The Medium

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the Intel Arc B370 lands at rank 2681 out of 2911 tested combinations in The Medium. That places this configuration in the bottom 8% of all recorded results, a position that underscores a severe performance ceiling. The ranking is not a reflection of the CPU’s capability—the 14600KF sits in the 90th percentile among all processors—but rather a direct consequence of the GPU’s output. With a combo rank this low, the data indicates that this pairing will struggle to deliver a playable experience at most settings, and the bottleneck is overwhelmingly one-sided.

How This Combo Ranks

The rank of 2681 out of 2911 is a stark indicator of where this system falls in the broader performance hierarchy. To contextualize, this means roughly 92% of all tested CPU-GPU combinations outperform this setup in The Medium. The data suggests this is not a marginal shortfall; it is a fundamental mismatch between a high-end processor and a low-end graphics solution. The CPU’s own benchmark scores—such as 32,544 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4,594 in single-core—place it in elite territory, yet these strengths are largely irrelevant when the GPU cannot translate them into frame rate.

The Arc B370’s average benchmark score of 1,184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad places it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (score 1,186, delta 0.2% faster), the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (score 1,190, delta 0.5% faster), and the AMD Radeon HD 7650M (score 1,192, delta 0.7% faster). These are all legacy or low-end parts from over a decade ago, and the Arc B370 is essentially trading blows with them. This GPU’s performance class is the primary driver of the combo’s low rank; the 14600KF is effectively wasted potential in this configuration, as the frame rates will be dictated by the graphics card in nearly every scenario.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is built on the Xe3-LPG architecture with a Panther Lake chip, fabricated on a 3 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2,400 MHz. The memory configuration is entirely system-shared, meaning there is no dedicated VRAM; the GPU uses a portion of the system’s main memory, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent." This is a critical detail for The Medium, a game that relies on fixed camera angles and pre-rendered scenes but still demands consistent texture streaming.

The GPU’s compute resources include 1,280 shading units, 40 texture mapping units, and 20 raster output pipelines, with 10 ray tracing cores. Its peak FP32 throughput is 6.144 TFLOPS, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. In practice, the 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1,184 shows this GPU is designed for low-power, portable devices (its TDP is just 25 W, and it is an integrated graphics product). For The Medium, this translates into severe limitations: at 1080p Low, the average frame rate is 46 FPS, which is the only measured setting that approaches a smooth experience. At 1080p High, the average drops to 21 FPS, and at 1080p Ultra, it falls to 16 FPS. The GPU’s lack of dedicated memory and low compute power means that higher settings and resolutions quickly overwhelm it, resulting in sub-20 FPS averages at 4K.

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, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration that breaks the 40 FPS threshold.

Q: How does this combo compare to the GPU’s nearest rivals?

A: The Arc B370’s nearest rivals are the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (0.2% faster), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (0.5% faster), and AMD Radeon HD 7650M (0.7% faster). The performance delta between these parts is under 1%, meaning the Arc B370 is essentially in the same performance class as these older cards.

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

A: The GPU is the clear limiting factor. The Intel Core i5-14600KF ranks in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, while the Arc B370 ranks in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. The frame rates in The Medium are consistently low across all resolutions, indicating the graphics card cannot keep up with the processor’s capabilities.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1440p with Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo produces an average of 24 FPS, with a minimum of 21 FPS and a maximum of 28 FPS. This is below the threshold for smooth, playable performance.

Q: Does increasing resolution from 1080p to 4K cause a proportional drop in performance?

A: No, the drop is not proportional. At Low settings, the average frame rate goes from 46 FPS at 1080p to 39 FPS at 1440p and 30 FPS at 4K. At High settings, it goes from 21 FPS at 1080p to 17 FPS at 1440p and 14 FPS at 4K. The scaling is relatively flat, which suggests the GPU is already saturated even at the lowest resolution.

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank among tested systems?

A: This combo ranks 2681 out of 2911 tested combinations in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 8% of all systems.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low averages 46 FPS, Medium averages 29 FPS (with a range of 24 to 33 FPS), High averages 21 FPS, and Ultra averages 16 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages drop to 39 FPS at Low, 24 FPS at Medium (with a range of 21 to 28 FPS), 17 FPS at High, and 14 FPS at Ultra. At 3840x2160, the situation becomes critical: Low averages 30 FPS, Medium averages 19 FPS (with a range of 16 to 22 FPS), High averages 14 FPS, and Ultra averages just 11 FPS.

The pattern is consistent across all resolutions: Low settings are the only tier that provides anything close to a playable experience, and even then, only at 1080p does it exceed 30 FPS. The Medium preset, which is often a reasonable middle ground, fails to reach 30 FPS at any resolution. The gap between Low and Medium is substantial—at 1080p, it is a 17 FPS difference (46 to 29), and at 1440p, it is a 15 FPS difference (39 to 24). This suggests that the Medium preset introduces rendering features or effects that disproportionately tax the Arc B370’s limited resources. The Ultra preset is largely unplayable, with frame rates ranging from 11 to 16 FPS depending on resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals an unusual resolution scaling pattern. From 1080p to 1440p, the frame rate drops are modest: at Low, it falls from 46 to 39 FPS (a 15% decrease); at Medium, from 29 to 24 FPS (a 17% decrease); at High, from 21 to 17 FPS (a 19% decrease); and at Ultra, from 16 to 14 FPS (a 13% decrease). From 1440p to 4K, the drops are similarly moderate: at Low, from 39 to 30 FPS (a 23% decrease); at Medium, from 24 to 19 FPS (a 21% decrease); at High, from 17 to 14 FPS (a 18% decrease); and at Ultra, from 14 to 11 FPS (a 21% decrease).

These percentage drops are relatively small compared to what would be expected if the GPU were pixel-bound. A typical GPU would see a much larger performance hit when moving from 1080p to 4K (a 4x increase in pixel count), often exceeding a 50% reduction in frame rate. Here, the total drop from 1080p to 4K is roughly 35% at Low (46 to 30 FPS) and 33% at High (21 to 14 FPS). This shallow scaling curve indicates that the limiting factor is not memory bandwidth or pixel fill rate, but rather the GPU’s raw compute throughput. The Arc B370 is so constrained by its shader and texture units that it cannot take advantage of lower resolutions to meaningfully increase frame rates. The bottleneck is the chip itself, not the memory system or the resolution overhead.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured data, the only viable settings preset for this combo is Low. At 1080p Low, the system achieves an average of 46 FPS, which is the sole configuration that approaches a smooth experience. At 1440p Low, the average drops to 39 FPS, which is still playable but with noticeable frame pacing issues. At 4K Low, the average falls to 30 FPS, which is borderline for a horror game where atmosphere often depends on steady motion.

The Medium preset is not recommended under any circumstance. The average frame rates of 29 FPS at 1080p, 24 FPS at 1440p, and 19 FPS at 4K are below the threshold for consistent playability. The High and Ultra presets are even worse, with averages falling below 21 FPS at every resolution. The data suggests that the gap between Low and Medium is disproportionately large, meaning that the Medium preset likely enables effects like volumetric lighting or higher-resolution shadows that the Arc B370 cannot handle. For users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, the Medium preset at 1080p (29 FPS) is the highest settings tier that remains technically playable, but it will require a tolerance for stutter and low responsiveness. The pragmatic choice is 1080p Low, which provides the best balance of smoothness and playability.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF is a 14-core, 20-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz. It features 24 MB of shared L3 cache and supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory. Its benchmark results are exceptional: 32,544 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 4,594 in Cinebench R23 single-core, and 17,085 in Geekbench multi-core. The processor ranks in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (0.3% faster), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (0.4% faster), and Intel Core Ultra 5 245 (0.8% faster).

In The Medium, the CPU’s role is largely passive due to the GPU bottleneck. The game’s fixed-camera design and pre-rendered scenes mean that CPU load is moderate, and the 14600KF’s high single-thread performance (4,594 in Cinebench R23 single-core) is more than sufficient to handle the game’s logic and scripting. However, the data shows that no amount of CPU headroom can compensate for the Arc B370’s limitations. The frame rates are consistently low across all settings, which would not be the case if the CPU were the limiting factor. The CPU’s 125 W TDP and 10 nm process node are irrelevant to the gaming experience here, as the system’s performance is entirely dictated by the GPU. This pairing highlights a classic imbalance: a top-tier processor wasted on a bottom-tier graphics solution, resulting in a gaming experience that fails to leverage the CPU’s substantial capabilities.