Control

# How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti combination ranks 424th out of 1,636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the upper quartile of all tested systems. This rank reflects a pairing where the GPU is clearly the dominant performance driver, while the CPU provides sufficient support to avoid major bottlenecks at most settings. The combo's position in the overall distribution suggests it outperforms roughly 74% of all tested configurations, which is consistent with a high-end GPU paired with a mid-range processor.

In absolute terms, the RTX 3080 Ti sits at the 83rd percentile among all GPUs, while the Ryzen 5 5500 reaches the 79th percentile among all CPUs. This near-alignment in percentile rankings indicates a reasonably balanced pairing, though the GPU's slightly higher standing suggests it carries more of the performance load. The combo's overall rank of 424, however, is lower than what the GPU alone might suggest, indicating that in this particular game, CPU limitations do emerge at lower resolutions and higher frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, manufactured on Samsung's 8 nm process. It features 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 raster operating units, along with 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory operates across a 384-bit bus, delivering 912.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth. The base clock runs at 1365 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, and memory is rated at 19 Gbps effective.

In Control, the GPU's role is particularly evident at 4K resolution. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the combo achieves 64.8 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 54.2 FPS. The difference between Low (95.9 FPS) and Medium (69 FPS) at 4K further illustrates how heavily this game scales with GPU load. The RTX 3080 Ti's 34.10 TFLOPS FP32 compute capability and 186.5 GPixel/s pixel rate provide the raw throughput needed to handle Control's physics-heavy environments and particle effects at high resolutions.

The GPU's 83rd percentile ranking among all GPUs places it just behind the RTX 3090 (deltaPct -0.5%) and slightly ahead of the RTX 5070 (deltaPct -1.1%). This positioning confirms that the RTX 3080 Ti remains a formidable GPU for this title, even as newer generations have entered the market. The 12 GB frame buffer proves adequate for Control at all tested settings, as evidenced by playable frame rates even at Ultra 4K.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that points to the GPU as the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. From 1080p to 1440p, the frame rate drop at High settings is 24.7 FPS (from 119.5 to 94.8), representing a 20.7% decrease. Moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings, the drop is 30 FPS (from 94.8 to 64.8), a 31.6% decrease. This accelerating decline with resolution is classic GPU-bound behavior.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more dramatic. The 1080p Low result of 193.4 FPS falls to 144.3 FPS at 1440p (a 25.4% drop) and then to 95.9 FPS at 4K (a 33.5% drop from 1440p). The fact that frame rates remain above 90 FPS even at 4K Low indicates the RTX 3080 Ti's substantial headroom, but the percentage drops suggest the GPU is still the bottleneck at this resolution.

The limiting component shifts as resolution changes. At 1080p, the CPU begins to play a more significant role, as evidenced by the 193.4 FPS Low result approaching what the Ryzen 5 5500 can reasonably sustain. At 4K, however, the GPU's rendering workload dominates, and the CPU's influence diminishes. The data shows that the performance gap between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p is 87.6 FPS (from 193.4 to 105.8), while at 4K this gap narrows to 41.7 FPS (from 95.9 to 54.2). This compression at higher resolutions confirms that the GPU becomes increasingly limiting as pixel count rises.

FAQ

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

A: Yes, at High settings the combo averages 64.8 FPS at 3840x2160, and at Medium settings it reaches 69 FPS. Ultra settings drop slightly below 60 FPS at 54.2 FPS.

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

A: At 1440p, the combo delivers 94.8 FPS on High and 78.3 FPS on Ultra, providing a smooth experience with high visual fidelity. At 1080p, frame rates exceed 119 FPS on High settings, making it suitable for high-refresh displays.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti's average benchmark score of 41,224 is 0.5% below the RTX 3090 (41,441), 0.9% below the Radeon Pro 5300 (41,610), and 1.1% below the RTX 5070 (41,687). It outperforms the Tesla M40 (41,897) by 1.6%.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 5500 bottleneck the RTX 3080 Ti in this game?

A: At 1080p with Low settings, the 193.4 FPS result suggests some CPU limitation, as the GPU could likely render more frames. At 1440p and 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, and CPU bottlenecking is minimal.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The difference is 87.6 FPS, with Low averaging 193.4 FPS and Ultra averaging 105.8 FPS at 1920x1080.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 5500 compare to its closest CPU rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 20,875 is 0.1% behind the Core i5-12500 (20,897) and Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE (20,900), and 0.1% ahead of the EPYC 7J13 (20,845). It trails the Core i5-12600T (20,917) by 0.2%.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5500 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture (Cezanne codename), manufactured on TSMC's 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.20 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The CPU features 64 KB L1 cache per core, 512 KB L2 cache per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. Memory support includes dual-channel DDR4 with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth, and the processor connects via PCIe Gen 3.

In Control, the CPU's role becomes most apparent at lower resolutions where frame rates are highest. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 193.4 FPS, which approaches the practical limit of what this CPU can feed to the GPU. The Ryzen 5 5500's single-thread performance, evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2,319 and 3DMark single-thread score of 836, determines how quickly it can process game logic and issue draw calls at high frame rates.

The CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are solid for a 6-core part, with Cinebench R23 multi-core reaching 16,429 and 3DMark max-thread scoring 5,411. These scores indicate that Control's multi-threaded workloads, such as physics calculations and AI processing, are handled competently. However, the CPU's 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs places it below the GPU's 83rd percentile, confirming that the processor is the weaker link in this pairing.

At 4K resolution, the CPU's influence diminishes significantly. The frame rate difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings (119.5 vs 64.8 FPS) is primarily attributable to GPU rendering load rather than CPU capability. The Ryzen 5 5500's 3DMark 16-thread score of 5,386 and 8-thread score of 4,593 suggest adequate multi-threading headroom for this game, which does not appear to be heavily CPU-bound at higher resolutions. The processor's nearest rivals, including the Core i5-12500 and Ryzen 5 PRO 4655GE, show nearly identical average scores (within 0.1-0.2%), indicating that this CPU's performance profile is well-matched to its price tier and that the 5500 is not a performance outlier in either direction.