Control

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 delivers a playable but resolution-sensitive experience in Control. The measured data reveals a system where the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides sufficient headroom at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the performance metrics, settings scaling, and component roles based strictly on recorded results.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The frame rate progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 shows a steep, predictable decline that points directly at the GPU as the constraining factor. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 68 at 1080p to 52 at 1440p, then falls to 35 at 4K. That is a 49% reduction from 1080p to 4K, with the largest single step occurring between 1440p and 4K where the score drops by 17 FPS.

The pattern is consistent across all settings presets. Low settings show a 108 FPS average at 1080p, declining to 82 at 1440p and 55 at 4K. Medium settings follow the same trajectory: 77 FPS at 1080p, 58 at 1440p, and 39 at 4K. Ultra settings, the most demanding preset, produce 59 FPS at 1080p, 45 at 1440p, and only 30 at 4K.

This scaling behavior indicates that the RX 6600's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 128-bit bus become progressively more strained as pixel count rises. The 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is adequate for 1080p and acceptable for 1440p, but the 4K resolution demands far more fill rate and bandwidth than the card can supply. The CPU, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, does not show signs of limiting performance at any resolution, as the FPS drops are proportional to resolution increases rather than sudden plateaus or stutters.

Notably, the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens at higher resolutions. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 49 FPS (108 vs 59). At 1440p, that gap narrows to 37 FPS (82 vs 45). At 4K, the difference compresses to 25 FPS (55 vs 30). This compression suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily loaded that even reducing settings cannot fully compensate for the raw pixel throughput required.

Settings Recommendations — which preset gives the best experience per the measured rows

For 1080p gameplay, Medium settings appear to offer the most balanced experience. The measured 77 FPS average with a minimum of 65 FPS and maximum of 88 FPS provides smooth motion without the visual compromises of Low settings. High settings at 68 FPS are also viable, but Medium maintains a more comfortable margin above 60 FPS for consistent frame pacing.

At 1440p, Medium settings again emerge as the practical choice. The 58 FPS average, with minimums at 49 and maximums at 67, sits right at the edge of playability. Low settings push this to 82 FPS for those prioritizing frame rate over visuals, but Medium delivers a noticeably better image quality. High settings at 52 FPS may feel slightly less fluid during intense combat sequences, while Ultra at 45 FPS is borderline for a fast-paced action title.

For 4K, none of the presets achieve a locked 60 FPS. Low settings produce 55 FPS, which is the only preset that comes close to playable smoothness. Medium drops to 39 FPS, High to 35 FPS, and Ultra to 30 FPS. The data suggests that 4K is not a realistic target for this combo in Control, with Low being the only viable option for those who insist on 3840x2160 output.

The Medium preset at 1080p stands out as the sweet spot. It provides a 77 FPS average, which is 9 FPS higher than High and only 31 FPS lower than Low, while offering substantially better visual fidelity than Low. The minimum FPS of 65 at 1080p Medium ensures that even demanding scenes remain fluid.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

This specific combination of the Intel Core i5-11400F and AMD Radeon RX 6600 ranks 2904 out of 3720 tested combos in Control. That places it in the lower-middle portion of the field, at roughly the 22nd percentile of all combinations evaluated. This ranking reflects the modest performance ceiling of both components rather than any specific incompatibility.

The CPU's overall benchmark percentile is 71, meaning it outperforms 71% of all tested processors in general workloads. In contrast, the GPU sits at the 63rd percentile among all graphics cards. When combined in this game, the pairing underperforms what the individual component percentiles might suggest, indicating that Control is a demanding title that stresses the GPU more heavily than average games.

Looking at nearest rivals for the CPU, the i5-11400F's average benchmark score of 17177 is nearly identical to the AMD EPYC 7H12 at 17120 (0.3% delta), the Intel Core i5-12450H at 17239 (-0.4% delta), and the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 8300G at 17278 (-0.6% delta). This tight clustering shows that the CPU's compute performance is well-matched to its peers, yet none of these configurations would meaningfully change the game's outcome given the GPU constraint.

For the GPU, the RX 6600's average benchmark score of 19036 is essentially tied with the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 at 19030 (0% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile at 19049 (-0.1% delta). The near-zero delta percentages confirm that the RX 6600 performs exactly at the expected level for its class, neither overperforming nor underperforming in synthetic benchmarks. The game's ranking, therefore, reflects the inherent limits of this hardware tier rather than any optimization issues.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

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

A: The data shows 1920x1080 as the only resolution where all settings presets achieve playable frame rates. At 1080p, even Ultra settings maintain a 59 FPS average, while Medium hits 77 FPS. At 1440p, only Low and Medium stay above 50 FPS, and at 4K, all presets fall below 60 FPS.

Q: How much performance does High settings sacrifice compared to Medium at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, High settings average 68 FPS while Medium averages 77 FPS, a difference of 9 FPS. The minimum FPS for Medium is 65, while High has no recorded minimum, suggesting Medium offers better frame consistency for a relatively small visual trade-off.

*Q: Does the RX 6600 have enough VRAM for Control at 4K?*

A: The card has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with a 128-bit bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. At 3840x2160, the highest average FPS recorded is 55 on Low settings, dropping to 30 on Ultra. The performance degradation at 4K indicates the memory subsystem is insufficient for smooth high-resolution gameplay.

Q: How does this combo rank against all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2904 out of 3720 tested combos in Control. This places it in the lower 22% of all combinations tested, reflecting the mid-range positioning of both the i5-11400F and RX 6600.

Q: What is the FPS range for Medium settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the measured average is 58 FPS, with a minimum of 49 FPS and maximum of 67 FPS. This is the only preset at 1440p that provides both a recorded minimum and maximum, indicating stable performance.

Q: Can this system handle Ultra settings at any resolution?

A: Yes, but only at 1080p where Ultra averages 59 FPS. At 1440p, Ultra drops to 45 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 30 FPS. The 1080p Ultra setting is the only configuration where the maximum quality preset remains playable.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the Navi 23 chip using RDNA 2.0 architecture at a 7 nm process node. It operates with a base clock of 1626 MHz and a boost clock of 2491 MHz, with a game clock rated at 2044 MHz. The memory runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective speed, delivering 224.0 GB/s bandwidth across a 128-bit bus.

The 8 GB of GDDR6 VRAM is a critical factor in Control's performance. The game's demanding textures and effects at higher resolutions likely exceed what this memory capacity can efficiently handle. This is evidenced by the dramatic FPS drop when moving from 1440p to 4K, where the pixel count quadruples but the memory bandwidth only scales with resolution demands, not capacity.

The card's compute specifications include 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs. These translate to a pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 8.928 TFLOPS provides the raw compute power for the game's physics and particle effects. The 28 ray tracing cores are present but Control's implementation of ray tracing likely contributes to the lower frame rates at higher settings, though the measured data does not separate ray tracing from other effects.

The GPU's benchmark performance, with a passmark G3D score of 15096 and a percentile of 63, places it in the mid-range of graphics cards. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 with a 0% delta and the RTX 4050 Mobile with a -0.1% delta, confirming that the RX 6600 performs exactly at its expected tier. The 132 W TDP and PCIe 4.0 x8 interface are adequate for this workload, though the x8 bus width could theoretically limit performance in some scenarios, the measured data does not indicate this is a bottleneck.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core i5-11400F provides 6 physical cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. This Rocket Lake architecture processor, built on Intel's 14 nm process, has a 12 MB shared L3 cache and support for dual-channel DDR4 memory with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. The 65 W TDP indicates efficient power usage for a desktop part.

In Control, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU, as the frame rates scale consistently with resolution changes rather than showing CPU-related bottlenecks. The 108 FPS average at 1080p Low settings demonstrates that the CPU can feed the GPU sufficiently at lower resolutions. Even at 1080p Ultra, the 59 FPS average suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor, as the GPU is likely saturated at that quality level.

The processor's benchmark results show strong single-threaded and multithreaded performance. The Cinebench R23 scores of 14340 multicore and 2024 singlecore, along with a Geekbench singlecore score of 1777, indicate solid computational capability. The Passmark single-thread score of 2981 and multithread score of 16908 further confirm this. The 3DMark scores, particularly 5619 for 16 threads and 5652 for max threads, show that the CPU handles multithreaded workloads well, which is relevant for Control's background simulation and physics calculations.

The CPU's percentile of 71 and average benchmark score of 17177 place it slightly above the midpoint of all tested processors. Its nearest rivals, including the AMD EPYC 7H12 and Intel Core i5-12450H, all score within 0.6% of each other, demonstrating that the i5-11400F delivers exactly average performance for its class. In Control, this translates to consistent frame delivery without noticeable CPU-induced stutters, as the measured minimum FPS values (where recorded) remain close to average values.

Measured FPS Breakdown — resolution by resolution, settings by settings, exact numbers

At 1920x1080, the full range of settings was measured. Low settings produced the highest average at 108 FPS. Medium settings achieved 77 FPS with a minimum of 65 and maximum of 88. High settings delivered 68 FPS, and Ultra settings produced 59 FPS. No minimum or maximum values were recorded for Low, High, or Ultra at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, all four presets were again tested. Low settings averaged 82 FPS, Medium averaged 58 FPS with a minimum of 49 and maximum of 67, High averaged 52 FPS, and Ultra averaged 45 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one at 1440p with recorded min/max values, suggesting more stable frame delivery compared to other presets.

At 3840x2160, the performance drops significantly across all settings. Low settings averaged 55 FPS, Medium averaged 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 and maximum of 45, High averaged 35 FPS, and Ultra averaged 30 FPS. The Medium preset again has the only recorded min/max values, showing a range of 12 FPS between minimum and maximum.

The complete data table shows consistent scaling: at each resolution, Low provides the highest FPS, followed by Medium, then High, with Ultra providing the lowest. The delta between Low and Ultra is 49 FPS at 1080p, 37 FPS at 1440p, and 25 FPS at 4K. This narrowing gap at higher resolutions reinforces the GPU-bound nature of the system, as the card's fill rate and memory bandwidth become the primary constraints regardless of quality settings.