Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 combination delivers a formidable Control experience, with measured frame rates ranging from 77.2 FPS at 4K Ultra to 272 FPS at 1080p Low. This pairing ranks 36th out of 1,636 tested combinations in the game, placing it in the top 2.2% of all configs. The CPU, a 6-core/12-thread Zen 4 part with a 4.70 GHz base and 5.30 GHz boost clock, launches at an MSRP of $299, while the GPU, an Ada Lovelace flagship with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory, carries a launch MSRP of 1,599 USD.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At High settings, the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 drops average frame rate from 173.5 FPS to 133.8 FPS, a 22.9% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 3840x2160 at High settings further reduces performance to 86.5 FPS, a 35.4% drop from the 1440p result. The cumulative scaling from 1080p to 4K at High settings represents a 50.1% performance loss, which is consistent with the massive pixel throughput demands placed on the RTX 4090's 443.5 GPixel/s pixel rate.

The scaling behavior shifts notably at Low settings. At 1080p Low, the system produces 272 FPS, which drops to 210.1 FPS at 1440p (a 22.8% reduction) and then to 138.4 FPS at 4K (a 34.1% reduction from 1440p). The percentage losses are remarkably similar to the High settings pattern, suggesting that even at Low settings, the GPU remains the primary bottleneck across all resolutions. However, the absolute headroom at 1080p Low, 272 FPS versus 173.5 FPS at High, indicates that the CPU can feed the GPU substantially more frames when pixel shading load is reduced.

Ultra settings produce the steepest scaling curve. The 1080p Ultra result of 149.9 FPS falls to 111.7 FPS at 1440p (25.5% loss) and then to 77.2 FPS at 4K (30.9% loss from 1440p). The 4K Ultra figure of 77.2 FPS is the lowest measured result in the entire dataset, yet it remains comfortably above 60 FPS, indicating that this combination never becomes unplayable even at maximum settings and resolution. The scaling pattern across all settings suggests that the RTX 4090's 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth and 82.58 TFLOPS FP32 compute are the determining factors at higher resolutions, while the CPU's role becomes more apparent only at lower resolutions and settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 operates with a base clock of 2235 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, paired with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus. The memory runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed, yielding 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth. These specifications position the GPU at the 91st percentile of all GPUs in the benchmark database, with an average benchmark score of 66,473. Its nearest rivals in the database include the NVIDIA Tesla T4 (average score 66,733, delta -0.4%), the NVIDIA Tesla P40 (66,127, delta +0.5%), the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 (67,097, delta -0.9%), and the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 (67,320, delta -1.3%).

The 24 GB VRAM capacity is never stressed by Control's requirements at any of the tested settings, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate scaling across resolution changes. The GPU's 512 TMUs and 176 ROPs provide substantial texture and pixel throughput, with a texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s. The 128 RT cores and 512 tensor cores support the game's DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) API usage, though Control's implementation does not appear to leverage ray tracing heavily based on the measured frame rates.

The GPU's performance in Control aligns with its overall benchmark standing. At 4K Ultra, the 77.2 FPS result represents the GPU's most demanding workload in this test suite, while the 4K Low result of 138.4 FPS demonstrates that even at reduced settings, the GPU maintains high throughput. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223 and PassMark G3D score of 38,194 corroborate the GPU's strong standing, though the game-specific results show that Control is particularly well-optimized for this architecture, with the 4K High result of 86.5 FPS exceeding what the GPU's raw compute metrics alone might suggest.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7600X brings 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process with 6,570 million transistors on a 71 mm² die. The CPU's 4.70 GHz base clock and 5.30 GHz boost clock, combined with 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core, deliver strong single-threaded performance. The 83.2 GB/s dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth and PCIe Gen 5 support with 24 lanes provide a capable platform foundation.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 7600X achieves a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 24,128 and a single-core score of 3,406, with Geekbench scores of 12,905 multicore and 2,892 single-core. The PassMark multithread score of 28,390 and single-thread score of 4,135 further establish the CPU's capabilities. The CPU sits at the 83rd percentile of all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 26,272, placing it near the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U (26,262, delta 0%), the AMD Ryzen 7 7735U (26,305, delta -0.1%), the AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5655GE (26,320, delta -0.2%), and the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (26,214, delta +0.2%).

The CPU's role in Control becomes evident when examining the frame rate differences between settings at the same resolution. At 1080p, the gap between Low (272 FPS) and Ultra (149.9 FPS) is 122.1 FPS, indicating that the GPU's workload scaling dominates the performance envelope. However, the fact that 1080p Low reaches 272 FPS, a frame rate that exceeds the refresh rate of most displays, suggests the CPU can sustain very high instruction throughput without becoming a limiting factor. The 3DMark 16-thread score of 6,879 and 2-thread score of 2,028 indicate that the CPU's multi-threading capabilities are sufficient for Control's engine, which typically utilizes fewer than 8 threads effectively.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 272 FPS average, Medium settings yield 194.4 FPS, High settings achieve 173.5 FPS, and Ultra settings maintain 149.9 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 1080p represents a 44.9% performance reduction, with the largest single-step drop occurring between Low and Medium (77.6 FPS, a 28.5% reduction).

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show the expected resolution penalty. Low settings average 210.1 FPS, Medium settings reach 148.6 FPS, High settings deliver 133.8 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 111.7 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra scaling at 1440p shows a 46.8% reduction, slightly steeper than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU's pixel throughput becomes more significant at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope tightens considerably. Low settings still manage 138.4 FPS, but Medium settings drop to 99.3 FPS, High settings fall to 86.5 FPS, and Ultra settings bottom out at 77.2 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra reduction at 4K is 44.2%, consistent with the other resolutions. The step from Low to Medium at 4K (39.1 FPS, a 28.3% reduction) mirrors the 1080p pattern, suggesting that the Medium preset introduces a consistent additional GPU workload regardless of resolution.

The data shows that the RTX 4090 maintains playable frame rates at every resolution and settings combination tested. Even the most demanding configuration, 4K Ultra at 77.2 FPS, exceeds the 60 FPS threshold, while the least demanding, 1080p Low at 272 FPS, provides headroom for high-refresh-rate displays. The consistent scaling patterns across resolutions indicate that the GPU is the primary performance determinant in all tested scenarios, with the CPU providing sufficient headroom to avoid becoming a bottleneck.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1440p Ultra settings?

A: The system achieves 111.7 FPS average at 2560x1440 with Ultra settings, which is the second-lowest result in the dataset after the 4K Ultra figure of 77.2 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 7600X compare to its nearest rival, the Ryzen 7 5700X?

A: The 7600X has an average benchmark score of 26,272, which is 0.2% higher than the Ryzen 7 5700X's score of 26,214, making the performance difference negligible in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Is the RTX 4090's 24 GB VRAM sufficient for Control at 4K?

A: The measured frame rates at 3840x2160 across all settings, from 138.4 FPS at Low to 77.2 FPS at Ultra, indicate that the 24 GB VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor, as performance scales consistently with GPU workload rather than memory capacity constraints.

Q: What is the largest frame rate drop between consecutive settings at any resolution?

A: The largest single-step drop occurs at 1080p between Low (272 FPS) and Medium (194.4 FPS), a reduction of 77.6 FPS or 28.5%. The same settings transition at 4K shows a 39.1 FPS drop, which is smaller in absolute terms but similar in percentage.

Q: How does the RTX 4090's game performance compare to its overall GPU ranking?

A: The GPU ranks at the 91st percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 66,473. In Control, the 4K Ultra result of 77.2 FPS and 1080p Low result of 272 FPS demonstrate performance consistent with its top-tier standing, though the game's optimization allows it to exceed what raw compute metrics alone might predict.

Q: What is the performance difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, High settings produce 133.8 FPS while Ultra settings produce 111.7 FPS, a difference of 22.1 FPS or 16.5%. This is the smallest percentage gap between High and Ultra across all tested resolutions, with 1080p showing a 13.6% difference and 4K showing a 10.8% difference.