Control

Control pairs AMD’s 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D with Intel’s Arc B580, a combination that lands at rank 2173 out of 2888 tested combos in this game. The measured frame rates show a GPU that is clearly the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s substantial multi-threaded headroom goes largely unused in a title that favors single-thread performance. This analysis breaks down the data row by row, exploring what the numbers imply about bottlenecks, settings scaling, and resolution behavior.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo’s overall rank in Control?

A: The data places this pairing at 2173 out of 2888 tested combos, which puts it in the lower-middle portion of the field. That rank reflects the Arc B580’s position relative to other GPUs, since the Ryzen 9 9900X3D sits at the 91st percentile among all CPUs.

Q: How does the Arc B580 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The B580’s average benchmark score is 23021, which is 0.6% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (22895) and 0.7% lower than the RTX 3080 (23172). It also sits 0.2% above the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (23061) and 1% above the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249). These deltas are tiny, meaning the B580 trades blows with that group.

Q: What is the best 1080p setting for this combo?

A: Low settings deliver 114 FPS average, which is the highest measured number at 1920x1080. Medium drops to 81 FPS, High to 72 FPS, and Ultra to 62 FPS. If raw frame rate is the goal, Low is the clear winner.

Q: Does the Ryzen 9 9900X3D have any benchmark advantage over its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The 9900X3D’s average benchmark score is 54762, which is 0.6% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (55093) and 1.3% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K (54053). It also leads the Intel Xeon 6505P (53701) by 2% and the Intel Core i7-14700F (53620) by 2.1%. The differences are small, but the 9900X3D holds a slight edge over three of the four rivals.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory configuration?

A: The Intel Arc B580 has 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s. Memory clocks run at 2375 MHz, which translates to 19 Gbps effective. This is a mid-range capacity and bandwidth setup.

Q: Which resolution shows the smallest gap between Low and Ultra settings?

A: At 4K, Low produces 58 FPS and Ultra produces 32 FPS, a gap of 26 FPS. At 1440p, the gap is 39 FPS (86 vs 47), and at 1080p, the gap is 52 FPS (114 vs 62). The 4K gap is smallest because the GPU is so heavily loaded that even Low settings cannot push much higher.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580 is the engine driving all measured frames, and its specifications set the ceiling for performance. The GPU has 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units, paired with 20 ray tracing cores. Its base and boost clocks are both 2670 MHz, which is a modest clock speed for a modern card. The memory subsystem provides 12 GB of GDDR6 across a 192-bit bus, yielding 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth. That bandwidth is a key factor in Control, a game that streams textures heavily as players move through its shifting environments.

Looking at the benchmark data, the B580 sits at the 68th percentile among all GPUs, with an average score of 23021. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 2080 and RTX 3080, with delta percentages of 0.6% and -0.7% respectively. This places the B580 in a strange spot: it is not a high-end card, but it is not entry-level either. In Control, that translates to playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, but struggles at 4K. The measured FPS at 3840x2160 shows a maximum of 58 FPS on Low settings, and that drops to 32 FPS on Ultra. That 4K Ultra number is below the 60 FPS threshold many players consider smooth, indicating the GPU is the primary constraint.

The GPU’s pixel rate is 213.6 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 427.2 GTexel/s, which are moderate figures. The FP32 performance is 13.67 TFLOPS, with FP16 at 27.34 TFLOPS (2:1). These numbers suggest the card can handle modern effects but will not excel at extreme resolutions. In Control, the game’s physics-heavy combat and destructible environments put stress on both the rasterizer and memory bandwidth. The 456.0 GB/s bandwidth is likely why the card performs better at 1080p than at 4K, where bandwidth demands grow exponentially. The data shows a clear pattern: as resolution increases, average FPS drops consistently across all settings, confirming the GPU is the bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo sits at rank 2173 out of 2888 tested combinations, which places it in the 75th percentile of all combos. That might sound contradictory given the GPU’s 68th percentile ranking, but the CPU’s high percentile (91st) pulls the overall combo slightly higher. However, in a game like Control, the GPU matters far more than the CPU, so the rank is dragged down by the B580’s mid-range position.

Compared to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the B580’s performance is nearly identical to the RTX 2080 and RTX 3080 in average benchmark scores. If those GPUs were also paired with the 9900X3D, the rank would likely shift by only a few positions. The delta percentages between the B580 and its rivals range from -1% to 0.6%, which is within noise for most games. This means the combo’s rank is more about the GPU tier than the specific card model.

The CPU’s nearest rivals show a similar pattern. The 9900X3D is 0.6% behind the Core Ultra 5 245KF and 1.3% ahead of the Core Ultra 5 245K. These differences are unlikely to affect gaming FPS in Control, which is not heavily multithreaded. The combo rank thus reflects the GPU’s limitations more than any CPU deficiency. At 1080p Low, the combo delivers 114 FPS, which is respectable, but at 4K Ultra, it falls to 32 FPS. That range of performance is what defines the combo’s position in the database.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for settings at each resolution. At 1920x1080, Low settings produce 114 FPS average, which is the highest of any tested configuration. Medium yields 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 and a maximum of 93, which offers a smoother experience than Low without sacrificing too much visual fidelity. High settings drop to 72 FPS, still playable, while Ultra falls to 62 FPS. For competitive play or high refresh rate monitors, Low is the obvious choice. For a balanced experience, Medium provides a 33 FPS improvement over High while keeping frame times reasonable.

At 2560x1440, the situation changes. Low settings hit 86 FPS, which is good for a 1440p monitor. Medium produces 61 FPS with a minimum of 52 and a maximum of 70, making it the best choice for a 60 Hz display. High drops to 54 FPS, which may feel slightly less smooth, and Ultra falls to 47 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. For 1440p gaming, Medium is the sweet spot, offering a 7 FPS advantage over High while staying above 60 FPS on average.

At 3840x2160, no setting reaches 60 FPS. Low tops out at 58 FPS, which is close but not quite smooth. Medium averages 41 FPS with a minimum of 35 and a maximum of 48, indicating noticeable stutter in demanding scenes. High drops to 37 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32 FPS. For 4K, Low is the only viable option, and even then, players may need to accept occasional dips below 60 FPS. The data suggests that 1440p Medium provides the best balance of visual quality and performance for this combo.

Measured FPS Breakdown

Starting with 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the Arc B580 shows its strongest performance. Low settings average 114 FPS, which is a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. Medium averages 81 FPS, with a minimum of 69 and a maximum of 93, showing stable frame times. High averages 72 FPS, a 9 FPS drop from Medium. Ultra averages 62 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold but with no minimum recorded, so dips below that are possible. The progression from Low to Ultra is roughly linear, with each step costing about 13-19 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops noticeably. Low averages 86 FPS, which is 28 FPS lower than the 1080p Low result. Medium averages 61 FPS, with a minimum of 52 and a maximum of 70, indicating that some scenes will dip below 60 FPS. High averages 54 FPS, a 7 FPS drop from Medium. Ultra averages 47 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 39 FPS, larger than the 52 FPS gap at 1080p when measured in absolute terms, but proportionally similar.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly overwhelmed. Low averages 58 FPS, which is barely below 60 FPS. Medium averages 41 FPS, with a minimum of 35 and a maximum of 48. High averages 37 FPS, and Ultra averages 32 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 17 FPS, while Medium to High is only 4 FPS, and High to Ultra is 5 FPS. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so bandwidth-limited that higher settings have diminishing returns. The minimum FPS of 35 at 4K Medium highlights the stutter that can occur in heavy combat scenes.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It has a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a TDP of 120 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and a large 128 MB of L3 cache. That L3 cache is the defining feature of the X3D series, designed to reduce memory latency in gaming workloads.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores impressively. Cinebench R23 multi-core reaches 47737, while single-core hits 6739. Geekbench multi-core is 22884 and single-core is 3041. PassMark multi-thread scores 56154, with single-thread at 4646. These numbers place the CPU at the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54762. Its nearest rivals are the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (55093, -0.6%), the Core Ultra 5 245K (54053, +1.3%), the Xeon 6505P (53701, +2%), and the Core i7-14700F (53620, +2.1%).

Despite this CPU strength, Control’s measured FPS does not reflect it. The game is not heavily multithreaded, so the 24 threads are largely idle. The 3DMark 2-thread score of 2512 and 4-thread score of 4885 show strong single-thread performance, which is what matters for Control. The single-thread score of 1269 in 3DMark and 6739 in Cinebench R23 indicate the CPU can handle the game’s main thread easily. The bottleneck is the GPU, as evidenced by the FPS dropping by roughly half from 1080p to 4K at the same settings. The CPU’s 128 MB L3 cache likely helps maintain smooth minimum FPS in complex scenes, but the data does not show a CPU limitation at any resolution.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS across resolutions reveals a classic GPU-bound scaling pattern. At Low settings, 1080p averages 114 FPS, 1440p averages 86 FPS, and 4K averages 58 FPS. That is a 24.6% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a 32.6% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 49.1%, which is close to the expected scaling for a GPU with 456.0 GB/s of bandwidth. At Medium settings, 1080p averages 81 FPS, 1440p averages 61 FPS, and 4K averages 41 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 24.7%, and from 1440p to 4K is 32.8%. The pattern is consistent.

At High settings, 1080p averages 72 FPS, 1440p averages 54 FPS, and 4K averages 37 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 25%, and from 1440p to 4K is 31.5%. At Ultra settings, 1080p averages 62 FPS, 1440p averages 47 FPS, and 4K averages 32 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 24.2%, and from 1440p to 4K is 31.9%. In all cases, the scaling is remarkably uniform, with roughly a 25% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 32% drop from 1440p to 4K.

This uniformity indicates that the GPU is the limiting component across all settings. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect FPS to stay flat as resolution increases, since the CPU workload would not change. Instead, FPS drops consistently, which is the signature of a GPU that is saturated at every resolution. The 1080p Low result of 114 FPS shows the GPU can push high frame rates when pixel count is low, but the 4K Ultra result of 32 FPS shows it cannot handle the pixel throughput. The 12 GB of VRAM is enough for Control at 4K, so the limitation is raw processing power and memory bandwidth. The data suggests that players with this combo should target 1080p or 1440p, as 4K only reaches playable levels on Low settings.