Control

Control is a demanding action-adventure title that stresses both the CPU and GPU heavily, and the combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G with the Intel Arc B390 produces results that are firmly in the lower tier of tested hardware. The data shows a system that can run the game at playable frame rates only when settings and resolution are kept modest, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck in almost every scenario.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured FPS data, the only configuration that reaches a smooth 60 FPS average is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which produces 65 FPS average. The next closest is 2560x1440 on Low at 50 FPS average, so for a consistent experience, 1080p Low is the clear target.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in raw performance?

A: The Arc B390 has an average benchmark score of 1482, which places it just 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463 score) and 1.5% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce 800M (1460 score). It is 2.5% faster than the GT 625 OEM and 2.7% faster than the GT 710, indicating it sits in the very bottom percentile of GPUs.

Q: Can this system handle 4K gaming in Control?

A: No, not at any playable level. At 3840x2160, the highest average FPS is 33 on Low settings, which dips to 21 FPS on High and 18 FPS on Ultra. Even the Medium preset only yields 24 FPS average with a minimum of 20 FPS, making 4K unusable for this title.

Q: What is the CPU’s ranking compared to all other tested processors?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G sits in the 71st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17507. Its nearest rival is the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE with a score of 17482, which is a 0.1% difference, while the Intel Core 7 150U is only 0.6% behind.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more in this game?

A: The GPU is the limiting component. The Arc B390 ranks in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU ranks in the 71st percentile. This massive gap means the GPU cannot feed the CPU enough frames, which is evident from the large FPS drops when moving from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Is the 12GB of system memory a factor here?

A: The fact pack does not list system memory capacity for this test. The GPU memory is listed as "System Shared," meaning it uses the system RAM, but no capacity figure is provided in the data.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated GPU based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel's 3 nm process. Its performance profile is extremely limited, with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz. The GPU has 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output pipelines. It also includes 12 ray tracing cores, though the measured FPS data suggests ray tracing is not a viable option in Control given the low overall frame rates.

The memory subsystem is entirely system-dependent, with no dedicated VRAM. The memory type, bus width, and bandwidth are all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent," meaning performance scales with the host system's RAM speed and configuration. This is critical in Control, a game that benefits from dedicated video memory, as the shared memory setup forces the GPU to compete with the CPU for bandwidth. The pixel rate is 60.00 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 120.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance at 7.680 TFLOPS. These figures, while not directly comparable to FPS, indicate a hardware design aimed at low-power, portable devices rather than gaming.

The benchmark data confirms this weakness. The Arc B390 scores 1482 in the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are ancient NVIDIA parts like the GT 520MX and GT 710, which are more than a decade old. In practical terms, this means the GPU can only handle Control at low resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, it manages 65 FPS average, but dropping to Medium settings cuts that to 46 FPS, and Ultra falls to 36 FPS. The pattern is consistent: every increase in visual fidelity directly reduces frame rate by a significant margin, showing that the GPU has no headroom for higher workloads.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 4600G and Arc B390 ranks 2551 out of 2888 tested combos in Control, placing it in the bottom 12% of all configurations. This is a low ranking, but it is not the absolute worst, as there are still 337 combos that perform worse. The ranking reflects the severe mismatch between the CPU and GPU: the processor is capable, but the graphics solution holds the entire system back.

To contextualize this, the CPU alone outperforms 71% of all processors, with an average benchmark score of 17507. In contrast, the GPU only outperforms 9% of all GPUs. When paired, the combo rank is dragged down by the GPU’s poor performance. The data shows that even a modest CPU upgrade would not help this system in Control, because the bottleneck is overwhelmingly on the graphics side. The combo rank is a direct result of the GPU’s 3DMark score of 1482, which is only 1.3% higher than the nearest rival, the GT 520MX.

This ranking has practical implications. In Control, the system is only suitable for 1080p gaming at Low settings, and even then, it barely reaches playable frame rates. The 2551st rank out of 2888 means most other tested systems will deliver higher FPS, making this combo a poor choice for anyone expecting a smooth experience in this title. However, the data is measured, not estimated, so these results are reliable for the specific hardware configuration tested.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of how this system performs across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the system achieves its best results. On Low settings, the average FPS is 65, which is the only configuration that clears the 60 FPS threshold. Medium settings drop the average to 46 FPS, with a minimum of 40 and a maximum of 53. High settings yield 41 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce 36 FPS average. None of these higher settings reach 60 FPS, so users must stick to Low for a smooth experience.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates drop noticeably. Low settings produce 50 FPS average, which is still playable but not ideal. Medium settings yield 35 FPS average, with a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 40. High settings drop to 31 FPS average, and Ultra settings fall to 27 FPS average. At this resolution, even the lowest settings cannot maintain 60 FPS, so users face a choice between visual clarity and frame rate.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to remain playable. Low settings produce 33 FPS average, which is the best result at this resolution. Medium settings drop to 24 FPS average, with a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 27. High settings yield 21 FPS average, and Ultra settings produce only 18 FPS average. These frame rates are below the threshold for smooth gameplay, making 4K effectively unusable for this title on this hardware.

The data shows a clear trend: the system is only viable at 1080p Low, with 1440p Low as a secondary option for users who prioritize resolution over frame rate. The step from 1080p Low to 1440p Low costs 15 FPS, while the step from 1440p Low to 4K Low costs another 17 FPS. This pattern confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor, as the CPU is capable of handling higher workloads.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals the nature of the bottleneck in this system. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 65 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low, the average drops to 50 FPS, a reduction of 23%. Moving further to 4K Low, the average falls to 33 FPS, a 34% reduction from 1440p and a 49% reduction from 1080p. These percentage drops are consistent with a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering load increases with resolution.

The same pattern holds across all settings. At Medium settings, 1080p yields 46 FPS, 1440p yields 35 FPS, and 4K yields 24 FPS. At High settings, the numbers are 41 FPS, 31 FPS, and 21 FPS respectively. At Ultra settings, the numbers are 36 FPS, 27 FPS, and 18 FPS. In every case, the frame rate drops by roughly one-third when moving from 1080p to 1440p, and another one-third when moving to 4K. This linear scaling is a classic sign that the GPU is working at full capacity, and the CPU is not the limiting factor.

If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the frame rates to remain similar across resolutions, as the CPU workload does not scale with resolution. Instead, the FPS drops consistently, indicating that the Arc B390 is saturated. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, has enough processing power to handle the game's logic and physics, but the GPU cannot keep up with the rendering demands. This is also reflected in the CPU’s benchmark scores: its 3DMark single-thread score of 726 and multi-thread score of 4889 suggest it can handle the game's AI and physics, but the GPU’s 3DMark score of 1482 is simply too low for high-resolution gaming.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, codenamed Renoir. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with a 65W TDP. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration, with a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. It has 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 8 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU is built on TSMC's 7 nm process, with 9,800 million transistors on a 156 mm² die.

In Control, the CPU's role is to handle the game's physics, AI, and rendering calls. The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is more than sufficient for this title, as the CPU scores 13593 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1919 in single-core. These scores place it in the 71st percentile of all CPUs, meaning it outperforms most processors. The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE and Intel Core 7 150U, have similar average scores, confirming that the 4600G is a solid mid-range processor.

However, the CPU's performance is largely irrelevant in this combo because the GPU is so weak. The Arc B390's 3DMark score of 1482 is in the 9th percentile, and its nearest rivals are GPUs from over a decade ago. This means the CPU spends most of its time waiting for the GPU to finish rendering frames. The measured FPS data supports this: at 1080p Low, the system achieves 65 FPS, but the CPU could likely push higher frame rates if paired with a better GPU. The fact that the FPS drops so significantly with resolution increases confirms that the CPU is not the bottleneck.

The CPU also includes integrated Radeon Vega 7 graphics, but this is not used in this test since the Arc B390 is the active GPU. The 4600G's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s is shared with the integrated GPU, but the Arc B390 uses system memory as well, so both components compete for the same bandwidth. This is another reason why the GPU's performance is limited, as it cannot access dedicated VRAM. In Control, which uses significant texture memory, this shared memory setup contributes to the low frame rates at higher settings.

For users considering this CPU for Control, the data suggests that the processor is not the issue. The 4600G has enough cores, threads, and clock speed to handle the game's demands, as evidenced by its high benchmark scores relative to other CPUs. The limiting factor is the GPU, and any upgrade to a dedicated graphics card would likely result in a significant performance improvement. However, with the Arc B390, the system is only suitable for 1080p Low settings, and even then, the frame rate is barely above 60 FPS.