Control

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the Intel Arc B580 delivers a playable Control experience at 1080p and 1440p, but the game is not playable at 4K with this combination. At 1080p, the combo clears the 60 FPS threshold across all tested settings, including Ultra. At 1440p, the combo manages 60 FPS on Medium settings, but falls short on High and Ultra. At 4K, no settings preset reaches the 60 FPS playable threshold, with the best result being 59.7 FPS on Low.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo reveals a clear scaling pattern across resolutions and presets. At 1920x1080, the arc from Low to Ultra shows the strongest performance envelope. Low settings produce an average of 112.1 FPS, Medium drops to 79.2 FPS, High comes in at 71.5 FPS, and Ultra settles at 60.4 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 51.7 FPS, indicating that the GPU is the primary limiter as settings increase, but the CPU keeps frame rates high enough to stay well above the playable threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops are significant. Low settings average 87.5 FPS, which is still comfortable. Medium settings hit 60.3 FPS, barely clearing the playable threshold. High settings fall to 53.7 FPS, while Ultra drops further to 48.8 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 38.7 FPS. Notably, the jump from Low to Medium costs 27.2 FPS, while the jump from Medium to High costs only 6.6 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 4.9 FPS. This suggests that the Low to Medium transition is the most demanding step at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles across all presets. Low settings average 59.7 FPS, just missing the 60 FPS target. Medium averages 40.8 FPS, High averages 39.1 FPS, and Ultra averages 33.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 18.9 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is only 1.7 FPS. The gap between High and Ultra is 5.2 FPS. The data shows that at 4K, even Low settings cannot sustain 60 FPS, and the frame rate collapses as settings rise.

Comparing the resolution scaling, the 1080p to 1440p transition at Low settings costs 24.6 FPS (from 112.1 to 87.5). The 1440p to 4K transition at Low costs 27.8 FPS (from 87.5 to 59.7). At Ultra settings, the 1080p to 1440p drop is 11.6 FPS, and the 1440p to 4K drop is 14.9 FPS. This indicates that the performance penalty for increasing resolution is consistent, but the absolute frame rates at 4K are too low for playability.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data indicates a clear shift in component roles depending on resolution and settings. At 1080p, the CPU (AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D) has enough headroom to feed the GPU (Intel Arc B580) efficiently, as evidenced by the high frame rates even at Ultra (60.4 FPS). The CPU’s strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42018, ensures that the GPU is not starved at lower resolutions where draw calls and physics calculations can bottleneck weaker processors. The GPU’s 13.67 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is sufficient to push frames at 1080p, but the scaling from Low to Ultra shows that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as pixel shading and texture work increase.

At 1440p, the GPU’s role becomes more dominant. The frame rate drops from 87.5 FPS at Low to 60.3 FPS at Medium, a 31% reduction. This steep drop indicates that the GPU’s memory bandwidth (456.0 GB/s) and shading units (2560) are being taxed more heavily. The CPU still provides enough headroom to maintain frame pacing, but the GPU is clearly the bottleneck at Medium and above. The fact that the drop from Medium to High is smaller (6.6 FPS) than the drop from Low to Medium (27.2 FPS) suggests that the GPU’s rendering pipeline is more sensitive to certain settings like shadows or post-processing that change between Low and Medium.

At 4K, the GPU is overwhelmingly the bottleneck. The best result, 59.7 FPS at Low, is only 0.3 FPS below the playable threshold, and it falls to 33.9 FPS at Ultra. The GPU’s 12 GB GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus are insufficient for the pixel load at 4K, and the frame rates reflect this. The CPU’s performance becomes almost irrelevant at this resolution, as the GPU simply cannot render enough frames. The data shows that the scaling between resolutions is steeper at lower settings (Low: 112.1 to 87.5 to 59.7) than at higher settings (Ultra: 60.4 to 48.8 to 33.9), which further confirms that the GPU is the primary limiter as resolution increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 2811 out of 3720 tested combinations in Control. This places it in the lower 24% of all tested combos, which is a below-average position. The percentile ranking for the CPU alone is 95th, meaning the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D outperforms 95% of all CPUs tested. The GPU alone ranks in the 68th percentile, which is above average but not exceptional. The discrepancy between the CPU’s high percentile and the combo’s low rank indicates that the GPU is dragging down overall performance in this game.

Comparing to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the Intel Arc B580 has an average benchmark score of 23021. The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP scores 23061, which is 0.2% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 scores 22895, which is 0.6% lower. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 scores 23172, which is 0.7% higher. The NVIDIA P106-100 scores 23249, which is 1% higher. These deltas are all within 1% of the Arc B580’s score, indicating that the GPU’s raw compute performance is comparable to these older and newer cards. However, the in-game FPS data shows that the combo’s rank is more dependent on the GPU’s real-world rendering capabilities in Control, which may not align perfectly with synthetic benchmarks.

The CPU’s nearest rivals all have average scores within 0.4% of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s 75779. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 scores 75738 (0.1% lower), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D scores 75716 (0.1% lower), the AMD EPYC 8224P scores 75582 (0.3% lower), and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 scores 75488 (0.4% lower). This shows that the CPU is at the top of its class, but the combo rank of 2811 suggests that pairing it with a mid-range GPU like the Arc B580 does not yield a top-tier gaming experience for Control.

The Verdict

The verdict by resolution is clear: this combo cannot run Control at 60 FPS at 4K under any settings. At 3840x2160, the list of playable settings is empty, and the best average FPS is 59.7 on Low, which is just under the 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440, the combo is playable on Low (87.5 FPS) and Medium (60.3 FPS), with Medium being the best playable setting. At 1920x1080, the combo is playable on all settings, including Ultra (60.4 FPS), which is the best playable setting.

For gamers targeting 60 FPS, the data shows that 1080p Ultra is the sweet spot, delivering 60.4 FPS. At 1440p, Medium is the highest preset that clears 60 FPS, with 60.3 FPS, but this leaves little headroom for frame drops. At 4K, the combo is not viable for 60 FPS gameplay, and even Low settings fall short. The data indicates that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming with high to ultra presets, or 1440p gaming with medium presets.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Control at 4K with any settings?

A: No. At 3840x2160, no settings preset reaches 60 FPS. The best result is 59.7 FPS on Low, which is below the playable threshold.

Q: What is the highest playable setting at 1440p?

A: Medium is the highest playable setting at 2560x1440, with an average of 60.3 FPS. High (53.7 FPS) and Ultra (48.8 FPS) are not playable.

Q: Is 1080p Ultra playable with this combo?

A: Yes. At 1920x1080, Ultra settings average 60.4 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold. All other settings (Low, Medium, High) also clear 60 FPS.

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

A: The Arc B580 has an average benchmark score of 23021. The AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP is 0.2% higher, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 is 0.6% lower, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is 0.7% higher, and the NVIDIA P106-100 is 1% higher.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 2811 out of 3720 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the lower 24% of all tested combos.

Q: What is the FPS drop between Low and Medium at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 87.5 FPS and Medium averages 60.3 FPS, a drop of 27.2 FPS. This is the largest single-step drop at that resolution.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 60.4 FPS. This is the best visual quality available at this resolution while maintaining playability. At 2560x1440, the most demanding preset that clears 60 FPS is Medium, with an average of 60.3 FPS. This provides a balance between visual fidelity and frame rate, but leaves minimal margin for frame time spikes. At 3840x2160, no preset is playable, as the best result is 59.7 FPS on Low, which is below the 60 FPS threshold. The data shows that the combo’s optimal configuration is 1080p Ultra, offering the highest settings at a playable frame rate.