Control

The Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti pairing in Control presents a classic bottleneck scenario, but the data reveals a surprisingly resilient combination. At 1920x1080, the system delivers a robust 124 FPS on High settings, but the frame rate scales dramatically with resolution. Dropping to 4K at High settings yields 61 FPS, a 50.8% reduction from the 1080p result. The scaling pattern is telling: moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings costs 33.9 FPS (from 94.9 to 61), while the jump from 1080p to 1440p costs 29.1 FPS (from 124 to 94.9). This near-linear decline suggests that neither component is wholly dominant; instead, the workload shifts progressively toward the GPU as pixel count rises. At 1080p Low, the system hits 160.1 FPS, indicating that the CPU can push well beyond typical refresh rates, but the 6-core/6-thread i5-9400 begins to show its limits in the Ultra preset, where the margin between 1080p and 1440p narrows to just 29.8 FPS (108 vs 78.2).

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear hierarchy across resolutions, with the most dramatic drop occurring between 1440p and 4K. At Low settings, the system produces 160.1 FPS at 1080p, 144.5 FPS at 1440p, and 98.1 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result represents a 38.7% decrease from 1080p Low, while the 1440p Low result only drops 9.8% from 1080p. This pattern shifts at higher presets. At Ultra, 1080p yields 108 FPS, 1440p yields 78.2 FPS, and 4K yields 57.1 FPS. The percentage losses are 27.6% from 1080p to 1440p, then 27.0% from 1440p to 4K — a remarkably consistent degradation. This consistency suggests that at Ultra settings, the GPU is the primary limiter across all resolutions, whereas at Low settings, the CPU begins to cap performance at 1080p and 1440p. The 4K High result of 61 FPS is particularly notable, as it sits just above playable thresholds, while 4K Ultra at 57.1 FPS dips below 60. The data indicates that Control scales well with GPU power, but the i5-9400's single-thread performance becomes a factor only at lower resolutions and lower presets.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the Intel Core i5-9400 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti ranks 474th out of 1636 tested combos for Control. This places the setup in the 71st percentile of all pairings tested, which is respectable but not elite. The ranking reflects a balance: the RTX 3080 Ti is a high-end GPU, but the i5-9400 is a mid-range processor from 2018. The CPU's percentileVsAllCpus is 50, meaning it sits exactly at the median of all CPUs in the database. In contrast, the GPU's percentileVsAllGpus is 83, putting it well above average. This disparity explains the combo's rank — the GPU is pulling the system upward, but the CPU is holding it back from higher positions. The nearest rival CPUs to the i5-9400 in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core i3-10305 (0.2% faster), the Intel Core i3-1125G4 (0.2% faster), and the Intel Xeon E-2134 (0.4% faster), while the Intel Core i7-8809G is 0.6% slower. These tiny deltas indicate that the i5-9400's performance class is tightly contested, and swapping to a similar-tier CPU would yield negligible gains in Control.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the 4K performance. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is critical for Control, which is known for its particle effects and destructible environments that demand high texture bandwidth. The GPU's boost clock of 1665 MHz, combined with 10,240 shading units, produces 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the system manages 57.1 FPS, which is 46.5% lower than the 1080p Ultra result of 108 FPS. The GPU's 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are relevant, as Control features ray-traced reflections and DLSS support, though the measured results likely reflect native rendering. The RTX 3080 Ti's avgBenchmarkScore of 41,224 places it close to the RTX 3090 (0.5% faster), the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (0.9% faster), and the RTX 5070 (1.1% faster), while the Tesla M40 is 1.6% faster. This indicates the GPU is performing near the top of its class, and the 4K High result of 61 FPS suggests the card has headroom that the CPU cannot fully exploit at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the lowest resolution tested, the system delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce 160.1 FPS, Medium produces 139.6 FPS, High produces 124 FPS, and Ultra produces 108 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 52.1 FPS, showing that settings have a substantial impact at this resolution. Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates are 144.5 FPS (Low), 102.1 FPS (Medium), 94.9 FPS (High), and 78.2 FPS (Ultra). The gap between Low and Ultra widens to 66.3 FPS, indicating the GPU is becoming more influential. At 3840x2160, the results are 98.1 FPS (Low), 71.8 FPS (Medium), 61 FPS (High), and 57.1 FPS (Ultra). The Low-to-Ultra spread is 41 FPS, which is smaller than at 1440p, suggesting that at 4K, even Low settings strain the GPU enough to reduce the relative impact of further settings changes. The 4K Medium result of 71.8 FPS is particularly strong, offering a playable experience with better visuals than Low. The data shows that the step from Medium to High at 4K costs 10.8 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs only 3.9 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns at the top end.

CPU Role

The Intel Core i5-9400 provides 6 cores and 6 threads with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 4.10 GHz. This Coffee Lake processor has 9 MB of shared L3 cache and supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with 42.7 GB/s of bandwidth. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 7,969 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 1,125 in single-core. These scores place the i5-9400 at the 50th percentile of all CPUs. In Control, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the system achieves 160.1 FPS. This result suggests the CPU can handle high frame rates when the GPU is not heavily taxed. However, the 4K Low result of 98.1 FPS indicates that even at the lowest settings, the GPU becomes the limiter at 4K. The CPU's 6 threads are a potential concern for Control, which can utilize multiple cores for physics and AI, but the measured data shows no catastrophic bottleneck. The i5-9400's nearest rival, the Intel Core i3-10305, is only 0.2% faster in average benchmark score, so CPU choice within this class has minimal impact on Control performance. The 65W TDP and locked multiplier mean no overclocking headroom, but the stock performance is sufficient to keep the RTX 3080 Ti fed at 1440p and above.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K gaming, the data clearly favors Medium settings. The 71.8 FPS average at 4K Medium is 17.7% higher than the 4K High result of 61 FPS, while the visual difference between Medium and High in Control is typically less pronounced than the frame rate gap. The 4K Ultra result of 57.1 FPS dips below 60, making it borderline for smooth gameplay, so Ultra is only recommended for players who prioritize visuals over frame rate consistency. At 1440p, High settings at 94.9 FPS offer an excellent balance, with Ultra at 78.2 FPS still comfortably playable. The 1440p Medium result of 102.1 FPS is the best choice for players with high-refresh-rate monitors, as it exceeds 100 FPS. At 1080p, all presets exceed 108 FPS, so settings can be maximized. The Ultra preset at 1080p delivers 108 FPS, which is sufficient for most displays. However, the Low preset at 160.1 FPS indicates the CPU is not the limiting factor at this resolution, so players can choose any preset based on visual preference. The data suggests that the sweet spot for this combo is 1440p High, which balances the GPU's capabilities with the CPU's limitations, providing a 94.9 FPS experience that feels responsive without sacrificing detail. For 4K, Medium is the pragmatic choice, as the 71.8 FPS result keeps the action smooth while the 12 GB of VRAM ensures textures are not compromised.