Control

Control pairs AMD’s Ryzen 5 4600G with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, a combination that lands in the 84th percentile of tested combos for this title. The pairing’s benchmark data shows a clear GPU-bound profile, with the CPU’s role diminishing as resolution increases, yet the 4600G still holds its own in a game that rewards both high thread counts and strong single-core performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 260th out of 1,636 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the top 16% of all systems evaluated. This is a strong showing, but the data suggests the ranking is driven almost entirely by the GPU’s raw throughput rather than any synergistic boost from the CPU. The RX 7900 XTX alone sits at the 85th percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 4600G ranks at the 75th percentile among all CPUs. The combo’s overall rank of 260 out of 1,636 (roughly the 84.1th percentile) is slightly below the GPU’s standalone percentile, which indicates the CPU is a mild limiter in certain scenarios—particularly at lower resolutions where frame rates climb high enough to expose processor overhead.

Compared to the CPU’s nearest rivals, the 4600G’s average benchmark score of 17,489 is nearly identical to the AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355GE (17,482, 0% delta) and the Intel Core i5-12450H (17,475, 0.1% faster). It trails the Intel Core i3-14100T by 0.8% (17,636) and the Core i3-13100F by 1% (17,665). These deltas are negligible in gaming terms, meaning the CPU choice among these four would not meaningfully alter Control’s frame rates. The GPU’s nearest rivals tell a different story: the RX 7900 XTX’s average score of 44,019 is 0.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (44,195), 0.8% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667), 1.6% ahead of the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 (43,313), and 2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (44,900). These small margins confirm the 7900 XTX is operating at the top tier of GPU performance, which is why the combo still ranks highly despite the mid-range CPU.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications explain why Control runs as well as it does. The GPU features 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. For a game like Control, which is known for heavy texture streaming and particle effects, this memory subsystem prevents bandwidth bottlenecks even at 4K Ultra settings. The GPU’s boost clock is 2498 MHz, with a game clock of 2365 MHz and a base of 1929 MHz. These clocks, combined with 6144 shading units, 384 texture mapping units, and 192 raster output units, yield a pixel rate of 479.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 959.2 GTexel/s. The FP32 throughput of 61.39 TFLOPS provides ample compute headroom for the game’s physics and lighting calculations.

The benchmark data shows the GPU scaling predictably with settings. At 3840x2160, the average frame rate drops from 112.5 FPS on Low to 79.7 FPS on Medium, 72.2 FPS on High, and 64.9 FPS on Ultra. This 42% reduction from Low to Ultra at 4K is consistent with a GPU that has enough memory bandwidth to avoid severe penalties, but still faces compute limits at higher settings. The 24 GB VRAM is never a constraint in Control, as the game’s maximum usage likely falls far below this capacity, but the sheer memory bandwidth ensures that high-resolution textures load without stutter. The GPU’s 96 ray tracing cores also matter here, as Control was one of the first titles to ship with ray-traced reflections and shadows, and the 7900 XTX’s RDNA 3.0 architecture handles these effects more gracefully than older hardware.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 4600G is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on Zen 2 architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. It has 8 MB of shared L3 cache and 512 KB of L2 cache per core, plus 64 KB of L1 per core. Its 65 W TDP and 7 nm process node (TSMC) keep power draw modest, but its single-thread performance is only average by modern standards. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1,919 and Geekbench single-core score of 1,575 place it well below current-generation processors, which matters for Control’s engine that relies on a few heavily loaded threads for gameplay logic and draw call submission.

However, the multi-threaded results are more respectable. The CPU scores 13,593 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 5,709 in R20, and 1,370 in R15. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 4,863 and max-thread score of 4,889 indicate that the 12 threads are well-utilized in threaded workloads, which helps in Control’s background AI and physics systems. The PassMark multi-thread score of 15,992 and single-thread score of 2,653 further confirm that the CPU is a balanced mid-range part. In this game, the CPU’s role becomes more apparent at 1920x1080, where frame rates exceed 140 FPS on High settings. At 1080p Low, the average of 179.2 FPS suggests the CPU is nearing its limit, as the GPU could theoretically push higher if not for processor overhead. At 2560x1440 and 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, and the 4600G’s limitations fade into the background.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates show a clear pattern: higher resolutions and settings scale predictably, with the GPU dominating at 4K and the CPU becoming more relevant at 1080p. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 112.5 on Low to 79.7 on Medium, 72.2 on High, and 64.9 on Ultra. The jump from Low to Medium is a 29% drop, while High to Ultra is only a 10% drop, indicating diminishing returns at the highest settings. At 2560x1440, the numbers rise substantially: 162 FPS on Low, 123 on Medium, 105.8 on High, and 94.9 on Ultra. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 41%, similar to the 4K delta, but the absolute numbers are high enough that even Ultra remains comfortably above 90 FPS.

At 1920x1080, the frame rates reach their peak: 179.2 FPS on Low, 155.2 on Medium, 140.2 on High, and 125.3 on Ultra. The scaling from Medium to High is a 10% reduction, while Low to Ultra is a 30% drop. Notably, the 1080p Low result of 179.2 FPS is the highest measured in any configuration, and the fact that it does not exceed 180 FPS suggests the CPU is capping performance at this point. The 1440p Low result of 162 FPS reinforces this, as the GPU should be able to deliver more at that resolution if the CPU were not a limiting factor. Across all resolutions, the Ultra settings maintain playable frame rates, with the lowest result being 64.9 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is still smooth for a single-player action game.

FAQ

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 4600G a bottleneck for the RX 7900 XTX in Control?

A: The data suggests a mild bottleneck at 1920x1080, where Low settings produce 179.2 FPS and the CPU’s single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 score of 1,919) likely caps frame rates. At 2560x1440 and above, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, as evidenced by the 162 FPS at 1440p Low and 112.5 FPS at 4K Low.

Q: How does this combo compare to the GPU’s nearest rivals in raw performance?

A: The RX 7900 XTX’s average benchmark score of 44,019 is 0.4% behind the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (44,195) and 2% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (44,900), but 0.8% ahead of the RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667) and 1.6% ahead of the Quadro M6000 (43,313). These differences are minor in real-world gaming.

Q: What is the best settings/resolution combination for this pairing?

A: At 2560x1440 High, the combo achieves 105.8 FPS, which balances visual quality with high refresh rates. For 4K, Ultra settings yield 64.9 FPS, which is playable, but High settings at 72.2 FPS provide a smoother experience with minimal visual loss.

Q: Does the 24 GB VRAM make a difference in Control?

A: The 24 GB GDDR6 memory with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures no memory-related stutters, but Control’s demands are more compute-bound at higher settings. The VRAM capacity is likely never fully utilized, but the bandwidth helps maintain consistent frame times at 4K.

Q: How does the CPU’s multi-threaded performance affect the game?

A: The 6-core/12-thread configuration scores 13,593 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4,863 in 3DMark 16-thread, which supports Control’s background AI and physics. However, the game’s primary thread load is better served by the single-core score of 1,919, which is sufficient but not exceptional.

Q: Is this combo rank of 260 out of 1,636 considered good?

A: Yes, it places the system in the top 16% of all tested combos. The rank is driven by the GPU’s 85th percentile standing, while the CPU’s 75th percentile position means the combo outperforms what the CPU alone would suggest, but underperforms what the GPU alone could achieve at 1080p.