Control

Control is a demanding action-adventure title that stresses both the CPU and GPU, and the pairing of an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X with an Intel Arc B390 produces a specific performance profile that is heavily skewed by the graphics processor. The measured data shows this combo sitting at rank 3311 out of 3720 tested combinations, placing it in the lower 11% of all systems, a position driven almost entirely by the GPU's low benchmark standing. The Ryzen 5 7600X, however, is a strong modern processor that ranks in the 79th percentile against all CPUs, so the bottleneck in this system is unambiguous.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured frame rates across all resolutions, the only viable path to a playable experience is the Low preset, and even then only at 1920x1080. The data shows 65 FPS average at 1080p Low, which is the single smooth result in the entire set. At 1440p Low the average drops to 50 FPS, which is borderline but workable for a slower-paced game, while 4K Low falls to 33 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable play.

The Medium preset is not recommended for any resolution. At 1080p Medium the average is 46 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS, which is technically playable but leaves no headroom for combat-heavy scenes. At 1440p Medium the average drops to 35 FPS with a 30 FPS minimum, and at 4K Medium it falls to 24 FPS with a 20 FPS floor; those numbers indicate stutter-prone performance during the game's frequent telekinetic battles and destructible environments. The High preset is worse across the board, with 1080p High at 41 FPS, 1440p High at 31 FPS, and 4K High at 21 FPS. The Ultra preset is effectively unplayable at every resolution, with 1080p Ultra at 36 FPS, 1440p Ultra at 27 FPS, and 4K Ultra at 18 FPS.

The practical recommendation is to run 1080p Low for the best experience, accepting the visual downgrade in exchange for consistent frame pacing. If visual fidelity matters more than frame rate, 1080p Medium at 46 FPS is the only other defensible choice, but the 40 FPS minimum recorded in the data suggests occasional dips during intense sequences. For users with 1440p monitors, Low is the only setting that stays above 45 FPS, and 4K should be avoided entirely unless the user accepts sub-30 FPS gameplay.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is the limiting factor in this configuration, and the benchmark data makes that clear. It carries a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1482, which places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals in the benchmark database are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX with a score of 1463, the GeForce 800M at 1460, the GeForce GT 625 OEM at 1446, and the GeForce GT 710 at 1443; the Arc B390 leads that group by 1.3% to 2.7%, but those are all entry-level or legacy parts from a decade ago.

The GPU's memory configuration is entirely system-shared, with no dedicated VRAM, which directly impacts how Control runs. The game streams high-resolution textures and complex geometry, and relying on shared system memory means the GPU competes with the CPU for bandwidth. The memory bandwidth is listed as system dependent, so the actual performance varies with the system's DDR5 configuration. The GPU's 1536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster output pipelines are modest figures, and the 12 ray tracing cores are present but unlikely to provide usable ray-traced performance given the overall throughput.

Clock speeds tell a similar story. The base clock is 300 MHz, which is very low, and the boost clock reaches 2500 MHz; that wide gap suggests the chip spends most of its time near the bottom of the range under sustained load. The pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s are the theoretical maximums, but the measured FPS in Control indicates the real-world throughput falls far short of what those numbers imply. The FP32 performance of 7.680 TFLOPS is the compute ceiling, yet the game's average frame rates at 1080p High of 41 FPS show that the architecture cannot translate that raw compute into playable rasterization performance in a title like Control.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Control at 4K?

A: Technically yes, but not well. The best 4K result is 33 FPS at Low settings, and it drops to 21 FPS at High and 18 FPS at Ultra. The Medium preset at 4K averages 24 FPS with a 20 FPS minimum, which is below playable thresholds for an action game.

Q: What is the best settings preset for this combo?

A: The Low preset at 1920x1080 produces the only clearly playable result, averaging 65 FPS. At 1440p Low the average falls to 50 FPS, which is acceptable, but the 1080p Low setting is the only one that clears 60 FPS in the measured data.

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

A: The Arc B390 scores 1482 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, which is 1.3% ahead of the GeForce GT 520MX, 1.5% ahead of the GeForce 800M, 2.5% ahead of the GeForce GT 625 OEM, and 2.7% ahead of the GeForce GT 710. Despite leading that group, it still ranks in the 9th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 7600X holding back the GPU?

A: No. The CPU ranks in the 79th percentile against all processors with an average benchmark score of 27636, and it sits within 0.4% of rivals like the Ryzen 7 5800 and Ryzen 7 5700X. The GPU's 9th percentile ranking makes it the clear performance ceiling.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p?

A: At Low settings the average is 50 FPS. Medium drops to 35 FPS with a 30 FPS minimum, High falls to 31 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 27 FPS. Only the Low preset is reasonably playable at this resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a complete picture of this combo's capabilities. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the best result with an average of 65 FPS. The Medium preset averages 46 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 53 FPS. High drops to 41 FPS, and Ultra falls to 36 FPS. The step from Low to Medium costs 19 FPS, which is a significant penalty for the visual upgrade, and the gap from Medium to High is only 5 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns at the higher presets.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 50 FPS, which is a 15 FPS drop from the 1080p Low result. Medium averages 35 FPS with a 30 FPS minimum and a 40 FPS maximum. High averages 31 FPS, and Ultra averages 27 FPS. The pattern here mirrors 1080p: Low is the only setting above 45 FPS, and the jump from Low to Medium costs 15 FPS. The minimum recorded at Medium, 30 FPS, indicates that even the mid-range preset will dip below smooth gameplay during demanding scenes.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low averages 33 FPS, Medium averages 24 FPS with a 20 FPS minimum and a 27 FPS maximum, High averages 21 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS. The 4K Low result is the only one that approaches playability, and it still falls short of the 60 FPS target by half. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at Low settings shows a 17 FPS drop, which is a 34% reduction in frame rate for the resolution increase.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the Low preset is the only one that keeps the average above 45 FPS at any resolution, and the gap between Low and Medium is consistently larger than the gap between Medium and High or High and Ultra. This indicates that the GPU's limited shading and texture throughput is the binding constraint, and the higher presets load the pipeline with effects and geometry that the 1536 shading units cannot handle. The 1080p Medium result of 46 FPS with a 40 FPS minimum is the only non-Low preset that stays above 30 FPS at all times, and it remains the second-best option overall.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and Intel Arc B390 ranks 3311 out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the bottom 11% of all systems tested for this game. The rank reflects the GPU's severe limitation; the Arc B390's 9th percentile GPU ranking drags the entire system down despite the CPU's 79th percentile standing. The delta between the CPU's relative strength and the GPU's relative weakness is the defining characteristic of this pairing.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals provides context for how different pairings might perform. The Ryzen 5 7600X scores 27636 on average, which is 0.2% ahead of the Ryzen 7 5700X and the Core i5-12600K (both at 27578), 0.3% behind the Ryzen 5 8500GE (27712), and 0.4% ahead of the Ryzen 7 5800 (27535). These are all close scores, meaning the CPU choice is not the differentiator in Control; the GPU is. A system with this CPU and a stronger GPU would rank dramatically higher, as the CPU has ample headroom to feed a more capable graphics card.

The ranking also indicates that most other tested combos outperform this one in Control, which is expected given the GPU's position. The 3720 total combos span a wide range of hardware, and landing at 3311 means roughly 89% of tested systems deliver better frame rates in this game. The Arc B390's nearest GPU rivals are all legacy parts, and their presence in the database suggests the B390 is being compared against a historical baseline; in a modern title like Control, that comparison is unfavorable.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor built on the Zen 4 architecture with the Raphael codename, fabricated on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It has a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, with a 105 W TDP. The cache layout includes 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR5 with a dual-channel bus and 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth, and the CPU supports ECC memory. It uses the AMD Socket AM5 and provides Gen 5 PCIe with 24 lanes on the CPU side.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 7600X shows strong single-thread and multi-thread performance. It scores 1060 in 3DMark single-thread, 2028 in 3DMark 2-thread, 3796 in 4-thread, 5715 in 8-thread, 6879 in 16-thread, and 6845 in max-thread tests. Cinebench R23 results are 1965 single-core and 15236 multi-core, while Geekbench shows 2603 single-core and 13858 multi-core. Passmark scores include 4135 single-thread and 28390 multi-thread, with specialized tests like data compression at 317862 and floating-point math at 51025. The average benchmark score is 27636, placing it in the 79th percentile of all CPUs.

For Control, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics data, and the 7600X is more than capable of that task. The game is not heavily threaded, so the 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 5.30 GHz boost clock provides ample single-thread performance for the game's engine logic. The 32 MB L3 cache helps with the game's streaming data, and the dual-channel DDR5 bandwidth at 83.2 GB/s is not a limiting factor given the GPU's shared memory usage.

The bottleneck is clear: the CPU sits at the 79th percentile while the GPU sits at the 9th percentile. In Control, the measured frame rates at all resolutions and settings are consistent with a GPU-bound system, where the Arc B390's 1536 shading units and 24 ROPs cannot keep up with the CPU's output. The Ryzen 5 7600X is not the reason this combo ranks 3311 out of 3720; the Intel Arc B390 is. Upgrading the GPU while keeping this CPU would yield substantial gains, as the processor has no trouble maintaining high frame rates in this title.