Control

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT delivers a highly playable Control experience at 1080p, but the data reveals a system that becomes increasingly GPU-bound as resolution climbs. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 119.7 FPS, which is excellent for fast-paced action. However, the scaling trajectory shows a steep curve: moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings drops the average from 77.8 FPS to 55.9 FPS, a reduction of roughly 28%. The trend continues at 4K, where High settings yield 39.4 FPS, indicating that the Radeon RX 6600 XT is the primary limiter in this configuration, struggling to maintain fluid frame rates at higher pixel counts.

Resolution Scaling

The benchmark data shows a clear pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases, which is typical for a mid-range GPU paired with a capable modern CPU. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 119.7 FPS, suggesting that the CPU has ample headroom to feed the GPU. The jump to 1080p Medium reduces performance to 82.4 FPS, and High settings further lower it to 77.8 FPS. This indicates that even at 1080p, the GPU's compute resources are being taxed by the game's visual effects, though the frame rates remain well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Moving to 1440p, the system still delivers playable performance, with Low settings hitting 92.1 FPS and High settings at 55.9 FPS. The gap between Low and High at 1440p is substantial, representing a 39% performance penalty, which underscores the GPU's sensitivity to graphical fidelity. At 4K, the situation becomes more challenging. Low settings achieve 57.5 FPS, which is borderline playable, but High settings drop to 39.4 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 35.8 FPS. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this combo requires significant compromises in settings to maintain acceptable frame rates, and the GPU's 8 GB VRAM and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are likely contributing factors to this bottleneck.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings shows a 49% FPS drop (77.8 to 39.4), which is a steeper decline than what would be expected if the CPU were the limiting factor. This indicates that the Radeon RX 6600 XT's rendering capabilities, including its 2048 shading units and 10.60 TFLOPS FP32 performance, are the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT operates with a base clock of 1968 MHz and a boost clock of 2589 MHz, with a game clock of 2359 MHz. These clock speeds, combined with the 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, provide a memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. In Control, a game known for its physics-based destruction and particle effects, this bandwidth is crucial for streaming texture data. The GPU's 32 RT cores support ray tracing, but the measured FPS data does not include ray tracing scenarios, focusing instead on standard rasterization performance.

The GPU's performance relative to its peers is notable. The data shows it sits in the 71st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 27985. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, scores 27956, a delta of just 0.1%, indicating near-identical performance. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 scores 28238, which is 0.9% higher, placing the RX 6600 XT slightly behind that competitor. This positioning suggests that the GPU is a solid performer for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but its 4K capabilities are limited, as evidenced by the sub-60 FPS results at High settings.

The 8 GB VRAM capacity is a key consideration for Control at 4K, where the game's high-resolution textures can consume significant memory. The fact that the 4K Low settings (57.5 FPS) outperform 4K High (39.4 FPS) by a wide margin suggests that memory pressure and texture loading are affecting performance, though the exact VRAM usage is not measured in this data.

How This Combo Ranks

In the overall database of tested combinations, this specific CPU-GPU pairing ranks 1110 out of 1636 combos for Control. This places it in the lower third of all tested configurations, which is a somewhat surprising result given the individual components' decent benchmark scores. The Intel Core i5-13400F ranks in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 25236, while the GPU ranks in the 71st percentile. Despite these respectable individual standings, the combo's rank in this game suggests that the pairing may not be optimally balanced for Control's specific workload.

The CPU's nearest rivals provide context for its performance. The Intel Core i7-13620H scores 25201, a delta of 0.1%, essentially matching the i5-13400F. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D scores 25365, which is 0.5% higher, while the AMD EPYC 9474F scores 25103, 0.5% lower. These small deltas indicate that the i5-13400F is well within the expected performance envelope for its class. However, the combo's ranking in Control implies that the GPU is holding back the overall result, as the CPU is clearly capable of higher frame rates if paired with a more powerful graphics card.

The 10-core, 16-thread configuration of the i5-13400F, with its 20 MB shared L3 cache, provides robust multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 multicore score of 21279 confirms its capability. Yet, in Control, the data shows that the GPU's limits are hit first, especially at higher resolutions where the frame rates drop dramatically.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings/resolution combination for a smooth 60 FPS experience?

A: The data shows that 1080p High settings achieve 77.8 FPS, and 1440p Low settings achieve 92.1 FPS, both comfortably above 60 FPS. For a locked 60 FPS experience, 1440p High settings at 55.9 FPS falls short, so users should opt for 1440p Medium (64.2 FPS) or stick with 1080p Ultra (64.2 FPS).

Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming?

A: At 4K, the best result is 57.5 FPS on Low settings. High and Ultra settings drop to 39.4 FPS and 35.8 FPS respectively, which are below the 60 FPS target. 4K is possible only with significant graphical compromises.

Q: How does the RX 6600 XT compare to its closest rival?

A: The RX 6600 XT has an average benchmark score of 27985, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti scores 27956, a delta of 0.1%. This indicates they perform nearly identically, with the RX 6600 XT having a marginal edge.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The resolution scaling data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. FPS drops by 49% from 1080p to 4K at High settings, while the CPU's strong benchmark scores (82nd percentile) suggest it is not limiting performance.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, Low settings achieve 119.7 FPS, while Ultra settings achieve 64.2 FPS. This represents a 46% performance drop for the highest visual quality, which may be acceptable for users prioritizing graphics.

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

A: This combo ranks 1110 out of 1636 tested combinations for Control, placing it in the lower third of all systems in the database.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for the Intel Core i5-13400F + AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT in Control is as follows:

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 119.7 FPS
• Medium: 82.4 FPS
• High: 77.8 FPS
• Ultra: 64.2 FPS

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 92.1 FPS
• Medium: 64.2 FPS
• High: 55.9 FPS
• Ultra: 50.2 FPS

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 57.5 FPS
• Medium: 46.2 FPS
• High: 39.4 FPS
• Ultra: 35.8 FPS

The data reveals that the step from 1080p to 1440p at High settings incurs a 28% performance penalty, while the step from 1440p to 4K at High settings incurs a 30% penalty. The performance gap between Low and Ultra settings widens with resolution: at 1080p, the difference is 55.5 FPS; at 1440p, it is 41.9 FPS; and at 4K, it is 21.7 FPS. This narrowing gap at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU's fixed resources are more evenly taxed across settings when pixel count is high. The 4K Ultra result of 35.8 FPS is the lowest measured value, indicating that this configuration is not suited for maximum fidelity at 4K. For users targeting high refresh rates, 1080p Low provides the best headroom, while those prioritizing visual quality should consider 1440p Medium as a balanced choice.