Control

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the Intel Arc B570 lands at rank 2307 out of 2888 tested combos in Control. That places this configuration in the lower third of the database, which is consistent with the measured frame rates across all resolutions. The combo sits in the 21st percentile of combinations tested, meaning roughly four out of five other CPU-GPU pairings deliver higher average FPS in this title.

To frame this ranking, consider the individual components. The CPU itself holds a percentile rank of 71 among all processors tested, while the GPU sits at percentile 65 among all graphics cards. When combined in Control, the pair underperforms what those individual percentiles might suggest, indicating a specific bottleneck dynamic in this game rather than a general hardware deficiency. The gap between the component-level percentiles and the combo rank of roughly 2300 out of 2888 suggests that Control stresses this pairing in ways that generic benchmarks do not capture.

The measured data confirms this is a playable but not impressive combination. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo reaches 101 FPS, which is the only triple-digit result in the entire measured set. Everything else falls below that threshold. The ranking reflects a system that can handle the game at moderate settings but struggles at higher presets and resolutions, particularly at 4K where even Low settings only produce 51 FPS.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570 brings 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 380.0 GB/s. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2500 MHz and a boost clock of 2500 MHz, making it a fixed-clock design. Memory runs at 2375 MHz with 19 Gbps effective speed. The card contains 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units, along with 18 ray tracing cores. Compute performance is rated at 11.52 TFLOPS for FP32 and 23.04 TFLOPS for FP16 via a 2:1 ratio.

In Control, the GPU's role becomes clear when examining the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K at identical settings. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 63 at 1920x1080 to 48 at 2560x1440, then to 32 at 3840x2160. That is a 49% reduction from 1080p to 4K at High, suggesting the GPU is the primary limiter as resolution increases. The same pattern appears at Medium settings: 71 FPS at 1080p, 54 at 1440p, and 36 at 4K — a 49% drop again. These consistent percentage declines point to a GPU-bound scenario where the Arc B570's rendering throughput dictates performance.

The memory subsystem deserves attention here. With 10 GB of VRAM and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth, the card has sufficient capacity for Control at 4K, but the 160-bit bus width limits how quickly textures can be streamed. The measured data does not show a catastrophic VRAM capacity failure at 4K Ultra (28 FPS), which would manifest as stuttering or crashes; instead, the frame rates decline smoothly, indicating bandwidth and compute constraints rather than capacity exhaustion.

Relative to its nearest rivals, the Arc B570's average benchmark score is 20556. That places it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750 (20582). The delta to the Quadro M4000M is 0.4% in the B570's favor, and the Radeon R9 M390X is 0.5% ahead. These are negligible differences in synthetic benchmarks, but the Control measurements show the B570's real-world behavior under this title's specific rendering demands.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling pattern in Control reveals a GPU-bound workload with predictable frame rate erosion as pixel count increases. At Low settings, the average FPS moves from 101 at 1080p to 76 at 1440p and 51 at 4K. That is a 25% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a further 33% reduction from 1440p to 4K, totaling a 50% drop from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is consistent with a system where the GPU is the limiting component across all measured resolutions.

At High settings, the same pattern holds but with lower absolute numbers: 63 FPS at 1080p, 48 at 1440p, and 32 at 4K. The percentage drops are 24% and 33%, respectively, nearly identical to Low settings. This consistency indicates that the GPU's rendering pipeline is saturated in a linear fashion as resolution rises, with no unexpected cliffs or plateaus that would suggest a CPU bottleneck appearing at higher resolutions.

Medium settings show a slightly different character. The 1080p result is 71 FPS, dropping to 54 at 1440p (a 24% reduction) and then to 36 at 4K (a 33% reduction). The Medium preset at 4K includes a minimum FPS of 31 and a maximum of 42, giving a 11 FPS range that suggests some frame time variance. The Low settings at 4K have no min/max data, but the average of 51 FPS indicates headroom that the higher presets do not enjoy.

Ultra settings present the most demanding scenario: 55 FPS at 1080p, 42 at 1440p, and 28 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 24%, and from 1440p to 4K is 33%, matching the other presets. This uniformity across all four settings presets strongly indicates that the limiting component is the GPU. A CPU-bound system would show less severe degradation at higher resolutions because the CPU work per frame remains constant while the GPU work increases; here, the frame rate scales directly with pixel count, confirming the Arc B570 is the constraint.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the only resolution where the combo achieves consistently playable frame rates across presets. At 1080p, even Ultra settings average 55 FPS, while at 1440p, High settings drop to 48 FPS and Ultra falls to 42 FPS. At 4K, the best result is 51 FPS on Low, with High at 32 FPS and Ultra at 28 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B570 compare to its closest GPU rivals?

A: The B570's average benchmark score is 20556, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and 0.1% lower than the Intel Arc A750 (20582). It sits 0.4% above the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480) and 0.5% below the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662). These deltas are within noise, so the B570 performs essentially on par with these cards in synthetic tests.

*Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in Control?*

A: The resolution scaling data indicates the GPU is the limiting component. Frame rates drop by roughly 24% from 1080p to 1440p and another 33% from 1440p to 4K across all settings presets. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain flat as resolution increases, which is not what the measured data shows.

Q: What settings preset gives the highest frame rate at 1080p?

A: Low settings produce the highest average FPS at 1920x1080 with 101 FPS. Medium settings average 71 FPS, High averages 63 FPS, and Ultra averages 55 FPS. The Medium preset has a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 82 FPS, providing a stable range for those who want better visuals than Low.

*Q: Does the combo handle 4K in Control?*

A: At 3840x2160, the combo only achieves 51 FPS on Low settings. Medium averages 36 FPS, High averages 32 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 31 FPS and a maximum of 42 FPS. Given that 4K Ultra sits at 28 FPS, this resolution is only viable at Low settings for smoother gameplay.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17177. This is 0.3% above the AMD EPYC 7H12 (17120) and 0.6% above the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U (17074). It is 0.4% below the Intel Core i5-12450H (17239) and 0.6% below the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G (17278). All deltas are under 1%, putting this CPU in a tightly contested performance tier.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for settings presets at each resolution. At 1080p, the combo delivers 101 FPS on Low, 71 FPS on Medium, 63 FPS on High, and 55 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset offers the best balance: it maintains an average of 71 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 82 FPS, meaning the frame rate never dips below the 60 FPS threshold in the measured range. High at 63 FPS is also viable, but the lower minimum frame rate (not measured, but implied by the lower average) suggests more variability.

At 1440p, the options narrow. Low settings average 76 FPS, which is comfortable. Medium averages 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 62 FPS, placing it in a playable but not consistently smooth range. High at 48 FPS and Ultra at 42 FPS are borderline for a 60 Hz display. For 1440p, Low is the safest choice if frame rate stability is a priority, while Medium is acceptable for those who can tolerate occasional drops into the 40s.

At 4K, the situation is constrained. Low settings average 51 FPS, which is the only preset above 50 FPS at this resolution. Medium averages 36 FPS with a minimum of 31 FPS and a maximum of 42 FPS, while High and Ultra average 32 and 28 FPS respectively. Given that 4K Medium dips to 31 FPS, the data suggests Low is the only preset that provides a reasonably consistent experience at 3840x2160. The 11 FPS spread between minimum and maximum on Medium indicates notable frame time variance that could lead to stutter.

For the best overall experience, the Medium preset at 1080p is the recommended target. It delivers a minimum of 61 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS mark, and the average of 71 FPS provides headroom. If visual fidelity is less important, Low at 1440p (76 FPS) offers a higher resolution with a higher frame rate, though the visual quality reduction may not be worth the jump for all users. Ultra at 1080p (55 FPS) is the highest quality option that remains playable, but it does not reach 60 FPS on average.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 512 KB of L2 per core, and 12 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support is DDR4 in a dual-channel configuration with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The CPU uses the Intel Socket 1200 and was released in March 2021 with a launch MSRP of $157.

In Control, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, as established by the resolution scaling analysis. However, the processor's capabilities still matter for maintaining frame rate floors. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 101 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently at lower resolutions and settings. The single-thread benchmark scores support this: the 3dmark single-thread test yields 868, and Cinebench R23 single-core produces 2024. The 3dmark 2-thread score of 1691 and 4-thread score of 3171 indicate that the CPU has enough per-core performance to handle the game's threading demands.

The multi-threaded performance is also adequate. The 3dmark 16-thread score is 5619, and the max-thread score is 5652, showing scaling up to 12 threads. Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 14340, and Geekbench multicore hits 7737. These scores place the CPU at the 71st percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 17177. The nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7H12, scores 17120 (0.3% lower), while the Intel Core i5-12450H scores 17239 (0.4% higher). These are tight margins, indicating the i5-11400F is competitive with its direct peers.

The Passmark results add context: multithread score of 16908, single-thread score of 2981, integer math at 57624, and floating point math at 34127. Data encryption hits 10247, and data compression reaches 208472. These numbers confirm a balanced CPU that does not appear to bottleneck the Arc B570 in Control, given that the frame rate scales cleanly with resolution. If the CPU were limiting, the 1080p to 4K frame rate drops would be shallower, and the 1080p Low result would not reach 101 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates cover four settings presets at three resolutions, providing a full matrix of 12 data points. At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 101 FPS with no min/max recorded. Medium averages 71 FPS with a minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 82 FPS. High averages 63 FPS, and Ultra averages 55 FPS. The 1080p results show a clear progression: each step up in settings costs roughly 8-30 FPS, with the largest gap between Low and Medium (30 FPS) and the smallest between High and Ultra (8 FPS).

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 76 FPS. Medium averages 54 FPS with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 62 FPS. High averages 48 FPS, and Ultra averages 42 FPS. The 1440p results compress the range: Low to Medium is a 22 FPS drop, Medium to High is 6 FPS, and High to Ultra is another 6 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 46 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that even the mid-range preset cannot maintain consistent smoothness at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 51 FPS. Medium averages 36 FPS with a minimum of 31 FPS and a maximum of 42 FPS. High averages 32 FPS, and Ultra averages 28 FPS. The 4K results show the tightest clustering: Low to Medium is a 15 FPS drop, Medium to High is 4 FPS, and High to Ultra is another 4 FPS. The Medium preset's 11 FPS spread between minimum and maximum highlights the frame time variance at this resolution, where the GPU is heavily loaded.

The overall pattern across all 12 measurements shows that the combo's performance ceiling is at 1080p Low (101 FPS) and its floor is at 4K Ultra (28 FPS). The largest gap between consecutive settings is at 1080p Low to Medium (30 FPS), while the smallest gaps are at 4K High to Ultra (4 FPS) and 1440p High to Ultra (6 FPS). This suggests that at higher resolutions, the settings presets have diminishing returns on frame rate, as the GPU becomes the dominant constraint regardless of visual quality settings.