Control

Control on this AMD Ryzen 5 3600 + AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT pairing shows a clear split between CPU-bound and GPU-bound behavior depending on resolution. At 1080p, the system delivers high frame rates that scale strongly with settings, while 4K pushes the GPU hard enough to bring even High settings below the 60 FPS threshold. The measured data indicates a balanced mid-range platform that favors high-refresh 1080p and 1440p play, with 4K requiring compromises.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 170.3 at 1080p to 129.6 at 1440p, then to 91.1 at 4K. That is a 46.5% reduction from 1080p to 4K, showing the GPU is the primary limiter even at the lowest quality preset. At High settings, the numbers drop from 109.9 to 82.1 to 54.4 across the three resolutions — a 50.5% total decline. The Ultra preset shows the same pattern: 96.7 at 1080p, 69.7 at 1440p, and 48.1 at 4K.

The scaling between 1440p and 4K is particularly harsh. Moving from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings costs 32.4 FPS (from 96 to 63.6), while the same jump at Ultra costs 21.6 FPS (from 69.7 to 48.1). This suggests that 4K Ultra is beyond the comfortable range for this GPU in Control, as the frame rate dips well below 50 FPS. The 1440p to 4K gap at Low settings (38.5 FPS drop) is proportionally similar to the 1080p to 1440p gap (40.7 FPS drop), indicating linear scaling with pixel count rather than a sudden bottleneck shift.

At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 73.6 FPS (170.3 vs 96.7), which is a larger absolute spread than at 4K (43 FPS difference between Low and Ultra). This wider spread at lower resolutions indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU well enough for settings to matter more, whereas at 4K the GPU becomes so saturated that even dropping to Low only recovers so much performance. The data points to the RX 7800 XT being the limiting component at 4K, while the Ryzen 5 3600 keeps up adequately at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

For 4K, the measured results show that High settings average 54.4 FPS, which is below a smooth 60 FPS target. Medium settings at 4K reach 63.6 FPS, making it the highest quality preset that stays above 60 FPS on average. Low settings at 4K hit 91.1 FPS, which is playable but sacrifices visual fidelity for frame rate headroom. Ultra at 4K drops to 48.1 FPS, which is noticeably stuttery for action sequences in this title.

At 1440p, High settings deliver 82.1 FPS, which is comfortably above 60 FPS and likely the sweet spot for visual quality versus performance. Ultra at 1440p averages 69.7 FPS, still playable but with less margin for demanding scenes. Medium at 1440p hits 96 FPS, offering a strong balance for high-refresh monitors. Low at 1440p reaches 129.6 FPS, which suits competitive play if maximum frame rates are the priority.

For 1080p, the system is clearly capable of high-refresh gaming. High settings average 109.9 FPS, and Medium reaches 123.8 FPS. Ultra at 1080p still holds 96.7 FPS, making it the recommended preset for the best visual experience without dropping below 60 FPS. Low at 1080p hits 170.3 FPS, which is ideal for 165Hz or 240Hz displays, though the visual trade-off is significant. The data suggests that 1080p Ultra is the best overall experience, as it stays above 90 FPS while offering the full effects suite.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Zen 2 architecture, running at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.20 GHz. Its benchmark scores show a balanced profile: Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 15045, while single-core hits 2124. The PassMark multithread score is 17700, and single-thread is 2562. These numbers place it in the 76th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 18129.

In Control, the CPU's role becomes more evident at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rate ceiling appears to be around 170 FPS (Low setting), which is likely near the CPU's maximum engine throughput. The 3DMark 8-thread score of 3844 and 16-thread score of 4605 indicate that the processor can handle the game's threading demands, but the 3DMark single-thread score of 696 suggests that per-core performance is the limiting factor for very high frame rates.

Comparing to nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 3600 sits within 0.3% of the Intel Core i5-11400 (18150 avg score, -0.1% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS (18101, +0.2% delta). This means that in CPU-bound scenarios, the 3600 performs essentially identically to these alternatives. The 12 threads help with background tasks and streaming, but Control's engine appears to scale primarily with single-core speed and a few well-optimized threads, which is why the 1080p Low setting caps around 170 FPS rather than pushing higher.

FAQ

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 82.1 FPS. This is above the 60 FPS threshold and provides smooth gameplay, though not enough for 144Hz monitors at full refresh.

Q: Is 4K playable with this setup?

A: Yes, but only at Medium or Low settings. Medium averages 63.6 FPS, and Low averages 91.1 FPS. High drops to 54.4 FPS, and Ultra falls to 48.1 FPS, both below the ideal 60 FPS mark.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 3600 compare to the Intel Core i5-11400 in this game?

A: The average benchmark scores are nearly identical: 18129 for the 3600 versus 18150 for the i5-11400, a delta of -0.1%. In practice, you would not notice a difference in Control's frame rates.

Q: What is the best preset for a 1080p 144Hz monitor?

A: High settings average 109.9 FPS, which is below 144 FPS. Medium hits 123.8 FPS, still short of 144. Low reaches 170.3 FPS, which fully saturates a 144Hz display but requires dropping most visual features.

Q: Does the RX 7800 XT's 16 GB VRAM help at 4K in Control?

A: The 16 GB GDDR6 memory with 624.1 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 4K Ultra in this game, as the frame rate drop is more tied to compute load than memory capacity. The GPU's 37.32 TFLOPS FP32 performance is the limiting factor.

Q: How much performance is lost going from 1080p to 4K at Medium settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 123.8 at 1080p to 96 at 1440p, then to 63.6 at 4K. That is a 48.6% reduction from 1080p to 4K.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip, featuring 3840 shading units, 240 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. It has a boost clock of 2430 MHz and a game clock of 2124 MHz, with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus providing 624.1 GB/s bandwidth. The GPU's compute capability is 37.32 TFLOPS FP32, and it supports DirectX 12 Ultimate.

In Control, the GPU's performance scales directly with resolution. At 1080p Low, the GPU is not fully utilized, as the frame rate likely hits a CPU limit. However, at 4K Ultra, the GPU is the clear bottleneck, delivering only 48.1 FPS. The GTX 1080 Ti-class performance of this card (based on its PassMark G3D score of 24176) is sufficient for 1440p high-refresh gaming but struggles at 4K with ultra settings.

The RX 7800 XT's 60 ray tracing cores are present but Control's implementation of ray tracing is not measured in this data, so the standard rasterization results apply. The 16 GB VRAM is more than enough for this game at any resolution, as even 4K Ultra textures fit comfortably. The GPU's percentile rank of 76 places it in the upper tier, though its nearest rivals in the synthetic benchmark (AMD FirePro S9300 X2 at 32540 avg score, +0.2% delta) are workstation cards that do not reflect real gaming performance. The measured FPS data is the authoritative source for this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1080p:

• Low: 170.3 FPS average
• Medium: 123.8 FPS average
• High: 109.9 FPS average
• Ultra: 96.7 FPS average

1440p:

• Low: 129.6 FPS average
• Medium: 96 FPS average
• High: 82.1 FPS average
• Ultra: 69.7 FPS average

4K (3840x2160):

• Low: 91.1 FPS average
• Medium: 63.6 FPS average
• High: 54.4 FPS average
• Ultra: 48.1 FPS average

The full data set shows a consistent pattern: each settings tier costs roughly 15-25% performance over the previous tier at the same resolution. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 46.5 FPS, from Medium to High costs 13.9 FPS, and from High to Ultra costs 13.2 FPS. The same steps at 4K cost 27.5, 9.2, and 6.3 FPS respectively. This indicates that the CPU is more involved at 1080p, where the settings impact is larger, while at 4K the GPU's raw throughput dominates and settings have a smaller absolute effect.

The combo rank of 598 out of 1636 combos in this game suggests that this pairing is above average but not top-tier. For a game released in 2019, this 2023 GPU and 2019 CPU combination still delivers playable frame rates at 4K with adjusted settings, and excellent performance at 1440p. The data confirms that this is a sensible pairing for Control, with no clear CPU or GPU bottleneck at 1440p High, which is the recommended target for the best balance of visuals and performance.