Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a solid, if not spectacular, 4K experience in Control, with the data showing a clear GPU bottleneck at higher resolutions and a CPU bottleneck emerging at 1080p. The combo ranks in the 34th percentile of all tested configurations, indicating that while the hardware is capable, many other pairings achieve higher frame rates.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Control?*

A: The data indicates 2560x1440 is the sweet spot. At High settings, it delivers an average of 62 FPS, which is close to the 1080p High result of 69 FPS. The jump to 4K High drops the average to 50 FPS, a more significant hit to smoothness.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080's average benchmark score is 54247, which is nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER's score of 54209, a delta of 0.1%. It is also slightly ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X by 1.1%.

Q: What is the CPU's performance percentile and who are its closest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 3700X sits in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. Its average benchmark score of 34260 is essentially tied with the AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 and AMD EPYC 4244P, which are both within 0.1% of its score.

*Q: Does the CPU have enough cores and threads for a demanding action-adventure game like Control?*

A: Yes, the Ryzen 7 3700X features 8 cores and 16 threads. This is a robust configuration that is well-suited for modern gaming workloads, and the benchmark results show it can push high frame rates at lower resolutions.

Q: How much VRAM does the GPU have, and what type is it?

A: The RTX 4080 is equipped with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. This capacity is more than sufficient for the textures and assets in Control.

*Q: What is the overall rank of this CPU+GPU combination in Control?*

A: This specific combo is ranked 2467 out of 3720 tested combinations. This places it in the lower third of all results, suggesting that while it's a playable setup, there is headroom for improvement with a more balanced pairing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the dominant component in this pairing for Control, and the benchmark data clearly shows its influence. The GPU's high memory capacity of 16 GB of GDDR6X is a major asset, ensuring that texture streaming and asset loading at 4K resolution are not constrained by a lack of video memory. This is a critical factor in a visually dense game like Control, where the environment is filled with high-detail geometry and dynamic effects.

The GPU's clock speeds are also a key indicator of its performance. With a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz, the RTX 4080 has the raw throughput to handle the game's rendering demands. The data supports this, as the frame rates scale predictably with resolution. At 4K with High settings, the average FPS is 50, while at 1440p High it rises to 62, and at 1080p High it reaches 69. This pattern is typical of a GPU-heavy workload, where the graphics card's fill rate and shading power become the primary determinant of performance.

The RTX 4080's position in the market, as indicated by its 86th percentile ranking among all GPUs, confirms its high-end status. Its synthetic benchmark scores, such as a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6567 and a Passmark G3D score of 34457, place it firmly in the enthusiast tier. In Control, this power translates into the ability to maintain playable frame rates at 4K, but the game's demanding nature is evident in the sub-60 FPS average at Ultra settings, which is 47 FPS. The GPU is clearly the primary driver of performance at higher resolutions, and any bottleneck at 1080p is more likely to be attributed to the CPU.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a distinct pattern in how this combo scales across resolutions. The largest performance drop occurs when moving from 1440p to 4K. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 62 FPS at 2560x1440 to 50 FPS at 3840x2160, a decline of 12 FPS (approximately 19%). This significant reduction indicates that the RTX 4080's rendering load is substantially increased at 4K, and it is the limiting factor in this scenario.

Conversely, the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is much less severe. At High settings, the average FPS only drops from 69 at 1920x1080 to 62 at 2560x1440, a difference of 7 FPS. This smaller gap suggests that at 1080p, the system is not fully GPU-bound, and the CPU is beginning to play a more significant role in determining the final frame rate. The data supports this interpretation when looking at the Low settings results: 86 FPS at 1080p, 78 FPS at 1440p, and 68 FPS at 4K. The absolute FPS values are higher at lower settings, but the relative drop from 1080p to 1440p is still around 9%.

This scaling behavior is a classic sign of a balanced system at 1440p, where both the CPU and GPU are contributing to the final output. At 1080p, the CPU's limitations are more apparent, as the GPU could theoretically render more frames than the CPU can feed. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, and the performance difference between settings narrows, as the game is heavily reliant on the graphics card's computational power. The minimum FPS data for Medium settings also shows this trend: 65 FPS at 1080p, 59 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K, demonstrating that the frame time consistency also degrades with increased resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 achieves a rank of 2467 out of 3720 tested combos in Control. This places it in the 34th percentile, which is a clear indicator that this is not a top-tier pairing for this specific game. The ranking suggests that while the hardware is individually capable, the combination does not synergize to produce top-tier frame rates compared to other pairings in the benchmark database.

The RTX 4080's individual performance is high, with an average benchmark score of 54247 and a percentile ranking of 86 among all GPUs. However, the CPU's performance, while solid at the 84th percentile, has an average benchmark score of 34260. The delta between this combo's performance and higher-ranked configurations is likely due to the CPU's age and architecture. The Ryzen 7 3700X is a Zen 2 part, and while it has 8 cores and 16 threads, its single-threaded performance may not be sufficient to keep up with the RTX 4080 in a game like Control at lower resolutions.

The fact that the combo is ranked in the 34th percentile means that 66% of tested combinations have achieved higher average frame rates. This is a significant finding, as it indicates that the RTX 4080's potential is not being fully realized with this CPU. The low rank is likely a result of the CPU holding back the GPU in CPU-bound scenarios, such as at 1080p, where the average FPS of 69 at High settings is not significantly higher than the 1440p result of 62 FPS. A more modern CPU with higher single-threaded performance would likely push this combo to a much higher rank.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X plays a secondary but crucial role in this configuration. With 8 cores and 16 threads, it provides a strong foundation for the game's logic, physics, and AI. Its base clock of 3.60 GHz and boost clock of 4.40 GHz are respectable, but the architecture is from the older Zen 2 generation. The CPU's benchmark results show a Passmark single-thread score of 2656 and a Cinebench R15 single-core score of 204, which are indicative of its per-core capability.

In Control, the CPU's role is most evident at 1080p. The data shows that at High settings, the average FPS is 69, which is only slightly higher than the 62 FPS at 1440p. This is a classic sign of a CPU bottleneck. The RTX 4080 is capable of rendering more frames than the CPU can process, leaving performance on the table. The average FPS at 1080p Low is 86, which is the highest recorded for this combo, but it is still not an exceptionally high number for a GPU of this class.

The CPU's performance metrics, such as its Geekbench multicore score of 8899 and Passmark multithread score of 22458, show that it is a capable processor for multi-threaded workloads. However, the game's reliance on single-threaded performance is where the 3700X shows its age. The data suggests that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at 4K, as the frame rates drop significantly due to GPU load, but at 1080p, it is the limiting factor. The 32 MB of L3 cache helps in some scenarios, but the overall performance is constrained by the older process node and architecture.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following data is the measured performance for the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 in Control:

At 1920x1080, the average frame rates are: 86 FPS on Low settings, 77 FPS on Medium, 69 FPS on High, and 68 FPS on Ultra. The Medium settings show a minimum of 65 FPS and a maximum of 89 FPS, indicating some frame time variance. The performance difference between High and Ultra is minimal, suggesting a potential CPU limit at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the average frame rates are: 78 FPS on Low, 70 FPS on Medium, 62 FPS on High, and 61 FPS on Ultra. The Medium settings show a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 80 FPS. This resolution provides a good balance, with the average FPS on High being close to the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the average frame rates are: 68 FPS on Low, 61 FPS on Medium, 50 FPS on High, and 47 FPS on Ultra. The Medium settings show a minimum of 52 FPS and a maximum of 70 FPS. This is where the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as the performance scales significantly with settings. The drop from Low to High at 4K is 18 FPS, while the drop from High to Ultra is only 3 FPS, indicating that the GPU is saturated.

Overall, the data shows that the combo is most comfortable at 1440p, where it can maintain playable frame rates across all settings. At 1080p, the performance is good but not exceptional, and at 4K, the user will need to lower settings to achieve a smooth experience. The Ultra settings at 4K, with an average of 47 FPS, are likely to feel less fluid than the 1440p Medium setting, which averages 70 FPS.