Control

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER lands at rank 1444 out of 1636 tested combos in Control. That places this configuration in the lower 12% of all tested pairings, which is a telling result for a game that is visually demanding but not particularly CPU-heavy. The ranking reflects the fundamental imbalance here: the CPU is a modern, high-performance part, while the GPU is a previous-generation entry-level card that struggles to push frames at higher resolutions.

Benchmark results indicate this combo is firmly GPU-limited in most scenarios. The Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 4 processor with a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, and its average benchmark score of 24993 puts it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs. In contrast, the GTX 1660 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 14286 and sits in the 55th percentile of all GPUs. This mismatch means the CPU is rarely the bottleneck; instead, the GPU dictates performance, especially as resolution climbs.

The data shows a wide spread between settings at each resolution, which is typical for a GPU that is near its performance ceiling. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 93.4 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, it drops to just 23.5 FPS. This range of nearly 70 FPS between the easiest and hardest scenarios underscores that the GTX 1660 SUPER is the limiting factor. The CPU's raw power is wasted in this pairing for Control, as even at 1080p Low, the frame rate is likely constrained by the GPU's 6 GB of VRAM and its compute throughput rather than the processor's capabilities.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture with the TU116 chip, fabricated on a 12 nm process. It features 1408 shading units, 88 texture mapping units, and 48 ROPs. The memory subsystem consists of 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, providing 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1530 MHz with a boost clock of 1785 MHz, and the card delivers 5.027 TFLOPS of FP32 performance.

In Control, this GPU's VRAM capacity and bandwidth are critical factors. At 4K resolution, the card's 6 GB frame buffer becomes a significant constraint. The measured FPS at 4K High is 30.8, but dropping to Low settings only raises it to 48.8. This modest improvement from Low to High at 4K indicates that the GPU is not just fill-rate limited but also memory-bandwidth limited. The 336.0 GB/s bandwidth is adequate for 1080p gaming but becomes a bottleneck at higher resolutions where larger textures and more complex shading require more data movement.

The GPU's passmark g3d score of 12699 and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1278 provide context for its overall capability. Compared to its nearest rivals, the GTX 1660 SUPER is within 0.7% of the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT and within 0.5% of the AMD Radeon Vega 11. This tight grouping means the 1660 SUPER is not a standout performer; it sits right at the edge of playability for Control at 1440p, where it manages 41.7 FPS on High settings.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Control at 60 FPS?

A: Yes, but only at 1080p with Low or Medium settings. The measured FPS at 1080p Low is 93.4, and at 1080p Medium it drops to 67.8. At 1080p High, the average falls to 58.0, which is below 60 FPS. At higher resolutions, 60 FPS is not achievable on any settings.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing in Control?

A: 1080p is the only resolution where this combo delivers consistently playable frame rates across all settings. At 1440p, the average FPS ranges from 37.4 on Ultra to 69.4 on Low, meaning you must compromise on visual quality to maintain smooth gameplay. At 4K, even Low settings only yield 48.8 FPS.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 SUPER compare to its direct rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 14286, which is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 at 14314 (0.2% faster) and the Intel Iris Xe MAX Graphics at 14315 (0.2% faster). It is 0.5% behind the AMD Radeon Vega 11 and 0.7% behind the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT. These differences are negligible in real-world gaming.

Q: Is the Ryzen 5 7500F overkill for this GPU?

A: The data suggests yes for Control. The CPU's average benchmark score of 24993 places it 0.1% ahead of the Intel Core i7-11850H and 0.3% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X. This level of CPU performance is far beyond what the GTX 1660 SUPER can utilize in this game, as the GPU becomes the limiting factor at all resolutions above 1080p Low.

Q: What settings should I use for a smooth 4K experience?

A: Even at 4K Low, the combo only achieves 48.8 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target. At 4K Medium, the average drops to 34.8 FPS, and at 4K High it is 30.8 FPS. For a 30 FPS experience, 4K High is possible, but for better smoothness, 1440p with Medium settings (48 FPS) is a more balanced choice.

Q: How much does the CPU matter in this game's performance?

A: Very little, based on the measured results. The Ryzen 5 7500F's single-thread score of 974 in 3DMark and 3218 in Cinebench R23 indicate strong single-core performance, but Control's frame rates scale more with GPU settings. The massive FPS differences between Low and Ultra at each resolution are attributed to GPU load, not CPU limitations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance. Low settings produce an average of 93.4 FPS, which is the highest frame rate in the entire dataset. Medium settings drop to 67.8 FPS, still comfortably above 60. High settings yield 58.0 FPS, which is playable but not perfectly smooth. Ultra settings bring the average down to 47.5 FPS, showing a significant cost for the highest visual fidelity.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates become more constrained. Low settings achieve 69.4 FPS, maintaining smooth gameplay. Medium settings fall to 48.0 FPS, which is borderline for competitive play but acceptable for a single-player action-adventure. High settings produce 41.7 FPS, and Ultra drops to 37.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 32 FPS, indicating that the GPU struggles with the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the combo is clearly out of its depth. Low settings deliver 48.8 FPS, which is the only playable option at this resolution. Medium settings fall to 34.8 FPS, High to 30.8 FPS, and Ultra to 23.5 FPS. The difference between 1080p Low and 4K Low is 44.6 FPS, highlighting how drastically resolution affects this GPU.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 93.4 FPS at 1080p to 69.4 FPS at 1440p (a 25.7% reduction), and then to 48.8 FPS at 4K (a further 29.7% reduction from 1440p). At High settings, the drop is from 58.0 FPS at 1080p to 41.7 FPS at 1440p (28.1% reduction) and then to 30.8 FPS at 4K (26.1% reduction).

This scaling pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's performance remains constant across resolutions, so the frame rate decline is directly attributable to the GPU's inability to handle the increasing pixel workload. The GTX 1660 SUPER's pixel rate of 85.68 GPixel/s and texture rate of 157.1 GTexel/s are the limiting factors. At 4K, the GPU must process four times as many pixels as at 1080p, and the measured FPS drop of roughly 50-60% confirms that the card is saturated.

The data also shows that the gap between Low and Ultra settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 45.9 FPS. At 1440p, it narrows to 32.0 FPS. At 4K, it shrinks to 25.3 FPS. This narrowing indicates that at higher resolutions, the GPU is so overwhelmed that even reducing settings cannot fully compensate for the pixel count.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, built on the Zen 4 architecture with a 5 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with 32 MB of shared L3 cache. Its benchmark scores are impressive: a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 22799 and a single-core score of 3218, placing it in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs.

In Control, however, the CPU's role is minimal. The game is not heavily threaded, and the 7500F's 12 threads are more than sufficient to feed the GTX 1660 SUPER. The CPU's 3DMark single-thread score of 974 and 2-thread score of 1902 show strong per-core performance, but this does not translate into higher frame rates because the GPU is the bottleneck. Even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would theoretically have more headroom, the 93.4 FPS result is likely limited by the GPU's geometry and rasterization capabilities.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s and support for DDR5 are irrelevant to this game's performance, as the GPU's 336.0 GB/s bandwidth is the primary memory throughput. The 7500F's nearest rivals in benchmark scores include the Intel Core i7-11850H (0.1% faster) and the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX (0.4% faster), but these differences are insignificant in Control. The takeaway is that this CPU is overqualified for the task, and any frame rate improvements would require a GPU upgrade rather than a CPU upgrade.