Control

The Intel Core i5-12400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 lands at rank 55 out of 1636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the top 3.4% of all configurations. This is a strong result, but the ranking reveals a significant imbalance: the GPU is a top-tier part sitting at the 91st percentile among all GPUs, while the CPU sits at the 77th percentile among all CPUs. The data suggests this combo is carried by the graphics card, with the processor doing just enough to stay out of the way at most settings, though it does become a limiting factor at lower resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 55 out of 1636 tested configurations puts it in elite territory, but it is not the absolute top. The RTX 4090 is the dominant component here, and its benchmark scores reflect that. With an average benchmark score of 66473, the GPU sits at the 91st percentile, while the i5-12400F's average score of 19221 places it at the 77th percentile. The CPU's nearest rivals in the database are the Intel Core i7-8700K (with a delta of 0.1% in the CPU's favor), the Intel Core i5-1335U (0.3% faster), the AMD Ryzen 5 7533HS (0.7% slower), and the AMD EPYC 7773X (1.3% slower). These are all very close scores, meaning the i5-12400F is solidly mid-pack in CPU performance, not a standout.

What matters for the combo ranking is how the two parts work together in Control specifically. The game is an action-adventure title from 2019, and it is not particularly demanding on the CPU side. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 230.7 FPS, which is near the top of what any setup could achieve. At 4K Ultra, it falls to 77.8 FPS. The rank of 55 suggests that many combos with the same or similar GPUs perform better, likely because they are paired with stronger processors. The i5-12400F is not a bottleneck at 4K, but at 1080p, the CPU's limits become apparent, keeping this combo from breaking into the top 50.

GPU Role

The RTX 4090 is the undisputed star of this pairing. It features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz, which translates to 21 Gbps effective. The GPU's base clock is 2235 MHz, with a boost clock of 2520 MHz. This is a massive card with 16384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, along with 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores. The raw compute power is staggering: 82.58 TFLOPS for FP32 and the same for FP16. Its pixel rate is 443.5 GPixel/s, and its texture rate is 1,290.2 GTexel/s.

In Control, the GPU's role is to provide headroom at high settings. At 4K High, the combo produces 86.7 FPS, and at 4K Medium it hits 97.2 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is substantial: 140.2 FPS versus 77.8 FPS, a 62.4 FPS gap. This indicates that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting when settings are increased, and the memory bandwidth and capacity are sufficient to handle the game's textures without issue. The RTX 4090's benchmark scores back this up: its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 9223, and its Geekbench OpenCL score is 317684. In the database, its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (0.4% slower), the Tesla P40 (0.5% faster), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (0.9% slower), and the Quadro P6000 (1.3% slower). These are workstation cards, not gaming GPUs, which highlights how far ahead the RTX 4090 is in this context.

FAQ

Q: Is the RTX 4090 overkill for Control at 1080p?

A: The data shows 230.7 FPS at 1080p Low and 150.5 FPS at 1080p Ultra. The GPU is clearly not the limiting factor at this resolution; the CPU is, as evidenced by the smaller FPS drop between Low and Ultra compared to higher resolutions.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K Ultra in Control?

A: Yes, it averages 77.8 FPS at 4K Ultra. This is playable, though not at the high refresh rates achievable at lower settings. The RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for this game's needs.

Q: How does the i5-12400F compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The i5-12400F scores 19221 on average, which is 0.1% ahead of the i7-8700K, 0.3% behind the i5-1335U, 0.7% ahead of the Ryzen 5 7533HS, and 1.3% ahead of the EPYC 7773X. These are negligible differences in real-world terms.

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

A: At 1440p, Low gives 208.1 FPS, while Ultra gives 112.6 FPS. That is a 95.5 FPS difference, showing that the GPU is being taxed more as settings increase.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck this GPU at 1080p?

A: Yes. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 230.7 FPS, but at 1080p Ultra it only drops to 150.5 FPS. The CPU's limits are exposed at this resolution, as the GPU could likely push higher frames if paired with a stronger processor.

Q: Is this combo better at 1440p or 4K for maximizing FPS?

A: At 1440p High, it runs at 129.2 FPS, which is a sweet spot for high refresh rate gaming. At 4K High, it drops to 86.7 FPS. The 1440p result is more balanced, as the CPU is less of a constraint at that resolution.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings levels, all with average FPS values. At 1920x1080, the combo produces 230.7 FPS on Low, 195.7 FPS on Medium, 175.5 FPS on High, and 150.5 FPS on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra is 80.2 FPS, which is significant but not as large as at higher resolutions. At 2560x1440, the numbers drop: 208.1 FPS on Low, 146.3 FPS on Medium, 129.2 FPS on High, and 112.6 FPS on Ultra. The delta from Low to Ultra here is 95.5 FPS. At 3840x2160, the performance is more constrained: 140.2 FPS on Low, 97.2 FPS on Medium, 86.7 FPS on High, and 77.8 FPS on Ultra. The difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is 62.4 FPS, which is the smallest absolute gap across resolutions, indicating the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck.

The settings scaling is consistent: each step from Low to Medium, Medium to High, and High to Ultra costs a measurable amount of FPS. The largest single drop occurs between Low and Medium at 1440p, where FPS falls from 208.1 to 146.3, a 61.8 FPS reduction. At 4K, the drop from Low to Medium is 43.0 FPS, and from Medium to High it is 10.5 FPS, while High to Ultra costs 8.9 FPS. This suggests that the lower settings are more sensitive to GPU load, while the highest settings have diminishing returns in terms of FPS cost.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals where the bottleneck lies. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 230.7 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops that to 208.1 FPS, a 22.6 FPS reduction, and then to 4K Low it falls to 140.2 FPS, a further 67.9 FPS drop. The percentage decrease from 1080p to 4K at Low is about 39.2%, which is substantial. At Ultra settings, the scaling is different: 1080p Ultra runs at 150.5 FPS, 1440p Ultra at 112.6 FPS, and 4K Ultra at 77.8 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 37.9 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K is 34.8 FPS.

The pattern indicates that at lower settings, the CPU is more of a factor at 1080p, because the GPU is not fully utilized. The FPS difference between 1080p Low and 1440p Low is only 22.6 FPS, which is small relative to the resolution increase. This suggests the CPU is holding back performance at 1080p. At higher settings, the GPU becomes the limiter, as seen in the more consistent FPS drops across resolutions. The data shows that the i5-12400F can push high frame rates at 1080p, but the RTX 4090 is capable of far more, so the combo is not perfectly balanced for esports-level 1080p play.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12400F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the Alder Lake architecture, built on a 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 18 MB of shared L3. The CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus, and it uses the Intel Socket 1700. In benchmark terms, its Cinebench R23 multicore score is 16518, and its single-core score is 2332. The Geekbench multicore score is 9138, and the single-core score is 2221. Its Passmark multithread score is 19433, with a single-thread score of 3481.

In Control, the CPU's role is evident in the 1080p results. At 1080p Low, the combo hits 230.7 FPS, which is the highest average across all settings and resolutions. However, the fact that 1080p Low is only 22.6 FPS faster than 1440p Low suggests the CPU is reaching its limits. The i5-12400F's boost clock of 4.40 GHz is decent, but it is not a high-end overclocking chip, as its multiplier is locked. Its 3DMark scores show a single-thread score of 909, a 2-thread score of 1699, and a 16-thread score of 5895. These numbers indicate solid multi-threaded performance for a 6-core part, but not enough to fully drive an RTX 4090 at 1080p in a game like Control. At 4K, the CPU is less of a factor, as the GPU's workload dominates, and the combo still delivers 77.8 FPS at Ultra. The data confirms that this CPU is a capable pairing for 1440p and 4K gaming, but it leaves performance on the table at 1080p.