Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 pairs six Zen 3 cores with twelve threads, running at a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz. This configuration delivers a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 16429 and a single-core score of 2319, placing the processor in the 79th percentile among all tested CPUs. In synthetic benchmarks, the chip’s average score of 20875 sits within a razor-thin margin of its nearest rivals: it trails the Intel Core i5-12500 by just 0.1% (20897), matches the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE within 0.1% (20900), and edges out the AMD EPYC 7J13 by 0.1% (20845). The 12-thread count is sufficient for Control’s engine, which rarely saturates more than a handful of cores, so the CPU’s role here is to maintain a stable frame pacing floor rather than to push peak throughput. The 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support at 51.2 GB/s are adequate for feeding the GPU without introducing stutter bottlenecks, as evidenced by the measured frame rates that scale consistently with graphics load rather than showing erratic CPU-bound dips.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER brings 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, with a base clock of 1605 MHz and a boost clock of 1770 MHz. Its 2560 shading units and 40 RT cores place it in the 65th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 22206. Against its nearest rivals, the card trails the NVIDIA RTX A400 by 0.5% (22307) but outperforms the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z by 0.9% (22006) and the AMD Radeon RX 5700 by 2.5% (21670). The RTX 2070 SUPER also sits 2.3% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile (22729), though that comparison crosses form factors. For Control, the GPU is the dominant factor in determining frame rates across all measured settings. At 1080p Ultra, the combo produces 73.9 FPS, which drops to 33.3 FPS at 4K Ultra—a 55% reduction that aligns with the GPU’s raw fill-rate limits rather than CPU constraints. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for this title at 4K, as the measured data shows no catastrophic frame-time collapses that would indicate memory swapping.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 84.9 FPS at 1920x1080 to 61.6 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 39.6 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a 27% drop from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 36% drop from 1440p to 4K. The Low preset shows similar behavior: 129.8 FPS at 1080p, 97.5 FPS at 1440p, and 66.1 FPS at 4K, with the 4K figure still comfortably above 60 FPS. Medium settings produce 91.7, 67.4, and 48.1 FPS across the three resolutions, respectively. The Ultra preset is the most demanding, yielding 73.9, 56.1, and 33.3 FPS. The scaling pattern indicates that the CPU is not the limiting component even at 1080p Low, where 129.8 FPS is achieved—a figure that would expose a weaker processor’s ceiling. Instead, the GPU’s compute throughput dictates the frame rate, with the gap between Low and Ultra widening as resolution increases: at 1080p, Ultra is 43% slower than Low, but at 4K, Ultra is 50% slower, reinforcing that the RTX 2070 SUPER’s shading units and memory bandwidth are the primary constraints.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Control, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 5500 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1003rd out of 1636 combos. That places it in the lower-middle tier of all tested systems, which is consistent with the component choices: the CPU’s 79th percentile standing and the GPU’s 65th percentile standing do not combine to form a top-tier gaming rig, but they do deliver playable performance at most settings. The rank is not solely a function of raw component scores; it reflects the specific interplay with Control’s engine, which favors GPU throughput heavily. Compared to the nearest CPU rivals, the Ryzen 5 5500’s performance delta is negligible—within 0.2% of the Intel Core i5-12600T (20817) and the AMD EPYC 7J13 (20845)—so any rank differences in other combos would stem from the GPU pairing. Similarly, the RTX 2070 SUPER’s proximity to the RX 5700 (2.5% faster) and GTX TITAN Z (0.9% faster) suggests that swapping to those cards would shift the combo rank only slightly, assuming identical CPU and memory configurations. The 1003rd position indicates that while this system is far from the top, it is also not at the bottom; the measured FPS data confirms it can handle 1080p and 1440p gaming well, with 4K only viable on lower presets.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution and frame rate preference. For 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 84.9 FPS, which is smooth for most gameplay, but the Medium preset at 91.7 FPS offers a 8% improvement with likely minor visual compromises. The Ultra preset at 73.9 FPS is still playable, but the drop from High to Ultra is 13%, suggesting diminishing returns for the visual uplift. For 2560x1440, High settings produce 61.6 FPS—just above the 60 FPS threshold—while Medium yields 67.4 FPS, providing a safer margin for action sequences. The Low preset at 97.5 FPS is excessive for most users, but it demonstrates headroom for competitive play or high-refresh-rate monitors. At 3840x2160, only Low settings (66.1 FPS) maintain a playable frame rate above 60 FPS; Medium (48.1 FPS) and High (39.6 FPS) fall below, and Ultra (33.3 FPS) becomes borderline cinematic. The data suggests that for this combo, the best experience is 1080p High or 1440p Medium, balancing visual fidelity with frame rate stability. Pushing to 4K requires dropping to Low, which sacrifices significant graphical detail for a playable experience, making 1440p the practical ceiling for this hardware pairing in Control.