Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT produces a frame-rate curve in Control that clearly identifies the graphics card as the primary constraint. The data reveals a performance profile where the CPU has ample headroom, and the GPU’s capabilities dictate the playable boundaries.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep performance penalty as resolution increases, characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 119.9 FPS. Moving to 1440p at the same settings drops the average to 88.7 FPS, a reduction of 31.2 FPS. The jump to 4K at Low further reduces the average to 57.7 FPS, meaning the transition from 1080p to 4K nearly halves the frame rate.

This scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. For High settings, the average drops from 73 FPS at 1080p to 58.1 FPS at 1440p, and then to 37.9 FPS at 4K. The gap between 1440p and 4K remains substantial, indicating that the RX 6600 XT’s rendering throughput is the limiting factor rather than the Ryzen 5 9600X’s processing power. The CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, are not the bottleneck here; the GPU’s 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are being saturated as pixel count rises.

The data suggests that the 9600X is delivering frames to the GPU faster than it can process them, even at lower resolutions. The fact that the 1080p Low result reaches near 120 FPS indicates the CPU can sustain high frame rates, but the GPU’s workload scaling with resolution is the dominant variable in this equation.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations for Control, this specific pairing of the Ryzen 5 9600X and the Radeon RX 6600 XT holds a rank of 1165 out of 1636 combos. This places the setup in the lower third of all tested configurations, which is a significant finding given the individual components’ standings.

The CPU itself is a strong performer, sitting in the 85th percentile versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28246. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-13490F (deltaPct 0.3) and the AMD Ryzen 5 230 (deltaPct 0.3), showing it is neck-and-neck with those parts. The GPU, however, is less dominant, ranking in the 71st percentile versus all GPUs with an average score of 27985, nearly matching the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (deltaPct 0.1).

The discrepancy between the CPU’s high percentile and the combo’s low in-game rank suggests that the RX 6600 XT is holding back the system in Control. The GPU’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, has a deltaPct of -0.9, meaning it outperforms the RX 6600 XT by nearly a full percentage point in synthetic benchmarks. That slight edge translates into the RX 6600 XT being a mid-tier part, and when paired with a top-tier CPU like the 9600X, the combination does not boost the overall ranking as much as one might expect.

Settings Recommendations

Given the measured frame rates, the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution. For 4K displays, the data indicates that only Low settings produce a playable average of 57.7 FPS. The Medium preset at 4K drops to 43.9 FPS, and High falls to 37.9 FPS, which is borderline for smooth gameplay. Ultra at 4K is the worst case at 35.9 FPS.

At 1440p, Medium settings yield a solid 66.2 FPS average, which is a balanced choice for most users. High settings at 1440p achieve 58.1 FPS, still playable, while Low reaches 88.7 FPS for competitive or high-refresh-rate play. Ultra at 1440p is less appealing at 48.6 FPS.

For 1080p, the Low preset delivers an excellent 119.9 FPS average, making it ideal for fast-paced action. Medium provides 83.2 FPS, and High offers 73 FPS, both of which are smooth. Ultra at 1080p is the weakest option at 64.5 FPS, but still above the 60 FPS threshold. The recommendation is to prioritize Medium or High at 1080p and 1440p, and to reserve Low settings for 4K if that resolution is required.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following data represents the measured averages across all resolution and setting combinations. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 119.9 FPS, Medium reaches 83.2 FPS, High hits 73 FPS, and Ultra falls to 64.5 FPS. This shows a clear progression where each step up in quality costs approximately 10-15% of the frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the numbers shift downward. Low averages 88.7 FPS, Medium drops to 66.2 FPS, High is at 58.1 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 48.6 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at this resolution is steeper, with a total loss of over 40 FPS between the extremes.

For 3840x2160, the results are more constrained. Low settings manage 57.7 FPS, Medium drops to 43.9 FPS, High is at 37.9 FPS, and Ultra only reaches 35.9 FPS. The data confirms that the RX 6600 XT is not designed for 4K gaming with high-quality presets in this title, as even the Low preset struggles to maintain a comfortable margin above 60 FPS.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT plays a decisive role in these results, with its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory proving to be a limiting factor at higher resolutions. The GPU’s memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s is sufficient for 1080p but becomes strained as the pixel workload increases. The card’s boost clock of 2589 MHz and game clock of 2359 MHz provide solid raw compute, but the 128-bit memory bus restricts data throughput.

The GPU’s 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs deliver a texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s and a pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s. These figures explain why the frame rate drops so precipitously at 4K: the card is processing more pixels than its ROPs can efficiently output. The FP32 performance of 10.60 TFLOPS is respectable for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the lack of additional VRAM or a wider bus prevents it from handling 4K Ultra settings.

Notably, the GPU’s average benchmark score of 27985 is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the GTX 980 Ti, which has a deltaPct of 0.1. This indicates that the RX 6600 XT is a competent mid-range card, but its performance ceiling in Control is defined by its memory subsystem and ROP count. The Ryzen 5 9600X, with its 32 MB of L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth, is more than capable of feeding the GPU, but it cannot compensate for the graphics card’s inherent resolution limits. The combination’s rank of 1165 out of 1636 reflects this imbalance, where a high-end CPU is paired with a mid-range GPU, resulting in a system that excels at 1080p but struggles at higher resolutions.