Control

Control pairs an unusually strong processor with a GPU that is now several generations old, and the measured frame rates in this database reflect that imbalance clearly. The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is a modern 6-core, 12-thread part built on the 5 nm process, while the AMD Radeon RX 580 is a 14 nm Polaris architecture card from 2017, now designated end-of-life. Across all tested resolutions and settings, the RX 580 becomes the limiting factor well before the CPU’s capabilities are stressed. The data shows a consistent pattern: at 1080p Low the combo reaches 63 FPS average, but every increase in resolution or graphical preset pulls the average down substantially. This is a configuration where the processor has ample headroom, but the graphics card caps the experience at playable only under the lightest loads.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS values across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K reveal how sharply this combo’s performance degrades as pixel count rises. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average is 63 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops that to 48 FPS, a reduction of 15 frames. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls further to 32 FPS. That progression—63 to 48 to 32—represents a 49% loss from 1080p to 4K at the lowest settings. The scaling is not linear; the jump from 1440p to 4K costs 16 FPS, while the jump from 1080p to 1440p costs 15 FPS, so the per-step penalty is nearly identical despite the larger pixel difference between 1440p and 4K.

For High settings, the trend is similar but lower overall. At 1080p High, the average is 40 FPS. At 1440p High, it drops to 30 FPS. At 4K High, it hits 20 FPS. That is a 50% reduction from 1080p to 4K, matching the Low preset’s relative loss. Medium settings show 45 FPS at 1080p, 34 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K, with the 1440p to 4K step costing 11 FPS versus 11 FPS for the 1080p to 1440p step. Ultra settings are the most demanding: 35 FPS at 1080p, 26 FPS at 1440p, and 18 FPS at 4K.

The pattern indicates that this game’s frame rate is dictated almost entirely by the GPU’s fill rate and memory bandwidth. The RX 580 has 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. At 4K, even Low settings only produce 32 FPS, which is below the 40 FPS threshold typically considered acceptable for slow-paced action. The CPU’s role in resolution scaling is minimal; if the Ryzen 5 7500X3D were the bottleneck, we would expect frame rates to stay flat or improve slightly at higher resolutions as the GPU becomes more loaded. Instead, the data shows steady declines, confirming the GPU is the limiting component across every measured configuration.

FAQ

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

A: The highest measured average is 63 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings. No other resolution or preset combination exceeds this value in the measured data.

Q: How does the RX 580 perform at 1440p in this game?

A: At 2560x1440, the averages range from 48 FPS on Low to 26 FPS on Ultra. Medium settings yield 34 FPS, and High settings yield 30 FPS. Only the Low preset stays above 40 FPS at this resolution.

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

A: At 3840x2160, the best average is 32 FPS on Low settings. Medium averages 23 FPS, High averages 20 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS. None of these reach 60 FPS, and only Low approaches a minimally smooth experience.

Q: What is the difference between Medium and High settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, Medium averages 45 FPS with a minimum of 38 FPS and a maximum of 51 FPS. High averages 40 FPS, which is 5 FPS lower. The gap is modest, suggesting the visual upgrade from Medium to High costs about 11% performance at this resolution.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmark scores?

A: The RX 580 has an average benchmark score of 12928, placing it at the 53rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, scores 12940, which is 0.1% higher. The GTX 1660 SUPER scores 12986, 0.4% higher, while the AMD Radeon 740M scores 12870, 0.5% lower.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 7500X3D show any signs of bottlenecking in this game?

A: The data does not indicate CPU limitation. The 7500X3D scores 25047 in Passmark multithread and 3494 in single-thread tests, placing it at the 89th percentile of all CPUs. Frame rates drop consistently with resolution increases, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the primary determinant of frame rates in this Control dataset. Its specifications are dated relative to modern cards: 2304 shading units, 144 texture mapping units, and 32 raster output pipelines. The chip runs at a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz, with memory clocked at 2000 MHz (8 Gbps effective). The 8 GB GDDR5 frame buffer is connected via a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These numbers align with the measured FPS drops at higher resolutions, where bandwidth and fill rate become critical.

At 1080p Low, the card delivers 63 FPS, which suggests it can handle light geometry and simple shading without issue. But when settings are raised to Ultra, the average falls to 35 FPS at 1080p, a 44% reduction. This is likely due to increased shader complexity and texture loads, which the RX 580’s GCN 4.0 architecture struggles to process efficiently. The card’s FP32 throughput is 6.175 TFLOPS, and its texture rate is 193.0 GTexel/s. These figures are modest by current standards, and the benchmark results reflect that: the RX 580 scores 8813 in Passmark G3D and 1005 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, with a percentile rank of 53 against all GPUs.

The GPU’s memory subsystem is another limiting factor. The 256.0 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p but becomes strained at 1440p and 4K. The measured 4K High average of 20 FPS is less than half the 1080p High average of 40 FPS, indicating that the card cannot feed enough pixels to the display at that resolution. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is not necessarily the bottleneck—Control’s texture requirements at 4K may exceed 8 GB, but the frame rate collapse from 32 FPS at Low to 18 FPS at Ultra suggests compute and bandwidth limits are more decisive. The RX 580 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), Vulkan 1.3, and OpenGL 4.6, which are adequate for this 2019 game, but the hardware was released in April 2017 and is now end-of-life.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The database contains twelve measured FPS rows for this combo, covering three resolutions and four settings each. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 63 FPS. Medium drops to 45 FPS, with a minimum of 38 and a maximum of 51. High averages 40 FPS, and Ultra averages 35 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 28 FPS, meaning the most demanding preset costs 44% of the Low preset’s performance.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 48 FPS, which is the only 1440p configuration above 40 FPS. Medium averages 34 FPS, with a minimum of 29 and a maximum of 39. High averages 30 FPS, and Ultra averages 26 FPS. The step from Low to Medium at 1440p costs 14 FPS, while the step from High to Ultra costs only 4 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns as settings rise.

At 3840x2160, the numbers are consistently low. Low averages 32 FPS, Medium averages 23 FPS with a minimum of 19 and a maximum of 26, High averages 20 FPS, and Ultra averages 18 FPS. No 4K configuration reaches 33 FPS, and the gap between Low and Ultra is just 14 FPS. Notably, the minimum FPS values for Medium at each resolution (38 at 1080p, 29 at 1440p, 19 at 4K) show that frame pacing becomes less stable as resolution increases, which could result in noticeable stutter during combat scenes.

Comparing across resolutions, 1080p Low (63 FPS) is the only configuration that approaches standard 60 FPS display refresh rates. 1440p Low (48 FPS) and 1080p Medium (45 FPS) are the next best, but both fall short of 60. All High and Ultra presets at any resolution stay below 40 FPS, and 4K Ultra (18 FPS) is barely interactive. The data shows no configuration achieves 60 FPS at 1440p or 4K, and even 1080p Ultra (35 FPS) is well below the 60 FPS target.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 2888 tested CPU and GPU combinations in this game, this pairing of AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 2633rd. That places it in the bottom 9% of all tested combos, which is striking given the CPU’s strength. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D alone sits at the 89th percentile of all CPUs, with a Passmark average benchmark score of 44573, but the RX 580’s 53rd percentile GPU score of 12928 drags the overall ranking down.

The nearest CPU rivals to the 7500X3D illustrate the processor’s capability. The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H scores 44466, which is 0.2% lower. The Intel Core i9-13950HX scores 44342, 0.5% lower. The AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 scores 44309, 0.6% lower. The Intel Core i5-14600 scores 44889, which is 0.7% higher. These deltas are all under 1%, meaning the 7500X3D is essentially tied with those four processors in raw computing power. However, none of that matters in Control when the GPU cannot keep up.

The GPU’s nearest rivals show a similar clustering. The RTX 3050 Ti Mobile scores 12940, 0.1% higher than the RX 580’s 12928. The GTX 1660 SUPER scores 12986, 0.4% higher. The Radeon 740M scores 12870, 0.5% lower, and the FirePro W5100 scores 12847, 0.6% lower. This means the RX 580 is performance-equivalent to several other mid-range cards from different generations, but none of them are capable of high-refresh gaming in Control at demanding settings. The combo rank of 2633 out of 2888 reflects that the GPU’s age and compute limits outweigh the CPU’s modern architecture.

Settings Recommendations

Based solely on the measured FPS data, the optimal configuration for this combo is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which yields 63 FPS average. This is the only preset that clears 60 FPS, providing a smooth baseline for a game that involves intense combat and physics-based environments. If a player prefers visual quality over frame rate, 1080p Medium at 45 FPS (with a 38-51 FPS range) is the next reasonable step, as it stays within a playable range for most action titles. 1080p High at 40 FPS and 1080p Ultra at 35 FPS are progressively less ideal, but they remain playable for those who prioritize fidelity.

At 1440p, only Low settings (48 FPS) are recommended for acceptable performance. Medium at 34 FPS, High at 30 FPS, and Ultra at 26 FPS all fall below the 40 FPS threshold where fast-paced action becomes difficult to follow. For 4K, no setting is recommended for serious play; the best case is Low at 32 FPS, and Ultra at 18 FPS is nearly unresponsive. If a user must run at 1440p or 4K, the data suggests reducing internal resolution or accepting lower presets, but the measured rows show no 4K configuration exceeding 32 FPS.

The minimum FPS values for Medium settings provide additional guidance. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 38 FPS, which is close to the average of 45 FPS, indicating relatively stable performance. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 29 FPS versus an average of 34 FPS. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 19 FPS versus an average of 23 FPS. The widening gap between minimum and average as resolution increases suggests that frame drops become more frequent at higher pixel counts, so users should avoid 4K Medium even if the average looks borderline acceptable.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 7000 series, based on Zen 4 (Raphael) architecture. It has a base clock of 4.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, with a 65 W TDP. The cache hierarchy is substantial: 64 KB of L1 per core, 1 MB of L2 per core, and 96 MB of shared L3 cache. This large L3 cache is typical of X3D variants and can help in games that rely on frequent data reuse, though Control’s measured frame rates do not show a CPU bottleneck.

In Passmark benchmarks, the 7500X3D scores 25047 in multithread, 3494 in single-thread, and 2779 in physics. Its average benchmark score is 44573, placing it at the 89th percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rivals are all within 0.7% of its average score, meaning the CPU is competitive with high-end mobile and desktop chips from Intel and AMD. The processor supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration, providing 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth, and uses PCIe Gen 5 with 24 lanes. It was released in November 2025 with a launch MSRP of $269.

Despite this CPU strength, the game’s frame rates are consistently low at high resolutions. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see similar FPS across 1080p and 1440p at the same settings, since the CPU’s workload per frame does not scale with resolution. Instead, the data shows clear declines—for example, High drops from 40 FPS at 1080p to 30 FPS at 1440p to 20 FPS at 4K. This is a classic GPU-bound signature. The CPU’s single-thread score of 3494 is high enough for most game logic, and its 12 threads handle background tasks easily. In this pairing, the 7500X3D is effectively waiting on the RX 580 to finish rendering each frame, which is why the combo ranks so low despite the processor’s high percentile standing.