Control

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Control at 60 FPS in 1080p?

A: Yes, at 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average FPS is 65, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold. Medium settings drop to 46 FPS, so Low is the only playable preset at this resolution.

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

A: The recorded data shows no playable settings at 2560x1440. Even Low settings only reach 50 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold, and Medium falls to 35 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Arc B390 sits at the 9th percentile among all tested GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX, scores 1463 points, which is 1.3% behind. The GeForce GT 710 is 2.7% behind with a score of 1443.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i7-12700KF ranks in the 85th percentile among all CPUs. Its closest competitor, the Intel Core i7-13700T, scores 35403 points, only 0.1% ahead, while the Intel Core i7-12700K scores 35287 points, 0.2% behind.

Q: What is the FPS range at 1080p Medium settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Medium settings, the average FPS is 46, with recorded minimum and maximum values of 40 and 53 FPS respectively.

Q: Is 4K gaming possible with this combination?

A: No. At 3840x2160, even Low settings only reach 33 FPS, and Ultra drops to 18 FPS. The verdict by resolution confirms no playable settings exist at 4K.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU and GPU in this combination occupy very different performance tiers, and their nearest rivals reflect that split.

For the Intel Core i7-12700KF, the database shows four processors clustered within 0.2% of its average benchmark score of 35365. The Intel Core i7-13700T leads the group at 35403, just 0.1% higher. The Intel Core 5 213PE scores 35428, also 0.1% ahead. The Intel Core i5-13600T and Intel Core i7-12700K score 35305 and 35287 respectively, both 0.2% behind. For users looking at CPU-bound scenarios, any of these four alternatives would deliver nearly identical processing performance in this game.

The GPU side tells a different story. The Intel Arc B390, with an average score of 1482, sits near the bottom of the database, ranking in the 9th percentile. Its nearest rivals are all NVIDIA parts from older generations. The GeForce GT 520MX scores 1463, 1.3% lower. The GeForce 800M scores 1460, 1.5% lower. The GeForce GT 625 OEM and GeForce GT 710 score 1446 and 1443, which are 2.5% and 2.7% lower respectively. These deltas are small, meaning the Arc B390 is only marginally faster than these legacy GPUs in the recorded benchmark.

This pairing creates an unusual situation: the CPU is exceptionally strong, ranking above 85% of all tested processors, while the GPU is near the bottom of the performance ladder. In practice, the GPU becomes the limiting factor for Control, since even a much weaker CPU would likely produce similar frame rates at the resolutions tested here. The nearest rival combinations would be systems pairing any of the four similar CPUs with any of the four similar GPUs, though the GPU differences would dominate overall game performance.

Best Settings per Resolution

The database records measured FPS for three resolutions and four settings levels. The playable threshold is 60 FPS, and the goal is to find the most demanding preset that stays at or above that mark.

At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS. The highest recorded average is 33 FPS at Low settings. Medium averages 24 FPS, High averages 21 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS. The minimum FPS at Medium is 20, with a maximum of 27. The verdict by resolution confirms an empty playable settings list for 4K.

At 2560x1440, the situation is similar. Low settings produce 50 FPS, which falls short of the threshold. Medium averages 35 FPS with a minimum of 30 and maximum of 40. High averages 31 FPS, and Ultra averages 27 FPS. Again, no playable preset exists at this resolution.

At 1920x1080, the picture changes. Low settings deliver an average of 65 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold. This is the best playable setting at this resolution. Medium averages 46 FPS, with a minimum of 40 and maximum of 53. High averages 41 FPS, and Ultra averages 36 FPS. The verdict by resolution lists Low as the best settings with an average FPS of 65.

The pattern is clear: each resolution step down from 4K to 1440p to 1080p adds roughly 15 to 17 FPS at Low settings. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 29 FPS, which shows how heavily the Ultra preset taxes this GPU.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Control? The answer depends entirely on the resolution target.

At 1920x1080, the system is playable. Low settings achieve 65 FPS on average, which exceeds the 60 FPS playable threshold. This is the only resolution and preset combination that clears the bar. Medium, High, and Ultra all fall below 60 FPS, with averages of 46, 41, and 36 respectively.

At 2560x1440, the system cannot maintain 60 FPS at any setting. The closest result is Low at 50 FPS, a 10 FPS shortfall. Medium drops to 35 FPS, and Ultra falls to 27 FPS. Players targeting 1440p would need to accept frame rates well below the playable standard.

At 3840x2160, the system is far from playable. Low settings reach only 33 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 18 FPS. The GPU simply lacks the throughput for 4K rendering in this game.

The verdict is straightforward: this combination is a 1080p Low settings machine for Control. Users who want higher visual fidelity or higher resolutions would need a substantially more powerful GPU. The CPU is not the bottleneck here; the Arc B390's low performance tier is the decisive factor.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals a stark imbalance between the CPU and GPU in this pairing. The Intel Core i7-12700KF ranks in the 85th percentile among all CPUs, with strong multi-threaded scores like 28838 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 34092 in Passmark multithread. The Intel Arc B390, by contrast, ranks in the 9th percentile among GPUs, with a single recorded benchmark score of 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad.

The FPS measurements show that resolution scaling follows GPU behavior almost exclusively. Moving from 1080p Low at 65 FPS to 1440p Low at 50 FPS is a 23% drop, and then to 4K Low at 33 FPS is another 34% drop from the 1440p result. These steep declines with resolution are classic signs of a GPU-bound system. A CPU-bound scenario would show much smaller FPS changes across resolutions because the CPU workload does not scale with pixel count the same way.

The settings scaling reinforces this conclusion. At 1080p, going from Low to Ultra drops the average from 65 FPS to 36 FPS, a 45% reduction. This large performance penalty from increasing graphical fidelity is typical for a weak GPU. Stronger GPUs can absorb Ultra settings with smaller relative losses.

The CPU's role in this game appears minimal at the tested settings. All 12 measured FPS points fall below 65 FPS, which is far below what the CPU is capable of supporting. The Core i7-12700KF's 20 threads and high boost clock of 5.00 GHz would not be stressed by Control's workload at these frame rates. Even a much weaker CPU paired with the same GPU would likely produce nearly identical results.

At every resolution, the GPU is the limiting component. The CPU has ample headroom, as evidenced by its high benchmark percentiles, while the GPU sits near the bottom of the database. Players considering this combination for Control should understand that any performance upgrade would need to come from a GPU replacement, not a CPU change.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database's ranking of tested combinations for Control, this pairing of Intel Core i7-12700KF and Intel Arc B390 ranks 3311 out of 3720 combinations. That places it in the bottom 11% of all tested systems.

This low ranking is driven entirely by the GPU. The CPU, in isolation, is a strong performer that outpaces 85% of all processors in the database. But the Arc B390's 9th percentile GPU ranking drags the overall combination down. The rank of 3311 reflects the combined result, and the GPU's weak measured performance in Control dominates the outcome.

The practical implication is that this system will struggle with modern games at higher settings. For Control specifically, the 1080p Low playability result aligns with the low overall rank. Systems ranked higher in the database would typically offer playable settings at higher resolutions or higher quality presets.

The gap between CPU and GPU performance tiers is unusually wide. Most combinations in the database pair components from similar performance bands. Here, a top-tier CPU from the 85th percentile is matched with a GPU from the 9th percentile. This mismatch explains why the combination rank is so much lower than the CPU rank alone would suggest.

For users looking at this data, the takeaway is clear: the CPU is not the constraint, and upgrading the GPU would substantially improve both the combination rank and the playable settings for Control. The current configuration delivers exactly one playable preset across all tested resolutions, which is consistent with its position near the bottom of the database rankings.