The Medium

The Medium is a demanding horror title, and the measured results for the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X paired with the Intel Arc B390 paint a clear picture of a system struggling under the game’s visual load. This combination produces playable frame rates only at the lowest settings, with performance collapsing as graphical fidelity increases. The data reveals a profound bottleneck in the graphics subsystem, making this configuration suitable for players who prioritize resolution over visual detail.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling across resolutions is heavily constrained by the graphics processor, showing that the Intel Arc B390 is the definitive limiting component in this configuration. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 51 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops performance to 43 FPS, a reduction of approximately 15.7%. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 34 FPS, representing a further 20.9% decrease from the 1440p result. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU that is exhausting its processing capabilities, as the workload increases with pixel count.

The situation becomes more problematic when examining higher quality presets. At 1080p High, the average FPS is 23, which is less than half of the Low preset’s 51 FPS. The jump to 1440p High yields only 19 FPS, and 4K High drops to 15 FPS. The Ultra preset is particularly revealing: 1080p Ultra produces 18 FPS, 1440p Ultra produces 15 FPS, and 4K Ultra produces just 12 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at any given resolution is stark, but the resolution scaling itself indicates that even at Low settings, the GPU is the primary bottleneck; a CPU-bound scenario would show much smaller frame rate drops when moving from 1080p to 4K.

The measured Medium settings provide a middle ground that demonstrates the GPU’s limits with more granularity. At 1080p Medium, the average is 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 37 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 27 FPS, with a minimum of 23 FPS and a maximum of 31 FPS. At 4K Medium, the average falls to 21 FPS, with a minimum of 18 FPS and a maximum of 24 FPS. The frame time consistency, as indicated by the min/max values, remains relatively tight across these resolutions, but the overall performance ceiling is low. The data shows that the Arc B390 is simply unable to sustain fluid motion at higher resolutions, regardless of the quality preset.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested hardware combinations, this system does not fare well. The comboRankInGame places this pairing at rank 2581 out of 2911 tested combos. This puts it in the bottom 11.3% of all configurations, indicating that a vast majority of other CPU-GPU pairings deliver superior performance in this specific title. The ranking reflects the severe limitations imposed by the Intel Arc B390, which holds back the otherwise capable Ryzen 9 5950X.

The disparity between the CPU and GPU performance classes is immense. The Ryzen 9 5950X is a high-end desktop processor, but the Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution with performance that places it in the lower echelons of the GPU hierarchy. Benchmark results show the Arc B390’s percentileVsAllGpus is 9, meaning it performs better than only 9% of all GPUs. In contrast, the Ryzen 9 5950X holds a percentileVsAllCpus of 91, outperforming 91% of all CPUs. This massive imbalance ensures that the system’s overall gaming performance is dictated entirely by the graphics component, leading to a low ranking among combos that often feature discrete graphics cards.

The nearestRivals data for the GPU further contextualizes its standing. The Arc B390’s average benchmark score of 1482 is compared to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, which scores 1463 (a delta of 1.3%), the GeForce 800M at 1460 (delta 1.5%), the GeForce GT 625 OEM at 1446 (delta 2.5%), and the GeForce GT 710 at 1443 (delta 2.7%). These are all low-end or legacy mobile/desktop parts, confirming that the Arc B390 operates at an entry-level performance tier. For a horror game like The Medium, which relies on atmosphere and detailed environments, this ranking suggests the hardware is not suited for the task at higher quality settings.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the decisive factor in this system’s gaming capabilities, and its specifications explain the observed frame rates. The GPU features 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 render output units. It also includes 12 ray tracing cores, which are relevant for a game like The Medium that utilizes ray-traced effects. However, the raw compute power is limited, with an FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS. The clock speeds are listed with a base of 300 MHz and a boost of 2500 MHz, but the sustained performance under load appears insufficient to drive high frame rates.

A critical characteristic of this GPU is its memory configuration. The Arc B390 uses "System Shared" memory, meaning it does not have dedicated VRAM. The memory type, bus width, and bandwidth are all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent," which means the GPU relies on the system’s DDR4 memory, shared with the CPU. This is a major performance liability, as the memory bandwidth available to the GPU is limited by the dual-channel configuration of the Ryzen 9 5950X, which offers 51.2 GB/s. Dedicated graphics cards typically have much higher bandwidth, and this shared setup likely contributes to the low performance, especially at higher resolutions where memory pressure increases.

The GPU’s benchmark results are sparse, with only a single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482. This score, combined with the percentileVsAllGpus of 9, confirms that the GPU is a limiting factor. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, but these figures cannot compensate for the lack of dedicated memory bandwidth. In The Medium, which features complex lighting and shadow effects, the Arc B390’s architecture and shared memory setup result in the low FPS numbers seen across all settings, making it the primary reason the system ranks so poorly.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the only viable setting for this configuration is the Low preset. At 1920x1080 Low, the system averages 51 FPS, which is the only resolution and preset combination that approaches a smooth, playable experience. This is the recommended setting for any user who wants to play The Medium with this hardware. The Low preset at 1440p yields 43 FPS, which is playable but less fluid, while 4K Low drops to 34 FPS, which may be acceptable for a slower-paced horror game but is below the ideal threshold for smooth motion.

The Medium preset is not recommended for a good experience. At 1080p Medium, the average FPS drops to 32, which is a significant step down from Low. While the minimum FPS of 27 is not terrible, the average is low enough to cause noticeable stuttering in a game that relies on tension and timing. The 1440p Medium average of 27 FPS and the 4K Medium average of 21 FPS are too low for a satisfying experience. The High and Ultra presets are effectively unplayable, with frame rates ranging from 23 FPS at 1080p High down to 12 FPS at 4K Ultra. These settings should be avoided entirely.

The data suggests that the visual quality trade-off is not worth the performance cost. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p costs 19 FPS (from 51 to 32), which is a 37.3% performance hit. The jump from Medium to High costs another 9 FPS (from 32 to 23), and the jump from High to Ultra costs 5 FPS (from 23 to 18). Each step up in quality yields diminishing returns in visual fidelity while exacting a heavy toll on frame rate. Therefore, the Low preset at 1080p is the only sensible choice for this hardware, as it provides the best balance of playability and performance, albeit with reduced visual detail.

FAQ

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

A: The best combination is 1920x1080 with the Low preset, which produces an average of 51 FPS. This is the only setting that provides a frame rate close to 60 FPS, making it the most playable option.

Q: How does the frame rate change between 1080p and 4K at the same settings?

A: At Low settings, the frame rate drops from 51 FPS at 1080p to 34 FPS at 4K, a decrease of 17 FPS. At Medium settings, it drops from 32 FPS at 1080p to 21 FPS at 4K. At High settings, it drops from 23 FPS to 15 FPS, and at Ultra settings, it drops from 18 FPS to 12 FPS.

Q: Is the Intel Arc B390 capable of running The Medium at Ultra settings?

A: No. The measured data shows that the Ultra preset produces an average of 18 FPS at 1080p, 15 FPS at 1440p, and 12 FPS at 4K. These frame rates are far too low for a playable experience.

Q: How does this system rank compared to other tested CPU-GPU combos?

A: This system ranks 2581 out of 2911 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 11.3% of all configurations tested in The Medium.

Q: Does the GPU have dedicated video memory?

A: No. The Intel Arc B390 uses "System Shared" memory, meaning it shares the system's DDR4 memory with the CPU. The memory bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent."

Q: What is the performance difference between the Low and High presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 43 FPS, while the High preset averages 19 FPS. This represents a 24 FPS difference, or a 55.8% reduction in performance when moving from Low to High.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X is a formidable processor, but its role in this gaming configuration is largely to feed a GPU that cannot keep up. The CPU features 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. It has a large 64 MB L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. These specifications make it an excellent processor for multi-threaded workloads, as evidenced by its benchmark scores, but they are largely irrelevant in this specific game scenario.

The benchmark data shows the Ryzen 9 5950X’s strength. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 26017, and its Geekbench multicore score is 15233. In 3DMark tests, it scores 10810 with 16 threads and 11597 with max threads. The processor's percentileVsAllCpus is 91, showing it is a top-tier CPU. Its nearestRivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX, with an average score of 52073 (a delta of -0.2%), and the Intel Core i9-13900F, with an average score of 51730 (a delta of 0.4%). This indicates that the Ryzen 9 5950X is in the same performance class as these modern high-end chips.

However, in The Medium, the CPU is not the bottleneck. The measured FPS data shows that frame rates scale heavily with resolution and quality settings, which is a classic sign of GPU limitation. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see similar frame rates across different resolutions at the same settings. Instead, we see a clear drop from 51 FPS at 1080p Low to 34 FPS at 4K Low, demonstrating that the GPU is maxed out. The Ryzen 9 5950X has more than enough processing power to handle the game's logic and physics, but it is forced to wait for the Intel Arc B390 to render each frame.

The CPU’s high core count and clock speeds do not translate to higher FPS in this case because the GPU cannot process frames quickly enough. The system’s performance is effectively capped by the Arc B390’s output. The CPU is likely idle for significant periods, waiting for the GPU to complete its work. This is a textbook case of a CPU being held back by a weak graphics solution. The data shows that while the Ryzen 9 5950X is a high-performance component, its contribution to gaming performance in this pairing is minimal, as the Intel Arc B390 is the sole determinant of the playable settings and frame rates.