Control

The Intel Core i5-10400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT delivers a robust 1080p and 1440p experience in Control, with the data showing a clear performance ceiling at 4K resolution. This combination ranks in the 38th percentile of tested configurations, indicating solid mid-pack performance for this title. The measured frame rates reveal that the GPU is the primary driver of performance scaling, while the CPU provides sufficient headroom across all tested settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 102 at 1920x1080 with High settings, which indicates a smooth gameplay experience for most users on standard refresh rate monitors.

Q: How does the RX 7700 XT compare to its nearest GPU rival in overall benchmark score?

A: The RX 7700 XT has an average benchmark score of 22549, which is 0.5% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile (22435) and 1.5% higher than the RTX 2080 (22895, where the RX 7700 XT is actually 1.5% lower). The data shows it is also 1.7% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 (22170).

Q: What is the lowest average FPS recorded for this combo in the measured data?

A: The lowest average FPS is 45, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings. This is the only configuration in the dataset that falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU have a higher percentile ranking among all tested components?

A: The GPU has a percentile rank of 67 among all GPUs, while the CPU has a percentile rank of 68 among all CPUs. These are nearly identical, suggesting both components are similarly positioned within their respective markets.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS drops from 123 on Low settings to 67 on Ultra settings, representing a 45.5% reduction in frame rate when moving to the highest quality preset.

Q: What is the combo's overall rank among all tested CPU-GPU combinations in this game?

A: The combo ranks 1422 out of 3720 tested combinations, placing it in the upper 38% of all configurations tested for Control.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Comet Lake architecture, built on Intel's 14 nm process node. Its base clock is 2.90 GHz with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz, and it carries 12 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a memory bandwidth of 42.7 GB/s. The processor's PCIe interface is Gen 3 with 16 lanes available from the CPU itself.

Benchmark results for the i5-10400F show a single-thread score of 688 in 3DMark, which is a modest figure compared to modern architectures. The multi-threaded performance is substantially stronger, with a 3DMark 16-thread score of 4748 and a max-threads score of 4735, indicating that the processor scales well with additional threads. In Cinebench R23, the multicore score reaches 10283, while the single-core score is 1451. These figures suggest that the CPU is capable of handling the game's physics and logic threads without becoming a limiting factor in most scenarios.

The CPU's percentile ranking of 68 places it above average among all processors tested. Its nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the Intel Xeon 6756E (14163, 0.2% lower), the Intel Core 7 160UL (14232, 0.3% higher), and the AMD EPYC 7552 (14115, 0.5% lower). This clustering indicates that the i5-10400F sits in a tightly contested performance band, where minor architectural differences result in negligible overall score variations.

For Control, which is an Action Adventure title, the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads provide adequate parallel processing capability. The game engine benefits from multiple threads for rendering tasks, physics simulation, and AI routines. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 162 FPS, suggesting that the CPU can feed the GPU effectively even at high frame rates. However, the relatively low single-thread performance compared to newer processors could become a bottleneck in scenarios with heavy draw calls or complex physics interactions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip, fabricated on TSMC's 5 nm process node. It contains 28,100 million transistors on a 346 mm² die, giving it a transistor density of 81.2M per mm². The GPU has 3456 shading units, 216 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, along with 54 ray tracing cores. Its FP32 compute performance is rated at 35.17 TFLOPS.

The memory subsystem consists of 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 432.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The clocks are specified as a base of 1435 MHz, a boost of 2544 MHz, and a game clock of 2171 MHz. The memory runs at 2250 MHz with an effective speed of 18 Gbps. The GPU supports PCIe 4.0 x16 interface and has a TDP of 245 W, requiring dual 8-pin power connectors.

In benchmark testing, the RX 7700 XT achieves an average score of 22549, placing it at the 67th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080, which scores 22895, a 1.5% difference. The RTX 5060 Mobile scores 22435 (0.5% lower), while the RTX 4060 Mobile scores 22729 (0.8% higher). The AMD Radeon RX 5700 trails at 22170, which is 1.7% lower. These results indicate that the RX 7700 XT performs competitively with last-generation high-end cards.

The GPU's role in Control is clearly dominant based on the measured FPS data. At 1080p, scaling from Low to Ultra settings reduces the average FPS from 162 to 89, a 45.1% drop. This significant scaling suggests that the GPU's rendering capabilities are the primary constraint when increasing graphical fidelity. The 12 GB VRAM capacity proves sufficient for the game's textures and effects at all tested resolutions, as there are no anomalies in the frame time data that would indicate memory exhaustion.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-10400F and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT achieves a rank of 1422 out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the top 38.2% of all configurations. This ranking reflects a balanced pairing where neither component severely bottlenecks the other in most scenarios. The CPU's 68th percentile and GPU's 67th percentile among their respective categories suggest that this is a well-matched combination for the game's requirements.

The rank indicates that roughly 61.8% of tested systems outperform this combo, which is expected given that the RX 7700 XT is positioned in the mid-to-upper tier of GPUs. The data shows that the combo delivers playable frame rates at 1080p and 1440p across all settings, but struggles to maintain 60 FPS at 4K with High or Ultra settings. This performance profile is consistent with a GPU-bound system where the CPU provides adequate support without limiting the GPU's output.

The measured FPS at 1440p High (77 FPS) and Ultra (67 FPS) places the combo in a comfortable range for high refresh rate gaming at that resolution. At 1080p, the frame rates are well above 90 FPS for all settings, indicating that this combo is well-suited for competitive or fast-paced gameplay. The rank of 1422 suggests that while there are many faster configurations, this pairing offers a substantial performance margin over the majority of systems tested.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and desired frame rate. At 1920x1080, all settings presets deliver playable performance, with Low achieving 162 FPS, Medium at 115 FPS, High at 102 FPS, and Ultra at 89 FPS. For users with 60 Hz monitors, the Ultra preset provides the best visual quality while maintaining a comfortable frame rate. For 144 Hz displays, the High preset at 102 FPS offers a good balance between visual fidelity and smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 77 FPS, which is suitable for 60 Hz displays but not for high refresh rate panels. The Medium preset at 87 FPS provides a slight improvement in frame rate with a modest reduction in visual quality. The Ultra preset at 67 FPS is playable but may exhibit occasional frame pacing issues on demanding scenes. The Low preset at 123 FPS is the only option that approaches high refresh rate territory at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the recommended choice, delivering 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS. This preset maintains a reasonably consistent frame rate that is close to the 60 FPS target. The High preset at 52 FPS is borderline playable, while the Ultra preset at 45 FPS falls below acceptable thresholds for smooth gameplay. The Low preset at 83 FPS is the only 4K option that provides a clearly smooth experience, though it sacrifices significant visual quality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured average FPS values are as follows: Low settings produce 162 FPS, Medium settings produce 115 FPS with a minimum of 98 FPS and maximum of 133 FPS, High settings produce 102 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 89 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 45.1% performance reduction, with the largest single drop occurring between Low and Medium at 47 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the measured average FPS values are: Low at 123 FPS, Medium at 87 FPS with a minimum of 74 FPS and maximum of 100 FPS, High at 77 FPS, and Ultra at 67 FPS. The transition from Low to Medium represents a 36 FPS drop, while the drop from High to Ultra is only 10 FPS, indicating diminishing returns at higher settings.

At 3840x2160, the measured average FPS values are: Low at 83 FPS, Medium at 59 FPS with a minimum of 50 FPS and maximum of 68 FPS, High at 52 FPS, and Ultra at 45 FPS. The Medium preset shows the most consistent frame times with a range of 18 FPS between minimum and maximum. The scaling from Low to Ultra at this resolution represents a 45.8% performance reduction, which is nearly identical to the scaling observed at 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings. At High settings, the average FPS decreases from 102 at 1080p to 77 at 1440p, and further to 52 at 4K. This represents a 24.5% reduction from 1080p to 1440p, and a 32.5% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The total drop from 1080p to 4K is 49.0%, indicating that the GPU is heavily taxed by the increased pixel count.

At Low settings, the scaling is different: 162 FPS at 1080p drops to 123 FPS at 1440p (24.1% reduction), and then to 83 FPS at 4K (32.5% reduction from 1440p). The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings is 48.8%, which is nearly identical to the High settings scaling. This consistency suggests that the GPU's rendering workload scales linearly with pixel count, regardless of the quality preset.

The similar percentage reductions across all settings indicate that the GPU is the limiting component in this system. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the FPS drop from 1080p to 4K would be less pronounced because the GPU would be waiting for CPU data at lower resolutions. Instead, the proportional scaling confirms that the RX 7700 XT's raw rendering throughput is the determining factor for performance in Control. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads provide sufficient processing power to maintain frame rates up to the GPU's maximum output, with the 162 FPS at 1080p Low demonstrating that the CPU can handle high frame rate scenarios without becoming a constraint.