Control

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT delivers a robust 1080p experience in Control, but the data reveals a predictable shift in bottleneck behavior as resolution climbs. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo produces an average of 181.1 FPS, a figure that drops to 132.6 FPS at 2560x1440 and further to 88.3 FPS at 3840x2160. This scaling pattern—a 26.8% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 51.2% reduction from 1080p to 4K—indicates that the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU retains enough headroom to feed the graphics card at lower settings.

The transition from Low to Ultra settings at each resolution amplifies this trend. At 1080p, the gap between Low (181.1 FPS) and Ultra (97.6 FPS) is 83.5 FPS, a 46.1% performance penalty for maximum visual fidelity. At 1440p, the same settings swing from 132.6 FPS to 71.9 FPS, a 45.8% drop. At 4K, the Ultra preset yields 50.8 FPS, which is just 57.5% of the Low preset’s 88.3 FPS. The consistent proportional penalty across resolutions suggests that Control’s settings scale primarily with GPU workload, not CPU utilization. The frame rate at 4K Ultra (50.8 FPS) falls below the 60 FPS threshold, signaling that this combo requires settings adjustments for smooth 4K play, while 1080p and 1440p remain comfortably playable even at High settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the dominant component in this pairing for Control, as evidenced by the frame rate deltas when resolution or settings change. The GPU’s 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is ample for the game’s texture streaming demands at 4K. The measured FPS at 4K High (57 FPS) versus 4K Medium (68 FPS) shows a 16.2% improvement from dropping one settings tier, while the jump from High to Ultra at 4K costs 6.2 FPS (10.9%). This sensitivity to settings confirms that the RX 6800 XT’s raw compute—20.74 TFLOPS FP32 and 288 TMUs—is being taxed heavily at higher resolutions.

The GPU’s boost clock of 2250 MHz and game clock of 2015 MHz are typical for the RDNA 2 architecture, and the data suggests that Control does not heavily stress the memory subsystem, as the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is more linear than exponential. The GPU’s benchmark percentile of 87 versus all GPUs places it in the upper tier, and its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, trails by 2.6% in average benchmark score. In Control, the RX 6800 XT’s performance at 1440p High (86.2 FPS) and 4K High (57 FPS) indicates that the card’s 128 ROPs are sufficient for the game’s pixel fill requirements, but the 4K Ultra result of 50.8 FPS shows the limits of its 4608 shading units. The GPU’s 16 GB frame buffer does not appear to be a constraint in any measured configuration, as even the 4K Ultra preset stays within memory capacity, but the computational load at that setting drives frame rates below the 60 FPS target.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F plays a supporting role in Control, with its 10 cores and 16 threads providing ample headroom for the game’s physics and AI systems. The CPU’s boost clock of 4.60 GHz and base clock of 2.50 GHz are sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GPU at 1080p, where the Low preset reaches 181.1 FPS. This frame rate is likely near the CPU’s practical limit for the game engine, as the 3DMark single-thread score of 960 and multi-thread score of 7314 indicate strong per-core performance. The CPU’s L3 cache of 20 MB shared and L2 cache of 1.25 MB per core help maintain consistent frame pacing, which is evident in the smooth scaling from Low to High settings at 1080p (181.1 to 115.2 FPS).

The CPU’s benchmark percentile of 82 versus all CPUs places it slightly below the GPU’s 87 percentile, reinforcing that the graphics card is the stronger component in this pairing. In Control, the CPU’s role becomes less critical as resolution increases, since the frame rate drops to 88.3 FPS at 4K Low, which is well within the CPU’s capability to sustain. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D, scores 0.5% higher in average benchmark, but this does not translate to a measurable difference in Control’s frame rates, as the game is not CPU-bound at higher resolutions. The 13400F’s 65 W TDP and 10 nm process node (Raptor Lake-S) contribute to efficient operation, but the data shows that its 16 threads are not fully utilized in this title, as the frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K follows GPU load patterns rather than CPU thread saturation.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings for this combo depend on the target resolution and frame rate priority. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 115.2 FPS, which is 27.9% higher than the Ultra preset’s 97.6 FPS, while the visual difference between High and Ultra is often marginal in Control. For competitive play or high-refresh monitors, the Medium preset at 126.2 FPS offers a 9.5% improvement over High with minimal visual degradation. The Low preset at 181.1 FPS is excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much image quality for the extra 55.9 FPS over High.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 86.2 FPS is the sweet spot, providing a smooth experience on 60 Hz and 144 Hz displays alike. The Ultra preset at 71.9 FPS is still playable but drops 16.6% below High, making High the better choice for sustained frame rates. The Medium preset at 98.2 FPS is viable for gamers who prefer higher frame rates over visual fidelity, but the gap to High is only 12 FPS, so High is recommended. At 3840x2160, the High preset at 57 FPS is borderline for 60 Hz displays, while the Medium preset at 68 FPS offers a 19.3% improvement and is the recommended choice for 4K gaming. The Ultra preset at 50.8 FPS falls below the 60 FPS threshold and should be avoided unless the user prioritizes image quality over smoothness. The Low preset at 88.3 FPS is the only 4K configuration that clears 60 FPS with margin, but it sacrifices significant visual detail.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of the Intel Core i5-13400F and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ranks 562nd out of 1636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the 65.6th percentile of all configurations. This ranking is respectable given that the GPU holds an 87th percentile position among all GPUs and the CPU holds an 82nd percentile position, indicating that the pairing is well-balanced for this title. The combo’s performance at 1080p High (115.2 FPS) and 1440p High (86.2 FPS) demonstrates that it can handle the game’s demands across mainstream resolutions, but the 4K Ultra result of 50.8 FPS shows that it is not optimized for maximum settings at the highest resolution.

Relative to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RX 6800 XT’s average benchmark score of 49982 is 0.5% higher than the Intel Arc A550M’s 49737 and 1.9% higher than the NVIDIA CMP 50HX’s 49071, but 1.7% lower than the NVIDIA RTX A1000’s 50826. In Control, these differences are unlikely to manifest as large frame rate deltas, as the game is more sensitive to raw rasterization power than to specific architectural features. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-13620H, scores 0.1% higher on average, while the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D scores 0.5% higher, but these margins are within measurement noise for a game like Control that does not heavily stress multi-threaded workloads. The rank of 562 out of 1636 suggests that this combo sits in the upper-middle tier of tested configurations, offering strong 1080p and 1440p performance while falling short of top-tier 4K capabilities.