Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 paired with the Intel Arc B390 presents a severely GPU-bound configuration in Control, where the integrated graphics solution consistently caps performance well below what the capable six-core CPU can deliver. The data shows a system that struggles to maintain playable frame rates at any resolution above 1080p Low, with the Arc B390 acting as the definitive bottleneck across all tested settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a textbook case of GPU limitation. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 65 FPS, but this drops to 50 FPS at 1440p and 33 FPS at 4K — a 49% reduction from 1080p to 4K. This steep decline indicates that the Intel Arc B390’s rendering throughput is the primary constraint, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed frames at lower resolutions.

The scaling pattern becomes even more pronounced at higher settings. Moving from 1080p High (41 FPS) to 1440p High (31 FPS) represents a 24% drop, while the jump to 4K High (21 FPS) costs another 32% of performance. The Ultra preset shows similar behavior: 36 FPS at 1080p falls to 27 FPS at 1440p and bottoms out at 18 FPS in 4K. These consistent, large percentage losses across every resolution step confirm that the Arc B390’s pixel-pushing capabilities are exhausted early.

Interestingly, the gap between Low and Ultra settings narrows as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low (65 FPS) and Ultra (36 FPS) is 29 FPS, but at 4K that spread shrinks to just 15 FPS (33 vs 18). This compression suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU becomes so saturated that even reducing graphical complexity yields diminishing returns — the memory bandwidth and shading resources are simply overwhelmed regardless of settings.

The Medium preset provides the only complete FPS data with minimum and maximum values. At 1080p Medium, the frame rate ranges from 40 to 53 FPS with a 46 FPS average. At 1440p Medium, the range tightens to 30–40 FPS (35 average), and 4K Medium shows 20–27 FPS (24 average). The narrowing variance at higher resolutions further supports the conclusion that the Intel Arc B390 is running at its absolute limits, unable to maintain consistent frame pacing when pixel count increases.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database’s tested configurations, this pairing ranks 2551 out of 2888 total combos for Control. This places it in the bottom 12% of all systems tested, a position that aligns with the Arc B390’s individual GPU percentile of 9 — meaning it outperforms only 9% of all graphics cards in the database.

The rank position is heavily influenced by the GPU’s limitations rather than CPU performance. The Ryzen 5 5600 sits in the 74th percentile among all CPUs, showing that the processor is far more capable than the graphics solution paired with it. Benchmark results indicate that this combo’s ranking is dragged down almost entirely by the integrated Arc B390, which ranks near the bottom of the GPU hierarchy.

Looking at the GPU’s nearest rivals puts this in perspective. The Arc B390’s average benchmark score of 1482 places it just 1.3% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% ahead of the GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% ahead of the GT 710 (1443). These are all entry-level or legacy discrete GPUs from over a decade ago, yet the modern Intel part only marginally outperforms them in synthetic testing. In a demanding title like Control, the resulting frame rates are predictably poor.

The CPU’s nearest rivals tell a different story. The Ryzen 5 5600’s average benchmark score of 20468 is virtually tied with the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (20454, 0.1% delta), AMD Ryzen 5 8500G (20425, 0.2%), AMD EPYC 9454P (20422, 0.2%), and AMD EPYC 7713 (20363, 0.5%). This clustering shows the 5600 delivers competitive processing power, but that strength is entirely wasted when paired with a GPU that cannot translate CPU capability into game performance.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics solution based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on Intel’s 3 nm process. Its specifications reveal fundamental limitations for gaming: 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and only 24 ROPs. The pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s sound adequate on paper, but the 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 throughput places it firmly in entry-level territory.

Memory configuration is a critical weakness. The Arc B390 uses System Shared memory, with bandwidth described as "System Dependent". This means the GPU relies on the CPU’s DDR4 memory subsystem, which for the Ryzen 5 5600 provides 51.2 GB/s of dual-channel bandwidth. Unlike discrete GPUs with dedicated high-speed VRAM, this shared arrangement creates contention between CPU and GPU memory access, further hampering performance in memory-intensive scenes.

Clock speeds show a wide operating range: 300 MHz base and 2500 MHz boost. The low base clock suggests aggressive power saving, while the boost clock of 2500 MHz is respectable for an integrated part. However, the 80 W TDP for the entire GPU subsystem indicates thermal and power constraints that likely prevent sustained boost operation under heavy load. The 12 ray tracing cores are present, but Control’s demanding effects would struggle with such limited RT hardware.

The GPU’s benchmark data consists of a single 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482, placing it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals — GT 520MX, GeForce 800M, GT 625 OEM, and GT 710 — are all ancient, low-end parts, confirming that the Arc B390 performs at a level comparable to hardware from a previous era. In Control’s measured FPS data, the highest result is 65 FPS at 1080p Low, which represents the absolute ceiling for this GPU in this title.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Control at 60 FPS?*

A: Only at 1920x1080 with Low settings, where it achieves 65 FPS average. Every other tested configuration falls below 60 FPS, with 1080p Medium at 46 FPS, 1080p High at 41 FPS, and 1080p Ultra at 36 FPS.

Q: What is the best playable setting for this system?

A: At 1080p, Medium settings (46 FPS average, 40 min / 53 max) offer the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 1440p, Low settings (50 FPS) are required for playability, while 4K is not viable at any setting.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B390 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad, which is 1.3% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% higher than the GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% higher than the GT 710 (1443).

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 5600 the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: No. The CPU ranks in the 74th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 20468. The GPU ranks in the 9th percentile, making it the clear performance limiter in Control.

Q: What memory configuration does the Arc B390 use?

A: The GPU uses System Shared memory, meaning it shares the system’s DDR4 memory rather than having dedicated VRAM. Memory bandwidth is listed as "System Dependent" and relies on the CPU’s dual-channel configuration.

Q: What is the frame rate range at 1440p Medium settings?

A: The average FPS is 35, with a minimum of 30 and maximum of 40. This represents one of the few tested configurations with complete min/max data available.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance. Low settings produce 65 FPS average, which is the only configuration exceeding 60 FPS. Medium settings drop to 46 FPS (40 min, 53 max), High settings yield 41 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 36 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 29 FPS penalty for maximum visual quality.

The 2560x1440 results show a significant step down. Low settings still manage 50 FPS, but Medium falls to 35 FPS (30 min, 40 max), High drops to 31 FPS, and Ultra reaches only 27 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 23 FPS, slightly narrower than at 1080p due to GPU saturation.

At 3840x2160, performance becomes marginal across the board. Low settings achieve 33 FPS, Medium produces 24 FPS (20 min, 27 max), High yields 21 FPS, and Ultra drops to 18 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is just 15 FPS, demonstrating that at 4K the GPU is so constrained that settings changes have limited impact on final performance.

The complete dataset shows 12 measured configurations: four settings at each of three resolutions. The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data at all resolutions, providing the most reliable frame pacing information. Across all configurations, the highest recorded maximum FPS is 65 at 1080p Low, while the lowest minimum FPS is 20 at 4K Medium.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 5000 series, built on the Zen 3 architecture with a 7 nm process. It operates at 3.50 GHz base and boosts to 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache — a configuration that provides solid gaming performance when paired with a capable GPU.

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU’s strengths. Cinebench R23 scores 18309 multi-core and 2584 single-core, while Geekbench reports 9158 multi-core and 1936 single-core. The 3DMark tests reveal scaling from 1737 (2 threads) to 5659 (max threads), indicating good multi-threaded efficiency. PassMark scores include 21541 multi-thread and 3256 single-thread, with specific workloads like data compression at 251687 and floating point math at 38778.

In Control, however, the CPU’s capabilities are largely untapped. The game’s frame rates are uniformly low regardless of resolution or settings, which points to the Arc B390 as the limiting factor rather than the Ryzen 5 5600. At 1080p Low, the 65 FPS result is the only point where the CPU might begin to matter, but even this is well within the 5600’s capability to feed frames.

The CPU’s percentile ranking of 74 places it well above average, and its average benchmark score of 20468 is nearly identical to rival processors like the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (20454) and AMD Ryzen 5 8500G (20425). The 5600 supports DDR4 memory with dual-channel bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s and includes PCIe Gen 4 connectivity with 20 lanes, making it a modern, capable platform. The bottleneck in this combo is unambiguous: the Ryzen 5 5600 could drive significantly higher frame rates in Control if paired with a more powerful discrete GPU, but the integrated Arc B390 restricts performance to entry-level levels across all tested scenarios.