Control

Control is a 2019 action-adventure title that stresses both the CPU and GPU depending on resolution and settings. The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D and AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers a wide spread of frame rates, from a demanding 54 FPS at 4K Ultra to a fluid 193 FPS at 1080p Low. This analysis walks through the measured data, interpreting how the components behave across the tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all settings, indicating that the Radeon RX 9070 XT becomes the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 122 at 1920x1080 to 92 at 2560x1440, then to 62 at 3840x2160. That represents a 24.6% reduction moving from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 32.6% reduction moving from 1440p to 4K. The total scaling efficiency from 1080p to 4K is roughly 50.8% of the original frame rate, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario.

Looking at Low settings, the trend is even more pronounced. The average FPS starts at 193 at 1080p, drops to 146 at 1440p, and lands at 98 at 4K. The percentage losses here are 24.4% and 32.9% respectively, nearly identical to the High preset. This consistency suggests that the CPU is not the bottleneck at 1080p Low, since the frame rates are high but still scale predictably. If the Ryzen 5 7500X3D were limiting performance, we would expect a smaller delta between 1080p and 1440p at Low settings, as the GPU would have more headroom.

At Medium settings, the measured rows include min and max FPS values. At 1080p Medium, the average is 137 FPS with a minimum of 116 and a maximum of 157. Moving to 1440p Medium, the average drops to 103 FPS with a range of 88 to 119. At 4K Medium, the average is 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 and a maximum of 80. The min-to-max spread grows slightly at 4K, suggesting more frame time variance when the GPU is under heavier load.

The Ultra preset shows the most significant scaling loss. The average FPS goes from 106 at 1080p, to 80 at 1440p, to 54 at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 24.5%, and from 1440p to 4K is 32.5%. These percentages align closely with the other presets, confirming that resolution scaling is uniform regardless of graphical load. The 4K Ultra result of 54 FPS is below the 60 FPS threshold, which matters for players with high-refresh-rate 4K displays.

The data indicates that the RX 9070 XT’s rendering pipeline is the dominant factor in these scaling patterns. With a 256-bit memory bus and 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, the card has ample throughput, but the sheer pixel count at 3840x2160 overwhelms it. The Ryzen 5 7500X3D, with its 6 cores and 12 threads, maintains enough headroom to feed the GPU even at 1080p, where frame rates exceed 190 FPS.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance between visual fidelity and frame rate, especially at 1440p and 4K. At 2560x1440 Medium, the average FPS is 103, with a minimum of 88 and a maximum of 119. This keeps the experience above 60 FPS comfortably and provides a 28.8% improvement over High settings at the same resolution, which averages 92 FPS. The jump from Medium to High costs 11 FPS at 1440p, which may not be worth the visual gain for competitive players.

At 3840x2160, Medium is the only preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS. The average is 70 FPS, with a minimum of 59 and a maximum of 80. This is 12.9% faster than High at 62 FPS and 29.6% faster than Ultra at 54 FPS. For 4K users, Medium is the recommended choice if smoothness is the priority. The minimum of 59 FPS is close to the 60 FPS line, so there may be occasional dips, but the overall experience remains playable.

At 1920x1080, all presets deliver high frame rates. Low averages 193 FPS, Medium averages 137 FPS, High averages 122 FPS, and Ultra averages 106 FPS. The differences between preset tiers are smaller in absolute terms at 1080p, but the relative gains from dropping from Ultra to Medium are significant: 29.2% more FPS. Since the game is an action-adventure title with fast-paced combat, the higher refresh rates from Medium or Low could be preferable for responsiveness.

The Ultra preset at any resolution is the most demanding option, and the data shows diminishing returns. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS of 54 is below the 60 FPS target, and even at 1440p Ultra, the average of 80 FPS is not drastically higher than Medium’s 103 FPS. For most users, Medium at 1440p or 4K provides the best experience per the measured rows, while High is a reasonable middle ground for those who prioritize visuals over frame rate.

Low settings are only recommended for users targeting the highest possible refresh rates. At 1080p Low, the average of 193 FPS exceeds the refresh rate of most standard monitors, making it suitable for esports-style play. At 1440p Low, the average of 146 FPS is still very high, and at 4K Low, the average of 98 FPS is playable but not ideal for high-refresh displays.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 48 chip. It has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. The boost clock is rated at 2970 MHz, with a game clock of 2400 MHz and a base clock of 1660 MHz. These figures explain the GPU’s ability to push high frame rates at lower resolutions, but the 4K results show its limits.

The memory configuration is particularly relevant for Control, a game that loads detailed environments and effects. The 16 GB VRAM is more than sufficient for the highest settings at 4K, as evidenced by the playable average of 54 FPS at Ultra. The 644.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures that texture streaming does not become a bottleneck, even with the game’s physics-heavy interactions. The pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s support the rendering load at 4K, but the overall throughput is still constrained.

The GPU’s benchmark scores provide context for its gaming performance. Its Passmark G3D score is 26795, and its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 7260. The Geekbench OpenCL score is 17428, while the Vulkan score is 65879. These synthetic numbers align with the measured FPS data, showing that the card excels in compute-heavy workloads but has a moderate percentile ranking of 55 among all GPUs. The nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are older or lower-tier cards like the AMD Radeon HD 7770M and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570, with delta percentages of 0.1% to 1%. This is surprising given the card’s modern architecture, but it reflects the specific benchmark suite’s weighting.

The FP32 performance of 48.66 TFLOPS is identical to FP16, indicating a 1:1 ratio, which is typical for RDNA 4.0. This raw compute power helps with the game’s particle effects and destructible environments, but it does not translate into linear FPS gains at 4K. The boost clock of 2970 MHz is high for a modern GPU, and the 128 ROPs handle pixel output efficiently. The 64 RT cores are present but Control’s implementation of ray tracing is not the primary load in these measurements, as the game supports it but the default presets may not enable it.

The GPU’s power draw is rated at 304 W TDP, with a suggested PSU of 700 W. This is not a performance metric, but it indicates the card’s headroom for sustained clocks. The 2x 8-pin power connectors supply the necessary energy for the boost clock to be maintained under load. The PCIe 5.0 x16 interface provides ample bandwidth for data transfer, though the game’s data demands do not appear to exceed PCIe 4.0 capabilities based on the measured results.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 5 7500X3D and RX 9070 XT ranks 670 out of 2888 tested combos in Control. This puts it in the top 23.2% of all combinations, which is a solid result for a mid-range CPU paired with a high-end GPU. The rank reflects the balance between the two components: the CPU is not holding back the GPU significantly, but the GPU’s 4K limitations prevent the combo from reaching the top tiers.

The CPU’s percentile ranking among all CPUs is 89, meaning it outperforms 89% of processors in synthetic benchmarks. Its average benchmark score is 44573, and its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H with a delta of 0.2%, the Intel Core i9-13950HX with a delta of 0.5%, and the AMD Ryzen AI Max 385 with a delta of 0.6%. The Intel Core i5-14600 is the closest competitor on the other side, with a delta of -0.7%. This indicates that the Ryzen 5 7500X3D is competitive with high-end mobile and desktop chips, though it does not lead its class.

The GPU’s percentile ranking is lower at 55, but this is based on a broad set of benchmarks that include older and lower-end cards. Its average benchmark score is 13543, and its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon HD 7770M (0.1% delta), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (0.2% delta), NVIDIA P106-090 (0.5% delta), and AMD Radeon Pro 555 (1% delta). These are significantly older GPUs, which suggests that the Passmark G3D test may not fully utilize the RX 9070 XT’s modern features. In gaming, the measured FPS data shows the card performing far better than those rivals, but the synthetic ranking pulls the combo down.

The combo rank of 670 out of 2888 is influenced by both components’ relative strengths. In CPU-bound scenarios, the Ryzen 5 7500X3D’s 96 MB of L3 cache and 4.50 GHz boost clock provide a strong foundation. In GPU-bound scenarios, the RX 9070 XT’s 16 GB VRAM and 2970 MHz boost clock ensure that the card is not the limiting factor until 4K Ultra. The rank suggests that users with this combo should target 1440p for the best experience, as the 4K results are playable but not exceptional.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 Raphael architecture. It has a base clock of 4.00 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The L3 cache is 96 MB shared, which is a large amount for a 6-core chip and is the key differentiator for gaming performance. The memory support is DDR5 with dual-channel, providing a bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s.

In Control, the CPU’s role is most evident at 1080p Low, where the average FPS reaches 193. This is a high frame rate that requires strong single-thread performance. The Passmark single-thread score is 3494, and the multithread score is 25047. The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and Intel Core i9-13950HX, both of which have similar average scores. The fact that the combo maintains 193 FPS at 1080p Low indicates that the CPU is not the bottleneck at this resolution.

At higher resolutions, the CPU’s impact diminishes. The frame rate differences between 1440p and 4K are almost entirely GPU-driven, as evidenced by the consistent scaling percentages across settings. However, the CPU’s 96 MB L3 cache helps with the game’s data-heavy scenes, particularly when objects are destroyed and physics calculations spike. The 12 threads handle the game’s background tasks without causing frame drops, as shown by the minimum FPS values at Medium settings.

The CPU’s boost clock of 4.50 GHz is not the highest among modern processors, but the large cache compensates for lower clock speeds in gaming workloads. The Passmark data compression score is 271649, and the floating-point math score is 43594, indicating strong compute performance for a 6-core chip. The integer math score of 70774 is also respectable. These scores suggest that the CPU can keep up with the GPU’s output, even at 1080p where frame rates are high.

The CPU’s release date of November 2025 and launch MSRP of $269 place it as a mid-range option, but its gaming performance rivals higher-core-count CPUs due to the 3D V-Cache technology. The 5 nm process node from TSMC contributes to its efficiency, with a 71 mm² die size and 11,270 million transistors. This efficiency allows the 65 W TDP to sustain boost clocks without thermal throttling.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear progression from Low to Ultra. Low settings average 193 FPS, Medium averages 137 FPS with a minimum of 116 and a maximum of 157, High averages 122 FPS, and Ultra averages 106 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 56 FPS, while the gap between Medium and High is 15 FPS, and the gap between High and Ultra is 16 FPS. This suggests that the Medium preset offers the most efficient use of GPU resources at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the averages are lower but still strong. Low averages 146 FPS, Medium averages 103 FPS with a range of 88 to 119, High averages 92 FPS, and Ultra averages 80 FPS. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 24-25% for each preset, confirming the GPU-bound nature of the scaling. The Medium preset’s minimum of 88 FPS is still well above the 60 FPS threshold, making it a safe choice for 1440p displays.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more constrained. Low averages 98 FPS, Medium averages 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 and a maximum of 80, High averages 62 FPS, and Ultra averages 54 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one that stays above 60 FPS on average, though its minimum of 59 FPS indicates occasional dips below that mark. The Ultra preset’s 54 FPS average is below the 60 FPS target, which may cause noticeable stutter on standard refresh rate monitors.

The minimum FPS data is only provided for Medium settings across all three resolutions. At 1080p, the minimum is 116 FPS (84.7% of the average). At 1440p, the minimum is 88 FPS (85.4% of the average). At 4K, the minimum is 59 FPS (84.3% of the average). This consistency suggests that frame time variance is not a major issue, and the game runs smoothly within each preset.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured FPS, 2560x1440 provides the best balance. The average FPS ranges from 80 at Ultra to 146 at Low, with Medium averaging 103 FPS. This keeps all presets above 60 FPS, unlike 4K where Ultra drops to 54 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at 1080p?

A: The data suggests no. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 193, which is high for any CPU. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across settings, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor even at lower resolutions.

Q: Is 4K playable with this hardware?

A: Yes, but only at Medium settings. The 4K Medium average is 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS. High and Ultra averages are 62 and 54 FPS respectively, which are below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the RX 9070 XT’s 16 GB VRAM affect Control?

A: The 16 GB VRAM is more than adequate for the game. The 4K Ultra preset averages 54 FPS, which is GPU compute-limited rather than memory-limited. The 644.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures textures load without stutter.

Q: What is the rank of this CPU+GPU combo compared to others?

A: The combo ranks 670 out of 2888 tested combinations in Control. This places it in the top 23.2% of all combos, indicating solid performance for the hardware pairing.

Q: Which preset should I choose for the highest frame rates?

A: Low settings provide the highest averages: 193 FPS at 1080p, 146 FPS at 1440p, and 98 FPS at 4K. For a balance of visuals and speed, Medium is recommended, as it stays above 60 FPS at 4K and above 100 FPS at 1440p.