Control

# Control with AMD Ryzen 7 3700X + Intel Arc B370

This combination of an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X with the Intel Arc B370 integrated graphics produces playable frame rates only at 1080p with Low settings in Control, with the data showing a steep performance cliff as resolution increases. The Arc B370, a 25 W integrated part built on Intel's 3 nm process with Xe3-LPG architecture, ranks in the 5th percentile among all GPUs, and the measured results confirm that this is a GPU-bound configuration across every resolution and settings tier tested. The Ryzen 7 3700X, an 8-core/16-thread Zen 2 processor with a 3.60 GHz base and 4.40 GHz boost clock, is never the limiting factor in these benchmarks; the GPU's 1280 shading units and 20 ROPs simply cannot sustain Control's demands beyond the lowest preset.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable pattern: as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, average frame rates drop by roughly 42-45% at every settings level. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 59 at 1080p to 45 at 1440p (a 23.7% reduction), then to 30 at 4K (a 33.3% reduction from 1440p). The High preset tells a similar story: 37 FPS at 1080p, 28 at 1440p, and 19 at 4K. Medium settings show 42, 32, and 21 FPS respectively, while Ultra goes from 32 at 1080p to 25 at 1440p and 17 at 4K.

This scaling behavior indicates that the Intel Arc B370 is the dominant bottleneck at every resolution. The frame rate reduction from 1080p to 1440p is proportionally larger than the reduction from 1440p to 4K in most cases, which suggests the GPU's compute resources are being saturated even at 1080p. For example, at Medium settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 10 FPS (23.8%), while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 11 FPS (34.4%). The pixel count increase from 1080p to 1440p is about 77.8%, yet frame rates only drop by roughly a quarter, indicating the GPU is already near its architectural limits rather than being limited by raw pixel throughput alone.

The 4K results are uniformly below playable thresholds. Even at Low settings, the average FPS at 3840x2160 is 30, which is marginal for action-adventure gameplay, while High, Medium, and Ultra presets deliver 19, 21, and 17 FPS respectively. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is only 13 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU cannot meaningfully differentiate between presets when pixel count is maximized. At 1440p, the spread between Low and Ultra is 20 FPS (45 to 25), and at 1080p it is 27 FPS (59 to 32). This narrowing spread at higher resolutions is a classic indicator of a GPU that is completely saturated; the additional shading work required by higher presets has diminishing impact because the hardware is already at maximum utilization.

The 1080p results show the most usable range. Low settings at 59 FPS average is the only measured configuration that reaches standard 60 FPS territory, though it is technically just below that threshold. Medium at 42 FPS and High at 37 FPS are both playable for a slower-paced action-adventure title, while Ultra at 32 FPS dips into choppy territory. The resolution scaling data strongly suggests that the Arc B370's 6.144 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 48.00 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply inadequate for Control's rendering workload at higher resolutions, regardless of how much the CPU can feed it.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is an integrated graphics solution with a 25 W TDP, no dedicated VRAM, and system-shared memory whose bandwidth is described as "System Dependent." Its 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs are paired with a base clock of 300 MHz and a boost clock of 2400 MHz, producing a texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s. The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which covers Control's API requirements, but the hardware's 5th percentile ranking among all GPUs (based on a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1184) puts it in the company of much older discrete parts.

The nearest rivals in the GPU benchmark database are ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (score 1186, 0.2% ahead), ATI Radeon HD 5770 (score 1190, 0.5% ahead), AMD Radeon HD 7650M (score 1192, 0.7% ahead), and AMD FirePro M2000 (score 1168, 1.4% behind). This places the Arc B370 in performance territory that predates modern gaming GPUs by well over a decade, which explains why Control—a 2019 action-adventure title with significant visual effects—pushes this part to its limits. The GPU's lack of dedicated memory means texture streaming and frame buffer operations rely entirely on system memory bandwidth, which is shared with the CPU and can introduce additional latency under load.

The measured FPS data reflects this hardware profile. At 1080p Low, the average of 59 FPS suggests the GPU can handle the game's basic geometry and lighting when rendering at minimal quality. However, the jump to Medium settings (42 FPS) represents a 28.8% performance hit, and High (37 FPS) and Ultra (32 FPS) continue the decline. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with the best-case Low preset averaging 30 FPS and Ultra falling to 17 FPS. The minimum FPS data available for Medium settings shows 36 FPS at 1080p, 27 at 1440p, and 18 at 4K, indicating that even the playable configurations have noticeable frame time spikes.

The boost clock of 2400 MHz is relatively high for an integrated GPU, but the 25 W TDP limits sustained performance. The 3 nm process node from Intel helps efficiency, but the hardware simply does not have enough shading units or ROPs to deliver smooth frame rates in a game like Control, which uses deferred rendering and substantial post-processing effects. The GPU's 10 ray tracing cores are present for DirectX 12 Ultimate features, but Control's RTX effects are not reflected in these measured results, and the baseline rasterization performance is already insufficient.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Control at 4K with any playable settings?

A: No. The best 4K result is 30 FPS average at Low settings, which is marginal for an action-adventure game. High, Medium, and Ultra at 3840x2160 produce 19, 21, and 17 FPS respectively, all well below playable thresholds.

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this hardware?

A: The maximum measured average FPS is 59 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only configuration that approaches 60 FPS, and it falls just short of that standard.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The Arc B370 scores 1184 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. It is 0.2% slower than the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570, 0.5% slower than the ATI Radeon HD 5770, 0.7% slower than the AMD Radeon HD 7650M, and 1.4% faster than the AMD FirePro M2000.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X a bottleneck in this configuration?

A: No. The Ryzen 7 3700X has 8 cores and 16 threads with a 4.40 GHz boost clock, and its benchmark percentile of 84 places it far above the GPU's 5th percentile. The FPS scaling across resolutions indicates the GPU is fully saturated.

Q: What settings should be used for 1440p gaming?

A: Low settings at 2560x1440 produce 45 FPS average, which is the only 1440p preset above 40 FPS. Medium (32 FPS) and High (28 FPS) are borderline, while Ultra (25 FPS) is not recommended.

Q: Does the combo's rank of 2657 out of 2888 mean it is one of the worst tested?

A: Yes. The combo ranks in the bottom 8% of all tested combinations for Control, which is consistent with the GPU's 5th percentile standing and the measured FPS results across all resolutions and presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 59 FPS, which is the best result in the entire dataset. Medium settings produce 42 FPS average with a minimum of 36 and maximum of 48 FPS, indicating some frame time variance but generally consistent performance. High settings average 37 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 27 FPS, showing that each settings tier costs approximately 5-10 FPS.

At 2560x1440, Low settings average 45 FPS, which remains playable for a title like Control. Medium settings drop to 32 FPS average with a minimum of 27 and maximum of 37 FPS, which is a noticeable step down in smoothness. High settings average 28 FPS, and Ultra averages 25 FPS. The 1440p results show a 20 FPS spread from Low to Ultra, with the gap between each preset compressing compared to 1080p.

At 3840x2160, Low settings average 30 FPS, which is technically playable but with frequent dips likely given the absence of min/max data. Medium settings average 21 FPS with a minimum of 18 and maximum of 25 FPS, making it the only 4K preset with recorded variance. High settings average 19 FPS, and Ultra averages 17 FPS. The 4K spread from Low to Ultra is only 13 FPS, confirming the GPU is the absolute bottleneck at this resolution.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max FPS data. At 1080p, the range is 36-48 FPS (a 12 FPS spread); at 1440p, it is 27-37 FPS (a 10 FPS spread); at 4K, it is 18-25 FPS (a 7 FPS spread). This narrowing range at higher resolutions further confirms that the GPU is running at maximum capacity, leaving less headroom for frame time variation.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and Intel Arc B370 ranks 2657 out of 2888 tested combinations for Control, placing it in the bottom 8% of all configurations. This rank is heavily influenced by the GPU's 5th percentile standing among all GPUs, as the CPU alone ranks in the 84th percentile among all processors. The massive disparity between CPU and GPU performance tiers explains why the combo performs so poorly in a GPU-intensive title like Control.

The ranking suggests that this configuration is unsuitable for Control at any resolution above 1080p Low, and even at that setting, the 59 FPS average is borderline. The CPU's nearest rivals—AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (0.1% ahead), AMD EPYC 4244P (0.1% ahead), Intel Core i5-13450HX (0.2% behind), and Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (0.5% ahead)—are all comparable in CPU performance, but none of them would change the outcome because the GPU is the limiting factor.

For context, the combo rank of 2657 means that only 231 tested combinations perform worse in Control. Given that the Arc B370 is an integrated GPU with system-shared memory, this result is expected. The data shows that the combo's performance ceiling is defined almost entirely by the GPU, and the Ryzen 7 3700X's strong multi-threaded performance (Cinebench R15 multicore score of 2092 and Geekbench multicore score of 8899) is irrelevant when the GPU cannot deliver adequate frame rates.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X plays a supporting role in this configuration, and the data indicates it is never the bottleneck. The 8-core, 16-thread processor based on Zen 2 architecture (codename Matisse) runs at a 3.60 GHz base clock and boosts to 4.40 GHz, with 32 MB of L3 cache and a 65 W TDP. Its benchmark scores—Cinebench R15 multicore of 2092, Geekbench multicore of 8899, and PassMark multithread of 22458—place it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs, meaning it is far more capable than the GPU paired with it.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database are all within 0.5% of its average score of 34260, including the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (34222, 0.1% ahead), AMD EPYC 4244P (34220, 0.1% ahead), Intel Core i5-13450HX (34333, 0.2% behind), and Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (34083, 0.5% ahead). This indicates the 3700X remains competitive in CPU-bound scenarios, but Control at these settings and resolutions is not one of them.

The CPU's memory support for DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for the Arc B370's system-shared memory architecture, but the GPU's "System Dependent" bandwidth means actual performance can vary based on memory speed and timings. The 3700X's PCIe Gen 4 support with 24 lanes provides adequate connectivity, though the Arc B370's IGP bus interface does not leverage dedicated PCIe bandwidth. In games where the CPU is the bottleneck, the 3700X's 16 threads and 4.40 GHz boost would provide solid performance, but Control's measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU limitation—the GPU is saturated at every resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The only configuration that approaches standard playability is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which delivers 59 FPS average. This should be the default recommendation for this combo. Medium settings at 1080p reduce the average to 42 FPS, which is still acceptable for a slower-paced action-adventure game, but the minimum FPS of 36 indicates occasional stutters. High settings at 1080p (37 FPS) and Ultra (32 FPS) are playable but noticeably less smooth, with frame pacing likely to suffer during combat sequences.

At 2560x1440, Low settings (45 FPS) are the only reasonable option. Medium settings (32 FPS) drop below the 35 FPS threshold that many players consider the minimum for comfortable gaming, and High (28 FPS) and Ultra (25 FPS) are not recommended. The 1440p Low setting offers a 50% resolution increase over 1080p Low with only a 23.7% FPS penalty, making it a viable alternative for players with 1440p displays who prioritize resolution over visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, no settings are recommended for actual gameplay. The best result is 30 FPS at Low, which is borderline at best and likely to dip below 30 FPS during intense scenes. Medium, High, and Ultra at 4K produce 21, 19, and 17 FPS respectively, all of which are unplayable. The data suggests that this combo should be used exclusively at 1080p, with Low settings for the smoothest experience and Medium as a compromise if visual quality is prioritized over frame rate consistency.

For players who want the best balance of visual quality and performance, 1080p Medium at 42 FPS is the strongest recommendation. It provides a 28.8% FPS reduction compared to Low but offers substantially better texture quality and effects. The 36 FPS minimum is low but manageable for a game like Control, which is not a competitive shooter. If frame rate consistency is the top priority, 1080p Low at 59 FPS is the only measured configuration that stays within striking distance of 60 FPS.