Control

Settings Recommendations

The measured data for Control with the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D combination shows that the High preset delivers the most balanced experience across all resolutions. At 1920x1080, High produces 188 FPS average, which is a substantial 25 FPS improvement over Ultra at 163 FPS, while remaining visually demanding enough to justify the hardware. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 211 FPS, but the jump from Medium to High costs only 23 FPS while providing notably better image quality. For the best experience per the measured rows, High is the recommended preset because it maintains high frame rates at every resolution while avoiding the diminishing returns seen when pushing to Ultra.

At 2560x1440, the High preset delivers 142 FPS average, which is comfortably above the 124 FPS achieved on Ultra. The 18 FPS difference between these settings is meaningful for smoothness, and High still provides excellent visual fidelity. Moving to 3840x2160, High produces 96 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 83 FPS. The 13 FPS penalty for Ultra at 4K is less severe than at lower resolutions, but High remains the sweet spot because it keeps the experience above 90 FPS. The Low preset at 4K reaches 152 FPS, but this sacrifices too much visual quality for a game like Control, which relies heavily on atmospheric rendering.

The Medium preset deserves consideration for users who prioritize frame stability. The data shows Medium is the only setting with recorded minimum and maximum FPS values across all resolutions. At 1080p Medium, the minimum is 180 FPS and maximum is 243 FPS; at 1440p Medium, the range is 136 to 184 FPS; at 4K Medium, it spans 92 to 124 FPS. This consistency suggests Medium has the tightest frame pacing, making it the choice for competitive play or high-refresh-rate displays. However, the overall recommendation stands: High provides the best combination of performance and visual quality, with the 1080p High result of 188 FPS representing an excellent baseline for this hardware pairing.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS achievable with this combination?

A: The data shows the maximum average FPS is 298 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only measured result approaching 300 FPS, and it demonstrates the ceiling of this CPU-GPU pairing at the lowest graphical preset.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D perform relative to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77712, which places it 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76904) and 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78940). It also trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB by 2.1% and the 16 GB variant by 2.4%.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested configurations for Control?

A: This specific combination of AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks first out of 2888 tested combos for Control, according to the comboRankInGame data. This is the top position in the database for this game.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more at 4K?

A: The data indicates the GPU becomes the primary limiter at 4K. The FPS drops from 188 at 1080p High to 96 at 4K High, a 49% reduction. This scaling pattern is characteristic of GPU-bound scenarios, as the CPU's 6-core, 12-thread configuration with a 5.40 GHz boost clock is less stressed at higher resolutions.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the RTX 5090 D provide for texture-heavy scenes?

A: The RTX 5090 D features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This is paired with 21760 shading units and 680 texture mapping units, which supports the high frame rates measured across all settings.

Q: How does the Ryzen 5 9600X compare to its nearest rivals in overall CPU benchmarks?

A: The Ryzen 5 9600X has an average benchmark score of 29713, which is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE (29656) and 0.5% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (29868). It also trails the Ryzen 7 5800XT by 0.6% and the Ryzen 7 8845HS by 0.8%.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D plays a dominant role in this system's Control performance, as evidenced by the FPS scaling across resolutions. The GPU's 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus provides 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for Control's texture streaming and particle effects. The base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz work in tandem with 21760 shading units to deliver the measured frame rates. The GPU's 92.2 billion transistors on a 750 mm² die, manufactured on TSMC's 5 nm process, enable the high fill rates required for the game's physics-heavy environments.

The RTX 5090 D's memory configuration is particularly relevant for Control at 4K. The 32 GB capacity ensures no texture swapping occurs even at Ultra settings, while the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth supports the 423.6 GPixel/s pixel rate and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate. The 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores provide headroom for future RTX features, though the measured data in this pack focuses on standard rasterization. The GPU's 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 performance, combined with its 176 ROPs, explains why the 4K High result of 96 FPS is achievable without dropping to lower settings.

The benchmark results for the RTX 5090 D show a PassMark G3D score of 44065 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 14326, placing it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 77712 is within 2.4% of its nearest rivals, which include the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT and NVIDIA Tesla P100 variants. This positioning indicates the RTX 5090 D is a top-tier GPU, but the Control results suggest it is well-matched with the Ryzen 5 9600X rather than bottlenecked by it. The GPU's 575 W TDP and PCIe 5.0 x16 interface ensure it has the power delivery and bandwidth to sustain high frame rates over extended sessions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 5 9600X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D achieves the number one ranking for Control out of 2888 tested combos. This top position is notable because the individual components do not have the highest raw benchmark scores in their respective categories. The CPU ranks in the 81st percentile with an average score of 29713, while the GPU ranks in the 92nd percentile with an average score of 77712. Despite these strong but not record-breaking individual scores, the pairing produces the best measured Control performance in the database.

This ranking suggests the Ryzen 5 9600X's 6-core, 12-thread configuration with 32 MB of L3 cache is well-suited to Control's engine. The CPU's single-thread performance, as shown by its 2183.5 Cinebench R23 single-core score and 4570 PassMark single-thread score, provides the responsiveness needed for the game's physics and AI systems. The 4 nm process node and 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die enable high clock speeds up to 5.40 GHz, which is beneficial for the game's main thread.

The GPU's 92nd percentile ranking and top performance in Control indicate that the RTX 5090 D's architecture is particularly efficient for this game's rendering pipeline. The 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 throughput and 1.79 TB/s memory bandwidth appear to be the key factors. The combo's rank of 1 out of 2888, with a 0.2% CPU delta from its nearest rival and a 1.1% GPU delta from the RX 6650M XT, demonstrates that the synergy between these specific components yields results greater than the sum of their parts. This is a case where the combination outperforms what individual benchmark scores might predict.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals important insights about the limiting component in this system. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 188 at 1920x1080 to 142 at 2560x1440, then to 96 at 3840x2160. This represents a 24.5% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a 32.4% decrease from 1440p to 4K. The overall drop from 1080p to 4K is 49%, which is less than the 75% reduction in pixel count that would be expected in a purely GPU-limited scenario. This suggests the CPU provides sufficient headroom at lower resolutions, but the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as resolution rises.

The Low settings scaling is more dramatic: 298 FPS at 1080p, 225 FPS at 1440p, and 152 FPS at 4K. This represents a 49% drop from 1080p to 4K, similar to High but with higher absolute values. The Medium preset shows a tighter progression: 211 FPS at 1080p, 160 FPS at 1440p, and 108 FPS at 4K, a 48.8% total drop. Ultra settings produce 163 FPS at 1080p, 124 FPS at 1440p, and 83 FPS at 4K, a 49.1% drop. The consistency of these percentages across all settings indicates that the scaling is primarily resolution-driven rather than settings-driven.

The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU may be the limiting factor, particularly at Low settings where 298 FPS approaches the practical ceiling for this processor. The Ryzen 5 9600X's 6 cores and 12 threads, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, handle the game's draw calls efficiently, but there is a measurable limit. As resolution increases to 4K, the GPU's 32 GB memory and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth become the primary constraints. The 4K results, ranging from 83 FPS at Ultra to 152 FPS at Low, indicate the RTX 5090 D is still capable of high performance but is increasingly taxed by the 8.3 million pixel count.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS values show a clear progression across settings. The Low preset achieves 298 FPS average, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium produces 211 FPS with a minimum of 180 and maximum of 243, indicating excellent frame consistency. High reaches 188 FPS, while Ultra drops to 163 FPS. The 135 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1080p is the largest spread across any resolution, demonstrating that this resolution gives the GPU the most headroom to differentiate settings.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. Low yields 225 FPS, which is 73 FPS lower than at 1080p. Medium produces 160 FPS with a range of 136 to 184 FPS, showing that the minimum frame rate remains above 130 FPS even at this higher resolution. High achieves 142 FPS, while Ultra delivers 124 FPS. The 101 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is slightly less than at 1080p, as the increased pixel count begins to tax the GPU more uniformly across settings.

At 3840x2160, the results demonstrate the GPU's capability at 4K. Low settings produce 152 FPS, which is still a very playable frame rate for a game of Control's visual complexity. Medium delivers 108 FPS with a minimum of 92 and maximum of 124, maintaining smooth performance. High reaches 96 FPS, while Ultra drops to 83 FPS. The 69 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at 4K is the smallest across all resolutions, confirming that the GPU is the primary limiter at this resolution and that settings have a reduced relative impact on performance. The Medium preset's recorded frame range at 4K, from 92 to 124 FPS, shows that even the minimum FPS remains above 90, providing a consistent experience.