Control

How This Combo Ranks

The pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X with the Intel Arc B580 lands at position 2816 out of 3720 tested combinations for Control. That places this setup in the lower-middle portion of the database, roughly at the 76th percentile of all tested combos. While the rank itself might look unremarkable, the context matters: Control is a demanding action-adventure title with heavy real-time effects, and the data shows this configuration is more about balanced 1080p play than chasing high-refresh 4K.

What stands out is the spread between the CPU and GPU. The Ryzen 7 3700X sits at the 84th percentile among all CPUs in the benchmark database, while the Arc B580 rests at the 68th percentile among GPUs. That gap suggests the processor is not the limiting factor in most scenarios; instead, the graphics card carries the load in this title. The combo rank reflects that dynamic, as the system tends to be GPU-bound at higher resolutions and settings. In practical terms, this is a machine that will handle Control comfortably at 1080p with room to spare, but it will start to struggle when pushed toward 4K with maximum quality.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is built on the Xe2-HPG architecture, a 5 nm design from TSMC with 19,600 million transistors on a 272 mm² die. It ships with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Clock speeds are fixed at 2670 MHz for both base and boost, with memory running at 2375 MHz (19 Gbps effective). The GPU packs 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, 80 ROPs, and 20 ray tracing cores. Peak compute is rated at 13.67 TFLOPS for FP32 and 27.34 TFLOPS for FP16 via 2:1 ratio. Pixel and texture fill rates are listed at 213.6 GPixel/s and 427.2 GTexel/s, respectively.

In Control, the GPU's role is decisive. Looking at the measured FPS data, the pattern is clear: at every resolution, dropping from High to Low settings yields a large performance jump, while moving from High to Ultra costs a noticeable chunk of frame rate. For example, at 1080p High the card delivers 72 FPS, but at 1080p Low it jumps to 114 FPS. At 1440p High it manages 54 FPS, and at 1440p Low it reaches 86 FPS. Even at 4K, the Low preset produces 58 FPS, which is the only 4K setting that crosses the 60 FPS threshold. This behavior points to a GPU that has enough raw memory bandwidth and shading power to handle Control's effects, but the architecture's ray tracing and compute demands in this title push it hard at higher quality presets.

The card's nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (average score 23061, delta -0.2%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (average score 22895, delta +0.6%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (average score 23172, delta -0.7%). Those deltas are tiny, within a single percentage point, meaning the Arc B580 sits in a performance band roughly equivalent to older flagship cards from NVIDIA's previous generations. For Control specifically, the data shows that the B580's 12 GB frame buffer is sufficient even at 4K, but the GPU's compute throughput limits how high the settings can go before frame rates drop below playable levels.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, revealing where the bottleneck lies. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 72 FPS at 1080p to 54 FPS at 1440p, a 25% reduction, and then to 37 FPS at 4K, which is another 31% drop from 1440p. That means the 4K High result is roughly half the 1080p High result. The pattern is similar across other settings: Low goes from 114 FPS at 1080p to 86 FPS at 1440p to 58 FPS at 4K; Medium from 81 to 61 to 41; Ultra from 62 to 47 to 32. In every case, the scaling is almost perfectly linear with pixel count, which is a textbook sign of a GPU-bound workload.

The implication is that the Ryzen 7 3700X is not the limiting factor at any resolution. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect the 1080p to 1440p gap to be smaller than the 1440p to 4K gap, because lower resolutions put more pressure on the processor. Instead, the consistent ~25-30% drops per step indicate that the Arc B580's shading and memory bandwidth are what determine the frame rate. At 1080p, the card has enough headroom to push past 100 FPS on Low, but Control's effects-heavy scenes still cause significant slowdowns at Ultra. At 4K, even the Low preset barely holds 58 FPS, and Ultra dips to 32 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay.

This scaling behavior also suggests that the 12 GB VRAM is not the limiting factor, since the frame rate drops are proportional to pixel count rather than hitting a sudden cliff when memory fills. The 456.0 GB/s bandwidth is likely the more relevant constraint at 4K, where the GPU must move large amounts of texture and geometry data. For users targeting 1440p, the card offers a decent balance: High preset averages 54 FPS, and Low hits 86 FPS, which is close to 60 FPS for those who prefer smoother motion. At 1080p, the card is clearly overqualified for Low and Medium presets, but Ultra still only reaches 62 FPS, indicating that Control's max settings are heavy even on this hardware.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured data, 1080p is the most comfortable target. All settings except Ultra average above 60 FPS, with Low hitting 114 FPS, Medium at 81 FPS, and High at 72 FPS. At 1440p, only Low crosses 60 FPS with 86 FPS, while High and Medium stay below 60. 4K is only playable on Low at 58 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B580 compare to its nearest rivals in raw benchmark score?

A: The B580's average benchmark score is 23021, which is almost identical to the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (23061, delta -0.2%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22895, delta +0.6%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (23172, delta -0.7%). All are within a single percentage point of each other.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 3700X holding back the GPU in this game?

A: No. The benchmark data shows that FPS scales almost exactly with resolution changes, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's percentile rank (84th among all CPUs) is higher than the GPU's (68th), and the frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K are proportional to pixel count, not to CPU workload.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS recorded at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the range is 69 to 93 FPS with an average of 81. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 52 to 70 FPS with an average of 61. At 4K Medium, the range is 35 to 48 FPS with an average of 41. No min or max values are provided for other settings.

Q: Does the GPU have enough VRAM for 4K in Control?

A: The 12 GB of GDDR6 memory appears sufficient, since the frame rate drops at 4K are consistent with pixel-count scaling rather than a sudden memory capacity cliff. The card's 456.0 GB/s bandwidth is more likely the limiting factor at that resolution, given the linear FPS decline.

Q: What is the launch MSRP of the GPU and CPU?

A: The Intel Arc B580 has a launch MSRP of 249 USD, and the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X has a launch MSRP of $329.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows:

• Low: 114 FPS average
• Medium: 81 FPS average (min 69, max 93)
• High: 72 FPS average
• Ultra: 62 FPS average

The jump from Low to Medium costs 33 FPS, which is a 29% drop, while the step from High to Ultra costs 10 FPS (14% drop). The gap between Low and Ultra is 52 FPS, meaning the lowest preset delivers almost double the frame rate of the highest.

At 2560x1440:

• Low: 86 FPS average
• Medium: 61 FPS average (min 52, max 70)
• High: 54 FPS average
• Ultra: 47 FPS average

The scaling is tighter here: Low to Medium drops 25 FPS (29%), Medium to High drops 7 FPS (11%), and High to Ultra drops 7 FPS (13%). The Low preset remains the only one that exceeds 60 FPS, while Ultra falls below 50 FPS.

At 3840x2160:

• Low: 58 FPS average
• Medium: 41 FPS average (min 35, max 48)
• High: 37 FPS average
• Ultra: 32 FPS average

At 4K, even Low barely maintains a playable frame rate. The Medium preset's minimum of 35 FPS and maximum of 48 FPS indicate noticeable frame time variance, while High and Ultra are both below 40 FPS on average. The total spread from Low to Ultra is 26 FPS, which is a 45% reduction from the best case.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, codenamed Matisse, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. It features a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 in dual-channel configuration, with a theoretical bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The CPU uses the AM4 socket and has a TDP of 65 W. It also supports PCIe Gen 4 with 24 lanes (CPU only).

In benchmark terms, the 3700X scores 2092 in Cinebench R15 multi-core and 204 in single-core, 8899 in Geekbench multi-core and 1593 in single-core, and 22458 in Passmark multithread. Its average benchmark score is 34260, with a percentile rank of 84 among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals in the database are the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (34222, delta +0.1%), the AMD EPYC 4244P (34220, delta +0.1%), the Intel Core i5-13450HX (34333, delta -0.2%), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H (34083, delta +0.5%). These deltas are all under half a percent, placing the 3700X in a tight cluster of mid-range and mobile processors.

For Control, the CPU's role is secondary but not negligible. The game is known for its physics and destruction effects, which can stress multi-core processors. The 3700X's 8 cores and 16 threads provide enough parallel throughput to keep up with the Arc B580 at 1080p and 1440p, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The processor's single-thread performance, while not class-leading, is sufficient for this title's gameplay logic. The fact that FPS drops are proportional to pixel count across all settings indicates that the CPU is not causing any frame rate ceiling at lower resolutions.

However, the CPU's age shows in the benchmark scores relative to newer parts. The Ryzen AI 7 350 and EPYC 4244P match its average score within 0.1%, while the Core i5-13450HX is 0.2% faster. This means the 3700X is still competitive in synthetic tests, but it lacks the newer architecture features that might help in more CPU-intensive scenes. For Control specifically, the data suggests that the processor is more than adequate, since the GPU consistently becomes the limiting factor before the CPU does, even at 1080p Low where the frame rate reaches 114 FPS.