Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and AMD Radeon RX 580 pairing delivers a strictly 1080p experience in Control, with the data showing a steep performance cliff as resolution climbs. The measured frames per second (FPS) across all settings reveal a component combination where the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute limits become the dominant constraint, while the CPU’s six Zen 4 cores provide ample headroom. This analysis breaks down how the resolution scaling behaves, which settings offer the most playable experience, and what the underlying hardware metrics indicate about the bottleneck.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe, indicating that the RX 580 is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 61.1 at 1080p to 46.4 at 1440p, a reduction of 14.7 FPS, and then drops further to 35.1 at 4K, a 26.0 FPS decline from the 1080p baseline. This pattern shows a consistent scaling penalty as pixel count increases, with the 4K result being only 57.4% of the 1080p Low performance.

The High preset tells a similar story, with 41.1 FPS at 1080p dropping to 27.9 FPS at 1440p and then to 22.6 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1080p and 4K here is 18.5 FPS, which is proportionally significant but slightly less severe in absolute terms than the Low preset’s drop. This suggests that at higher settings, the GPU is already saturated at 1080p, so the additional resolution stress yields diminishing returns in FPS loss.

Ultra settings exhibit the most dramatic scaling failure. At 1080p, the average is 38.0 FPS, but at 1440p it falls to 24.3 FPS, and at 4K it collapses to 19.9 FPS. The gap between 1080p and 4K is 18.1 FPS, but the performance at 4K is barely above the threshold for playability, hovering near 20 FPS. This indicates that the RX 580’s 8 GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit bus are insufficient for the texture and shading demands of Ultra settings at high pixel counts.

The data suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this scaling. The Ryzen 5 8400F, with its 4.20 GHz base and 4.70 GHz boost clocks, shows strong synthetic scores (e.g., 20,851 in Cinebench R23 multicore), but the FPS drops align with GPU-bound behavior. The only scenario where the CPU might matter is at 1080p Low, where 61.1 FPS is achieved, but even then, the GPU’s 6.175 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is the likely ceiling. The resolution scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistently GPU-limited, with the RX 580’s 256.0 GB/s bandwidth unable to feed the framebuffer efficiently at higher pixel densities.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the only preset that delivers a consistently smooth experience is Low at 1080p, with an average of 61.1 FPS. This is the sole configuration that breaks the 60 FPS threshold, making it the recommended choice for gameplay that prioritizes frame rate over visual fidelity. The Medium preset at 1080p achieves 43.8 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action sequences in Control.

At 1440p, the Low preset is the only viable option, delivering 46.4 FPS. This is above the 30 FPS minimum for console-like playability but below the 60 FPS target for PC gaming. The Medium preset at 1440p falls to 35.8 FPS, which is borderline, and High at 27.9 FPS is not recommended. At 4K, all presets fail to reach 30 FPS, with Low being the highest at 35.1 FPS, which is technically playable but not smooth.

The best experience per the measured rows is a trade-off between resolution and settings. For 1080p users, Low provides the highest frame rate, but Medium at 43.8 FPS offers a better visual balance if the user can tolerate a 17.3 FPS penalty compared to Low. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 38.0 FPS, which is surprisingly close to Medium, suggesting that the extra visual features are not worth the performance cost. The data indicates that the RX 580’s 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for Low and Medium presets at 1080p but becomes strained at High and Ultra, where the 4K results (22.6 and 19.9 FPS, respectively) show diminishing returns.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows 1920x1080 is the only resolution where playable frame rates are consistently achieved. At 1080p, the Low preset reaches 61.1 FPS, while at 1440p the best result is 46.4 FPS on Low. At 4K, even Low only reaches 35.1 FPS, making 1080p the clear choice.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 8400F bottleneck the RX 580 in this game?

A: The benchmark results indicate a GPU-bound scenario. The FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are consistent across all settings, and the CPU’s high single-thread score (2,943 in Cinebench R23) suggests it has headroom. The limiting factor is the RX 580’s 6.175 TFLOPS compute and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 13,559, which is within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 (13,549) and 0.0% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13,564). It is 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 455 (13,416) and 1.1% behind the NVIDIA P106-090 (13,716).

Q: Is Ultra settings ever worth using with this hardware?

A: No. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 38.0 FPS, which is only 5.8 FPS lower than High but 5.8 FPS higher than Medium. However, at 1440p and 4K, Ultra drops to 24.3 and 19.9 FPS respectively, making it unplayable. The data suggests Ultra is only marginally better than High at 1080p and not worth the cost at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p?

A: The measured data shows a 23.1 FPS difference between Low (61.1 FPS) and Ultra (38.0 FPS) at 1080p. This indicates that the visual upgrade from Low to Ultra costs a 37.8% reduction in average frame rate.

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Control?*

A: Technically, it runs, but the results are not smooth. The best 4K result is 35.1 FPS on Low, while High and Ultra yield 22.6 and 19.9 FPS respectively. These numbers are below the 30 FPS threshold for consistent playability, so 4K is not recommended.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RX 580 shows a clear hierarchy across presets. Low settings deliver the highest average at 61.1 FPS. Medium follows at 43.8 FPS, which is a 17.3 FPS drop from Low. High reaches 41.1 FPS, only 2.7 FPS lower than Medium, indicating that the High preset adds visual features without a significant performance penalty compared to Medium. Ultra bottoms out at 38.0 FPS, which is 3.1 FPS lower than High, showing a diminishing return as settings scale up.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance drops are more pronounced. Low settings achieve 46.4 FPS, which is a 14.7 FPS reduction from the 1080p Low result. Medium falls to 35.8 FPS, a 8.0 FPS drop from 1080p Medium. High reaches 27.9 FPS, a 13.2 FPS drop from 1080p High. Ultra is the worst at 24.3 FPS, a 13.7 FPS drop from 1080p Ultra. The consistent ~14 FPS penalty from 1080p to 1440p across Low, High, and Ultra suggests a fixed resolution overhead, while Medium’s smaller penalty of 8.0 FPS indicates a different balance point.

At 3840x2160, the results are universally low. Low settings produce 35.1 FPS, which is the highest 4K result but still 11.3 FPS lower than the 1440p Low score. High settings yield 22.6 FPS, a 5.3 FPS drop from 1440p High. Medium reaches 21.7 FPS, which is 14.1 FPS lower than 1440p Medium. Ultra is the lowest at 19.9 FPS, a 4.4 FPS drop from 1440p Ultra. The 4K results show that the RX 580 cannot maintain playable frame rates, with even Low settings struggling to stay above 35 FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580’s 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a theoretical bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. In Control, this memory configuration is sufficient for 1080p Low and Medium presets, as evidenced by the 61.1 and 43.8 FPS results. However, at higher resolutions and settings, the bandwidth becomes a limiting factor. The 4K Ultra result of 19.9 FPS suggests that the GPU is unable to stream textures and shader data fast enough, despite having 8 GB of capacity.

The GPU’s clock speeds are modest, with a base of 1257 MHz and a boost of 1340 MHz. The memory runs at 2000 MHz with 8 Gbps effective data rate. These clocks contribute to a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s. The data shows that these figures are adequate for 1080p but insufficient for 1440p and 4K, where the FPS drops indicate a fill-rate bottleneck. The GPU’s FP32 performance of 6.175 TFLOPS is also consistent with the observed scaling, as higher resolutions require more compute per pixel.

The RX 580’s position in the benchmark database, with a 53rd percentile ranking among all GPUs, reflects its age and capability. Its average benchmark score of 13,559 places it near the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 and GTX 950, which are similarly dated parts. In Control, the GPU’s role is to provide a baseline experience at 1080p, with the data showing that it excels at Low settings but struggles to maintain frame rates as visual demands increase. The 8 GB VRAM is a positive factor, as it prevents texture swapping at 1080p, but the memory bandwidth and compute limits prevent it from being a high-resolution performer.