The Medium

The data for The Medium, played on the Intel Core i5-9400 with the Intel Arc B580, reveals a configuration that is heavily constrained by graphics load at higher resolutions. The measured frames per second (FPS) across the three tested resolutions show a predictable but steep decline as pixel count increases, indicating where the bottleneck lies.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 produces a dramatic reduction in performance across all settings. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 87 at 1080p to 74 at 1440p, a decrease of 13 frames, and then falls further to 58 at 4K, representing a total loss of 29 frames from the starting point. This scaling pattern suggests that even at the lowest settings, the GPU is the primary limiting factor, as the frame rate does not scale linearly with the pixel count increase.

Moving to the Medium preset, the average FPS at 1080p is 55, which drops to 47 at 1440p and then to 37 at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K here is approximately 33%, which is less severe than the Low preset's 33% drop but still substantial. The High preset shows a similar trend, with averages of 40, 33, and 26 FPS across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively. The most demanding Ultra preset yields 31 FPS at 1080p, 26 at 1440p, and only 21 at 4K.

The data indicates that the game's engine is sensitive to resolution scaling, but the frame rate drops are not proportional to the 4x pixel increase from 1080p to 4K. This implies that while the Arc B580's 12 GB memory and 456.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle the geometry and textures, the raw shading throughput of 13.67 TFLOPS becomes the limiting factor as the pixel workload expands. The fact that the Low preset at 4K (58 FPS) outperforms the Ultra preset at 1080p (31 FPS) confirms that settings adjustments have a larger impact on performance than resolution alone, but the overall trend points to a GPU-bound scenario even at lower settings.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580, with its 2560 shading units and 160 texture mapping units, is the dominant component in this pairing. Its boost clock of 2670 MHz is identical to the base clock, indicating a stable operating point. The GPU's memory configuration of 12 GB GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus provides 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for a game like The Medium that features high-resolution textures and streaming environments.

Benchmark results for the GPU show a Passmark G3D score of 15748, placing it at the 68th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP with an average score of 23061 (a delta of -0.2%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 at 22895 (delta 0.6%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 at 23172 (delta -0.7%). These comparisons suggest that the Arc B580's average benchmark score of 23021 is competitive with these older high-end cards, but the measured FPS in The Medium shows that real-world performance can vary significantly from synthetic benchmarks.

The GPU's pixel rate of 213.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 427.2 GTexel/s are the theoretical limits, but the measured FPS at Ultra settings across all resolutions (21-31 FPS) suggests that the game's specific rendering path does not fully utilize these capabilities. The Low preset at 4K achieving 58 FPS versus the Ultra preset at 4K achieving 21 FPS demonstrates a 37-frame spread, which is a 176% improvement from Ultra to Low. This indicates that the game's Ultra settings likely introduce effects that heavily tax the GPU's fixed-function units, such as ray tracing or advanced post-processing, which the Arc B580's 20 ray tracing cores may not handle efficiently in this title.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the Medium preset provides the most balanced experience. At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 55 FPS average with a minimum of 47 and maximum of 64, which is within a playable range for a horror game that relies on atmosphere rather than fast reflexes. At 1440p, the Medium preset drops to 47 FPS with a minimum of 40, which remains acceptable for the genre. However, at 4K, the Medium preset's 37 FPS average may be too low for smooth gameplay.

The Low preset offers the highest frame rates, with 87 FPS at 1080p and 74 FPS at 1440p, but it likely sacrifices visual fidelity that contributes to the horror atmosphere. The High preset sits between Low and Medium, with 40 FPS at 1080p and 33 FPS at 1440p, but it does not provide a significant visual improvement over Medium to justify the performance loss. The Ultra preset is not recommended for this configuration, as it only achieves 31 FPS at 1080p and falls to 21 FPS at 4K, which is below the threshold for comfortable gameplay.

For users targeting 1080p, the Medium preset at 55 FPS is the optimal choice, as it maintains a stable frame rate while preserving visual quality. For 1440p, the Medium preset's 47 FPS is still viable, but the Low preset at 74 FPS would be preferable for those prioritizing smoothness. At 4K, only the Low preset at 58 FPS is playable, and users should expect to make significant visual compromises to maintain that frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings shows the following averages: Low at 87 FPS, Medium at 55 FPS (minimum 47, maximum 64), High at 40 FPS, and Ultra at 31 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 56 FPS, which represents a 64% reduction in performance when maxing out settings. The Medium preset's minimum of 47 FPS is particularly noteworthy, as it indicates that even during demanding scenes, the frame rate does not drop below a playable threshold.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 74 FPS, Medium at 47 FPS (minimum 40, maximum 54), High at 33 FPS, and Ultra at 26 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, with the Low preset losing 13 FPS, Medium losing 8 FPS, High losing 7 FPS, and Ultra losing 5 FPS. This diminishing loss at higher settings suggests that the Ultra preset is already so demanding that the additional pixel count has a smaller relative impact.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 58 FPS, Medium at 37 FPS (minimum 31, maximum 42), High at 26 FPS, and Ultra at 21 FPS. The 4K resolution reveals the GPU's limits most clearly, as even the Low preset cannot maintain 60 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to just 21 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 31 FPS at 4K indicates that the game will experience noticeable stuttering during intense scenes, making it unsuitable for this resolution without significant settings reductions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and Intel Arc B580 ranks 2848 out of 3724 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the lower 24% of all configurations. This ranking is surprising given the GPU's individual performance percentile of 68%, which suggests that the CPU is likely holding back the overall result. The i5-9400's average benchmark score of 2254 places it at the 47th percentile of all CPUs, which is below average and may explain the poor combo ranking.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Core i7-1068NG7 with an average score of 2259 (delta -0.2%), the Intel Core i7-10710U at 2248 (delta 0.3%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 1500 at 2246 (delta 0.4%). These rivals are all within a 0.4% performance delta of the i5-9400, indicating that the CPU is not significantly slower than its immediate competitors. However, when paired with a GPU that is capable of high frame rates at lower resolutions, the CPU's limitations become apparent.

The combo rank of 2848 out of 3724 means that 876 other combinations performed worse, but it also means that a significant majority of tested systems outperformed this pairing. This suggests that while the Arc B580 is a capable GPU, the i5-9400's six cores and six threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost of 4.10 GHz, are not sufficient to feed the GPU at higher settings, particularly at 1080p where the CPU overhead is more pronounced.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a six-core, six-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.90 GHz and boost clock of 4.10 GHz provide a moderate level of single-threaded performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 935 and multi-core score of 6629. The Geekbench scores of 1389 single-core and 5141 multi-core further confirm its mid-range positioning.

In The Medium, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, physics, and scene management, which are typically single-threaded or lightly threaded tasks. The i5-9400's six threads are sufficient for this workload, but its relatively low boost clock compared to modern processors may cause bottlenecks when the game requires rapid state updates. The measured FPS at Low settings shows the largest gap between 1080p and 4K (87 vs 58 FPS), which indicates that at low settings, the GPU is still the primary bottleneck, but the CPU's frame pacing may be limiting the maximum achievable frame rate.

The CPU's 9 MB shared L3 cache and dual-channel memory support with 42.7 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for the game's requirements, but they do not provide the headroom seen in higher-end processors. The benchmark data shows that the i5-9400's performance is closely matched by its rivals, all within 0.4% of each other, which means that any frame rate differences in The Medium are more likely attributable to the GPU or game optimization rather than CPU differences. However, the combo rank suggests that the pairing is not optimal, and users should be aware that the CPU may prevent the GPU from reaching its full potential in CPU-bound scenarios.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for playing The Medium with this hardware?

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 at the Medium preset yields 55 FPS average, which is the most balanced option. At 2560x1440, the Medium preset drops to 47 FPS, while at 3840x2160, only the Low preset achieves a playable 58 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B580 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B580's average benchmark score is 23021, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP, 0.6% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080, and 0.7% lower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-9400 a bottleneck for the Arc B580 in this game?

A: The combo ranks 2848 out of 3724, which is in the lower quartile. The CPU's 47th percentile ranking suggests it may limit the GPU, particularly at lower resolutions where frame rates are higher.

Q: What FPS can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS for 2560x1440 with High settings is 33 FPS. This is below the Medium preset's 47 FPS and may not provide a smooth experience for most users.

Q: Does the Ultra preset provide a significant visual improvement over High?

A: The Ultra preset at 1080p achieves 31 FPS, while High achieves 40 FPS. The 9 FPS difference is significant, but the Ultra preset's lower frame rate may not justify the diminishing returns.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the Intel Arc B580?

A: The launch MSRP is 249 USD. This information is provided for reference purposes only.