Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination delivers a smooth experience in Control, with the data showing 60 FPS or higher achievable at every resolution tested, capped by the most demanding preset that still clears the playable threshold.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset is the most demanding option that stays at or above 60 FPS, with an average of 101 FPS. This leaves substantial headroom, as the Medium preset averages 131 FPS and Low reaches 185 FPS. Even at this resolution, the GPU is not the limiting factor, since the RTX 3080’s raw compute is far beyond what the game needs at these settings.

At 2560x1440, Ultra remains the best playable setting, averaging 77 FPS. The gap between Ultra and High is notable: High averages 88 FPS, so the jump to Ultra costs roughly 11 FPS on average, but the visual fidelity gains are typically worth it given the remaining margin above 60 FPS. Medium averages 99 FPS, and Low reaches 140 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the ceiling drops to High settings, which averages exactly 60 FPS. Medium averages 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 FPS, meaning it dips below the 60 FPS threshold in demanding scenes. Low averages 94 FPS. Ultra falls to 52 FPS, making it unplayable by the 60 FPS standard. The data shows that High is the sweet spot for 4K: it holds the average at the playable line while avoiding the sub-60 dips seen on Medium.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark results indicate a clear division of labor that shifts with resolution. At 1920x1080, the CPU plays a more significant role, as evidenced by the large FPS jumps when lowering settings: from Ultra at 101 FPS to Low at 185 FPS, a difference of 84 FPS. This scaling suggests the Ryzen 5 5500X3D’s six cores and 12 threads are sufficient to feed the RTX 3080 at lower resolutions, but the GPU still dominates the workload.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scaling between presets compresses somewhat. Ultra averages 77 FPS, High 88 FPS, Medium 99 FPS, and Low 140 FPS. The spread from Ultra to Low is 63 FPS, narrower than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is beginning to take on more of the load as pixel count rises.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the definitive bottleneck. The FPS range narrows further: Ultra at 52 FPS, High at 60 FPS, Medium at 67 FPS, and Low at 94 FPS. The difference between Ultra and Low is only 42 FPS, compared to 84 FPS at 1080p. This compression shows that at 4K, the RTX 3080’s 10 GB of GDDR6X memory and 760.3 GB/s bandwidth are the primary constraints, while the CPU’s contribution diminishes. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D, with its 96 MB shared L3 cache, provides consistent frame pacing across all resolutions, but its influence on average FPS is most visible at 1080p where the GPU has more idle capacity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: average 185 FPS.
• Medium: average 131 FPS, minimum 111 FPS, maximum 151 FPS.
• High: average 117 FPS.
• Ultra: average 101 FPS.

The Medium preset’s minimum of 111 FPS shows that even in the most demanding scenes, the system never approaches the 60 FPS line. The jump from High to Ultra costs 16 FPS on average, which is a modest penalty for the extra visual effects.

2560x1440:

• Low: average 140 FPS.
• Medium: average 99 FPS, minimum 84 FPS, maximum 114 FPS.
• High: average 88 FPS.
• Ultra: average 77 FPS.

At this resolution, the Medium preset’s minimum of 84 FPS remains well above the threshold, while Ultra’s average of 77 FPS leaves a 17 FPS buffer over the 60 FPS minimum. The scaling from Low to Ultra is roughly linear, with each step down in settings yielding between 11 and 41 FPS gains.

3840x2160:

• Low: average 94 FPS.
• Medium: average 67 FPS, minimum 57 FPS, maximum 77 FPS.
• High: average 60 FPS.
• Ultra: average 52 FPS.

This is the only resolution where the minimum FPS drops below 60, occurring on Medium at 57 FPS. High’s average of exactly 60 FPS suggests that the game runs at the playable line, but the lack of min/max data for High means the data does not confirm whether it dips below. Ultra’s 52 FPS average makes it clearly unplayable by the 60 FPS standard. Low remains smooth at 94 FPS, showing that even at 4K, the system can deliver high frame rates when settings are reduced.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 1071 out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the upper third of all systems evaluated. This percentile position reflects the RTX 3080’s standing among GPUs: it sits at the 68th percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23172. The CPU, meanwhile, ranks at the 85th percentile against all CPUs, with an average score of 37018.

The data shows that this pairing is well balanced for this game. The GPU’s nearest rivals include the NVIDIA P106-100 (avg score 23249, delta -0.3%), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, -0.3%), and AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, -0.4%), all of which are within a fraction of a percent in raw compute. The CPU’s nearest rivals — AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36945, +0.2%), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093, -0.2%), Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (36938, +0.2%), and Intel Core i9-12900T (37112, -0.3%) — are similarly clustered, indicating that neither component is an outlier in its class.

Given that the combo ranks 1071st out of 3720, the system outperforms roughly 71% of all tested configurations in this title. This is consistent with the measured FPS: the RTX 3080’s 29.77 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 68 RT cores provide ample headroom for Control’s action-adventure demands, while the Ryzen 5 5500X3D’s high single-thread score of 2941 ensures that physics and AI calculations do not bottleneck the frame rate.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Control at 4K with Ultra settings?*

A: No. The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra is 52, which falls below the 60 FPS playable threshold. The highest playable setting at 4K is High, which averages exactly 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo if I want maximum visual quality?

A: At 2560x1440, Ultra settings average 77 FPS, providing both the highest preset and a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 101 FPS, but the lower resolution reduces the visual benefit of the RTX 3080’s power.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more at 1080p?

A: The GPU still dominates, but the CPU’s role is more pronounced at 1080p. The FPS spread from Ultra (101) to Low (185) is 84 FPS, the largest of any resolution, indicating that reducing GPU load yields bigger gains when the CPU can keep up.

Q: Are there any settings at 1440p that drop below 60 FPS?

A: No. Across all four tested presets at 2560x1440, the lowest recorded minimum is 84 FPS on Medium. Even Ultra maintains an average of 77 FPS, so every setting clears the threshold.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 compare to its closest rivals in raw GPU compute?

A: The RTX 3080’s average benchmark score is 23172, while its nearest rivals — the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249), AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250), and AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273) — are all within 0.4% of that score, making them effectively equivalent in synthetic tests.

Q: Is the 3840x2160 Medium preset playable despite its minimum FPS?

A: The average is 67 FPS, but the minimum is 57 FPS, which dips below the 60 FPS threshold. The data does not support calling it fully playable, as the frame rate can drop below the playable line during intense scenes.

The Verdict

This PC can run Control across all tested resolutions, but the playable settings vary. At 1920x1080, the system clears 60 FPS on every preset, with Ultra averaging 101 FPS — a strong result that leaves headroom for future drivers or background tasks. At 2560x1440, Ultra is fully playable at 77 FPS average, making this the recommended resolution for the best balance of visual quality and performance.

At 3840x2160, the system is playable on High (60 FPS average), Low (94 FPS), and Medium (67 FPS average), but the Medium preset’s minimum of 57 FPS means it can briefly drop below the threshold. Ultra is not playable at 52 FPS. The verdict is clear: for 4K gaming, stick to High settings to maintain a steady 60 FPS; for higher frame rates or maximum settings, 1440p is the sweet spot. The combo’s rank of 1071 out of 3720 confirms it is a strong performer in this title, with the RTX 3080’s 10 GB memory and the CPU’s 96 MB L3 cache working together effectively.