Control

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 delivers a playable but demanding experience in Control, with performance that scales predictably across resolutions and presets. The dataset shows a clear ceiling at 4K Ultra, where the combination struggles to maintain fluid frame rates, while 1080p and 1440p offer a wide range of viable options depending on the user's preference for visual fidelity versus frame rate. This analysis breaks down the measured results to determine optimal settings, contextualize the combo's standing among tested configurations, and isolate the roles played by the CPU and GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combination reveals a consistent hierarchy across all three resolutions, with Low settings providing the highest average frame rates and Ultra providing the lowest. At 1920x1080, the spread is substantial: Low averages 107 FPS, High averages 68 FPS, Medium averages 76 FPS, and Ultra drops to 59 FPS. The most balanced experience at 1080p appears to be High, which delivers 68 FPS—well above the 60 FPS threshold—while still offering significantly better visual quality than Low. Medium at 76 FPS is also a strong candidate, providing a 8 FPS improvement over High with only a modest step down in fidelity, and its recorded min FPS of 65 indicates stable frame pacing.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges but with lower headroom. Low settings produce 81 FPS, which is the only preset at this resolution to break the 60 FPS barrier comfortably. High averages 51 FPS, Medium averages 58 FPS, and Ultra averages 45 FPS. Here, Medium emerges as the recommended preset for a 1440p experience, as its 58 FPS average is close to the 60 FPS target and its min FPS of 49 suggests only occasional dips below that threshold. High at 51 FPS is playable but leaves less margin for demanding scenes, while Ultra at 45 FPS may feel less fluid.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 2060’s limitations become apparent. Low settings yield 55 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that approaches playability. Medium drops to 39 FPS (with min FPS of 33), High falls to 35 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 30 FPS. For users prioritizing frame rate, 4K Low is the sole viable option, though the visual compromise is significant. The data suggests that the optimal overall experience for this combo is 1080p High, which balances a 68 FPS average with reasonable graphical demands, or 1440p Medium for users with higher-resolution displays who can tolerate a slightly lower frame rate. The 4K resolution should be reserved for Low settings only, and even then, the 55 FPS average is borderline.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 combination holds a rank of 2950 out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the lower portion of the database. This positioning reflects the RTX 2060’s aging architecture and the game’s demanding visual effects, rather than a deficiency in the CPU. The GPU itself sits at the 58th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 15290, which is modest by current standards. In contrast, the CPU ranks at the 77th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 25292, indicating that the processor has ample headroom for this workload.

The GPU’s nearest rivals in benchmark scores illustrate its competitive standing. The RTX 2060’s average score of 15290 is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (15283, deltaPct 0), the AMD Radeon 680M (15270, deltaPct 0.1), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (15199, deltaPct 0.6). The AMD Radeon RX 7600 (15171, deltaPct 0.8) is also within a single percent. These figures show that the RTX 2060 is functionally on par with several modern entry-level and integrated solutions, which explains why the combo ranks so low in a game like Control that pushes GPU resources heavily. The CPU’s nearest rivals, meanwhile, include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (25284, deltaPct 0), Intel Core 5 120 (25362, deltaPct -0.3), AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365, deltaPct -0.3), and AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (25201, deltaPct 0.4), all of which cluster tightly around the same score, confirming that the i5-13400F is not a bottleneck in this pairing.

Given that the combo ranks at roughly the 79th percentile from the bottom (2950 out of 3720), the data implies that the majority of tested configurations outperform it in Control. This is primarily a GPU-driven outcome; the RTX 2060’s 6 GB of VRAM and 192-bit bus width are insufficient for the game’s higher presets at larger resolutions, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops. The CPU’s strong benchmark performance does little to boost the combo’s rank when the GPU is the limiting factor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 is built on the Turing architecture with a TU106 chip manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It features 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 48 raster output units, along with 30 RT cores and 240 tensor cores. The GPU’s base clock is 1365 MHz, boosting to 1680 MHz, and it has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These specifications translate to a pixel rate of 80.64 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 201.6 GTexel/s, with FP32 performance of 6.451 TFLOPS.

In Control, the GPU’s memory configuration and bandwidth are critical. The game’s use of high-resolution textures and real-time effects places substantial demand on VRAM, and the 6 GB capacity is a constraint at 4K resolution. The measured FPS at 3840x2160 shows a dramatic drop compared to lower resolutions: Low averages 55 FPS, Medium drops to 39 FPS, High to 35 FPS, and Ultra to 30 FPS. This pattern indicates that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute throughput are saturated at 4K, particularly as settings increase. The 192-bit bus width and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the data throughput required by Ultra settings at this resolution, resulting in the observed 25 FPS difference between Low and Ultra.

At 1080p, the GPU has more headroom, with Low achieving 107 FPS and Ultra still managing 59 FPS. The 48 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is smaller than the 25 FPS gap at 4K, suggesting that the GPU’s fixed resources are less strained at lower pixel counts. The RTX 2060’s performance in this game aligns with its benchmark percentile of 58, which is moderate, and its nearest rivals in score—such as the GTX 580 and Radeon 680M—confirm that it operates at an entry-level tier. The GPU’s Turing architecture provides DirectX 12 Ultimate support, which is relevant for Control’s modern rendering features, but the raw power is limited.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1080p High provides a 68 FPS average, while 1440p Medium delivers 58 FPS with a min of 49 FPS. For users prioritizing frame rate, 1080p Low achieves 107 FPS, but High offers a better balance of performance and visual quality.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 compare to its closest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 2060 has an average benchmark score of 15290. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 (15283, deltaPct 0), AMD Radeon 680M (15270, deltaPct 0.1), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (15199, deltaPct 0.6), and AMD Radeon RX 7600 (15171, deltaPct 0.8), showing it is statistically tied with these GPUs.

Q: Is the Intel Core i5-13400F a bottleneck for the RTX 2060 in this game?

A: No. The CPU ranks at the 77th percentile among all processors with an average benchmark score of 25292, while the GPU ranks at the 58th percentile. The combo’s low rank of 2950 out of 3720 in Control is driven by GPU limitations, not CPU performance.

*Q: Can this system run Control at 4K resolution?*

A: Yes, but only at Low settings, which yields an average of 55 FPS. Medium drops to 39 FPS, High to 35 FPS, and Ultra to 30 FPS, making these presets less suitable for smooth gameplay.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p with this setup?

A: The measured averages are 81 FPS on Low, 58 FPS on Medium, 51 FPS on High, and 45 FPS on Ultra. Medium is the only preset that approaches the 60 FPS target, with a min FPS of 49.

Q: How does the CPU’s performance compare to similarly scoring processors?

A: The i5-13400F’s average score of 25292 is within 0.4% of the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (25284), Intel Core 5 120 (25362), AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365), and AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (25201), indicating it is a strong performer in its class.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep decline as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, which points to the GPU as the primary limiting component. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 68 at 1080p to 51 at 1440p and then to 35 at 4K—a cumulative reduction of 48.5% from 1080p to 4K. Low settings show a similar trend: 107 FPS at 1080p falls to 81 FPS at 1440p and 55 FPS at 4K, a 48.6% drop. Medium settings follow the pattern: 76 FPS at 1080p, 58 FPS at 1440p, and 39 FPS at 4K, a 48.7% decline. Ultra settings are the steepest: 59 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and 30 FPS at 4K, a 49.2% reduction.

This consistent ~49% performance loss across all presets when moving from 1080p to 4K indicates that the scaling is resolution-bound rather than settings-bound. If the CPU were the limiting factor, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions, as the processor’s workload would not increase proportionally with pixel count. Instead, the near-linear drop in FPS with increasing pixel count is characteristic of a GPU that is fully saturated at higher resolutions. The RTX 2060’s 6 GB of VRAM and 336.0 GB/s bandwidth are inadequate for 4K, and the data confirms that even Low settings at 4K (55 FPS) cannot match the performance of Ultra at 1080p (59 FPS), despite the significant reduction in graphical quality.

The scaling also highlights that 1440p is a reasonable middle ground for this combo. The average FPS loss from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 24-25% across settings, which is less severe than the additional 33-34% loss from 1440p to 4K. This suggests that the GPU’s resources are still partially sufficient at 1440p, but they are overwhelmed at 4K. The min FPS data at Medium settings supports this: at 1080p, the min is 65 FPS; at 1440p, it falls to 49 FPS; and at 4K, it drops to 33 FPS. The widening gap between min and max FPS at higher resolutions also indicates increased frame time variance, further evidence of GPU strain.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F is a 10-core, 16-thread processor based on the Raptor Lake architecture, manufactured on a 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 CPU features 80 KB of L1 cache per core, 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. It supports DDR4 and DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration and has a PCIe Gen 5 interface with 16 lanes. Its benchmark scores are robust: Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 22604, single-core reaches 3191, and Geekbench multicore is 11068 with single-core at 1996.

In Control, the CPU’s role is less prominent than the GPU’s, as evidenced by the resolution scaling analysis. The processor’s high multi-threaded performance, reflected in a Passmark multithread score of 25032 and a 3DMark max threads score of 7307, ensures that it can handle the game’s physics and AI workloads without becoming a bottleneck. The CPU’s single-thread performance, with a 3DMark single thread score of 960 and Passmark single thread score of 3634, is also sufficient for the game’s main rendering thread. The CPU’s percentile rank of 77 among all processors places it well above the GPU’s percentile rank of 58, confirming that the processor is not the limiting factor in this pairing.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in average benchmark score—AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (25284), Intel Core 5 120 (25362), AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D (25365), and AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (25201)—all perform within 0.4% of the i5-13400F. This tight clustering indicates that the i5-13400F delivers competitive performance for its class, and in Control, this translates to consistent frame delivery at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 107 FPS, which is likely CPU-bound in some scenes, but the processor’s strong single-thread score of 3191 in Cinebench R23 ensures that it can maintain high frame rates without stuttering. The data suggests that the i5-13400F provides a stable foundation, but the RTX 2060’s limitations at higher resolutions and settings ultimately define the combo’s overall performance.