Control

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti delivers a remarkably consistent Control experience, with the data showing that the Ultra preset is only viable for 60 FPS gaming at 1440p, while High settings provide the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate across all resolutions. The measured results indicate that this combination ranks in the 72nd percentile of all tested combos for this title, placing it solidly in the upper tier of systems capable of handling Control’s demanding physics and particle effects.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data shows a clear hierarchy in this game, with the Ultra preset being the most demanding but not always delivering a playable experience. At 4K (3840x2160), Ultra settings produce an average of 51.6 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold many players target. However, dropping to High settings at 4K yields 60.5 FPS, making High the definitive choice for 4K displays. The Medium preset at 4K offers 67.3 FPS, but the visual downgrade from High to Medium is substantial in a game as atmospheric as Control.

For 1440p (2560x1440), the situation changes. High settings deliver 93.7 FPS, which is more than sufficient for smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 1440p produces 78 FPS, still comfortably above 60 FPS, allowing players to max out the game’s ray-traced reflections and volumetric effects without sacrificing playability. The Low preset at 1440p reaches 144 FPS, but this is likely unnecessary given the diminishing returns on visual quality.

At 1080p (1920x1080), every preset runs exceptionally well. High settings achieve 120.1 FPS, while Ultra manages 104.5 FPS. The recommendation here is straightforward: use Ultra at 1080p, as the 104.5 FPS average is still well above the 60 FPS target and provides the full visual experience. The Low preset’s 194.2 FPS is only relevant for competitive play, which is not this game’s primary audience. Overall, High is the best all-around preset, offering 60.5 FPS at 4K and scaling to 93.7 FPS at 1440p.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Control at 4K with Ultra settings?

A: No. The measured data shows 51.6 FPS at 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, which falls below the 60 FPS standard. High settings at 4K achieve 60.5 FPS, making that the playable ceiling for 4K.

Q: What is the best preset for high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors?

A: High settings at 2560x1440 produce 93.7 FPS, which is ideal for 120Hz displays. The Ultra preset at 1440p still delivers 78 FPS, so players with 75Hz monitors can also max out the game.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti’s VRAM capacity affect Control?

A: The GPU has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory with a 384-bit bus and 912.4 GB/s bandwidth. This capacity is sufficient for Control’s high-resolution textures at all tested settings, as evidenced by the consistent performance scaling across resolutions.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this combo?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary constraint. At 1080p Low settings, the system reaches 194.2 FPS, indicating the CPU can feed the GPU well beyond typical display refresh rates. The performance drop at higher resolutions and settings aligns with GPU-bound workload scaling.

Q: What performance can I expect at 1080p with Medium settings?

A: The measured average is 139.9 FPS at 1920x1080 with Medium settings, placing this combo far above the 60 FPS target and suitable for 144Hz monitors.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems for Control?

A: It ranks 464th out of 1636 tested combinations, placing it in the upper 28% of all configurations. This is a strong result for a game that stresses both CPU physics and GPU rendering.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications directly explain the measured frame rates. The GPU’s 12 GB of GDDR6X memory is not a bottleneck at any tested setting, as even the most demanding 4K Ultra preset only requires enough capacity for textures and render targets that fit within this allocation. The 912.4 GB/s memory bandwidth ensures that the 384-bit bus can feed the 10,240 shading units without starvation, which is critical for Control’s heavy use of post-processing effects.

The clock behavior is telling: the GPU has a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. The benchmark results show that the GPU sustains high utilization across all settings, as evidenced by the smooth scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution. The 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power provides the raw throughput needed for the game’s destructible environments and telekinetic physics interactions. The RTX 3080 Ti’s 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores are also relevant, as Control was one of the first titles to feature ray-traced reflections; the 4K Ultra result of 51.6 FPS indicates these RT features are still demanding, but the 1440p Ultra result of 78 FPS shows they are manageable at lower resolutions.

The GPU’s 350 W TDP and process node of 8 nm are consistent with its performance class. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU scales almost linearly with resolution: 1080p High produces 120.1 FPS, 1440p High produces 93.7 FPS, and 4K High produces 60.5 FPS. This linearity confirms that the GPU is the performance limiter, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to avoid becoming a constraint.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 464th out of 1636 tested combinations in Control, which translates to the 72nd percentile. This is a strong position, but it is not at the very top of the charts. Given the GPU’s individual performance percentile of 83% and the CPU’s percentile of 85%, the combined ranking is slightly lower than either component’s standalone percentile, suggesting that Control’s specific workloads introduce a slight inefficiency in this pairing.

The nearest GPU rivals provide context for the RTX 3080 Ti’s performance. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 scores 0.5% higher in average benchmarks, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 scores 0.9% higher. The RTX 5070 is 1.1% ahead, and the Tesla M40 is 1.6% ahead. These small deltas indicate that the RTX 3080 Ti is very close to its immediate successors and predecessors in raw compute, which explains why the combo ranking is competitive. The data shows that the 3080 Ti is not a bottleneck relative to the 9600X, as the CPU’s nearest rivals (Intel Core i5-13490F and AMD Ryzen 5 230) are within 0.3% of its average score, meaning neither component is dramatically outclassing the other.

In practical terms, this ranking means the combo is in the top quarter of all systems tested for Control. Players can expect performance that matches or exceeds most other configurations, with the only meaningful improvements coming from newer GPUs like the RTX 5070, which is only 1.1% faster on average.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling data reveals a classic GPU-bound pattern. From 1080p to 1440p, the FPS drops by approximately 22% on High settings, and from 1440p to 4K, it drops by another 35%. This non-linear drop is characteristic of a GPU that is hitting memory bandwidth limits at higher pixel counts. The RTX 3080 Ti’s 912.4 GB/s bandwidth is substantial, but 4K rendering requires exponentially more pixel throughput, which explains the steep decline.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced: 194.2 FPS at 1080p drops to 144 FPS at 1440p (a 26% decrease) and then to 95.4 FPS at 4K (a 34% decrease). The fact that Low settings at 1080p produce nearly 200 FPS confirms that the CPU can handle the game’s logic and physics without bottlenecking. As settings increase, the GPU becomes the sole limiting factor. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 89.7 FPS (194.2 vs 104.5), while at 4K the gap is only 43.8 FPS (95.4 vs 51.6). This compression at higher resolutions is a textbook sign of GPU saturation.

The data shows that the limiting component is unambiguously the GPU. At 1080p Low, the system is likely CPU-limited, but the CPU’s 6 cores and 12 threads with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz are sufficient to push the frame rate to nearly 200 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the GPU is fully saturated, and the 51.6 FPS result reflects the sheer pixel and shading workload.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are as follows: Low settings produce 194.2 FPS, Medium produces 139.9 FPS, High produces 120.1 FPS, and Ultra produces 104.5 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 28% reduction, while the step from Medium to High is 14%, and High to Ultra is 13%. This shows diminishing returns on performance as settings increase, but all presets remain perfectly playable.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low at 144 FPS, Medium at 104.2 FPS, High at 93.7 FPS, and Ultra at 78 FPS. The Low to Medium drop is 28%, identical to the 1080p scaling, while Medium to High is 10% and High to Ultra is 17%. The Ultra preset at 1440p is the first point where the frame rate drops below 100 FPS, but 78 FPS is still smooth.

At 3840x2160, the averages are: Low at 95.4 FPS, Medium at 67.3 FPS, High at 60.5 FPS, and Ultra at 51.6 FPS. The Low to Medium drop is 29%, Medium to High is 10%, and High to Ultra is 15%. This is the only resolution where no preset achieves 100 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls below the 60 FPS standard.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X provides the computational foundation for this combo, and its specifications align with the measured results. With 6 cores and 12 threads, the CPU has enough parallelism to handle Control’s physics-based gameplay, which uses multiple threads for object interactions and particle simulations. The base clock of 3.90 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz ensure high single-thread performance, which is critical for games that rely on a main game thread.

The CPU’s 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 1 MB L2 per core provide sufficient on-die storage for the game’s frequently accessed data. The benchmark data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this title: at 1080p Low, the system reaches 194.2 FPS, which is well beyond what most displays can show. This indicates that even the lightest GPU workload is not constrained by CPU throughput.

The CPU’s individual benchmarks place it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, with an average score of 28,246. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-13490F, scores 28,173 (0.3% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS scores 28,369 (0.4% higher). This puts the 9600X in a tight competitive cluster, meaning its performance headroom is well-matched to the RTX 3080 Ti. The CPU’s 65 W TDP and 4 nm process node from TSMC also contribute to its efficiency, allowing sustained boost clocks during extended gaming sessions without thermal throttling, which is consistent with the smooth FPS averages recorded across all settings.