Control

# Control: Intel Core i5-13400F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 — Benchmark Analysis

This combination of Intel's Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4090 delivers remarkable performance in Control, a 2019 Action Adventure title that remains demanding at high resolutions. The data shows a system capable of triple-digit frame rates across most settings, with the measured results placing this pairing at rank 147 out of 3,720 tested combinations — a top-tier outcome that reflects the GPU's immense compute resources paired with a competent 10-core processor.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data across resolutions and presets reveals a clear hierarchy in Control. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset produces an average of 76 FPS, while High raises this to 88 FPS, Medium to 99 FPS, and Low jumps to 139 FPS. The 4K Ultra figure dips below the 80 FPS threshold that many displays target, making High or Medium the more practical choices for 4K gaming on this hardware.

At 2560x1440, the situation improves substantially. Ultra averages 113 FPS, High reaches 130 FPS, Medium hits 146 FPS, and Low tops out at 206 FPS. The 1440p Ultra result comfortably exceeds 100 FPS, suggesting that players with 144Hz displays can enjoy near-maximum visual fidelity without sacrificing smoothness. For those prioritizing frame rate above all else, the Medium preset at 1440p delivers 146 FPS with a minimum of 124 FPS, ensuring consistent pacing during intense combat sequences.

The 1920x1080 results show this combination effectively saturates most display refresh rates. Ultra averages 149 FPS, High 172 FPS, Medium 194 FPS, and Low 243 FPS. Given that High provides a 23 FPS improvement over Ultra at 1080p while likely preserving most visual quality, the data suggests High as the optimal balance for high-refresh-rate 1080p monitors. The Medium preset's minimum of 165 FPS at 1080p also makes it an excellent choice for 165Hz panels, as the frame pacing remains above the refresh threshold throughout.

For the best overall experience, the benchmark data points toward Medium settings at 1440p or High settings at 1080p. The Medium preset at 1440p offers a 16 FPS advantage over High and a 33 FPS advantage over Ultra, while maintaining a minimum above 120 FPS. At 4K, High settings at 88 FPS represent the upper tier of playable performance, though players with VRR displays may prefer Ultra's 76 FPS for maximum visual quality.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 serves as the dominant performance driver in this configuration, and the measured results reflect its capabilities. The GPU's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus provides 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth, which proves ample for Control's texture streaming and effect-heavy scenes at all tested resolutions. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz, translating to 21 Gbps effective, while the core operates with a 2235 MHz base and 2520 MHz boost clock.

The RTX 4090's architecture contributes significantly to Control's performance characteristics. With 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, the GPU delivers a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s. The FP32 compute throughput of 82.58 TFLOPS ensures that even the most particle-heavy scenes in Control's supernatural combat encounters remain fluid. The 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores also position this GPU well for any ray tracing or DLSS features Control may utilize, though the measured data focuses on standard rasterization presets.

The GPU's performance percentile of 88 among all GPUs, combined with an average benchmark score of 60,347, underscores its position as a high-end part. However, the nearest rival comparisons show interesting context: the RTX 4090's average score sits within 0.3% of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 and 2.5% below the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M, despite the 4090's superior gaming pedigree. The data suggests that synthetic benchmarks don't always capture real-world gaming performance, where the 4090's 24 GB frame buffer and driver optimization shine.

The GPU's role becomes increasingly pronounced as resolution rises. At 1080p, the CPU can keep pace with the GPU's output, but at 4K, the 4090's raw throughput becomes the limiting factor, with average FPS dropping from 149 at Ultra 1080p to 76 at Ultra 4K. This scaling behavior confirms that the GPU is the primary driver of frame rate in this title, particularly at higher resolutions where the 76,300 million transistors on the AD102 chip are fully exercised.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-13400F provides the processing foundation for this pairing, and its specifications indicate a capable mid-range part that complements the flagship GPU. The processor features 10 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. This Raptor Lake-S architecture, built on Intel's 10 nm process with a 215 mm² die size, offers a 20 MB shared L3 cache alongside 1.25 MB L2 and 80 KB L1 per core.

The CPU's benchmark results demonstrate solid multi-threaded performance. In Cinebench R23, the chip scores 22,604 in multi-core and 3,191 in single-core tests. The Geekbench results show 11,068 multi-core and 1,996 single-core scores. The PassMark multi-thread score of 25,032, combined with a single-thread score of 3,634, indicates the processor handles both lightly-threaded game logic and background tasks effectively. The 3DMark results further confirm this: 7,314 for 16 threads, 5,591 for 8 threads, 3,459 for 4 threads, and 960 for single-thread tests.

In Control, the CPU's role appears secondary to the GPU, but it still provides sufficient headroom. The processor's percentile of 77 among all CPUs places it above average, and its average benchmark score of 25,292 sits nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS (25,284, 0% delta) and the Intel Core 5 120 (25,362, -0.3% delta). This positioning suggests the 13400F won't bottleneck the RTX 4090 in most scenarios, though the 1080p Low preset's 243 FPS average hints at potential CPU limitations at extreme frame rates.

The CPU's 65 W TDP and LGA 1700 socket compatibility make it an efficient choice, and its support for both DDR4 and DDR5 memory provides flexibility. The dual-channel memory bus, while not directly measured in the FPS tests, supports the data throughput required for Control's streaming environments. The 16 PCIe Gen 5 lanes ensure the RTX 4090 receives adequate bandwidth, though the GPU itself uses PCIe 4.0 x16.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of Intel Core i5-13400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 achieves a combo rank of 147 out of 3,720 tested combinations in Control. This places the pairing in the top 4% of all tested systems, a strong result that reflects the GPU's dominance in this title. The rank indicates that most of the 3,573 combinations ranked below this pairing, while only 146 systems delivered higher average frame rates across the measured presets.

This ranking makes sense given the RTX 4090's position as a flagship GPU, even when paired with a mid-range CPU. The data suggests that in Control, the GPU contributes more heavily to overall performance than the processor, as evidenced by the significant FPS drops when moving from 1080p to 4K at identical settings. At 4K Ultra, the system averages 76 FPS, while at 1080p Ultra it reaches 149 FPS — a 73 FPS difference that demonstrates the GPU's workload scaling with resolution.

The rank of 147 also implies that systems with even more powerful CPUs, such as high-end Ryzen 9 or Core i9 parts, may achieve slightly better results at lower resolutions where CPU overhead matters more. However, the 13400F's strong multi-threaded scores, particularly the Cinebench R23 multi-core result of 22,604, suggest it provides adequate support for the RTX 4090's output. The gap between this pairing and the top 146 combinations likely narrows at 4K, where GPU-bound scenarios dominate.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 4K gaming with this hardware?

A: The data shows High settings at 3840x2160 produce an average of 88 FPS, while Ultra drops to 76 FPS. Medium averages 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS. For 4K, High offers a good balance, though players with VRR displays may prefer Ultra for maximum visual quality.

Q: Can this system maintain 144 FPS at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 146 FPS with a minimum of 124 FPS, while Low reaches 206 FPS. High averages 130 FPS, and Ultra averages 113 FPS. Only Low consistently exceeds 144 FPS, though Medium comes close.

Q: How does the CPU's performance compare to its rivals?

A: The i5-13400F has an average benchmark score of 25,292, nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS at 25,284 (0% delta) and the Intel Core 5 120 at 25,362 (-0.3% delta). The AMD Ryzen 7 6800H scores 25,201, a 0.4% delta from the 13400F.

Q: What is the GPU's memory configuration?

A: The RTX 4090 features 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz, which translates to 21 Gbps effective.

Q: Is there a significant difference between Low and Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p, Low averages 243 FPS while Ultra averages 149 FPS, a 94 FPS difference. At 4K, the gap narrows to 63 FPS (139 vs. 76). The Medium preset at 1080p averages 194 FPS, showing a 49 FPS improvement over Ultra.

Q: Does the system perform better at 1080p or 1440p?

A: The data shows higher average FPS at 1080p across all settings. For example, High averages 172 FPS at 1080p versus 130 FPS at 1440p. The 1080p Medium preset's minimum of 165 FPS also exceeds the 1440p Medium minimum of 124 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 243 FPS, Medium averages 194 FPS with a minimum of 165 FPS and maximum of 223 FPS, High averages 172 FPS, and Ultra averages 149 FPS. These results show a clear progression, with each preset tier reducing average FPS by roughly 20-50 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low averages 206 FPS, Medium averages 146 FPS (minimum 124, maximum 168), High averages 130 FPS, and Ultra averages 113 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 93 FPS, slightly less than the 94 FPS difference at 1080p.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's workload increases significantly. Low averages 139 FPS, Medium averages 99 FPS (minimum 84, maximum 114), High averages 88 FPS, and Ultra averages 76 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is 63 FPS, indicating that higher resolutions compress the performance range as the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck.

The Medium preset is the only setting with complete min/max data across all resolutions, revealing consistent frame pacing. At 1080p Medium, the range spans 165-223 FPS; at 1440p Medium, 124-168 FPS; and at 4K Medium, 84-114 FPS. These ranges show that the system maintains stable frame delivery, with the spread roughly proportional to the average FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling behavior reveals how the system's components respond to increasing pixel counts. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by approximately 29-37 FPS depending on the preset. For example, High falls from 172 to 130 FPS (a 42 FPS drop), while Low falls from 243 to 206 FPS (a 37 FPS decrease). This moderate decline indicates that the GPU still has substantial headroom at 1440p.

The transition from 1440p to 4K produces more dramatic reductions. High drops from 130 to 88 FPS (42 FPS), Medium from 146 to 99 FPS (47 FPS), Low from 206 to 139 FPS (67 FPS), and Ultra from 113 to 76 FPS (37 FPS). The larger absolute drops at lower presets suggest that the CPU may provide some assistance at 1440p, but the GPU's workload dominates at 4K.

Across the full 1080p to 4K range, the FPS declines are substantial. Low decreases by 104 FPS (from 243 to 139), Medium by 95 FPS (194 to 99), High by 84 FPS (172 to 88), and Ultra by 73 FPS (149 to 76). These percentage drops — roughly 43-48% across presets — indicate that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions, as the CPU's performance remains constant while the GPU's output scales with pixel count.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the system may be partially CPU-limited at lower presets, given the 243 FPS Low result approaches what the 13400F can feed. At 4K, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck, with all presets showing FPS values consistent with the RTX 4090's rasterization throughput. This scaling behavior confirms that the pairing is well-balanced for 1440p gaming, where the GPU and CPU contributions align most effectively.