Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is a competent 1080p and 1440p configuration for Control, but it struggles to maintain a smooth experience at 4K Ultra settings. Benchmark data shows this combo delivers fully playable frame rates at 1080p across all presets and at 1440p for most presets, while 4K requires dropping to Low settings to stay above the 60 FPS threshold.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, this combination delivers excellent performance across the board. The Low preset produces an average of 140 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth and leaves substantial headroom for high-refresh-rate displays. Moving to Medium settings, the average drops to 99 FPS with minimum and maximum readings of 84 and 114 FPS respectively. The High preset yields 88 FPS on average, while the Ultra preset maintains 77 FPS. All of these settings comfortably exceed the 60 FPS playable threshold, making 1080p a strong resolution for this hardware pairing.

At 2560x1440, performance remains respectable but begins to show the GPU’s limitations at higher quality levels. The Low preset delivers 106 FPS, which is still very fluid. Medium settings produce an average of 75 FPS with a minimum of 64 and maximum of 86 FPS, indicating occasional dips that stay just above the playable line. The High preset averages 67 FPS, which is playable but with less margin for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset drops to 58 FPS, falling just below the 60 FPS threshold and suggesting that this setting may cause noticeable stuttering during intense combat sequences.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4060’s 8 GB memory buffer and 128-bit bus become limiting factors. The Low preset achieves 71 FPS, which is surprisingly strong for 4K given the GPU’s class. Medium settings average 51 FPS with a minimum of 43 and maximum of 58 FPS, which is noticeably below the playable threshold. High settings drop further to 45 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 39 FPS. The 4K results clearly indicate that this combo is not suited for high-quality 4K gaming in Control.

CPU and GPU Roles

The scaling across resolutions reveals that the GPU is the primary bottleneck for this game at higher quality settings. Comparing 1080p Ultra at 77 FPS to 1440p Ultra at 58 FPS, the 25% resolution increase results in approximately a 25% frame rate reduction, which is consistent with GPU-bound behavior. Similarly, 1440p High at 67 FPS versus 4K High at 45 FPS represents a 33% drop when moving to 4K, further confirming the graphics card as the limiting factor.

The CPU’s role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions and settings. At 1080p Low, the combo reaches 140 FPS, which is substantially higher than the 1440p Low result of 106 FPS. This 24% difference between resolutions at Low settings suggests that while the GPU still matters, the Ryzen 7 9700F’s 8-core, 16-thread Zen 5 architecture is capable of feeding the GPU effectively at high frame rates. The CPU’s PassMark single-thread score of 4691 and multithread score of 36470 place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, indicating it has ample processing headroom for this title.

The transition from Medium to High settings at each resolution produces relatively small frame rate penalties, typically 10-15%. This indicates that Control’s rendering pipeline scales predictably with GPU load. However, the jump from High to Ultra at 1440p (67 to 58 FPS) and at 4K (45 to 39 FPS) shows that Ultra settings introduce additional GPU stress that the RTX 4060 cannot fully absorb at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: Can this PC run Control at 1080p with maximum settings?

A: Yes. The Ultra preset at 1920x1080 achieves an average of 77 FPS, which exceeds the 60 FPS playable threshold. All four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) are playable at this resolution.

Q: What is the best settings preset at 1440p for this combo?

A: The High preset is the best playable option at 2560x1440, delivering 67 FPS on average. The Ultra preset falls to 58 FPS, just below the playable threshold, so High provides the best visual quality while maintaining smooth performance.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with the RTX 4060 and Ryzen 7 9700F?

A: Only at Low settings. The 4K Low preset averages 71 FPS, but Medium drops to 51 FPS, High to 45 FPS, and Ultra to 39 FPS. Players seeking 4K at higher quality would need a more powerful GPU.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rivals in raw compute?

A: The RTX 4060’s PassMark G3D score of 19545 places it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival, the AMD Radeon HD 7790, scores 17666, which is 0.2% lower. The AMD Radeon 780M scores 17588, 0.3% lower, and the AMD Radeon Pro 560 scores 17551, 0.5% lower.

Q: Does the Ryzen 7 9700F bottleneck the RTX 4060 in Control?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. The CPU’s performance percentile of 94 compared to the GPU’s 61 suggests the processor is significantly more capable relative to its peers. The frame rate scaling between resolutions follows GPU-bound patterns, indicating the CPU is not limiting performance.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum frame rates at Medium settings?

A: At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 84 FPS and maximum is 114 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 64 FPS and maximum is 86 FPS. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 43 FPS and maximum is 58 FPS.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The Ryzen 7 9700F’s nearest performance rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX with an average score of 69875 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i7-14700KF at 70163 (0.2% lower), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 69515 (0.7% higher), and the Intel Core i7-14700K at 69355 (0.9% higher). Systems using these CPUs would deliver nearly identical frame rates in Control when paired with the same GPU, as the differences are within 1% of each other.

For the GPU side, the RTX 4060’s nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666, 0.2% lower), AMD Radeon 780M (17588, 0.3% lower), AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17551, 0.5% lower), and AMD Radeon Pro 460 (17509, 0.7% lower). These GPUs would produce very similar performance in Control, though the RTX 4060 holds a slight edge over each in synthetic benchmarks.

A system with the Ryzen 9 7940HX or Core i7-14700KF paired with the RTX 4060 would effectively match this combo’s performance. Conversely, swapping the RTX 4060 for an AMD Radeon 780M would result in marginally lower frame rates, likely pushing some 1440p settings below the playable threshold. The combination of the Ryzen 7 9700F with a GPU from its rival list would shift the bottleneck more heavily toward the graphics card, making the CPU’s performance differences negligible in practice.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific configuration ranks 2008 out of 3720 tested combos for Control, placing it in the 54th percentile of all tested systems. This mid-pack ranking reflects the RTX 4060’s position as a mainstream GPU (61st percentile) rather than a high-end part, while the CPU’s strong 94th percentile ranking helps boost the overall combination.

The ranking suggests that while this combo handles Control well at 1080p and 1440p, there are 1712 tested configurations that achieve higher performance in this game. These would primarily be systems with more powerful GPUs such as the RTX 4070 or higher, which would enable higher quality settings at 4K. However, the combo still outperforms roughly 46% of all tested configurations, making it a solid mid-range option for this title.

The Verdict

This PC can run Control at 60 FPS or higher in several configurations. At 1920x1080, all four settings presets — Low (140 FPS), Medium (99 FPS), High (88 FPS), and Ultra (77 FPS) — clear the playable threshold, making this an excellent 1080p machine for the game. At 2560x1440, the High preset (67 FPS), Medium (75 FPS), and Low (106 FPS) are all playable, but Ultra drops to 58 FPS, falling short of the 60 FPS target.

At 3840x2160, only the Low preset (71 FPS) achieves playable performance. Medium (51 FPS), High (45 FPS), and Ultra (39 FPS) all fall below the threshold, making 4K gaming impractical for this combination unless players are willing to accept significant visual compromises. The best playable experience is at 1440p High settings, which provides a balance of visual quality and smooth performance at 67 FPS. For maximum visual fidelity, 1080p Ultra at 77 FPS is the recommended configuration.