Control

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT delivers a solid, playable experience in Control, but the data shows a clear pattern of performance scaling that hinges on resolution and graphical presets. The benchmark results place this combo at rank 871 out of 1636 tested combinations, positioning it in the upper-middle tier of systems. Across all measured settings, the frame rates remain respectable, yet the margins between settings and resolutions reveal where the hardware’s strengths and limitations lie. This analysis walks through the measured FPS data, the role of each component, and how this pairing compares to other configurations in the database.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a pronounced drop as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, which is expected given the GPU’s workload. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the combo averages 92 FPS, but this falls to 65.4 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 49.1 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 46.6% reduction in average FPS when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings, indicating that the Radeon RX 6700 XT becomes the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is steeper, with a 24.9% drop, suggesting that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are increasingly taxed as pixel count rises.

At Low settings, the resolution scaling is less severe but still notable. The combo achieves 142.3 FPS at 1080p, 109 FPS at 1440p, and 73.1 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K here is 48.6%, slightly larger than at High settings, which implies that even with reduced graphical load, the GPU’s raw throughput cannot fully compensate for the 4K pixel demand. Interestingly, the gap between Low and High settings narrows at higher resolutions: at 1080p, the difference is 50.3 FPS, but at 4K, it shrinks to 24 FPS. This suggests that at 4K, the GPU is so heavily saturated that the settings-based performance headroom diminishes, and the CPU’s role becomes less prominent.

Ultra settings amplify the resolution penalty. At 1080p, Ultra yields 78.2 FPS, which drops to 58.4 FPS at 1440p and 38.1 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result is the lowest measured across the entire dataset, showing a 51.3% drop from 1080p Ultra. This pattern confirms that the RX 6700 XT, with its 12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth, is stretched thin at 4K with maximum settings, and the data points to the GPU as the bottleneck rather than the CPU.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is the dominant component in this pairing for Control, as evidenced by the FPS scaling across resolutions. The GPU’s specifications include a base clock of 2321 MHz, a boost clock of 2581 MHz, and a game clock of 2424 MHz, which provide the computational headroom for the frame rates observed. With 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, the card delivers a texture rate of 413.0 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 165.2 GPixel/s. These figures translate into the measured performance, particularly at 1080p and 1440p where the GPU can maintain higher utilization without being fully saturated.

The 12 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for Control at all tested settings, as the game’s requirements at 4K Ultra do not appear to exceed this allocation, given that the card still produces playable frame rates. The memory clock runs at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective speed, yielding a bandwidth of 384.0 GB/s. This bandwidth is a key factor in the 4K results, where the 49.1 FPS average at High settings suggests the memory subsystem is coping but not thriving. The GPU’s FP32 performance is rated at 13.21 TFLOPS, which aligns with the mid-range positioning of the card, and the benchmark results show a percentile rank of 77 among all GPUs, indicating it outperforms a majority of rivals.

The nearest rivals to the RX 6700 XT in the database include the AMD Radeon RX 6800 with an average score delta of 0.7%, the AMD Radeon HD 7950 at -1%, the AMD Radeon RX 480 at -1%, and the NVIDIA RTX A5000 at 1.3%. These deltas are minimal, suggesting that the RX 6700 XT’s performance is tightly clustered with these cards in synthetic benchmarks, but the in-game data for Control shows the real-world impact of its architecture. The GPU’s 40 ray accelerators and DirectX 12 Ultimate support are relevant for modern titles, though Control’s specific rendering paths benefit more from raw rasterization power.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings?

A: The combo achieves an average of 65.4 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings, which is a comfortable level for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the 4K Ultra performance compare to 1080p Ultra?

A: At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 38.1, while at 1080p Ultra it is 78.2, representing a 51.3% reduction in frame rate.

Q: Which resolution and settings combination yields the highest frame rate?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 142.3 at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor at 4K?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K, as the FPS drops significantly from 73.1 at Low to 38.1 at Ultra, showing the GPU’s saturation.

Q: What is the combo’s rank among all tested combinations?

A: The combo ranks 871 out of 1636 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the upper-middle percentile of systems.

Q: How much faster is 1080p Low compared to 4K High?

A: 1080p Low averages 142.3 FPS, while 4K High averages 49.1 FPS, making the 1080p result roughly 2.9 times higher.

How This Combo Ranks

In the overall database of tested combinations for Control, this pairing sits at rank 871 out of 1636, which places it just above the median. This ranking reflects the balanced nature of the components, where the CPU and GPU are well-matched for 1080p and 1440p gaming but fall behind more powerful configurations at 4K. The CPU’s percentile rank of 84 among all processors indicates strong single and multi-threaded performance, while the GPU’s percentile rank of 77 shows it is slightly less dominant relative to its peers. The combination of these ranks results in a system that outperforms a majority of tested setups, but the 871st position suggests that many higher-end configurations, particularly those with more powerful GPUs, will achieve better frame rates in Control.

The nearest rival CPUs to the i5-12600KF include the Intel Core i9-10900K with a deltaPct of 0, the Intel Core i5-12600K at -0.1%, the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H at -0.2%, and the Intel Core i7-13700H at 0.4%. These minimal deltas indicate that the CPU’s synthetic benchmark scores are nearly identical to these rivals, meaning the choice between them has little impact on Control’s performance. On the GPU side, the RX 6700 XT’s rivals show similarly small deltas, reinforcing that the in-game FPS differences are more attributable to the GPU’s architecture than to the CPU.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF plays a supporting role in this pairing, providing ample processing power without bottlenecking the GPU at most settings. The CPU features 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. This configuration, based on the Alder Lake architecture and built on a 10 nm process, delivers strong multi-threaded performance, as evidenced by a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23444 and a single-core score of 3309. The 3DMark results show a max threads score of 7952 and a single-thread score of 1016, indicating that the CPU can handle both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads effectively.

In Control, the CPU’s role is most apparent at lower resolutions and settings, where the GPU is not fully utilized. At 1080p Low, the average FPS of 142.3 suggests that the CPU can feed the GPU sufficient frames, but the drop to 78.2 FPS at 1080p Ultra indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as graphical load increases. The CPU’s 20 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR4 and DDR5 memory provide adequate bandwidth for game data, though the exact memory configuration is not specified in the dataset. The CPU’s TDP of 125 W and PCIe Gen 4 support with 20 lanes ensure compatibility with the RX 6700 XT’s PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, allowing for full bandwidth utilization.

The benchmark data shows the CPU’s average benchmark score is 27827, with a percentile rank of 84, meaning it outperforms 84% of all CPUs tested. This places it above the median but below top-tier processors, which is consistent with its mid-range positioning. The nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i9-10900K with a score of 27829, are virtually identical, so the CPU choice has minimal impact on Control’s frame rates compared to the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of performance across all resolution and settings combinations. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 142.3 at Low to 78.2 at Ultra, with Medium at 101.8 and High at 92. This shows a clear scaling pattern where each step up in settings reduces performance by roughly 10-15%. The 1080p results are all well above the 60 FPS threshold, making this resolution ideal for high refresh rate displays.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS drops to 109 at Low, 75.7 at Medium, 65.4 at High, and 58.4 at Ultra. The 1440p Ultra result is the only one below 60 FPS at this resolution, indicating that users aiming for 60+ FPS should consider High settings or lower. The gap between Medium and High is 10.3 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is 7 FPS, showing diminishing returns at higher settings.

At 3840x2160, the average FPS is 73.1 at Low, 54.1 at Medium, 49.1 at High, and 38.1 at Ultra. Only the Low setting achieves a playable frame rate above 60 FPS, while Medium and High hover near 50 FPS, which may be acceptable for slower-paced gameplay. The Ultra setting at 4K is the most demanding scenario, and the 38.1 FPS result indicates that this combo is not suited for maximum settings at 4K. Overall, the data shows that the sweet spot for this pairing is 1440p with High settings, offering a balance of visual quality and performance, while 4K requires significant compromises in settings.