Control

The Intel Core i5-12400 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT delivers a robust experience in Control, with benchmark results indicating a system well-balanced for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming and capable of smooth 4K performance at adjusted presets. The data shows a strong combination where the GPU becomes the primary scaling factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides ample headroom even at 1080p.

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

The Intel Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz. It features 18 MB of shared L3 cache and supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. In the context of Control, a title that relies heavily on physics simulations and particle effects, the processor's multi-threaded capabilities are directly relevant. Benchmark results from Cinebench R23 show a multicore score of 15989 and a single-core score of 2257, indicating that the CPU has both the raw throughput for the game's background simulation tasks and the single-thread speed required for game logic and draw-call submission.

The measured FPS data suggests that the i5-12400 is not a bottleneck at any tested resolution. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 179 FPS, which is nearly double the frame rate of the 4K High preset. This large gap in performance is characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario at higher resolutions, while the CPU still has headroom to push more frames if the GPU could render them faster. The processor's PassMark multithread score of 18747 places it in the 72nd percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 7643 (0.1% slower) and the Intel Core i7-1355U (0.3% slower), showing that the i5-12400 holds its own against a wide range of server and mobile parts.

In terms of core utilization, Control is known to scale well with multi-core processors. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 5873 versus the 8-thread score of 4745 shows a 23.8% improvement when moving from 8 to 16 threads, indicating that the game can leverage the full 12-thread count available. The 4-thread score of 3012 and 2-thread score of 1692 further highlight the diminishing returns of additional cores, but the key takeaway is that the i5-12400 provides sufficient parallel processing power to maintain high frame rates without stutter, even when the GPU is under heavy load from higher resolutions and settings.

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

For a 60 FPS target, the data clearly shows that the "High" preset at 2560x1440 is the sweet spot, delivering 86 FPS on average. This resolution and setting combination provides a 48% performance buffer over the 4K High preset (58 FPS), making it ideal for maintaining smooth gameplay during intense action sequences. If the display is 1080p, the "Ultra" preset at 98 FPS is playable, but the "High" preset at 113 FPS offers a more comfortable margin above 100 FPS, ensuring consistent frame pacing.

At 4K, the "Medium" preset becomes the recommended choice, with an average of 65 FPS and a minimum of 55 FPS. This is the only 4K preset that maintains playable performance without dipping below 60 FPS on average, though the minimum of 55 FPS suggests occasional drops in heavy scenes. For users with VRR displays, the "High" preset at 4K (58 FPS) is acceptable, but the 50 FPS "Ultra" preset is not recommended due to the risk of noticeable frame drops. The "Low" preset at 4K (92 FPS) is unnecessarily sacrificing visual quality for performance, as the Medium preset already achieves a smooth experience.

The 1440p "Medium" preset (96 FPS) and "Low" preset (136 FPS) are both viable, but the "High" preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance. The measured data shows a 10 FPS difference between Medium and High at 1440p (96 vs 86 FPS), which is a modest cost for the improved lighting and texture quality that High settings typically provide in Control. The Ultra preset at 1440p (74 FPS) is still above 60 FPS, making it a reasonable choice for those who prioritize visual detail over frame rate, but the High preset is the recommended default.

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

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable at 1080p with this combo?

A: The highest average FPS recorded at 1920x1080 is 179 FPS, achieved with the Low settings preset. The Medium preset delivers 127 FPS, High delivers 113 FPS, and Ultra delivers 98 FPS.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra preset compare to the 4K High preset in terms of frame rate?

A: The 4K Ultra preset averages 50 FPS, while the 4K High preset averages 58 FPS. This represents a 13.8% performance drop when moving from High to Ultra, with the Medium preset (65 FPS) providing the best balance at 4K.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-12400 a bottleneck for the RX 6800 XT in this game?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not a bottleneck. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 179 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it drops to 50 FPS, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 910 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2257 show sufficient single-thread performance for the game's logic.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for the 1440p Medium preset?

A: The 2560x1440 Medium preset has a minimum FPS of 82, with a maximum of 111 FPS and an average of 96 FPS. This indicates that the frame rate remains above 80 FPS even in demanding scenes.

Q: How does the RX 6800 XT's synthetic benchmark score compare to its rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 48477, which is 1.5% higher than the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile, but 2.5% lower than the Intel Arc A550M and 3% lower than both the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64. The GPU sits in the 85th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: Does the 1080p High preset provide a smoother experience than the 4K Medium preset?

A: Yes, the 1080p High preset averages 113 FPS, which is 48 FPS higher than the 4K Medium preset's 65 FPS. However, the 4K Medium preset provides a minimum of 55 FPS, which is still playable, while the 1080p High preset offers a much larger frame rate buffer.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

The combination of the Intel Core i5-12400 and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ranks 1183 out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the top 31.8% of all systems evaluated. This percentile ranking reflects a solidly above-average configuration, though not a top-tier one, as there are many systems with more powerful CPUs or GPUs that achieve higher frame rates. The ranking is influenced by the GPU's performance, which is in the 85th percentile of all GPUs, and the CPU's 72nd percentile ranking, creating a balanced pairing.

The combo's rank of 1183 suggests that while the system is capable of excellent performance, it is not the absolute fastest for this title. Systems ranked above it likely feature either a more powerful GPU (such as the RTX 5070 Ti, which outperforms the RX 6800 XT by 3% in synthetic benchmarks) or a CPU with higher multi-threaded performance. However, the data shows that this particular pairing is well-matched, as the CPU does not hold back the GPU at any tested resolution, and the GPU provides sufficient performance for high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming.

In practical terms, a rank of 1183 out of 3720 means that this combo outperforms the majority of systems tested, with only about 31.8% of systems achieving higher frame rates. The fact that the GPU's nearest rivals include the RTX 5070 Ti and the RX Vega 64, which are both within a 3% margin in synthetic scores, indicates that the RX 6800 XT is a competitive part in this generation. The i5-12400's rivals, such as the EPYC 7643 and the Core i7-1355U, are within a 0.7% margin, further confirming that this CPU is a strong performer in its class.

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

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 21 chip, featuring 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s. The GPU has a base clock of 1825 MHz, a game clock of 2015 MHz, and a boost clock of 2250 MHz. With 4608 shading units, 288 TMUs, and 128 ROPs, the card delivers 20.74 TFLOPS of FP32 compute performance. The 16 GB VRAM buffer is particularly relevant for Control at 4K, where high-resolution textures and ray-traced effects can consume significant memory, though the measured data does not indicate any memory-related performance issues.

The GPU's performance in the measured FPS data shows a clear scaling pattern with resolution. At 1080p Low, the card achieves 179 FPS, which is 94.6% higher than the 4K Low preset's 92 FPS. This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is heavily utilized at all resolutions, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom. The RX 6800 XT's PassMark G3D score of 24980 places it in the 85th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rivals in terms of synthetic benchmarks are the NVIDIA RTX A1000 Mobile (1.5% slower) and the Intel Arc A550M (2.5% faster).

The 16 GB VRAM capacity is a significant advantage for Control, as the game's environments with destructible physics and complex particle effects can push memory usage high. The 512.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming is not a bottleneck, as evidenced by the consistent frame rates across different settings. The GPU's 128 ROPs and 288 TMUs provide ample rasterization throughput, which is directly reflected in the high FPS numbers at 1440p and 1080p. The card's 300 W TDP is a notable power draw, but the performance delivered justifies this for high-end gaming.

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

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive picture of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 179 FPS, Medium delivers 127 FPS (with a minimum of 108 and maximum of 146), High delivers 113 FPS, and Ultra delivers 98 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 52 FPS, which is a substantial jump, while the difference between High and Ultra is 15 FPS, indicating diminishing returns at the top end.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 136 FPS, Medium averages 96 FPS (minimum 82, maximum 111), High averages 86 FPS, and Ultra averages 74 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p shows a performance drop of 24% for Low (179 to 136), 24.4% for Medium (127 to 96), 23.9% for High (113 to 86), and 24.5% for Ultra (98 to 74). This consistent drop of roughly 24% across all settings indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck when moving to a higher resolution, as the CPU performance remains constant.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 92 FPS, Medium averages 65 FPS (minimum 55, maximum 75), High averages 58 FPS, and Ultra averages 50 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a drop of 32.4% for Low (136 to 92), 32.3% for Medium (96 to 65), 32.6% for High (86 to 58), and 32.4% for Ultra (74 to 50). This consistent ~32% drop is expected due to the fourfold increase in pixel count, though the actual impact is less severe because the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute capabilities are well-suited for 4K rendering.

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

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals that the GPU is the clearly limiting component in this system. When moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, the average FPS drops by approximately 49% across all settings (179 to 92 for Low, 127 to 65 for Medium, 113 to 58 for High, and 98 to 50 for Ultra). This is a substantial reduction that closely tracks the increasing pixel count, indicating that the RX 6800 XT is being pushed to its limits at 4K.

The drop from 1440p to 4K is more pronounced at 32% compared to the 24% drop from 1080p to 1440p. This non-linear scaling is typical of modern GPUs, where the memory bandwidth and fill rate become increasingly strained as resolution increases. The RX 6800 XT's 512.0 GB/s bandwidth and 288.0 GPixel/s pixel rate are sufficient for 4K, but the data shows that the card cannot maintain 60 FPS at High settings (58 FPS) and only barely achieves it at Medium (65 FPS).

The fact that the CPU's performance remains constant across all resolutions, as evidenced by the consistent percentage drops, confirms that the i5-12400 is not a limiting factor. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see a plateau in FPS at lower resolutions, but the data shows that FPS continues to rise significantly at 1080p, reaching 179 FPS at Low settings. This indicates that the CPU has ample headroom to support even higher frame rates if the GPU could render them. The overall system is well-balanced, with the GPU being the primary determinant of performance at 4K, while the CPU provides strong single-thread and multi-thread performance for the game's simulation and logic tasks.