Control

# Control with Intel Core i7-13700K + Intel Arc B570

The Intel Core i7-13700K paired with the Intel Arc B570 produces a mid-table result in Control, ranking 2307th out of 2888 tested combos. This places the pairing in the lower half of all configurations tested for this title, with the CPU's 89th percentile standing among all processors contrasting sharply with the GPU's 65th percentile ranking. The measured frame rates across resolutions and settings reveal a system that is fundamentally GPU-limited at higher quality presets, while the CPU's 16 cores and 24 threads provide ample headroom that never becomes the primary constraint in this action-adventure title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K demonstrates a steep performance curve that clearly identifies the GPU as the limiting component. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 63 at 1920x1080 to 48 at 2560x1440, a 23.8% reduction, and then further to 32 at 3840x2160, representing a 33.3% drop from 1440p and a 49.2% decline from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU-bound scenario where pixel throughput becomes the dominant factor.

The Low settings row shows an even more pronounced resolution sensitivity. At 1080p Low, the system delivers 101 FPS, which falls to 76 at 1440p (a 24.8% decrease) and 51 at 4K (a 32.9% drop from 1440p and 49.5% from 1080p). The fact that even at Low settings the frame rate nearly halves when moving from 1080p to 4K indicates that the Arc B570's 10 GB of GDDR6 memory and 160-bit bus are being heavily taxed by the higher pixel counts, regardless of the reduced graphical complexity.

Medium settings present the only rows with complete min/max FPS data, offering insight into frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the average is 71 FPS with a minimum of 61 and maximum of 82, producing a 10 FPS spread between average and minimum. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 54 with a 46 FPS minimum and 62 maximum, widening the spread to 8 FPS below average. The 4K Medium result shows 36 FPS average with 31 minimum and 42 maximum, maintaining a consistent 5 FPS gap below average across resolutions.

The Ultra preset tells a similar story with averages of 55 FPS at 1080p, 42 at 1440p, and 28 at 4K. The 4K Ultra result of 28 FPS falls below the generally accepted 30 FPS playability threshold, while 1440p Ultra at 42 FPS and 1080p Ultra at 55 FPS remain viable. The consistent pattern across all four settings levels—where 4K performance sits at roughly half of 1080p performance—confirms that resolution scaling is the dominant factor in this configuration.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured data, 1920x1080 provides the most consistent playable experience across all settings, with averages ranging from 55 FPS at Ultra to 101 FPS at Low. At 2560x1440, only Low settings exceed 60 FPS (76 FPS), while High and Medium stay above 48 FPS. The 3840x2160 resolution only reaches 51 FPS at Low settings and drops to 28 FPS at Ultra.

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

A: The Arc B570's average benchmark score of 20556 places it within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile (20534) and 0.1% below the Intel Arc A750 (20582). It sits 0.4% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M (20480) and 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon R9 M390X (20662).

Q: Is the Intel Core i7-13700K a bottleneck in this game?

A: The data suggests no. The CPU's 16 cores and 24 threads, combined with a 5.40 GHz boost clock, produce strong synthetic scores (30745 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 2116 single-core). The measured FPS scaling across resolutions follows a GPU-bound pattern, with performance declining as pixel count rises, indicating the Arc B570 is the limiting factor.

Q: What settings preset provides the best balance of quality and performance?

A: At 1080p, High settings deliver 63 FPS average, offering a substantial quality improvement over Low's 101 FPS while remaining above 60 FPS. At 1440p, Medium settings at 54 FPS provide a reasonable compromise, though High at 48 FPS is close. The Ultra preset only exceeds 30 FPS at 1080p (55 FPS) and drops to 28 FPS at 4K.

Q: How much VRAM does the Arc B570 have and does it matter for Control?

A: The Arc B570 has 10 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 160-bit bus with 380.0 GB/s bandwidth. The significant frame rate drops from 1080p to 4K suggest that memory bandwidth and capacity become constraints at higher resolutions, particularly when combined with Ultra settings that increase texture and geometry demands.

Q: Where does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2307th out of 2888 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the 79.9th percentile of tested combos from the bottom. This ranking reflects the GPU's mid-tier position (65th percentile among all GPUs) rather than the CPU's stronger standing (89th percentile among all CPUs).

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B570's specifications directly shape its performance in Control. The GPU features 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units, with base and boost clocks both locked at 2500 MHz. The 10 GB GDDR6 memory operates at 2375 MHz with a 19 Gbps effective rate, delivering 380.0 GB/s bandwidth through a 160-bit interface. These specifications produce a pixel rate of 200.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 360.0 GTexel/s, with FP32 compute rated at 11.52 TFLOPS.

The 5 nm process node from TSMC packs 19,600 million transistors into a 272 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 72.1M per mm². The Xe2-HPG architecture with 18 ray tracing cores supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6, making it fully compatible with Control's rendering requirements. The GPU's 150 W TDP and 450 W suggested PSU rating indicate a power envelope that is moderate for the performance delivered.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Arc B570 scores 14195 in Passmark G3D, 83514 in Geekbench OpenCL, and 96844 in Geekbench Vulkan. The DirectX 11 score of 118 and DirectX 12 score of 72 suggest that the GPU handles both API paths adequately, which is relevant for Control's DX11 and DX12 rendering modes. The Passmark GPU compute score of 7281 reflects the GPU's parallel processing capabilities.

The measured FPS data shows the GPU's practical limits. At 1080p Low, the 101 FPS result demonstrates the GPU can push high frame rates when pixel load is modest. However, the drop to 51 FPS at 4K Low reveals that the 160-bit memory bus and 380.0 GB/s bandwidth become significant constraints at 8.3 million pixels. The Ultra preset at 4K (28 FPS) shows the GPU struggling with the combined demands of high resolution and maximum graphical features.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 2307 out of 2888 tested configurations places it in the bottom 20% of all tested combos for Control. This position is somewhat surprising given the CPU's strong benchmark standing, but it accurately reflects the GPU's mid-tier positioning. The Arc B570's 65th percentile among all GPUs means that roughly one-third of tested graphics cards outperform it, and in a game like Control that scales heavily with GPU throughput, this translates directly to frame rate outcomes.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks highlight the processor's competitive position. The AMD Ryzen 9 5900 scores 46971 (0.2% ahead), the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 scores 47022 (0.3% ahead), the AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX scores 46654 (0.5% behind), and the Intel Xeon w3-2535 scores 46653 (0.5% behind). The i7-13700K's average benchmark score of 46881 places it essentially in a statistical tie with these rivals, all within 0.5% of each other.

The GPU's rival comparisons show a similar clustering. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Mobile scores 20534 (0.1% behind), the Intel Arc A750 scores 20582 (0.1% ahead), the NVIDIA Quadro M4000M scores 20480 (0.4% behind), and the AMD Radeon R9 M390X scores 20662 (0.5% ahead). The Arc B570's 20556 average places it squarely in this pack, with no rival more than 0.5% away.

The combination of a top-10th-percentile CPU with a mid-tier GPU results in a system that is clearly GPU-bound in Control. The rank of 2307/2888 suggests that many other combos with weaker CPUs but stronger GPUs achieve better frame rates in this title, emphasizing that Control's performance is driven primarily by graphics processing rather than CPU computational power.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimal settings based on target resolutions. At 1920x1080, the High preset at 63 FPS offers the best experience, maintaining a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while providing substantial visual quality over Low's 101 FPS. The Medium preset at 71 FPS offers a higher frame rate but with reduced visual fidelity, while Ultra at 55 FPS sacrifices 8 FPS for marginal quality gains.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset at 54 FPS provides the most balanced experience. High at 48 FPS is also viable, but Medium's 54 FPS average with a 46 FPS minimum keeps frame times more consistent. Low at 76 FPS is available for players prioritizing frame rate over visuals, while Ultra at 42 FPS is playable but begins to show the GPU's limitations.

At 3840x2160, only Low settings at 51 FPS achieve playable frame rates. Medium drops to 36 FPS, High to 32 FPS, and Ultra to 28 FPS, all of which fall below the 30 FPS threshold that most players consider minimum acceptable performance. For 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only recommended option, and even then, the 51 FPS average comes with the visual compromises inherent to Low settings.

The complete FPS data for Medium settings across resolutions—with min/max values recorded—shows the stability of this preset. At 1080p Medium, the 61 FPS minimum ensures no drops below 60 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the 46 FPS minimum means occasional dips below 48 FPS but no prolonged stuttering. At 4K Medium, the 31 FPS minimum stays just above the 30 FPS playability line.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full measured FPS dataset provides a comprehensive view of this combo's performance in Control.

At 1920x1080:

• Low settings: 101 FPS average
• Medium settings: 71 FPS average, 61 FPS minimum, 82 FPS maximum
• High settings: 63 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 55 FPS average

At 2560x1440:

• Low settings: 76 FPS average
• Medium settings: 54 FPS average, 46 FPS minimum, 62 FPS maximum
• High settings: 48 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 42 FPS average

At 3840x2160:

• Low settings: 51 FPS average
• Medium settings: 36 FPS average, 31 FPS minimum, 42 FPS maximum
• High settings: 32 FPS average
• Ultra settings: 28 FPS average

The progression shows a consistent pattern across all settings levels. Moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces frame rates by approximately 24-27% regardless of settings. Moving from 1440p to 4K reduces frame rates by approximately 33-36%. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is approximately 49-50%, meaning 4K performance is roughly half of 1080p performance across all four settings presets.

The Medium settings rows provide the only complete frame time data. The spread between average and minimum FPS is 10 FPS at 1080p, 8 FPS at 1440p, and 5 FPS at 4K. This narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that frame pacing becomes more consistent when the GPU is more heavily loaded, potentially due to more uniform rendering workloads.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i7-13700K provides substantial computational resources that are largely underutilized in Control. With 16 cores and 24 threads, the Raptor Lake-S architecture processor operates at a 3.40 GHz base clock and 5.40 GHz boost clock. The 30 MB shared L3 cache and 2 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample on-die storage for game data, while the 80 KB per-core L1 cache handles immediate data access needs.

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU's capabilities. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 30745 and single-core score of 2116 demonstrate strong performance in both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads. Geekbench scores of 19429 multi-core and 2529 single-core corroborate this assessment. The Passmark multithread score of 45887 and single thread score of 4333 further confirm the processor's balanced capabilities.

The CPU's 3DMark results show scaling from 1136 single-thread to 10717 at 16 threads and 12412 at max threads. This scaling pattern indicates good thread utilization as more cores are engaged, which is relevant for Control's physics and AI systems that can use multiple threads. The 2-thread score of 2262 and 4-thread score of 4469 show reasonable scaling in lightly threaded scenarios.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 89th among all processors places it in the top 11% of CPUs tested on the benchmark database. Its average benchmark score of 46881 puts it in a statistical tie with its nearest rivals, all within 0.5%. The processor's 125 W TDP and unlocked multiplier make it a flexible platform component, though these features do not directly impact Control's frame rates.

In the context of this game, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and handle game logic without becoming a bottleneck. The measured FPS data shows that frame rates drop consistently with resolution increases, which would not occur if the CPU were the limiting factor. The fact that Low settings at 4K (51 FPS) still trails Low settings at 1080p (101 FPS) by 49.5% indicates that the GPU's pixel processing capability, not CPU throughput, determines performance in this configuration.