Control

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a substantial performance envelope across all presets. The Low preset produces an average of 139 FPS, while Medium drops to 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS and a maximum of 114 FPS. High settings yield 88 FPS on average, and Ultra settles at 76 FPS. Every measured configuration at 4K remains comfortably above the 60 FPS playability threshold, with the gap between Low and Ultra representing a 45% reduction in average frame rate, from 139 down to 76 FPS.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates climb noticeably. Low settings average 162 FPS, Medium reaches 142 FPS (minimum 121, maximum 164), High hits 130 FPS, and Ultra maintains 113 FPS. The scaling from 4K to 1440p is consistent: each preset gains roughly 40 to 50 percent in average FPS, which indicates that the GPU still has headroom at lower pixel counts and the CPU begins to play a more meaningful role in sustaining higher frame rates.

At 1920x1080, the combination produces its highest numbers. Low averages 177 FPS, Medium records 156 FPS (minimum 133, maximum 180), High delivers 150 FPS, and Ultra stays at 143 FPS. The delta between Ultra at 1080p and Ultra at 4K is 67 FPS, a 47% drop when moving to four times the pixel count. Notably, the spread between Low and Ultra at 1080p is only 34 FPS, which is tighter than at 1440p (49 FPS) and 4K (63 FPS). This compression suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is increasingly the limiting factor, as even the lowest preset cannot push much beyond 177 FPS.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU's nearest rivals in the database, based on average benchmark scores, include the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 with an average score of 34222 and a delta of 0.1%, the AMD EPYC 4244P at 34220 (0.1%), the Intel Core i5-13450HX at 34333 (-0.2%), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H at 34083 (0.5%). These figures place the Ryzen 7 3700X effectively in a dead heat with its closest peers; the largest difference among these five processors is less than 1%. In practice, swapping to any of these alternatives would produce nearly identical CPU-bound frame rates in Control, particularly at 1080p where the CPU's influence is most pronounced.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the Intel Arc Pro A60 with an average score of 60326 and a delta of 0%, the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 at 60140 (0.3%), the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M at 61896 (-2.5%), and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 at 58657 (2.9%). The RTX 4090's average benchmark score is 60347, meaning the Arc Pro A60 and Radeon Pro Vega 48 are essentially identical in synthetic performance. The Radeon Pro W6600M sits 2.5% higher, while the Radeon PRO V710 trails by 2.9%. For Control specifically, these GPU alternatives would deliver frame rates within a few points of the RTX 4090 at 4K, where the GPU dominates the workload. At 1080p, however, the CPU becomes the bottleneck, so the GPU choice matters less; the differences among these rivals would be even smaller in practice.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that remains at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, which produces an average of 76 FPS. This is a meaningful result: the Ultra preset at 4K clears the playability threshold by 16 FPS, leaving some margin for demanding scenes. The High preset at 88 FPS and Medium at 99 FPS offer additional headroom, but Ultra is fully viable.

At 2560x1440, Ultra again is the best choice, averaging 113 FPS. This is 53 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold, giving substantial buffer for combat sequences or particle-heavy effects. The Medium preset at 142 FPS and Low at 162 FPS are available for higher refresh rate displays, but they are not necessary for basic playability.

At 1920x1080, Ultra delivers 143 FPS on average, which is 83 FPS above the threshold. This resolution and preset combination provides an excellent experience for high refresh rate monitors, as even the most demanding settings keep the frame rate far above the playability floor. In all three resolutions, the database records no preset that falls below 60 FPS, so users can select any settings without risking a sub-60 experience.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Control at 4K with all settings maxed?

A: Yes. At 3840x2160 with the Ultra preset, the combination averages 76 FPS, which is 16 FPS above the 60 FPS playability threshold.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this hardware in Control?

A: The maximum average FPS is 177, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low preset.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings?

A: At Ultra settings, the average drops from 143 FPS at 1920x1080 to 76 FPS at 3840x2160, a decrease of 67 FPS or approximately 47%.

Q: Are there any settings at any resolution that fall below 60 FPS?

A: No. Every measured configuration, from 1080p Low to 4K Ultra, maintains an average frame rate above 60 FPS. The lowest recorded average is 76 FPS at 4K Ultra.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 3700X compare to its nearest CPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 7 3700X has an average score of 34260. Its closest rivals are the Intel Core i5-13450HX at 34333 (-0.2%), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 at 34222 (0.1%), and the AMD EPYC 4244P at 34220 (0.1%). These are effectively identical scores.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the Medium preset at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 121, with a maximum of 164 and an average of 142.

CPU and GPU Roles

The division of labor between the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 becomes clear when examining frame rate scaling across resolutions. At 4K, the GPU is the dominant component. The difference between Low and Ultra at 3840x2160 is 63 FPS (139 vs 76), which is a direct reflection of the GPU's workload scaling with pixel count and shading complexity. The RTX 4090's 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth are fully utilized at this resolution, and the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to keep the GPU fed.

At 1440p, the balance shifts. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 49 FPS (162 vs 113), while the absolute frame rates rise. This indicates that the GPU is no longer the sole constraint; the CPU begins to impose an upper bound on how high frame rates can go, especially at the Low preset where the GPU would otherwise produce even higher numbers. The Ryzen 7 3700X's multi-threaded performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R15 multi-core score of 2092 and a PassMark multi-thread score of 22458, is adequate but not limitless.

At 1080p, the CPU's role becomes even more prominent. The spread between Low and Ultra shrinks to just 34 FPS (177 vs 143), and the Low preset caps out at 177 FPS despite the GPU's enormous headroom. This is a classic CPU-bound scenario: the RTX 4090 could render far more frames per second at this resolution, but the Ryzen 7 3700X cannot issue draw calls quickly enough to exceed roughly 177 FPS. The single-threaded performance of the CPU, with a Geekbench single-core score of 1593 and a PassMark single-thread score of 2656, is the limiting factor here. Users with high refresh rate 1080p monitors would see diminishing returns from a faster GPU without a faster CPU.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 342 out of 3720 tested combinations for Control. This places it in the top 9.2% of all recorded hardware pairings for this game. The rank reflects a system that can max out the game at every resolution while maintaining frame rates well above the 60 FPS threshold. The high rank is driven primarily by the GPU's exceptional performance, as the CPU sits at the 84th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU is at the 88th percentile among all GPUs. The combination's synergy is strong at 4K, where the GPU's dominance carries the system, and adequate at 1080p, where the CPU's moderate single-thread performance prevents it from achieving the absolute highest frame rates seen among top-tier combinations. The 342nd position out of 3720 means there are 341 combinations that perform better, likely pairing faster CPUs with the same or similar GPUs, but for the vast majority of the database, this setup is superior.

The Verdict

This PC can run Control exceptionally well at every resolution and every preset. The verdict by resolution is unambiguous: at 3840x2160, all four settings (High, Low, Medium, Ultra) are playable, with Ultra averaging 76 FPS. At 2560x1440, the same is true, with Ultra at 113 FPS. At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 143 FPS, and even the most modest preset, Low, reaches 177 FPS. No recorded configuration dips below the 60 FPS playability threshold, and the lowest average across all twelve measurements is 76 FPS at 4K Ultra.

For a game like Control, which features physics-heavy environments and particle effects, the ability to run Ultra settings at 4K with a 16 FPS margin is a strong result. At 1440p and 1080p, the system offers enough headroom to enable high refresh rate displays, with 113 FPS and 143 FPS respectively at maximum settings. The bottleneck at lower resolutions is the CPU, but this does not impact playability; it merely caps the upper ceiling around 177 FPS. In summary, the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a fully playable, high-performance experience across the entire range of resolutions and settings for Control, with no compromises required.