Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti delivers a robust 1080p experience in Control, but the performance curve reveals a system that scales predictably with resolution and settings. The measured data shows a clear progression from high refresh rate territory at 1080p to near-4K playability, with the GPU becoming the dominant constraint as pixel count rises.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and highlights the RTX 3070 Ti's workload. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 108.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 83 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 23.6%. Pushing further to 3840x2160 yields 54 FPS, which is exactly half of the 1080p figure. This near-linear halving of performance across a 4x pixel increase indicates the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions, with the Ryzen 5 3600's six cores providing sufficient headroom.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all quality presets. At Low settings, the combo achieves 168.4 FPS at 1080p, drops to 125.3 FPS at 1440p, and settles at 82.4 FPS at 4K. The 4K-to-1080p ratio here is 0.49, nearly identical to the High preset's 0.50 ratio. This uniformity suggests that the CPU is not introducing a bottleneck at any resolution—if it were, the 1080p results would show diminishing returns as the GPU becomes less stressed.

Medium settings follow the same trajectory: 116.8 FPS at 1080p, 87.7 FPS at 1440p, and 62.7 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings produce the lowest absolute numbers, with 89.6 FPS at 1080p, 71.7 FPS at 1440p, and 47.7 FPS at 4K. The gap between Medium and Ultra widens at lower resolutions—27.2 FPS at 1080p versus 15 FPS at 4K—implying that the extra graphical features in Ultra impose a more fixed cost that becomes proportionally smaller as resolution increases.

The data indicates that the RTX 3070 Ti's 8 GB of GDDR6X memory and 608.3 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1440p but begin to strain at 4K. The 54 FPS average at 4K High is playable but not smooth, and the 47.7 FPS at 4K Ultra falls below the 60 FPS threshold that many users target. For 1080p users, all presets exceed 89 FPS, making the CPU-GPU balance well-suited for high refresh rate displays.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 628th out of 1636 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the 61.6th percentile of all systems. This mid-pack positioning reflects a pairing that is capable but not exceptional, given that the RTX 3070 Ti sits at the 74th percentile among all GPUs while the Ryzen 5 3600 ranks at the 76th percentile among CPUs.

The GPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks include the AMD Radeon RX 6700, which scores 0.8% higher on average, and the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, which scores 0.3% lower. These small deltas suggest that the RTX 3070 Ti is tightly clustered with competing offerings, and the ranking in Control specifically may differ based on the game's optimization for NVIDIA hardware.

The CPU's nearest rivals show a similar pattern. The Intel Core i5-11400 scores 0.1% lower on average, while the AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS scores 0.2% higher. The AMD Ryzen 5 1600, an older six-core part, scores 0.2% lower, indicating that the 3600's Zen 2 architecture provides a modest generational improvement. The AMD EPYC 9274F, a server chip, scores 0.3% lower, which is notable given its enterprise positioning.

The combo's rank of 628 out of 1636 means that roughly 62% of tested systems perform better in Control. This is consistent with the hardware's age—the CPU launched in mid-2019 and the GPU in mid-2021—but the measured FPS shows that the pairing remains relevant for 1440p gaming. The 1080p results, in particular, place this combo in the upper tier for competitive play, even if the overall ranking is dragged down by more modern parts.

Settings Recommendations

For 1080p displays, the High preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance. The 108.7 FPS average comfortably exceeds 60 FPS and approaches 120 Hz territory, while the 19.1 FPS gap between Medium and High suggests that the extra visual features are worth the cost. Ultra at 1080p drops to 89.6 FPS, which is still smooth but represents a 17.6% reduction from High for what is often a marginal visual improvement in Control.

At 1440p, the Medium preset emerges as the recommended choice. The 87.7 FPS average falls just short of the High preset's 83 FPS, but the difference between them is only 5.4%. More importantly, Medium maintains a higher frame rate than High at 4K, indicating that the preset scaling is more efficient at this resolution. The Low preset at 125.3 FPS is available for esports-style play, but the visual compromise is significant.

For 4K, the Low preset is the only option that delivers a comfortable experience. The 82.4 FPS average is well above the 60 FPS threshold, while Medium drops to 62.7 FPS (borderline) and High falls to 54 FPS (noticeably below). Ultra at 47.7 FPS is not recommended for 4K, as the frame pacing will be inconsistent. The 4K data suggests that the RTX 3070 Ti's 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for Low and Medium, but the High and Ultra presets likely exceed its memory capacity at this resolution.

The measured rows do not include a "max settings" preset, but the Ultra data serves as the highest quality baseline. Users with 1080p panels should prioritize High, while 1440p users should consider Medium to maintain headroom. 4K users must accept Low settings to achieve playable frame rates.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Control at 60 FPS at 4K?

A: Only at Low settings, where the average FPS is 82.4. Medium drops to 62.7 FPS, but High (54 FPS) and Ultra (47.7 FPS) both fall below 60 FPS.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p gaming?

A: Medium at 87.7 FPS provides the best balance, as High (83 FPS) offers only a 5.4% improvement in visual quality. Low (125.3 FPS) is available for higher refresh rates.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 Ti compare to the RX 6700?

A: The RX 6700 scores 0.8% higher in aggregate benchmarks. In Control specifically, the measured data does not include direct comparisons, but the small delta suggests similar performance.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 3600 a bottleneck at 1080p?

A: No. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is roughly proportional to pixel count, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor. The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads provide sufficient throughput.

Q: What is the combo's overall ranking in Control?

A: It ranks 628th out of 1636 tested combos, placing it in the 61.6th percentile of all systems tested for this game.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM cause issues at 4K?

A: The data suggests it does. The 47.7 FPS at Ultra and 54 FPS at High are below 60 FPS, while Low (82.4 FPS) and Medium (62.7 FPS) perform better, indicating that higher presets likely exceed the memory capacity.

GPU Role

The RTX 3070 Ti's specifications directly explain the measured performance in Control. The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 608.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This configuration is well-suited for 1440p but becomes a limiting factor at 4K, where the 4K Ultra preset's 47.7 FPS average suggests that the memory subsystem is saturated.

The GPU's boost clock of 1770 MHz and base clock of 1575 MHz are moderate for the Ampere architecture, but the 6144 shading units provide substantial compute throughput. The 21.75 TFLOPS FP32 performance is high, yet Control's rendering workload appears to be memory-bound at higher resolutions, as evidenced by the steep FPS drops when moving from Medium to High at 4K.

The 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores are relevant for Control's ray tracing features, though the measured data does not isolate ray tracing performance. The 169.9 GPixel/s pixel rate and 339.8 GTexel/s texture rate indicate that the GPU can handle the game's visual effects at 1080p and 1440p without issue. The GPU's 74th percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30849, places it in the upper mid-range tier.

The nearest rival data shows the GPU is closely matched with the RX 6700 (0.8% higher average) and the RX 590 GME (0.3% lower). This clustering suggests that the RTX 3070 Ti's performance is well-understood, and the Control results reflect a typical workload. The GPU's 8 GB memory size is the primary constraint at 4K, as the 4K-to-1080p FPS ratio of 0.50 at High settings is consistent with a memory-limited scenario rather than a compute-limited one. The 4K Ultra result of 47.7 FPS, which is 53.2% of the 1080p Ultra's 89.6 FPS, further supports this interpretation—the extra visual features in Ultra likely require more memory bandwidth than the 608.3 GB/s can sustain at 4K.