Control

Control is a demanding Action Adventure title, and the measured data for the Intel Core i7-12700K paired with the Intel Arc B580 reveals a configuration that excels at 1080p but struggles to maintain playable frame rates at higher resolutions. The benchmark results show a clear hierarchy across the four tested presets, with the GPU consistently acting as the primary bottleneck as resolution increases. The data suggests that this combo is best suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p gaming, where it delivers a strong experience, while 1440p requires compromises, and 4K pushes the hardware beyond its comfortable limits.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data indicates that the "High" preset offers the most balanced experience for this combination. At 1920x1080, the High preset achieves an average of 74 FPS, which is a substantial 24.6% increase over the Ultra preset's 59.4 FPS, while only sacrificing a modest amount of visual fidelity compared to the top tier. The jump from High to Medium at 1080p provides an additional 7.5 FPS (81.5 FPS), but the visual difference between these presets is often less impactful than the performance gain, making High the sweet spot for most users.

At 2560x1440, the High preset drops to 52.3 FPS, which is still within a playable range for slower-paced games, but the Medium preset at 61.3 FPS provides a more comfortable margin. The data shows that the Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 46.7 FPS, which begins to feel less fluid. For 4K gaming, the situation is more challenging; the Low preset is the only option that approaches playability at 57.4 FPS, while High and Medium fall to 36 FPS and 40.2 FPS respectively, and Ultra bottoms out at 35.1 FPS. Therefore, for the best overall experience, the High preset at 1080p is recommended, with the option to drop to Medium at 1440p if a higher frame rate is prioritized.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B580's specifications and benchmark results are central to understanding its performance in Control. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 456.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is sufficient for the game's textures and assets at 1080p and 1440p, but the data suggests it becomes a limiting factor at 4K, where the demand for memory bandwidth and capacity increases significantly. The GPU's base and boost clocks are both set at 2670 MHz, which is a relatively high frequency, contributing to its raw compute performance of 13.67 TFLOPS.

The Arc B580's benchmark scores place it in the 66th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23021. Its nearest rival is the AMD Radeon 760M, which scores 22999, a negligible 0.1% difference. More importantly, it trails the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 by a 0.7% margin in average score, indicating that its raw compute capabilities are competitive with that mainstream card. However, the measured FPS in Control shows that the GPU's performance scales poorly with resolution, suggesting that while its compute power is adequate, the memory subsystem may not be able to keep up with the increased data throughput required at 4K. The drop from 111.7 FPS at 1080p Low to 57.4 FPS at 4K Low illustrates this constraint, representing a 48.6% reduction in performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its benchmark results show strong multi-threaded capabilities, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 29241 and a single-core score of 4128. This places the CPU in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 35684. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, scores 35802, which is 0.3% higher, indicating that the i7-12700K is slightly behind that chip in average performance.

In the context of Control, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to feed the GPU effectively, as evidenced by the significant frame rate differences between settings presets (111.7 FPS at Low vs. 59.4 FPS at Ultra). However, as the resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the frame rates across all presets converge, suggesting that the GPU becomes the limiting factor. For instance, at 4K, the difference between High and Ultra is only 0.9 FPS (36 FPS vs. 35.1 FPS), which strongly implies that the GPU is fully saturated and the CPU's performance is no longer the primary determinant of frame rate. The data indicates that the i7-12700K provides ample processing power to avoid bottlenecking the Arc B580 at 1080p and 1440p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i7-12700K and the Intel Arc B580 ranks 1293 out of 1636 tested combos for Control. This places it in the lower 21% of all configurations, which is a surprisingly low rank given the individual component scores. This discrepancy suggests that while each part is capable on its own, their combined performance in this specific game is not optimal, likely due to the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions where the combo is often tested.

The low combo rank is primarily driven by the GPU's performance. While the CPU is in the 89th percentile, the GPU is only in the 66th percentile. The GPU's mediocre performance scaling at 4K drags down the overall ranking, as many other combos with more powerful GPUs will achieve much higher frame rates at that resolution. The data implies that this pairing is a mid-range option that is competitive at 1080p but falls behind when pushed to 4K, where the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are insufficient to maintain high frame rates. The rank of 1293 out of 1636 indicates that a significant majority of tested combos outperform this one, likely due to the inclusion of higher-tier GPUs in those configurations.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combo in Control?

A: The measured data shows that 1920x1080 is the optimal resolution. At this resolution, the combo achieves an average of 74 FPS on High settings and 111.7 FPS on Low settings, providing a smooth and responsive experience. At 2560x1440, performance drops to a playable but less comfortable range, while 3840x2160 results in sub-60 FPS averages across all settings.

Q: How does the Intel Arc B580 compare to its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon 760M?

A: The average benchmark scores are nearly identical, with the Arc B580 scoring 23021 and the Radeon 760M scoring 22999. This represents a negligible 0.1% difference, indicating that in synthetic benchmarks, they perform at a similar level.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck for this GPU in Control?

A: The data suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rates vary significantly between presets (111.7 FPS at Low vs. 59.4 FPS at Ultra), which indicates the GPU is the limiting factor. However, at 4K, the frame rates across all presets are very close, further confirming that the GPU is the primary constraint.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between the High and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves an average of 52.3 FPS, while the Ultra preset achieves 46.7 FPS. This is a difference of 5.6 FPS, or approximately a 10.7% reduction in performance when moving from High to Ultra.

Q: What is the performance cost of enabling Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 59.4 FPS, while the High preset delivers 74 FPS. This represents a 14.6 FPS decrease, or about a 19.7% performance penalty for the highest visual settings.

Q: Does the combo achieve playable frame rates at 4K on any settings?

A: The only preset that approaches playability at 3840x2160 is Low, which achieves an average of 57.4 FPS. The High, Medium, and Ultra presets all fall below 41 FPS, with Ultra at 35.1 FPS, making them difficult to play smoothly.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table details the exact average frame rates measured for this configuration in Control.

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

| :--------- | :------- | ------: |

| 3840x2160 | High | 36.0 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 57.4 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 40.2 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 35.1 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 52.3 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 84.7 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 61.3 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 46.7 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 74.0 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 111.7 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 81.5 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 59.4 |

The data reveals a consistent pattern where lowering settings from Ultra to Low yields a substantial performance increase at every resolution. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 52.3 FPS, demonstrating the GPU's sensitivity to graphical load. At 1440p, the gap narrows to 38 FPS, and at 4K, it reduces to 22.3 FPS, illustrating the growing impact of resolution on the GPU's ability to maintain performance.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K provides clear evidence of the GPU being the bottleneck. At the Low preset, the average frame rate drops from 111.7 FPS at 1080p to 84.7 FPS at 1440p, a 24.2% decrease. Moving to 4K, the frame rate further drops to 57.4 FPS, representing a 48.6% decrease from the 1080p baseline. This significant drop-off indicates that the Arc B580's rendering capabilities are heavily taxed by the increase in pixel count.

The scaling becomes even more pronounced at higher settings. At the High preset, the frame rate falls from 74 FPS at 1080p to 52.3 FPS at 1440p (a 29.3% drop) and then to 36 FPS at 4K (a 51.4% drop from 1080p). The Ultra preset shows a similar trend, dropping from 59.4 FPS at 1080p to 35.1 FPS at 4K, a 40.9% reduction. The fact that the 4K frame rates for High, Medium, and Ultra are so tightly clustered (36, 40.2, and 35.1 FPS) suggests that the GPU is hitting a hard performance ceiling, likely due to memory bandwidth limitations of the 456.0 GB/s bus, rather than compute limitations. This analysis confirms that the limiting component at higher resolutions is the GPU, and the CPU's performance headroom is not utilized effectively beyond 1080p.