The Medium

# The Medium with AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + Intel Arc B570

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers playable frame rates in The Medium only at lower settings and resolutions, with the combo ranking in the 2321st position out of 2911 tested combinations. Benchmark data shows the system is heavily GPU-limited at 4K Ultra, where average FPS falls to 18, while the same GPU at 1080p Low produces 78 FPS, indicating a wide performance envelope that depends entirely on how aggressively the user scales graphics settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware in The Medium?

A: The measured data shows 1920x1080 with Low settings delivers the highest average FPS at 78, followed by 2560x1440 Low at 66 FPS and 3840x2160 Low at 52 FPS. For a balance of quality and performance, 1920x1080 Medium achieves 49 FPS average.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20,556, which places it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20,534), 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750 (20,582), 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20,480), and 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20,662).

Q: What is the CPU's multi-threaded performance relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F scores 36,470 in Passmark multithread testing. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, scores 69,875 on average (0.2% higher), while the Intel Core i7-14700KF scores 70,163 (0.2% lower than the 9700F's average of 69,996). The Ryzen 9 7950X scores 69,515 (0.7% higher) and the Intel Core i7-14700K scores 69,355 (0.9% higher).

Q: Does the Arc B570 have enough VRAM for The Medium at 4K?

A: The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 3840x2160 with Medium settings, the system achieves 32 FPS average, but High settings drop to 23 FPS and Ultra to 18 FPS, suggesting the memory capacity is adequate but raw compute limits high-end 4K performance.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking among all tested systems for this game?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2321st out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the lower-mid tier of all configurations measured for this title.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance compare to its multi-thread performance?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F scores 4,691 in Passmark single-thread testing, which is notably strong, while its multi-thread score of 36,470 reflects the 8-core/16-thread configuration. The CPU's percentile ranking of 94 among all CPUs indicates it outperforms the vast majority of processors in general benchmarks.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die. The GPU operates at a fixed 2500 MHz base and boost clock, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The 10 GB GDDR6 memory pool is paired with a 160-bit bus, delivering 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth — a configuration that proves sufficient for The Medium's memory demands at 1080p and 1440p, but becomes a limiting factor at 4K.

The GPU's compute specifications include 2,304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units, along with 18 ray tracing cores. The pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s provide context for the measured frame rates: at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the GPU produces only 18 FPS average, while at 1920x1080 with Low settings, it reaches 78 FPS. This 4.3x performance spread across settings and resolutions indicates the GPU's fixed throughput is the primary constraint.

In general synthetic benchmarks, the Arc B570 scores 14,195 in Passmark G3D and 72 in Passmark DirectX 12, with a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2,649. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 83,514 and Vulkan score of 96,844 show the GPU's compute capabilities. The 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the mid-range tier, which aligns with the measured performance in The Medium — playable at lower settings, struggling at higher presets.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + Intel Arc B570 combination holds the 2321st position out of 2,911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the 20th percentile of all configurations. This ranking reflects the GPU's mid-range positioning (65th percentile among all GPUs) combined with the CPU's strong general performance (94th percentile among all CPUs). The discrepancy between CPU and GPU percentiles suggests the system is GPU-bound in this title, which the measured FPS data confirms.

The combo's ranking of 2321 implies that roughly 590 other tested configurations perform worse, while over 2,300 perform better. Given that the Ryzen 7 9700F ranks near the top of CPU charts, the bottleneck clearly lies with the Arc B570. The GPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks — the RTX 3070 Mobile, Arc A750, Quadro M4000M, and R9 M390X — all cluster within 0.5% of the Arc B570's average score, indicating that this performance tier is tightly contested.

For The Medium specifically, the measured frame rates show that the combo can achieve a smooth 60+ FPS experience only at 1080p Low (78 FPS) and 1440p Low (66 FPS). At Medium settings, the system hovers around 41-49 FPS depending on resolution, which is playable but not ideal for a horror title where smooth motion matters for atmosphere. The ranking reflects this reality: it is a capable entry-level combo for the game, not a high-end one.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings. At 1920x1080, Low settings deliver 78 FPS average, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset that exceeds 60 FPS. Medium settings at 1080p produce 49 FPS average with a minimum of 41 FPS and maximum of 56 FPS, offering a reasonable middle ground. High settings at 1080p drop to 35 FPS, while Ultra falls to 28 FPS.

At 2560x1440, Low settings achieve 66 FPS average, making this the second most performant configuration. Medium at 1440p yields 41 FPS average (35-47 FPS range), High produces 29 FPS, and Ultra drops to 23 FPS. The 1440p Low setting is notable because it maintains playability while offering higher resolution than 1080p.

At 3840x2160, only Low settings remain playable at 52 FPS average. Medium at 4K drops to 32 FPS (27-37 FPS range), High falls to 23 FPS, and Ultra is essentially unplayable at 18 FPS. The data suggests prioritizing resolution over quality: users wanting 4K should use Low settings, while those preferring higher quality should drop to 1080p or 1440p with Medium settings. The 1080p Medium configuration offers the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate stability.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces its strongest results across all settings. Low settings achieve 78 FPS average, Medium hits 49 FPS (41 minimum, 56 maximum), High reaches 35 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 28 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 64% reduction in frame rate, indicating that each quality tier has a significant performance cost.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings deliver 66 FPS average, Medium produces 41 FPS (35 minimum, 47 maximum), High reaches 29 FPS, and Ultra falls to 23 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is 12 FPS (15% reduction), while at Medium the drop is 8 FPS (16% reduction), and at High it is 6 FPS (17% reduction).

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become pronounced. Low settings yield 52 FPS average, Medium drops to 32 FPS (27 minimum, 37 maximum), High falls to 23 FPS, and Ultra reaches only 18 FPS. The 4K Low configuration is the only 4K setting that remains comfortably playable, while 4K Medium sits at the edge of playability. The gap between 1080p Low and 4K Low is 26 FPS (33% reduction), while the gap between 1080p Ultra and 4K Ultra is 10 FPS (36% reduction), showing consistent resolution scaling across settings.

The Medium settings at each resolution include minimum and maximum FPS data: at 1080p, the range is 41-56 FPS; at 1440p, 35-47 FPS; at 4K, 27-37 FPS. These ranges show that frame pacing is relatively stable, with the spread between minimum and maximum staying around 10-15 FPS regardless of resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is an 8-core, 16-thread processor from the 9000 series, built on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) using TSMC's 4 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU features 80 KB L1 cache per core, 1 MB L2 cache per core, and 32 MB shared L3 cache, totaling 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die.

In Passmark benchmarks, the 9700F scores 4,691 in single-thread testing and 36,470 in multi-thread testing. Its average benchmark score of 69,996 places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69,875 average, 0.2% higher), Intel Core i7-14700KF (70,163, 0.2% lower), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69,515, 0.7% higher), and Intel Core i7-14700K (69,355, 0.9% higher). The CPU's strong single-thread performance of 4,691 suggests it can handle game logic and physics calculations without bottlenecking the GPU.

The CPU supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth, along with ECC memory support. It uses PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes and fits the AMD Socket AM5. With a launch MSRP of $289 and an active production status, the 9700F represents a modern desktop processor. However, in The Medium, the CPU's 94th percentile ranking does not translate to high frame rates at high settings because the Arc B570 GPU becomes the limiting factor — the measured FPS data shows that reducing resolution from 4K to 1080p at the same settings yields only modest improvements, indicating the GPU is saturated.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the system's bottleneck characteristics. At Low settings, the progression is 78 FPS (1080p) → 66 FPS (1440p) → 52 FPS (4K), representing a 15% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 33% drop from 1080p to 4K. This scaling is less severe than pure pixel-count scaling would suggest — 4K has 4x the pixels of 1080p, yet FPS only drops by 33%, implying that the CPU or other system components partially compensate at higher resolutions.

At Medium settings, the progression is 49 FPS (1080p) → 41 FPS (1440p) → 32 FPS (4K), with drops of 16% and 35% respectively. At High settings, the progression is 35 FPS → 29 FPS → 23 FPS, with drops of 17% and 34%. At Ultra settings, the progression is 28 FPS → 23 FPS → 18 FPS, with drops of 18% and 36%. The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings — roughly 15-18% from 1080p to 1440p and 33-36% from 1080p to 4K — indicates that the scaling is uniform regardless of quality preset.

This uniform scaling pattern suggests the GPU is the primary limiting component, as its fill rate and bandwidth are taxed proportionally as resolution increases. The 10 GB VRAM and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to avoid memory-related stutters even at 4K, as evidenced by the consistent FPS ranges at Medium settings. The CPU's strong single-thread performance means it does not constrain the system, allowing the GPU's performance ceiling to be the determining factor in frame rates. The relatively shallow FPS drops compared to pixel-count increases suggest that The Medium's rendering workload includes CPU-bound components that do not scale with resolution, keeping the Ryzen 7 9700F engaged even at lower resolutions.