Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 5600X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT delivers a compelling 1440p and 4K experience in Control, with the data showing a clear shift in system bottleneck as resolution scales. At 1080p, the combination produces high frame rates across all settings, but the performance curve reveals that the CPU is doing significant work. From Low to Ultra at 1920x1080, the average frame rate ranges from 206.5 FPS down to 113.5 FPS, indicating that even at the highest preset, the system is far from being limited by the graphics card. Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain robust, with Ultra still achieving 88.6 FPS and Low hitting 159.9 FPS, suggesting a healthy balance between the two components. However, at 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the dominant factor; the Ultra preset drops to 56.6 FPS, and even High dips to 69 FPS, demonstrating that the RX 7900 XT is being pushed to its limits while the Ryzen 5 5600X has ample headroom.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a predictable but pronounced degradation as resolution increases, which is typical for a title like Control that relies heavily on visual effects. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 206.5 FPS, but this drops to 159.9 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of approximately 23%. The trend continues to 4K, where Low still manages 103.9 FPS, showing that the GPU’s raw compute power is sufficient to handle lower settings even at high pixel counts. The scaling becomes more aggressive with higher settings. For instance, High at 1080p yields 132.4 FPS, while at 1440p it falls to 99.5 FPS, and at 4K it reaches 69 FPS. This represents a 47.8% drop from 1080p to 4K on High, underscoring that the RX 7900 XT’s 20 GB frame buffer and 800.0 GB/s bandwidth are being taxed by the game’s rendering demands.

The most telling insight comes from the Ultra preset. At 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, the average FPS are 113.5, 88.6, and 56.6 respectively. The gap between 1080p and 1440p is 24.9 FPS, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is 32 FPS. This widening delta indicates that the GPU is becoming the limiting component at 4K, as the CPU’s single-thread performance (3DMark single-thread score of 917) is sufficient to keep up with the frame pacing even at lower resolutions. The data suggests that the Ryzen 5 5600X, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, is not the bottleneck in this configuration; instead, the RX 7900 XT’s shading units and texture units are being saturated at higher resolutions. The 103.9 FPS at 4K Low versus the 56.6 FPS at 4K Ultra highlights that the GPU’s compute capacity is the primary constraint, not the CPU’s memory bandwidth or cache.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 7900 XT plays a dominant role in these results, particularly given its specifications. With a 20 GB GDDR6 memory pool and a 320-bit bus width, the card provides 800.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for Control’s texture streaming and particle effects. The GPU’s boost clock of 2394 MHz and game clock of 2025 MHz allow it to maintain high throughput, but the data shows that the difference between Low and Ultra settings at 4K is 47.3 FPS, which is a substantial margin. This is attributable to the 5376 shading units and 192 ROPs, which are tasked with rendering the game’s complex lighting and physics simulations.

The GPU’s FP32 performance of 51.48 TFLOPS is a strong indicator of its capability, yet the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (56.6 FPS) suggests that Control’s engine is not fully utilizing the card’s parallel processing potential. Instead, the bottleneck appears to be in the rasterization pipeline, as the texture rate of 804.4 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 459.6 GPixel/s are being pushed to their limits. The card’s 84 ray tracing cores are likely engaged at higher settings, further taxing the GPU. The data shows that at 1080p, the GPU is not the limiting factor, as the FPS scales nearly linearly with resolution changes, indicating that the CPU can feed the GPU adequately. However, at 4K, the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute units become the deciding factor, as evidenced by the 69 FPS at High versus the 103.9 FPS at Low, a 50.6% improvement when reducing settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal balance between visual fidelity and frame rate depends heavily on the target resolution. At 1080p, the High preset at 132.4 FPS is the best choice for most users, as it offers a significant improvement over Ultra (113.5 FPS) while maintaining a frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most standard monitors. The data shows that dropping from High to Medium at 1080p only yields an additional 16.7 FPS, making the reduction in quality less worthwhile. For those with high refresh rate panels seeking maximum smoothness, Low at 206.5 FPS is viable, but it sacrifices the game’s atmospheric effects.

At 1440p, the High preset at 99.5 FPS is the sweet spot. It provides a near-100 FPS experience without the performance hit of Ultra, which drops to 88.6 FPS. The difference between High and Medium at this resolution is 10.9 FPS, suggesting that High is the preferred setting for a sharp image with solid performance. At 4K, the situation changes dramatically. Ultra at 56.6 FPS is playable but may feel less fluid on high refresh rate displays. The data recommends High at 69 FPS for a more responsive experience, while Medium at 77.3 FPS offers a compromise between quality and speed. Low at 103.9 FPS is the only setting that consistently stays above 100 FPS at 4K, but it reduces the visual fidelity to a level that may not showcase the GPU’s capabilities. The measured data indicates that High at 4K is the recommended preset, as it provides a playable frame rate while still utilizing the RX 7900 XT’s features.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database, this specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT holds a combo rank of 320 out of 1636 tested combinations. This places the pair in the top 19.6% of all tested systems, which is a strong showing given that the CPU is a mid-range 5000 series part. The ranking reflects the GPU’s dominance, as the RX 7900 XT has a percentile rank of 82 against all GPUs, while the CPU sits at a percentile rank of 78 against all CPUs. The combo’s performance is likely buoyed by the GPU’s high average benchmark score of 38358, which is only 0.6% higher than its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Mobile.

The CPU’s nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600GT and the Intel Core i7-10700, both of which have average scores within 0.3% of the 5600X. This indicates that the processor is not a differentiator in this pairing; instead, the RX 7900 XT’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Mobile, has a delta of 0%, meaning the two GPUs perform nearly identically in synthetic benchmarks. In Control, the combo’s 4K High result of 69 FPS suggests that the GPU is the primary driver of the rank, as the CPU’s 12 threads are sufficient for the game’s multi-threaded workload. The rank of 320 out of 1636 is respectable, but it is important to note that many higher-ranked combos likely feature more recent CPUs with higher single-thread scores, which can help in CPU-bound scenarios at lower resolutions.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Control?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 206.5 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This demonstrates the CPU and GPU are both capable of very high frame rates at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS is 56.6. This is the lowest measured result, indicating the GPU is the limiting component at this resolution and preset.

Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X a bottleneck for the RX 7900 XT in this game?

A: The data does not suggest a CPU bottleneck. At 1080p, the FPS scales up to 206.5, and the CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 917 is sufficient to feed the GPU. The bottleneck appears to be the GPU at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the difference in FPS between High and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High yields an average of 99.5 FPS, while Ultra yields 88.6 FPS. This represents a 10.9 FPS difference, making High a more efficient choice for a minor quality loss.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 320 out of 1636 tested combinations, placing it in the top 19.6% of all systems. This is a strong result, driven primarily by the GPU’s high performance.

Q: Does the GPU’s 20 GB of VRAM help at 4K?

A: The 20 GB GDDR6 memory with 800.0 GB/s bandwidth allows the card to maintain 103.9 FPS at 4K Low, but the compute limits reduce it to 69 FPS at High. The VRAM is sufficient, but the GPU’s processing power is the limiting factor.