Control

Resolution Scaling

Control's performance scaling across resolutions tells a clear story about where this pairing of AMD Ryzen 5 3600 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 hits its limits. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 171 FPS average, which drops to 137 FPS at 1440p and further to 93 FPS at 4K. That represents a 19.9% performance hit from 1080p to 1440p, and a 45.6% drop from 1080p to 4K at Low settings. The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets, suggesting a well-balanced system that responds predictably to resolution increases.

Moving to High settings, the frame rate starts at 115 FPS in 1080p, falls to 87 FPS at 1440p (a 24.3% reduction), and lands at 59 FPS in 4K (a 48.7% drop from 1080p). The Ultra preset shows similar behavior: 100 FPS at 1080p, 75 FPS at 1440p, and 51 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops between resolutions are remarkably consistent across all four settings tiers, which indicates the GPU is the dominant scaling factor rather than the CPU creating uneven bottlenecks at lower resolutions.

What's interesting is the shape of the scaling curve. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS loss across all settings is roughly 24-26%, while from 1440p to 4K, the additional loss is roughly 32-33%. This accelerating drop-off as resolution increases is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the RX 9070's rendering workload grows quadratically with pixel count. The 4K results hovering near 51-59 FPS at High and Ultra settings suggest that this combination is playable but not ideal for high-refresh 4K monitors in Control.

The Medium preset provides the most complete data, with minimum and maximum frame rates recorded at each resolution. At 1080p Medium, the combo shows 129 FPS average with a minimum of 110 FPS and maximum of 148 FPS. At 1440p Medium, those figures become 98 FPS average with 83 FPS minimum and 112 FPS maximum. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 66 FPS with a 56 FPS minimum and 76 FPS maximum. The frame time consistency appears solid, with the spread between minimum and maximum remaining relatively narrow across all three resolutions.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 sits at the heart of this system's gaming performance, built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. The GPU carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 644.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth. With base clocks of 1330 MHz, a game clock of 2070 MHz, and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, the card is designed to sustain high frequencies under load. The memory runs at 2518 MHz, translating to 20.1 Gbps effective.

The GPU's compute resources include 3584 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 128 raster operations pipelines. It also features 56 ray tracing cores, which is relevant for Control given the game's heavy use of ray-traced reflections and lighting effects. The card's pixel rate is rated at 322.6 GPixel/s, and its texture rate reaches 564.5 GTexel/s. In terms of raw compute, the RX 9070 delivers 36.13 TFLOPS for both FP32 and FP16 operations.

The 16 GB VRAM capacity is noteworthy for Control, a game from 2019 that can be demanding on memory at higher resolutions and with Ultra textures. At 4K Ultra settings, the combo maintains 51 FPS average, and while the data does not capture VRAM usage directly, the 16 GB allocation means the card is unlikely to hit capacity constraints even in the most demanding scenes. The 644.6 GB/s bandwidth provides ample headroom for texture streaming and high-resolution assets.

Synthetic benchmarks place the RX 9070 in the 69th percentile against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 23877. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z, which scores 23736 (0.6% lower), and the AMD Radeon RX 6800S at 24063 (0.8% higher). The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile sits at 23628 (1.1% lower), while the RTX 2080 SUPER reaches 24170 (1.2% higher). These tight margins indicate the RX 9070 performs in a well-established performance tier, though the synthetic scores do not fully capture its gaming characteristics in Control specifically.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database's tested combinations, this pairing of Ryzen 5 3600 and RX 9070 achieves a combo rank of 1172 out of 3720 total tested combos in Control. That places it in the top 31.5% of all combinations tested, which is a solid showing for a mid-range CPU paired with a current-generation GPU. The ranking reflects the combined performance of both components working together, not just the GPU's raw capability.

The CPU itself, the AMD Ryzen 5 3600, sits in the 71st percentile against all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 17035. Its nearest rivals show how tightly grouped this performance tier is: the Intel Core i7-1260P scores 17007 (0.2% lower), the Intel Core i5-11400 scores 17067 (0.2% higher), and the AMD EPYC 7573X scores 17070 (0.2% higher). These tiny deltas mean the Ryzen 5 3600 is essentially performance-equivalent to its closest competitors in aggregate CPU benchmarks.

The combo rank of 1172 out of 3720 suggests that while the GPU is capable, the CPU might be holding back the full potential of the RX 9070 in Control. With 3720 combinations tested, the upper echelon likely features newer, higher-core-count processors that can feed the GPU more consistently at lower resolutions. The fact that this combo still lands in the top third of all tested pairs indicates it is a viable gaming configuration, though not an optimal one for squeezing every last frame from the GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the resolution where CPU overhead is most pronounced, the combo delivers 171 FPS on Low settings, 129 FPS on Medium, 115 FPS on High, and 100 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 110 FPS and maximum of 148 FPS, indicating strong frame pacing. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 71 FPS, or roughly 41.5%, showing how much headroom the GPU has when CPU-bound at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, frame rates scale down proportionally. Low settings produce 137 FPS, Medium produces 98 FPS with a range of 83 to 112 FPS, High produces 87 FPS, and Ultra produces 75 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p narrows to 62 FPS, a 45.3% spread. At this resolution, the system still maintains comfortable frame rates above 60 FPS for all settings presets, making 1440p a sweet spot for this combination.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings still manage 93 FPS, but Medium drops to 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 FPS, High falls to 59 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 51 FPS. The 4K Medium data shows the tightest minimum-to-maximum spread in the entire dataset at 56 to 76 FPS, suggesting consistent performance without major frame hitches. However, the Ultra preset at 4K dipping below 60 FPS average means users seeking maximum visual fidelity will need to accept sub-60 frame rates or enable upscaling technologies.

The scaling between settings tiers is consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 42 FPS, Medium to High costs 14 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 15 FPS. At 1440p, those deltas are 39 FPS, 11 FPS, and 12 FPS respectively. At 4K, the deltas compress to 27 FPS, 7 FPS, and 8 FPS. This compression at higher resolutions reinforces that the GPU is the binding constraint at 4K, while at 1080p, the CPU begins to play a more significant role.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is a Zen 2 architecture processor based on the Matisse design, manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process. It packs 6 cores and 12 threads with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. The chip uses AMD Socket AM4 and supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration with 51.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Its 32 MB of shared L3 cache is a defining feature of the Zen 2 generation.

Synthetic CPU benchmarks show the Ryzen 5 3600 as a competent but not exceptional performer. In Cinebench R23, it scores 15045 multicore and 2124 single-core. Geekbench results show 7372 multicore and 1536 single-core. The 3DMark threaded tests reveal scaling characteristics: 1361 for 2 threads, 2579 for 4 threads, 3844 for 8 threads, and 4605 for 16 threads. The jump from 8 threads to 16 threads is modest at 19.8%, suggesting diminishing returns beyond 8 threads for this processor.

In the context of Control, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 171 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame delivery capability in this game. The fact that 4K Low still manages 93 FPS while 1080p Low reaches 171 FPS indicates the GPU has significant headroom at 1080p that the CPU cannot fully exploit. The 71 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p, compared to only 42 FPS at 4K, further confirms this dynamic.

The 6-core, 12-thread configuration is adequate for Control's threading model, which benefits from multiple cores but does not scale infinitely. The 3dmark 2-thread score of 1361 and 4-thread score of 2579 suggest that single-thread performance is modest by modern standards, which can impact games that rely heavily on a few primary threads. The Ryzen 5 3600's 71st percentile ranking against all CPUs places it in the upper-middle tier, matching closely with the Intel Core i7-1260P and i5-11400 in aggregate performance.

FAQ

Q: Does this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K in Control?

A: At 4K High settings, the combo averages 59 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it averages 51 FPS. To stay above 60 FPS at 4K, users must select Medium settings, which deliver 66 FPS average with a 56 FPS minimum.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing in Control?

A: 1440p provides the most balanced experience, with all settings presets exceeding 75 FPS. The High preset at 1440p delivers 87 FPS average, while Ultra still maintains 75 FPS, offering a strong combination of visual quality and smoothness.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 3600 scores 17035 on average, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core i7-1260P at 17007 and 0.2% lower than the Intel Core i5-11400 at 17067. The AMD EPYC 7742 scores 16998, 0.2% lower than the Ryzen.

Q: Is the RX 9070's 16 GB VRAM sufficient for Control at maximum settings?

A: The 16 GB GDDR6 memory with 644.6 GB/s bandwidth provides ample capacity and bandwidth for Control, as evidenced by the playable 4K Ultra performance of 51 FPS average. The data does not show any VRAM-related performance degradation.

Q: What frame rates can users expect at 1080p with this setup?

A: At 1080p, the combo delivers 171 FPS on Low, 129 FPS on Medium, 115 FPS on High, and 100 FPS on Ultra settings. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 110 FPS and maximum of 148 FPS.

Q: How does this combination rank against all tested combos in Control?

A: The combo ranks 1172 out of 3720 tested combinations, placing it in the top 31.5% of all tested pairs. The GPU sits in the 69th percentile against all GPUs, while the CPU ranks in the 71st percentile against all CPUs.