Control

# Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark data for Control on this AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination shows a system that utterly dominates the game across every resolution and preset tested. The measured FPS values are remarkably high, with the lowest average recorded being 78 FPS at 4K Ultra — a result that already clears the 60 FPS playable threshold by a comfortable margin.

At 3840x2160, the scaling from Low to Ultra is telling. The Low preset averages 142 FPS, while Medium drops to 101 FPS with a minimum of 86 FPS and a maximum of 116 FPS. High settings average 90 FPS, and Ultra settles at 78 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 64 FPS, which represents a 45% performance hit from the most demanding settings. Notably, the Medium preset is the only configuration in the entire dataset that includes min/max values, suggesting it was the focus of detailed frame-time analysis.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance envelope expands considerably. Low settings produce an average of 211 FPS, Medium delivers 150 FPS with a minimum of 127 and maximum of 172, High reaches 133 FPS, and Ultra averages 116 FPS. The resolution drop from 4K to 1440p yields substantial gains: Ultra improves by 38 FPS (from 78 to 116), representing a 49% uplift. Low settings gain 69 FPS (from 142 to 211), a 49% improvement that mirrors the Ultra scaling almost exactly.

At 1920x1080, the system approaches the upper limits of what Control can demand. Low settings average 279 FPS, Medium hits 198 FPS with a minimum of 168 and maximum of 228, High achieves 176 FPS, and Ultra runs at 153 FPS. The progression from 1440p to 1080p adds another 37 FPS at Ultra (116 to 153), a 32% gain. Low settings improve by 68 FPS (211 to 279), a 32% uplift that again matches the Ultra scaling. This consistency suggests the game's rendering load scales linearly with pixel count at these extreme performance levels.

The min/max data for Medium settings across all three resolutions reveals tight frame pacing. At 4K Medium, the spread between minimum (86) and maximum (116) is 30 FPS. At 1440p Medium, the spread widens to 45 FPS (127 to 172). At 1080p Medium, the spread is 60 FPS (168 to 228). This widening range at lower resolutions indicates that CPU-side frame generation becomes more variable when the GPU is less constrained, though the absolute minimums remain far above playable thresholds.

# FAQ

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra in Control?

A: Yes. The measured average at 3840x2160 Ultra is 78 FPS, which is 30% above the 60 FPS playable threshold. The verdict data confirms Ultra is listed as playable at this resolution, with the best settings designation pointing to Ultra at an average of 78 FPS.

Q: What is the largest performance gap between presets at any resolution?

A: The gap between Low and Ultra at 1920x1080 is 126 FPS (279 vs 153), which represents a 45% reduction in average frame rate. The same preset gap at 4K is 64 FPS (142 vs 78), also a 45% reduction.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in aggregate benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score is 79,842. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB scores 79,605, just 0.3% lower. The Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB is 0.6% behind at 79,396. The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT trails by 1.1% at 78,940, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X is 1.4% ahead at 80,959.

Q: What is the CPU's benchmark percentile, and which processors are closest in performance?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D sits in the 92nd percentile among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 58,386. The Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M scores 58,323 (0.1% lower), the Intel Xeon w5-2545 scores 58,504 (0.2% higher), the Intel Core i9-14900 scores 58,115 (0.5% lower), and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 scores 58,826 (0.7% higher).

Q: Is there any resolution where the system fails to hit 60 FPS on any preset?

A: No. Every resolution tested — 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160 — lists all four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) as playable in the verdict data. The lowest average across all configurations is 78 FPS at 4K Ultra.

Q: What does the combo rank tell us about this system's standing?

A: This CPU/GPU combination ranks 72nd out of 3,720 tested combos for Control, placing it in the top 2% of all configurations in the database. This high ranking aligns with the measured FPS results, which show no playability concerns at any setting.

# Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, with an average of 153 FPS. This leaves enormous headroom — the system could theoretically run at more than double the playable threshold while using maximum settings.

At 2560x1440, Ultra is again the answer, averaging 116 FPS. The margin above 60 FPS is 56 FPS, meaning the system has nearly 93% more performance than required for smooth gameplay at this resolution with all settings maxed.

At 3840x2160, Ultra remains the most demanding playable preset, delivering 78 FPS on average. This is 18 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold, a 30% buffer that should accommodate most demanding scenes without dropping below playable levels. The benchmark data shows that even at 4K, there is no need to compromise on visual quality to maintain playability.

# Similar Performance Alternatives

Examining the nearest rivals for both components provides context for what other hardware might deliver comparable Control performance. On the CPU side, the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D's average benchmark score of 58,386 is nearly matched by several alternatives. The Intel Core i9-14900 scores 58,115, just 0.5% lower, making it a nearly equivalent processor for this game. The Intel Xeon Platinum 8260M at 58,323 (0.1% lower) and the Intel Xeon w5-2545 at 58,504 (0.2% higher) fall within a razor-thin margin. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 leads this group at 58,826, 0.7% higher.

For the GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090's average score of 79,842 places it among a cluster of professional and mobile parts. The NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB at 79,605 (0.3% lower) and the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB at 79,396 (0.6% lower) are the closest matches. The AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT at 78,940 trails by 1.1%, while the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X at 80,959 leads by 1.4%.

What this suggests is that any system pairing one of these four CPUs with one of these four GPUs would likely produce Control frame rates within a few percent of the measured results. The delta percentages are small enough that in-game performance differences would be largely imperceptible, though the RTX 5090's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth provide architectural advantages that these aggregate scores may not fully capture.

# The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: this system can absolutely run Control, and it does so with exceptional headroom at every resolution and preset combination. The verdictByResolution data lists all four settings — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — as playable at 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160. The playable threshold is defined as 60 FPS, and the lowest average frame rate recorded is 78 FPS at 4K Ultra.

At 1080p, the system delivers between 153 FPS (Ultra) and 279 FPS (Low), meaning even the most demanding settings provide 2.5 times the playable threshold. At 1440p, the range is 116 FPS (Ultra) to 211 FPS (Low), with Ultra still nearly doubling the 60 FPS requirement. At 4K, the range narrows to 78 FPS (Ultra) through 142 FPS (Low), but even the worst case remains comfortably playable.

The best settings designation for each resolution is Ultra: 153 FPS at 1080p, 116 FPS at 1440p, and 78 FPS at 4K. There is no scenario in the measured data where this combination drops below 60 FPS, nor is there any indication that frame pacing issues would cause perceptible stuttering given the tight min/max values recorded for Medium settings. For players who prioritize maximum visual fidelity, Ultra at 4K is not just viable but delivers a 30% safety margin above the playable threshold.

# How This Combo Ranks

Among the 3,720 CPU/GPU combinations tested for Control in this database, the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 72nd. This places it in the top 1.9% of all tested configurations, a position consistent with the measured frame rates that show no weakness at any resolution.

The rank reflects the combination's aggregate capability rather than any single metric. Given that the 92nd percentile CPU (among all CPUs) and 92nd percentile GPU (among all GPUs) combine to produce a top-72 result out of thousands, the pairing demonstrates excellent synergy for this title. The 71 configurations ranked above this system likely include combinations with even more extreme hardware, but the practical difference in Control is minimal — this system already exceeds 60 FPS at 4K Ultra by 30%, so higher ranks would only matter for higher refresh rate displays at lower resolutions.

The rank also implies that most tested combinations — 3,648 of them, or 98.1% — score below this system. For Context, this means the vast majority of hardware configurations would need to reduce settings or resolution to achieve playable frame rates in Control, while this system does not.

# CPU and GPU Roles

The measured FPS data reveals how the division of labor shifts between the CPU and GPU as resolution changes. At 1920x1080, the system produces 279 FPS on Low settings, which is an extreme workload for the CPU's game logic and draw call processing. The jump from 1080p to 1440p Low reduces the average to 211 FPS, a 24% drop. From 1440p to 4K Low, the average falls to 142 FPS, another 33% drop. These reductions at Low settings — where GPU load is minimal — suggest the CPU is the limiting factor at lower resolutions, but the Ryzen 7 9850X3D's performance keeps frame rates exceptionally high regardless.

At Ultra settings, the resolution scaling tells a different story. The progression from 153 FPS (1080p) to 116 FPS (1440p) to 78 FPS (4K) shows percentage drops of 24% and 33% respectively — nearly identical to the Low preset scaling. This consistency indicates that Control's performance scales primarily with pixel count rather than preset complexity, meaning the GPU's fill rate and shading capacity dominate the frame rate equation across all settings.

The fact that 4K Ultra (78 FPS) is less than half of 1080p Low (279 FPS) — a 72% reduction — demonstrates that resolution has a far greater impact on performance than preset selection at any given resolution. The preset gap at 1080p (Low vs Ultra) is 126 FPS, while the resolution gap at Ultra (1080p vs 4K) is 75 FPS. This suggests that for this game, players seeking higher frame rates should first lower resolution, then reduce settings.

The GPU's role becomes more pronounced at 4K, where the RTX 5090's 32 GB memory buffer and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth are likely leveraged heavily. The CPU's role is most visible at 1080p Low, where the 279 FPS result indicates the Ryzen 7 9850X3D's 8 cores and 16 threads, boosting to 5.60 GHz, are more than sufficient to feed the GPU. In aggregate, the data shows a balanced system where neither component bottlenecks the other in any tested configuration.