Control

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 combination delivers a robust Control experience, with benchmark results showing a clear performance hierarchy across resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system averages 184.9 FPS on Low, 131.5 FPS on Medium, 116.2 FPS on High, and 101.4 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 2560x1440, the averages remain strong: 142.7 FPS on Low, 101.9 FPS on Medium, 87 FPS on High, and 76.6 FPS on Ultra. At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop considerably, with 96.3 FPS on Low, 68.7 FPS on Medium, 58 FPS on High, and 49.4 FPS on Ultra. The data indicates a consistent pattern where each resolution step down from 4K provides roughly a 50% performance uplift at the same settings, while lowering settings from Ultra to Low yields approximately a 90-100% improvement in frame rate.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data shows a clear scaling trend. At 1920x1080, the system is never constrained, with even the Ultra preset averaging 101.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 83.5 FPS, representing an 82% increase from the lowest to highest quality setting. Medium settings sit at 131.5 FPS, which is 15.3 FPS below Low but 15.3 FPS above High, showing a linear progression in performance cost per quality tier.

At 2560x1440, the performance headroom narrows but remains comfortable. The Ultra preset averages 76.6 FPS, which is 25.2 FPS below the 1080p Ultra result. High settings deliver 87 FPS, Medium 101.9 FPS, and Low 142.7 FPS. The delta between Low and Ultra at this resolution is 66.1 FPS, slightly smaller than at 1080p due to the increased GPU load at higher pixel counts.

The 3840x2160 results reveal the first real stress point. Ultra settings drop to 49.4 FPS, which falls below the playable threshold of 60 FPS. High settings average 58 FPS, also below the threshold. Medium settings recover to 68.7 FPS, and Low settings reach 96.3 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K shows a 46.9 FPS difference, indicating that the RTX 3080's 10 GB GDDR6X memory and 320-bit bus are increasingly taxed as resolution climbs.

FAQ

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K with High settings?

A: No. The measured average at 3840x2160 with High settings is 58 FPS, which is 2 FPS below the playable threshold of 60 FPS. The system requires Medium settings at 4K to stay above 60 FPS, averaging 68.7 FPS.

Q: What is the best playable preset at 1440p?

A: The Ultra preset at 2560x1440 averages 76.6 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold. All four settings — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — are playable at this resolution, with the highest quality option still delivering over 75 FPS.

Q: How does the 1080p Ultra result compare to the 4K Low result?

A: The 1920x1080 Ultra preset averages 101.4 FPS, while the 3840x2160 Low preset averages 96.3 FPS. The 1080p Ultra result is 5.1 FPS higher, demonstrating that the higher resolution's pixel count has a greater impact on performance than the quality preset.

Q: Is the RTX 3080 the primary bottleneck at 4K?

A: The data suggests yes. At 3840x2160, the frame rate drops from 96.3 FPS on Low to 49.4 FPS on Ultra, a 48.7% reduction. This large swing indicates the GPU is the limiting factor, as the Ryzen 9 9950X3D's processing power is not fully utilized at lower settings where the GPU still delivers high frame rates.

Q: Does the system ever drop below 60 FPS at 1440p?

A: No. The lowest average at 2560x1440 is 76.6 FPS on Ultra settings. All presets at this resolution maintain averages above the 60 FPS threshold, with the minimum recorded average being 16.6 FPS above the threshold.

Q: What is the performance gap between Medium and High at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Medium averages 131.5 FPS and High averages 116.2 FPS. The difference is 15.3 FPS, meaning High settings cost approximately 11.6% of the Medium frame rate while providing improved visual quality.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data reveals a clear division of labor between the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are exceptionally high — 184.9 FPS on Low — which suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU at very high rates. However, the scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p shows a 83.5 FPS drop, indicating that the GPU becomes more involved as settings increase, but the CPU still has headroom.

At 2560x1440, the performance pattern shifts. The Low preset averages 142.7 FPS, which is 42.2 FPS lower than the 1080p Low result. This reduction is entirely attributable to the increased pixel count, as the CPU workload remains constant. The fact that the 1440p Ultra result (76.6 FPS) is only 24.8 FPS lower than the 1080p Ultra result (101.4 FPS) suggests that the GPU is starting to become the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's role becomes dominant. The Low preset drops to 96.3 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls to 49.4 FPS. The difference between 1440p Low and 4K Low is 46.4 FPS, while the difference between 1440p Ultra and 4K Ultra is 27.2 FPS. This non-linear scaling indicates that the RTX 3080's memory bandwidth and compute capacity are strained at 4K, particularly with higher quality settings that increase texture and shader complexity. The CPU's 16 cores and 32 threads, with a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, are more than sufficient to handle Control's demands at all resolutions; the data shows no evidence of CPU-induced frame rate limits, as the frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings changes.

The Verdict

The verdict by resolution is clear. At 1920x1080, all four presets — Low, Medium, High, and Ultra — are playable, with the Ultra preset averaging 101.4 FPS, which is 41.4 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440, all four presets are also playable, with the Ultra preset averaging 76.6 FPS, 16.6 FPS above the threshold. At 3840x2160, only Low and Medium presets are playable; High averages 58 FPS and Ultra averages 49.4 FPS, both below the 60 FPS threshold. The system can run Control at 4K, but only with reduced quality settings.

How This Combo Ranks

This CPU and GPU combination ranks 1063 out of 3720 tested combos for Control, placing it in the top 28.6% of all configurations. This ranking reflects the RTX 3080's position in the GPU hierarchy — it sits at the 68th percentile among all GPUs — while the CPU is at the 95th percentile among all CPUs. The combination's rank suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor for this game, as the CPU's high percentile ranking does not translate into a proportionally higher combo rank. The average benchmark score for the GPU is 23172, while the CPU's average is 75779, indicating a significant imbalance in compute capability that favors the CPU.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 1920x1080, the best playable setting is Ultra, which averages 101.4 FPS. This provides the highest visual quality while maintaining a frame rate well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 2560x1440, the best playable setting is also Ultra, averaging 76.6 FPS. While this is lower than the 1080p result, it still offers a comfortable margin above the threshold. At 3840x2160, the best playable setting is Medium, averaging 68.7 FPS. This is the only resolution where the user must compromise on quality to achieve playable performance, as High and Ultra both fall below 60 FPS.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The nearest rivals for the CPU and GPU provide context for what other hardware would behave similarly. The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D's closest competitors, based on average benchmark scores, are the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (75738 vs 75779, 0.1% slower), the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D (75716, 0.1% slower), the AMD EPYC 8224P (75582, 0.3% slower), and the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (75488, 0.4% slower). All of these CPUs would deliver nearly identical frame rates in Control, as the game is not CPU-bound at any resolution tested.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the NVIDIA P106-100 (23249 vs 23172, 0.3% faster), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (23250, 0.3% faster), the AMD Radeon RX 6600M (23273, 0.4% faster), and the AMD Radeon R9 M290X (23276, 0.4% faster). These GPUs would produce similar performance in Control, meaning that systems equipped with any of these cards would likely see the same playable settings at each resolution. However, it is important to note that these rival GPUs have different memory configurations and feature sets, so while the average benchmark scores are close, real-world performance in Control could vary slightly depending on the specific game's requirements.