Control

# AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070: Control Benchmark Analysis

The database contains a full benchmark run for Control on this AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 pairing. Control is an action-adventure title that scales heavily with both CPU and GPU resources. The recorded data includes processor benchmarks, GPU benchmarks, and per-resolution frame rate measurements across four quality presets. This analysis walks through the measurements to determine exactly which settings clear the 60 FPS threshold, which component matters more, and where this combo lands among tested hardware.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160) and four quality presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra). The highest sustained frame rates appear at 1080p: the Low preset averages 161.9 FPS, Medium averages 113.8 FPS, High averages 102.9 FPS, and Ultra averages 87.7 FPS. At 1440p, the averages drop to 119.3 FPS (Low), 83.9 FPS (Medium), 77.2 FPS (High), and 68.8 FPS (Ultra). At 4K resolution, the results narrow significantly: Low preset averages 80.9 FPS, Medium averages 60.7 FPS, High averages 54.1 FPS, and Ultra averages 46 FPS.

The minimum FPS values recorded follow the same ordering. At 1080p, no preset drops below 87 FPS, and even the most demanding Ultra preset stays well above 60 FPS. At 1440p, the Ultra preset still holds an average of 68.8 FPS, with no recorded frame drops below the 60 FPS line. At 2160p, the Medium preset sits right at the boundary: it averages 60.7 FPS. The High preset at this resolution slips to 54.1 FPS average, and the Ultra preset to 46 FPS average. The Low preset at 4K remains playable at 80.9 FPS.

Resolution scaling tells the story. Moving from 1080p to 1440p costs roughly 20% to 25% of the frame rate depending on preset. Moving from 1440p to 2160p costs another 25% to 30%. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is about 20 FPS, which is the same gap seen between Medium and High at 1440p. This indicates the GPU is handling most of the geometry and shading load, but the CPU still contributes a measurable overhead at higher settings, particularly in physics-heavy scenes.

FAQ

Q: Does the combo prioritize CPU or GPU at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, even the Ultra preset averages 87.7 FPS and never dips below 60 FPS. The Ryzen 5 3600 is doing the bulk of the work at this resolution. The RTX 3070 is not saturated; the CPU is the limiting factor. The recorded data shows a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a 4.20 GHz boost clock is enough to maintain a locked 60-plus experience at this resolution.

Q: Is 1440p playable with this combination?

A: Yes. The Ultra preset averages 68.8 FPS and maintains a floor of 60 FPS. Even the High preset stays at 77.2 FPS average. The RTX 3070 begins to matter more here, but the CPU still holds the line. The Ryzen 7 3600 has a strong single-thread score (1536 in Geekbench) which helps keep 1% lows near the average.

Q: How does the 4K Medium preset compare to the 1080p Ultra preset?

A: The 4K Medium preset (60.7 FPS average) is the closest match to the 1080p Ultra preset (87.7 FPS). Both sit near the 60 FPS line, but the 4K Medium has less headroom. The 4K High preset falls to 54.1 FPS, which misses the 60 FPS target. The scaling cost from 1440p to 2160p is steep, roughly a 30% reduction in FPS across all presets.

Q: Is the RTX 3070's memory bandwidth a bottleneck at 4K?

A: The card has 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. At 2160p, the recorded frame rates are lower than memory bandwidth would suggest. The bottleneck is the shader workload, not memory. The 3070 is a 30-series card with 5888 shading units, which is sufficient for Medium at 4K. It is not sufficient for High or Ultra, indicating the shading units are the constraint.

Q: Can this CPU handle the Ultra preset at 1440p?

A: Yes. The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 averages 68.8 FPS. The CPU's 32 MB L3 cache and high boost clock help reduce draw calls. The GPU is still not at full utilization at this resolution.

Q: Is there a big jump between Medium and High at 4K?

A: Yes, the jump from Medium (80.9 FPS at 1080p) to High (102.9 FPS at 1080p) is 22 FPS. At 4K, the jump from Medium (60.7 FPS) to High (54.1 FPS) is smaller, about 6.6 FPS. The Ultra preset costs another 8 FPS. This is the typical GPU-bound scaling curve.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data shows the CPU and GPU roles shift across resolution and preset levels. At 1080p, the Ryzen 5 3600X is the limiting component. The CPU has a multicore score of 7372 in Geekbench, and a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 15045. This is enough to drive the High preset at 102.9 FPS. The GPU utilization is not maxed out until the Ultra preset at 4K is reached.

At 1440p, the balance changes. The RTX 3070's 5888 shading units and 184 tensor cores begin to take over the render load. The GeForce 30-series architecture (Ampere) has a 20.31 TFLOPS FP32 rate, and the data shows that the GPU is now the primary contributor at Ultra preset: 68.8 FPS at 1440p versus 87.7 FPS at 1080p. The delta is only 19 FPS, suggesting the CPU can no longer make up for the GPU load.

At 4K, the GPU is clearly the dominant component. The Medium preset falls to 60.7 FPS, while High and Ultra drop to 54.1 and 46 FPS respectively. The 3070's 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 GB GDDR6 are sufficient, but the shading rate at 4K is what brings the card down. The 165.6 GPixel/s pixel rate is the deciding factor. The CPU scaling from 1080p to 4K at the same preset shows a 55% to 60% drop in frame rate, which is the expected cost of 4x pixel count.

The CPU's role is larger at lower resolutions and lower presets. The GPU's role grows disproportionately at 4K and at High/Ultra presets. For a target of 60 FPS, the medium preset at 4K is the highest playable settings. The CPU is the limiting component at 1080p and 1440p for all presets, as the CPU's frame pacing is still capable of feeding the GPU. At 4K, the GPU is the limiting component, and the CPU headroom becomes irrelevant.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rival in the CPU chart is the Intel Core i7-1260P, which averages 17007 points, only 0.2% behind the Ryzen 5 3600X. The Ryzen 5 3600X is a 6-core, 12-thread Matisse chip with a 4.20 GHz boost. In this game, the i7-1260P would behave almost identically at 1080p and 1440p, with a 0.2% FPS difference. Another close alternative is the Intel Core i5-11400, which scores 17067 points and trails by 0.2%. It also lands within the same FPS band at all presets. On the GPU side, the closest match to the RTX 3070 is the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT, which scores 17083 points, a 0.7% difference. The GeForce GTX 690 and AMD Radeon HD 7970M also sit within 1.1% of the recorded average. All of these would produce frame rates within 1 to 2 FPS of the measured values at each resolution and preset.

The Ryzen 5 3600 is a 7 nm part with a 32 MB L3 cache. The architecture is Zen 2 (Matisse). This is the 3000-series generation, and it performs best in CPU-bound scenes. The RTX 3070 is a GA104 Ampere chip, built on Samsung's 8 nm node. Its 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores are sufficient for Control at 1440p Ultra, but not for 4K Ultra. The GTX 690, a 28 nm Kepler chip, is the closest predecessor and behaves within 1% of the 3070 in these benchmarks.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, every preset (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) clears the 60 FPS target with room to spare. The most demanding preset, Ultra, averages 87.7 FPS. There is no reason to lower settings at this resolution. The recorded data shows the performance headroom is sufficient for future driver overhead.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 68.8 FPS, and the High preset averages 77.2 FPS. The Medium preset averages 83.9 FPS, and Low reaches 119.3 FPS. All presets stay at or above 60 FPS. The most demanding preset, Ultra, is the best choice that maintains 60 FPS with a 8.8 FPS buffer. The GPU is not saturated here; the CPU is still the main constraint, but the gap narrows.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes. The Medium preset is the only one that maintains 60 FPS average: it averages 60.7 FPS. The High preset falls to 54.1 FPS, and the Ultra preset to 46 FPS. The Low preset remains comfortably above 60 FPS at 80.9. For a constant 60 FPS lock, Medium is the best preset at 4K. The GPU becomes the main contributor at this resolution, and the CPU's advantage is no longer the deciding factor.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Control? Yes, with caveats at the top end. At 1920x1080, every preset clears 60 FPS by a wide margin. The Ultra preset keeps an average of 87.7 FPS, so there is no risk. At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset still holds 68.8 FPS, and the High preset sits at 77.2 FPS. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the only one that consistently clears 60 FPS, at 60.7 FPS. The High preset dips to 54.1 FPS and Ultra to 46 FPS. So the verdict by resolution: 1080p is fully playable at any preset, 1440p is playable at Ultra, and 4K is playable at Medium. For a locked 60 experience at 4K, the Medium preset is the choice.

How This Combo Ranks

This combo ranks 1495th out of 3720 tested combos in the database. That places it in the top 59.9% of all tested configurations. It is a balanced pairing: the CPU's percentile versus all CPUs is 71st, and the GPU's percentile versus all GPUs is 61st. The total average benchmark score is 17035 for the CPU and 17208 for the GPU, and the combo ranks as a mid-pack performer for Control.

The combination is a solid mid-range pairing. It is not a top-50 pairing, but it has a clear profile: the CPU is strong enough to feed the GPU at 1080p and 1440p, and the GPU is the limiting factor at 4K. For a game like Control, which is GPU-light at lower resolutions but GPU-heavy at 4K with High/Ultra presets, this pairing produces 60 FPS at 4K Medium, which is the desired target. The 1495 rank indicates most tested combos will outperform it, but among similar combos, it is well balanced.