Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 pairing represents a late-2019 mainstream combination, and in Control, the data reveals a system that is decisively bound by its graphics processor at higher resolutions, while the CPU provides ample headroom for the game's physics and logic. The measured frame rates across all settings and resolutions show a predictable pattern of GPU limitation, with the processor's capabilities only becoming a potential factor at the lowest settings and highest frame rates.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, codenamed Matisse, built on a 7 nm process. It operates with a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, and its 32 MB of L3 cache provides a solid foundation for gaming workloads. In the broader benchmark landscape, this CPU sits in the 85th percentile against all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 28631. Its nearest rivals in synthetic testing are the Intel Core i5-12600 and the Intel Core i5-12600H, each with an average score of 28654 and 28666 respectively, putting the Ryzen 7 3700X within a 0.1% margin of both. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT and AMD EPYC 7203P trail by 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively, indicating that the 3700X is competitively positioned in raw compute performance.

For Control, a game that heavily utilizes physics-based destruction and telekinetic object manipulation, the multi-threaded capacity of this CPU is relevant. The Ryzen 7 3700X scores 19087 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 8016 in Cinebench R20 multi-core, with a Passmark multithread score of 22458. These results indicate a strong capability for handling the game's background simulation and AI routines. However, the game's frame rate data suggests that these CPU resources are rarely the bottleneck. At 1080p with Low settings, the system achieves 99.1 FPS, which is the highest measured frame rate in the dataset. If the CPU were a limiting factor, we would expect to see a ceiling at this level, but the fact that performance scales significantly with resolution and settings points to the GPU as the primary constraint. The CPU's single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2694 and a Passmark single-thread score of 2656, is more than adequate for the game's main thread, ensuring that it does not introduce a frame rate cap at even the most demanding settings tested.

FAQ — 4-6 Q&A pairs answerable from FACT PACK data

Q: What is the highest average frame rate recorded for this combo in Control?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 99.1 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This is the only configuration in the dataset that approaches the 100 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the combo's ranking in Control compare to its overall hardware percentiles?

A: The combo ranks 1392 out of 1636 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the bottom 15% of systems tested for this game. This is notably lower than the CPU's 85th percentile ranking and the GPU's 51st percentile ranking, indicating that the pairing is not well-suited for the game's demands.

Q: What is the performance difference between 1080p and 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the average frame rate drops from 58.3 FPS at 1920x1080 to 32.5 FPS at 3840x2160. This represents a reduction of approximately 44% when moving from 1080p to 4K.

Q: Does the GTX 1070's 8 GB of VRAM appear to be a limiting factor at 4K?

A: The data shows a clear performance degradation at 4K, with the Ultra preset yielding only 25.9 FPS. While the 8 GB VRAM capacity and 256.3 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for the game's assets, the GPU's compute throughput (6.463 TFLOPS FP32) is insufficient to maintain playable frame rates at this resolution.

Q: Which rival GPU performs closest to the GTX 1070 in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The NVIDIA Quadro K4200 is the closest rival, with an average benchmark score of 12241 compared to the GTX 1070's 12331, representing a 0.7% difference. The GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER and GTX 880M are slightly further behind, with scores of 12504 and 12490, respectively.

Q: How much faster is the CPU at 1080p Low versus 4K Ultra?

A: The system delivers 99.1 FPS at 1080p Low and 25.9 FPS at 4K Ultra, a difference of 73.2 FPS. This dramatic scaling, a 74% reduction, is a clear indicator that the GPU is the limiting component in this system.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The measured frame rates across resolutions paint a definitive picture of GPU-bound performance. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the system produces 99.1 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 at the same Low settings reduces this to 71.6 FPS, a 28% drop. At 3840x2160 Low, the frame rate falls to 47.3 FPS, a 52% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is consistent with a graphics card that is being progressively overwhelmed by the increasing pixel count.

The impact of settings at each resolution further confirms this. At 1080p, the difference between Low (99.1 FPS) and Ultra (55.9 FPS) is 43.2 FPS, a 44% penalty for maximum visual fidelity. At 1440p, the spread is from 71.6 FPS (Low) to 40 FPS (Ultra), a 44% penalty. At 4K, the Ultra preset delivers 25.9 FPS versus 47.3 FPS at Low, a 45% penalty. The consistency of this percentage drop across all resolutions suggests that the GPU's compute and memory subsystems are scaling linearly with the workload, with no sudden cliff indicating a VRAM overflow or CPU stall.

The fact that the system never achieves a 60 FPS average at 1440p or 4K at any settings level, and only manages 58.3 FPS at 1080p High, clearly demonstrates that the GTX 1070 is the limiting factor. The CPU's performance, which is in the 85th percentile of all processors, is not the constraint here. If the Ryzen 7 3700X were the bottleneck, we would expect to see frame rates plateau at a certain level regardless of resolution, which is not the case. The data shows a smooth, continuous degradation from 1080p to 4K, which is the hallmark of a GPU-limited scenario.

How This Combo Ranks — use comboRankInGame vs other tested combos

In the database of tested configurations for Control, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 ranks 1392 out of 1636 total combos. This places it in the 15th percentile of all tested systems, indicating that it is a lower-performing combination for this specific title. This ranking is significantly worse than what the individual component percentiles might suggest. The CPU alone sits in the 85th percentile, and the GPU in the 51st percentile, yet their combined performance in Control is far below the median.

This discrepancy highlights the game's demanding nature on the graphics subsystem. The GTX 1070, while a capable card for its generation, is clearly outclassed by the hardware used in the majority of the 1636 tested combos. The rank of 1392 means that 244 other combinations perform worse, but it also means that the vast majority of systems tested for this game deliver better average frame rates. The data suggests that users with this combo would need to significantly lower settings or resolution to achieve a playable experience, as the Ultra preset at 1080p only yields 55.9 FPS, and the 4K Ultra preset drops to 25.9 FPS. This ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU's age and performance class, not a reflection of the CPU's capabilities.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is built on the Pascal architecture with the GP104 chip, fabricated on a 16 nm process at TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 1506 MHz and a boost clock of 1683 MHz, paired with 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s. The card has 1920 shading units, 120 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, providing a raw compute throughput of 6.463 TFLOPS FP32. Its pixel rate is 107.7 GPixel/s and its texture rate is 202.0 GTexel/s.

In the synthetic benchmark landscape, the GTX 1070 holds a 51st percentile ranking against all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 12331. Its nearest rival is the NVIDIA Quadro K4200, which scores 12241 (a 0.7% difference), while the GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER and GTX 880M perform slightly better with scores of 12504 and 12490, respectively. This places the 1070 in a crowded mid-range segment, but for Control, its performance is clearly insufficient for high-fidelity settings.

The measured frame rates directly correlate with the GPU's specifications. At 1080p, the card manages 99.1 FPS at Low settings, but this drops to 69 FPS at Medium and 58.3 FPS at High, with Ultra yielding only 55.9 FPS. The 8 GB VRAM capacity does not appear to be a hard limitation, as the game runs without catastrophic frame drops even at 4K, but the compute performance is the bottleneck. The 6.463 TFLOPS of FP32 compute is simply not enough to maintain high frame rates at higher resolutions. At 4K, the card produces only 25.9 FPS at Ultra and 32.5 FPS at High, which is below acceptable playability thresholds. The memory bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s also becomes a constraint at higher pixel counts, as the GPU must move more texture and geometry data per frame. The data shows that this GPU, while competent for its time, is the primary reason this combo ranks so low in Control, as the CPU clearly has the headroom to support higher frame rates if the graphics card could deliver them.