Control

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 delivers a playable experience in Control at 1080p and 1440p, but the data shows the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 4K, no settings preset reaches the 60 FPS threshold. The most demanding playable settings at 1080p is High, averaging 60.9 FPS, while at 1440p only Low settings clear the bar, averaging 76.2 FPS.

Best Settings per Resolution

For 1920x1080, the database records that the High preset produces an average of 60.9 FPS, which is the most demanding setting that stays at or above the 60 FPS playable threshold. Medium also qualifies at 66.6 FPS, and Low reaches 95.1 FPS. Ultra falls short at 55.6 FPS. Therefore, High is the best settings choice at 1080p because it delivers the highest visual quality while still clearing the 60 FPS mark.

At 2560x1440, the situation changes drastically. The only preset that maintains 60 FPS or higher is Low, which averages 76.2 FPS. Medium drops to 52.6 FPS, High falls to 44.7 FPS, and Ultra sits at 41.7 FPS. The verdict data confirms that Low is the best settings at this resolution, as it is the sole playable option.

For 3840x2160, no preset achieves 60 FPS. Low averages 47.9 FPS, Medium 37.4 FPS, High 32 FPS, and Ultra 26.2 FPS. The verdictByResolution field lists no playable settings for 4K, so there is no recommended configuration. Users targeting 4K would need to accept frame rates well below the playable threshold.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The database places the Core i5-12400 near several CPUs with comparable average benchmark scores. The AMD EPYC 7643 scores 18697, which is 0.1% lower than the i5-12400's 18683 average. The Intel Core i7-1355U scores 18730, 0.3% higher. The AMD Ryzen AI 5 330 scores 18811, 0.7% higher, and the Intel Core i3-14100F scores 18519, 0.9% lower. In practical terms, swapping to any of these processors would produce nearly identical CPU-bound behavior in Control, as the performance deltas are within one percent.

For the GPU, the GTX 1070's nearest rivals are similarly close. The AMD FirePro W5000 scores 9803, 0.2% higher than the GTX 1070's 9780 average. The NVIDIA Quadro M2000M scores 9832, 0.5% higher. On the lower side, the NVIDIA Tesla M10 scores 9724, 0.6% lower, and the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 scores 9716, 0.7% lower. These deltas are negligible, meaning a system with any of these GPUs would yield frame rates within a fraction of a percent of the GTX 1070's results in Control.

The recorded data indicates that the GTX 1070 ranks in the 47th percentile among all GPUs, while the i5-12400 ranks in the 72nd percentile among all CPUs. This percentile gap suggests the graphics card is the weaker link, which aligns with the FPS scaling observed across resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Control at 1080p with High settings?

A: Yes. The measured data shows an average of 60.9 FPS at 1920x1080 with the High preset, which is just above the 60 FPS playable threshold.

Q: What is the best playable setting at 1440p?

A: Low is the only setting that clears 60 FPS at 2560x1440, averaging 76.2 FPS. Medium, High, and Ultra all fall below the threshold, with averages of 52.6, 44.7, and 41.7 FPS respectively.

Q: Is 4K playable with this hardware?

A: No. At 3840x2160, the highest average FPS across all presets is 47.9 FPS on Low. Ultra averages only 26.2 FPS. The database lists no playable settings for 4K.

Q: How does the GTX 1070 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The GTX 1070 averages 9780 in benchmark scores. The AMD FirePro W5000 scores 9803 (0.2% higher), the NVIDIA Quadro M2000M scores 9832 (0.5% higher), the NVIDIA Tesla M10 scores 9724 (0.6% lower), and the NVIDIA Tesla C2070 scores 9716 (0.7% lower). Performance differences are within one percent.

Q: What does the combo's rank of 3074 out of 3720 indicate?

A: This combo ranks in the lower 17.4% of all tested combinations for Control. It outperforms roughly 646 other combos but is behind 3073 others, reflecting the GPU's mid-range position.

Q: Which component is more likely to bottleneck at 1080p Ultra?

A: The GPU. At 1080p Ultra, the average FPS is 55.6, just below the threshold, while the CPU ranks in the 72nd percentile. The GPU's 47th percentile ranking and the sharp FPS drops as settings increase point to the GTX 1070 as the limiting factor.

The Verdict

The i5-12400 plus GTX 1070 can run Control, but only under specific conditions. At 1920x1080, the High preset achieves 60.9 FPS, and Medium achieves 66.6 FPS, both clearing the 60 FPS threshold. Low runs at 95.1 FPS. Ultra is not playable at 55.6 FPS. At 2560x1440, only Low settings are playable, averaging 76.2 FPS. At 3840x2160, no preset reaches 60 FPS, with the best result being Low at 47.9 FPS.

The verdict data confirms that 1080p is the sweet spot, with three playable presets including the visually demanding High option. 1440p is viable only if the user accepts Low settings. 4K is not recommended, as all presets fall well short of the playable threshold. The system delivers playable performance in the majority of common gaming scenarios, but high-refresh-rate or high-resolution play is constrained by the graphics card.

CPU and GPU Roles

The data reveals distinct scaling patterns that clarify which component dominates at each resolution. From 1080p to 1440p, the High preset drops from 60.9 FPS to 44.7 FPS, a 26.6% reduction. From 1440p to 4K, High drops from 44.7 FPS to 32 FPS, a 28.4% reduction. This consistent degradation with resolution indicates GPU-bound behavior, as the CPU workload does not change significantly with resolution.

At 1080p, the gap between Low (95.1 FPS) and Ultra (55.6 FPS) is 39.5 FPS, or 41.5%. At 1440p, the gap between Low (76.2 FPS) and Ultra (41.7 FPS) is 34.5 FPS, or 45.3%. At 4K, the gap between Low (47.9 FPS) and Ultra (26.2 FPS) is 21.7 FPS, or 45.3%. The percentage difference between Low and Ultra remains relatively stable across resolutions, suggesting that the GPU's shading and memory bandwidth limits scale proportionally with pixel count.

The CPU's role is secondary. The i5-12400 ranks in the 72nd percentile among all CPUs, with a strong multi-core score of 18747 in Passmark. The GTX 1070 ranks in the 47th percentile among GPUs. In Control, a game that relies heavily on GPU rendering effects, the graphics card becomes the bottleneck as resolution and settings increase. At 1080p Low, the CPU is likely capable of feeding the GPU efficiently, as evidenced by the 95.1 FPS result. But at 4K Ultra, the GPU's 6.463 TFLOPS compute throughput and 256.3 GB/s memory bandwidth are insufficient to maintain high frame rates, regardless of CPU headroom.

Benchmark results indicate that the CPU can deliver single-thread scores of 3456 in Passmark and 2257 in Cinebench R23, which are more than adequate for this game's physics and AI systems. The limiting factor is the GPU's raw rendering capacity, particularly at higher resolutions where pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth become critical.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Core i5-12400 and GTX 1070 ranks 3074 out of 3720 tested combos for Control. This places it in the lower portion of the database, specifically in the 17.4th percentile of all tested systems. The rank reflects the GPU's mid-tier standing: while the CPU is above average, the GTX 1070's 47th percentile GPU rank drags the overall combo down.

The data shows that this combo sits ahead of roughly 646 other configurations, but behind 3073. The relatively low rank is consistent with the measured FPS results: the system is playable at 1080p and 1440p Low, but cannot handle 4K or high settings at 1440p. For a game like Control, which features demanding real-time effects, the GTX 1070's Pascal architecture, with its 1920 shading units and 64 ROPs, provides enough throughput for 1080p gaming but struggles as pixel count rises.

The combo's rank also reflects the balance of the pairing. A 6-core, 12-thread CPU with an 18 MB L3 cache and dual-channel memory support is not the bottleneck in most scenarios. The GPU, with its 8 GB GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, becomes saturated at 1440p High and above. Users seeking better performance would need to prioritize a GPU upgrade over a CPU upgrade, as the data shows the graphics card is the primary constraint in Control.