Control

# Control with Intel Core i5-10400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti

This combination of Intel's 6-core Comet Lake processor and NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace flagship-class GPU produces a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound in Control, with the RTX 4070 Ti's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth proving sufficient to deliver playable frame rates at every resolution tested, though the CPU's 73rd percentile standing among all processors becomes a measurable limiting factor at lower resolutions where the GPU has headroom to spare.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-10400F brings 6 cores and 12 threads to the table, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.30 GHz. This Comet Lake processor, built on Intel's 14 nm process, sits at the 73rd percentile among all CPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 14168. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 7552, scores 14115 — a marginal 0.4% difference — while the AMD Ryzen 3 7320C scores 14277, placing the i5-10400F 0.8% behind that chip. The Intel Core i5-8500 scores 14332, which is 1.1% higher than the i5-10400F.

In Control, the CPU's role becomes most apparent at 1080p. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system achieves 170.9 FPS, but this is only 19.7 FPS higher than the 151.8 FPS seen at 2560x1440 Low. The scaling from 1440p to 1080p at Low settings represents just a 12.6% improvement, suggesting the processor is beginning to cap performance in less demanding visual scenarios. The CPU's single-thread performance, as measured by its 3dmark single-thread score of 688 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1453, is adequate for Control's action-adventure gameplay, but the 4.30 GHz boost clock cannot fully feed the RTX 4070 Ti's frame generation at lower resolutions. Multi-threaded performance, shown by the Cinebench R23 multicore score of 10297, provides sufficient headroom for background tasks, though Control's engine does not appear to heavily leverage the 6-core configuration.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing. Built on the AD104 chip with Ada Lovelace architecture at TSMC's 5 nm process, this GPU packs 7680 shading units, 240 texture mapping units, and 80 raster operation pipelines. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus delivers 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves critical for Control's high-resolution texture work. The 40.09 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and 626.4 GTexel/s texture rate are substantial for a card that sits at the 85th percentile among all GPUs.

In the benchmark database, the RTX 4070 Ti scores 44900 on average, putting it 0.6% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Mobile's 45152 — wait, that is actually reversed: the RTX 4070 Ti scores 0.6% lower than the RTX 5090 Mobile. The Intel Arc A730M scores 45592, which is 1.5% higher, while the AMD Radeon Pro 580 scores 44195, placing the RTX 4070 Ti 1.6% ahead of that card. The AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT scores 45642, which is 1.6% higher than the RTX 4070 Ti. The GPU's boost clock of 2610 MHz and base clock of 2310 MHz, combined with 60 RT cores and 240 tensor cores, position this card well above the requirements for Control, which released in 2019.

The GPU's VRAM configuration is particularly relevant for Control's Ultra preset. At 3840x2160 Ultra, the system maintains 64.5 FPS average, while at 1920x1080 Ultra it reaches 127.3 FPS. The 12 GB frame buffer handles the game's assets without apparent capacity constraints, as evidenced by the relatively smooth scaling between resolution tiers at Ultra settings: from 1080p to 1440p the drop is 27.3%, and from 1440p to 4K the drop is 30.3%.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings at each resolution. At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers 72.4 FPS average, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth action-adventure gameplay. The Ultra preset drops to 64.5 FPS, still playable but with less headroom for demanding scenes. The Medium preset at 4K yields 79.9 FPS, while Low reaches 117.5 FPS — the latter being excessive for a title like Control where visual fidelity contributes significantly to atmosphere.

At 2560x1440, High settings produce 105.4 FPS, representing the best balance for high-refresh-rate monitors. Ultra at 1440p achieves 92.5 FPS, which remains excellent, while Medium hits 125 FPS and Low reaches 151.8 FPS. For 1920x1080, the High preset at 141.2 FPS is the recommended choice, as Ultra at 127.3 FPS offers marginal visual gains over High for an 9.9% performance cost. The data indicates that High settings provide the most consistent experience across all three resolutions, with frame rates ranging from 72.4 FPS at 4K to 141.2 FPS at 1080p — a span that keeps every configuration above 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific CPU-GPU combination ranks 285th out of 1636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the top 17.4% of all configurations evaluated. This ranking reflects the substantial GPU capability of the RTX 4070 Ti, which compensates for the mid-range CPU. The i5-10400F's 73rd percentile CPU score and the RTX 4070 Ti's 85th percentile GPU score combine to produce results that are stronger than the CPU's individual standing would suggest, indicating that Control is not heavily CPU-threaded. The gap between this combo's ranking and what the CPU alone would suggest indicates the GPU is doing the heavy lifting. At 1080p Low, the system produces 170.9 FPS, which is 34.3% higher than the 127.3 FPS at 1080p Ultra — a spread that shows the GPU's ability to scale with reduced visual load, but also hints at CPU limitations since the Low preset at 1080p should theoretically push frame rates even higher if the processor could keep up.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that is GPU-limited at higher resolutions but becomes increasingly CPU-bound as resolution decreases. At High settings, the FPS drops from 141.2 at 1080p to 105.4 at 1440p — a 25.4% reduction — and then to 72.4 at 4K, representing another 31.3% drop from 1440p. The total scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings is a 48.7% reduction in frame rate. At Low settings, the scaling is less severe: 170.9 FPS at 1080p, 151.8 at 1440p (11.2% drop), and 117.5 at 4K (22.6% drop from 1440p). The total Low-settings reduction from 1080p to 4K is 31.2%.

This pattern — where lower settings produce smaller percentage drops when scaling up in resolution — indicates that at Low settings, the CPU is the bottleneck at 1080p and 1440p, preventing the GPU from expressing its full capability. The differences between 1440p and 4K at Low settings (34.3 FPS) versus High settings (33.0 FPS) are nearly identical, suggesting that at 4K, the GPU becomes the primary constraint regardless of settings. The Ultra preset shows the most consistent scaling: 127.3 FPS at 1080p, 92.5 at 1440p (27.3% drop), and 64.5 at 4K (30.3% drop from 1440p), with a total reduction of 49.3% from 1080p to 4K. This consistency at Ultra settings confirms that the highest visual fidelity shifts the bottleneck fully to the GPU across all resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Control at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average FPS is 72.4, and even at Ultra it maintains 64.5 FPS. The Medium preset reaches 79.9 FPS, while Low achieves 117.5 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance in Control?

A: The Intel Core i5-10400F becomes a limiting factor at 1080p with lower settings. At Low settings, the system produces 170.9 FPS at 1080p but only 151.8 FPS at 1440p, representing just a 12.6% increase — less than expected — indicating CPU constraint at lower resolutions.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p monitor?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 delivers 105.4 FPS average. Ultra achieves 92.5 FPS, which is still excellent, but High offers a 13.9% performance advantage with minimal visual sacrifice based on the data.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: This combination ranks 285th out of 1636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the top 17.4% of all configurations. The GPU's 85th percentile standing among all GPUs drives this strong ranking.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 Ti's 12 GB VRAM sufficient for Control?

A: Yes. The 12 GB GDDR6X memory with 504.2 GB/s bandwidth handles all settings presets without apparent VRAM limitations, as evidenced by playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra (64.5 FPS).

Q: Does increasing settings from Medium to High cost much performance?

A: The cost varies by resolution. At 1080p, High is 141.2 FPS versus 149.5 FPS at Medium, a 5.6% reduction. At 1440p, High drops 15.7% from Medium (105.4 vs 125 FPS). At 4K, High reduces performance by 9.4% from Medium (72.4 vs 79.9 FPS).

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 170.9 FPS on Low settings, 149.5 FPS on Medium, 141.2 FPS on High, and 127.3 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 43.6 FPS, representing a 25.5% performance penalty for maximum visual quality. At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 151.8 FPS, Medium achieves 125 FPS, High reaches 105.4 FPS, and Ultra drops to 92.5 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 59.3 FPS, or a 39.1% reduction. At 3840x2160, the results are 117.5 FPS on Low, 79.9 FPS on Medium, 72.4 FPS on High, and 64.5 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Low-to-Ultra penalty is 53 FPS, a 45.1% reduction.

The data reveals that the greatest relative performance gap between settings occurs at 4K, where the Ultra preset costs 45.1% of the Low-settings frame rate. At 1080p, the Ultra penalty is only 25.5%, while at 1440p it is 39.1%. This pattern reinforces that at higher resolutions, the GPU's shading and memory bandwidth become increasingly taxed by the Ultra preset's demands. The smallest absolute difference between High and Ultra occurs at 4K (7.9 FPS), while the largest is at 1440p (12.9 FPS). Across all resolutions, the High-to-Ultra transition costs between 10.9% and 12.4% of frame rate, making High the most efficient near-maximum quality setting.