Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and Intel Arc B580 combination delivers a nuanced performance profile in Control, a 2019 Action Adventure title. Benchmark data indicates the pairing is fully capable of clearing the 60 FPS playable threshold at 1080p across all tested settings, while 1440p requires a reduction in quality to maintain smooth frame rates. At 4K, the system falls short of the 60 FPS target even on the lowest settings, making it a 1080p-centric and conditional 1440p configuration for this specific game.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Control at 1080p with maximum settings?

A: Yes. At 1920x1080 with Ultra settings, the measured average frame rate is 62 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS playable threshold. The verdict data confirms all four tested settings presets (Low, Medium, High, and Ultra) are playable at this resolution.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 2560x1440?

A: The most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Medium, with an average of 61 FPS. While Low settings achieve a higher 86 FPS average, Medium is the best quality option that still meets the playable threshold. High and Ultra settings fall below 60 FPS at this resolution.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this hardware in Control?

A: No. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only reaches an average of 58 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The verdict data lists no playable settings at this resolution, with the best average being 58 FPS on Low.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B580 compare to its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080?

A: The Arc B580 has an average benchmark score of 23021, while the RTX 2080 scores 22895. This makes the Arc B580 0.6% faster in aggregate benchmark performance, placing the two cards at a virtual performance parity.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The jump from Low to Ultra settings at 1920x1080 results in a significant performance cost. The average frame rate drops from 114 FPS on Low to 62 FPS on Ultra, a reduction of 52 FPS or approximately 45.6% lower performance.

Q: Does the CPU hold back the GPU in this configuration?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck at playable settings. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D sits in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, and its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F, is only 0.2% different in score. The GPU's performance ranking (68th percentile) suggests it is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, but the CPU provides sufficient headroom for the frame rates observed.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, no preset achieves the 60 FPS target. The closest is the Low preset with an average of 58 FPS, but it does not meet the playable threshold. Medium, High, and Ultra settings produce averages of 41, 37, and 32 FPS respectively, all falling well short of playable.

At 2560x1440, the best playable setting is Medium, delivering an average of 61 FPS. This preset provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold, with a minimum observed frame rate of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS. While the Low preset achieves a higher 86 FPS average, it does not offer the visual fidelity of Medium. High and Ultra presets are not playable, with averages of 54 and 47 FPS respectively.

At 1920x1080, the best playable setting is Ultra, which maintains an average of 62 FPS. This is the maximum quality preset available in the test data and it still clears the playable threshold by a 2 FPS margin. The High preset offers a more comfortable 72 FPS average, while Medium and Low run at 81 and 114 FPS respectively. For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, Ultra is the choice; for those seeking higher frame rates, the other presets provide headroom.

CPU and GPU Roles

The performance scaling across resolutions points to the GPU as the primary constraint in this pairing. At 1080p, the system achieves 114 FPS on Low settings, but this drops to 86 FPS at 1440p and 58 FPS at 4K — a clear degradation as pixel count increases. This pattern is consistent with GPU-bound rendering, where the Arc B580's workload scales directly with resolution.

The CPU's role becomes more relevant at lower resolutions and higher frame rates. At 1080p Low, the 114 FPS average suggests the Ryzen 5 5500X3D can feed the GPU sufficiently at high frame rates. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking and 12 threads provide ample compute for Control's physics and logic, which are not typically the bottleneck in this title. However, the data shows that as resolution increases, the gap between presets narrows, indicating the GPU's pixel throughput dominates the equation.

Preset scaling also reveals the GPU's influence. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra costs 52 FPS (from 114 to 62), while at 1440p the same change costs 39 FPS (from 86 to 47), and at 4K it costs 26 FPS (from 58 to 32). This diminishing absolute difference at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the relative cost of higher settings becomes less significant when the base frame rate is already constrained by resolution. The CPU's consistent performance across these scenarios indicates it is not the primary bottleneck.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D's nearest rivals offer nearly identical aggregate performance. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 is 0.2% faster with a score of 37093, while the Intel Core i9-12900T is 0.3% faster at 37112. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36945) and Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (36938) are both 0.2% slower. These deltas are within measurement noise, meaning any of these processors would produce virtually indistinguishable frame rates in Control when paired with the same GPU.

For the GPU, the Intel Arc B580's nearest rivals span a wider range of architectures. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is 0.7% slower in aggregate score (23172), while the NVIDIA P106-100 is 1% slower (23249). The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP is 0.2% slower (23061), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 is 0.6% faster (22895). Notably, the RTX 3080's near-parity aggregate score suggests it would deliver similar frame rates in Control, despite being a different generation of hardware. The RX 580 2048SP, being an older architecture, may exhibit different driver-level behavior in specific titles, but the raw benchmark data places it in the same performance class.

Users considering alternative builds should expect essentially the same gaming experience with any of these CPUs or GPUs, as the performance deltas are all under 1%. The choice between them would likely come down to platform features or availability rather than frame rate differences.

The Verdict

This PC can run Control effectively at 1920x1080 with all settings presets playable. The Ultra preset achieves a 62 FPS average, which clears the 60 FPS threshold, and High, Medium, and Low all exceed it with 72, 81, and 114 FPS respectively. For 1080p gaming, this is a fully capable configuration.

At 2560x1440, the system is conditionally playable. The Medium preset reaches 61 FPS, just above the threshold, while Low runs at 86 FPS. Users must accept Medium or lower settings to maintain smooth gameplay at this resolution. High and Ultra presets fall to 54 and 47 FPS, which are below the playable threshold and would introduce noticeable stutter in fast-paced scenes.

At 3840x2160, the system cannot deliver a playable experience. The best average frame rate is 58 FPS on Low settings, which is below the 60 FPS target. All other presets run below 41 FPS. This resolution is not viable for Control with this hardware.

The verdict is clear: this is a strong 1080p machine for Control, a decent 1440p machine when settings are moderated, and not a 4K solution.

How This Combo Ranks

Among all tested CPU-GPU combinations in the benchmark database, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and Intel Arc B580 ranks 2816th out of 3720 combos for Control. This places it in the 24.3rd percentile of all tested systems, meaning roughly three-quarters of tested configurations deliver higher frame rates in this game.

This ranking reflects the GPU's 68th percentile standing among all GPUs, which is moderate, and the CPU's 85th percentile among all CPUs. The combination's overall rank is dragged down by the GPU's mid-pack position, as Control is primarily GPU-bound at the resolutions where the playable threshold is met. The CPU's strong relative performance does not boost the combo's rank significantly because the frame rate ceiling is set by the Arc B580.

The rank indicates that while this system is perfectly playable at 1080p, it is not a high-performance outlier. Users seeking higher frame rates or 4K capability would need to look at combinations with GPUs in higher percentiles.

Measured FPS Breakdown

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: Average 58 FPS, no min/max data recorded.
• Medium: Average 41 FPS, with a minimum of 35 FPS and maximum of 48 FPS.
• High: Average 37 FPS, no min/max data recorded.
• Ultra: Average 32 FPS, no min/max data recorded.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: Average 86 FPS, no min/max data recorded.
• Medium: Average 61 FPS, with a minimum of 52 FPS and maximum of 70 FPS.
• High: Average 54 FPS, no min/max data recorded.
• Ultra: Average 47 FPS, no min/max data recorded.

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: Average 114 FPS, no min/max data recorded.
• Medium: Average 81 FPS, with a minimum of 69 FPS and maximum of 93 FPS.
• High: Average 72 FPS, no min/max data recorded.
• Ultra: Average 62 FPS, no min/max data recorded.

The data shows a consistent pattern: frame rates scale down as resolution increases, and the gap between Low and Ultra presets narrows at higher resolutions. The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all resolutions, providing insight into frame time variance. At 1080p Medium, the 69-93 FPS range indicates a 24 FPS spread, while at 1440p Medium the spread is 18 FPS (52-70), and at 4K Medium it is 13 FPS (35-48). This tighter variance at higher resolutions suggests the GPU's workload becomes more consistent as it is fully saturated, whereas at lower resolutions CPU or driver overhead may cause larger fluctuations.