is at its lowest. The Low preset still manages an average of 30 FPS. The Medium preset averages 19 FPS, with a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 22 FPS. The High preset averages 14 FPS, and the Ultra preset is nearly unplayable at an average of 11 FPS. The data shows a clear and consistent drop in performance as both resolution and quality settings increase, with the system never achieving a high level of playability.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is heavily GPU-bound. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 46 FPS at 1920x1080 to 39 FPS at 2560x1440, a 15% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 3840x2160, the frame rate drops from 39 to 30 FPS, a further 23% decrease. Overall, from 1080p to 4K, the performance drops by 35%.

This pattern is consistent with the other presets. At Medium settings, the average frame rate is 29 FPS at 1080p, which falls to 24 FPS at 1440p, and then to 19 FPS at 4K. This represents a 34% drop from 1080p to 4K. The High preset shows a similar trend, with averages of 21, 17, and 14 FPS across the three resolutions, a 33% drop from 1080p to 4K. The Ultra preset drops from 16 FPS at 1080p to 14 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 11 FPS at 4K, a 31% reduction.

The fact that the frame rate drops by roughly a third when moving from 1080p to 4K, regardless of the quality preset, indicates that the GPU is being tasked with rendering a progressively larger number of pixels. A CPU-bound system would not show such a dramatic scaling with resolution. The data strongly suggests that the Intel Arc B370’s rendering capabilities are the limiting factor, as the workload scales directly with pixel count, and the processor is powerful enough to handle the game’s logic without issue. The system is unable to maintain a consistent experience, and the performance is dictated almost entirely by the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth constraints.