Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600 and AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT combination delivers a robust Control experience, with measured data showing a strong balance between the 6-core/12-thread Zen 3 processor and the RDNA 2.0 flagship GPU. The data indicates that this pairing is capable of high refresh rates at 1440p and solid 4K performance, though Ultra settings present a significant challenge at higher resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1920x1080 with High settings?

A: The measured average FPS is 114.4, which provides a smooth experience well above standard 60 Hz display refresh rates.

Q: How much faster is the Low preset compared to Ultra at 3840x2160?

A: Low settings yield a 93 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 48.2 FPS. This represents a 93% increase in average frame rate when moving from Ultra to Low at 4K.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this configuration?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The Ryzen 5 5600's multi-threaded score of 18,309 in Cinebench R23 and the RX 6800 XT's 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs indicate the GPU's performance ceiling is more likely to constrain frame rates, especially at higher resolutions and settings.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain an average FPS above 90?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo achieves 98.1 FPS. At 1920x1080, even High settings maintain 114.4 FPS. For 4K, only Low settings exceed 90 FPS, hitting 93 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 6800 XT compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 6800 XT has an average benchmark score of 49,982, which is 2.6% higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER’s score of 48,704. It also leads the Intel Arc A550M by 0.5%.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested combinations for Control?

A: The combo ranks 559th out of 1,636 tested combinations, placing it in the top 34% of all tested hardware pairings for this game.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data reveals a clear hierarchy across presets. For 1920x1080 users, the High preset at 114.4 FPS is the optimal choice, delivering a 17% improvement over Medium (125.4 FPS) is actually not achieved; rather, High is slower than Medium. The data shows Medium at 125.4 FPS, which is 9.6% faster than High, while Ultra drops to 97.7 FPS. Given the minimal visual difference between High and Ultra in many titles, Medium at 1080p provides the best frame rate headroom for high-refresh-rate monitors.

At 2560x1440, the High preset at 84.3 FPS is the sweet spot for a balanced experience, but users seeking maximum smoothness should consider Medium at 98.1 FPS. The jump from Medium to High costs 14.1% average FPS, while High to Ultra costs another 15.2%. The Low preset at 134.2 FPS is excessively high for most displays and sacrifices too much visual fidelity.

For 3840x2160, the situation is more constrained. High settings at 60 FPS exactly meets the 60 Hz standard, but Medium at 65 FPS offers a small buffer. Ultra at 48.2 FPS is not recommended for fluid gameplay. The data indicates that High is the most practical preset for 4K, as it maintains a playable frame rate without significant visual compromises. Low at 93 FPS is viable for competitive play but undermines the visual quality that Control is known for.

The overall recommendation is to prioritize Medium at 1440p or High at 1080p for the best balance of visual quality and performance. At 4K, High is the only preset that delivers a consistently smooth experience, while Ultra should be reserved for screenshots or scenarios where frame rate is secondary.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the measured frame rates. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 512.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is ample capacity for Control at 4K, where high-resolution textures can consume significant VRAM. The 72 ray accelerators and 4,608 shading units provide substantial compute throughput, with a peak FP32 performance of 20.74 TFLOPS.

The GPU's clock behavior is critical to understanding its performance. The base clock is 1825 MHz, with a game clock of 2015 MHz and a boost clock of 2250 MHz. The measured data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 48.2, indicating the GPU is heavily loaded. The high 300 W TDP and dual 8-pin power connectors suggest the card can sustain its boost clocks under sustained gaming loads, which is consistent with the strong scaling from Low to Medium at each resolution.

The 512.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is particularly relevant for Control's physics-heavy environments and particle effects. At 1080p, the GPU is likely not memory-bandwidth limited, as evidenced by the 181.6 FPS at Low settings. However, at 4K Ultra, the combination of higher resolution and more complex effects pushes the GPU to its limits, with the 48.2 FPS average suggesting the shading units and ROPs (128 total) are the primary constraint rather than memory capacity.

The GPU's 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it well above average, and its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER (2.6% slower) and the Intel Arc A550M (0.5% slower). This positioning explains why the combo can achieve 60 FPS at 4K High, a result that would be unattainable with a lower-tier GPU.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the average FPS scales predictably with settings. Low settings achieve 93 FPS, which is a 43% improvement over Medium's 65 FPS. High settings at 60 FPS represent a 7.7% drop from Medium, while Ultra at 48.2 FPS is a 19.7% reduction from High. This steep decline from Low to Ultra (a 48.2% total drop) indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck, as each settings tier adds significant pixel shading and effects workload.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates improve substantially. Low settings deliver 134.2 FPS, which is 44.3% higher than the 4K Low result. Medium at 98.1 FPS is 51% faster than the equivalent 4K setting. High at 84.3 FPS and Ultra at 71.5 FPS follow a similar pattern, with the 1440p results being 40.5% and 48.3% higher than their 4K counterparts, respectively. The gap between 1440p and 4K narrows as settings increase, suggesting the GPU's compute resources are more evenly utilized at lower resolutions.

At 1920x1080, the CPU begins to play a more significant role. Low settings hit 181.6 FPS, which is the highest recorded value in the entire dataset. Medium at 125.4 FPS and High at 114.4 FPS show a smaller relative gap compared to higher resolutions, indicating that the Ryzen 5 5600's single-thread performance (882 in 3DMark single-thread) may start to limit frame rates. Ultra at 97.7 FPS is only 14.6% slower than High, whereas at 4K, Ultra is 19.7% slower than High. This pattern suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is more likely to be the limiting factor, while at 4K, the GPU dominates.

The data also reveals that the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, with an average drop of approximately 26% in FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is more severe, averaging a 40% drop, which aligns with the pixel count increase from 3.7 million to 8.3 million. This confirms that the RX 6800 XT is well-suited for 1440p gaming and capable of 4K at reduced settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 559th out of 1,636 tested combinations for Control, placing it in the 34th percentile of all hardware pairings tested. This is a strong result, given that the ranking includes many higher-end CPUs and GPUs. The rank is likely influenced by the GPU's high performance ceiling, as the RX 6800 XT's 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs is the primary driver of the combo's position.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU and GPU both perform well relative to their immediate rivals. The Ryzen 5 5600 has an average benchmark score of 21,765, which is 0.6% higher than the Intel Xeon D-1746TER and 0.9% higher than the Intel Core i7-11700F. The GPU's average score of 49,982 is 2.6% higher than the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER and 1.9% higher than the NVIDIA CMP 50HX. These margins are small, suggesting that the combo's ranking is more heavily influenced by the game's specific engine requirements than by raw synthetic performance.

The 559th rank out of 1,636 combos indicates that this pairing is in the upper-middle tier of tested configurations. The measured FPS data supports this, as the combo delivers 84.3 FPS at 1440p High, which is a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS standard. The fact that it can achieve 60 FPS at 4K High is particularly notable, as this is a demanding resolution and settings combination.

Compared to combos with lower-ranked CPUs, the data suggests that the Ryzen 5 5600's 6-core/12-thread configuration is sufficient for Control. The CPU's multi-threaded score of 18,309 in Cinebench R23 and its 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs indicate that it is not a significant bottleneck. The ranking would likely be higher if the GPU were more powerful, but as it stands, the combo represents a well-matched pairing that delivers consistent performance across resolutions.