Control

Control is a demanding action-adventure title that pushes both processor and graphics hardware, and the measured results for the Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 show a system that is consistently capable but is clearly bound by its graphics card in this specific game. The benchmark data reveals a configuration that delivers smooth gameplay at mainstream resolutions, yet struggles to maintain high refresh rates at the most demanding settings.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data shows a predictable, steep decline in performance as resolution increases, which is a clear indicator of where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces an average of 74.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p High, the average drops to 60.1 FPS, a significant reduction of roughly 19%. The jump to 4K High is far more punishing, with the average falling to 36.8 FPS, which is a 39% drop from the 1440p result and only about half of the 1080p frame rate. This pattern of sharply decreasing performance with higher resolutions is a hallmark of a GPU-limited scenario.

The scaling from Low to Ultra settings further confirms this. At 1080p, the difference between Low (119.4 FPS) and Ultra (63.6 FPS) is a massive 47% performance penalty. This gap narrows at 1440p, where Low yields 88.9 FPS and Ultra yields 52 FPS, but the absolute numbers are still lower. At 4K, the frame rates compress into a tighter band, with Low at 61.7 FPS and Ultra at just 34.1 FPS. The fact that even at 4K Low settings, the system cannot reach the 60 FPS mark (61.7 FPS is just barely above) suggests that the RX 7600 is being fully saturated. The data indicates that the processor has enough headroom to feed the GPU at lower resolutions, but the graphics card becomes the primary constraint as the pixel count and graphical load increase, particularly at 4K Ultra where the average of 34.1 FPS is the lowest recorded.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of tested configurations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and AMD Radeon RX 7600 achieves a combo rank of 1113 out of 1636 combinations for Control. This places it in the lower-middle portion of the performance spectrum, indicating that while it is not a low-end setup, many other combinations deliver higher frame rates in this game. The ranking suggests that for a game like Control, which is heavily GPU-dependent at high resolutions, the RX 7600 holds this combo back from achieving a higher position.

The GPU itself sits at the 63rd percentile among all tested graphics cards, which is a modest standing. Its average benchmark score of 20258 is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, which has an average score of 20146 and a deltaPct of 0.6. This means the RX 7600 is effectively on par with the 7600 XT in synthetic benchmarks, though the XT version is technically 0.6% slower in this specific metric. The CPU, on the other hand, is much stronger relative to its peers. The i5-12600KF is at the 84th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27827. Its closest rival, the Intel Core i9-10900K, scores nearly identically at 27829 with a deltaPct of 0. This disparity in percentile rankings between the CPU and GPU further underscores that the graphics card is the limiting factor in this pairing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture. It features a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, which provides strong single-threaded performance that is crucial for gaming. The CPU’s benchmark results are robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23444 and a single-core score of 3309. This level of processing power is more than sufficient for Control, which is not known to be a heavily multi-threaded title.

Given the GPU-bound nature of the performance scaling, the i5-12600KF is not the bottleneck in this configuration. Even at 1080p with Low settings, where the frame rate reaches 119.4 FPS, the processor is able to keep up with the demands of the game. The data shows that the CPU has ample headroom, and its performance is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any of the tested settings. The strong single-thread score of 1016 in 3DMark’s single-thread test and 2529 in Geekbench’s single-core test support this conclusion. The processor’s high boost clock of 4.90 GHz ensures that it can deliver the necessary single-threaded performance to avoid holding back the RX 7600, even in less demanding graphical scenarios.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the combo's performance across all tested resolutions and settings.

At 1920x1080, the system is at its most capable. With Low settings, it achieves an average of 119.4 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium settings yield 85.9 FPS, and High settings produce 74.4 FPS. Pushing to Ultra settings drops the average to 63.6 FPS, which is still playable but shows a significant cost for the highest visual quality. The spread from Low to Ultra at 1080p is 55.8 FPS, highlighting the substantial performance impact of the game's graphical options.

At 2560x1440, the performance is more moderate. Low settings still deliver a smooth 88.9 FPS, but Medium drops to 65.9 FPS, and High falls to 60.1 FPS. Ultra settings at 1440p yield an average of 52 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for a fluid experience. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 36.9 FPS, showing that the GPU is starting to feel the pressure from the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the RX 7600 is clearly overburdened. Low settings are the only option that comes close to playable, with an average of 61.7 FPS. Medium settings drop to 41.6 FPS, High falls to 36.8 FPS, and Ultra struggles to maintain just 34.1 FPS. The performance is consistently below the 60 FPS threshold for all settings except Low, making 4K gaming a compromise with this hardware. The data demonstrates a clear hierarchy: the combo is best suited for 1080p high-refresh gaming, capable at 1440p with adjusted settings, and not recommended for 4K beyond Low presets.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 is a RDNA 3.0 architecture GPU with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus. It has a boost clock of 2655 MHz and a game clock of 2250 MHz, which are relatively high for its class. The memory bandwidth is rated at 288.0 GB/s. These specifications are adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are limiting factors at higher resolutions and with demanding textures.

The GPU's performance in synthetic benchmarks is modest. It achieves a PassMark G3D score of 16634 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2310. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, has an average score of 20534, placing the RX 7600 1.3% behind. This puts the RX 7600 in a competitive but not dominant position. The measured FPS data aligns with this assessment. At 1080p Ultra, the GPU delivers 63.6 FPS, but this drops to 52 FPS at 1440p Ultra and plummets to 34.1 FPS at 4K Ultra. The steep falloff at 4K is a direct consequence of the GPU's limited memory bandwidth and 8 GB VRAM, which can struggle with the high-resolution textures and geometry in Control. The data shows that the RX 7600 is the clear performance ceiling for this combo, and its capabilities are best utilized at 1080p and, with some settings adjustments, at 1440p.