The Medium

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and Intel Arc B570 combination delivers a playable but demanding experience in The Medium, a horror title that stresses both processor and graphics hardware. This pairing ranks in the lower half of tested configurations, with the data indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides ample headroom for the game’s logical threads. The following analysis breaks down the benchmark results, settings recommendations, and the distinct roles of each component.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested CPU-GPU combinations for The Medium, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 with the Intel Arc B570 holds the 2321st position out of 2911 total combos. This places it in the 20th percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly four out of every five configurations deliver higher average frame rates in this particular title. The rank reflects a system that can run the game, but not with high fidelity at demanding resolutions.

The CPU itself is a strong performer in synthetic benchmarks, sitting in the 90th percentile of all processors tested. Its average benchmark score of 48995 places it in a tight cluster with several rivals. The nearest competitor is the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, which scores 49196, a mere 0.4% higher. The AMD Ryzen 9 7900 is also close, with a 49228 average score, 0.5% above the Core Ultra 5 245. On the Intel side, the Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48698, which is 0.6% lower, and the Core i5-14600K scores 48618, 0.8% lower. These deltas are all within a single percentage point, indicating that the Core Ultra 5 245 is competitively positioned among its peers in raw compute performance.

The GPU, however, tells a different story. The Intel Arc B570 sits in the 65th percentile of all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 20556. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (score 20534, 0.1% higher), the Intel Arc A750 (score 20582, 0.1% lower), the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (score 20480, 0.4% higher), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (score 20662, 0.5% lower). This places the B570 in a performance band that is competitive with mid-range options from previous generations, but it lacks the raw throughput needed for high-refresh or high-resolution gaming in a demanding title like The Medium.

The combination’s low rank is primarily due to the GPU’s limitations. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 78 FPS, which is smooth. However, as resolution and settings increase, the frame rate drops sharply. The gap between the CPU’s 90th percentile standing and the GPU’s 65th percentile standing is telling. The processor is not the limiting factor; the graphics card is. This is further confirmed by the measured FPS data, which shows that even at 1080p Ultra, the average frame rate falls to 28 FPS, a level that is borderline unplayable for a horror game that benefits from smooth motion.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which preset offers the best experience for this hardware combination. The sweet spot is the Medium preset at 1920x1080 resolution. Here, the system delivers an average of 49 FPS, with a minimum of 41 FPS and a maximum of 56 FPS. This frame rate range is acceptable for a slow-paced horror title, maintaining fluidity during exploration and scripted sequences without dipping into stutter territory. The minimum of 41 FPS is particularly important, as it indicates the system can hold above 30 FPS even during demanding scenes.

At 1080p Low, the average jumps to 78 FPS, but this comes at a significant visual cost. The Medium relies heavily on atmospheric lighting, shadows, and fixed camera angles that benefit from higher detail settings. Dropping to Low would diminish the visual experience that is central to the horror genre. Conversely, High settings at 1080p yield only 35 FPS average, which is a 29% reduction from Medium. This drop is too steep for the marginal visual improvement over Medium, making it a poor trade-off. Ultra at 1080p is worse, with an average of 28 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable play.

For users willing to accept lower visual fidelity, 1440p Low is an option, delivering 66 FPS average. However, the jump from 1080p Medium to 1440p Low involves a resolution increase but a settings decrease, which is a lateral move at best. The Medium preset at 1440p yields only 41 FPS average, which is on the edge of playability. At 4K, the Medium preset drops to 32 FPS average, with a minimum of 27 FPS, which is too low for consistent gameplay. The data strongly suggests that 1080p Medium is the optimal configuration, balancing frame rate and visual quality. It is the only preset where the system maintains an average above 45 FPS while still using a mid-range settings tier.

The High preset at any resolution is not recommended. At 1080p it produces 35 FPS, at 1440p it drops to 29 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 23 FPS. These figures are all below the 40 FPS target that most players would find acceptable. The Ultra preset is even less viable, with 28 FPS at 1080p, 23 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K. These are slideshow-level frame rates that would severely hinder gameplay. Therefore, the recommended path is clear: 1080p Medium is the primary choice, with 1440p Low as a fallback for users who prioritize resolution over detail.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data across resolutions reveals a classic GPU-bound scenario. Moving from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 49 FPS to 41 FPS, a 16% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings, the average drops from 41 FPS to 32 FPS, a 22% decrease. In total, scaling from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings reduces the average frame rate from 49 FPS to 32 FPS, a 35% reduction. This is a significant loss that indicates the graphics card is struggling to fill the additional pixels.

At Low settings, the scaling is similar but with higher absolute numbers. 1080p Low yields 78 FPS, 1440p Low yields 66 FPS (a 15% drop), and 4K Low yields 52 FPS (a 21% drop from 1440p). The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low is 33%. At High settings, the frame rates are much lower to begin with: 35 FPS at 1080p, 29 FPS at 1440p (a 17% drop), and 23 FPS at 4K (a 21% drop). The total reduction is 34%. These consistent percentage drops across settings tiers suggest that the scaling is resolution-driven, not settings-driven. The GPU is the limiting factor, as its fill rate and memory bandwidth cannot keep up with the increasing pixel count.

The fact that the frame rate scales nearly linearly with resolution—roughly a 15-20% drop per step up—points to the GPU’s memory bandwidth being a key constraint. The Intel Arc B570 has a memory bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s over a 160-bit bus. This is sufficient for 1080p but becomes a bottleneck at higher resolutions where more data must be pushed through the same pipe. The CPU’s performance is not a factor here, as its benchmark scores are high and it is not being stressed by the increasing resolution. The data shows that the Core Ultra 5 245 can feed the GPU frames without issue; the GPU simply cannot render them fast enough at higher resolutions.

Another observation is that the frame time consistency worsens at higher resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the minimum FPS is 41 and the maximum is 56, a spread of 15 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the spread is 12 FPS (35 to 47). At 4K Medium, the spread is 10 FPS (27 to 37). While the absolute spread narrows, the percentage variation increases relative to the average. At 4K, the minimum is 84% of the average, whereas at 1080p it is 84% as well. This indicates that the GPU is consistently delivering near its limit, with less headroom for frame bursts. For a horror game that relies on sudden visual changes, this consistency is more important than peak FPS.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware in The Medium?*

A: The measured data shows that 1920x1080 with Medium settings provides the best experience, yielding an average of 49 FPS, a minimum of 41 FPS, and a maximum of 56 FPS. This is the only configuration that maintains an average above 45 FPS while using a mid-tier preset.

*Q: Can this system run The Medium at 4K?*

A: Yes, but with limitations. At 4K Medium, the average FPS is 32, with a minimum of 27 FPS. At 4K Low, the average is 52 FPS. However, the Low preset at 4K sacrifices visual quality, and the Medium preset at 4K is below the 40 FPS threshold for smooth play.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 compare to its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks?

A: The Core Ultra 5 245 has an average benchmark score of 48995, which is 0.4% lower than the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49196) and 0.5% lower than the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228). It is 0.6% higher than the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48698) and 0.8% higher than the Intel Core i5-14600K (48618).

Q: What is the GPU’s performance percentile, and what does it mean?

A: The Intel Arc B570 sits in the 65th percentile of all GPUs tested. This means it outperforms 65% of graphics cards, but it is outclassed by the top 35%. Its average benchmark score is 20556, placing it in a band with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and the Intel Arc A750 (20582).

*Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system for The Medium?*

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The CPU ranks in the 90th percentile, while the GPU ranks in the 65th. The FPS data shows that frame rates scale almost linearly with resolution, which is a hallmark of GPU limitation. The CPU has no trouble feeding the GPU frames.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the Intel Arc B570?

A: The launch MSRP is 219 USD. This is the only pricing information available in the data, and it does not reflect current market prices.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 is the decisive component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured frame rates. The GPU is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture, codenamed Battlemage, and manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 raster output units. The pixel rate is 200.0 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 360.0 GTexel/s. These figures determine how quickly the card can fill pixels and apply textures, both of which are critical in a game like The Medium that features detailed environments and fixed-camera compositions.

The GPU’s memory subsystem is a notable factor. It has 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. The memory clock is 2375 MHz, with an effective data rate of 19 Gbps. For The Medium, which loads large texture sets and uses streaming for its dual-reality mechanic, this bandwidth is a constraint. At 1080p, the bandwidth is sufficient to maintain 49 FPS at Medium settings. At 4K, the same settings drop to 32 FPS because the memory interface cannot deliver data fast enough to keep the shading units busy. The 10 GB capacity is not an issue at these settings, as the game does not appear to exceed memory limits, but the bandwidth is.

Clock speeds are another factor. The base and boost clocks are both 2500 MHz, which is a flat clock curve. This means the GPU does not have additional boost headroom beyond its base specification. In a title that stresses the card consistently, this flat clock can lead to thermal throttling if cooling is inadequate, though the data does not indicate such behavior. The GPU’s FP32 performance is 11.52 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 23.04 TFLOPS (2:1 rate). These compute figures are moderate, and they align with the card’s 65th percentile ranking.

The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which is relevant because The Medium uses DirectX 12 features. The ray tracing cores (18 RT cores) are present, but the game does not appear to require them based on the measured settings. The card’s power draw is 150 W, with a suggested PSU of 450 W. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8, which provides adequate bandwidth for this card’s performance class. In comparison to its nearest rivals, the B570’s average benchmark score of 20556 is nearly identical to the RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and the Arc A750 (20582), with deltas of 0.1% or less. This indicates that the B570 is a mid-range performer, and its in-game results reflect that positioning.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a strong processor that provides more than enough compute for The Medium. It has 14 cores and 14 threads, with a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. The lack of hyper-threading means each core handles one thread, but the core count is sufficient for the game’s multi-threaded workload. The CPU is built on the Arrow Lake architecture, using a 3 nm process at TSMC. It supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. This memory bandwidth is ample for feeding both the CPU and the GPU, as the game does not appear to be memory-bound on the CPU side.

The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 24 MB of shared L3 cache. This cache configuration helps with the game’s asset streaming and logic updates. The L3 cache, in particular, is large enough to hold frequently accessed data, reducing the need to fetch from system memory. The CPU’s integrated graphics are Arc Xe-LPG with 64 execution units, but these are not used when the discrete Arc B570 is active.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 5 245 demonstrates strong multi-core and single-core performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 32924 in multi-core and 4648 in single-core. In Cinebench R20, the scores are 13828 multi-core and 1952 single-core. These numbers place the CPU in the 90th percentile of all processors. The PassMark multi-thread score is 38706, and the single-thread score is 4394. The data compression score is 400942, and the floating point math score is 120548. These figures indicate that the CPU has no difficulty handling the game’s physics, AI, and streaming tasks.

The CPU’s boost clock of 5.10 GHz is high, and it is unlocked? No, the multiplier is not unlocked, but the boost behavior is sufficient for gaming. The TDP is 65 W, which is modest, allowing for efficient cooling. The socket is Intel Socket 1851, and the chip uses 20 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. The release date is January 6, 2025, and the launch MSRP is $270. In comparison to its nearest rivals, the CPU’s average benchmark score of 48995 is within 1% of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, AMD Ryzen 9 7900, Intel Xeon Gold 5318H, and Intel Core i5-14600K. This means that the CPU is not a performance outlier; it is a solid mid-to-high-range processor that will not bottleneck the GPU in most scenarios.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the limiting factor in The Medium. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 78 FPS, which is likely near the GPU’s maximum output for that setting. If the CPU were a bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates plateau across different resolutions, but the FPS drops consistently with resolution increases. This is a classic GPU-bound signature. The CPU’s 14 cores and high boost clock are more than adequate for the game’s demands, and its benchmark scores confirm that it can keep pace with the GPU’s output. The bottleneck is firmly on the graphics side.