Control

The Intel Core i5-12600KF paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers a robust Control experience, with benchmark results indicating a system that remains fluid across the board. The data shows a combination that scales predictably with resolution and settings, though the performance curve reveals distinct bottlenecks depending on the workload. This analysis breaks down the measured frame rates, the GPU's role, and how this specific pairing stacks up against other tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a clear and consistent drop in performance as resolution increases, a pattern that points directly to the GPU as the primary scaling factor. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the average frame rate is 131 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same settings, the average drops to 99 FPS, a decline of approximately 24%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 at High settings, the average falls to 67 FPS, which is a 32% reduction from the 1440p result and a 49% drop from the 1080p figure.

This scaling behavior is typical for a system where the graphics card is the limiting component at higher resolutions. The RX 7900 XT's 20 GB of GDDR6 memory and 800.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle the increased pixel count, but the raw compute demand of 4K still takes a heavy toll. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is substantial, but the gap between 1440p and 4K is even more pronounced, indicating that the GPU's compute units are being saturated.

Looking at the Low settings preset, the trend is even more exaggerated. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 208 FPS, a very high frame rate that suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU quickly. At 1440p Low, the average drops to 157 FPS, and at 4K Low, it falls to 106 FPS. The 4K Low result is interesting because it is still higher than the 1440p High result (106 vs 99 FPS), showing that lowering graphical fidelity has a more significant impact on performance than halving the resolution. This suggests that the GPU is still the main constraint at 4K, but the CPU has enough headroom to push higher frame rates when the graphical load is light.

The data also shows that the scaling from Medium to Ultra settings is not linear. At 4K, the average FPS goes from 75 at Medium to 67 at High and then down to 58 at Ultra. The step from High to Ultra is a 13% drop, which is a meaningful cost for the extra visual fidelity. At 1080p, the same settings progression yields 148, 131, and 114 FPS, respectively. The relative drop from High to Ultra at 1080p is also around 13%, indicating a consistent cost for Ultra settings regardless of resolution, reinforcing that the GPU is the main driver of these changes.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the measured results. The GPU is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 31 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process by TSMC. It features a boost clock of 2394 MHz and a game clock of 2025 MHz, which are the clocks that actually matter for sustained gaming loads. The base clock is listed as 1387 MHz, but the boost and game clocks are what allow the card to maintain high frame rates in a demanding title like Control.

The 20 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 320-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 800.0 GB/s. This is a crucial factor for Control at 4K, as the game’s texture-heavy environments and physics effects require substantial memory throughput. The fact that the 4K High preset still averages 67 FPS indicates that the memory subsystem is not a bottleneck; the GPU's compute units are likely the limiting factor. The card has 5376 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 192 ROPs, which are the building blocks for pixel and texture processing. The pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s are high enough to handle the resolution scaling seen in the data.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 51.48 TFLOPS is a key metric for raw compute, and it aligns with the card's ability to maintain playable frame rates at 4K. The benchmark scores for the GPU show a Passmark G3D score of 29009 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 5623. These are strong numbers, but the percentileVsAllGpus of 55 indicates that the card sits in the middle of the pack when compared to all other GPUs in the database. However, this is a broad comparison and does not reflect its performance in this specific game.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the database, based on average benchmark scores, include the AMD Radeon 660M, NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile, and AMD Radeon RX 570X, all of which have similar average scores with deltaPct values under 1%. This is a statistical quirk of the database's scoring, as these are very different classes of hardware, but it does not detract from the RX 7900 XT's measured performance in Control. The card is clearly capable of delivering high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p, and it remains respectable at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the Intel Core i5-12600KF and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT holds a comboRankInGame of 740 out of 3720 combinations. This puts the combo in the top 20% of all tested systems for Control, which is a strong result given the game’s age and the hardware’s capabilities. The rank is a holistic measure that accounts for performance across all resolutions and settings, and it shows that this pairing is well-balanced for this title.

The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus is 79, which is a high score, and its average benchmark score of 27799 places it near the Intel Core i9-10900K and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, both of which have deltaPct values of -0.3%. This suggests that the i5-12600KF is not holding back the RX 7900 XT in most scenarios. The GPU's percentileVsAllGpus is 55, which is lower than the CPU's percentile, but this does not mean the GPU is weak; it simply reflects the wide range of GPUs in the database, including many older and lower-end models.

The combo rank of 740 out of 3720 suggests that there are many other combinations that achieve higher frame rates, likely those pairing the RX 7900 XT with newer or more powerful CPUs like the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which has a similar average benchmark score but might perform better in specific games. However, the data shows that this combo is still in the upper quartile of all tested systems, and it is more than capable of delivering a smooth experience in Control. The rank is a useful reference point, but the actual measured FPS numbers provide a clearer picture of what to expect.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo is exceptionally fast, with the average FPS ranging from 114 at Ultra to 208 at Low. The Medium preset averages 148 FPS, with a minimum of 125 and a maximum of 170. The High preset averages 131 FPS. These numbers indicate that the CPU is not a bottleneck at 1080p, as even the Ultra preset stays above 100 FPS, and the Low preset approaches 200 FPS, which is a very high ceiling for this game.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong, but the GPU starts to show its limits. The Low preset averages 157 FPS, which is still very high. The Medium preset averages 112 FPS, with a minimum of 95 and a maximum of 128. The High preset averages 99 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to 86 FPS. The step from Medium to High is a 12% drop, and from High to Ultra is a 13% drop. These are consistent with the scaling seen at 1080p, but the absolute values are lower, confirming that the GPU is the primary factor in frame rate reduction.

At 3840x2160, the performance is still playable, but the system is clearly GPU-bound. The Low preset averages 106 FPS, which is a solid result for 4K. The Medium preset averages 75 FPS, with a minimum of 64 and a maximum of 87. The High preset averages 67 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 58 FPS. The drop from Medium to High is 11%, and from High to Ultra is 13%. The minimum FPS of 64 at Medium settings is important to note, as it indicates that there can be frame time spikes even at lower settings, likely due to the game’s physics and particle effects.

The data shows that the Medium preset is the sweet spot for a consistent experience, as it is the only preset where minFps and maxFps values are recorded. This suggests that the game’s performance is more stable at Medium settings, with a narrower frame time distribution. At High and Ultra settings, the lack of min/max data implies that the frame rate is less predictable, which could lead to occasional stutters.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 99 at 2560x1440 with High settings.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 208 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 114 FPS, making the Low preset approximately 82% faster.

Q: Does the 4K Medium preset maintain a stable frame rate?

A: The data shows a minimum of 64 FPS and a maximum of 87 FPS, with an average of 75 FPS, indicating a relatively stable but not perfectly flat frame time distribution.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested systems for Control?

A: The comboRankInGame is 740 out of 3720 total combinations, placing it in the top 20% of tested systems.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 4K?

A: The performance scaling from 1440p to 4K shows a significant drop in FPS across all settings, which points to the GPU as the limiting component at this resolution.

Q: What are the core and thread counts of the CPU in this combo?

A: The Intel Core i5-12600KF has 10 cores and 16 threads.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Alder Lake architecture, using a 10 nm process from Intel. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, which are the key specifications for gaming performance. The CPU’s cache configuration includes 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and a shared 20 MB of L3 cache. This cache hierarchy is designed to reduce memory latency, which is critical for game engines like the one powering Control.

In this game, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and process game logic. The benchmark results show that the CPU has enough headroom to push very high frame rates at 1080p, as evidenced by the 208 FPS average at Low settings. The 3DMark scores for the CPU show a 16-thread score of 7956 and a single-thread score of 1016, which indicates strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 23391 and single-core score of 3302 further confirm that the CPU is capable of handling the game’s physics and AI calculations without becoming a bottleneck.

The CPU’s nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, include the Intel Core i9-10900K and the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, both with deltaPct values of -0.3%. This means the i5-12600KF performs almost identically to these higher-tier CPUs in synthetic benchmarks, which explains why the combo is able to achieve such high frame rates at lower resolutions. The CPU’s percentileVsAllCpus of 79 indicates that it outperforms the majority of processors in the database, and its avgBenchmarkScore of 27799 is a strong indicator of its capability.

However, the CPU’s performance is not infinite. The data shows that at 4K, the frame rates are significantly lower than at 1080p, but this is almost entirely due to the GPU’s workload. The CPU is likely still capable of delivering more frames, but the GPU cannot render them fast enough. The fact that the 1080p Low preset hits 208 FPS suggests that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this game, even at high frame rates. The 10 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient for Control, and the high boost clock of 4.90 GHz ensures that single-threaded tasks are handled quickly. Overall, the data indicates that the i5-12600KF is a well-matched partner for the RX 7900 XT, providing enough performance to keep the GPU fed at all resolutions except the most demanding 4K Ultra settings.