Control

# Control with AMD Ryzen 7 3700X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070

Control's benchmark data for this combination reveals a system that scales predictably with resolution, but the relationship between settings and frame rates is far from linear. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 178.8 FPS average, while 4K Ultra drops to 53.5 FPS — a spread that suggests the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as pixel count rises. The 4K High result of 62 FPS sits just above the 60 FPS threshold, indicating that this pairing is on the edge of smooth 4K playability with quality settings enabled. Notably, the jump from 1080p High (121.8 FPS) to 1440p High (90.1 FPS) represents a 26% reduction, while the 1440p to 4K transition at High settings (90.1 to 62 FPS) is a steeper 31% decline. This pattern hints that the RTX 4070's 12 GB GDDR6X memory and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient at lower resolutions, but the 4K workload begins to strain the memory subsystem.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear hierarchy: 1080p delivers 104.4 to 178.8 FPS depending on settings, 1440p ranges from 83 to 144 FPS, and 4K spans 53.5 to 98 FPS. The drop from 1080p Low (178.8 FPS) to 1440p Low (144 FPS) is a 19% reduction, while 1440p Low to 4K Low (98 FPS) is a 32% drop. This increasing penalty at higher resolutions points to the GPU as the primary bottleneck — the Ryzen 7 3700X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, has ample headroom at lower resolutions where the frame rates exceed 140 FPS. At 4K Ultra, the system produces 53.5 FPS, which is 70% below the 1080p Low result. The scaling curve suggests that this game's rendering pipeline becomes heavily pixel-bound at 4K, with the RTX 4070's 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 compute being the limiting factor rather than the CPU's Zen 2 architecture.

GPU Role

The RTX 4070's specifications align with the observed behavior. Its 1920 MHz base clock boosts to 2475 MHz, and the 12 GB GDDR6X memory runs at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective) across a 192-bit bus, yielding 504.2 GB/s bandwidth. The 5888 shading units and 184 TMUs provide the raw throughput needed for Control's particle effects and physics, which are abundant in this action-adventure title. At 1080p, the GPU's pixel rate of 158.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 455.4 GTexel/s are more than adequate, as evidenced by the 178.8 FPS Low result. However, the 4K Ultra result of 53.5 FPS indicates that the 64 ROPs become a limiting factor when pixel fill requirements quadruple from 1080p. The GPU's 200 W TDP and dual-slot design suggest thermal headroom is not a concern, but the data implies that Control's 4K Ultra settings demand more than this GPU can consistently deliver.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 468th out of 1,636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the 71st percentile of all system pairings. The CPU's benchmark percentile of 85 and the GPU's percentile of 81 both indicate above-average components, yet the combo rank is slightly lower than either individual percentile, suggesting that the pairing is not perfectly optimized for this specific game. The Ryzen 7 3700X's nearest rivals — the Intel Core i5-12600 (deltaPct -0.1) and AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT (deltaPct 0.1) — have nearly identical average benchmark scores, meaning the CPU choice has minimal impact on overall system performance in this context. The RTX 4070's nearest rival, the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, scores 0.6% higher on average, yet the RTX 4070's architectural advantages in ray tracing and DLSS may explain why the measured FPS in Control exceeds what raw compute benchmarks would predict.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the settings ladder shows: Low 178.8 FPS, Medium 140 FPS, High 121.8 FPS, Ultra 104.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 38.8 FPS, while High to Ultra is only 17.4 FPS, indicating diminishing returns at the top end. At 1440p: Low 144 FPS, Medium 106.5 FPS, High 90.1 FPS, Ultra 83 FPS. The Low-to-Medium drop is 37.5 FPS, but High-to-Ultra is just 7.1 FPS — a much smaller penalty than at 1080p. At 4K: Low 98 FPS, Medium 68 FPS, High 62 FPS, Ultra 53.5 FPS. The Low-to-Medium gap of 30 FPS is the largest single-step reduction across all resolutions, suggesting that medium settings introduce a significant computational load at 4K. Notably, the 4K Medium result (68 FPS) is only 6 FPS above 4K High (62 FPS), while 4K High to Ultra (53.5 FPS) is an 8.5 FPS drop.

FAQ

Q: Can this system maintain 60 FPS at 4K with high settings in Control?

A: Yes, barely. The measured 4K High average is 62 FPS, which exceeds the 60 FPS threshold but leaves minimal headroom for demanding scenes.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve 144 FPS?

A: Only 1440p Low achieves exactly 144 FPS. At 1080p, Low hits 178.8 FPS and Medium reaches 140 FPS, but 1440p is the only resolution where 144 FPS is precisely attainable.

Q: How much performance is lost when going from Medium to Ultra at 1440p?

A: The drop is from 106.5 FPS to 83 FPS, a 23.5 FPS reduction or approximately 22% lower performance.

Q: Is the CPU limiting performance at 1080p Low settings?

A: The 178.8 FPS result at 1080p Low suggests the Ryzen 7 3700X's 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient, as this frame rate is well below the CPU's potential ceiling based on its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 19,087.

Q: Does the 4K Ultra result of 53.5 FPS indicate a problem with the GPU?

A: No, it reflects the GPU's compute limits. The RTX 4070's 29.15 TFLOPS FP32 and 158.4 GPixel/s pixel rate are simply taxed heavily by 4K Ultra settings in this game.

Q: How does this combo's rank compare to the individual component rankings?

A: The combo ranks 468th of 1,636 (71st percentile), while the CPU is in the 85th percentile and the GPU in the 81st percentile, indicating the pairing underperforms relative to its components' individual standings.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS at 4K, High settings (62 FPS) is the only viable preset, as Ultra drops below 60 FPS to 53.5. At 1440p, High delivers 90.1 FPS with solid visual quality, while Medium (106.5 FPS) offers a smoother experience for fast-paced combat. The data suggests that 1440p High provides the best balance of visual fidelity and frame rate, sitting comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold with room for demanding scenes. For 1080p users, Medium (140 FPS) or High (121.8 FPS) are both excellent choices, as they exceed 120 FPS and benefit from high-refresh displays. The Ultra preset at 1080p (104.4 FPS) is viable but offers only a 17.4 FPS improvement over High, making it less compelling. At 4K, the 68 FPS Medium result is surprisingly close to High's 62 FPS, so players who cannot tolerate the High preset's occasional dips could drop to Medium with minimal visual penalty.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 7 3700X, with its 8 cores, 16 threads, 3.60 GHz base clock, and 4.40 GHz boost clock, demonstrates that a Zen 2 CPU from 2019 can still drive modern games effectively. Its 32 MB L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are adequate for Control's demands, as evidenced by the 178.8 FPS at 1080p Low. The CPU's Cinebench R23 scores — 19,087 multi-core and 2,694 single-core — place it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-12600, is only 0.1% different in average benchmark score. This suggests that the 3700X is not a bottleneck in this pairing, even at high frame rates. However, the data implies that the CPU's performance headroom is larger than the GPU's — at 1080p Low, the system hits 178.8 FPS, but the GPU's limitations become apparent at higher resolutions where FPS drops more sharply. The 65 W TDP and TSMC 7 nm process make this an efficient choice, but the real insight is that Control's CPU demands are modest enough that the 3700X's 8-core design is more than sufficient, leaving the RTX 4070 as the definitive performance limiter across all tested resolutions and settings.