Control

# Control — AMD Ryzen 5 7600 + Intel Arc B390

Control is a visually dense Action Adventure title that stresses both the CPU and GPU depending on resolution and settings. The measured data for this combo shows a system that is firmly GPU-limited at every tested configuration, with the Intel Arc B390 acting as the primary bottleneck. The AMD Ryzen 5 7600, a 6-core/12-thread Zen 4 part, provides ample headroom, but the integrated-class graphics solution drags overall performance into single-digit percentile territory. This combination ranks 2551 out of 2888 tested combos in Control, placing it in the bottom 12% of all configurations, which is consistent with the GPU's low benchmark standing.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, revealing a component that is overwhelmed as pixel count rises. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 65 FPS at 1920x1080 to 50 FPS at 2560x1440, a 23% reduction, and then further to 33 FPS at 3840x2160, a 49% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern indicates that the Arc B390's rendering throughput is the limiting factor, not the CPU, since the Ryzen 5 7600's single-thread and multi-thread scores are far above what this game requires.

Moving to High settings, the degradation is even more pronounced. The average FPS at 1080p is 41, dropping to 31 at 1440p (a 24% loss) and then to 21 at 4K (a 49% loss from 1080p). The fact that the percentage drop from 1440p to 4K (32%) is larger than the drop from 1080p to 1440p (24%) suggests that the GPU is hitting a memory bandwidth or fill-rate wall at higher resolutions. The Arc B390 uses System Shared memory, which is inherently slower than dedicated VRAM, and this becomes more problematic as the framebuffer demands grow.

Ultra settings show the worst scaling behavior. The combo manages 36 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p (a 25% drop), and just 18 FPS at 4K (a 50% drop from 1080p). Interestingly, the relative scaling between resolutions is nearly identical across all quality presets, with roughly a 25% penalty for stepping up to 1440p and another 30-35% penalty for stepping up to 4K. This uniformity suggests that the GPU's compute resources are saturated regardless of the graphics workload, and the resolution increase simply adds more pixels for the same limited shader array to process.

The data indicates that the Ryzen 5 7600 is not the limiting component at any resolution. Even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would typically be more involved, the 65 FPS average is still below what a modern 6-core processor with a 5.10 GHz boost clock should deliver in this title. The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482 places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals are legacy parts like the GeForce GT 710 and GT 625 OEM, which are over a decade old. This combo is effectively a CPU-rich, GPU-poor pairing, and the resolution scaling data confirms that the graphics solution is the sole performance limiter.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Control with this combo?

A: Based on the measured FPS, 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the game approaches playability. At Low settings, the average is 65 FPS, and at Medium it drops to 46 FPS. At 2560x1440, the best case is 50 FPS on Low, but High and Ultra fall to 31 and 27 FPS respectively, which is below the smoothness threshold for an action game.

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 GeForce GT 520MX (1463), 1.5% higher than the GeForce 800M (1460), 2.5% higher than the GeForce GT 625 OEM (1446), and 2.7% higher than the GeForce GT 710 (1443). These deltas are negligible, meaning the Arc B390 performs in the same class as decade-old entry-level GPUs.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 a bottleneck in Control?

A: No. The CPU's multi-thread score of 27058 in Passmark and single-thread score of 3910 are far above what Control requires. Even the weakest benchmark result, the 3DMark single-thread score of 999, does not hinder the game at the frame rates observed. The data shows that lowering resolution does not produce a CPU-bound plateau; instead, FPS scales linearly with pixel count, which is the signature of a GPU bottleneck.

Q: What frame rates can a user expect at 4K with this combo?

A: The measured results show 33 FPS on Low, 24 FPS on Medium, 21 FPS on High, and 18 FPS on Ultra at 3840x2160. All of these are below the 30 FPS threshold that most players consider minimum playability, and only the Low preset comes close. The Medium preset has a minimum FPS of 20, which indicates stuttering during intense scenes.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations in Control?

A: It ranks 2551 out of 2888 combos, placing it in the bottom 12% of all tested systems. This ranking is consistent with the GPU's 9th percentile standing among all GPUs, while the CPU sits in the 78th percentile. The combination of a high-tier CPU and a low-tier GPU results in a severely unbalanced system for this game.

Q: Does the Arc B390's integrated nature affect performance?

A: Yes, the GPU uses System Shared memory with system-dependent bandwidth, which is a significant disadvantage in a game like Control that features complex physics and particle effects. The measured FPS drops of 49% from 1080p to 4K at Low settings suggest that memory bandwidth constraints become more severe as the resolution increases, since the shared memory interface must handle both the framebuffer and game data.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that players should prioritize Low or Medium settings at 1920x1080 to achieve a playable experience. At Low settings, the combo delivers 65 FPS average, which is smooth and responsive for an action game. This is the only configuration that comfortably exceeds 60 FPS. At Medium settings, the average drops to 46 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 53 FPS, which is still playable but with noticeable dips during combat sequences.

High settings at 1080p yield 41 FPS average, which is borderline acceptable for a slower-paced game but risky for Control's fast-moving combat and telekinetic battles. The Ultra preset at 1080p produces 36 FPS, which is below the 40 FPS threshold that most players consider the floor for a third-person action title. Given that the jump from Low to Ultra only improves visual fidelity while sacrificing nearly 45% of the frame rate (65 to 36 FPS), the value proposition of higher settings is poor with this hardware.

At 1440p, the situation worsens significantly. Low settings produce 50 FPS average, which is playable but not ideal. Medium drops to 35 FPS with a minimum of 30 FPS, meaning the game will stutter during intense scenes. High and Ultra are effectively unplayable at 27 and 18 FPS respectively. At 4K, even Low settings only reach 33 FPS, which is below the standard playability threshold.

The optimal configuration is clearly 1080p Low, which provides the best balance of frame rate and visual clarity. If a player insists on Medium quality, the 46 FPS average at 1080p is still within the acceptable range, but the minimum of 40 FPS indicates that the game will occasionally drop below the smoothness threshold. For players who want to use a controller and play at a more cinematic pace, 1080p High at 41 FPS is technically viable, but the data does not recommend it for competitive or fast-paced play.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2551 out of 2888 tested combos in Control, placing it in the bottom 11.7% of all configurations. This rank is heavily influenced by the GPU's performance, as the Arc B390 sits in the 9th percentile of all GPUs based on its 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 1482. The CPU, by contrast, is in the 78th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26324.

The disparity between the CPU and GPU performance is stark. The Ryzen 5 7600's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (26274, 0.2% higher), the AMD Ryzen 7 7435HS (26402, 0.3% lower), the Intel Core i9-11900KF (26212, 0.4% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 5 8540U (26187, 0.5% higher). These deltas are all within 0.5%, indicating that the 7600 is a solid mid-range performer that trades blows with higher-tier mobile and older desktop parts.

On the GPU side, the Arc B390's nearest rivals are all legacy NVIDIA parts from over a decade ago. The GeForce GT 520MX is 1.3% slower, the GeForce 800M is 1.5% slower, the GeForce GT 625 OEM is 2.5% slower, and the GeForce GT 710 is 2.7% slower. This places the Arc B390 at the very bottom of the GPU performance hierarchy, and the rank in Control reflects this.

The 2551st rank out of 2888 means that 337 tested combos perform worse than this one, which is a small minority. Most of those worse-performing combos likely pair similarly weak GPUs with even weaker CPUs. In this case, the Ryzen 5 7600 is wasted on the Arc B390, as the CPU's capabilities are never fully utilized in Control. The benchmark results show that the game is entirely GPU-bound, so any CPU upgrade would have zero impact on frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, codenamed Raphael, built on TSMC's 5 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a shared 32 MB of L3 cache. This configuration is well-suited for gaming, as Control benefits from strong single-thread performance and moderate multi-threading.

In Control, the CPU's role is primarily to handle game logic, physics calculations, and draw call submission. The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck at any resolution or settings level. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 65 FPS, which is the highest measured result. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect to see a plateau around a specific FPS regardless of resolution, but instead the FPS scales consistently with pixel count, confirming that the GPU is the sole constraint.

The Ryzen 5 7600's benchmark scores support this conclusion. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12735 and single-core score of 1852 are strong for a desktop part. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 6499 and max-thread score of 6503 show that the CPU scales well with thread count. The Passmark multi-thread score of 27058 and single-thread score of 3910 are also impressive. These numbers indicate that the CPU can handle far more demanding workloads than Control presents at the frame rates observed.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s, dual-channel DDR5 support, and PCIe Gen 5 interface (24 lanes) are all modern features that eliminate any potential I/O bottlenecks. The fact that the GPU uses System Shared memory means that the CPU's memory controller is responsible for feeding both the CPU and GPU, but even with this overhead, the CPU is not the limiting factor. The data shows that the combo's performance is entirely dictated by the Arc B390's 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 24 ROPs, which are simply insufficient for a demanding title like Control at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of this combo's performance across three resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are 65 FPS on Low, 46 FPS on Medium, 41 FPS on High, and 36 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset has a reported minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 53 FPS, giving a range of 13 FPS. This data shows a clear progression where each step up in quality costs roughly 10-15% of the frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the averages drop to 50 FPS on Low, 35 FPS on Medium, 31 FPS on High, and 27 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 30 FPS and a maximum of 40 FPS, which is a 10 FPS range. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across all settings, with Low losing 15 FPS (23%), Medium losing 11 FPS (24%), High losing 10 FPS (24%), and Ultra losing 9 FPS (25%).

At 3840x2160, the averages fall to 33 FPS on Low, 24 FPS on Medium, 21 FPS on High, and 18 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset reports a minimum of 20 FPS and a maximum of 27 FPS. The drop from 1440p to 4K is larger in percentage terms, with Low losing 17 FPS (34%), Medium losing 11 FPS (31%), High losing 10 FPS (32%), and Ultra losing 9 FPS (33%). This steeper decline at 4K suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth constraints become more acute as the pixel count increases.

The pattern across all resolutions is that Low settings provide the only truly playable experience, with 65 FPS at 1080p and 50 FPS at 1440p. The Medium preset is borderline at 1080p with 46 FPS, but becomes marginal at 1440p with 35 FPS and unplayable at 4K with 24 FPS. High and Ultra settings are only viable at 1080p, with 41 and 36 FPS respectively, but even these are below the 60 FPS target that most gamers prefer.

The most striking observation is the uniform scaling behavior. The percentage drops from Low to Ultra at each resolution are roughly similar: 45% at 1080p (65 to 36), 46% at 1440p (50 to 27), and 45% at 4K (33 to 18). This consistency indicates that the GPU's performance is limited by raw compute throughput rather than any specific feature or setting, which aligns with the Arc B390's low transistor count and modest 7.680 TFLOPS FP32 rating. The Ryzen 5 7600's role is to feed the GPU with enough data to keep it busy, and the CPU does its job admirably, but the GPU simply cannot keep up with the demands of Control at higher settings.