Control

# Control — Intel Core i5-12600KF + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB

Control's benchmark results for this combination reveal a system that scales predictably with resolution, but the pattern of frame rate drops between 1080p and 4K carries a clear signal about which component is doing the heavy lifting. The measured data shows a 165.8 FPS average at 1080p Low settings, which falls to 121.7 FPS at 1440p Low, and then to 85.3 FPS at 4K Low. That represents a 26.6% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 29.9% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is nearly linear with pixel count, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario at those settings.

At Ultra settings, the same pattern emerges but with lower absolute values: 90 FPS at 1080p, 70.1 FPS at 1440p, and 46.1 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 22.1% and 34.2% respectively, indicating that the RTX 4060 Ti is increasingly the limiting factor as pixel density grows. The data suggests that at 1080p Ultra, the i5-12600KF still has headroom, but by 4K Ultra, the GPU is clearly saturating — the 50.9 FPS at 4K High versus 46.1 FPS at 4K Ultra shows only a 4.8 FPS penalty for the highest preset, which is small relative to the 34.7 FPS gap between Low and High at the same resolution.

FAQ

Q: Is this system capable of 60+ FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes, at 1440p Medium the average is 87.9 FPS, and at High it reaches 79.9 FPS. Even at Ultra, the 70.1 FPS average comfortably exceeds 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for a consistent high-refresh experience?

A: At 1080p, all presets exceed 90 FPS, with Low hitting 165.8 FPS and Medium at 113.6 FPS. This makes 1080p the only resolution where the system can push beyond 120 FPS in the measured rows.

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

A: The 4K Ultra average of 46.1 FPS is less than one-third of the 1080p Low average of 165.8 FPS — a 119.7 FPS difference, illustrating the extreme GPU workload shift.

Q: Does the i5-12600KF bottleneck the RTX 4060 Ti at any resolution?

A: The data implies the GPU is the primary limiter at 4K, given the steep FPS drops. At 1080p Low, the 165.8 FPS result suggests the CPU is still keeping pace, but the absence of higher-FPS rows makes it impossible to confirm a CPU ceiling.

Q: What is the frame rate penalty from Medium to Ultra at 2560x1440?

A: The difference is 17.8 FPS, from 87.9 FPS at Medium to 70.1 FPS at Ultra — a 20.3% reduction for the visual quality uplift.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems for Control?

A: It ranks 650th out of 1636 tested combinations, placing it in the upper 60% of all results — a solid mid-pack position for this game.

GPU Role

The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with 4352 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units. Its boost clock of 2535 MHz, paired with a base clock of 2310 MHz, drives a peak FP32 throughput of 22.06 TFLOPS. The 8 GB of GDDR6 memory runs at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, yielding 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications are directly reflected in the measured results: the 4K Ultra average of 46.1 FPS indicates that the memory bandwidth and raw compute are being taxed heavily at that resolution.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings — 105.5 FPS dropping to 50.9 FPS — suggests the GPU's rendering pipeline is the primary constraint. At 1080p, the RTX 4060 Ti has enough throughput to deliver over 100 FPS on High, but the 2.25x pixel count increase at 4K nearly halves the frame rate. The data shows that the 288.0 GB/s bandwidth is likely a limiting factor at 4K, as the 8 GB VRAM capacity combined with the 128-bit bus creates a bottleneck that the 22.06 TFLOPS compute cannot fully overcome. Interestingly, the GPU's percentile rank of 17 versus all GPUs and its average benchmark score of 2913 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 place it in the lower quartile, yet it still achieves 50.9 FPS at 4K High — a signal of Control's optimization.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers 165.8 FPS on Low, 113.6 FPS on Medium, 105.5 FPS on High, and 90 FPS on Ultra. The spread from Low to Ultra is 75.8 FPS, or a 45.7% reduction in performance at the highest preset. This is the tightest relative spread across all resolutions, indicating that at 1080p the CPU and GPU are working in better balance.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 121.7 FPS on Low, 87.9 FPS on Medium, 79.9 FPS on High, and 70.1 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra gap widens to 51.6 FPS, representing a 42.4% reduction. Notably, the 1440p Low result of 121.7 FPS is nearly identical to the 1080p Medium result of 113.6 FPS, suggesting that resolution scaling at lower presets behaves predictably.

At 3840x2160, the results compress dramatically: 85.3 FPS on Low, 60.6 FPS on Medium, 50.9 FPS on High, and 46.1 FPS on Ultra. The Low-to-Ultra reduction is 39.2 FPS, or 46.0% — the largest percentage drop of any resolution. The 4K Medium result of 60.6 FPS is barely above the 60 FPS threshold, while 4K High and Ultra both fall below it. The data reveals that 4K gaming is only viable at Low settings for this combo, as the 85.3 FPS average on Low is the sole 4K row exceeding 60 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-12600KF is a 10-core, 16-thread Alder Lake processor with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. Its 20 MB shared L3 cache and 1.25 MB per-core L2 cache provide substantial on-die storage for game data. The 3DMark multi-threaded scores — 7956 at 16 threads and 7952 at max threads — indicate strong parallel performance, while the single-thread score of 1016 and the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3309 show capable per-core speed.

In Control, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU at higher resolutions. The 1080p Low result of 165.8 FPS demonstrates that the i5-12600KF can feed the RTX 4060 Ti sufficiently at lower pixel counts. The 3DMark 4-thread score of 3806 and 8-thread score of 6128 suggest that the processor's mid-range thread count is well-suited for Control's workload. However, the data shows diminishing CPU influence as resolution increases — the 4K Low result of 85.3 FPS versus 1080p Low of 165.8 FPS is a 48.6% drop, which is entirely attributable to GPU workload. The CPU's 84th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 27827, places it just 0.1% behind the i5-12600K and 0.4% ahead of the i7-13700H in the nearest rival comparisons — essentially a statistical tie with those parts.

Settings Recommendations

For a target of 60+ FPS, the data suggests that 1440p Medium (87.9 FPS) and 1440p High (79.9 FPS) are the optimal combinations of resolution and visual quality. At 4K, only Low settings (85.3 FPS) achieve a playable frame rate, while Medium drops to 60.6 FPS — a marginal result that borders on unplayable for action-adventure gameplay. At 1080p, every preset exceeds 90 FPS, making Ultra (90 FPS) a viable choice for players prioritizing visual fidelity over frame rate.

The measured rows show that the most efficient preset is 1440p High, which delivers 79.9 FPS — only 8 FPS below the 1080p High result of 105.5 FPS, but with a 77.8% increase in pixel count. For players with 1080p displays, Medium at 113.6 FPS offers a balanced experience, while Ultra at 90 FPS is acceptable for those who prefer maximum effects. The 4K Ultra result of 46.1 FPS is below the 50 FPS threshold and should be avoided, as the 4K High preset at 50.9 FPS provides a modest 4.8 FPS improvement for what is likely a marginal visual difference.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the i5-12600KF and RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB achieves a rank of 650 out of 1636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the 60.3rd percentile of all results. This rank is notable given that the GPU's own percentile is only 17th among all GPUs, and its average benchmark score of 2913 is statistically identical to the GT 555M (2913) and RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB (2907). The CPU's stronger position — 84th percentile — suggests that the processor is not the limiting factor in this pairing.

The deltaPct values for the CPU's nearest rivals show a narrow band: 0% versus the i9-10900K, -0.1% versus the i5-12600K, and 0.4% versus the i7-13700H. This indicates that the i5-12600KF is effectively interchangeable with those CPUs in average benchmark terms, yet the combo rank of 650 suggests that Control's specific workload may be more sensitive to GPU performance. The fact that the GPU's nearest rival is the GT 555M — a much older mobile part — is an artifact of the benchmark data, but it underscores that the RTX 4060 Ti's 2913 Steel Nomad score places it in a peculiar position: it outperforms many older GPUs but lags the broader 40-series lineup. For Control, this combo delivers a middle-of-the-pack experience, with the data showing that users can expect smooth 1440p gameplay but should temper expectations for 4K Ultra.