The Medium

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the Intel Arc B580 presents a specific performance profile in The Medium, a horror title that stresses both the GPU's rendering capabilities and the CPU's frame pacing. The measured data indicates this combination is firmly mid-pack, ranking 1306 out of 1689 tested combos. This places the system in a position where settings management is critical for a playable experience, as the gap between low and ultra presets is substantial across all resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The data clearly shows that the "Low" preset is the only setting that consistently delivers a smooth frame rate across all tested resolutions. At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 89.7 FPS, which is a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS target. Moving to 1440p, the Low preset still holds at 73.4 FPS, and even at 4K, it manages 58.4 FPS, which is near-playable. This consistency suggests that the Low preset is the safest choice for maintaining fluid motion in a game where quick camera cuts and environmental storytelling benefit from stable frame delivery.

For users prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rate, the Medium preset is a viable compromise at 1080p, delivering 57.7 FPS. This sits right at the edge of playability, but the drop to 48.6 FPS at 1440p makes it a less attractive option for higher resolution displays. The High preset is difficult to recommend; even at 1080p, it only reaches 38.3 FPS, which is below the threshold for a comfortable action-horror experience. The Ultra preset is essentially a showcase mode, producing 30.8 FPS at 1080p and dropping to 23.1 FPS at 4K, making it unsuitable for actual gameplay.

The data indicates that the performance scaling from Medium to High is steep, with a 33% drop at 1080p (from 57.7 to 38.3 FPS) and a 36% drop at 1440p (from 48.6 to 30.9 FPS). This suggests that the High preset introduces rendering features that disproportionately impact the Arc B580. Consequently, the best experience per the measured rows is achieved by using the Low preset at any resolution, or the Medium preset exclusively at 1080p if visual polish is required. There is no scenario where High or Ultra provides a balanced experience.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is the primary bottleneck in this configuration, and its VRAM capacity and clock behavior define the performance envelope. The GPU operates at a fixed 2670 MHz for both base and boost, indicating a locked clock profile rather than an aggressive dynamic boost. This consistent clock speed means that performance scaling is almost entirely dependent on the memory subsystem and shader load, not on thermal or power headroom.

The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In The Medium, a game known for its dual-reality rendering technique, this bandwidth is likely a critical factor. The game renders two simultaneous perspectives, which can double the memory pressure for textures and frame buffers. The data supports this hypothesis: the transition from Low to Medium settings at 1080p increases the frame time significantly (from 89.7 to 57.7 FPS), a 36% reduction that suggests the GPU is not shader-limited but rather memory-bandwidth-limited as texture quality increases.

The GPU's raw compute capabilities are modest, with 13.67 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. This places the Arc B580 in a competitive position, with its average benchmark score of 23021 being within 0.7% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 (score 23181). However, in The Medium's specific workload, the GPU appears to struggle with higher presets. The 4K High result of 26.8 FPS and 4K Ultra result of 23.1 FPS indicate that the rendering pipeline becomes saturated quickly. The 20 ray tracing cores are present, but the game's use of them is unclear from the data; the performance drop from Medium to High suggests features like volumetric lighting or shadow quality are the culprits, not necessarily RT effects.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate degradation from 1080p to 4K is severe and non-linear, confirming that the GPU is the limiting component. At Low settings, the drop is from 89.7 FPS at 1080p to 58.4 FPS at 4K, a 35% reduction. This is a relatively mild penalty, indicating that at Low, the GPU has enough headroom to handle the pixel count increase without hitting a hard ceiling. However, at Medium settings, the drop is from 57.7 FPS to 33.4 FPS, a 42% reduction. This steeper decline suggests that at Medium, the GPU is already near its limit at 1080p, and the additional pixel workload at 4K pushes it into a more constrained regime.

The High and Ultra presets show even more drastic scaling. At High, 1080p yields 38.3 FPS, but 4K drops to 26.8 FPS (a 30% reduction). At Ultra, 1080p yields 30.8 FPS, and 4K drops to 23.1 FPS (a 25% reduction). The diminishing percentage drop at higher presets is notable; it indicates that the GPU is so heavily loaded at 1080p that adding more pixels has a smaller relative impact. This is a clear sign of a compute-bound scenario at higher settings, where the GPU's shading units are saturated regardless of resolution.

The data shows that the gap between 1440p and 4K is smaller than the gap between 1080p and 1440p. For example, at Medium settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 9.1 FPS (57.7 to 48.6), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 15.2 FPS (48.6 to 33.4). This suggests that the memory bandwidth becomes a more critical factor as resolution increases, with the 456.0 GB/s bus struggling to feed the GPU at higher pixel densities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results span a wide range. The Low preset delivers 89.7 FPS, which is the highest average in the entire dataset. The Medium preset reaches 57.7 FPS, providing a playable experience. High drops to 38.3 FPS, and Ultra falls to 30.8 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 58.9 FPS, indicating a 66% performance difference between the lowest and highest quality settings.

At 2560x1440, the pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers. Low achieves 73.4 FPS, which is still smooth. Medium produces 48.6 FPS, which is borderline playable. High manages 30.9 FPS, and Ultra sits at 29 FPS. Notably, the difference between High and Ultra at 1440p is only 1.9 FPS, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional features are nearly free at this resolution, possibly because the GPU is already bottlenecked by other factors.

At 3840x2160, the results are challenging. Low yields 58.4 FPS, which is the only playable option. Medium drops to 33.4 FPS, High to 26.8 FPS, and Ultra to 23.1 FPS. The 4K results highlight the GPU's limitations; the jump from Low to Medium at 4K represents a 43% performance loss (58.4 to 33.4 FPS), which is the steepest single-setting penalty in the entire dataset. This confirms that 4K gaming with this combo requires the Low preset for any semblance of fluidity.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for a 60 FPS target at 1080p?

A: The Low preset is the only option that exceeds 60 FPS at 1080p, achieving 89.7 FPS. The Medium preset falls short at 57.7 FPS, so Low is required for a consistent 60 FPS experience.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in The Medium?*

A: Yes, but only on the Low preset, which produces 58.4 FPS. All other presets at 4K result in average frame rates below 33.4 FPS, which is not a playable experience for a horror title.

Q: How does the Arc B580 compare to the RTX 4060?

A: In general compute benchmarks, the Arc B580's average score of 23021 is 0.7% lower than the RTX 4060's score of 23181. This indicates they are closely matched in raw performance, though game-specific results may vary.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this configuration?

A: The GPU is clearly the limiting factor. The resolution scaling shows severe frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K, and the CPU's average benchmark score of 19221 places it in the 77th percentile, suggesting it has ample headroom for this workload.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Medium and High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset achieves 48.6 FPS, while High drops to 30.9 FPS. This represents a 36% performance loss, making the High preset a poor choice for this resolution.

Q: Why is the Ultra preset so much slower than Low?

A: The data shows a 66% difference at 1080p (30.8 FPS vs 89.7 FPS). This suggests the Ultra preset enables features that heavily tax the GPU's 2560 shading units and 456.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, likely including advanced shadow and post-processing effects.