Control

The Intel Core i5-10400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination delivers a compelling 1440p experience in Control, with 4K remaining viable only after accepting significant settings compromises. The data shows a clear pattern where the RTX 3080’s raw compute power dominates at lower resolutions, but the CPU’s six cores begin to show their limits as frame rates climb past 140 FPS. This pairing sits at rank 513 out of 1636 tested combinations, placing it in the upper third of all systems for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a predictable but steep performance curve. At Low settings, the system delivers 172.3 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 140.2 FPS at 1440p — a reduction of roughly 18.6%. Moving to 4K Low brings the average down to 96.6 FPS, a further 31.1% decline. This scaling pattern suggests that at 1080p Low, the i5-10400F becomes the limiting factor, as the 172.3 FPS figure approaches the CPU’s practical ceiling for this game’s physics and AI workloads.

High settings show a similar relative drop: 120.2 FPS at 1080p falls to 85.6 FPS at 1440p (-28.8%), then to 59.3 FPS at 4K (-30.7%). The consistent ~30% penalty between 1440p and 4K across High and Medium presets indicates the RTX 3080 is scaling as expected with pixel count, but the 1080p-to-1440p gap is larger than pure resolution math would predict. This discrepancy points to the CPU handling more draw calls per frame as resolution decreases, since the GPU finishes its work faster and waits on the processor.

Ultra settings compress the resolution scaling curve. The system produces 105 FPS at 1080p, 75.5 FPS at 1440p, and 52.2 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop of 28.1% is nearly identical to the 1440p-to-4K drop of 30.9%, suggesting that at Ultra, the RTX 3080’s memory bandwidth and shading units are the bottleneck across all resolutions. The 10 GB GDDR6X frame buffer at 760.3 GB/s appears sufficient even at 4K Ultra, as the 52.2 FPS result is playable for a single-player title.

FAQ

*Q: Is the RTX 3080 capable of 4K gaming in Control?*

A: Yes, but only with settings adjustments. The data shows 59.3 FPS at 4K High, which is technically playable, while 4K Low reaches 96.6 FPS. Ultra settings at 4K drop to 52.2 FPS, which may feel sluggish for action sequences.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combination?

A: 2560x1440 provides the most balanced experience. At High settings, the system achieves 85.6 FPS, which is smooth for a fast-paced action game. Low settings hit 140.2 FPS, giving headroom for competitive play or higher refresh rate monitors.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance at 1080p?

A: The i5-10400F becomes a limiting factor at 1080p Low, where the system reaches 172.3 FPS. The 6-core, 12-thread processor with a 4.30 GHz boost clock appears to cap frame rates around this level, as the GPU could likely render more frames if given the chance.

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

A: At 1440p, the difference is 64.7 FPS — from 140.2 FPS on Low to 75.5 FPS on Ultra. At 4K, the gap narrows to 44.4 FPS (96.6 vs 52.2), indicating that GPU load increases more than proportionally with settings complexity.

Q: Should I use Medium or High settings for the best experience?

A: Medium at 1440p delivers 103.1 FPS, which is 17.5 FPS higher than High at the same resolution. Given that Medium also produces 65.9 FPS at 4K, it offers the most consistent experience across both resolutions without major visual compromises.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested systems?

A: The combination ranks 513th out of 1636 tested for Control, placing it in the 68th percentile. The CPU itself sits in the 73rd percentile of all processors, while the GPU ranks in the 80th percentile of all graphics cards.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data strongly favors Medium as the sweet spot for this pairing. At 2560x1440, Medium produces 103.1 FPS — comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay — while High drops to 85.6 FPS and Ultra to 75.5 FPS. The jump from Medium to High costs 17.5 FPS at 1440p, a 17% reduction, which is substantial for visual gains that may be subtle in fast motion.

For 4K displays, Medium again proves optimal. The 65.9 FPS average at 3840x2160 Medium is the only preset above 60 FPS at this resolution, with High at 59.3 FPS just missing the mark. Ultra at 4K drops to 52.2 FPS, which introduces noticeable stutter during heavy particle effects common in Control’s combat sequences. The Low preset at 4K delivers 96.6 FPS, but the visual quality loss — particularly for the game’s atmospheric lighting — makes it less desirable than Medium.

At 1080p, the choice becomes more flexible. Medium’s 130.5 FPS and High’s 120.2 FPS both provide excellent smoothness for high refresh rate monitors. The data indicates that even Ultra at 105 FPS is playable, making this resolution the only one where Ultra is a viable choice without compromising frame pacing. For users with 144 Hz displays, Low’s 172.3 FPS approaches the refresh ceiling, though the CPU may introduce frame time inconsistencies at that level.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset reveals consistent scaling across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 172.3 FPS on Low, 130.5 FPS on Medium, 120.2 FPS on High, and 105 FPS on Ultra. The spread of 67.3 FPS between Low and Ultra demonstrates the RTX 3080’s headroom at this resolution, where the GPU is rarely the constraint.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages become 140.2 FPS (Low), 103.1 FPS (Medium), 85.6 FPS (High), and 75.5 FPS (Ultra). The Low-to-Ultra gap narrows to 64.7 FPS, but the relative drop from Medium to High is steeper at 17.5 FPS. At 3840x2160, the figures are 96.6 FPS (Low), 65.9 FPS (Medium), 59.3 FPS (High), and 52.2 FPS (Ultra). The 44.4 FPS spread at 4K shows the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck, as expected with 8.3 million pixels to fill.

Notably, the jump from Low to Medium costs 31.8 FPS at 1080p, 37.1 FPS at 1440p, and 30.7 FPS at 4K. This consistent ~30 FPS penalty for enabling medium-tier effects indicates the settings tier adds a fixed workload rather than a proportional one. In contrast, High over Medium costs only 10.3 FPS at 1080p, 17.5 FPS at 1440p, and 6.6 FPS at 4K, making High a relatively cheap upgrade from Medium at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The RTX 3080’s specifications directly explain its performance in Control. With 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs, the card has ample parallel processing capability for the game’s physics-driven destruction and particle effects. The 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 throughput translates to rapid shader execution, which the data confirms by the card’s ability to maintain 96.6 FPS at 4K Low.

Memory configuration plays a critical role at higher settings. The 10 GB GDDR6X frame buffer running on a 320-bit bus delivers 760.3 GB/s bandwidth. Control uses high-resolution textures and real-time ray tracing effects, which consume significant memory bandwidth. The measured frame rates at 4K Ultra (52.2 FPS) suggest the card is not hitting a capacity wall but rather a throughput limit, as the 52.2 FPS figure is still respectable for the resolution.

Clock behavior matters more at lower resolutions. The GPU boosts from 1440 MHz base to 1710 MHz, and the data indicates this 270 MHz headroom is fully utilized at 1080p, where the card produces 172.3 FPS on Low. At 4K, the clocks likely settle closer to base as thermal and power limits engage, though the 320 W TDP provides substantial headroom for sustained loads. The 68 RT cores are present but unused in these non-ray-traced measurements, meaning the card’s standard rasterization performance is the sole factor in these results.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 35787 places it in the 80th percentile of all GPUs, with rivals like the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE scoring 36101 (0.9% higher) and the RTX 5070 Ti Mobile at 35435 (1% lower). This competitive positioning explains why the card delivers playable 4K in Control but cannot sustain Ultra settings at that resolution. The 10 GB memory size, while adequate for this 2019 title, becomes a consideration for future games with larger texture sets.