Control

Control pairs a six-core Coffee Lake processor with an Ampere-based GPU that carries 8 GB of GDDR6X memory, and the measured frame rates in this Action Adventure title reveal a system that is consistently GPU-bound across the tested configurations. The Intel Core i5-9400, running at a 2.90 GHz base clock and boosting to 4.10 GHz, provides a solid foundation, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, with 6,144 shading units and a 256-bit memory bus, delivers the bulk of the rendering muscle. The benchmark data shows a clear hierarchy where resolution and settings dictate performance, with the combination ranking 631st out of 1,636 tested combos in this specific game.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, indicating that the RTX 3070 Ti becomes the limiting component as pixel count rises. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 163.2 FPS at 1920x1080 to 125.9 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 37.3 FPS, and then further down to 84.3 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a total decline of 78.9 FPS, or roughly 48%, from the lowest to the highest resolution, showing that even at the least demanding preset, the GPU is working progressively harder to fill the additional pixels.

The scaling pattern changes subtly when moving to higher presets. At High settings, the frame rate drops from 108.3 FPS at 1080p to 82.5 FPS at 1440p (a 25.8 FPS decrease), then to 52.3 FPS at 4K (a further 30.2 FPS decrease). The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K is steeper at High settings (approximately 52%) compared to Low settings (approximately 48%), which suggests that the additional shading and texture work at higher presets amplifies the GPU's workload disproportionately as resolution increases. The data points to the RTX 3070 Ti's 608.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth and 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 compute being saturated at 4K, particularly when the game's physics and particle effects are enabled.

Ultra settings exhibit the most dramatic scaling, with 90 FPS at 1080p, 71.3 FPS at 1440p, and 48.8 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1440p and 4K at Ultra is 22.5 FPS, which is smaller than the 27.3 FPS gap between 1080p and 1440p, hinting that the CPU may start to provide some relief at lower resolutions but the GPU remains the bottleneck throughout. The overall trend is unambiguous: this combo is designed for 1080p and 1440p gaming, with 4K only viable at lower presets or when the player accepts frame rates below 60 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti achieves a rank of 631 out of 1,636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the upper-middle tier of the database. This percentile position is influenced by the CPU's average benchmark score of 2,305, which sits at the 50th percentile against all CPUs, and the GPU's average benchmark score of 30,849, which reaches the 74th percentile against all GPUs. The CPU's modest standing is partially offset by the GPU's stronger performance, but the overall combo rank suggests that the processor is holding the graphics card back in this title.

Looking at the nearest rivals for the CPU, the Intel Core i3-10305 has an average score of 2,300, which is just 0.2% lower than the i5-9400's score, while the Intel Xeon E-2134 scores 2,295, a 0.4% deficit. On the GPU side, the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME scores 30,755, a 0.3% gap, and the AMD Radeon RX 6700 scores 31,112, which is 0.8% higher. These tight deltas indicate that the combo's rank is not defined by a single weak component but rather by the balanced interaction of a mid-range CPU and an upper-mid-range GPU. In Control specifically, the measured FPS data shows that the combo outperforms many lower-tier pairings, but it does not crack the top tier, which would require a more powerful processor to feed the RTX 3070 Ti at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows provide a clear picture for optimal settings. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 108.3 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and suitable for smooth gameplay, while Medium offers 120.6 FPS and Low reaches 163.2 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 90 FPS, which is still playable, but the gap between High and Ultra is only 18.3 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns for the extra visual fidelity. For players prioritizing frame rate, Medium at 1080p offers a strong balance, as it is 12.3 FPS faster than High and only 42.6 FPS slower than Low, which may introduce noticeable visual compromises.

At 2560x1440, the High preset drops to 82.5 FPS, which remains above 60 FPS, but Medium at 89 FPS provides a safer margin for demanding scenes. The Low preset at 125.9 FPS is the only option that fully leverages a high-refresh-rate monitor at this resolution, while Ultra at 71.3 FPS is still viable for those who prefer visual quality over headroom. For 3840x2160, the data shows that only Low settings at 84.3 FPS break the 60 FPS barrier, with Medium at 60.5 FPS barely meeting it, and High at 52.3 FPS and Ultra at 48.8 FPS falling short. The recommendation for 4K is to use Medium settings, as it provides a playable frame rate without the significant quality drop of Low, though players with adaptive sync displays could tolerate High.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full dataset reveals a consistent pattern across all twelve measured configurations. At 1920x1080, the average frame rates range from 163.2 FPS at Low to 90 FPS at Ultra, with Medium at 120.6 FPS and High at 108.3 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 73.2 FPS, indicating that settings have a substantial impact on performance at this resolution. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 125.9 FPS at Low, 89 FPS at Medium, 82.5 FPS at High, and 71.3 FPS at Ultra, with a spread of 54.6 FPS. The reduced spread compared to 1080p suggests that the GPU is becoming more saturated, narrowing the relative differences between presets.

At 3840x2160, the averages are 84.3 FPS at Low, 60.5 FPS at Medium, 52.3 FPS at High, and 48.8 FPS at Ultra, with a spread of only 35.5 FPS. This compression at 4K is a clear sign of GPU limitation, as the RTX 3070 Ti cannot maintain large performance gaps across settings when pixel throughput is maximal. The data also shows that the step from Low to Medium costs 18.6 FPS at 1080p, 36.9 FPS at 1440p, and 23.8 FPS at 4K, while the step from Medium to High costs 12.3 FPS, 6.5 FPS, and 8.2 FPS respectively. The step from High to Ultra is consistently the smallest penalty, at 18.3 FPS, 11.2 FPS, and 3.5 FPS, which is typical for a preset that often adds subtle effects rather than large-scale changes.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti is the dominant factor in this combo's gaming performance, as evidenced by the resolution scaling data. Its 8 GB of GDDR6X memory operates at 19 Gbps effective, delivering 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth across a 256-bit bus, which is sufficient for Control's textures at 1440p but becomes strained at 4K Ultra where memory pressure increases. The GPU's 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores are relevant for the game's ray-traced reflections and DLSS options, though the measured FPS data does not specify whether these features were enabled, so the raw rasterization performance is the primary focus here.

The GPU's clock speeds, with a base of 1575 MHz and boost of 1770 MHz, allow it to reach a pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s. These figures translate directly to the frame rates seen in the benchmark, particularly at 1080p where the GPU is less likely to be fully utilized. The 74th percentile ranking against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30,849, places it above mid-range cards but below top-tier models, which is consistent with its measured performance in Control. The nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6700, scores 31,112, a 0.8% advantage, but in practice, the RTX 3070 Ti's 21.75 TFLOPS of FP32 compute gives it a slight edge in compute-heavy scenes, as shown by the 4K Low result of 84.3 FPS.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides six cores and six threads, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz, which is adequate for Control's physics and AI workloads but not exceptional. Its 9 MB of shared L3 cache and 42.7 GB/s of memory bandwidth are modest by modern standards, and the CPU's 50th percentile ranking against all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 2,305, reflects its mid-range positioning. The nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, scores 2,300, a 0.2% difference, indicating that the i5-9400 offers no meaningful advantage over a cheaper alternative in synthetic tests.

In Control, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 163.2 FPS, which is close to the GPU's ceiling, but the gap between Low and Medium at 1080p is 42.6 FPS, suggesting that the CPU can keep up with the GPU's frame output without becoming a bottleneck. However, at 1440p and 4K, the GPU's workload increases, and the CPU's relatively low boost clock of 4.10 GHz may limit minimum frame times in complex scenes, though the measured data only provides average FPS. The CPU's 65W TDP and 14 nm process node, part of the Coffee Lake architecture, indicate an older design that is now end-of-life, but it still supports DDR4 memory and PCIe Gen 3, which is sufficient for the RTX 3070 Ti's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, albeit with reduced bandwidth. Overall, the CPU does not prevent the GPU from performing to its potential in this game, but it also does not boost the combo beyond its 631st rank.