Control

# Control with Intel Core i5-14600KF + Intel Arc B570

The Intel Core i5-14600KF paired with the Intel Arc B570 delivers a playable but demanding experience in Control, a 2019 Action Adventure title. Measured data across three resolutions and four quality presets shows a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher settings, with the Arc B570's 10 GB VRAM and 160-bit memory bus proving to be the primary constraints. The combination ranks 2307th out of 2888 tested combos, placing it in the lower-mid tier of all configurations benchmarked for this game, though it maintains 60+ FPS at 1080p on Low and Medium settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this system in Control?

A: The data shows 1920x1080 with Medium settings delivers 71 FPS average with a minimum of 61 FPS and maximum of 82 FPS. This is the only preset at 1080p that stays comfortably above 60 FPS while offering better visual quality than Low, which hits 101 FPS but strips away most graphical features.

Q: Can this system run Control at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the best result is 51 FPS on Low settings. Moving to Medium drops the average to 36 FPS, High to 32 FPS, and Ultra to 28 FPS. None of the 4K presets reach a consistent 60 FPS, so 4K gaming requires accepting sub-60 performance or lowering resolution.

Q: How does the Arc B570 compare to its closest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 places it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile, 0.1% behind the Intel Arc A750, 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M, and 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon R9 M390X. These are near-identical scores, indicating the B570 sits in a tightly contested performance band.

Q: What is the CPU's standing among all processors in the database?

A: The Intel Core i5-14600KF has a percentile rank of 90 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49394. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, scores 49228, a 0.3% difference, while the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 trails by 0.8% with a score of 48995.

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

A: Benchmark results indicate the opposite. The 1080p Low preset (101 FPS) versus 4K Low (51 FPS) shows a 50% performance drop with resolution increase, and the 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra drop is from 55 to 28 FPS (49% reduction). This scaling pattern points to the GPU as the limiting component, not the 14-core, 20-thread CPU.

Q: What is the expected frame time consistency at 1440p Medium?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the system produces a 54 FPS average with a minimum of 46 FPS and maximum of 62 FPS. The 8 FPS gap between minimum and average suggests moderate frame pacing, with the 46 FPS minimum representing the worst-case dips during demanding scenes.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data across all 12 combinations of resolution and settings reveals a clear hierarchy for this Intel Core i5-14600KF + Intel Arc B570 configuration. The sweet spot is 1920x1080 with Medium settings, which achieves a 71 FPS average, a 61 FPS minimum, and an 82 FPS maximum. This is the only configuration that delivers a minimum frame rate above 60 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay throughout. The 1080p Low preset hits 101 FPS, but the jump from Low to Medium only costs 30 FPS while providing substantially better visual fidelity—a worthwhile trade for most players.

For users prioritizing frame rate above all else, 1080p Low at 101 FPS is the clear choice, though this introduces noticeable visual compromises. The 1440p Medium preset offers 54 FPS average with a 46 FPS minimum, which is playable but requires accepting occasional dips below 50 FPS. At 1440p High, the average falls to 48 FPS, and Ultra drops to 42 FPS—both are borderline for action-oriented gameplay but could work for slower exploration sequences.

The 4K options are all below 60 FPS, with Low at 51 FPS being the only preset that stays above 30 FPS consistently. Given that Medium at 4K yields 36 FPS, there is no ideal 4K experience; the GPU's bandwidth and memory constraints prevent smooth performance at this resolution. The recommended path is 1080p Medium for the best balance, followed by 1440p Low (76 FPS) for a sharper image while maintaining high frame rates, or 1440p Medium for those who prefer visual quality over raw speed. The Ultra preset, at 55 FPS at 1080p, offers diminishing returns over Medium—a 16 FPS cost for what is typically a marginal visual improvement in Control.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data from 1080p to 1440p to 4K reveals a consistent pattern of performance degradation that strongly indicates GPU limitation. At Medium settings, the system delivers 71 FPS at 1080p, 54 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K. This represents a 24% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 33% further drop from 1440p to 4K, for a total 49% reduction from the baseline 1080p figure. The same scaling appears at High settings: 63 FPS at 1080p, 48 FPS at 1440p, and 32 FPS at 4K—a 49% total decline. Low settings show 101 FPS at 1080p, 76 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K, again a 50% reduction.

This near-uniform ~50% performance loss when moving from 1080p to 4K across all four presets is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the percentage drop would be smaller at higher resolutions because the CPU workload does not scale with pixel count. The Intel Core i5-14600KF, with its 14 cores and 20 threads, has ample headroom to feed the GPU at all resolutions; the Arc B570's 10 GB GDDR6 memory and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth become the bottleneck as pixel throughput demands increase.

The scaling also shows that the Arc B570's 160-bit memory bus is a limiting factor. At 1080p, the GPU can maintain respectable frame rates, but as resolution increases, the memory bandwidth requirement grows faster than the GPU's ability to deliver it. The 4K results—51 FPS Low, 36 FPS Medium, 32 FPS High, 28 FPS Ultra—illustrate a hard ceiling around 50 FPS even with minimal graphical settings, suggesting that raw pixel fill rate rather than shading complexity is the primary constraint.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Intel Core i5-14600KF + Intel Arc B570 produces its best results. Low settings achieve 101 FPS average, the highest of any configuration tested. Medium settings deliver 71 FPS with a minimum of 61 and maximum of 82, providing a consistent experience above the 60 FPS threshold. High settings reach 63 FPS, still playable but with less headroom for demanding scenes. Ultra settings fall to 55 FPS, which is below the ideal 60 FPS target but remains within a range that most users would find acceptable for a single-player Action Adventure title. The progression from Low to Ultra at 1080p—101, 71, 63, 55 FPS—shows diminishing returns as settings increase, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance profile shifts downward. Low settings still manage 76 FPS, providing a smooth experience for competitive or fast-paced play. Medium settings produce 54 FPS average, 46 FPS minimum, and 62 FPS maximum; the 46 FPS floor is noticeable during combat sequences but generally acceptable. High settings drop to 48 FPS, and Ultra to 42 FPS. The 1440p results show a compressed range from 42 to 76 FPS, compared to 55 to 101 FPS at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is nearing its effective limit at this resolution regardless of settings.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates. Low settings yield 51 FPS, which is the only 4K preset above 50 FPS. Medium settings deliver 36 FPS with a minimum of 31 and maximum of 42—the minimum dips below 30 FPS during intense scenes. High settings average 32 FPS, and Ultra falls to 28 FPS. None of the 4K presets provide a consistently smooth experience; even Low settings will experience frame drops below 40 FPS in busy areas. The 4K data suggests that this combination is not suitable for 4K gaming in Control without significant compromises in both resolution and visual quality.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570, built on the Xe2-HPG architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, is the primary determinant of this system's gaming performance in Control. Its 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus provides 380.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for 1080p gameplay but becomes strained at higher resolutions. The GPU's 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units deliver a peak FP32 throughput of 11.52 TFLOPS, and the 18 ray tracing cores enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing effects where Control implements them.

The B570's clock behavior is notable: base and boost both sit at 2500 MHz, indicating a fixed clock profile rather than dynamic boosting. This contributes to consistent performance but also means the GPU cannot exceed its specified thermal envelope to compensate for demanding scenes. The 150 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU requirement are modest, but the dual-slot cooler and 272 mm length need adequate case clearance. The PCIe 4.0 x8 interface provides sufficient bandwidth for this GPU class, though it may slightly limit performance in bandwidth-heavy scenarios.

Synthetic benchmarks place the B570 in a specific performance tier. Its Passmark G3D score of 14195 and Geekbench Vulkan score of 96844 indicate strong compute capabilities, while the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2649 shows moderate gaming performance. The GPU's 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs means it outperforms roughly two-thirds of the database, but its nearest rivals—the RTX 3070 Mobile (0.1% higher), Arc A750 (0.1% lower), and R9 M390X (0.5% higher)—show that it competes with last-generation midrange parts rather than current high-end offerings. In Control, this translates to the observed 1080p Medium sweet spot and the rapid performance degradation at higher resolutions.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-14600KF provides substantial computational headroom that the game's engine does not fully utilize. With 14 cores, 20 threads, and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, this Raptor Lake Refresh processor offers 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 2 MB L2 cache per core. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32544 and single-core score of 4594 demonstrate strong both threaded and single-threaded performance, while the Passmark multi-thread score of 38697 and single-thread score of 4273 corroborate this. The CPU's 90th percentile ranking among all processors places it well above average, and its average benchmark score of 49394 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49228, 0.3% higher) and the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388 (49796, 0.8% lower).

In Control, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. The processor's 125 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4/DDR5 memory support provide ample bandwidth for feeding the GPU, and its 10 nm process node with 257 mm² die size delivers efficient performance. The 3.50 GHz base clock ensures sustained performance under load, and the unlocked multiplier offers overclocking potential for users seeking additional headroom.

The benchmark results indicate that the i5-14600KF is not the bottleneck in this configuration. Even at 1080p Low, where the GPU is least stressed, the system reaches 101 FPS—a frame rate that would be impossible if the CPU were limiting. The consistent ~50% FPS drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings confirms that the GPU is the constraint, and the CPU has significant performance in reserve. This is typical for a pairing where a high-end CPU is matched with a midrange GPU; the i5-14600KF could comfortably support a more powerful graphics card in future upgrades, but in this specific combination, the Arc B570 defines the gaming experience.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-14600KF + Intel Arc B570 combination ranks 2307th out of 2888 tested combos for Control, placing it in the 80th percentile of all configurations—meaning roughly 80% of tested systems perform worse, but 581 combinations deliver better results. This ranking reflects the GPU's midrange positioning rather than the CPU's high-end status; the i5-14600KF's 90th percentile CPU ranking is dragged down by the B570's 65th percentile GPU ranking.

In practical terms, this combo sits below configurations pairing the same CPU with higher-tier GPUs, but it outperforms systems with weaker processors and similar graphics cards. The measured FPS data shows that this combo excels at 1080p, where it competes with systems using more expensive GPUs, but falls behind at 4K, where higher-bandwidth graphics cards maintain their advantage. The rank of 2307 out of 2888 indicates that while this is not a top-tier gaming configuration, it is far from the bottom of the performance ladder.

The gap between the CPU's and GPU's percentile rankings is the defining characteristic of this combo. Users who purchased this system for 1080p gaming will find it well-suited to Control, as the 71 FPS Medium experience is solid. Those expecting 1440p or 4K performance will be disappointed, as the GPU cannot maintain high frame rates at those resolutions. The combo's ranking suggests that it is best viewed as a 1080p gaming solution with occasional 1440p capability at reduced settings, and it should not be considered for 4K gaming in Control. The data is measured, not estimated, providing confidence in these conclusions.