Control

Control launched in 2019 as an Action Adventure title built around heavy physics-driven destruction and ray-tracing-friendly rendering, and it remains one of the more demanding games in benchmark databases. The pairing tested here — a six-core, twelve-thread Ryzen 5 5500X3D sitting in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, alongside an RTX 4080 in the 86th percentile of all GPUs — produces results that are measured, not estimated, across twelve resolution-and-preset combinations. What the data shows is a game that this combination handles comfortably at every tested configuration, with an interesting question lurking in the scaling numbers: which component is actually doing the work?

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 4080 posts an average of 196 FPS on Low, 172 FPS on Medium, 156 FPS on High, and 135 FPS on Ultra. The Medium run is the only one with full frame-time detail recorded: a minimum of 146 and a maximum of 198, meaning the slowest observed frames still ran well above twice the 60 FPS playability threshold. That floor of 146 is the strongest single data point in the dataset for consistency — the spread between minimum and maximum is narrow enough to suggest a smooth experience rather than one propped up by a high average hiding stutters.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages settle to 178 FPS on Low, 132 FPS on Medium, 118 FPS on High, and 102 FPS on Ultra. Again the Medium preset carries min/max figures: 113 minimum, 152 maximum. Even at the top end of common gaming resolutions, the worst measured frames at Medium sit at nearly double the 60 FPS threshold, and the Ultra average of 102 clears 60 FPS by a comfortable margin on its own.

At 3840x2160, the most GPU-bound configuration, Control averages 126 FPS on Low, 89 FPS on Medium, 79 FPS on High, and 69 FPS on Ultra. The Medium run shows a minimum of 76 and a maximum of 103 — so at native 4K with Medium settings, even the dips stay well above 60. The Ultra average of 69 is the tightest result in the entire dataset, clearing the threshold by 9 frames, but without min/max data for that preset the question of how low the troughs go remains open. Given the Medium minimum of 76 at the same resolution, the plausible reading is that Ultra dips approach or touch the 60 line in the heaviest scenes.

A pattern worth noting across all three resolutions: Low to Ultra spans a 61-frame gap at 1080p (196 down to 135), 76 frames at 1440p (178 down to 102), and 57 frames at 4K (126 down to 69). Preset costs grow as resolution rises from 1080p to 1440p, then the Ultra penalty moderates at 4K — consistent with a GPU approaching its throughput limit at native 4K, where shader-quality knobs no longer dominate because pixel throughput itself is the constraint.

Best Settings per Resolution

Using the 60 FPS playable threshold, the answer at every resolution is the same: Ultra.

• 1920x1080 — Ultra, 135 FPS average. This is not close. Even the Medium minimum of 146 indicates the top preset leaves enormous headroom.
• 2560x1440 — Ultra, 102 FPS average. A 42-frame cushion over the threshold at the most demanding preset, with the Medium data (113 minimum) confirming frame-time stability at lower settings.
• 3840x2160 — Ultra, 69 FPS average. The most demanding preset still clears 60, though the cushion narrows to 9 frames. If a user prioritizes a hard floor over average throughput, Medium at 89 FPS average with a measured 76 FPS minimum is the data-backed alternative.

The verdict data confirms all four presets — Low, Medium, High, Ultra — are playable at all three resolutions. There is no configuration in this dataset where the combination falls below the threshold on average.

CPU and GPU Roles

The resolution scaling tells the story of which component is in charge. From 1440p to 4K at Ultra, the average drops from 102 to 69 — roughly a third of the frame rate gone to a 2.25x pixel-count increase. At Medium, the drop is from 132 to 89. This strong, monotonic sensitivity to resolution is the classic signature of a GPU-limited game: the RTX 4080, with its 9728 shading units, 76 RT cores, and 716.8 GB/s of memory bandwidth, is the component setting the pace.

Now look at the CPU side. From 1080p to 1440p at Ultra, the average falls from 135 to 102. At Low, it falls from 196 to 178 — only about 9%. That shallow Low-setting scaling is curious. In a purely GPU-bound scenario, 1080p Low should push frame rates high enough to expose a CPU ceiling, yet the figure stops at 196. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D, with its 3.00 GHz base and 4.00 GHz boost clocks and a single-thread Passmark score of 2941, appears to be the limiting factor at 1080p Low — the frame rate stops climbing even though the GPU has headroom to spare. Its 96 MB of shared L3 cache likely keeps the six cores fed in this game's physics-heavy scenes, which would explain why the ceiling sits as high as it does.

The interpretation: Control on this pairing is GPU-bound at 1440p and 4K, and likely CPU-bound at 1080p at lighter presets. For a 60 FPS target, neither component is remotely at risk. For high-refresh 1080p play, the 5500X3D is the ceiling, not the 4080.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Control at 4K with max settings?

A: Yes. Ultra at 3840x2160 averages 69 FPS, above the 60 FPS threshold. Medium is the safer pick for frame-time consistency, averaging 89 FPS with a measured minimum of 76.

Q: What is the single fastest result in the dataset?

A: 1080p Low at 196 FPS average — though the shallow scaling to 1440p Low (178 FPS) suggests the CPU is the ceiling there rather than the GPU.

Q: Does the frame rate ever drop below 60?

A: Not in any measured average. The lowest recorded minimum across all runs is 76 FPS (4K Medium). The 4K Ultra run has no min/max data recorded, so its worst-case dips are unverified.

Q: Is the CPU fast enough for high-refresh-rate play at 1080p?

A: Partly. 1080p Medium averages 172 FPS with a 146 FPS minimum, and Ultra averages 135 — strong results — but the 196 FPS Low ceiling hints the 5500X3D caps pursuit of the highest frame rates.

Q: How does this hardware rank overall?

A: The combination ranks 358th out of 3720 tested combos in Control — inside the top 10% of configurations benchmarked for this game.

Q: Does Control's ray tracing drag the frame rate down here?

A: The dataset does not separate ray-traced presets from rasterized ones, so that question cannot be answered from these numbers; only Low through Ultra averages are recorded.

The Verdict

Yes — emphatically. Every resolution and every preset in the dataset clears the 60 FPS threshold. At 1080p, Ultra averages 135 FPS; at 1440p, Ultra averages 102 FPS; at 4K, Ultra averages 69 FPS. The verdict-by-resolution data marks all four presets playable at all three resolutions. The only caveat worth stating plainly: the 4K Ultra average of 69 leaves a modest buffer, and since min/max frames were not captured for that specific run, players who demand a hard 60-floor frame minimum should consider 4K Medium, where the measured minimum is 76 FPS. This pairing does not merely run Control; it runs it at maximum settings at every common resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

Rank 358 out of 3720 combos places this hardware in the top 10% of configurations tested in Control — a strong position for a game that punishes GPUs with its destructible environments and dense particle work. The ranking makes sense given the components' individual standings: the RTX 4080 sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs with a Passmark G3D score of 34457, and the 5500X3D sits in the 85th percentile of all CPUs. What is mildly surprising is that a CPU with only six cores and a 4.00 GHz boost can help carry a pairing this far up the table. The 96 MB of L3 cache appears to earn its keep in a title known for simulation load, keeping the ranking from being dragged down by the modest core count. It raises an interesting question for future testing: would an eight-core chip at the same percentile climb meaningfully higher, or is Control at these frame rates almost entirely a GPU contest past a certain CPU threshold? The 1080p Low ceiling of 196 FPS suggests there is some headroom being left on the table.

Similar Performance Alternatives

For the CPU, the rival data is remarkably tight. The Ryzen 5 5600F averages 36945 versus the 5500X3D's 37018 — a delta of just 0.2% — and both the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37093, -0.2%) and Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (36938, 0.2%) sit within a fraction of a percent. The Intel Core i9-12900T (37112, -0.3%) rounds out a cluster of four chips separated by less than half a percent in aggregate score. In Control terms, any of these processors should behave nearly identically; the 5500X3D's big L3 cache is the only differentiator the aggregate scores might understate.

For the GPU, the closest match is the RTX 4080 SUPER at 54209 versus 54247 — a 0.1% gap, effectively a tie — making it the most direct drop-in alternative for reproducing these Control results. Further out, the Radeon Pro W5700X averages 54828 (-1.1%), the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB averages 55698 (-2.6%), and the Radeon 8060S averages 55757 (-2.7%). The negative deltas indicate these rivals actually score slightly higher in aggregate benchmarks, so a system built around them should meet or slightly exceed the frame rates recorded here — though aggregate scores are not game-specific, and Control's rendering characteristics could shift the picture at the margins. The safest expectation: a 4080 SUPER system mirrors this dataset almost exactly, while the Radeon alternatives land within a small margin in either direction.