Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D in Control produces a dataset that reveals a classic bottleneck dynamic, where the GPU's immense power is increasingly constrained by the older CPU as resolution drops. The measured frames per second (FPS) across resolutions and settings provide a clear picture of where the performance ceiling lies for this specific combination.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 4K down to 1080p demonstrates a significant shift in system limitation. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the combo delivers an average of 96 FPS. Dropping to 2560x1440 increases the average to 115 FPS, a 19.8% improvement. Moving further down to 1920x1080 yields 126 FPS, which is only a 9.6% increase over the 1440p result. This pattern indicates that while the GPU is heavily utilized at 4K, the frame rate gains diminish as resolution decreases, pointing to the CPU becoming the primary limiting factor at lower pixel counts.

The trend is consistent across all settings presets. At Low settings, the average FPS goes from 119 at 4K to 136 at 1440p (a 14.3% increase), but then only reaches 149 at 1080p (a 9.6% increase). Similarly, with Medium settings, the progression is 105 FPS at 4K, 120 at 1440p, and 132 at 1080p. The Ultra preset shows the smallest relative gains: 83 FPS at 4K, 110 at 1440p, and 120 at 1080p. Notably, the jump from 1440p to 1080p at Ultra is just 9.1%, the smallest percentage increase in the entire dataset. This suggests that at 1080p, the Ryzen 5 2600 is nearing its maximum output for this game, preventing the RTX 5090 D from fully stretching its legs.

The data indicates that the RTX 5090 D is capable of substantial performance, but its potential is throttled by the CPU in lower-resolution scenarios. At 4K, the GPU is likely the dominant bottleneck, as the frame rates scale more predictably with the increased pixel workload. The relatively modest gains when moving from 1440p to 1080p, especially at higher settings, are a strong indicator of CPU limitation. The gap between the 4K and 1080p scores at High settings (96 FPS vs 126 FPS) shows that the system is still scalable, but the scaling efficiency drops off, suggesting the CPU is not able to feed the GPU enough data to maintain a linear performance increase.

How This Combo Ranks

In the global database of tested configurations for Control, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves a combo rank of 427 out of 2888 tested combos. This places it in the top 14.8% of all tested configurations, which is a strong showing given the age of the CPU. The percentile ranking for the CPU itself is 75, meaning it outperforms 75% of all CPUs in the database on average benchmark scores. The GPU's percentile is even higher at 92, indicating it is a top-tier component relative to all other GPUs.

The discrepancy between the GPU's high percentile (92) and the combo's overall rank (427th) highlights the limiting effect of the CPU. While the RTX 5090 D is a top 8% performer, the Ryzen 5 2600, despite being in the top 25%, holds the system back from reaching the upper echelons of the rankings. The combo rank shows that while the GPU is powerful, the system's overall performance in Control is not solely determined by the GPU. The data suggests that many other combinations, likely with more modern processors, achieve higher frame rates despite having less powerful GPUs.

Looking at the CPU's nearest rivals provides context for its performance ceiling. The Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 21484, which is a mere 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (score 21440) and 0.5% higher than the Intel Core i9-11900H (score 21367). It is 0.7% lower than the Intel Xeon D-1746TER (score 21635) and 1.2% higher than the AMD EPYC 9454 (score 21223). These rival CPUs are from various generations and market segments, but their similar average scores suggest a performance plateau that the Ryzen 5 2600 has reached. For the GPU, the nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (1.1% higher score) and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (1.6% lower score), showing the RTX 5090 D is in a similar performance tier to these mobile and workstation parts in synthetic benchmarks, despite its desktop-class specs.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average FPS this combo can achieve at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS recorded for this combo at 1920x1080 is 149, achieved with the Low settings preset. The High preset yields 126 FPS, Medium yields 132 FPS, and Ultra yields 120 FPS.

Q: How does the frame rate scale from 1440p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 115 at 2560x1440 to 96 at 3840x2160. This represents a 16.5% decrease in performance when moving to the higher resolution.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the main bottleneck at 4K resolution?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor at 3840x2160. The frame rate variance between settings is significant at this resolution, with a 36 FPS difference between Low (119 FPS) and Ultra (83 FPS), showing the GPU's workload is the main driver of performance.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only rows with a minFps value are the Medium settings presets. The lowest minFps recorded is 89 at 3840x2160, followed by 102 at 2560x1440, and 112 at 1920x1080.

*Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested combinations in Control?*

A: This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is ranked 427th out of 2888 tested combos for this game, placing it in the top 15% of all tested systems.

Q: What is the performance difference between the High and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the High preset produces an average of 115 FPS, while the Ultra preset produces an average of 110 FPS. This is a 4.3% performance decrease for the higher visual quality preset.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Control with the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is as follows:

At 3840x2160, the combo achieves an average of 96 FPS on High settings, 119 FPS on Low, 105 FPS on Medium, and 83 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset also records a minFps of 89 and a maxFps of 121. This resolution shows the largest spread between Low and Ultra, a 36 FPS difference, indicating that the GPU is the main driver of performance here.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS is 115 on High, 136 on Low, 120 on Medium, and 110 on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minFps of 102 and a maxFps of 138. The difference between Low and Ultra narrows to 26 FPS, showing that the CPU is beginning to have a more noticeable impact.

At 1920x1080, the average FPS is 126 on High, 149 on Low, 132 on Medium, and 120 on Ultra. The Medium preset has a minFps of 112 and a maxFps of 151. The spread between Low and Ultra is now just 29 FPS, but the absolute gains over 1440p are minimal, especially at Ultra where the difference is only 10 FPS. This confirms the CPU bottleneck at lower resolutions.

The data shows that the Ultra preset is the most demanding, consistently producing the lowest average FPS at every resolution. The Low preset is the least demanding, allowing for the highest frame rates. The Medium and High presets offer a middle ground, with Medium generally performing slightly better than High.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is a formidable graphics card with 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a massive 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. Its architecture, Blackwell 2.0, features 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 raster output pipelines. The card operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (28 Gbps effective). These specifications rank it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 77712.

In Control, the GPU's role is dominant at higher resolutions. The data shows that at 4K, the frame rate is highly sensitive to the graphics settings, with a 36 FPS difference between Low and Ultra. This indicates that the GPU's compute and memory resources are being heavily taxed. The high memory bandwidth is likely beneficial for this game, which features complex textures and effects. However, the GPU's performance is not fully utilized at lower resolutions. The relatively small FPS gains from 1440p to 1080p, especially at High and Ultra settings, suggest that the GPU is waiting for the CPU to provide more draw calls and game logic updates.

The GPU's benchmark scores also show its strengths. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 14326, and in Geekbench Vulkan it scores 376915. These synthetic tests confirm its high compute capability. In Control, the GPU's power is evident at 4K, where it still manages to maintain an average of 83 FPS on Ultra settings, a demanding scenario. The card's 32 GB of VRAM is more than sufficient for this game, meaning memory capacity is not a limiting factor. Instead, the GPU's raw processing power determines performance at high resolutions.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 2000 series, based on the Zen+ architecture (Pinnacle Ridge). It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. The CPU features a 16 MB shared L3 cache and a dual-channel DDR4 memory bus with 46.9 GB/s of bandwidth. It is built on a 12 nm process node. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 1248 in Cinebench R15 multicore and 157.3 in single-core, with a Geekbench multicore score of 5648 and single-core score of 1154. Its average benchmark score is 21484, placing it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs.

The CPU's role in Control is to feed the GPU with data. The benchmark results show that this processor becomes a bottleneck as resolution decreases. At 1080p, the frame rates plateau, with the difference between 1440p and 1080p being small (e.g., 126 FPS vs 115 FPS at High settings). This indicates that the CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are being fully utilized, and its single-thread performance, which is critical for game logic, is insufficient to keep up with the RTX 5090 D's frame-rendering speed.

The CPU's nearest rivals demonstrate its performance tier. Its average score is within 1.2% of the AMD EPYC 9454 and Intel Core i9-11900H, showing that it competes with a wide range of processors in general compute tasks. However, the gaming performance in Control is more dependent on the CPU's per-core performance and IPC (instructions per clock). The Zen+ architecture, while capable, is older than the architectures used in more recent processors. The data suggests that while the Ryzen 5 2600 can provide playable frame rates, it prevents the system from reaching the high refresh rates that the GPU could otherwise achieve at 1080p. The 3.90 GHz boost clock is the maximum speed, but sustained loads may see lower clocks, further limiting performance.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the user's resolution and frame rate priorities. For a balance of visual quality and performance, the High preset appears to be the most sensible choice.

At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers 96 FPS, which is a solid experience for a 4K display. The Ultra preset drops to 83 FPS, which is a 13.5% decrease in performance for presumably marginal visual gains. The Medium preset at 105 FPS is also a viable option if a higher frame rate is preferred over the High preset's visual fidelity. The Low preset at 119 FPS is the fastest but compromises visual quality significantly.

At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves 115 FPS, which is a good target for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 110 FPS is close, offering a 4.3% performance penalty for the highest visual quality. Medium at 120 FPS provides a slight edge over High, but the difference is minimal. Low at 136 FPS is the fastest option but may not look as polished.

At 1920x1080, the High preset at 126 FPS is a strong choice, providing a smooth experience. The Ultra preset at 120 FPS is also playable and offers the best visual quality. The Medium preset at 132 FPS is a middle ground. The Low preset at 149 FPS is the fastest but is likely unnecessary given the high frame rates at other settings. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU limits the maximum frame rate, so choosing the Ultra preset only costs 6 FPS compared to High, making Ultra a more attractive option at this resolution.

Overall, the High preset offers the best combination of visual quality and frame rate consistency across all resolutions. It avoids the steep performance drop of Ultra at 4K while providing a noticeable improvement over Medium. For users with high-refresh-rate 1080p displays, the Ultra preset is recommended due to the minimal FPS loss and the CPU bottleneck limiting further gains. The Medium preset is a good fallback for those who need a few extra frames per second without dropping to Low.