Control

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT ranks 607th out of 1,636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the 63rd percentile of all configurations. This mid-pack positioning reflects a pairing where the GPU’s raw rasterization strength is partially held back by a CPU that, while competent, sits in the 75th percentile against all processors. The combo’s rank suggests it outperforms roughly two-thirds of the tested database, yet it is not among the elite configurations. The data indicates this is a balanced pairing for mainstream high-refresh gaming, but the i5-11400F’s 6-core/12-thread layout and 12 MB of shared L3 cache are the limiting factors in this title, particularly when aiming for the highest frame rates at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The 607th rank out of 1,636 combos places this system firmly in the upper-middle tier of the database. With a percentile rank of 76 for the GPU and 75 for the CPU, the two components are well-matched in aggregate benchmark strength, yet the measured in-game performance reveals a slight bottleneck. In Control, the combo’s average FPS across all tested settings and resolutions is roughly 94 frames per second, but the spread is wide—from 46.1 FPS at 4K Ultra to 173.4 FPS at 1080p Low. This variance shows that the combo scales well with settings, but the CPU’s influence becomes more pronounced as resolution drops. The nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks—the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U, Intel Core i7-1260P, and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U—are all within 0.2% of the i5-11400F’s average score, indicating that the processor is neither a standout nor a laggard in synthetic tests. However, in a game like Control, which relies on consistent frame pacing, the i5-11400F’s single-thread score of 868 in 3DMark and 2029 in Cinebench R23 single-core suggests it can keep up with the GPU at high settings, but not at extreme frame rates.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications dictate the combo’s performance ceiling. With 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth, the GPU has ample headroom for Control’s high-resolution textures and effects. The boost clock of 2430 MHz and game clock of 2124 MHz provide the compute throughput needed for the game’s physics-heavy scenes. The GPU’s 37.32 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is substantial, and its 60 ray tracing cores suggest it can handle DirectX 12 Ultimate features, though the measured data does not isolate ray tracing performance. In Control, the GPU’s role is clear: at 1080p, the average FPS across all settings is 124.2, but at 4K, it drops to 63.4. This 49% reduction in average FPS from 1080p to 4K indicates that the RX 7800 XT is the primary driver of performance at higher resolutions, while the CPU becomes more relevant at lower resolutions. The GPU’s 76th percentile rank against all GPUs, with nearest rivals like the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 and NVIDIA P104-100 within 0.7% of its average score, confirms it is a strong but not top-tier card in this database’s context.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows show that the High preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, High yields 107.5 FPS, which is 26.5% higher than Ultra’s 95.4 FPS and only 12 FPS below Medium’s 120.4 FPS. At 1440p, High delivers 82.5 FPS, which is 12.1% faster than Ultra’s 72.4 FPS and 14.4% slower than Medium’s 94.4 FPS. At 4K, High produces 57.2 FPS, which is 24% faster than Ultra’s 46.1 FPS and only 7.7% slower than Medium’s 61.6 FPS. The data suggests that High is the sweet spot: it provides a substantial visual upgrade over Medium while maintaining frame rates that are within 10-15% of the lower preset. Ultra, by contrast, offers diminishing returns—at 1440p, it is only 12.1% slower than High, but at 4K, it falls below the 50 FPS threshold, making it less playable. Low settings are only recommended for competitive play, where the 173.4 FPS at 1080p can be leveraged, but the visual downgrade is significant.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Control at 60 FPS on Ultra settings?

A: Yes, but only at 1080p and 1440p. The measured data shows 95.4 FPS at 1080p Ultra and 72.4 FPS at 1440p Ultra. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 46.1, which is below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core i5-11400F has an average benchmark score of 17,181, which is 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-1260P and Intel Core Ultra 7 164U, and 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U and Intel Core i5-1240U. This places it in a virtual tie with all four nearest rivals.

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Control?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 173.4, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The next highest is 129.5 FPS at 1440p Low, followed by 120.4 FPS at 1080p Medium.

Q: Does the GPU’s 16 GB of VRAM provide any advantage in Control?

A: The 16 GB GDDR6 memory with 624.1 GB/s bandwidth supports the game’s high-resolution textures without apparent memory-related stutters, as indicated by the consistent FPS scaling from Medium to High settings. However, the data does not isolate VRAM usage, so the advantage is inferred from the smooth performance at 4K.

Q: How does the combo’s rank compare to its component percentiles?

A: The combo ranks 607th out of 1,636 (63rd percentile), while the CPU is in the 75th percentile and the GPU is in the 76th percentile. This suggests that the pairing underperforms relative to what the individual component percentiles might predict, likely due to the CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions.

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

A: At 2560x1440, High settings yield 82.5 FPS, while Ultra yields 72.4 FPS. This represents a 12.2% performance loss for the Ultra preset, which may not justify the visual gains for some users.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates the shift in bottleneck from CPU to GPU. At 1080p, the average FPS across all settings is 124.2, with a peak of 173.4 at Low. At 1440p, the average drops to 94.7, a 23.7% reduction. At 4K, the average falls to 63.4, a further 33.1% reduction from 1440p. This scaling pattern is typical for a system where the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. Specifically, at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 173.4 FPS, which is 34% higher than the 129.5 FPS at 1440p Low, indicating that the CPU is still able to feed the GPU at lower resolutions. However, at 1080p Ultra, the FPS drops to 95.4, which is only 1.9% higher than the 1440p Ultra score of 72.4, suggesting that the GPU’s workload at Ultra settings begins to dominate even at 1080p. The most telling data point is the 4K Low score of 88.8 FPS, which is only 18.2% lower than the 1080p Low score of 173.4 FPS. This is a smaller drop than the 25.2% reduction seen from 1080p High to 4K High, indicating that at Low settings, the GPU is less stressed and the CPU’s limitations become more apparent. Overall, the data shows that this combo is GPU-limited at 4K and increasingly CPU-limited at 1080p, with 1440p being the balanced middle ground where neither component is severely bottlenecked.