Control

Control with the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and AMD Radeon RX 570 presents a study in stark imbalance, where a modern, high-end CPU is paired with a legacy GPU, resulting in benchmark data that is almost entirely dictated by the graphics card. The measured frames per second across all resolutions and settings show a system that struggles to maintain playable performance, yet the data offers a clear picture of where the bottleneck lies and how the components interact under load.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is severe and unrelenting, confirming that the AMD Radeon RX 570 is the definitive limiting component in this configuration. At the High preset, the average frame rate falls from 37 FPS at 1920x1080 to 27.2 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 26%. Moving further up to 3840x2160, the average plummets to 17.8 FPS, which is less than half of the 1080p performance. This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU that is running out of pixel-pushing capability, not a CPU that is being stressed by higher resolutions.

The pattern holds across all settings tiers. At Low settings, the system achieves 54.5 FPS at 1080p, but this drops to 43 FPS at 1440p and collapses to 28.8 FPS at 4K. Even at the lowest quality settings, the 4K resolution proves too demanding, indicating that the GPU’s raw throughput, not the game’s visual complexity, is the wall. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is less catastrophic than the jump to 2160p, but the trend is consistent: every increase in pixel count results in a disproportionate loss of frame rate, a classic sign of a GPU-bound scenario.

Interestingly, the data also shows that the CPU is not picking up the slack at higher resolutions. If the Ryzen 5 7500F were the bottleneck, we would expect to see the frame rate remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU workload would be constant. Instead, the frame rate falls consistently, proving that the GPU is saturated at all tested resolutions. The 6-core, 12-thread processor with a 5.00 GHz boost clock is effectively waiting for the RX 570 to finish its work, and the measured FPS is entirely a reflection of the GPU’s limitations.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured data, the only viable path to a smooth experience is to prioritize the Low settings preset, and even then, only at 1920x1080. The data shows that at 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 54.5 FPS, which is the only configuration that approaches a playable standard. The jump to Medium settings at the same resolution yields only 38.3 FPS, a significant drop of over 16 FPS, which is a large price to pay for the marginal visual improvements that Medium typically offers over Low. The Ultra preset at 1080p is the worst performer of the 1080p group, with an average of 33.7 FPS, making it an unappealing choice for any interactive experience.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more dire. The best result is with Low settings, which produces 43 FPS. While this is a higher number than the 4K results, it is still below the 60 FPS threshold that many players target. The High preset at 1440p yields 27.2 FPS, and Ultra drops to 21.3 FPS, both of which are too low for comfortable play. The 4K data is effectively non-viable for gaming, with the highest average being 28.8 FPS at Low settings and the lowest being 16.8 FPS at Ultra. The data strongly suggests that for this combination, the best experience is found exclusively at 1080p with the Low preset, sacrificing visual fidelity for a modicum of smoothness.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average frame rate this combo can achieve in Control?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 54.5, which occurs at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

Q: Is 4K resolution playable with this CPU and GPU combination?

A: No. The data shows that even at Low settings, the average FPS at 3840x2160 is only 28.8, and at Ultra it falls to 16.8, making it unplayable.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings?

A: The average frame rate drops from 37 FPS at 1920x1080 to 27.2 FPS at 2560x1440, a decrease of 9.8 FPS.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 7500F help improve the frame rate at higher resolutions?

A: No. The data shows a consistent FPS drop as resolution increases, indicating the CPU is not the limiting factor and the GPU is fully saturated.

Q: Which settings preset should be avoided entirely at 1080p?

A: The Ultra preset, which produces an average of 33.7 FPS, is the lowest-performing preset at 1920x1080 and should be avoided.

Q: What is the difference in average FPS between Low and Medium settings at 1440p?

A: The Low preset achieves 43 FPS, while Medium drops to 34 FPS, a difference of 9 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500F and AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks 1570 out of 1636 tested combinations for Control. This places it in the bottom 4% of all systems tested, a position that is almost entirely attributable to the GPU. The CPU alone is an exceptionally strong performer, with an average benchmark score of 24993 and a percentile of 82 against all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 82% of processors. Its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks include the Intel Core i7-11850H, which is 0.1% faster, and the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, which is 0.4% slower, showing the 7500F is in the top tier of processing power.

In contrast, the GPU’s average benchmark score is 30158, with a percentile of 74 against all GPUs. While this seems respectable, the RX 570’s nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, which are 0.2% faster. The fact that this older GPU is being compared to modern cards in the database does not change the in-game reality; the measured FPS in Control is low. The massive gap between the CPU’s high ranking and the combo’s low in-game rank is a direct indicator that the GPU is holding the entire system back, preventing the powerful processor from ever being utilized to its potential.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. Its benchmark results are impressive, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 22799 and a single-core score of 3218, indicating substantial processing power. In Control, however, the CPU’s role is largely passive due to the GPU bottleneck. The CPU is capable of handling the game’s physics and AI logic without breaking a sweat, but it is constantly starved for data because the RX 570 cannot render frames fast enough to keep it busy.

The data shows that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution. If it were, we would see frame rates that are more consistent across different resolutions, as the CPU workload would be similar. Instead, the FPS drops continuously as resolution increases, which is a hallmark of a GPU-bound system. The 7500F’s high single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 3dmark_single_thread score of 974, ensures that it is more than capable of feeding the GPU instructions, but the RX 570’s output is simply too low. This creates a scenario where the CPU is effectively idle for a large portion of the time, waiting for the GPU to complete its rendering tasks. The processor’s 32 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory are also irrelevant to the final frame rate in this pairing, as the GPU is the primary constraint.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture of the system’s performance across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low settings produce an average of 54.5 FPS, Medium produces 38.3 FPS, High produces 37 FPS, and Ultra produces 33.7 FPS. This shows a clear hierarchy, with Low being the only preset that achieves over 50 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is a substantial 16.2 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is a mere 1.3 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns in quality settings.

Moving to 2560x1440, the average FPS for each preset is: Low at 43, Medium at 34, High at 27.2, and Ultra at 21.3. The performance gap between Low and Medium is 9 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 6.8 FPS. At 3840x2160, the results are: Low at 28.8, Medium at 21.4, High at 17.8, and Ultra at 16.8. The data shows that at 4K, even the Low preset struggles to reach 30 FPS, and the difference between High and Ultra is only 1 FPS, indicating that the GPU is completely overwhelmed. Across all resolutions, the Low preset is consistently the best performer, and the Ultra preset is consistently the worst, with the relative ordering of the other two presets remaining stable.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is a 14 nm Polaris 20 GPU with 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 224.0 GB/s. Its base clock is 1168 MHz with a boost clock of 1244 MHz, and it offers 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. While these specifications were respectable at its launch in 2017, the data shows they are insufficient for Control at modern resolutions. The GPU’s 4 GB VRAM is a likely contributor to the poor performance, as the game may struggle to fit textures and frame data into such a limited pool, especially at higher settings and resolutions.

The GPU’s benchmark data shows an average score of 30158, placing it in the 74th percentile of all GPUs, but its nearest rivals are the RTX 5060 and RX 7700 XT, which are only 0.2% faster in synthetic tests. This is misleading in the context of this game, as the measured FPS in Control is far below what those modern rivals would likely achieve. The RX 570’s role is entirely dominant in this pairing; it is the sole determinant of the frame rate. The data indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck at every single resolution and settings combination, from the lowest at 1080p to the highest at 4K. The graphics card’s age and limited memory bandwidth are the primary reasons for the low scores, and the powerful CPU cannot compensate for these hardware limitations.