Control

Measured FPS Breakdown

Control is a demanding Action Adventure title, and the recorded data for the Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 shows a clear performance ceiling. At 3840x2160, the highest settings are effectively unplayable. The Low preset averages 30.3 FPS, Medium drops to 23.3 FPS, and both High and Ultra settle at 18.9 FPS. There is no min or max FPS recorded for any resolution, so the analysis relies on average frame rates.

Moving down to 2560x1440, the situation improves but remains below the 60 FPS playable threshold. Low settings produce an average of 44.6 FPS, Medium yields 32.1 FPS, High drops to 26.1 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 24.4 FPS. The scaling from 4K to 1440p is substantial: Low improves by 14.3 FPS, which is a 47% uplift, while High gains 7.2 FPS.

At 1920x1080, the data shows the only preset that comes close to playable. Low settings average 59.1 FPS, which is just 0.9 FPS shy of the 60 FPS target. Medium averages 43.5 FPS, High drops to 34.6 FPS, and Ultra falls to 33.2 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 15.6 FPS, indicating that the RX 570 has a narrow window of usable settings at 1080p. The difference between High and Ultra is only 1.4 FPS, suggesting that Ultra offers little visual benefit for the performance cost at this resolution.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data reveals that the AMD Radeon RX 570 is the dominant bottleneck across all tested configurations. The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor with a boost clock of 4.90 GHz and a strong single-thread score of 1016 in 3dmark, yet the GPU consistently limits frame rates. This is evident from the resolution scaling: at 3840x2160, the GPU is fully saturated, and the CPU has minimal impact. The 4K Low preset averages 30.3 FPS, while 1440p Low averages 44.6 FPS, a 47% increase purely from reducing pixel count. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario.

At 1080p, the CPU begins to matter more, but the data still shows the GPU holding back performance. The 1080p Low preset reaches 59.1 FPS, which is 14.5 FPS higher than 1440p Low. However, even at the lowest settings, the RX 570 cannot exceed 60 FPS, meaning the GPU is still the limiting factor. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect to see diminishing returns as resolution drops, but the frame rate continues to climb, indicating the GPU remains the primary bottleneck.

The preset scaling further confirms this. At 1080p, dropping from High to Low yields a 24.5 FPS improvement, while at 1440p the same preset change yields 18.5 FPS, and at 4K it yields 11.4 FPS. This nonlinear scaling is characteristic of a GPU that is increasingly overloaded at higher resolutions. The CPU's role is more pronounced at 1080p, where its 3dmark 16-thread score of 7956 and single-thread score of 1016 help maintain frame pacing, but the RX 570's 5.095 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are simply insufficient for Control at higher settings.

Best Settings per Resolution

The recorded data shows that no resolution achieves a playable 60 FPS average with any preset. The verdict fields confirm this: for 3840x2160, 2560x1440, and 1920x1080, the playableSettings arrays are empty, and the bestSettings values are null. This means the combination of the i5-12600KF and RX 570 cannot reach the 60 FPS threshold at any tested setting.

At 1920x1080, the closest result is Low at 59.1 FPS. This is the most demanding preset that stays near the playable threshold, but it does not actually clear it. Medium at 43.5 FPS, High at 34.6 FPS, and Ultra at 33.2 FPS are all significantly below 60 FPS. At 2560x1440, Low is the best at 44.6 FPS, followed by Medium at 32.1 FPS, High at 26.1 FPS, and Ultra at 24.4 FPS. At 3840x2160, Low is the best at 30.3 FPS, with Medium at 23.3 FPS and High and Ultra both at 18.9 FPS.

The data indicates that the RX 570's 4 GB GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus are insufficient for Control's higher presets, particularly at 1440p and 4K. The GPU's pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s are simply overwhelmed by the game's effects-heavy rendering at those resolutions.

The Verdict

Based on the measured FPS data, this PC cannot run Control at 60 FPS at any resolution or preset. The verdictByResolution field confirms that no playable settings exist for 3840x2160, 2560x1440, or 1920x1080. The closest result is 1080p Low at 59.1 FPS, which is 0.9 FPS below the playable threshold of 60 FPS. This is a marginal miss, but it is still a miss.

For users targeting 1080p, the system is borderline. Low settings deliver near-playable frame rates, but any increase in quality results in a substantial drop: Medium is 43.5 FPS, which is 16.5 FPS below the threshold. At 1440p and 4K, the system is clearly not viable for Control, as even Low presets fail to reach 45 FPS at 1440p and 31 FPS at 4K. The i5-12600KF is more than capable from a CPU standpoint, as evidenced by its 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs, but the RX 570's 74th percentile ranking among GPUs is not enough for this game.

The data suggests that this combination is better suited for less demanding titles or for playing Control at 1080p with reduced settings and potentially a frame rate cap below 60 FPS. However, for the stated playable threshold of 60 FPS, the system falls short across the board.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the Intel Core i5-12600KF provide context for CPU performance. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D has an average benchmark score of 27896, which is 0.3% higher than the i5-12600KF's 27799. The AMD Ryzen 7 6800U scores 27887, also 0.3% higher. The Intel Core i9-10900K scores 27872, which is 0.3% lower, and the AMD Ryzen 5 8500GE scores 27712, which is 0.3% lower. These differences are negligible, meaning any of these CPUs would behave nearly identically in Control when paired with the RX 570.

For the GPU, the AMD Radeon RX 570's nearest rivals show similar performance envelopes. The AMD Radeon RX 6800M has an average score of 28874, which is 0.4% higher than the RX 570's 28766. The AMD Radeon R9 M295X scores 28580, which is 0.7% lower. The AMD Radeon RX 470 scores 28996, which is 0.8% higher, and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 scores 28421, which is 1.2% lower. These deltas are all within 1.2%, so swapping to any of these GPUs would yield nearly identical FPS results in Control.

A system with the i5-12600KF and any of these rival GPUs would face the same fundamental limitation: none of them can push Control past 60 FPS at 1080p Low. The RX 470, being the closest GPU rival at 0.8% higher performance, would likely produce a 1080p Low average of approximately 59.6 FPS, still below the threshold. The R9 M295X, at 0.7% lower, would likely produce around 58.7 FPS. The variations are too small to change the playability verdict.

FAQ

Q: Can the Intel Core i5-12600KF and AMD Radeon RX 570 run Control at 60 FPS?

A: No. The recorded data shows no resolution or preset that reaches 60 FPS. The best result is 1080p Low at 59.1 FPS, which is 0.9 FPS below the playable threshold.

Q: What is the best frame rate achievable at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 59.1 FPS. Medium averages 43.5 FPS, High averages 34.6 FPS, and Ultra averages 33.2 FPS.

Q: How does performance scale from 1080p to 1440p?

A: At Low settings, 1440p averages 44.6 FPS compared to 59.1 FPS at 1080p, a reduction of 14.5 FPS (24.5%). At High settings, 1440p averages 26.1 FPS versus 34.6 FPS at 1080p, a reduction of 8.5 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The RX 570's frame rates scale directly with resolution, indicating GPU saturation. The i5-12600KF has a 3dmark single-thread score of 1016 and a 16-thread score of 7956, which are sufficient for Control, but the GPU cannot keep up.

Q: What is the difference between High and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: High averages 34.6 FPS and Ultra averages 33.2 FPS, a difference of only 1.4 FPS. This suggests Ultra offers minimal visual improvement for a negligible performance cost at 1080p.

Q: How does this combination rank among all tested combos in Control?

A: It ranks 3434 out of 3720 combos, placing it in the bottom 8% of tested systems. This is consistent with the GPU's 74th percentile ranking and the game's demanding nature.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 3434 out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the 8th percentile of all systems. This is a low ranking, reflecting the GPU's inability to handle the game at playable frame rates. The CPU, however, is not the issue: the i5-12600KF ranks in the 79th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27799. The RX 570 ranks in the 74th percentile among GPUs, with an average score of 28766.

The rank of 3434 out of 3720 means that 286 combos perform worse, while 3433 perform better. This places the system firmly in the lower quartile of tested configurations. The data suggests that the RX 570 is the limiting factor, as its 4 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for Control's high-resolution textures and effects. The i5-12600KF's 10 cores and 16 threads provide ample processing power, but they cannot compensate for the GPU's shortfall.

For comparison, the GPU's nearest rival, the RX 470, scores 0.8% higher, which would not meaningfully improve the ranking. The CPU's nearest rival, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, scores 0.3% higher, which also would not change the outcome. This system is fundamentally constrained by the GPU, and any upgrade path would need to prioritize a more powerful graphics card to achieve playable frame rates in Control.