Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT pairing delivers a thoroughly playable Control experience, though its standing among the 1,636 tested combos is surprisingly modest. The data reveals a system that scales predictably with resolution and settings, but the GPU's age shows at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

Q: What is the combo's overall rank in Control?

A: The combination ranks 896th out of 1,636 tested CPU-GPU pairings, placing it in the lower-middle portion of the database. This is despite both components holding respectable individual percentiles—the CPU sits at the 85th percentile while the GPU is at the 77th.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 9600X compare to its closest CPU rivals?

A: The 9600X posts an average benchmark score of 28,246, which is essentially tied with the Intel Core i5-13490F (28,173, +0.3%) and the AMD Ryzen 5 230 (28,164, +0.3%). It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS by -0.4% (28,369) and the Intel Core i5-14500T by -0.5% (28,377).

Q: What is the RX 6700 XT's benchmark position among GPUs?

A: The GPU averages 33,721 across all benchmark tests. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX 6800, scores 33,493, meaning the 6700 XT is 0.7% ahead. The AMD Radeon HD 7950 and AMD Radeon RX 480 each outperform it by 1% with scores of 34,050 and 34,059, respectively.

Q: What frame rate can I expect at 1080p with High settings?

A: The measured average is 92.4 FPS at 1920x1080 on High settings. This drops to 79.8 FPS at Ultra, while Low settings deliver 143 FPS and Medium produces 100.1 FPS.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this setup?

A: At 3840x2160, High settings yield 43.4 FPS, which is borderline playable. Ultra settings fall to 38.6 FPS, making smooth 4K gameplay challenging. Low settings at 4K reach 73.6 FPS, but this sacrifices visual fidelity significantly.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance look?

A: The 6-core, 12-thread processor scores 25,525 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 10,720 in Cinebench R20 multi-core. Its 3DMark 16-thread score is 7,585, while the max-threads test produces 7,590, showing near-linear scaling.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 6700 XT brings 12 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. Memory clocks run at 2000 MHz with 16 Gbps effective speed. The GPU's base clock is 2321 MHz, boosting to 2581 MHz, with a game clock of 2424 MHz. These specifications position it as a capable 1080p and 1440p card, but the data shows its limitations at higher resolutions.

At 1080p High, the GPU produces 92.4 FPS, which is strong. The jump to 1440p High reduces this to 65.8 FPS—a 28.8% drop. Pushing to 4K High further reduces performance to 43.4 FPS, a 53% decline from 1080p. This scaling pattern suggests the GPU becomes the primary bottleneck as resolution increases.

The 40 ray tracing cores are present, but Control's implementation at Ultra settings proves demanding. The 38.6 FPS at 4K Ultra indicates the card struggles with maximum visual effects at high pixel counts. At 1080p Ultra, the 79.8 FPS result shows the GPU can handle ray-traced content at lower resolutions, but not with headroom for high-refresh displays.

The GPU's 13.21 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 413.0 GTexel/s texture rate provide substantial raw compute. However, the 165.2 GPixel/s pixel rate becomes a limiting factor at 4K, where the card must fill over 8 million pixels per frame. The 7 nm process node and 17,200 million transistors suggest efficient power delivery, but the 230 W TDP requires adequate cooling.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 5 9600X contributes 6 cores and 12 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. Base clock is 3.90 GHz with a 5.40 GHz boost, and the 4 nm process from TSMC houses 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die. The 32 MB shared L3 cache and 1 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data locality for game logic.

In Control, the CPU's role is more pronounced at lower resolutions. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 143 FPS, suggesting the processor can feed the GPU effectively. The 3DMark single-thread score of 1,253 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,603 indicate strong per-core performance, which matters for games that rely on a few heavily loaded threads.

The CPU's 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth with DDR5 support ensures the GPU receives data without starvation. The 24 PCIe Gen 5 lanes provide high-bandwidth connectivity, though the GPU uses PCIe 4.0 x16, which is backward compatible. The 65 W TDP is modest, allowing sustained boost clocks during extended gaming sessions.

Benchmark results show the CPU's multi-threaded capability: PassMark multithread scores 30,027 while single-thread hits 4,570. Geekbench multicore reaches 15,182 with a single-core score of 3,363. These numbers suggest the 9600X has ample headroom for game physics and AI calculations, even when the GPU is saturated.

How This Combo Ranks

The 896th rank out of 1,636 combos places this pairing in the 54.8th percentile—slightly above the median but far from top-tier. This is surprising given the CPU's 85th percentile standing and the GPU's 77th percentile. The discrepancy suggests that Control's specific demands don't align perfectly with this hardware combination.

The GPU's nearest rivals highlight the competitive landscape. The RX 6700 XT edges out the RX 6800 by 0.7% in average benchmark scores, yet the RX 6800 typically offers more memory bandwidth. The fact that the HD 7950 and RX 480—much older cards—score 1% higher in synthetic benchmarks indicates the 6700 XT's performance profile is not uniformly superior.

For the CPU, the 9600X's 0.3% lead over the Intel Core i5-13490F and AMD Ryzen 5 230 shows how tightly clustered mid-range processors have become. The -0.5% deficit versus the Core i5-14500T and -0.4% versus the Ryzen 7 8845HS means the 9600X sits in a crowded field where architectural differences yield minimal real-world separation.

In game-specific terms, the combo's mid-pack ranking means many alternative pairings—whether with faster GPUs or higher-core CPUs—would deliver better Control performance. The 12 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but 4K Ultra pushes the card to its limits, contributing to the modest overall rank.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling. At 1080p High, the system achieves 92.4 FPS. Moving to 1440p High reduces this to 65.8 FPS, a 28.8% decrease. At 4K High, the frame rate falls to 43.4 FPS, representing a 53.1% drop from 1080p. This progressive decline indicates that the GPU is the limiting component at higher resolutions.

The settings scaling at each resolution tells a similar story. At 1080p, the gap between Low (143 FPS) and Ultra (79.8 FPS) is 63.2 FPS, showing the GPU has headroom to render additional effects. At 1440p, this gap narrows to 47.3 FPS (105.6 to 58.3). At 4K, the gap shrinks further to 35 FPS (73.6 to 38.6), suggesting the GPU is increasingly constrained by pixel throughput rather than shader complexity.

The CPU's influence is most visible at 1080p Low, where 143 FPS indicates the processor can drive high frame rates. However, the 4K Low result of 73.6 FPS shows that even with reduced settings, the GPU cannot maintain the same frame rates as at lower resolutions. This confirms that the RX 6700 XT's 192-bit memory bus and 384.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient for the pixel fill demands of 4K.

The most playable balance appears at 1440p Medium, where 75.3 FPS provides smooth gameplay with reasonable visual quality. At 4K, users must choose between High settings at 43.4 FPS or Medium at 53.9 FPS—both playable but not ideal for fast-paced action. The 38.6 FPS at 4K Ultra is the only configuration that dips below the 40 FPS threshold, making it the least recommended option for this title.