Most screen content (SC) video applications are real time, and a low-delay transmission is needed. An effective low-delay transmission requires a precise video rate controller to fit the video bit rate to the capacity of the transmission channel. The rate controller has to support the unique standard coding tools of SC video. We propose a unique intra rate controller based on a unique content-based rate-distortion model for low delay applications of high efficiency video coding SC coding. The proposed model supports the unique SC coding tools and different modes and sizes of coding tree units. The proportional–integral–derivative control concept is used for frame-level bit allocation and rate control. The rate controller utilizes a small size virtual buffer to provide low-delay buffering constraints for the bit stream. Experimental results show that the proposed rate controller can control the bit rate of test sequences with a low buffering delay (about 20 ms) while the rate-distortion performance is maintained.