Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT delivers a robust 1080p and 1440p experience in Control, with 4K remaining playable but demanding compromises. The measured data across three resolutions and four quality presets reveals a system where the GPU is the primary scaling factor, though the CPU keeps pace adequately at lower settings. This combination sits in the 65.9th percentile of all tested combos for this title, indicating solid, above-median performance without reaching the top tier of results.

Settings Recommendations

The data indicates that the High preset offers the most balanced experience across all resolutions, providing a significant visual uplift over Medium while maintaining playable frame rates. At 1920x1080, High produces 115 FPS, which is 86.5 FPS below the Low preset but still far above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The jump from Medium to High costs only 13.5 FPS at 1080p, while the visual gains are typically substantial in a game like Control, which features heavy particle effects and destructible environments.

For 2560x1440, High remains the recommended preset, delivering 84.5 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS mark and offers a 13.6 FPS advantage over Ultra, which dips to 71.7 FPS. The difference between High and Medium at this resolution is 13.6 FPS, but High provides better texture filtering and shadow quality that the data suggests is worth the performance cost. Users with high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors may prefer Low at 132.9 FPS, but this sacrifices most of the game’s atmospheric lighting effects.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes. Ultra produces 49.3 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target for most displays. High improves this to 55.5 FPS, still marginally short of smoothness. The Medium preset at 65.1 FPS is the first setting to cross the 60 FPS line, making it the most practical choice for 4K gaming. Low at 93.8 FPS offers headroom but visually neuters the game. The recommendation for 4K is Medium, as it balances the GPU load with acceptable visual fidelity.

FAQ

Q: How does the High preset at 1080p compare to Ultra in terms of frame rate?

A: The High preset delivers 115 FPS, while Ultra produces 99.8 FPS at 1920x1080. This represents a 15.2 FPS difference, meaning High is approximately 15% faster while likely offering nearly identical visual quality in most scenes.

Q: Is this combination capable of 4K gaming in Control?

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 49.3 FPS, which is below the standard 60 FPS target. Lowering to Medium raises the average to 65.1 FPS, making it the lowest preset that achieves smooth gameplay at native 4K resolution.

Q: What is the performance gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: The Low preset at 2560x1440 produces 132.9 FPS, while Ultra drops to 71.7 FPS. This is a 61.2 FPS difference, indicating that Ultra costs roughly 46% of the performance available at Low settings.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more in this game?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary limiter. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 179.5 FPS, which is high but not extreme. The scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution shows consistent frame rate drops, indicating the graphics card is the bottleneck rather than the 6-core, 12-thread processor.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for Control?

A: The combination ranks 558th out of 1636 tested combos, placing it in the upper third of results. This indicates it outperforms the majority of systems tested for this game, though it is not in the top tier.

Q: What is the difference in performance between 1080p and 1440p at High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 High, the average FPS is 115. At 2560x1440 High, it drops to 84.5 FPS. This represents a 30.5 FPS reduction, or roughly a 26.5% decrease in performance when moving up one resolution step.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a clear and predictable pattern of frame rate degradation as resolution increases. At the High preset, the system delivers 115 FPS at 1080p, 84.5 FPS at 1440p, and 55.5 FPS at 4K. This progression indicates that the Radeon RX 6800 XT is the dominant factor in performance scaling, as the frame rate drops almost linearly with the increase in pixel count.

Moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces performance by 30.5 FPS, which is a 26.5% decrease. The jump from 1440p to 4K is more severe, costing 29 FPS, or a 34.3% reduction. This steeper decline at higher resolutions is typical for a GPU with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory and a 256-bit bus, as the memory bandwidth of 512.0 GB/s becomes increasingly strained at 4K.

The Low preset shows a similar pattern but with larger absolute numbers. At 1080p Low, the system hits 179.5 FPS, dropping to 132.9 FPS at 1440p and 93.8 FPS at 4K. The relative drops are 26% and 29.4% respectively, showing that the GPU still governs scaling even when the workload is lighter. The fact that the 1080p Low result does not exceed 180 FPS suggests that the Ryzen 5 5600X, with its 3.70 GHz base and 4.60 GHz boost clock, is not artificially capping performance at lower resolutions.

The scaling behavior indicates a well-balanced pairing for 1080p and 1440p gaming. At 1080p, the system has ample headroom to drive high refresh rate displays, and at 1440p it remains competitive. The 4K results, however, show that this combination is not optimized for ultra-high-resolution gaming without reducing settings, as even the High preset fails to hit 60 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system shows its strongest performance. The Low preset averages 179.5 FPS, which is the highest result across all tested configurations. Medium follows at 128.5 FPS, High at 115 FPS, and Ultra at 99.8 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 79.7 FPS, demonstrating that the graphics settings have a profound impact on frame rates. Notably, the difference between Medium and High is only 13.5 FPS, while the gap between Low and Medium is 51 FPS, indicating that Low is a distinct outlier in performance.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 132.9 FPS for Low, 98.1 FPS for Medium, 84.5 FPS for High, and 71.7 FPS for Ultra. The performance hierarchy remains consistent, with each step up in quality costing roughly 13-15 FPS. The 1440p results show that the system can comfortably handle high refresh rate gaming at Medium and above, with Ultra still exceeding 70 FPS.

For 3840x2160, the numbers are 93.8 FPS for Low, 65.1 FPS for Medium, 55.5 FPS for High, and 49.3 FPS for Ultra. This resolution exposes the GPU’s limits. The drop from Medium to High is 9.6 FPS, and from High to Ultra is 6.2 FPS. Interestingly, the Low preset at 4K still produces nearly 94 FPS, which is higher than the Ultra preset at 1440p, underscoring how much settings matter at this resolution.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently shows the largest performance advantage, while Ultra always delivers the lowest frame rates. The consistency of these results suggests that the game’s engine scales predictably with both resolution and quality settings, with no anomalous spikes or bottlenecks detected in the data.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 558 out of 1636 tested combinations places this system in the 65.9th percentile for Control. This means it outperforms approximately two-thirds of all tested configurations, a strong result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the balance between the Ryzen 5 5600X and the Radeon RX 6800 XT, which together provide sufficient compute power for this title’s physics-heavy gameplay.

The CPU alone ranks in the 78th percentile among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 20680. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT with a delta of -0.3%, the Intel Core i7-10700 also at -0.3%, and the Intel Core i5-12490F at -0.5%. These close margins indicate that the 5600X is competitively positioned within its performance class, offering nearly identical scores to its immediate competitors.

The GPU ranks in the 87th percentile among all graphics cards, with an average benchmark score of 49982. Its nearest rivals show a wider spread: the Intel Arc A550M is 0.5% ahead, the NVIDIA RTX A1000 is 1.7% ahead, and the NVIDIA CMP 50HX is 1.9% behind. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER trails by 2.6%. These deltas suggest that the RX 6800 XT is closely matched with several other high-end cards, with no single rival dominating it by more than a few percentage points.

The combination’s 558th rank is consistent with the individual component percentiles, though it is slightly lower than either component’s standalone standing. This indicates that while both the CPU and GPU are strong performers individually, their pairing in Control does not boost them to the very top tier of tested combos, likely due to the game’s specific optimization patterns. Nevertheless, the measured FPS results at 1080p and 1440p confirm that this system delivers a smooth, high-quality experience in most scenarios.