The Medium

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, with performance scaling that clearly favors lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p, the combo manages a solid 78 FPS on Low, but drops sharply to 28 FPS on Ultra, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck as graphical load increases. The data shows a consistent pattern across all resolutions: Low settings provide roughly double the frame rate of High settings, while Ultra settings push the system to its limits, often resulting in sub-30 FPS gameplay that is not recommended for smooth play.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, revealing how the Arc B570's rendering workload scales with pixel count. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 78 at 1920x1080 to 66 at 2560x1440, then further down to 52 at 3840x2160. This represents a 33% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is a typical pattern for a mid-range GPU like the Arc B570, whose 10 GB of GDDR6 memory and 160-bit bus width are sufficient for 1080p but become stressed at higher resolutions. The Medium preset shows a similar trajectory, dropping from 49 FPS at 1080p to 41 FPS at 1440p and then to 32 FPS at 4K, with the minimum frame rates also declining proportionally, from 41 to 35 to 27 FPS respectively.

High settings amplify the resolution penalty further. The average FPS at 1080p High is 35, but at 1440p it falls to 29, and at 4K it drops to just 23 FPS. This indicates that the combination of higher pixel count and more complex shading is taxing the GPU's 2304 shading units and 144 texture mapping units. Ultra settings are the most punishing, with 1080p yielding 28 FPS, 1440p dropping to 23 FPS, and 4K bottoming out at 18 FPS. The pattern suggests that the CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is not the limiting factor here; instead, the Arc B570's raw throughput and memory bandwidth are what constrain performance as resolution rises. The fact that even at 1080p Ultra, the system cannot maintain 30 FPS indicates that the GPU is saturated by the game's visual effects, not the processor's ability to feed it frames.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 offers the most playable frame rates, with Low settings hitting 78 FPS and Medium achieving 49 FPS. At 1440p and 4K, only Low settings remain consistently above 50 FPS, while higher presets fall below 41 FPS.

Q: Does the Intel Core i5-10400F bottleneck the Intel Arc B570 in this game?

A: No. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are entirely consistent with GPU-bound scaling. For example, at Medium settings, the average FPS goes from 49 at 1080p to 32 at 4K, a pattern that points to the Arc B570's rendering limits rather than CPU limitations, especially given the CPU's strong multi-threaded benchmark scores.

Q: How does the Arc B570's performance compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 puts it just 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile and 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750. It also leads the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M by 0.4% and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X by 0.5%, indicating very tight competition in this performance tier.

Q: Is 4K gaming feasible with this setup?

A: Only at Low settings, where the combo manages 52 FPS. At Medium, it drops to 32 FPS, and at High or Ultra, it falls to 23 FPS or below, which is not smooth. The data suggests 4K should be reserved for Low presets if playability is the goal.

Q: What is the CPU's percentile ranking among all processors?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F ranks in the 68th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14185. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon 6756E, scores 14163, a 0.2% difference, while the AMD EPYC 7552 is 0.5% behind, showing the i5-10400F holds its own in synthetic tests.

Q: What settings provide the largest FPS jump?

A: Switching from High to Low settings at any resolution more than doubles the average FPS. At 1080p, it goes from 35 to 78 FPS; at 1440p, from 29 to 66 FPS; and at 4K, from 23 to 52 FPS. This is the most dramatic performance improvement available in the measured data.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is a capable mid-range processor that does not appear to hinder the Arc B570 in The Medium. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.30 GHz, combined with 12 MB of shared L3 cache, provide solid single-threaded and multi-threaded performance for a game that is not heavily CPU-dependent. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 10283 and a single-core score of 1451, which places it well within the range needed for modern gaming. Its 3DMark results show scaling from 1350 in the 2-thread test to 4735 in the max-thread test, indicating that the processor can leverage its full thread count when needed, though The Medium likely does not demand that level of parallelism.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 68% against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 14185, puts it in the upper-midrange tier. Its nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core 7 160UL (score 14232, 0.3% faster) and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (score 14277, 0.6% faster), are within a rounding error, confirming that the i5-10400F is not a performance outlier. The fact that FPS scales so predictably with resolution and settings—rather than fluctuating due to CPU limitations—suggests that the processor is providing frames fast enough for the GPU to work at its full potential. In a horror game like The Medium, which relies on consistent frame pacing for atmosphere, the CPU's steady performance is a benefit, though the data does not show any CPU-specific bottlenecks at any tested resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings achieve an average of 78 FPS, which is smooth and responsive. Medium settings drop to 49 FPS, with a minimum of 41 and a maximum of 56 FPS, indicating some frame variance but still playable. High settings yield 35 FPS on average, which is borderline for a horror title where smoothness matters. Ultra settings bottom out at 28 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS threshold and will feel stuttery during intense scenes.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates take a noticeable hit. Low settings still produce a respectable 66 FPS, but Medium falls to 41 FPS (min 35, max 47), which is acceptable but not ideal. High settings only manage 29 FPS, and Ultra drops to 23 FPS, both of which are difficult to play smoothly. At 3840x2160, the Arc B570 struggles to keep up. Low settings provide 52 FPS, which is the only playable option at this resolution. Medium settings fall to 32 FPS (min 27, max 37), while High and Ultra deliver just 23 FPS and 18 FPS respectively, making them effectively unplayable for a game that requires immersion.

The pattern across all resolutions is clear: Low settings are the only preset that consistently stays above 50 FPS, while Medium is viable at 1080p only. The minimum FPS data for Medium settings shows that even at 1080p, the frame rate can dip to 41 FPS, which may cause noticeable hitches in a game with fixed camera angles and heavy atmosphere. The gap between Low and Medium is substantial—roughly 37% at 1080p—suggesting that the Medium preset introduces significant rendering costs, likely related to shadows and lighting effects that the Arc B570's 18 ray tracing cores must process.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-10400F and Intel Arc B570 ranks 2321 out of 2911 combos for The Medium. This places it in the lower half of all tested systems, which is expected given the GPU's mid-range positioning. However, the ranking should be interpreted with context: the Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 puts it in the 65th percentile of all GPUs, meaning it outperforms a majority of graphics cards in synthetic tests. The low combo rank is more indicative of the game's demanding nature than a flaw in this specific hardware pairing.

The CPU's ranking is higher, at the 68th percentile, but the GPU's score is what drags the combo down in a game that is clearly GPU-bound, as evidenced by the FPS scaling. The nearest GPU rivals, such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% faster) and the Intel Arc A750 (0.1% faster), would likely produce similar in-game results, meaning this combo is not an outlier for better or worse. The rank of 2321 out of 2911 suggests that users with higher-end GPUs will see significantly better performance, but for a mid-range system, the results are consistent with the hardware's capabilities.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal experience for this combo is at 1920x1080 with Low settings, which delivers 78 FPS. This provides a smooth, responsive frame rate that is ideal for a horror game where timing and atmosphere are crucial. For users who prefer higher visual fidelity, Medium settings at 1080p offer 49 FPS, which is playable but with occasional dips to 41 FPS. This preset strikes a balance between visual quality and performance, though the trade-off is a 37% reduction in frame rate compared to Low.

At 1440p, Low settings are the only viable option, offering 66 FPS. Medium at 1440p drops to 41 FPS, which is borderline, and any higher preset is not recommended. At 4K, only Low settings are acceptable at 52 FPS; Medium at 32 FPS is technically playable but risky, as the minimum frame rate of 27 FPS will cause noticeable stutter. High and Ultra settings should be avoided entirely, as they consistently fall below 30 FPS at all resolutions, making the game feel sluggish and unresponsive. In summary, the data strongly suggests prioritizing Low settings at 1080p for the best experience, with Medium as a compromise only at 1080p.