Control

Control is an Action Adventure title from 2019 that stresses both CPU and GPU heavily, and the pairing of an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X with an AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT produces a set of measured results that place this combination at rank 2363 out of 3720 tested combos in this game. That ranking puts this system in the lower-middle portion of the database, which is a meaningful signal: while the hardware is modern, Control’s demands at higher resolutions and presets push the GPU to its limits, and the CPU, though capable, does not rescue the experience at 4K. The benchmark data for this combo is measured, not estimated, so the 12 FPS rows across three resolutions and four settings presets provide a concrete picture of how this system behaves. The Ryzen 5 5600X, with 6 cores and 12 threads, and the Radeon RX 7600 XT, with 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, form a balanced pairing on paper, but the measured FPS reveals that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution scales up, while the CPU remains more than adequate at 1080p and even 1440p. This analysis breaks down the ranking, the GPU’s role, resolution scaling, exact FPS figures, settings recommendations, and the CPU’s contribution, all using only the numbers provided in the fact pack.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank in Control is 2363 out of 3720 tested combinations, which places it in the 63.5th percentile of all tested systems — meaning roughly 36 percent of tested combos perform worse, while the majority perform better. This is not a top-tier result for a game like Control, which is known for its demanding real-time ray tracing and complex physics, but the ranking is heavily influenced by the fact that this combo is tested at Ultra settings, where the average FPS drops to 35 at 4K. The data shows that this system is competitive at lower settings: at 1080p Low, it hits 124 FPS, which would rank much higher than the overall combo rank suggests, but because the ranking aggregates all measured rows, the 4K Ultra score drags the position down. The rank of 2363 out of 3720 is a composite measure, so it reflects the worst-case scenario as much as the best-case, and the user should interpret this as a system that is capable of smooth play at 1080p and 1440p but struggles at 4K with high presets.

Comparing to the CPU’s nearest rivals, the Ryzen 5 5600X has an average benchmark score of 21771, which is just 0.1 percent ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H (21749) and 0.5 percent behind the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U (21874) and Intel Core i7-11700 (21891). This means the CPU is in a very tight performance cluster, and any differences in Control’s frame rates at CPU-bound settings are likely minimal. The GPU’s nearest rivals tell a similar story: the RX 7600 XT has an average benchmark score of 17083, which is 0.3 percent ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17037), 0.4 percent ahead of the AMD Radeon HD 7970M (17019), and 0.7 percent behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (17208). In practical terms, the RX 7600 XT is statistically equivalent to these cards in synthetic benchmarks, but Control’s measured FPS shows that the GPU’s 16 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus are more relevant than raw compute scores. The combo rank of 2363 is thus a reflection of the GPU’s mid-pack standing, not a CPU limitation, and the data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield the largest rank improvement for this system.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT is the dominant component in this combo for Control, and its specifications explain why. It has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is substantial for a card in this class but not exceptional for 4K gaming. The GPU’s base clock is 1980 MHz, with a boost clock of 2755 MHz and a game clock of 2470 MHz, and those clocks are what allow it to reach 124 FPS at 1080p Low, but they are insufficient to maintain high frame rates at 4K Ultra, where the average drops to 35 FPS. The card has 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, with 32 ray tracing cores, and while Control supports ray tracing, the measured data does not include RT-specific settings, so the scores reflect rasterization performance only. The GPU’s 22.57 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is a moderate figure, and the 176.3 GPixel/s pixel rate and 352.6 GTexel/s texture rate are adequate for 1080p and 1440p, but at 3840x2160, the GPU’s fill rate becomes a bottleneck.

The measured FPS across all presets shows that the GPU’s performance scales almost linearly with resolution and settings. At 1080p, the difference between Low (124 FPS) and Ultra (68 FPS) is 56 FPS, which is a 45 percent drop, indicating that the GPU is the limiting factor even at the lowest resolution. At 4K, the difference between Low (63 FPS) and Ultra (35 FPS) is 28 FPS, a 44 percent drop, showing that the GPU’s compute and memory bandwidth are stretched at every preset. The 16 GB VRAM is more than enough for Control, which is a 2019 game and likely uses less than 8 GB even at 4K Ultra, so memory capacity is not the constraint; instead, it is the 128-bit bus and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth that limit 4K performance. The GPU’s percentile rank of 60 versus all GPUs means it is in the upper half of all cards, but its nearest rivals include the GTX 690 (a dual-GPU card from 2012) and the RTX 3070 (a higher-tier card), which shows that the RX 7600 XT sits in a crowded mid-range segment. For Control specifically, the data indicates that the GPU is the primary driver of frame rates, and any settings adjustment that reduces GPU load will have a direct impact on FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear trend: as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, average frame rates drop by roughly half at every settings preset. At High settings, the average FPS goes from 78 at 1080p to 59 at 1440p to 40 at 4K, which is a 49 percent drop from 1080p to 4K. At Low settings, the drop is from 124 FPS at 1080p to 94 FPS at 1440p to 63 FPS at 4K, a 49 percent decline as well. Medium settings show a similar pattern: 88 FPS at 1080p, 67 FPS at 1440p, and 45 FPS at 4K, which is a 49 percent reduction. Ultra settings are the most demanding, going from 68 FPS at 1080p to 51 FPS at 1440p to 35 FPS at 4K, a 49 percent drop. This consistent ~49 percent reduction across all presets strongly indicates that the GPU is the limiting component at every resolution; if the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate drop would be less severe at higher resolutions because the GPU would be more stressed, but the data shows a near-linear scaling with pixel count.

The 1440p to 4K transition is particularly telling. At Medium settings, 1440p yields 67 FPS, but 4K drops to 45 FPS, a 33 percent reduction; at High settings, 59 FPS becomes 40 FPS, a 32 percent drop. This is consistent with the GPU’s memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s, which is insufficient to feed the 4K resolution’s 8.3 million pixels at high frame rates. The 1080p to 1440p transition shows a 24 percent drop at High (78 to 59 FPS), which is less severe, suggesting that the GPU can handle the additional pixel load at lower resolutions but hits a wall at 4K. The fact that the CPU is not the bottleneck is further supported by the CPU’s benchmark scores: the Ryzen 5 5600X has a single-thread score of 917 in 3DMark, a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 1541, and a Geekbench single-core score of 1989, all of which are strong for a 6-core chip. Control is not a heavily multithreaded game in the measured settings, so the CPU’s 12 threads are more than sufficient, and the data confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor in this combo.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers playable frame rates across all presets. Low settings produce an average of 124 FPS, which is smooth on any display, and Medium settings drop to 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 and a maximum of 101, ensuring no noticeable stutters. High settings yield 78 FPS, which is still above the 60 FPS threshold for most gamers, and Ultra settings drop to 68 FPS, which is acceptable but not ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The 1080p data shows that the GPU is not overworked at this resolution, and the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads (with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost of 4.60 GHz) are more than enough to feed the GPU. The minimum FPS data is only provided for Medium settings (75 FPS), but the absence of min/max for other presets suggests that frame pacing is generally stable.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are still playable but start to show GPU strain. Low settings average 94 FPS, Medium settings average 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 and maximum of 76, High settings average 59 FPS, and Ultra settings average 51 FPS. The 1440p Medium figure of 67 FPS is the most balanced, as it stays above 60 FPS on average with a minimum of 57, which is close to the threshold. High settings at 59 FPS are borderline, and Ultra at 51 FPS is playable but may feel less responsive in combat sequences. The 1440p data indicates that the GPU’s 16 GB VRAM and 2048 shading units are sufficient for this resolution, but the memory bandwidth of 288.0 GB/s limits performance when texture quality increases. The CPU’s role at 1440p is minimal, as the frame rates are still above 50 FPS, and the CPU’s multithreaded score of 11838 in Cinebench R23 ensures it is not holding back the GPU.

At 3840x2160, the combo struggles to maintain 60 FPS at any settings preset. Low settings average 63 FPS, which is just above 60, but Medium settings drop to 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 and maximum of 52, High settings average 40 FPS, and Ultra settings average 35 FPS. The 4K data shows that the GPU is the clear bottleneck, as even Low settings cannot reach 70 FPS, and the frame rates scale poorly with settings reductions. The 4K Medium minimum of 38 FPS is particularly low, indicating that there are moments of significant frame drops, likely in areas with heavy particle effects or physics calculations. The CPU’s performance at 4K is irrelevant, as the GPU is maxed out, and the data suggests that this combo is not suitable for 4K gaming in Control unless the user is willing to accept sub-60 FPS averages.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS, the best experience for this combo is at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, which delivers 88 FPS on average with a minimum of 75 and a maximum of 101. This preset provides a smooth frame rate that exceeds 75 FPS at all times, ensuring minimal stutter, and the visual quality is only slightly reduced compared to High settings, which average 78 FPS. Medium at 1080p is the sweet spot because it stays well above 60 FPS, and the minimum of 75 FPS means there are no frame drops below the refresh rate of most monitors. If the user has a 144 Hz display, High settings at 78 FPS average is also viable, but the minimum FPS is not measured, so Medium is safer. At 2560x1440, Medium settings at 67 FPS average with a minimum of 57 is the best choice, as it is the only 1440p preset that averages above 60 FPS; High settings at 59 FPS are close but may dip below 60, and Ultra at 51 FPS is not recommended for a competitive experience.

For 4K, the data shows that no preset delivers a consistently smooth experience. Low settings average 63 FPS, which is above 60, but the minimum FPS is not provided, and the visual quality is severely reduced. Medium settings at 45 FPS are playable but not ideal, and the minimum of 38 FPS suggests that the game will stutter in intense scenes. Given that the GPU’s 16 GB VRAM is not the limiting factor, the user should prioritize lowering resolution over lowering settings; at 1440p Medium, the combo performs much better than at 4K Low, and the visual difference between 1440p Medium and 4K Low is often negligible on smaller displays. The recommendation is to use 1080p Medium for the best balance of frame rate and visual fidelity, or 1440p Medium if the user has a 1440p monitor and can tolerate occasional drops to 57 FPS. For the highest visual quality, 1080p Ultra at 68 FPS is acceptable, but the 20 FPS advantage of Medium over Ultra is significant, and the visual difference in Control is not worth the frame rate loss.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. It has a 32 MB L3 cache, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 64 KB of L1 cache per core, and it is built on a 7 nm process from TSMC. The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong for its class: it achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 11838 and a single-core score of 1541, a Geekbench multicore score of 9173 and single-core score of 1989, and a 3DMark max threads score of 5588 with a single-thread score of 917. These numbers place the CPU in the 75th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21771, which is nearly identical to its nearest rivals, including the AMD Ryzen 7 4800H (21749, 0.1 percent faster) and the Intel Core i7-11700 (21891, 0.5 percent faster). In Control, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations, and the data shows that it is not a bottleneck at any resolution tested.

At 1080p Low, the combo hits 124 FPS, which is a frame rate that could be CPU-limited on weaker processors, but the Ryzen 5 5600X’s single-thread performance of 917 in 3DMark and 1541 in Cinebench R23 is sufficient to sustain that rate. At 1440p and 4K, the CPU’s load decreases relative to the GPU, and the frame rates are clearly GPU-bound, as shown by the consistent ~49 percent drop from 1080p to 4K across all presets. The CPU’s 12 threads are more than enough for Control, which is not a heavily threaded game in its default settings, and the 65 W TDP means it runs cool and stable. The CPU’s memory support is DDR4 with dual-channel bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s, which is adequate for this GPU, and the 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes from the CPU are more than the GPU’s PCIe 4.0 x8 interface requires. The data does not show any CPU-related frame drops, as the minimum FPS values (when provided) are consistent with GPU-bound behavior, and the CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks do not differ significantly enough to change Control’s results. In summary, the Ryzen 5 5600X is a capable and balanced partner for the RX 7600 XT in Control, but the GPU is the component that determines whether the game runs smoothly, and the CPU’s performance is only a secondary factor in this combo’s rank of 2363.