Control

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 83 FPS. This leaves a comfortable margin above the playable threshold, so the full visual experience is available at 4K.

At 2560x1440, Ultra also remains the ceiling, averaging 124 FPS. The gap between Ultra and the next step down is significant, but Ultra itself is far beyond the 60 FPS floor, making it the clear choice.

At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 160 FPS. Every preset at this resolution clears 60 FPS with substantial headroom, so the only question is whether the user prefers maximum fidelity or maximum frame rate. The data shows Ultra is not a compromise at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: Can this combination run Control at 4K with ray tracing or other Ultra features enabled?

A: Yes. The recorded data shows Ultra settings at 3840x2160 average 83 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS playable threshold. All four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are listed as playable at this resolution.

Q: What is the biggest performance difference between presets at 1440p?

A: The jump from High to Ultra costs 18 FPS (from 142 to 124), while the jump from Medium to High costs 18 FPS as well (from 160 to 142). The largest single step is from Low to Medium, which drops from 181 to 160 FPS, a 21 FPS reduction.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17177. The AMD EPYC 7H12 scores 17120, which is 0.3% lower. The Intel Core Ultra 7 164U scores 17074, 0.6% lower. The Intel Core i5-12450H scores 17239, 0.4% higher, and the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G scores 17278, 0.6% higher. These deltas are all within a narrow band, meaning the CPU sits in a tightly contested performance cluster.

Q: Is the GPU the limiting factor at any resolution?

A: The data suggests the RTX 5090 D is far ahead of what this game demands at all tested resolutions. At 1080p Low, the average is 199 FPS, and even at 4K Ultra it stays at 83 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Ultra (160 down to 83 FPS) shows a 48% reduction, which points to GPU load increasing as expected, but no preset at any resolution falls below 60 FPS.

Q: What does the combo rank tell us about this pairing?

A: Out of 3720 tested combinations, this CPU and GPU pairing ranks 153rd. That places it in the top 5% of all recorded combos, indicating the pairing is far above the median performer.

Q: Are the benchmark results measured or estimated?

A: The database flags this entry as "dataIsMeasured: true", meaning the FPS values come from direct testing rather than projections or extrapolations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the recorded data shows the following averages: Low preset runs at 152 FPS, Medium at 108 FPS (with a min of 92 and max of 124), High at 96 FPS, and Ultra at 83 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one at this resolution with min/max values recorded, giving a range of 32 FPS between the slowest and fastest frames.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 181 FPS, Medium averages 160 FPS (min 136, max 184), High averages 142 FPS, and Ultra averages 124 FPS. The Medium range spans 48 FPS, which is wider than at 4K, suggesting more frame-time variation at the lower resolution.

At 1920x1080, Low averages 199 FPS, Medium averages 175 FPS (min 149, max 202), High averages 168 FPS, and Ultra averages 160 FPS. The Medium preset shows a 53 FPS spread between min and max, the largest recorded range across all resolutions.

The pattern across all three resolutions is consistent: stepping down from Ultra to High costs between 8 and 12 FPS, while stepping from High to Medium costs between 12 and 17 FPS. The largest jumps occur when moving from Medium to Low, which gains between 24 and 44 FPS depending on resolution.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU's nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, include the AMD EPYC 7H12, which is 0.3% slower, and the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U, which is 0.6% slower. On the faster side, the Intel Core i5-12450H is 0.4% quicker, and the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G is 0.6% quicker. These four alternatives bracket the i5-11400F within a 1.2% total performance spread, so a system using any of them would deliver effectively identical frame rates in Control.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT, which is 1.1% slower, and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, which is 1.6% faster. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB is 2.1% faster, and the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB is 2.4% faster. Again, these deltas are small enough that in-game performance would be nearly indistinguishable, though the RTX 5090 D's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory is a differentiator that these rivals do not match.

A user considering this combo could expect that swapping the CPU for any of the four listed alternatives would change Control's frame rate by less than 1%. Swapping the GPU for the closest rival would shift results by roughly 1 to 2.4%. The practical takeaway is that this pairing sits in a dense performance neighborhood where component choices within the rival set yield similar outcomes.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals how the workload shifts between the i5-11400F and the RTX 5090 D as resolution changes. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are very high across all presets, ranging from 160 FPS at Ultra to 199 FPS at Low. The relatively small spread between presets (39 FPS) suggests the CPU is keeping up without creating a bottleneck, but the GPU has enough headroom that even the heaviest settings still produce triple-digit averages.

Moving to 2560x1440, the spread between Low and Ultra widens to 57 FPS (181 down to 124). The absolute numbers drop by roughly 10 to 20% compared to 1080p at each preset. This indicates the GPU is starting to take on more work, but the CPU remains capable of feeding it adequately.

At 3840x2160, the spread between Low and Ultra grows further to 69 FPS (152 down to 83). The biggest relative drop is at Ultra, which falls from 124 FPS at 1440p to 83 FPS at 4K, a 33% reduction. Low settings drop from 181 to 152 FPS, only a 16% reduction. This asymmetric scaling is a clear sign that the GPU becomes the dominant factor at higher resolutions, especially when pixel-heavy settings like Ultra are enabled.

The CPU's role is more visible at 1080p, where even Low settings cap out at 199 FPS. That ceiling is likely influenced by the i5-11400F's single-thread and multi-thread capabilities rather than the GPU, which could theoretically push higher. At 4K, the GPU's rendering load overshadows the CPU's contribution entirely, as evidenced by the larger per-preset gaps.

The recorded min/max values at Medium settings reinforce this interpretation. At 1080p, the range is 149 to 202 FPS, a 53 FPS swing. At 1440p, it narrows to 136 to 184 FPS. At 4K, it narrows further to 92 to 124 FPS. The shrinking variance at higher resolutions suggests the GPU's consistent frame pacing dominates, while at lower resolutions, CPU-driven spikes and dips create more variability.

The Verdict

The recorded verdict is unambiguous: this combo can run Control at every resolution and preset combination tested. At 3840x2160, all four settings (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are marked as playable, with Ultra averaging 83 FPS. At 2560x1440, Ultra averages 124 FPS, and at 1920x1080, Ultra averages 160 FPS.

The 60 FPS threshold is cleared by a wide margin in every scenario. Even the most demanding case, 4K Ultra, sits 23 FPS above the playable line. The weakest recorded average is 83 FPS, which is still a comfortable experience for a game like Control that benefits from high frame rates but does not demand competitive-level response times.

The only caveat in the data is the absence of min/max values for most presets. Only Medium settings at each resolution include those figures, so frame-time consistency for Low, High, and Ultra is not fully documented. However, the averages alone are strong enough to recommend this pairing for any play style, from casual exploration to combat-heavy sequences.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 153rd out of 3720 tested combos in Control. That places it in the 96th percentile of all recorded pairings, meaning only about 4% of tested systems achieve higher in-game performance.

This ranking is notable because the CPU itself only sits in the 71st percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU sits in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs. The combo's 96th percentile rank is higher than either component's individual percentile, which indicates that Control's engine responds well to the GPU's strengths and does not heavily penalize the CPU's mid-range standing.

The rank also implies that many systems with ostensibly more powerful CPUs (based on synthetic averages) still fall behind this pairing in actual gameplay. This is consistent with the FPS data showing that the RTX 5090 D carries most of the load at higher resolutions, where the CPU's influence diminishes. For users who prioritize high-resolution gaming, this lopsided pairing is surprisingly effective.

The 3720-combo pool includes a wide range of hardware, from entry-level to enthusiast. Sitting at 153rd means this combination outperforms the vast majority of what the database has measured, and it does so while using a CPU that is far from the top of the synthetic charts. The lesson is that Control rewards GPU investment more than CPU investment, and this pairing capitalizes on that dynamic.