Control

Resolution Scaling

The measured frames per second across the three tested resolutions tells a clear story about where the bottleneck lies in this system. At 1080p with Low settings, the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti combination produces 94.1 FPS, which is a strong result for a game like Control. Dropping to 1440p at the same Low preset yields 72.1 FPS, a reduction of roughly 23% from the 1080p figure. Moving to 4K at Low settings, the average falls to 45.7 FPS, which represents a further 37% decline from the 1440p number. This scaling pattern — where each resolution step costs a substantial fraction of performance — indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component.

The data becomes more revealing when examining the High preset across resolutions. At 1080p High, the combo achieves 55.5 FPS, which is playable but not silky smooth. At 1440p High, the average drops to 43.2 FPS, and at 4K High, it falls to 29.9 FPS. The gap between Low and High at 1080p is 38.6 FPS, showing that the GTX 1660 Ti has significant headroom when graphical settings are reduced. However, at 4K, the difference between Low and High narrows to just 15.8 FPS, suggesting that at this resolution, the GPU is so heavily loaded that even lowering settings cannot fully compensate for the pixel count.

Interestingly, the Medium preset sits predictably between Low and High at every resolution. At 1080p Medium, the system delivers 66.2 FPS, which is 27.9 FPS behind Low and 10.7 FPS ahead of High. At 1440p Medium, the score is 50.4 FPS, and at 4K Medium, it is 35.4 FPS. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, with 50.5 FPS at 1080p, 39.2 FPS at 1440p, and 26.8 FPS at 4K. The fact that Ultra at 1080p (50.5 FPS) performs nearly identically to High at 1440p (43.2 FPS) highlights how resolution scaling affects this hardware more than incremental setting changes at lower resolutions.

The key insight from the resolution scaling data is that 1080p is the only resolution where the system can consistently maintain playable frame rates across all settings. At 1440p, only Low and Medium stay above 50 FPS, while High and Ultra dip below 45 FPS. At 4K, every preset falls below 46 FPS, with Ultra barely reaching 26.8 FPS. This behavior is typical for a GPU with 6 GB of VRAM and a 192-bit memory bus, as the higher resolutions demand more memory bandwidth and capacity than the card can efficiently provide.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and GTX 1660 Ti combo in Control?

A: The data shows that 1080p is the only resolution where all four presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) deliver average frame rates above 50 FPS. At 1440p, only Low and Medium exceed 50 FPS, while at 4K, no preset reaches 46 FPS.

Q: How much performance does the Ultra preset cost compared to Low at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers 50.5 FPS, which is 43.6 FPS lower than the Low preset's 94.1 FPS. This represents a performance reduction of approximately 46% when moving from the lowest to the highest graphical quality.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 Ti capable of running Control at 4K?

A: The measured data indicates that 4K is not a practical resolution for this GPU in Control. Even at Low settings, the average frame rate is only 45.7 FPS, and at Ultra, it drops to 26.8 FPS. These figures fall below the generally accepted threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested combinations for Control?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 with the GTX 1660 Ti ranks 1416 out of 1636 tested combos for this game. This places it in the lower portion of the database, indicating that many other hardware pairings achieve higher frame rates in Control.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 1440p at High settings?

A: At High settings, the system produces 55.5 FPS at 1080p and 43.2 FPS at 1440p. The difference is 12.3 FPS, which translates to a 22% drop in performance when increasing the resolution from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440.

Q: Does lowering settings from Ultra to Medium provide a significant boost at 1440p?

A: Yes, at 1440p, the Medium preset delivers 50.4 FPS compared to 39.2 FPS on Ultra. This 11.2 FPS improvement (about 29% higher) makes Medium a much more playable option at this resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is built on the Turing architecture with a TU116 chip manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. The card features 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 288.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The GPU has 1536 shading units, 96 texture mapping units, and 48 render output units. Its base clock runs at 1500 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and the memory operates at 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective speed.

In Control, the GPU's role is decisive, as the resolution scaling data demonstrates. The card's FP32 performance is rated at 5.437 TFLOPS, and its pixel rate is 84.96 GPixel/s with a texture rate of 169.9 GTexel/s. These specifications explain why the system struggles at 4K: the pixel fill rate is insufficient for the 3840x2160 resolution, particularly when combined with the game's demanding visual effects. The 6 GB VRAM capacity is also a limiting factor, as Control at high resolutions and settings can exceed this amount, forcing texture streaming that impacts frame times.

The GTX 1660 Ti's benchmark scores provide context for its performance. Its PassMark G3D score is 12871, placing it at the 55th percentile among all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 570X, which scores 13871 (0.4% higher), and the NVIDIA Tesla K10 at 14029 (0.7% higher). The RTX A2000 Mobile and GTX 680 are within 0.8% of the 1660 Ti's score. These tight margins indicate that the GTX 1660 Ti sits in a competitive mid-range segment, but for Control specifically, the game's requirements push it toward its limits.

The GPU's Geekbench scores further illustrate its capabilities: 60863 in OpenCL and 58014 in Vulkan. The DirectX 11 PassMark score of 103 and DirectX 12 score of 51 show that the card performs better under older API workloads. Since Control supports DirectX 12, the lower DirectX 12 score relative to DirectX 11 may partially explain why the game does not run at higher frame rates on this hardware.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti ranks 1416 out of 1636 tested hardware combinations for Control. This places the combo in the bottom 13% of all tested systems, indicating that the majority of other CPU-GPU pairings deliver better performance in this game. The ranking reflects the combined limitations of both components: the CPU, while capable for its class, and the GPU, which struggles with Control's demanding visual workloads.

The CPU itself, the Ryzen 5 5500, has a benchmark average score of 20875 and sits at the 79th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12500, scores 20897, which is only 0.1% higher. The AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE matches at 20900 (0.1% higher), while the AMD EPYC 7J13 scores 20845 (0.1% lower). This tight clustering shows that the Ryzen 5 5500 is well-matched with its direct competitors in synthetic benchmarks. However, in Control, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, dragging the overall combo ranking down.

The GPU's percentile position at 55% among all GPUs is similarly mid-pack. Its average benchmark score of 13925 places it near the AMD Radeon RX 570X (13871) and NVIDIA Tesla K10 (14029). The GTX 1660 Ti's performance in Control, however, is not exceptional relative to its synthetic scores. The game's combination of physics, particle effects, and high-resolution textures appears to disproportionately challenge this card, as evidenced by the steep frame rate drops at higher resolutions.

The combo rank of 1416 out of 1636 suggests that users seeking higher frame rates in Control would need to consider a more powerful GPU, since the CPU's 79th percentile standing indicates it is not the primary bottleneck. The data shows that the system's performance ceiling in this game is firmly set by the GTX 1660 Ti.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend heavily on the user's target resolution and frame rate preferences. For 1080p, the High preset at 55.5 FPS offers a balanced experience, providing good visual quality while maintaining playable performance. Users who prioritize smoothness over visuals should consider the Medium preset at 66.2 FPS, which offers a 10.7 FPS improvement over High with a modest reduction in graphical fidelity. The Low preset at 94.1 FPS is the best choice for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays, though it sacrifices significant visual quality.

At 1440p, the Medium preset at 50.4 FPS is the recommended starting point, as it keeps the frame rate above 50 FPS while delivering reasonably detailed graphics. The Low preset at 72.1 FPS provides a smoother experience for those who prefer performance, while High at 43.2 FPS and Ultra at 39.2 FPS may be acceptable for users who value visual quality over frame rate consistency, though both fall below the 50 FPS threshold.

For 4K, the data suggests that this hardware combination is not well-suited for the resolution. The Low preset at 45.7 FPS is the only setting that approaches playability, while Medium at 35.4 FPS, High at 29.9 FPS, and Ultra at 26.8 FPS all dip below 36 FPS. Users attempting 4K with this combo would need to accept significant compromises in both settings and frame rate stability.

The frame rate deltas between presets at each resolution follow a consistent pattern. At 1080p, the gap from Low to Medium is 27.9 FPS, from Medium to High is 10.7 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 5.0 FPS. This diminishing return suggests that the most impactful visual upgrade comes from moving from Low to Medium, while the difference between High and Ultra is relatively minor in terms of performance cost. At 1440p, the corresponding gaps are 21.7 FPS (Low to Medium), 7.2 FPS (Medium to High), and 4.0 FPS (High to Ultra). At 4K, the gaps narrow further to 10.3 FPS, 5.5 FPS, and 3.1 FPS, respectively, indicating that the GPU is so heavily loaded that setting changes have less impact on overall performance.

The recommended preset for the best balance of visual quality and performance is Medium at 1080p or 1440p, depending on the user's display resolution. At 1080p Medium, the 66.2 FPS average is smooth, and at 1440p Medium, the 50.4 FPS remains playable. High settings are viable at 1080p for users who prefer enhanced visuals, while Ultra should be reserved for users with higher-end GPUs, as this combo cannot maintain adequate frame rates at higher resolutions with this preset.