Control

Control is an Action Adventure title from 2019 that stresses both the CPU and GPU heavily, and the data for this Intel Core i5-14400F + Intel Arc B370 combo reveals a system that is severely constrained by its graphics solution. The measured frame rates show a configuration that struggles to maintain playable performance at standard resolutions, with the Arc B370 acting as the definitive bottleneck in almost every scenario tested.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K in Control produces a steep and consistent performance cliff, indicating that the Intel Arc B370 is the limiting component across all tested settings. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 59 FPS at 1920x1080 to 45 FPS at 2560x1440, a 24% reduction, and then falls further to 30 FPS at 3840x2160, which is a 49% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern suggests that even at the lowest graphical preset, the GPU is overwhelmed by the pixel count at 4K, as the workload shifts almost entirely to the rendering hardware.

Moving to High settings, the degradation is even more pronounced. The average FPS at 1080p is 37, which drops to 28 FPS at 1440p (a 24% decrease) and then to 19 FPS at 4K (a 49% decrease from 1080p). The consistent percentage drops across Low and High presets point to a purely GPU-bound scenario, where the resolution scaling is linear and predictable. The CPU, with its 10 cores and 16 threads, is not a factor in this equation, as the frame rate decline is directly proportional to the increase in rendered pixels.

The Ultra preset tells a similar story, with the average FPS starting at 32 at 1080p, falling to 25 at 1440p, and bottoming out at 17 at 4K. The data shows that the Arc B370, with its 1280 shading units and 20 ROPs, simply cannot cope with the fill rate demands of 4K in Control, regardless of the quality settings. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is just 13 FPS (30 vs 17), which is a narrow margin that further confirms the GPU is saturated; the settings have diminishing returns because the core rendering throughput is the hard limit, not the visual effects.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations for Control, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-14400F and Intel Arc B370 ranks at position 2657 out of 2888 tested combos. This places it in the bottom 8% of all configurations, a poor standing that reflects the GPU's inability to deliver a smooth experience in this title. The percentile ranking for the GPU alone is 5, meaning it performs better than only 5% of all tested graphics cards, which heavily drags down the overall combo ranking despite the CPU's more respectable 83rd percentile standing.

The combination rank is a holistic measure, and the data shows that the CPU's relative strength is wasted in this pairing. The Intel Core i5-14400F sits in the 83rd percentile among all CPUs, but when paired with a GPU that sits in the 5th percentile, the resulting combo falls to the bottom tier. This disparity highlights a severe imbalance; the system is effectively crippled by the graphics adapter, making the CPU's potential irrelevant for gaming performance in Control. The rank of 2657 out of 2888 is a clear signal that this is not a viable configuration for competitive or high-fidelity play in this specific game, as the vast majority of other tested systems deliver higher frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor from the Raptor Lake Refresh architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. In synthetic benchmarks, it achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21645 and a single-core score of 3055, along with a Geekbench multi-core score of 11268. These numbers indicate a highly capable processor for general compute tasks, but the gaming data for Control shows that its role is largely secondary.

In this game, the CPU's performance headroom is never truly tested because the frame rates are so low. At 1080p Low, the system hits 59 FPS, which is the highest average recorded, but even this figure is likely limited by the GPU rather than the CPU. The processor's high single-core performance, evidenced by the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3055, is sufficient to feed the Arc B370, but the GPU cannot translate that data into higher frame rates. The fact that the FPS drops consistently when moving from Low to High settings, and from 1080p to 4K, confirms that the CPU is not the bottleneck; if it were, the frame rates would remain relatively flat across resolution changes.

The processor's 20 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory are standard for modern gaming, but they do not rescue the system from the GPU's limitations. The data suggests that the i5-14400F is more than capable of handling the physics and logic calculations in Control, as evidenced by its Passmark physics score of 1523, but the rendering pipeline is stalled at the graphics stage. For this specific combo, the CPU is a silent partner, waiting for the GPU to catch up, which it never does.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its best results, though they are still suboptimal. The Low preset averages 59 FPS, which is the only setting to approach a playable threshold, while Medium averages 42 FPS with a minimum of 36 FPS. High averages 37 FPS, and Ultra drops to 32 FPS. This data indicates that even at the lowest resolution, the system struggles to maintain a consistent 60 FPS, and any increase in visual quality pushes it into the low 30s or 40s.

At 2560x1440, the performance degrades further. The Low preset averages 45 FPS, Medium averages 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS, High averages 28 FPS, and Ultra averages 25 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 20 FPS, showing that the settings scale has a noticeable impact, but the overall frame rates are too low for smooth gameplay. The minimum FPS figures for Medium (27 FPS) highlight potential stuttering in action-heavy scenes.

At 3840x2160, the system is effectively unplayable. Low averages 30 FPS, Medium averages 21 FPS with a minimum of 18 FPS, High averages 19 FPS, and Ultra averages 17 FPS. The 4K resolution overwhelms the Arc B370, as the average frame rates across all settings are below 30 FPS. The difference between the Low and Ultra presets at 4K is only 13 FPS, indicating that the GPU is so saturated that changing settings has a minimal impact on performance. The measured data shows a clear trend: this combo is only marginally usable at 1080p Low, and completely inadequate for higher resolutions or settings.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B370 is the clear bottleneck in this system, and its specifications explain why. It is based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, built on a 3 nm process, and features 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 20 ROPs. The boost clock is 2400 MHz, and it has 10 ray tracing cores. In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark, it scores 1184 points, placing it in the 5th percentile of all GPUs. This score is nearly identical to the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190 points) and the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186 points), which are legacy parts from over a decade ago.

The GPU's memory configuration is "System Shared," meaning it relies on the system's main memory rather than dedicated VRAM. This architecture severely limits bandwidth, as it is "System Dependent" and cannot provide the dedicated high-speed memory required for modern game textures. The pixel rate of 48.00 GPixel/s and texture rate of 96.00 GTexel/s are low by modern standards, and the FP32 performance of 6.144 TFLOPS is insufficient for demanding titles like Control. The 25 W TDP and "IGP" slot width confirm that this is a low-power, integrated-class solution, despite being branded as a discrete part.

The data shows that the GPU is the sole reason for the low frame rates. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 59 FPS, but this is likely the absolute ceiling for this GPU in this game. As the resolution increases, the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth become the limiting factors, causing the dramatic FPS drops observed. The GPU's performance is so poor that it ranks near the bottom of the database, and its nearest rivals are all legacy AMD parts, which indicates that it offers no modern gaming advantage. The CPU is not the issue; the GPU simply lacks the raw power and dedicated memory to run Control at acceptable levels.

FAQ

Q: What is the best performance this combo can achieve in Control?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 59 FPS, achieved only at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset. All other settings and resolutions produce lower averages, with Medium at 42 FPS, High at 37 FPS, and Ultra at 32 FPS at the same resolution.

Q: Is this combo playable at 2560x1440?

A: No. The data shows that at 1440p, the average frame rates range from 45 FPS on Low to 25 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset averages 32 FPS with a minimum of 27 FPS, which indicates that gameplay will likely suffer from stuttering and feel unresponsive.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B370 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: In the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test, the Arc B370 scores 1184 points. This is within 1% of the ATI Radeon HD 5770 (1190 points) and the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5570 (1186 points), and it is 1.4% ahead of the AMD FirePro M2000 (1168 points).

Q: What is the CPU's performance percentile, and what does it mean?

A: The Intel Core i5-14400F is in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 83% of processors in the database. This indicates a strong CPU, but its performance is negated by the GPU's 5th percentile ranking.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all settings, which is a hallmark of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's high single-core score (3055 in Cinebench R23) and multi-core score (21645) are sufficient to feed the GPU, but the GPU cannot render frames fast enough.

Q: What is the expected performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 30 FPS, while Ultra averages 17 FPS. This is a difference of just 13 FPS, illustrating that the GPU is so saturated at 4K that even reducing visual quality yields minimal performance gains.