The Medium

# The Medium with Intel Core i7-12700K + Intel Arc B390

This combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Arc B390 delivers playable frame rates only at the lowest settings and resolution, with the GPU acting as the overwhelming bottleneck throughout. The measured results place this combo at rank 2581 out of 2911 tested configurations in The Medium, which is in the bottom 11% of all tested systems. The data shows that the Intel Arc B390, which sits at the 9th percentile among all GPUs in the database, simply cannot keep pace with the demands of this horror title, regardless of the CPU's considerable headroom. The Core i7-12700K is a high-end 12th Gen desktop processor with 12 cores and 20 threads, and its benchmark scores place it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, but this pairing demonstrates how a vastly underpowered GPU can nullify even the most capable processors.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario where every resolution increase exacts a severe toll on performance. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 51 at 1920x1080 to 43 at 2560x1440, a reduction of approximately 15.7%, and then further to 34 at 3840x2160, which represents a 33.3% drop from the 1440p figure and a 33.3% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is saturated even at the lowest resolution, as the pixel count increase from 1080p to 4K (a 4x increase in total pixels) only results in a 33.3% performance reduction, suggesting that other bottlenecks within the GPU architecture are limiting throughput beyond raw pixel fill.

At Medium settings, the same trend continues with average FPS of 32 at 1080p, 27 at 1440p, and 21 at 4K. The reduction from 1080p to 1440p is 15.6%, and from 1440p to 4K is 22.2%, while the overall drop from 1080p to 4K amounts to 34.4%. The min and max FPS figures for Medium settings at each resolution show consistent frame delivery windows: 27-37 at 1080p, 23-31 at 1440p, and 18-24 at 4K. These ranges indicate that the game maintains relatively stable frame pacing even when performance is low, with the spread between minimum and maximum frames staying within 7-8 FPS across all resolutions.

For High settings, the average FPS falls from 23 at 1080p to 19 at 1440p, a 17.4% reduction, and then to 15 at 4K, a 21.1% drop from 1440p and a 34.8% total reduction from 1080p. Ultra settings show the most dramatic scaling with averages of 18, 15, and 12 FPS at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K respectively, representing a 16.7% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 20% drop from 1440p to 4K. The fact that even Ultra at 1080p produces just 18 FPS average demonstrates that the GPU is so far beyond its comfortable operating range that resolution scaling becomes almost secondary to the sheer computational demands of the game's rendering pipeline.

The resolution scaling analysis strongly indicates that the Intel Arc B390 is the limiting component in every single measured configuration. The CPU's role is minimal because the GPU cannot generate enough frames to ever stress the i7-12700K's processing capacity. The relatively modest percentage drops between resolution tiers, rather than the steep declines typically seen in GPU-bound scenarios, suggest that the Arc B390's performance ceiling is being hit due to its limited shading units (1536), texture mapping units (48), and render output units (24), rather than purely memory bandwidth constraints, since it uses system shared memory with bandwidth that is system dependent.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K brings substantial processing power to this pairing, with 12 cores and 20 threads running at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. This Alder Lake architecture processor, built on Intel's 10 nm process, features a hybrid design with a 25 MB shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core. Its benchmark results confirm its high-end positioning: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19784 and single-core score of 1850.5, a Geekbench multi-core score of 15790 with a single-core score of 2308, and a 3DMark max threads score of 9979. These numbers place the CPU in the 84th percentile of all processors tested, with an average benchmark score of 35287.

The nearest rivals to this CPU in the database further contextualize its performance. The Intel Core i5-13600T scores an average of 35305, which puts the i7-12700K at just 0.1% behind it. The Intel Core i7-12700KF achieves 35365, placing the i7-12700K 0.2% behind that variant. The Intel Core i7-13700T scores 35403, a 0.3% advantage over the i7-12700K, and the Intel Core 5 213PE scores 35428, putting it 0.4% ahead. These tiny deltas show that the i7-12700K is performance-competitive with a range of newer and older processors, sitting right at the edge of a tightly clustered group where the differences are negligible for real-world gaming.

In the context of The Medium, the CPU's role is almost entirely theoretical because the measured frame rates never approach levels where processor throughput would become a factor. The game is a horror title that likely has moderate CPU demands, and the i7-12700K's 3DMark 16-thread score of 9276 and 8-thread score of 7202 indicate strong multi-threaded capability that would handle any background tasks or game logic without issue. However, with GPU bottlenecking evident at every resolution and settings combination, the CPU's contribution to the final frame rate is effectively neutral. The processor's single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 1043 and PassMark single-thread score of 4013, is more than adequate for the game's primary thread, but this headroom goes entirely unused.

The i7-12700K's memory support for both DDR4 and DDR5 across a dual-channel bus provides flexibility for system builders, but this advantage is also neutralized by the GPU's reliance on system shared memory. The CPU's PCIe Gen 4 support with 20 lanes offers ample bandwidth for storage and expansion, yet none of these CPU-side strengths can compensate for the Arc B390's fundamental performance limitations in this title. The data clearly shows that swapping in virtually any other GPU would yield significant improvements, while the CPU choice has minimal impact on the measured results.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3 nm process with a Panther Lake chip design. It operates with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, featuring 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 render output units, along with 12 ray tracing cores. The GPU's theoretical peak performance is 7.680 TFLOPS for FP32 operations and 15.36 TFLOPS for FP16, with pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s. The 80W TDP and IGP slot width indicate this is designed for portable or low-power devices, with display outputs described as portable device dependent.

The GPU's benchmark results are stark: a single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482 places it at the 9th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1482. Its nearest rivals in the database are all legacy or entry-level discrete GPUs. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX scores 1463, putting the Arc B390 1.3% ahead. The NVIDIA GeForce 800M scores 1460, a 1.5% deficit to the Arc B390. The NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM scores 1446, 2.5% behind, and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 scores 1443, 2.7% behind. This grouping places the Arc B390 in performance territory occupied by decade-old entry-level hardware, which explains its struggles in a 2021 horror title with modern rendering requirements.

The GPU's memory configuration is entirely system shared, meaning it draws from the host system's RAM with bandwidth that is system dependent. This creates a significant disadvantage for the Arc B390 because it must compete with the CPU for memory access, and the bandwidth available is far below what discrete GPUs typically offer. The system shared memory architecture, combined with the modest shading unit count and low clock speeds relative to modern discrete GPUs, results in the measured performance ceiling of 51 FPS at 1080p Low settings. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, so API compatibility is not the limiting factor; rather, it is the raw computational throughput that constrains performance.

In The Medium specifically, the GPU's role is the single determining factor for frame rates. The measured FPS at every resolution and settings combination falls within a narrow band that reflects the Arc B390's overall compute capability. Even at the lowest settings and resolution, where the GPU faces the least demanding workload, the 51 FPS average is barely acceptable for playable frame pacing, and this drops precipitously as either resolution or settings increase. The 12 ray tracing cores are present but provide no measurable benefit in this title, as the overall GPU performance is too low to enable RT features without catastrophic frame rate drops. The GPU's 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs in the database is a clear indicator that this component is fundamentally mismatched with the demands of a modern horror game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080 resolution, the measured average frame rates span from 18 FPS at Ultra settings to 51 FPS at Low settings. The Medium settings produce 32 FPS average with a minimum of 27 and maximum of 37 FPS, while High settings yield 23 FPS average. This represents a progression where each settings tier above Low costs roughly 37-43% of the previous tier's performance: Low to Medium is a 37.3% drop, Medium to High is a 28.1% drop, and High to Ultra is a 21.7% drop. The diminishing percentage losses as settings increase suggest that the GPU is becoming progressively more saturated, with each additional graphics feature having less marginal impact because the baseline performance is already so constrained.

At 2560x1440 resolution, the average FPS values are 43 at Low, 27 at Medium, 19 at High, and 15 at Ultra. The Medium settings show a minimum of 23 and maximum of 31 FPS. The transition from Low to Medium costs 37.2% performance, Medium to High costs 29.6%, and High to Ultra costs 21.1%. These percentage changes closely mirror those seen at 1080p, indicating that the GPU's performance scaling with settings is consistent regardless of resolution. The absolute frame rates, however, are 15.7% lower at Low settings and 15.6% lower at Medium settings compared to their 1080p counterparts, showing the expected resolution penalty.

At 3840x2160 resolution, the average FPS drops to 34 at Low, 21 at Medium, 15 at High, and 12 at Ultra. The Medium settings at 4K show a minimum of 18 and maximum of 24 FPS. The settings progression at 4K follows the same pattern: Low to Medium is a 38.2% reduction, Medium to High is a 28.6% reduction, and High to Ultra is a 20% reduction. The consistency of these percentage drops across all three resolutions strongly indicates that the GPU's performance is determined by its fixed compute resources, with both resolution and settings acting as linear multipliers on the same underlying bottleneck.

The complete dataset shows that the only configuration achieving an average FPS above 50 is 1080p Low at 51 FPS. The next closest is 1440p Low at 43 FPS, followed by 4K Low at 34 FPS. Every other configuration falls below 33 FPS average, with Ultra settings at any resolution producing frame rates between 12 and 18 FPS that are effectively unplayable for a game requiring responsive controls and atmospheric tension. The min FPS data available only for Medium settings shows that even at 1080p Medium, the minimum frame rate of 27 FPS is below the 30 FPS threshold typically considered the minimum for acceptable playability, and this drops to 23 FPS at 1440p and 18 FPS at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2581 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the bottom 11.3% of all configurations. This ranking is almost entirely attributable to the GPU's performance, as the CPU alone would rank in the 84th percentile among all processors. The massive discrepancy between the CPU's strong benchmark position and the combo's poor in-game ranking highlights the extent to which the GPU bottleneck dominates the measured results. The Core i7-12700K's nearest CPU rivals — the i5-13600T, i7-12700KF, i7-13700T, and Core 5 213PE — all have average benchmark scores within 0.4% of the i7-12700K, yet any of these paired with a more capable GPU would vastly outperform this configuration.

The GPU's ranking of 9th percentile among all GPUs provides the explanatory context for the combo's low position. The Arc B390's nearest GPU rivals are all NVIDIA models from the GT 500M, 800M, and GT 600 series eras, with performance deltas ranging from 1.3% to 2.7%. These GPUs are from a completely different performance class than what The Medium's developers likely targeted for their recommended specifications. The combo rank of 2581 out of 2911 means that 330 other tested configurations perform worse, but the vast majority of systems tested — 88.7% — deliver better frame rates in this game. For a horror title that relies on sustained atmosphere, being in the bottom 11% of all systems means the experience will be compromised regardless of the settings chosen.

The data shows that this combo's ranking is not a reflection of the CPU's capabilities but rather a direct consequence of pairing a top-tier desktop processor with an integrated-class GPU. The i7-12700K's 3DMark max threads score of 9979 and Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19784 demonstrate that the processor is capable of feeding any modern GPU, but the Arc B390 simply cannot translate that CPU horsepower into frame rate. The combination's rank would likely improve dramatically with almost any discrete GPU, even one from several generations ago that outperforms the Arc B390's 9th percentile standing.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured frame rate data, the only viable configuration for acceptable playability is 1080p Low settings, which delivers an average of 51 FPS. This is the sole settings and resolution combination that achieves a frame rate above the 50 FPS threshold, and it does so with a margin of just 1 FPS. The 1440p Low configuration at 43 FPS average is marginally playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes, while the 4K Low configuration at 34 FPS average sits at the edge of acceptable performance and would likely produce noticeable stuttering during intense gameplay moments.

For players who prioritize visual quality over frame rate, the 1080p Medium settings at 32 FPS average with a minimum of 27 FPS represents the highest quality tier that maintains a playable frame rate, but the minimum FPS dipping below 30 means there will be visible hitches during busy scenes. The 1440p Medium configuration at 27 FPS average with a 23 FPS minimum is borderline, and the 4K Medium at 21 FPS average with an 18 FPS minimum falls below playable thresholds. High and Ultra settings at any resolution produce average frame rates between 12 and 23 FPS, which are not suitable for a game that requires sustained engagement and atmospheric immersion.

The measured data indicates that the performance gap between Low and Medium settings is substantial — 37-38% across all resolutions — while the gap between Medium and High is smaller at 28-30%, and High to Ultra is the smallest at 20-22%. This suggests that the Medium settings tier includes several expensive visual features that exact a heavy toll on the Arc B390's limited resources. Players seeking the best experience from this hardware should accept the Low preset at 1080p as the default choice, with the understanding that the 51 FPS average provides a stable foundation. The Medium preset at 1080p could be considered for players who value visual fidelity more than smoothness, but the minimum frame rate of 27 FPS will be perceptible as occasional stutter.

Given the GPU's system shared memory architecture and the game's apparent memory bandwidth sensitivity, the recommendation is to prioritize resolution reduction over settings reduction. The 1080p Low at 51 FPS is significantly better than 1440p Low at 43 FPS, and both are far superior to any High or Ultra configuration. The data does not support any configuration above Medium settings at 1080p, and even that is a compromise. For players with this hardware combination, the optimal experience is 1080p Low, which provides roughly 50% higher frame rates than the next best option and keeps the game within the range where horror gameplay remains responsive enough to be enjoyable.