Control

# FAQ

Q: What is the measured performance of this combo in Control at 1080p High settings?

A: The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers an average of 131.5 FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in average benchmark score?

A: The i5-12400F has an average benchmark score of 19,221, which is essentially identical to the Intel Core i7-8700K at 19,210, showing a delta of just 0.1% — meaning the two are statistically indistinguishable in synthetic tests.

Q: What is the GPU's standing among all tested graphics cards?

A: The RX 7900 XT ranks in the 82nd percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 38,358, placing it just ahead of the NVIDIA CMP 70HX (38,225) and slightly behind the NVIDIA GeForce MX570 (38,494).

Q: How does frame rate scale from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 131.5 at 1920x1080 to 100.3 at 2560x1440, and further to 64.4 at 3840x2160 — a reduction of approximately 51% from 1080p to 4K.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU-GPU combinations in this game?

A: This pairing ranks 326th out of 1,636 total tested combos for Control, placing it in the top 20% of all configurations evaluated.

Q: Does the CPU support overclocking?

A: No, the Intel Core i5-12400F has a locked multiplier, meaning it is not unlocked for overclocking. Its boost clock is fixed at 4.40 GHz.

# GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the dominant component in this pairing for Control's frame rates, and the data bears this out clearly. Built on the Navi 31 chip with RDNA 3.0 architecture, this GPU operates at a base clock of 1387 MHz and a boost clock of 2394 MHz, with a game clock of 2025 MHz. These clocks, combined with 5376 shading units, 336 texture mapping units, and 192 raster operation pipelines, provide the raw throughput needed to push Control's demanding visuals.

Memory bandwidth is a critical factor for a game like Control, which features dense particle effects and destructible environments. The RX 7900 XT carries 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s. This is substantial headroom for 4K textures and high-resolution rendering. The memory clock runs at 2500 MHz, translating to 20 Gbps effective. In practice, the GPU's memory subsystem ensures that texture streaming and shader workloads do not become bottlenecks, even at the highest settings.

The GPU's compute capabilities are equally impressive: it delivers 51.48 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 103.0 TFLOPS of FP16 (2:1 ratio). The pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s indicate that fill-rate-bound scenes — common in Control's physics-heavy combat — are handled with ease. The 84 ray tracing cores provide hardware acceleration for the game's reflective surfaces and lighting effects, though the measured FPS data does not isolate RT performance specifically.

In synthetic benchmarks, the RX 7900 XT scores 29,009 in Passmark G3D and 16,828 in Passmark GPU Compute, with a Geekbench OpenCL score of 169,834 and Vulkan score of 160,119. These numbers place the card in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile, scores 38,349 — a delta of 0.0% — meaning the two are effectively tied in aggregate performance. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) ensures full feature compatibility with Control's modern rendering pipeline.

At 1080p, the GPU is not the limiting factor; the frame rates of 206.4 FPS at Low and 131.5 FPS at High show that the CPU can keep up. However, as resolution increases to 4K, the GPU's workload scales dramatically. At 3840x2160, the average FPS drops to 64.4 at High and 59.3 at Ultra — indicating the GPU is now the primary constraint, as expected with a 4K pixel count quadrupling the 1080p workload.

# CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F provides the processing foundation for this combo, and its specifications reveal a balanced six-core design that avoids becoming a bottleneck in most scenarios. With 6 cores and 12 threads, this Alder Lake-S processor runs at a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boosts up to 4.40 GHz. The 10 nm process node and 163 mm² die size keep power efficiency reasonable, with a 65 W TDP that is modest for a desktop part.

Cache hierarchy is well-structured: 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration supports the game's AI routines and physics calculations, which benefit from lower-latency access to frequently used data. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory in dual-channel mode, though the memory bus width is standard. It connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 20 lanes (CPU only), providing ample bandwidth for the GPU.

Synthetic benchmarks show the i5-12400F's capabilities. In Cinebench R23, it scores 16,518 multi-core and 2,332 single-core. Geekbench results are 9,138 multi-core and 2,221 single-core. Passmark multithread score is 19,433, with a single-thread score of 3,481. The 3DMark tests reveal scaling: 5,895 for 16 threads, 4,779 for 8 threads, and 3,067 for 4 threads, with a single-thread score of 909. This scaling pattern indicates that the CPU's performance degrades gracefully as thread counts decrease, though it maintains strong single-thread performance.

In the context of Control, the CPU's role is most evident at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 206.4 FPS — a frame rate that requires the CPU to feed the GPU efficiently. The 4.40 GHz boost clock ensures that the game's main thread, which handles input and game logic, remains responsive. The 18 MB L3 cache helps with the game's streaming of audio and geometry data.

The i5-12400F ranks in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 19,221. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-8700K, scores 19,210 with a delta of 0.1%, meaning the i5 is effectively equivalent to that older flagship in average performance. However, the i5-12400F's advantage lies in its newer architecture and lower power draw, which does not directly translate to higher frame rates but does affect thermal headroom in sustained gaming sessions.

At 4K, the CPU's influence wanes. The difference between 1080p High (131.5 FPS) and 4K High (64.4 FPS) is dominated by GPU workload, not CPU limitations. The CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution tested, as evidenced by the fact that even at 1080p Low, the frame rate exceeds 200 FPS, which is beyond what most displays can refresh.

# How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Intel Core i5-12400F and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT ranks 326th out of 1,636 tested combos in Control. This places it in the top 19.9% of all configurations evaluated for this game. The ranking reflects a pairing where a mid-range CPU is matched with a high-end GPU, which is a common configuration for gaming-focused builds.

The rank of 326 indicates that while the GPU is exceptionally strong (82nd percentile), the CPU's 77th percentile standing pulls the overall combo down slightly. In games like Control, which rely heavily on GPU compute for particle effects and rendering, the GPU's contribution to the final score outweighs the CPU's. However, in CPU-bound scenarios, the i5-12400F's performance would cap the GPU's potential.

Compared to other combos in the database, this pairing is solidly above average but not elite. The top 326 combos likely include pairings with higher-end CPUs (such as Core i9 or Ryzen 9 parts) that sustain higher minimum frame rates and more consistent frame pacing. The i5-12400F's six cores are sufficient for Control, but the game's engine may benefit from additional threads in complex scenes with many AI-controlled enemies.

The gap between this combo's rank and the GPU's percentile suggests that upgrading the CPU would yield diminishing returns for this specific game. The RX 7900 XT is the more critical component for Control's performance, as evidenced by the substantial FPS drops when moving from 1080p to 4K. The combo rank of 326 out of 1,636 is a strong showing, but it also highlights that there are faster configurations available for users seeking maximum frame rates in this title.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals clear resolution scaling patterns that indicate where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 206.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 159.6 FPS (a 22.7% reduction), and at 4K Low it falls to 106 FPS (a 48.6% reduction from 1080p). This scaling is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the CPU has sufficient headroom at lower resolutions.

At High settings, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute values: 131.5 FPS at 1080p, 100.3 FPS at 1440p, and 64.4 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is 51.0% — slightly larger than at Low settings, which suggests that the GPU's shading and memory bandwidth become more strained as settings increase. At Ultra settings, the frame rates are 113.4 FPS at 1080p, 89 FPS at 1440p, and 59.3 FPS at 4K, representing a 47.7% drop from 1080p to 4K.

The Medium settings show intermediate results: 150 FPS at 1080p, 110.4 FPS at 1440p, and 74.5 FPS at 4K. The consistency of the scaling across all settings — roughly a 50% reduction from 1080p to 4K — confirms that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect the 1080p-to-1440p drop to be smaller, as the GPU would have more work to do while the CPU remains saturated.

The fact that 1080p Low produces over 200 FPS indicates that the CPU is not holding back performance at that resolution. The i5-12400F's boost clock of 4.40 GHz is sufficient to feed the GPU at high frame rates. However, at 4K, the GPU's workload increases fourfold, and the RX 7900 XT's 20 GB of VRAM and 800.0 GB/s bandwidth are taxed heavily. The 64.4 FPS at 4K High is still playable, but it shows that this combo is not designed for maximum refresh rates at 4K in Control.

The scaling data also suggests that users targeting 1440p High (100.3 FPS) or 1080p Ultra (113.4 FPS) will get the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 4K, dropping from High to Low settings yields a 64.6% improvement in frame rate (64.4 to 106 FPS), which is a significant gain for users prioritizing smoothness over fidelity. This behavior is consistent with a GPU that has sufficient raw compute but is ultimately limited by the demands of 4K rendering.