Control

Control is a demanding action-adventure title, and the measured data for the AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combo provides a clear picture of its capabilities. The system delivers playable performance across all tested settings, but the sweet spot for a high-refresh experience is found in the Medium preset, which offers a significant jump in frame rate over High while maintaining a more stable frame pacing than the Low preset. The data shows a strong pairing, with the GPU being the primary driver of performance at higher resolutions, while the CPU's solid multi-threaded scores ensure the system can keep up with the game's physics and AI demands.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark results indicate that the Medium preset is the optimal choice for this hardware combination in Control. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 129 FPS with a minimum of 110 FPS, which is a substantial improvement over the High preset's 115 FPS average. The minimum FPS data, only recorded for the Medium preset, suggests it offers a more consistent frame delivery, which is crucial for a game with fast-paced combat and environmental destruction. While the Low preset pushes the average to 182 FPS at 1080p, the lack of min/max data for that setting, combined with the typical visual compromises, makes it less desirable than Medium for a balanced experience.

Moving up to 2560x1440, the Medium preset maintains a very playable 98 FPS average, with a minimum of 83 FPS. This is a strong result for a 1440p monitor. The High preset at this resolution drops to 87 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The Ultra preset, while visually impressive, dips to 75 FPS average at 1440p, which may cause noticeable stutters in intense moments. The data strongly suggests that for most users, the Medium preset at 1440p is the best balance of visual fidelity and performance, providing a smooth experience that is close to the High preset's quality.

At 4K (3840x2160), the Medium preset is the only setting with recorded min/max values, showing an average of 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 FPS. This indicates that the Medium preset is the highest quality setting that can reliably hold near 60 FPS at 4K. The High preset averages 59 FPS, which is borderline for a smooth experience, and the Ultra preset drops to 51 FPS. For a locked 60 FPS experience at 4K, the Medium preset is the recommended choice. The data shows a clear trend: the Medium preset is the performance and stability champion across all resolutions tested, making it the default recommendation for this combo.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with the Navi 48 chip, and its specifications play a direct role in the game's performance. It features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. This large memory pool is more than sufficient for Control's textures and effects, even at 4K resolution, and the high bandwidth ensures the GPU can feed its 3584 shading units efficiently. The GPU's boost clock of 2520 MHz and game clock of 2070 MHz are key to its performance, with the measured FPS scales predictably with resolution and settings.

The GPU's role is most apparent when examining the performance scaling from 1080p to 4K. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 182 FPS, but this drops to 93 FPS at 4K Low. This 49% reduction in frame rate at 4x the pixel count shows that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions. The gap between the Low and Ultra presets at each resolution further highlights this. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 82 FPS (182 vs 100), while at 4K it narrows to 42 FPS (93 vs 51). This indicates that as resolution increases, the GPU's raw pixel-pushing power becomes the limiting factor, and the CPU has less influence on the final frame rate.

The GPU's 56 ray tracing cores and 128 ROPs are also relevant to Control, which is known for its ray-traced reflections. While the measured data does not include a ray tracing-specific test, the strong performance in standard rasterization suggests the GPU has ample headroom. The card's 36.13 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power and a pixel rate of 322.6 GPixel/s are robust figures that align with the observed performance. The GPU's average benchmark score of 23877 places it in the 69th percentile among all GPUs, with its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6800S, scoring 24063, a delta of -0.8%. This indicates it is a mid-to-high-tier performer, which is consistent with the frame rates observed in the game.

FAQ

Q: Is the AMD RX 9070 powerful enough for 4K gaming in Control?

A: Yes, but with a caveat. The measured data shows that at 3840x2160 with the Medium preset, the combo achieves an average of 66 FPS with a minimum of 56 FPS. This is the only 4K setting with recorded min/max data, indicating it is the most stable option. The High preset averages 59 FPS, which is borderline, while the Ultra preset dips to an average of 51 FPS.

Q: What is the best setting for a 1440p monitor?

A: The Medium preset is the best choice at 2560x1440. It delivers an average of 98 FPS with a minimum of 83 FPS. While the High preset offers an average of 87 FPS, the Medium preset's higher average and better minimum frame rate suggest a smoother experience. The Ultra preset, at 75 FPS average, is playable but less ideal for fast-paced action.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p?

A: The difference is substantial. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 182 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 100 FPS. This 82 FPS gap demonstrates a significant performance cost for the highest visual quality settings.

Q: Does the CPU limit performance in this game?

A: The benchmark data suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions. For example, at 4K, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 42 FPS (93 vs 51), which is smaller than the 82 FPS difference at 1080p. This indicates that at 1080p, the CPU has more influence, but at 4K, the GPU's workload dominates.

Q: How does this combo's performance compare to other systems tested?

A: This specific combo is ranked 1134 out of 3720 tested combinations. This puts it in the top 30% of all tested systems, indicating a strong performance level for a game like Control.

Q: What is the minimum FPS I can expect on the Medium preset?

A: The recorded minimum FPS values for the Medium preset are 110 FPS at 1080p, 83 FPS at 1440p, and 56 FPS at 4K. These figures provide a good estimate of the worst-case frame drops you might experience in intense scenes.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and AMD Radeon RX 9070 combination holds the 1134th position out of 3720 tested combos in our database for Control. This places it in the 69.5th percentile of all systems, indicating a solidly above-average performance tier. This ranking is a product of the GPU's strong showing, which sits in the 69th percentile among all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 23877. The CPU also performs well, ranking in the 78th percentile among all CPUs, which helps ensure the system is well-balanced for this title.

The GPU's nearest rivals in our benchmark suite are the AMD Radeon RX 6800S, which scores 24063 (0.8% higher), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, which scores 24170 (1.2% higher). This shows the RX 9070 is competitive with the previous generation's high-end cards. The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, which scores 26274 (0.2% difference), and the Intel Core i9-11900KF, scoring 26212 (0.4% difference). This indicates the Ryzen 5 7600's performance is on par with older high-end desktop and mobile processors, making it a very capable partner for the RX 9070.

This ranking suggests that while the combo is not at the very top of the charts, it is in a very strong position for playing Control at high settings. The data from the measured FPS confirms this, with the system delivering high frame rates at all tested resolutions. The ranking also implies that there is a significant number of systems that would perform worse, but also a significant portion that would perform better, likely with higher-end GPUs like the RX 9070's bigger siblings or NVIDIA's top-tier cards. For the target user, this rank represents a high-value experience.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor based on the Zen 4 architecture, built on a 5 nm process. Its base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.10 GHz are strong for gaming. In Control, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, physics, and AI, which can be demanding. The processor's performance in synthetic benchmarks, such as a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12735 and a single-core score of 1852, indicates it has ample processing power for these tasks. The Geekbench multi-core score of 13413 and single-core score of 2521 further corroborate this.

The CPU's impact on the game's frame rate is most visible at lower resolutions. At 1080p, the frame rate difference between the Low (182 FPS) and Ultra (100 FPS) presets is large, which suggests that the CPU is able to feed the GPU enough frames to expose the GPU's workload limits. As the resolution increases to 4K, the gap narrows to 42 FPS, indicating that the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck. This is a classic sign of a balanced system where the CPU is not holding back the GPU at higher resolutions.

The Ryzen 5 7600's 32 MB of L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory with 83.2 GB/s of bandwidth are also beneficial. The processor's 3DMark multi-threaded scores show a linear scaling from 2 threads (1938) to 8 threads (5508), which suggests good multi-threading efficiency for the game's parallel workloads. With a 78th percentile ranking among all CPUs, it is clearly a strong performer. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, has a nearly identical average score (26274 vs 26324), confirming that the 7600's performance is comparable to a previous-generation high-end mobile chip, which is more than adequate for Control.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a clear pattern of performance scaling across resolutions and settings.

1920x1080: The lowest tested resolution shows the highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 182 FPS. The Medium preset delivers a strong 129 FPS average, with a minimum of 110 FPS and a maximum of 148 FPS. The High preset averages 115 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 100 FPS. This resolution is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors, with the Medium preset offering the best combination of speed and stability.

2560x1440: At this resolution, the performance remains very high. The Low preset averages 137 FPS. The Medium preset is again the standout, with an average of 98 FPS and a minimum of 83 FPS, ensuring a smooth experience. The High preset averages 87 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to an average of 75 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p is a great target for a 144Hz monitor.

3840x2160: At 4K, the system is pushed harder. The Low preset averages 93 FPS. The Medium preset averages 66 FPS, with a minimum of 56 FPS and a maximum of 76 FPS. The High preset averages 59 FPS. The Ultra preset averages 51 FPS. The Medium preset is the only 4K setting with recorded min/max values, highlighting it as the most reliable choice for maintaining a near-60 FPS experience.

The data shows a consistent trend: the Medium preset offers the best balance of frame rate and frame time consistency across all resolutions. The High and Ultra presets provide diminishing returns for a significant performance cost, while the Low preset, although fast, lacks the stability data of the Medium preset. This breakdown allows for a precise recommendation for any target resolution.