Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 7700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers an overwhelmingly positive experience in Control, with measured frame rates that not only clear the 60 FPS playable threshold at every tested resolution and preset but also leave substantial headroom for high-refresh-rate displays. The data shows a system that is, for all practical purposes, overqualified for this 2019 action-adventure title, as the combination of the Zen 4 architecture CPU and Ada Lovelace flagship GPU produces average FPS ranging from a low of 77 at 4K Ultra to a high of 273.1 at 1080p Low.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data paints a picture of consistent, high-level performance across all twelve tested configurations—three resolutions and four quality presets each. At 1920x1080, the combination is nothing short of dominant. With Low settings, the average frame rate reaches 273.1 FPS, a figure that drops to 194.9 FPS on Medium and 172.9 FPS on High. Even the most demanding Ultra preset at 1080p yields an average of 149.1 FPS, which is more than double the playable threshold and sufficient for even the fastest 144Hz monitors.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains exceptionally strong, though the scaling from 1080p shows the expected impact of increased pixel count. The Low preset averages 204.6 FPS, which is a 25% reduction from the 1080p Low score. Medium settings produce 148.5 FPS, High delivers 130.4 FPS, and Ultra still manages a robust 115.5 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra is approximately 22.6%, indicating that the RTX 4090 has ample bandwidth and compute headroom to handle the resolution increase without any risk of falling below the 60 FPS mark.

At 3840x2160, the story shifts slightly but remains firmly in playable territory. The Low preset at 4K averages 140.3 FPS, which is a 31.4% decrease from 1080p Low. Medium settings at 4K yield 101.3 FPS, High produces 90.7 FPS, and the Ultra preset—the most demanding configuration in the entire dataset—still averages 77 FPS. This 4K Ultra result is particularly telling: it represents a 48.4% reduction from the 1080p Ultra score of 149.1 FPS, yet it remains 17 FPS above the 60 FPS playability threshold. The minimum and maximum FPS values are not provided in the dataset, so the analysis relies solely on average frame rates, which are consistently high across all scenarios.

FAQ

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

A: Yes. The measured data shows an average of 77 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which clears the 60 FPS playable threshold by a comfortable margin.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming with this hardware?

A: The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 delivers an average of 115.5 FPS, making it the most demanding option that still provides a frame rate well above the playable threshold.

Q: How does the performance scale between 1080p and 4K at the same settings?

A: At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 273.1 at 1080p to 140.3 at 4K, a 48.6% reduction. At Ultra settings, the drop is from 149.1 to 77, a 48.4% reduction, showing a consistent scaling pattern across presets.

Q: Does the RTX 4090 bottleneck the Ryzen 7 7700X at lower resolutions?

A: The data does not specify bottleneck percentages, but the extremely high frame rates at 1080p (273.1 FPS on Low) suggest the GPU is not limiting performance to a degree that impacts playability.

Q: Are there any settings at any resolution that fail to reach 60 FPS?

A: No. All twelve tested configurations—from 1080p Low to 4K Ultra—produce average frame rates above 60 FPS, with the lowest being 77 FPS at 4K Ultra.

Q: Is the 4K Low preset a better choice than 4K High for competitive play?

A: The 4K Low preset averages 140.3 FPS compared to 90.7 FPS on High, which is a 54.7% improvement in frame rate, but both are well above the playable threshold.

How This Combo Ranks

In the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 106th out of 3,720 tested combos for Control. This places the system in the top 2.9% of all configurations evaluated for this game, a position that reflects the high-end nature of both components. The percentile rankings for the individual parts corroborate this: the CPU sits in the 85th percentile among all tested processors, while the GPU ranks in the 88th percentile among all graphics cards. The combo rank of 106 suggests that while there are 105 other combinations that achieve higher average frame rates in Control, the vast majority of those are likely to be variations of similar high-end hardware—perhaps with newer or more specialized components. The data implies that for practical gaming purposes, this rank is effectively near the apex of achievable performance, since the difference between rank 106 and rank 1 is likely to be a matter of a few frames per second at most, given the already high absolute frame rates measured.

The Verdict

This PC can unequivocally run Control at maximum settings across all tested resolutions. The verdict by resolution is unambiguous: at 3840x2160, all four presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—are marked as playable, with Ultra averaging 77 FPS. At 2560x1440, the same holds true, with Ultra averaging 115.5 FPS. At 1920x1080, Ultra averages 149.1 FPS. The playable threshold is set at 60 FPS, and every single measured configuration exceeds it by at least 17 FPS. The data indicates that the most demanding scenario—4K Ultra—still provides a 28.3% margin above the playable threshold, meaning there is no resolution or preset combination in the dataset where this system would struggle to maintain smooth gameplay. For users with 120Hz or 144Hz displays, the 1440p Ultra setting at 115.5 FPS and the 1080p Ultra at 149.1 FPS are particularly noteworthy, as they allow the hardware to fully utilize high-refresh-rate panels without compromise.

CPU and GPU Roles

The measured FPS data allows for a detailed analysis of how the CPU and GPU each contribute to performance in Control. The scaling from 1080p to 4K at identical settings reveals the extent to which the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 273.1 at 1080p to 140.3 at 4K, which is a 48.6% reduction. This substantial drop indicates that the GPU is heavily tasked with pixel throughput, and its performance scales inversely with resolution. In contrast, the CPU's role is more prominent at lower resolutions where the GPU has less work per frame. The 1080p Low score of 273.1 FPS is so high that it likely approaches the point where CPU instruction throughput or memory latency could introduce frame pacing issues, though the data does not show any such degradation in average FPS.

The scaling between presets at the same resolution further clarifies the GPU's dominance. At 4K, moving from Low to Ultra reduces the average FPS from 140.3 to 77, a 45.1% decrease. This is a purely GPU-bound scaling, as increased settings (shadows, reflections, textures) add to the rendering load. At 1080p, the same Low-to-Ultra transition reduces FPS from 273.1 to 149.1, a 45.4% decrease, which is nearly identical in percentage terms. This consistency suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution, as the relative performance drop due to GPU load is uniform. The Ryzen 7 7700X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, provides ample processing headroom, as evidenced by the fact that even at 1080p Low—where CPU overhead is highest relative to GPU load—the system still achieves 273.1 FPS. The data implies that for Control, the RTX 4090 is the primary determinant of frame rate, while the CPU ensures that it never becomes a limiting factor, even at extreme frame rates.

Best Settings per Resolution

For each resolution, the best settings are defined as the most demanding preset that maintains an average FPS at or above the 60 FPS playable threshold. Based on the measured data, the Ultra preset is the optimal choice at every resolution. At 1920x1080, Ultra settings yield an average of 149.1 FPS, which is not only above 60 FPS but also well above the refresh rate of most monitors, making it the clear recommendation for visual fidelity without any performance sacrifice. At 2560x1440, Ultra averages 115.5 FPS, again providing a significant margin above the threshold and suitable for high-refresh-rate gaming. At 3840x2160, Ultra averages 77 FPS, which is the only configuration where the margin narrows to less than 20 FPS above the threshold, but it still qualifies as the best setting. The data shows that for all three resolutions, there is no reason to drop below Ultra settings to achieve playable performance, as even the most demanding preset clears the 60 FPS bar with room to spare.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Examining the nearest rivals for both components provides context for what other hardware might deliver similar performance in Control. For the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, the closest alternatives in terms of average benchmark score are the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 with a score of 35,802 (a 0.3% difference), the Intel Core 7 250H at 35,728 (0.5% difference), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350 at 35,719 (0.5% difference), and the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H at 35,670 (0.7% difference). These CPUs have average scores so close to the 7700X's 35,909 that in a game like Control—which the data suggests is heavily GPU-bound—the frame rate differences would be negligible, likely within the margin of error.

For the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, the nearest rivals are the Intel Arc Pro A60 with an average score of 60,326 (0% difference), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 at 60,140 (0.3% difference), the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M at 61,896 (a -2.5% difference, meaning it is slightly faster), and the AMD Radeon PRO V710 at 58,657 (2.9% slower). The delta percentages here are slightly larger than for the CPU, but still modest. A user with an RTX 4090 could expect virtually identical frame rates in Control if they were to substitute any of these GPUs, as the 0% to ±2.9% benchmark score differences would translate to only a few frames per second at most in actual gameplay. This indicates that the performance profile of this system is not unique to the exact model names, but rather representative of a class of high-end hardware that can comfortably run Control at maximum settings across all resolutions.