Control

The Intel Core i5-11400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER produces a fascinating performance profile in Control. This combination marries a mid-range 11th Gen processor with a high-end Ada Lovelace GPU, and the benchmark data reveals exactly where the bottlenecks lie. The measured FPS across resolutions and settings demonstrates that this game is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but the CPU’s limitations become apparent at 1080p when frame rates climb.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and expected trend: average frame rates decrease as resolution increases, but the rate of decline tells the story of component scaling. At High settings, the system delivers 155.9 FPS at 1920x1080, drops to 116.2 FPS at 2560x1440, and falls further to 80.6 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 48.3% reduction in FPS from 1080p to 4K at the same quality preset. The scaling factor is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario where the RTX 4080 SUPER is doing the heavy lifting; the gap between 1440p and 4K is 35.6 FPS, while the gap between 1080p and 1440p is 39.7 FPS.

More revealing is the behavior at Low settings. Here, the frame rate jumps to 199.6 FPS at 1080p, which is only 28% higher than the High preset at the same resolution. The delta between Low and High shrinks as resolution increases: at 4K, Low produces 124.3 FPS versus 80.6 FPS on High, a 54.2% advantage. This indicates that at 1080p Low, the CPU is starting to limit the frame rate ceiling. The i5-11400F’s 6 cores and 12 threads can push high frame rates, but the 4080 SUPER is capable of far more if given a free rein. The fact that Low at 1080p (199.6 FPS) is not significantly higher than Medium at 1080p (176.6 FPS) suggests diminishing returns on CPU headroom once you exceed roughly 200 FPS.

GPU Role

The RTX 4080 SUPER is the clear performance driver in this pairing. Its 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus provides 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for Control’s texture-heavy environments. The GPU’s boost clock of 2550 MHz and its 10240 shading units allow it to maintain high fill rates, evidenced by the 4K Ultra result of 70.5 FPS. The GPU’s average benchmark score sits at 53610, placing it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, and it edges out the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT by a slim 0.2% margin in aggregate scores.

The VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor in this game. Even at 4K Ultra, the card has headroom, as the performance drop from High to Ultra is only 10.1 FPS, suggesting the GPU is processing more complex effects rather than spilling over memory capacity. The GPU’s pixel rate of 285.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 816.0 GTexel/s are more than sufficient for a 2019 title, and the data confirms that the card is never the bottleneck at 1440p or below. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s 80 RT cores also handle the game’s optional ray tracing effects without collapsing the frame rate, though the measured data does not isolate RT on/off scenarios.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the i5-11400F and RTX 4080 SUPER ranks 128th out of 1636 combos for Control. This places it in the top 7.8% of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing given that many combos use more modern CPUs. The rank reflects the GPU’s dominance; the RTX 4080 SUPER’s 88th percentile GPU score compensates for the CPU’s more modest 75th percentile ranking among all processors.

The ranking suggests that while this is not the absolute fastest combo available, it delivers exceptional frame rates in this title. The nearest CPU rivals—like the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U and Intel Core i7-1260P—have similar aggregate CPU scores, but the GPU is what separates this combo from lower-ranked configurations. The combo rank is particularly impressive because Control is not a CPU-heavy game; it relies more on sustained GPU throughput, which the 4080 SUPER provides in spades.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates are consistently high across all settings. Low produces 199.6 FPS, Medium drops slightly to 176.6 FPS, High settles at 155.9 FPS, and Ultra remains above 144 Hz at 134.6 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 65 FPS, which is substantial, but even the lowest figure is more than sufficient for high-refresh monitors. The data indicates that at 1080p, the CPU is the limiting factor only at Low settings; once you enable Medium or higher, the GPU takes over and the frame rate scales predictably with graphical load.

At 2560x1440, the results show a similar pattern but with more headroom. Low hits 179.1 FPS, Medium reaches 134.3 FPS, High runs at 116.2 FPS, and Ultra dips to 103.9 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 75.2 FPS, which is larger than at 1080p, confirming that the GPU is now the primary driver. This resolution is the sweet spot for this combo, as it maintains above 100 FPS even at Ultra settings, making it ideal for 144Hz 1440p displays.

At 3840x2160, the GPU begins to feel the strain. Low yields 124.3 FPS, Medium drops to 88.9 FPS, High falls to 80.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 70.5 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium is 35.4 FPS, which is the largest increment between any two settings at any resolution, showing that Medium introduces significant shading and texture work. While the 4K Ultra result of 70.5 FPS is not as high as the lower resolutions, it still clears the 60 FPS threshold, making the game playable on 4K displays with high refresh rates.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo better suited for 1080p or 1440p gaming in Control?*

A: The data shows 1440p is the optimal balance. At 2560x1440 Ultra, the combo achieves 103.9 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it hits 134.6 FPS. Both are high, but 1440p Ultra offers a better visual experience without sacrificing the 100+ FPS target.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from High to Ultra settings at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, High averages 80.6 FPS and Ultra averages 70.5 FPS. This represents a 12.5% drop in frame rate for the Ultra preset, which is a modest penalty given the visual enhancements.

Q: Can this system handle a 144Hz 4K monitor in this game?

A: No. Even at Low settings, the 4K result is 124.3 FPS, which falls short of 144 FPS. At more realistic High or Ultra settings, the frame rate drops to 80.6 FPS and 70.5 FPS respectively, so a 60Hz 4K display is the practical limit.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data suggests a mild CPU bottleneck at 1080p Low, where the frame rate is 199.6 FPS. The GPU is capable of higher numbers, but the i5-11400F’s 6 cores and 12 threads cap the output. At higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the limiting factor.

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

A: This pairing ranks 128th out of 1636 combos for Control, placing it in the top 7.8% of tested configurations. The high ranking is driven primarily by the RTX 4080 SUPER’s performance.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 179.1 FPS and Ultra averages 103.9 FPS. The difference is 75.2 FPS, which is substantial and shows the impact of the game’s graphical settings on GPU load.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-11400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Rocket Lake architecture, built on Intel’s 14 nm process. Its base clock of 2.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz provide adequate single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3DMark single-thread score of 868 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2029. The CPU’s 12 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for feeding the RTX 4080 SUPER in most scenarios.

In Control, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, but it still matters at lower resolutions. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the frame rate plateaus at 199.6 FPS, which is likely near the CPU’s maximum output for this game. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5619 and max-thread score of 5652 indicate that the CPU can handle the game’s physics and AI workloads without issue, but it cannot push beyond that 200 FPS ceiling. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU has ample headroom, as the GPU’s rendering load becomes the primary constraint.

The CPU’s aggregate benchmark score of 17181 places it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, and it trades blows with the AMD Ryzen 7 5700U (0% delta) and Intel Core i7-1260P (-0.2% delta). This is a mid-range performer, but in a GPU-bound title like Control, it does not hold back the 4080 SUPER except in the most CPU-light scenarios. The 65 W TDP also means it runs cool, but the data does not include thermal throttling metrics, so the practical sustained performance is based on the measured FPS alone.