Control

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti lands in the middle of the pack for Control, holding the 961st spot out of 1636 tested combos. This places it in the 41st percentile of all configurations, meaning a substantial portion of systems will deliver higher frame rates, but this combo still provides a playable experience at most settings, particularly at 1080p where it clears the 60 FPS threshold with room to spare.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo’s rank of 961 out of 1636 is a direct reflection of the GTX 1080 Ti’s age relative to modern titles. The CPU is not the limiting factor here; the i5-13400F sits in the 82nd percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU languishes in the 61st percentile. This imbalance is clear in the data: the CPU’s average benchmark score of 25236 is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, with the Intel Core i7-13620H trailing by just 0.1%, and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D leading by a mere 0.5%. On the GPU side, the GTX 1080 Ti’s average score of 19402 is virtually tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (0% delta), while the AMD Radeon Pro 560X is 0.1% behind and the NVIDIA TITAN Xp is 1.1% ahead. The data shows a system where the processor has headroom, but the graphics card caps overall performance.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a Raptor Lake-S part built on Intel’s 10 nm process, featuring 10 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock of 2.50 GHz can boost up to 4.60 GHz, and it carries 20 MB of shared L3 cache along with 1.25 MB of L2 per core. These specifications translate into strong synthetic results: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21279 and a single-core score of 3004, with Geekbench scores of 10971 multi-core and 2301 single-core. In Control, this CPU is more than adequate. The game’s engine scales well with modern processors, and the i5-13400F’s 16 threads provide ample headroom for the physics and AI systems running alongside the render pipeline. The gap between the 1080p Low score of 134.8 FPS and the 4K Low score of 66.5 FPS suggests the CPU is rarely the bottleneck; even at the lowest settings, the frame rate drops are driven by GPU load as resolution climbs.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is a Pascal-generation card with 11 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 352-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 484.4 GB/s. Its base clock of 1481 MHz boosts to 1582 MHz, and the memory runs at 1376 MHz (or 11 Gbps effective). The card’s 3584 shading units and 88 ROPs produce a pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance at 11.34 TFLOPS. In Control, these specs are the deciding factor. The game’s particle effects and volumetric lighting tax the GPU heavily, and the GTX 1080 Ti’s lack of dedicated ray tracing cores means it relies on traditional rasterization. The data confirms this: at 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 35.4 FPS, a figure that highlights the GPU’s struggle with the game’s highest preset. The 11 GB VRAM is sufficient for this title, but the raw compute power is not enough to maintain high frame rates at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the combo delivers 134.8 FPS on Low, 97.7 FPS on Medium, 86.4 FPS on High, and 73.2 FPS on Ultra. These numbers show a comfortable experience for competitive play on Low, while Ultra still clears 60 FPS, making 1080p the sweet spot for this pairing. Moving to 2560x1440, frame rates drop to 103.9 FPS on Low, 69.7 FPS on Medium, 65.7 FPS on High, and 52.8 FPS on Ultra. Here, the Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS mark, but High remains playable. At 3840x2160, the situation tightens significantly: 66.5 FPS on Low, 47.5 FPS on Medium, 43.4 FPS on High, and 35.4 FPS on Ultra. Only the Low preset achieves a smooth frame rate at 4K, and even that is borderline. The step from High to Ultra at 1440p costs roughly 13 FPS, while the same step at 4K costs only 8 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns as the GPU becomes fully saturated.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K tells a story of GPU dominance. At High settings, the combo drops from 86.4 FPS at 1080p to 65.7 FPS at 1440p (a 24% reduction) and then to 43.4 FPS at 4K (a 34% reduction from 1440p). This steep decline indicates the GTX 1080 Ti is the limiting component; a CPU-bound system would show a smaller drop between 1440p and 4K. The Low preset shows a similar trend: 134.8 FPS at 1080p falls to 103.9 FPS at 1440p and then to 66.5 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1440p to 4K is 36%, nearly identical to the High preset’s 34%, which confirms that the GPU is consistently the bottleneck across all settings. The i5-13400F’s processing power is sufficient to feed the GPU even at 1080p Low, where the 134.8 FPS figure is likely near the CPU’s practical limit for this game, but the scaling pattern shows no evidence of a CPU ceiling.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo good for 1080p gaming in Control?*

A: Yes. The measured FPS at 1920x1080 shows 86.4 FPS on High and 73.2 FPS on Ultra, both above the 60 FPS target. Even the lowest preset hits 134.8 FPS, so the combo handles 1080p with ease.

*Q: Can this system handle 4K in Control?*

A: Only at Low settings, where it achieves 66.5 FPS. At Medium it drops to 47.5 FPS, High to 43.4 FPS, and Ultra to 35.4 FPS, making 4K playable only at the lowest preset.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its direct rivals?

A: The i5-13400F’s average benchmark score of 25236 is within 0.5% of its nearest rivals. The Intel Core i7-13620H is 0.1% slower, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D is 0.5% faster, and the AMD EPYC 9474F is 0.5% slower.

Q: What is the GPU’s standing relative to other cards?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti has an average benchmark score of 19402, placing it in the 61st percentile. It is effectively tied with the GTX 780 (0% delta) and the AMD Radeon Pro 560X (0.1% behind), while the NVIDIA TITAN Xp is 1.1% ahead.

Q: Which setting is best for a balance of quality and performance at 1440p?

A: High settings at 2560x1440 yield 65.7 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium delivers 69.7 FPS, but the visual trade-off may not be worth the small gain. Ultra drops to 52.8 FPS, so High is the recommended choice.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU more responsible for frame rate limitations?

A: The GPU. The CPU ranks in the 82nd percentile with strong multi-threaded scores (Cinebench R23 multi-core of 21279), while the GPU sits in the 61st percentile. The resolution scaling data confirms the GPU is the bottleneck, as frame rates drop consistently from 1080p to 4K across all settings.