Control

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable experience in Control, but the data shows that settings management is critical to maintaining smooth frame rates, especially at higher resolutions. The sweet spot for this combination is the Medium preset, which provides a significant performance uplift over High settings while maintaining a more consistent frame time than the jump to Low would suggest. At 1920x1080, Medium yields an average of 71 FPS, which is 12.7% faster than High’s 63 FPS and only 29.6% slower than Low’s 101 FPS, but with far better visual fidelity than Low. The 2560x1440 results reinforce this, with Medium hitting 54 FPS average versus 48 FPS on High, keeping the experience above the 50 FPS threshold for most users. While Ultra is an option, the data indicates it is only viable at 1080p, where it averages 55 FPS, but the 4K Ultra result of 28 FPS makes it clear that this preset is not meant for this hardware at higher resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows paint a clear picture: Medium is the optimal preset for this CPU-GPU combination across all tested resolutions. The performance scaling is consistent—Medium sits roughly 12-13% above High at every resolution, while Low offers a substantial boost but at the cost of the game’s atmospheric lighting and texture quality. At 1920x1080, Medium’s 71 FPS average with a minimum of 61 FPS ensures that even demanding action sequences remain fluid. This is the baseline recommendation for a monitor with a 60 Hz refresh rate, as the minimum frame rate stays above the refresh threshold. For users with 144 Hz displays, the Low preset’s 101 FPS average at 1080p becomes more attractive, but the visual compromise is significant for a game like Control, where the environment is a core part of the experience.

At 2560x1440, Medium remains the pick, delivering 54 FPS average with a 46 FPS minimum. This is playable for a slower-paced action-adventure title, though not ideal for competitive play. The High preset at 48 FPS is borderline, and the drop to 42 FPS on Ultra is noticeable. The data suggests that if you are on a 1440p display, you should stick to Medium and potentially tweak individual settings like shadows or reflections down one notch to gain headroom, rather than dropping to Low. At 3840x2160, the situation changes. Medium’s 36 FPS average and 31 FPS minimum are technically playable but not comfortable for extended sessions. The Low preset’s 51 FPS average is the only way to get a smooth 4K experience on this hardware, but even then, the minimum frame rate is not recorded, leaving some uncertainty. For 4K, the recommendation is to use Low, or to accept that this combo is not designed for 4K gaming and stick to 1440p Medium for the best balance of visuals and performance.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570’s memory configuration and clock speeds directly influence these results. The GPU features 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus, providing 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Control is a game that uses textures heavily, and the data shows that the memory bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p Medium settings, but becomes a limiting factor at 4K Ultra, where the 28 FPS average indicates the GPU is struggling to feed the renderer. The base and boost clocks are both locked at 2500 MHz, which is a modest clock speed for a modern GPU, but the 11.52 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power is what drives the raw fill rate. The pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s are the metrics that matter for rasterization-heavy titles like Control, and they explain why the card performs adequately at 1080p but falls off sharply at 4K.

The 18 ray tracing cores are present, but the measured FPS data does not include any ray tracing-specific benchmarks, so their impact on Control cannot be quantified from this pack. What the data does show is that the GPU’s performance scales predictably with resolution: from 1080p High (63 FPS) to 1440p High (48 FPS) to 4K High (32 FPS), the frame rate drops by roughly 24-33% per resolution step. This is a linear scaling pattern typical of a GPU that is not bandwidth-starved until the highest resolution. The VRAM usage is not directly measured, but the 10 GB capacity is likely sufficient for all presets at 1080p and 1440p, though 4K Ultra textures could push against this limit. The GPU’s percentile ranking of 65th versus all GPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 20556, places it in the mid-range tier, which aligns with the measured FPS results showing it as a capable 1080p and entry-level 1440p performer.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Control at 1080p with Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but just barely. The measured data shows an average of 55 FPS at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings. This is playable, but the lack of a recorded minimum frame rate suggests that frame pacing could be inconsistent in heavy scenes. For a more stable experience, Medium at 71 FPS is recommended.

Q: What is the best resolution for this hardware?

A: The data indicates that 1920x1080 on Medium settings provides the best balance, with a 71 FPS average and a 61 FPS minimum. At 2560x1440, Medium drops to 54 FPS, which is still playable, but 3840x2160 is only viable on Low settings, where the average is 51 FPS.

Q: How much faster is Low compared to High at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 76 FPS, while High averages 48 FPS. This represents a 58.3% performance increase when dropping from High to Low. The Medium preset sits between them at 54 FPS, offering a compromise.

Q: Does the 10 GB VRAM limit performance at 4K?

A: The data shows a significant drop at 3840x2160, with High at 32 FPS and Ultra at 28 FPS. While this could be a VRAM capacity issue, the more likely bottleneck is the 380.0 GB/s memory bandwidth, which is insufficient for 4K textures and effects. The GPU’s 160-bit bus width is narrow for 4K workloads.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-12400F holding back the Arc B570 in this game?

A: The benchmark data suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 101 FPS, which is a high frame rate that would require significant CPU headroom. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, are sufficient for Control’s single-threaded and multi-threaded demands, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12380.

Q: What is the expected frame rate difference between Medium and Ultra at 4K?

A: The measured data shows Medium at 36 FPS average (31 FPS min, 42 FPS max) and Ultra at 28 FPS average. This is a 22.2% performance drop when moving from Medium to Ultra, which is a significant cost for the visual upgrade.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Intel Core i5-12400F and Intel Arc B570 combination shows a clear progression across presets. Low settings deliver the highest performance with an average of 101 FPS, making it the only preset that comfortably exceeds the 100 FPS mark. Medium settings come next at 71 FPS, with a recorded minimum of 61 FPS and a maximum of 82 FPS, indicating decent frame pacing with only an 11 FPS spread between the average and minimum. High settings drop to 63 FPS, and Ultra brings up the rear at 55 FPS. The lack of minimum frame rate data for Low, High, and Ultra means we cannot assess frame time consistency for those presets, but the Medium data suggests that the game is well-optimized for this hardware at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low settings maintain a strong 76 FPS average, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. Medium settings deliver 54 FPS, with a minimum of 46 FPS and a maximum of 62 FPS. The spread here is wider (8 FPS between average and minimum), suggesting that 1440p is starting to stress the GPU more. High settings drop to 48 FPS, and Ultra falls to 42 FPS. These lower presets do not have recorded minimums, but the averages indicate that High is borderline playable while Ultra is not ideal for action sequences. At 3840x2160, the data shows a steep decline. Low settings are the only playable option at 51 FPS, though the absence of a minimum frame rate raises questions about stability. Medium settings average 36 FPS with a minimum of 31 FPS and a maximum of 42 FPS, which is technically playable but will feel sluggish. High settings drop to 32 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 28 FPS, both of which are below the threshold for a smooth experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-12400F and Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2307 out of 2888 tested combos for Control, placing it in the 20th percentile of all systems tested. This means that roughly 80% of tested configurations deliver higher average frame rates in this game. While the ranking seems low, it is important to contextualize this with the specific hardware. The GPU’s benchmark percentile of 65th versus all GPUs and the CPU’s percentile of 73rd versus all CPUs indicate that both components are mid-range performers. The combo ranking being lower than either individual component’s percentile suggests that this pairing is not optimally balanced for Control, or that the game is particularly demanding on the GPU, which is the weaker link in this setup.

Comparing the GPU to its nearest rivals, the Intel Arc B570 has an average benchmark score of 20556, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534, 0.1% higher) and the Intel Arc A750 (20582, 0.1% higher). This indicates that the B570 is effectively a desktop equivalent to the RTX 3070 Mobile and a slight downgrade from the Arc A750. The combo ranking of 2307 out of 2888 is a reflection of this mid-range positioning. In practical terms, this rank means that while the combo is not a high-end performer, it is not at the bottom either. The measured FPS data shows that it can handle Control at 1080p Medium with excellent results (71 FPS) and at 1440p Medium with acceptable results (54 FPS), which aligns with the expectations for a mid-range GPU. The rank is a relative measure, and for a builder with a 1080p monitor, this combo outperforms its ranking suggests, since the ranking includes many higher-end 4K-focused systems.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F plays a supporting role in this combo, but its specifications are sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the Arc B570 in Control. The CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This Alder Lake-S architecture, built on Intel’s 10 nm process, provides a solid foundation for gaming. The 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB L2 cache per core are adequate for the game’s data access patterns. The single-threaded performance, as measured by Cinebench R23 at 1680 points, is strong enough to handle the game’s primary game logic thread, while the multi-threaded score of 12380 ensures that background tasks and physics calculations do not cause frame drops.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 101 FPS, which is a frame rate that would expose CPU limitations in many games. The fact that the B570 can reach this level suggests that the i5-12400F has enough headroom to feed the GPU. The CPU’s benchmark scores support this: the 3DMark single-thread score of 909 and multi-thread score of 5912 are respectable for a mid-range processor. The nearest rival comparisons show the i5-12400F’s average benchmark score of 19039 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (19047), indicating that this CPU is competitive with modern mobile chips in overall performance. In Control, which is not a heavily CPU-bound title, the i5-12400F’s 6 cores and 12 threads are more than adequate. The GPU becomes the bottleneck at higher settings, as evidenced by the performance drops from Low to Ultra at each resolution. For a builder considering this combo, the CPU provides a stable platform that will not need upgrading for this game, leaving the GPU as the primary upgrade path for better performance.