Control

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 sits at rank 3379 out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the lower portion of the database. That rank reflects a combination that can run the game, but only at specific settings and resolutions. The combo finishes roughly in the 9th percentile of all tested configurations, which is consistent with the individual component profiles: the CPU sits at the 68th percentile among all tested processors, while the GPU lands at the 53rd percentile among all tested graphics cards. The pairing is balanced in the sense that neither part is dramatically stronger than the other, but both are older or entry-level pieces of hardware by current standards.

The recorded data shows that at 1920x1080, the combo manages to clear the 60 FPS playability threshold only at Low settings. At Medium settings it drops to 43 FPS, at High it falls to 41 FPS, and at Ultra it lands at 37 FPS. This is a clear pattern: the system is capable of hitting the target at the lowest preset, but every step up in quality costs enough performance that the frame rate falls well short of 60. At 2560x1440, no preset reaches 60 FPS. The best result there is Low at 46.5 FPS, followed by Medium at 37.2 FPS, High at 29.1 FPS, and Ultra at 23.6 FPS. At 3840x2160, the situation is worse: Low produces 34.1 FPS, Medium 25.7 FPS, High 19.1 FPS, and Ultra 20.3 FPS. The verdict by resolution is therefore straightforward: playable only at 1080p Low.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results indicate that this game is heavily GPU-limited for this combo at every resolution tested, but the degree of limitation shifts as resolution increases. The most telling comparison is the scaling between 1080p Low and 4K Low. At 1920x1080 Low, the system produces 64.6 FPS. At 3840x2160 Low, it produces 34.1 FPS. That is a 47% drop in frame rate when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same preset, which strongly suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The RX 580 has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and a 256-bit bus with 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, but its compute throughput of 6.175 TFLOPS is simply not enough to feed high-resolution frames at high rates in a demanding title like Control.

The CPU side is less stressed. The Core i3-12100F is a 4-core, 8-thread part with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. In the database, its multi-threaded scores are solid for an entry-level chip: Cinebench R23 multi-core at 11860, Geekbench multi-core at 7252, and Passmark multi-thread at 14015. Single-thread performance is also respectable, with Cinebench R23 single-core at 1674 and Passmark single-thread at 3444. These numbers suggest the CPU is not the limiting factor at lower resolutions, where the GPU is clearly struggling to keep up. However, at 1080p, the frame rate differences between presets are relatively modest (64.6 FPS Low, 43 FPS Medium, 41 FPS High, 37 FPS Ultra), which is typical of a GPU-bound scenario where the CPU has headroom left unused.

As resolution climbs, the GPU load increases further. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is only 13.8 FPS (34.1 vs 20.3), which indicates that even the lowest settings cannot relieve the GPU enough to approach playability. At 1440p, the same pattern holds: Low at 46.5 FPS is the best case, and Ultra drops to 23.6 FPS. In short, the Radeon RX 580 is the dominant constraint in this pairing. Upgrading the CPU would do little for Control at these resolutions; the data points to the GPU as the component that matters more, especially at 1440p and above.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Control at 60 FPS?

A: Only at 1920x1080 with Low settings, where the recorded average is 64.6 FPS. At Medium, High, or Ultra at the same resolution, the frame rate drops to 43, 41, and 37 FPS respectively. At 2560x1440 and 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Control?

A: The only resolution with a playable preset is 1920x1080. The best settings at that resolution are Low, delivering 64.6 FPS. At 2560x1440, the best case is Low at 46.5 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 12940, which is 0.1% higher. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER scores 12986, 0.4% higher. The AMD Radeon 740M scores 12870, 0.5% lower. The AMD FirePro W5100 scores 12847, 0.6% lower. These are all within a very narrow performance band.

Q: Is the Core i3-12100F a weak link for this game?

A: The data suggests no. The CPU sits at the 68th percentile among all tested processors, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11860 and a single-core score of 1674. The frame rate drops in Control are far more consistent with GPU limitation than CPU limitation, particularly at higher resolutions.

Q: What happens to frame rates when going from 1080p to 1440p?

A: At Low settings, the average drops from 64.6 FPS at 1080p to 46.5 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 28%. At High settings, it drops from 41 FPS to 29.1 FPS, a 29% reduction. At Ultra, it drops from 37 FPS to 23.6 FPS, a 36% reduction.

Q: What is the worst-case performance for this combo?

A: The lowest recorded average is 19.1 FPS at 3840x2160 with High settings. Ultra at 4K is slightly higher at 20.3 FPS, which is an anomaly in the scaling pattern but still firmly unplayable.

The Verdict

The verdict is clear: this PC can run Control, but only at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At that resolution and preset, the recorded average is 64.6 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS playability threshold by a small margin. The database lists Low as the only playable setting at 1080p, with a best-settings designation of Low and an average FPS of 64.6. Every other combination of resolution and preset falls below 60 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the verdict is not playable. The best case is Low at 46.5 FPS, which is 13.5 FPS short of the threshold. Medium sits at 37.2 FPS, High at 29.1 FPS, and Ultra at 23.6 FPS. At 3840x2160, the situation is worse still: Low at 34.1 FPS, Medium at 25.7 FPS, High at 19.1 FPS, and Ultra at 20.3 FPS. The playable settings list for both 1440p and 4K is empty, meaning the database records no preset at those resolutions that reaches 60 FPS.

For a user targeting 60 FPS, the only viable configuration is 1080p Low. The margin is not large, but it is a real margin. At Medium settings, the frame rate collapses to 43 FPS, which is a 33% drop from Low. That makes Low the only sensible choice for smooth gameplay. The data does not support any higher preset at 1080p, and it does not support any preset at higher resolutions. This is a system for 1080p Low in Control, nothing more.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the nearest rivals in the database provides context for what other hardware would behave similarly. For the CPU, the Intel Core i3-12100F has an average benchmark score of 13494. The closest match is the Intel Core 3 N355 at 13492, a 0% difference. The Intel Core i5-9500 scores 13452, which is 0.3% lower. The Intel Core 5 120UL scores 13594, which is 0.7% higher. The Intel Core i7-1250U scores 13351, which is 1.1% lower. Any of these processors would deliver essentially the same CPU-side performance in Control, meaning none of them would change the GPU-bound nature of this combo.

For the GPU, the AMD Radeon RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 12940, 0.1% higher, making it a near-identical match. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER scores 12986, 0.4% higher. The AMD Radeon 740M scores 12870, 0.5% lower. The AMD FirePro W5100 scores 12847, 0.6% lower. In practical terms, swapping the RX 580 for any of these would produce nearly identical frame rates in Control. The GTX 1660 SUPER is the strongest of the group, but the margin is tiny, only 0.4%. None of these alternatives would push the combo into playable territory at 1440p or 4K.

The takeaway from the rival data is that this performance tier is tightly clustered. A user with any of these GPUs or CPUs should expect the same outcome in Control: 1080p Low is the ceiling, and higher resolutions are out of reach. The differences between the alternatives are within the noise of measurement, so there is no meaningful upgrade path within this immediate neighborhood of hardware.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Low, with a recorded average of 64.6 FPS. This is the only settings/resolution combination in the entire dataset that clears the 60 FPS threshold. Medium at 1080p produces 43 FPS, High produces 41 FPS, and Ultra produces 37 FPS, all well below playable.

At 2560x1440, no preset reaches 60 FPS, so there is no best settings recommendation in the traditional sense. The closest option is Low at 46.5 FPS, but that is below the threshold. Medium delivers 37.2 FPS, High delivers 29.1 FPS, and Ultra delivers 23.6 FPS. The database records no playable settings at this resolution, and the best settings field is null.

At 3840x2160, the situation is similarly unplayable across the board. Low produces 34.1 FPS, Medium produces 25.7 FPS, High produces 19.1 FPS, and Ultra produces 20.3 FPS. The best settings field is null here as well, as no preset reaches 60 FPS.

The summary is simple: 1080p Low at 64.6 FPS is the only configuration that satisfies the 60 FPS playability standard. Every other resolution and preset combination falls short, some by a small margin (1440p Low at 46.5 FPS) and some by a wide one (4K High at 19.1 FPS). Users who want a smoother experience at higher quality settings would need to look at a different GPU, as the RX 580 is the limiting factor in this pairing.