Control

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers a strong performance profile for Control, a 2019 Action Adventure title. The data indicates that this combination is capable of running the game at high frame rates across all tested resolutions, with the primary constraint emerging at 4K Ultra settings. The measured FPS data and verdict fields show a clear progression of performance as resolution and settings scale, offering a practical guide for tuning the game to match your display’s capabilities.

Best Settings per Resolution

At 3840x2160 (4K), the most demanding preset that maintains an average of 60 FPS or higher is High, which achieves an average of 66 FPS. The data confirms that Ultra settings drop below the playable threshold with an average of 58 FPS, making High the optimal choice for 4K gaming. Medium settings provide a more comfortable margin at 75 FPS, and Low runs at 105 FPS, but High strikes the best balance between visual fidelity and frame rate for a 60Hz display.

Moving down to 2560x1440 (1440p), the RTX 5070 has enough headroom to run the game at Ultra settings, producing an average of 85 FPS. This is well above the 60 FPS playable threshold, meaning you can enable the highest quality presets without sacrificing smoothness. High settings run at 98 FPS, Medium at 111 FPS, and Low at 156 FPS, but the Ultra preset is clearly the recommended choice here, as it delivers a fully playable experience with maximum graphical detail.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the combination is even more capable, with Ultra settings averaging 113 FPS. This is the most demanding preset that stays comfortably above 60 FPS, and it provides a significant margin for high-refresh-rate monitors. High settings reach 130 FPS, Medium runs at 146 FPS, and Low hits an impressive 206 FPS, but there is no reason to drop below Ultra at this resolution given the performance on offer. The verdict data confirms that all four presets are playable at 1080p, with Ultra being the best choice for visual quality.

CPU and GPU Roles

The performance scaling across resolutions and presets indicates that the GPU is the primary driver of frame rate in Control, with the CPU providing a stable foundation. At 1080p Low, the game runs at 206 FPS, which is a measure of the CPU’s ability to feed frames to the GPU without bottlenecking. As resolution increases to 1440p and 4K, the average FPS drops to 156 and 105 respectively at Low settings, showing a clear GPU-bound trend where higher pixel counts reduce the frame rate.

The gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution decreases. At 1080p, the difference between Low (206 FPS) and Ultra (113 FPS) is 93 FPS, while at 4K, the same preset gap is only 47 FPS (from 105 to 58 FPS). This suggests that at lower resolutions, the CPU and GPU are both heavily utilized, with the GPU’s shading units and memory bandwidth becoming the limiting factor at higher detail levels. At 4K, the GPU is the dominant constraint, as even Low settings require substantial pixel throughput, and the CPU’s role diminishes relative to the GPU’s workload.

The Ryzen 9 9950X3D, with its 16 cores and 32 threads, provides ample processing power for Control’s physics and AI systems, but the benchmark data does not show any scenario where the CPU becomes a bottleneck. The highest frame rate recorded is 206 FPS at 1080p Low, which is likely near the CPU’s practical limit for this game, but it remains well above the playable threshold. For a player with a 144Hz or 240Hz monitor, the CPU’s performance at 1080p ensures that the GPU is the only component that needs adjustment when tweaking settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of performance for this combination. At 3840x2160, the game runs at an average of 66 FPS on High, 75 FPS on Medium, and 105 FPS on Low. The Medium preset includes minimum and maximum readings of 63 FPS and 86 FPS, respectively, indicating a stable frame pacing with no severe dips below the playable threshold. Ultra settings drop to 58 FPS average, which is below the 60 FPS playable threshold, and no min/max data is provided for this preset.

At 2560x1440, the results are consistently higher. Ultra averages 85 FPS, High runs at 98 FPS, Medium at 111 FPS, and Low at 156 FPS. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 94 FPS and a maximum of 127 FPS, demonstrating that even the most demanding moments in the game stay well above 60 FPS. This resolution is the sweet spot for this hardware, as it allows for Ultra settings with a comfortable margin for frame rate fluctuations.

At 1920x1080, the performance is excellent across the board. Ultra averages 113 FPS, High reaches 130 FPS, Medium runs at 146 FPS, and Low hits 206 FPS. The Medium preset’s minimum and maximum are 124 FPS and 168 FPS, respectively, showing a very smooth experience. The lack of min/max data for the other presets suggests that the average figures are representative, with no significant stuttering or frame drops expected during normal gameplay.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Control at 4K Ultra settings?

A: No, the data shows that Ultra settings at 3840x2160 produce an average of 58 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS playable threshold. High settings are the best option at 4K, averaging 66 FPS.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1440p gaming?

A: At 2560x1440, Ultra settings are fully playable with an average of 85 FPS. This is the most demanding preset that stays above the 60 FPS threshold, so it is the recommended choice for maximum visual quality.

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

A: At Ultra settings, the average frame rate drops from 113 FPS at 1920x1080 to 58 FPS at 3840x2160, a reduction of 55 FPS. This indicates that the GPU is heavily taxed by the higher resolution, with the CPU playing a smaller role.

Q: Is the RTX 5070’s 12 GB of VRAM sufficient for Control?

A: The measured FPS data does not indicate any VRAM-related performance issues at any resolution or preset. The game runs at playable frame rates up to High settings at 4K, suggesting that 12 GB is adequate for this title.

Q: Does the Ryzen 9 9950X3D bottleneck the RTX 5070 at 1080p?

A: The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 206 FPS, which is a high frame rate that suggests the CPU is not a limiting factor. The CPU’s strong single-thread performance (scoring 2259 in Cinebench R23) supports this, as Control is not a heavily multi-threaded game.

Q: What are the playable settings at 4K if I want to stay above 60 FPS?

A: The verdict data lists High, Low, and Medium as playable settings at 3840x2160. High is the best choice with an average of 66 FPS, while Medium runs at 75 FPS and Low at 105 FPS.

Similar Performance Alternatives

The CPU’s nearest rivals, based on average benchmark scores, offer nearly identical performance. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 scores 75738, just 0.1% higher than the Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s 75779 average. The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D is also within 0.1% with a score of 75716, and the AMD EPYC 8224P trails by 0.3% at 75582. The Intel Core Ultra 9 285 rounds out the group with a score of 75488, a 0.4% difference. In practical terms, any of these CPUs would produce nearly identical frame rates in Control, as the game is not highly sensitive to core count beyond a certain point.

For the GPU, the nearest rivals are all AMD professional cards, which is notable given the RTX 5070’s consumer positioning. The AMD Radeon Pro 580 scores 40318, a 0.1% difference from the RTX 5070’s 40377 average. The AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 is 0.8% slower at 40063, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 is 1.2% faster at 40870. The NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile is the closest NVIDIA alternative, scoring 39568, which is 2% lower. These comparisons suggest that the RTX 5070 sits in a performance tier with these workstation cards, though the gaming-specific features and driver optimizations of the RTX 5070 may yield better real-world results in Control.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 ranks 780th out of 3720 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the top 21% of all systems. This is a strong showing for a mid-range GPU paired with a high-end CPU, and the data indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing. The CPU’s percentile rank of 95 against all CPUs, combined with the GPU’s percentile rank of 82 against all GPUs, suggests that the system is well-balanced for this game, with the CPU providing enough headroom for the GPU to operate at its full potential.

The rank of 780 out of 3720 combos means that a significant number of systems outperform this configuration, primarily those with higher-end GPUs like the RTX 5080 or RTX 4090. However, for the specific goal of playing Control at 60 FPS or higher, this combo achieves that at all resolutions except 4K Ultra, where it falls just short. The data confirms that this is a capable gaming system for Control, and the performance metrics demonstrate that it can handle the game’s demands with appropriate settings adjustments.