Control

The Intel Core i5-13400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a formidable combination for Control, ranking in the 112th position out of 1636 tested combos. This places the setup firmly in the top 7% of all configurations, indicating that it delivers an exceptionally high level of performance for this specific title. The data shows a system that is well-balanced for this game, capable of delivering smooth framerates across a wide range of settings and resolutions, though the nature of the bottleneck shifts predictably as graphical load increases.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 112 out of 1636 tested configurations underscores its elite status for Control. This is not merely a playable setup; it is one that sits near the apex of the performance pyramid, outclassing the vast majority of other hardware pairings. The high ranking is a direct result of the synergy between a top-tier GPU and a capable modern CPU. While the CPU itself is not at the absolute top of its class, its performance is more than sufficient to feed the RTX 4080 SUPER in most scenarios, allowing the GPU's raw power to be the primary driver of the game's high scores. This placement suggests that users with this combo can expect a headroom-rich experience, even when pushing the game to its higher visual presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the undisputed powerhouse of this pairing. Its benchmark results place it in the 88th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 53,610. This puts it in close competition with the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, which is a mere 0.2% behind, and the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, which trails by 0.4%. It maintains a more decisive lead over the AMD Radeon RX 7700S and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, which are 2.1% and 2.9% slower, respectively. The card is equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a substantial 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This large memory pool and high bandwidth are critical for Control at high resolutions, where texture data and rendering buffers can be extensive. The GPU's architecture, built on a 5 nm process, allows for a boost clock of 2550 MHz, enabling the high fill rates and compute throughput necessary to achieve the framerates seen in the benchmark data.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F serves as the supporting pillar, ensuring the GPU is never starved of data. With 10 cores and 16 threads, this Raptor Lake processor offers a solid foundation for gaming workloads. Its benchmark performance places it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs, with an average score of 25,236. This places it in a virtual tie with the Intel Core i7-13620H, which is just 0.1% faster, and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D, which is 0.5% faster. It also edges out the AMD EPYC 9474F and AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340 by 0.5%. While its boost clock of 4.60 GHz and 20 MB of shared L3 cache are more than adequate for gaming, the data suggests that in Control, the CPU's role becomes more prominent at lower resolutions and settings. In these scenarios, the i5-13400F must work harder to maintain high framerates, but its strong single-threaded and multi-threaded scores from benchmarks like Cinebench R23 (3,004 single-core, 21,279 multi-core) indicate it has the headroom to handle this task effectively without becoming a significant bottleneck.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Control reveals a predictable yet informative performance hierarchy across resolutions and settings.

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers exceptional performance. With Low settings, the average FPS is a staggering 244.5. Moving to Medium settings, the average drops to 173 FPS, and at High settings, it remains highly fluid at 152.6 FPS. Even at the demanding Ultra preset, the average FPS stays above 130, reaching 133.7. This indicates that at 1080p, the system is almost certainly limited by the CPU, as the framerates are high enough that the GPU's rendering time per frame becomes less of a factor.

At 2560x1440, the results show a slight shift towards GPU-bound behavior. The Low setting average is 183.7 FPS, which is still exceptionally high. Medium settings produce an average of 134.3 FPS, while High settings yield 114.6 FPS. The Ultra preset maintains a strong average of 105.2 FPS. These numbers demonstrate that the RTX 4080 SUPER has ample power to handle 1440p with ease, providing a high-refresh-rate experience even on the most demanding settings.

At 3840x2160 (4K), the GPU's workload increases significantly, and the framerates reflect this. The Low setting average is 126.4 FPS, showing that even at 4K, the GPU is powerful enough to push past the 120 FPS mark on lower presets. Medium settings average 89.5 FPS, while High settings average 76.6 FPS. On the Ultra preset, the average FPS drops to 71.1. This is the only resolution where the Ultra setting dips below the 75 FPS threshold, but it still represents a highly playable and smooth experience for a visually demanding title.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows a clear and expected trend where average FPS decreases as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. The most significant drop occurs between 1440p and 4K. For instance, on High settings, the average FPS falls from 114.6 at 1440p to 76.6 at 4K, a reduction of 33%. Similarly, on Ultra settings, the drop is from 105.2 to 71.1, a 32% reduction.

This scaling pattern reveals the nature of the system's limiting component. The performance difference between 1080p and 1440p is relatively modest on all settings, suggesting the CPU is still contributing significantly to the overall framerate at the lower resolution. However, the substantial drop when moving to 4K indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary bottleneck. The RTX 4080 SUPER's raw pixel-pushing power is being taxed heavily by the 4K resolution, especially on the higher presets. The fact that the framerate at 4K on Low settings (126.4 FPS) is higher than the framerate at 1080p on Ultra settings (133.7 FPS) by a narrow margin further illustrates this. It shows that while the CPU can handle the higher framerate logic at 1080p, the GPU's workload at 4K is the dominant factor in determining final performance. The system is well-balanced, but the data clearly indicates a GPU-bound scenario at 4K and a more CPU-influenced performance envelope at 1080p.