Control

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 delivers playable 1080p performance in Control at lower settings, but the data clearly shows the GPU is the primary bottleneck as resolution climbs. At 4K Ultra, the combo produces only 16 FPS on average, rendering the experience unplayable, while dropping to 4K Low recovers to 29 FPS. The scaling pattern from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, indicating a system limited by graphics throughput rather than CPU capability.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe across all settings, confirming that the Radeon RX 570 is the limiting component in this pairing. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 36 FPS at 1920x1080 to 27 FPS at 2560x1440, then plummets to 18 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 50% reduction when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings, a decline that points directly to pixel-pushing limits of the 4 GB GDDR5 frame buffer and the Polaris 20 chip's fillrate.

The Low settings preset shows the most forgiving scaling curve, starting at 57 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 43 FPS at 1440p, and landing at 29 FPS at 4K. Even at the lowest quality, the 4K resolution overwhelms the GPU, with the average FPS falling below the 30 FPS threshold that many consider a minimum for fluid gameplay. The Medium preset tells a similar story: 40 FPS at 1080p, 30 FPS at 1440p, and 21 FPS at 4K, with the 4K run showing a minimum of 17 FPS and a maximum of 24 FPS.

Ultra settings are the most punishing, with the combo managing 31 FPS at 1080p, 24 FPS at 1440p, and only 16 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1080p and 4K at Ultra is 15 FPS, a 48% drop, which mirrors the pattern seen at other presets. The data suggests that 1080p is the only resolution where this combo can approach playable frame rates, and even then, only at Low or Medium settings. The scaling indicates that the CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is not the constraint; if it were, we would see a flatter curve across resolutions as the GPU becomes less stressed.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 operates with a base clock of 1168 MHz and a boost clock of 1244 MHz, built on the GCN 4.0 architecture with a 14 nm process node. The GPU packs 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs, which drive a pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s. The 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, a figure that becomes a critical constraint at higher resolutions in Control.

Benchmark results place this GPU in the 74th percentile among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28766. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 470, scores 28996, which is 0.8% higher, indicating that the RX 570 sits at the upper edge of its performance class. The NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 trails by 1.2% with a score of 28421, while the AMD Radeon R9 M295X is 0.7% behind at 28580. These tight margins suggest the RX 570 delivers consistent performance relative to its direct competitors.

The FP32 compute throughput of 5.095 TFLOPS is identical to the FP16 figure, confirming a 1:1 ratio that simplifies shader workloads. The 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die yield a transistor density of 24.6M per mm², which is modest by modern standards but sufficient for the DirectX 12 (12_0) feature set that Control leverages. The 150 W TDP and dual-slot cooler with a single 6-pin power connector indicate a power envelope that is manageable in most desktop systems, though the 450 W suggested PSU should be respected for stable operation.

The GPU's memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, translating to 7 Gbps effective, which combined with the 256-bit bus provides the 224.0 GB/s bandwidth mentioned earlier. This bandwidth is adequate for 1080p gaming but becomes a limiting factor at 1440p and 4K, where the larger frame buffers demand more data movement. The benchmark results for this GPU show a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 880, a Geekbench Metal score of 39349, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 32084, and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 42752. These synthetic numbers align with the measured FPS data, indicating that the GPU's compute capabilities translate into the observed gaming performance.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Control at 1080p with playable frame rates?*

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. The data shows 57 FPS at Low, 40 FPS at Medium, 36 FPS at High, and 31 FPS at Ultra for 1920x1080 resolution. The Low and Medium presets exceed the 30 FPS threshold, while High and Ultra fall short of smooth gameplay.

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

A: The data indicates that 1920x1080 is the only viable resolution for consistent performance. At 2560x1440, the average FPS ranges from 24 at Ultra to 43 at Low, with only the Low preset reaching a playable level. At 3840x2160, all settings produce average FPS below 30, with Ultra at 16 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 570 compare to its nearest GPU rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 570's average benchmark score is 28766, which is 0.8% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 470's score of 28996. It also trails the AMD Radeon RX 6800M by 0.4% (28874) and the AMD Radeon R9 M295X by 0.7% (28580), while leading the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 by 1.2%.

*Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system for Control?*

A: The FPS scaling across resolutions points to the GPU as the limiting factor. If the CPU were the bottleneck, frame rates would remain relatively flat as resolution increases. Instead, the average FPS drops by roughly half from 1080p to 4K at every settings preset, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance.

Q: What settings preset provides the best balance of quality and performance at 1080p?

A: The Medium preset at 1920x1080 delivers 40 FPS average, with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS. This provides a smoother experience than High (36 FPS) or Ultra (31 FPS) while offering better visuals than Low (57 FPS).

*Q: How does this combo rank among all tested PC configurations for Control?*

A: This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 3549 out of 3720 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 5% of all configurations. This low ranking reflects the GPU's limitations at higher resolutions and settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 57 FPS, the highest figure recorded in the entire dataset. Moving to Medium settings drops the average to 40 FPS, with a minimum of 34 FPS and a maximum of 46 FPS. High settings produce 36 FPS on average, while Ultra settings yield 31 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 26 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU has significant headroom when quality is reduced.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset maintains 43 FPS, which is still playable, but the Medium preset falls to 30 FPS with a minimum of 26 FPS and a maximum of 35 FPS. High settings at 1440p average 27 FPS, and Ultra drops to 24 FPS. The 1440p results show a narrower spread between presets, with only 19 FPS separating Low from Ultra, indicating that resolution is becoming the dominant factor.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 29 FPS, just below the playable threshold. Medium averages 21 FPS with a minimum of 17 FPS and maximum of 24 FPS. High settings average 18 FPS, and Ultra falls to 16 FPS. The 4K data shows that even the most aggressive settings reduction cannot overcome the GPU's memory bandwidth and fillrate limitations. The Medium preset at 4K has the only recorded minimum and maximum values in the 4K category, suggesting that the other presets may have less stable frame pacing or were measured without those metrics captured.

The overall pattern across all resolutions shows a consistent drop of approximately 40-50% when moving from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the drop is from 57 to 29 FPS (49% reduction), at Medium from 40 to 21 FPS (48% reduction), at High from 36 to 18 FPS (50% reduction), and at Ultra from 31 to 16 FPS (48% reduction). This uniformity further supports the conclusion that the GPU is the sole limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 3549 out of 3720 tested combos for Control, placing it in the 95.4th percentile of all configurations. This rank puts it in the bottom 4.6% of tested systems, which is consistent with the measured FPS results showing sub-60 FPS performance at 1080p across all settings. The low ranking is driven primarily by the GPU, which sits in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU ranks in the 68th percentile of all CPUs.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 28766 places it just below the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (28874, 0.4% higher) and the AMD Radeon RX 470 (28996, 0.8% higher), but above the AMD Radeon R9 M295X (28580, 0.7% lower) and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (28421, 1.2% lower). These close margins indicate that the RX 570 is competitive within its immediate class, but that class is simply not powerful enough for demanding titles like Control at high resolutions.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 14185 places it near the Intel Xeon 6756E (14163, 0.2% higher), the Intel Core 7 160UL (14232, 0.3% lower), the AMD EPYC 7552 (14115, 0.5% higher), and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (14277, 0.6% lower). The CPU's 68th percentile ranking indicates it is a mid-range processor, but its performance headroom is wasted in this pairing because the GPU cannot translate additional CPU capability into higher frame rates.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F provides 6 cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 2.90 GHz with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. This 10th Gen Comet Lake processor features 12 MB of shared L3 cache, with 64 KB of L1 and 256 KB of L2 cache per core. The 14 nm process node and 65 W TDP make it an efficient desktop part, though it lacks integrated graphics, requiring a discrete GPU like the RX 570.

Synthetic benchmarks show the CPU's capabilities: Cinebench R23 scores of 10283 multi-core and 1451 single-core, Geekbench scores of 6257 multi-core and 1420 single-core, and Passmark scores of 12115 multi-thread and 2541 single-thread. The 3DMark results show a scaling pattern from 1350 for 2 threads to 3929 for 8 threads, with a peak of 4748 for 16 threads and 4735 for max threadscars. This indicates the CPU scales well with additional threads, but Control does not appear to stress the CPU heavily based on the FPS data.

The CPU's 68th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests it is a capable mid-range processor, but in this specific game, the bottleneck is clearly the GPU. If the CPU were limiting performance, we would expect to see similar FPS across different resolutions, as the CPU work per frame would remain constant. Instead, the FPS drops by roughly half from 1080p to 4K, which is the hallmark of GPU-bound performance. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s over dual-channel DDR4 is sufficient for feeding the GPU, and the PCIe Gen 3 x16 interface provides adequate bandwidth for the RX 570.

The CPU's nearest rivals include the Intel Xeon 6756E (0.2% faster), the Intel Core 7 160UL (0.3% slower), the AMD EPYC 7552 (0.5% faster), and the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C (0.6% slower). These tight margins confirm that the i5-10400F is a well-balanced mid-range processor, but its performance is irrelevant to the frame rates in Control when paired with the RX 570. The data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield far greater FPS improvements than upgrading the CPU in this configuration.