Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti combination delivers strong 4K performance in Control, with the data showing a 496th place ranking out of 3,720 tested combos. This places the pairing in the top 13.3% of all tested system configurations, a solid result for a game released in August 2019. The numbers indicate the RTX 4070 Ti is carrying much of the load, with the Ryzen 5 8400F providing just enough headroom to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at most settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo lands at rank 496 out of 3,720 tested configurations, placing it in the 86.7th percentile of all combinations. This is a strong showing that reflects well on both components. The ranking suggests that while this isn't an absolute top-tier setup, it outperforms the vast majority of tested combos in Control.

The Ryzen 5 8400F itself sits at the 77th percentile against all CPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 25,005. Its nearest rivals show striking closeness in performance. The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F scores 24,964, just 0.2% behind, while the Intel Core i7-13620H trails by 0.4% at 24,911. On the other side, the AMD EPYC 9474F leads by 0.4% with a score of 25,103. This tight clustering indicates the 8400F is precisely aligned with mid-range CPU performance expectations.

Meanwhile, the RTX 4070 Ti achieves an average benchmark score of 44,795, placing it at the 84th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 5090 Mobile at 45,152 (1.4% faster), the Radeon Pro 5500 XT at 45,384, and the Arc A730M at 45,592. The RTX A6000 sits below at 44,075. This GPU performance profile, combined with the CPU's mid-pack showing, explains why the combo ranks where it does.

The gap between the CPU's 77th percentile and the GPU's 84th percentile suggests the graphics card is the stronger component in this pairing. In Control, which is a GPU-heavy title, this imbalance favors the system. Settings that stress the GPU will scale well, while the CPU handles the game's logic and physics without constraining the frame rate.

Settings Recommendations

At 1080p, the Medium preset delivers 161 FPS average with a minimum of 136 FPS and maximum of 185 FPS. This is the sweet spot for high refresh rate monitors, offering smooth gameplay with a safety margin above typical 144 Hz displays. The Low preset hits 226 FPS, which is excellent for competitive play but sacrifices visual fidelity. High and Ultra follow at 143 FPS and 124 FPS respectively. For 1080p, the Medium setting provides the best balance of smoothness and visual quality.

At 1440p, the Medium preset averages 121 FPS with 103 FPS minimum and 140 FPS maximum. This maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while still allowing for high quality visuals. High drops to 108 FPS, while Ultra sits at 94 FPS. The Low preset reaches 171 FPS, but the visual compromises are significant. For 1440p, Medium is the clear recommendation, as it keeps the frame rate in the triple digits while preserving visual details.

At 4K, the Medium preset averages 73 FPS with 70 FPS minimum and 94 FPS maximum. This is playable but doesn't reach the smoothness of lower resolutions. The High preset averages 73 FPS as well, while Ultra drops to 63 FPS. Low achieves 115 FPS, which is surprisingly high for 4K and suggests the game scales well with the RTX 4070 Ti's capabilities. For 4K, Medium is the recommended preset, as it maintains the frame rate above 70 FPS while offering better visual quality than Low.

The measured data shows that the Medium preset across all resolutions provides the most consistent experience. The minimum FPS values are the only ones recorded for Medium, showing a stable 136 FPS at 1080p, 103 FPS at 1440p, and 70 FPS at 4K. The absence of min/max data for other presets suggests the test methodology focused on average FPS, but the Medium preset's min/max figures demonstrate its stability.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but not extreme. At Medium settings, the 161 FPS at 1080p drops to 121 FPS at 1440p, a 24.8% decrease. The drop from 1440p to 4K Medium is even more pronounced: from 121 FPS to 73 FPS, a decline of 39.7%. Combined, the 1080p to 4K transition at Medium drops from 161 FPS to 73 FPS, a 54.7% reduction.

This scaling pattern reveals the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The RTX 4070 Ti's 504.2 GB/s memory bandwidth and 12 GB of GDDR6X become more important as pixel count increases. At 1080p, the CPU can feed the GPU faster than it can render. At 4K, the GPU's compute and memory resources are saturated, causing the FPS to drop more steeply.

The Low preset tells a similar story: 226 FPS at 1080p, 171 FPS at 1440p, and 115 FPS at 4K. The 54.7% drop from 1080p to 4K Low mirrors the Medium scaling. The Ultra preset shows the same pattern: 124 FPS at 1080p, 94 FPS at 1440p, and 63 FPS at 4K, a 49.2% decrease. This consistency across presets confirms the GPU-bound nature of the game at higher resolutions.

The RTX 4070 Ti's boost clock of 2610 MHz and base clock of 2310 MHz provide substantial compute power, but the 4K resolution demands more from the memory system. The 504.2 GB/s bandwidth looks sufficient for 1440p but becomes a constraint at 4K, explaining the steeper decline between 1440p and 4K compared to 1080p to 1440p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p:

• Low: 226 FPS average
• Medium: 161 FPS average, 136 FPS min, 185 FPS max
• High: 143 FPS average
• Ultra: 124 FPS average

At 1080p, the RTX 4070 Ti demonstrates its headroom. Even the Ultra preset maintains 124 FPS, well above the 60 FPS threshold. The Low preset's 226 FPS is more than enough for even the highest refresh rate monitors, but the visual compromises are significant. The Medium preset's 161 FPS with a 136 FPS minimum suggests good stability, though the lack of min/max data for other presets prevents direct comparison.

1440p:

• Low: 171 FPS average
• Medium: 121 FPS average, 103 FPS min, 140 FPS max
• High: 108 FPS average
• Ultra: 94 FPS average

The 1440p results show a performance progression. The Ultra setting at 94 FPS is still smooth for most displays, while the Medium at 121 FPS offers a great balance. The Low. The minimum of 103 FPS at Medium ensures no drops below the 100 FPS level, which is excellent for 1440p gaming.

4K:

• Low: 115 FPS average
• Medium: 73 FPS average, 70 FPS min, 94 FPS max
• High: 73 FPS average
• Ultra: 63 FPS average

At 4K, the performance finally shows limits. The Ultra preset at 63 FPS is just above the 60 FPS threshold, while the Medium and High both average 73 FPS. The Low preset's 115 FPS is impressive for 4K but sacrifices visual quality. The Medium's 70 FPS minimum is stable, with a 94 FPS maximum, indicating the GPU can burst above the average when needed.

The data shows that between Medium and High at 4K, the average FPS is identical at 73 FPS. This suggests the High preset might be the better choice at 4K despite the identical average, unless the visual differences are minimal. However, the Medium's recorded min/max provides more confidence in its stability.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process, contains 35,800 million transistors on a 294 mm² die. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory with a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration shows its impact most clearly at 4K, where the bandwidth becomes a bottleneck for the highest resolutions.

The GPU's clock speeds of 2310 MHz base and 2610 MHz boost provide the computational muscle for the game's physics and rendering. With 7,680 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 80 ROPs, the GPU has the raw resources to handle Control's destructible environments and physics-based combat. The pixel rate of 208.8 GPixel/s and texture rate of 626.4 GTexel/s support the game's visual effects at high resolutions.

The RTX 4070 Ti's 60 RT cores and 240 Tensor cores are relevant here, as Control is one of the earlier titles to feature ray tracing. The measured data doesn't specify ray tracing settings, but the GPU's RT capabilities exceed the game's requirements, which is typical for 2019 titles. The GPU earns a 84th percentile ranking among all GPUs, and its benchmark scores—including a 31,624 in PassMark G3D and 40.09 TFLOPS FP32 performance—indicate a high ceiling for this game.

The 12 GB VRAM capacity is more than enough for Control even at 4K with Ultra settings. The game's textures and assets fit comfortably within the memory pool, as evidenced by the stable frame rates at 4K. The GPU's 84th percentile ranking places it above the RTX 5090 Mobile and Radeon Pro 5500 XT, reinforcing its leading position in this combo.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 8400F is a 6-core, 12-thread CPU based on the Zen 4 Phoenix architecture, manufactured on a 4nm process by TSMC. It has a base clock of 4.20 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz, with a 65W TDP. These specifications place it solidly in the mid-range for gaming CPUs, and Control is not a particularly CPU-heavy title.

The CPU's benchmark scores show strong multi-threaded performance: 20,851 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2,943 in single-core. The single-core score is important for Control, which relies on a few threads for game logic and physics. The 8400F's 16 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core provide ample cache for the game's data.

The CPU's 3DMark scores are particularly relevant. The 3DMark 16-thread score is 6,091, while the max-thread score is 6,165, showing minimal scaling beyond 8 threads. The 8-thread score of 5,275 indicates the CPU's performance with 8 threads is 85.7% of the 16-thread score, suggesting that Control's engine may not fully utilize all 12 threads. This aligns with the game's 2019 release, which typically uses 4-8 threads.

The Ryzen 5 8400F's dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth provides the CPU with sufficient data throughput, and its Gen 4 PCIe interface (20 lanes) connects to the GPU without bottleneck. The CPU's 77th percentile ranking among all CPUs is a positive indicator, but the measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions.

At 1080p Low settings, the 226 FPS is high enough that the CPU could potentially become a bottleneck if the GPU were even faster. However, the fact that the FPS scales from 226 FPS at 1080p Low to 115 FPS at 4K Low suggests the GPU is the primary constraint, as the CPU can maintain frame rates in these ranges without being the limiting factor. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for Control's engine, which is designed for 2019 hardware.

FAQ

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

A: The 1440p resolution delivers the best balance, with Medium settings averaging 121 FPS and Low settings 171 FPS. 4K Medium provides 73 FPS, which is playable but less smooth.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in Control?

A: No, the data shows the GPU is the primary constraint. The FPS scales with resolution from 226 FPS at 1080p Low to 115 FPS at 4K Low, indicating the CPU handles the game's logic without restraining the GPU.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K?

A: The Medium preset averages 73 FPS with a 70 FPS minimum, making it the best option for 4K. Ultra drops to 63 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 8400F compare to the 7500F?

A: The 8400F scores 25,005 average, just 0.2% above the 7500F's 24,964. This is a negligible difference, meaning the two CPUs are effectively equal in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 Ti a strong GPU for this game?

A: Yes, the GPU is at the 84th percentile of all GPUs, with a PassMark G3D score of 31,624. It delivers 73 FPS at 4K Medium, demonstrating strong performance in Control.

Q: How much does resolution affect performance?

A: At Medium settings, FPS drops from 161 at 1080p to 121 at 1440p, and finally to 73 at 4K, a total decrease of 54.7%. The sharpest drop occurs between 1440p and 4K, where FPS falls by 39.7% as the GPU's bandwidth becomes the limiting.