Control

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 lands at rank 3399 out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the lower 9% of all configurations. This is a combo where the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as the data shows a consistent pattern across resolutions and settings that points directly at the RX 580's capabilities rather than any CPU bottleneck.

How This Combo Ranks

At position 3399 of 3720, this pairing sits firmly in the bottom quarter of the database's Control results. The ranking reflects a system that can run the game but will require significant compromises in visual fidelity to achieve playable frame rates. The CPU itself is not the culprit — the i5-13400F holds a 77th percentile ranking against all CPUs in general benchmarks, with an average benchmark score of 25292. In contrast, the RX 580's general GPU percentile is 53, and its average benchmark score of 12928 puts it just barely above the midpoint of all GPUs tested.

The delta between the CPU's strong standing and the GPU's middling position is the story here. The nearest CPU rivals — the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (scoring 25284, a 0% delta), the Intel Core 5 120 (25362, -0.3%), and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365, -0.3%) — all perform within a fraction of a percent of the i5-13400F in synthetic tests. Meanwhile, the GPU's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12940, -0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (12986, -0.4%), and the AMD Radeon 740M (12870, 0.5%). The RX 580 is essentially trading blows with a mobile-class GPU and a six-year-old mainstream card, which explains why this combo ranks so low for a demanding action-adventure title.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is built on the Polaris 20 chip using the GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured on a 14 nm process by GlobalFoundries. It carries 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory runs at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective), while the core operates with a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz. The GPU has 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operation units, producing a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 193.0 GTexel/s. Floating-point performance is rated at 6.175 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16.

In Control, these specifications translate into a GPU that simply cannot keep up with the game's demands at higher resolutions. The data shows that at 4K Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops to 18 FPS — a number that is effectively unplayable. Even at 4K Low, the RX 580 only manages 32 FPS. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for this game's textures, but the raw compute throughput and memory bandwidth are not enough to drive Control's physics-heavy environments and particle effects smoothly. The GPU's TDP is 185 W, requiring a 450 W power supply and a single 8-pin connector, which are modest requirements for a card of this era.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy includes 80 KB of L1 per core, 1.25 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus and connects via PCIe Gen 5 with 16 CPU lanes. The CPU's launch MSRP is $196, and it was released on 2023-01-03.

Synthetic benchmarks show this is a capable processor. In Cinebench R23, it scores 22604 in multi-core and 3191 in single-core. Geekbench results are 11068 multi-core and 1996 single-core. PassMark multi-thread score is 25032, with a single-thread score of 3634. For Control, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and handle the game's physics calculations. At 1080p Low, the combination reaches 63 FPS, which suggests the CPU can push frame rates well above what the GPU can render at higher settings. The bottleneck is not the processor — the data indicates that the i5-13400F has ample headroom, as frame rates scale down with resolution and settings in a way that tracks GPU load rather than CPU limitations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the RX 580 delivers its best results. On Low settings, the average FPS is 63, which is smooth for most players. Medium settings drop to 45 FPS (with a minimum of 38 and maximum of 51), High settings yield 40 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 35 FPS. The 1080p numbers show a playable range from Low through High, with Ultra being borderline acceptable for those who prefer visual quality over frame rate.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance gap widens significantly. Low settings produce 48 FPS, which is still playable, but Medium drops to 34 FPS (29 min, 39 max). High settings yield 30 FPS, and Ultra falls to 26 FPS. The 1440p results indicate that the GPU is struggling to maintain smooth frame rates at this resolution, with only Low settings providing a comfortable margin above 30 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the RX 580 is out of its depth. Low settings manage 32 FPS, Medium drops to 23 FPS (19 min, 26 max), High falls to 20 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 18 FPS. None of these 4K results are playable for an action game like Control, which demands responsive input timing. The data is clear: this combo is a 1080p-oriented configuration, with 1440p only viable on lower settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the GPU-bound nature of this setup. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 63 at 1080p to 48 at 1440p (a 24% decrease) and then to 32 at 4K (a 49% decrease from 1080p). At High settings, the drop is from 40 at 1080p to 30 at 1440p (25% decrease) and 20 at 4K (50% decrease). This halving of frame rates as resolution quadruples the pixel count is classic GPU-bound behavior — the CPU is not limiting performance because the frame rate scales directly with the GPU's rendering load.

The pattern holds at Medium settings: 45 FPS at 1080p, 34 at 1440p, and 23 at 4K. Ultra settings follow the same trajectory: 35 at 1080p, 26 at 1440p, and 18 at 4K. The consistent ~50% drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings confirms that the RX 580 is the limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rates would not scale so predictably with resolution. The i5-13400F is clearly capable of feeding the GPU at all resolutions tested, but the RX 580's 6.175 TFLOPS of compute performance and 256.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth are simply insufficient for Control at higher resolutions.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this combo in Control?*

A: The data shows that 1080p Low produces the highest average FPS at 63, with 1080p Medium at 45 FPS being the best balance of quality and playability. At 1440p, only Low settings (48 FPS) provide a comfortable frame rate, while 4K is not playable at any setting, with the highest average being 32 FPS on Low.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (12940, -0.1% delta), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER (12986, -0.4%), and the AMD Radeon 740M (12870, 0.5%). The performance differences are within 1% across these cards.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-13400F a strong enough CPU for this game?

A: Yes. The CPU ranks in the 77th percentile of all CPUs, with a multi-core Cinebench R23 score of 22604 and a single-core score of 3191. The measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K indicates the GPU is the limiting factor, not the processor.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum FPS at Medium settings across resolutions?

A: At 1080p Medium, the range is 38 to 51 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the range is 29 to 39 FPS. At 4K Medium, the range is 19 to 26 FPS. The minimum FPS values show that the game can stutter below the average, particularly at higher resolutions.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to all tested combinations?

A: It ranks 3399 out of 3720 combos, placing it in the bottom 9% of all tested configurations for Control. This low ranking is primarily due to the GPU's limitations rather than the CPU.

*Q: Does the RX 580 have enough VRAM for Control at high settings?*

A: The card has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, which is generally sufficient for this game's textures. However, the low frame rates at High and Ultra settings across all resolutions indicate that memory capacity is not the issue — the GPU's compute throughput and bandwidth are the limiting factors.