Control

Control’s benchmark results for the Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT reveal a combination that is firmly positioned in the mid-range tier of the database, ranking 1108th out of 1636 tested combos. The data shows a system that delivers playable frame rates at most settings, but one that clearly hits its ceiling when pushed to higher resolutions and extreme graphical presets. The measured FPS numbers across the board indicate a pairing where the GPU’s capabilities and the CPU’s processing power are in relative balance, though the scaling patterns expose specific bottlenecks that are worth analyzing in detail.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is the most telling indicator of where the performance limit lies. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 75.9 at 1920x1080 to 56.5 at 2560x1440, and then sharply to 37.3 at 3840x2160. That represents a significant 50.8% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K, which strongly suggests the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. The RX 6600 XT’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count increases, causing the performance curve to steepen dramatically.

When the resolution scaling is examined across different settings, the pattern becomes even clearer. At Low settings, the frame rate only drops from 119.1 at 1080p to 59.1 at 4K, a 50.4% decrease, while at Ultra settings the drop is from 68.1 to 34.1, a 49.9% decrease. The consistency of this percentage drop across all quality presets indicates that resolution is the dominant variable, not the graphical complexity. The data suggests that the GPU’s rendering pipeline, with its 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs, is being pushed to its limits as the pixel workload grows, while the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads have enough headroom to keep feeding the GPU at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

With a combo rank of 1108 out of 1636 tested combinations, this pairing sits in the lower-middle portion of the database, meaning roughly 32% of tested combos perform worse. The ranking reflects a system that is capable but not exceptional in the context of Control’s demanding physics and particle effects. The CPU’s percentile versus all CPUs is 75, placing it above the majority of processors, while the GPU’s percentile versus all GPUs is 71, indicating similar relative standing. However, the combo rank being lower than either individual component’s percentile suggests that the pairing does not fully leverage the strengths of both parts.

The benchmark scores for the individual components help contextualize this ranking. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 17181 puts it neck-and-neck with rivals like the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U at 17189, with a deltaPct of 0, and the Intel Core i7-1260P at 17212, with a deltaPct of -0.2. The GPU’s average score of 27985 places it just 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti at 27956 and 0.9% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 at 28238. These close margins indicate that the combo’s mid-pack ranking is a result of both components being solid mid-tier performers rather than any single bottleneck dragging the system down.

GPU Role

The RX 6600 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a 7 nm process node from TSMC, featuring 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1968 MHz, a game clock of 2359 MHz, and a boost clock of 2589 MHz, with memory running at 2000 MHz for 16 Gbps effective. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provides 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is a crucial factor in this game’s performance. Control’s environments are rich with destructible objects and dynamic lighting, which demand high texture throughput. The data shows that at Ultra settings, the frame rate drops to 34.1 at 4K, indicating that the memory bandwidth becomes a constraint when the game loads higher-resolution textures.

The GPU’s clock speeds and compute capabilities are reflected in its benchmark scores. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test yields a score of 1804, while the Geekbench Vulkan score is 89263 and the OpenCL score is 82736. The PassMark G3D score of 16461 and compute score of 7520 further demonstrate the card’s mid-range compute power. The pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s are adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 4K results show the card struggling to maintain smooth frame rates, particularly at higher settings. The GPU’s 32 RT cores support DirectX 12 Ultimate, but in this title, the standard rasterization performance is what drives the measured FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 119.1 FPS, which climbs to 86.7 at Medium, 75.9 at High, and 68.1 at Ultra. The step from Low to Medium represents a 27.2% drop, while the step from Medium to High is a 12.5% drop, and High to Ultra is a 10.3% drop. This scaling indicates that the GPU has sufficient headroom at 1080p to handle the increased graphical load without severe penalties, and the CPU’s 12 threads keep the frame pacing consistent.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates drop significantly. Low settings average 88.2 FPS, Medium 63.5 FPS, High 56.5 FPS, and Ultra 51.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is now 28.0%, which is slightly larger than at 1080p, suggesting the GPU is starting to feel the pressure. At 3840x2160, the results become more constrained. Low settings yield 59.1 FPS, Medium 45.9 FPS, High 37.3 FPS, and Ultra 34.1 FPS. The difference between High and Ultra at 4K is only 8.6%, indicating that the GPU is hitting a performance wall where additional quality settings have diminishing returns. The data shows that for smooth 4K gameplay, only Low settings reach above 60 FPS, while Medium and above fall below 50 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Rocket Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel’s 14 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 12 MB shared L3 cache. The CPU’s benchmark scores show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14372 and a single-core score of 2029. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5619 and max-thread score of 5652 indicate that the processor can handle Control’s multi-threaded physics and AI workloads effectively.

The CPU’s role in this game is to maintain a steady stream of draw calls and physics calculations, particularly during combat sequences with heavy particle effects. The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is not a bottleneck, as the frame rates scale appropriately with GPU load. However, at 4K, the CPU’s 2.60 GHz base clock and 4.40 GHz boost clock provide enough processing power to keep up with the GPU’s rendering, though the GPU’s memory bandwidth becomes the limiting factor. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for this workload, and the PassMark multi-thread score of 16908 and single-thread score of 2981 confirm it performs similarly to rivals like the Intel Core Ultra 7 164U, which has a deltaPct of -0.2.

The benchmark data indicates that the i5-11400F’s 12 threads are sufficient for Control’s requirements. The Cinebench R20 multi-core score of 6036 and Geekbench multi-core score of 7579 show that the CPU maintains robust performance under sustained load. The CPU’s 75th percentile ranking versus all CPUs means it outperforms three-quarters of tested processors, making it a capable partner for the RX 6600 XT. The main takeaway from the data is that this combo is well-matched for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with the CPU providing enough headroom for the GPU to operate at its full potential, while at 4K, the GPU’s limitations become the dominant factor in determining final frame rates.