Control

# Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for Control with the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 combination shows a clear hierarchy across the four available presets. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 92 FPS with a minimum of 78 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS, making it the most balanced option for smooth gameplay. The High preset at the same resolution produces 82 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 71 FPS average. The Low preset reaches 130 FPS average, but this comes at the cost of visual fidelity that the game's atmospheric environments benefit from.

At 2560x1440, Medium again provides the best experience with an average of 70 FPS, a minimum of 59 FPS, and a maximum of 80 FPS. This keeps frame pacing above the 60 FPS threshold for most of the playtime, with only occasional dips. The High preset at 62 FPS average is workable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. Ultra at 54 FPS average falls below the ideal smoothness threshold, while Low at 98 FPS average sacrifices too much visual quality for the resolution.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more constrained. Medium produces 47 FPS average with a minimum of 40 FPS and maximum of 54 FPS, which is playable but not consistently smooth. High drops to 42 FPS, and Ultra falls to 36 FPS. Low achieves 66 FPS average, which is the only preset at 4K that maintains reasonable fluidity, but the visual compromise is substantial. The data indicates that Medium is the recommended preset across all resolutions, as it provides the best balance between visual quality and playable frame rates, with the 1080p Medium configuration being the overall sweet spot for this hardware combination.

# GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9060 brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU operates with a base clock of 1700 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2990 MHz. These specifications place the GPU in the 59th percentile compared to all GPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 16014.

The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti with an average score of 16129 (0.7% higher), the AMD Radeon R9 370X with 15862 (1% lower), the AMD Radeon RX 7700 with 15852 (1% lower), and the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 with 15679 (2.1% lower). This positioning suggests the RX 9060 sits in the upper-midrange tier of graphics hardware.

In Control, the GPU's memory capacity and bandwidth play a critical role at higher resolutions. The 8 GB frame buffer is sufficient for the game's textures at 1080p and 1440p, where the GPU can maintain respectable frame rates. At 4K, the memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s becomes a limiting factor, as evidenced by the significant FPS drop from 1440p to 2160p across all settings. The GPU's RDNA 4.0 architecture with 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units provides the computational throughput for the game's physics and particle effects, but the memory subsystem constrains performance at higher pixel counts.

# FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combination in Control?

A: Based on the measured FPS data, 1920x1080 with Medium settings provides the best experience with an average of 92 FPS and a minimum of 78 FPS. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average drops to 70 FPS, while 3840x2160 Medium yields only 47 FPS average.

Q: How does the RX 9060 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 9060 has an average benchmark score of 16014, placing it 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (16129), 1% above the AMD Radeon R9 370X (15862), 1% above the AMD Radeon RX 7700 (15852), and 2.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15679).

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: The data suggests the GPU becomes the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 130 FPS average, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU adequately. The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K follows a pattern consistent with GPU-bound performance.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at Medium settings across resolutions?

A: At 1920x1080 Medium, the minimum FPS is 78. At 2560x1440 Medium, the minimum is 59. At 3840x2160 Medium, the minimum drops to 40. These values represent the worst-case frame times measured during testing.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 3600 compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 has an average benchmark score of 17035. It sits 0.2% above the Intel Core i7-1260P (17007), 0.2% below the Intel Core i5-11400 (17067), 0.2% below the AMD EPYC 7573X (17070), and 0.2% above the AMD EPYC 7742 (16998).

Q: Is Ultra settings viable at any resolution?

A: Ultra settings are only viable at 1920x1080, where the system achieves 71 FPS average. At 2560x1440 Ultra drops to 54 FPS average, and at 3840x2160 Ultra falls to 36 FPS average, both of which are below ideal playability thresholds.

# How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and AMD Radeon RX 9060 ranks 1632 out of 2888 tested combinations for Control. This places the combo in the 43rd percentile of all tested hardware configurations, meaning roughly 57% of tested combos deliver higher performance in this specific game. The ranking reflects the balanced but mid-tier nature of this pairing.

Breaking down the components, the CPU ranks in the 71st percentile against all CPUs in the database, while the GPU ranks in the 59th percentile against all GPUs. The combo's overall position in Control is slightly below what the individual component percentiles might suggest, indicating that this particular game's engine and workload characteristics do not favor the combination as strongly as other games might.

The ranking position of 1632 out of 2888 implies that many combinations with higher-end GPUs or CPUs achieve better frame rates in Control. However, the combo still delivers playable performance at 1080p and 1440p with appropriate settings, making it a viable configuration for this title despite not being near the top of the rankings. The data shows that the combo's performance is consistent with its component-level benchmarks, neither exceeding nor falling short of expectations based on the individual hardware capabilities.

# Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the system scales across three resolutions. At Medium settings, the average FPS progresses from 92 at 1920x1080, to 70 at 2560x1440, to 47 at 3840x2160. This represents a 23.9% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 32.9% drop from 1440p to 4K. The total scaling from 1080p to 4K is a 48.9% reduction in average FPS.

The scaling pattern at Low settings is similar: 130 FPS at 1080p, 98 FPS at 1440p, and 66 FPS at 4K. This represents a 24.6% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 32.7% drop from 1440p to 4K. At High settings, the progression is 82, 62, and 42 FPS, with drops of 24.4% and 32.3% respectively. Ultra settings show 71, 54, and 36 FPS, with drops of 23.9% and 33.3%.

The consistent percentage drops across all settings indicate that the scaling is resolution-driven rather than settings-driven. The fact that the FPS reduction from 1440p to 4K is consistently larger than the reduction from 1080p to 1440p points to the GPU's memory bandwidth and processing capacity being increasingly strained at higher pixel counts. The 8 GB VRAM and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth become more significant bottlenecks as resolution increases, with the 4K results showing the GPU struggling to maintain fluid frame rates even at Medium settings.

# Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers the following average FPS across settings: Low produces 130 FPS, Medium produces 92 FPS with a minimum of 78 and maximum of 106, High produces 82 FPS, and Ultra produces 71 FPS. The Medium setting at 1080p provides the most consistent frame delivery with a narrow range between minimum and maximum.

At 2560x1440, the results are: Low produces 98 FPS average, Medium produces 70 FPS average with a minimum of 59 and maximum of 80, High produces 62 FPS average, and Ultra produces 54 FPS average. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 44 FPS, showing the significant performance cost of higher quality settings at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low produces 66 FPS average, Medium produces 47 FPS average with a minimum of 40 and maximum of 54, High produces 42 FPS average, and Ultra produces 36 FPS average. The 4K results show that only Low settings manage to stay above 60 FPS average, while all other settings fall below the smoothness threshold.

The complete dataset shows a consistent pattern where each settings tier costs approximately 10-15% performance at a given resolution. The Medium preset consistently provides the best balance, with its minimum FPS values staying within 20% of the average, indicating stable frame pacing. The High and Ultra presets show larger relative drops, while Low maximizes frame rate at the expense of visual quality.

# CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 features 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. The CPU has 32 MB of shared L3 cache, with 512 KB L2 cache per core and 64 KB L1 cache per core. This configuration delivers a multi-threaded Cinebench R23 score of 15045 and a single-thread score of 2124, placing the CPU in the 71st percentile against all CPUs.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance for its class. PassMark multi-thread score of 17700 and Geekbench multicore score of 7372 demonstrate capable parallel processing, while single-thread scores of 2562 (PassMark) and 1536 (Geekbench) indicate solid per-core performance. The 3DMark results show scaling from 1361 (2 threads) to 4605 (16 threads), with 4603 at max threads, suggesting the CPU saturates its 12 threads efficiently in synthetic workloads.

In Control, the CPU's role becomes evident when examining the frame rate scaling. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 130 FPS average, which suggests the CPU can drive high frame rates when the GPU is not heavily taxed. The consistent frame rate drops across settings at a fixed resolution indicate that the GPU becomes the limiting factor as quality increases. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for Control's threading model, as evidenced by the fact that frame rates scale predictably with resolution rather than showing CPU-related stutters or inconsistencies.

The Ryzen 5 3600's nearest CPU rivals all score within 0.2% of its average benchmark score of 17035, indicating very tight competition in this performance tier. The Intel Core i5-11400 scores 17067 (0.2% higher), while the AMD EPYC 7573X scores 17070 (0.2% higher). This tight grouping suggests the CPU delivers performance consistent with its market position, and in Control specifically, the CPU does not appear to be the primary constraint on frame rates at standard gaming resolutions.