Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 delivers a playable experience across all tested configurations in Control, but the performance scaling between resolutions reveals a system that is clearly bound by the CPU at lower settings. At 1080p Low, the combo produces an average of 151 FPS, which drops to 138.6 FPS at 1440p Low, a modest 8.2% reduction. However, moving to 4K Low yields 98.5 FPS, a significant 28.9% decline from the 1440p result. This pattern suggests that at lower settings and lower resolutions, the Ryzen 5 2600's six cores and twelve threads are the primary constraint, as the GPU has ample headroom to render frames quickly but is limited by the CPU's ability to feed the pipeline.

Resolution Scaling

The data shows that as resolution increases, the frame rate drop becomes more pronounced, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario at higher pixel counts. At High settings, the transition from 1080p (120.7 FPS) to 1440p (92.9 FPS) results in a 23% performance loss, while the jump from 1440p to 4K (61.4 FPS) sees a 33.9% reduction. This steeper decline at 4K indicates that the RTX 4070's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed more heavily, though the absolute frame rates remain respectable. The scaling from Medium to High at 4K (69.5 to 61.4 FPS) shows an 11.7% penalty, while the Ultra preset at 4K (56.4 FPS) is only 8.1% slower than High, suggesting diminishing returns on visual fidelity at that resolution.

The most telling observation is the difference between Low and Ultra at each resolution. At 1080p, the gap is 46.6 FPS (151 vs 104.4), representing a 30.9% performance spread. At 1440p, this gap narrows to 57.2 FPS (138.6 vs 81.4), a 41.3% spread. At 4K, the difference expands to 42.1 FPS (98.5 vs 56.4), a 42.7% spread. The widening relative gap at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as pixel count increases, while the CPU bottleneck at 1080p Low is evident from the relatively small improvement over 1440p Low (151 vs 138.6 FPS, only 8.9% faster).

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this pairing ranks 502nd out of 1636 total combos for Control, placing it in the upper 30% of all systems tested. This position reflects a balance between the Ryzen 5 2600's modest multi-threaded performance and the RTX 4070's strong rasterization capabilities. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11,186 places it in the 77th percentile among all processors, while the GPU's Passmark G3D score of 26,927 puts it in the 81st percentile among all graphics cards. The combination of a mid-range 2018 processor with a high-end 2023 graphics card creates an asymmetric pairing that ranks well but leaves performance on the table in CPU-limited scenarios.

The nearest CPU rivals in the database illustrate the processor's positioning: the Intel Core i5-1345U scores 19,691 (0.4% higher), the Intel Core i5-11600KF scores 19,740 (0.6% higher), while the AMD Ryzen 5 7530U and Intel Core i7-10700F score 19,508 and 19,485 respectively (0.6% and 0.7% lower). These narrow deltas (all within 1%) indicate that the Ryzen 5 2600's overall benchmark average of 19,616 is competitive with these more modern parts. For the GPU, the nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 (37,507, 0.6% higher), NVIDIA GeForce MX570 A (38,008, 1.9% higher), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile (38,135, 2.2% higher), while the AMD Radeon RX 5300M trails by 2.5% at 36,371.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070's specifications are central to understanding its performance in Control. Built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process, the GPU features 5,888 shading units and 64 ROPs, paired with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus. The memory operates at 1,313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The boost clock of 2,475 MHz allows the card to maintain high throughput, as evidenced by its Passmark G3D score of 26,927, which ranks it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs.

The 12 GB VRAM capacity proves sufficient for Control at all tested settings, as the game does not appear to exceed this allocation even at 4K Ultra. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the combo still maintains 56.4 FPS, indicating that memory pressure is not causing significant frame drops. The GPU's FP32 performance of 29.15 TFLOPS supports the frame rates observed, though the CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions prevents the card from reaching its full potential. The 200 W TDP and dual-slot design are reasonable for the performance delivered, and the PCIe 4.0 x16 interface ensures adequate bandwidth for data transfer.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the measured results show a clear progression: Low delivers 151 FPS, Medium drops to 133.3 FPS, High reaches 120.7 FPS, and Ultra falls to 104.4 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 46.6 FPS, meaning the Ultra preset is 30.9% slower than Low. This is a substantial penalty for the visual enhancements, but the absolute frame rates remain well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Moving to 1440p, the same settings produce 138.6 FPS (Low), 101.8 FPS (Medium), 92.9 FPS (High), and 81.4 FPS (Ultra). The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is only 8.2%, while at Ultra it is 22% (104.4 to 81.4 FPS). This indicates that the CPU's influence diminishes at higher settings, where the GPU workload increases. At 4K, the results are 98.5 FPS (Low), 69.5 FPS (Medium), 61.4 FPS (High), and 56.4 FPS (Ultra). The 4K Ultra result is just 3.6% slower than 4K High, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not heavily taxing the GPU, but the overall performance at 4K is 46.2% lower than 1080p Ultra (56.4 vs 104.4 FPS).

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the High preset at 1440p offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, delivering 92.9 FPS. This frame rate is comfortably above the 60 FPS target and leaves headroom for demanding scenes. At 1080p, the High preset at 120.7 FPS is recommended for players with high-refresh-rate displays, as it provides excellent fluidity without the performance penalty of Ultra. The Ultra preset at 1440p (81.4 FPS) is viable for those prioritizing image quality, but the 12.4% improvement in frame rate from dropping to High is significant.

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset at 69.5 FPS is the most practical choice, as it maintains a smooth experience while the High preset (61.4 FPS) and Ultra preset (56.4 FPS) dip closer to the 60 FPS threshold. The Low preset at 4K (98.5 FPS) is overkill for most displays and sacrifices too much visual fidelity. The data suggests that players should default to High at 1080p and 1440p, with Medium as the fallback for 4K, to ensure consistent frame pacing.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 2600's specifications explain the performance ceiling observed at lower resolutions. With six cores and twelve threads based on the Zen+ architecture (Pinnacle Ridge), the processor operates at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 11,186 and single-core score of 1,579 indicate moderate computational power, which is sufficient for Control's physics and AI calculations but not exceptional. The CPU's Passmark multi-thread score of 13,160 and single-thread score of 2,239 further confirm its mid-range positioning.

The 16 MB shared L3 cache and 46.9 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for the game's data demands, but the 12 nm process node and 2018 release date mean the processor trails more modern parts in instructions per clock. The benchmark results show that at 1080p Low, the CPU limits the combo to 151 FPS, while the GPU could likely render more frames if unconstrained. The gap between 1080p Low (151 FPS) and 1080p Medium (133.3 FPS) is 11.7%, which is smaller than the gap between Medium and High (9.5%), suggesting that the CPU bottleneck is most pronounced at the lowest settings. The combo's overall ranking of 502nd out of 1636 reflects this CPU-bound nature, as the RTX 4070's potential is not fully realized in this pairing.