Control

Control on this Intel Core i5-9400 + AMD Radeon RX 570 pairing is a study in compromise. The data shows a combination that can hit playable frame rates, but only when settings and resolution are carefully managed. The RX 570’s 4 GB VRAM and the i5-9400’s six threads are the defining constraints here, and the measured FPS across the board reflects a system that is firmly entry-level for a demanding 2019 title.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe, indicating that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 34.8 FPS at 1920x1080 to 25.5 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 27%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 yields just 21.2 FPS, which is a 39% drop from the 1080p baseline. This steep decline is characteristic of a graphics card with a 256-bit memory bus and 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth struggling to feed a 4K framebuffer.

The scaling pattern across all settings confirms this. At Low settings, the gap between 1080p and 1440p is 60.2 FPS versus 40.4 FPS, a 33% loss. The 4K Low result of 28.6 FPS is still below the 1440p High result of 25.5 FPS, showing that resolution has a more significant impact than graphical preset at these extremes. Interestingly, the difference between 1440p and 4K at Medium settings is relatively small (29.1 vs. 20.8 FPS), but the absolute performance is so low that neither is practically usable for smooth gameplay.

What this tells us is that the limiting component shifts with resolution. At 1080p, the CPU’s six cores and six threads are adequate to keep the GPU fed, as evidenced by the 60.2 FPS Low result. At 1440p and above, the GPU’s pixel throughput and memory bandwidth become the wall. The i5-9400’s 4.10 GHz boost clock helps at lower resolutions, but it cannot compensate for the RX 570’s 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 compute being overwhelmed by 4K pixel counts.

FAQ

Q: Is this combo capable of running Control at 4K?

A: Technically yes, but not at a playable level. The best 4K result is 28.6 FPS at Low settings, with High and Medium settings dropping to 21.2 and 20.8 FPS respectively, and Ultra falling to 15.1 FPS. All of these are below the threshold for smooth action gameplay.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing?

A: The data strongly indicates 1920x1080 is the only viable resolution. At 1080p, Low settings achieve 60.2 FPS, and Medium settings achieve 40.9 FPS. The 2560x1440 results, even at Low (40.4 FPS), are not consistently smooth, and Ultra at 1080p (30.3 FPS) is borderline.

Q: How does the CPU’s core count affect performance?

A: The Intel Core i5-9400 has 6 cores and 6 threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost of 4.10 GHz. In this game, the CPU appears sufficient at 1080p, as the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions. The lack of extra threads does not appear to cause a disproportionate bottleneck in the measured results.

Q: Which settings preset should I avoid?

A: Ultra settings should be avoided entirely. At 1080p, it only yields 30.3 FPS, and at 1440p it drops to 22.4 FPS. The performance cost is not justified, as stepping down to High settings provides a significant FPS boost (34.8 at 1080p) with presumably minor visual differences.

Q: Is the RX 570’s memory capacity a problem?

A: The RX 570 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. While the fact pack doesn't provide direct VRAM usage, the massive FPS drops at 1440p and 4K suggest that the memory bandwidth (224.0 GB/s) and capacity are insufficient for high-resolution textures, making 1080p the practical ceiling.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 1583 out of 1636 tested combos for this game. This places it in the bottom 4% of all configurations, confirming it is a low-end performer for Control.

Settings Recommendations

For a smooth experience, 1920x1080 with Low settings is the only configuration that consistently delivers playable frame rates. The measured 60.2 FPS average at this setting is the only result in the entire dataset that hits the 60 FPS target. While Low settings will reduce visual fidelity, it is the only way to get responsive gameplay from this hardware.

If you can tolerate a lower frame rate, Medium settings at 1080p (40.9 FPS) is a reasonable compromise. It offers better visual quality than Low while maintaining a playable, if not perfectly smooth, experience. High settings at 1080p (34.8 FPS) is also usable for slower-paced moments, but it will struggle in combat-heavy scenes. Ultra settings are not recommended at any resolution, as even the 1080p result of 30.3 FPS is too low for a game that requires precise aiming and quick reactions.

At 2560x1440, only Low settings (40.4 FPS) approaches playability, but the 1080p Low result is better. All other 1440p and 4K settings are below 30 FPS, making them unsuitable for action gameplay. The data is clear: treat this combo as a 1080p machine for Control.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the frame rates show a clear hierarchy. Low settings produce the best result at 60.2 FPS. Medium settings follow at 40.9 FPS, which is a 32% drop from Low. High settings yield 34.8 FPS, and Ultra drops to 30.3 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium (19.3 FPS) is much larger than the gap between Medium and High (6.1 FPS) or High and Ultra (4.5 FPS), suggesting that the Low preset lifts a significant rendering load off the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the performance collapses. Low settings produce 40.4 FPS, which is the only 1440p result above 30 FPS. Medium settings drop to 29.1 FPS, High falls to 25.5 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 22.4 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p at Medium settings is a 29% loss (40.9 to 29.1 FPS), which is substantial.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low settings are the best at 28.6 FPS. High settings produce 21.2 FPS, Medium is slightly worse at 20.8 FPS, and Ultra falls to 15.1 FPS. Interestingly, High and Medium are nearly identical at 4K, indicating that the GPU is so saturated that the difference between those presets is negligible.

How This Combo Ranks

The data places this configuration at rank 1583 out of 1636 tested combos for Control. This is a percentile ranking of approximately 3.2%, meaning it outperforms only about 3% of all tested systems. This is a very low ranking, confirming that the i5-9400 + RX 570 is a distinctly underpowered combination for this title.

The GPU’s own benchmark percentile is 74, meaning the RX 570 is better than 74% of all GPUs in general compute tests. However, its nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, which have nearly identical average scores (30109 and 30097 respectively) but are far more modern. The CPU’s percentile is 50, placing it exactly in the middle of all CPUs, but its six cores are clearly a limitation for a game that benefits from more threads. The combination of a mid-range CPU and a low-end GPU results in a system that is far below the median for this specific game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 is a 6-core, 6-thread processor based on the Coffee Lake architecture. It has a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, with 9 MB of shared L3 cache. Its benchmark scores (e.g., 3346 in Cinebench R20 multi-core, 1125 in Cinebench R23 single-core) place it at the 50th percentile of all CPUs, indicating average performance.

In Control, the CPU’s role appears to be secondary to the GPU. At 1080p Low, the 60.2 FPS result suggests the CPU can keep up with the GPU’s output. However, as resolution increases, the frame rate drops, which is a classic sign of a GPU bottleneck. The CPU is not the limiting factor at 1440p or 4K; the RX 570 simply cannot render those resolutions quickly enough.

The lack of hyper-threading means the i5-9400 has 6 threads, which may cause occasional hitches in CPU-intensive scenes, but the measured average FPS data does not indicate a severe CPU bottleneck at any resolution. The CPU’s 42.7 GB/s of memory bandwidth is also a potential constraint, but the GPU’s 224.0 GB/s is far more critical for game rendering. For this pairing, the i5-9400 is a capable partner that won’t hold back the GPU at the only playable resolution (1080p), but it also can’t rescue the system from the GPU’s limitations at higher settings.