Control

The pairing of AMD’s Ryzen 7 3700X with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER presents a classic generational mix: an eight-core Zen 2 processor from 2019 driving one of Ada Lovelace’s fastest consumer GPUs. In Control, a game that leans heavily on real-time ray tracing and physics-driven destruction, this combination produces a wide spread of frame rates that shift dramatically with resolution and quality presets. The measured data shows a system that can comfortably push past 170 FPS at 1080p on low settings, yet drops to 69 FPS at 4K ultra, revealing a GPU-bound ceiling at higher resolutions and a CPU-bound plateau at the lowest settings. This analysis breaks down the 12 measured data points, contextualizes the combo’s standing among 3,720 tested combinations, and examines the specific roles of the CPU and GPU based solely on the provided specifications and benchmark scores.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent across all quality settings, but the shape of that drop changes depending on the preset. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 177 FPS at 1920x1080 to 162 FPS at 2560x1440, then to 125 FPS at 3840x2160. That is a 29.4% reduction from 1080p to 4K, which is relatively modest compared to higher presets. At High settings, the numbers go from 150 FPS at 1080p to 117 FPS at 1440p to 79 FPS at 4K — a 47.3% drop across the same resolution span. The Ultra preset shows the largest relative decline: 134 FPS at 1080p, 102 FPS at 1440p, and 69 FPS at 4K, representing a 48.5% loss from 1080p to 4K. Medium settings sit in between, dropping from 156 FPS to 132 FPS to 89 FPS, a 42.9% decrease.

The pattern indicates that at 1080p, the CPU begins to limit performance, especially on Low and Medium presets where the GPU has less work to do. The 177 FPS at 1080p Low is only 9.3% higher than the 162 FPS at 1440p Low, suggesting the Ryzen 7 3700X’s single-thread performance is nearing its ceiling. In contrast, the 4K results show a clear GPU bottleneck: the RTX 4080 SUPER’s raw throughput becomes the dominant factor, and the frame rate scales almost linearly with the pixel count. The 125 FPS at 4K Low versus 69 FPS at 4K Ultra demonstrates that even at 4K, the quality preset has a massive impact — a 81.2% difference between the lowest and highest settings. This implies that the GPU’s shading units, ray tracing cores, and memory bandwidth are all heavily taxed by the Ultra preset’s effects, while the 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is sufficient to avoid capacity-related stutters.

The medium preset data includes minimum and maximum FPS values, which provide additional insight. At 4K Medium, the average is 89 FPS with a minimum of 76 and maximum of 102. At 1440p Medium, the average is 132 FPS with a minimum of 112 and maximum of 152. At 1080p Medium, the average is 156 FPS with a minimum of 133 and maximum of 180. The spread between min and max is roughly 26-47 FPS, with the widest absolute spread at 1080p (47 FPS), which again points to CPU-driven variability at lower resolutions. At 4K, the narrower 26 FPS spread suggests a more consistent GPU-limited workload, where the frame time variance is smaller.

How This Combo Ranks

Among the 3,720 CPU-GPU combinations tested in Control, this specific pairing of the Ryzen 7 3700X with the RTX 4080 SUPER holds the 443rd position. That places it in the top 11.9% of all tested combos, which is a strong result given that the GPU is from a newer generation than the CPU. The rank reflects the overall measured FPS across the tested resolutions and settings, weighted toward the game’s typical performance profile. A rank of 443 out of 3,720 means there are 3,277 combinations that perform worse, but also 442 that perform better — many of which likely pair the RTX 4080 SUPER with newer CPUs that have higher single-thread scores.

The CPU’s percentile versus all CPUs is 84, meaning the Ryzen 7 3700X outperforms 84% of all processors in the benchmark database. Its average benchmark score is 34,260, which is nearly identical to its nearest rivals. The AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 scores 34,222 (0.1% higher), the AMD EPYC 4244P scores 34,220 (0.1% higher), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 165H scores 34,083 (0.5% higher). The Intel Core i5-13450HX scores 34,333, which is 0.2% higher than the 3700X. These deltas are all within a fraction of a percent, indicating that the 3700X’s multi-threaded performance is still competitive with much newer mid-range and mobile chips, despite being several generations old. However, the single-thread scores tell a different story: the 3700X scores 2,656 on Passmark’s single-thread test, which is a modest figure for a 2019 processor. In a game like Control, which has heavy physics and AI simulation, this single-thread limit is likely what prevents the combo from ranking higher.

The GPU’s percentile versus all GPUs is 86, with an average benchmark score of 54,209. Its nearest rivals are the RTX 4080 (54,247, 0.1% higher), the Radeon Pro W5700X (54,828, 1.1% higher), the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (55,698, 2.7% higher), and the Radeon 8060S (55,757, 2.8% higher). The RTX 4080 SUPER is essentially tied with the non-SUPER RTX 4080, which is expected given the small clock difference. The Radeon cards scoring higher in synthetic benchmarks does not translate directly to Control performance, as the game’s engine favors NVIDIA’s ray tracing implementation. The combo rank of 443 suggests that the RTX 4080 SUPER’s raw power is somewhat held back by the older CPU, particularly in scenes with many dynamic objects.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 2 architecture, codenamed Matisse. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.40 GHz, with a 65-watt TDP. The CPU is built on TSMC’s 7 nm process node, with 3,800 million transistors on a 74 mm² die. It supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration, providing a memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. The L3 cache is 32 MB, with 512 KB of L2 and 64 KB of L1 per core. This configuration was high-end for its 2019 release, but by 2024 standards, it lags behind newer chips in single-thread performance.

In Control, the CPU’s role is primarily to handle the game’s physics engine, which simulates debris, destructible environments, and telekinetic object manipulation. The 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to prevent multi-threaded bottlenecks, as evidenced by the Passmark multithread score of 22,458 and the Cinebench R15 multicore score of 2,092. However, the single-thread performance is weaker: the Passmark single-thread score is 2,656, the Geekbench single-core score is 1,593, and the Cinebench R15 single-core score is 204. These numbers are significantly below what modern CPUs like the Ryzen AI 7 350 or Core i5-13450HX achieve, even though their multi-threaded averages are nearly identical to the 3700X.

The impact of this single-thread limitation becomes clear when comparing the 1080p Low and 4K Low results. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 177, which is high but not as high as the RTX 4080 SUPER could theoretically achieve if the CPU were faster. At 4K Low, the average drops to 125 FPS, which is still very playable but shows that the GPU is not the only limiting factor even at 4K. The data suggests that the 3700X’s boost clock of 4.40 GHz is not enough to feed the RTX 4080 SUPER’s massive shading throughput at lower resolutions, where the GPU can render frames faster than the CPU can submit draw calls. The 16 threads help with the game’s background tasks, but the core game logic is largely serial, and that serial portion caps the frame rate.

The CPU’s benchmark scores also contextualize its overall capability. The Geekbench multicore score of 8,899 and the Passmark multithread score of 22,458 place it in the 84th percentile of all CPUs. The Passmark integer math score is 66,399, floating point math is 39,005, and extended instructions score is 19,241. These synthetic numbers indicate strong throughput for a 65-watt part, but they do not directly translate to gaming performance. The 3,800 million transistors on a 74 mm² die are efficient, yet the architecture lacks the higher IPC (instructions per clock) of later Zen 3, Zen 4, or Zen 5 designs. In Control, this means the CPU can maintain a solid 60+ FPS in most scenes, but it will occasionally bottleneck the GPU at 1080p with lower-quality presets.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four quality settings, with average FPS for every combination and minimum/maximum FPS for the Medium preset only. At 1920x1080, the results are as follows: Low yields an average of 177 FPS, Medium yields 156 FPS (minimum 133, maximum 180), High yields 150 FPS, and Ultra yields 134 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 43 FPS, or 24.3%, which is a modest penalty for the visual quality gains. The Medium preset’s maximum of 180 FPS is higher than the Low average of 177 FPS, which suggests that the Low preset may be CPU-bound in certain scenes while the Medium preset allows the GPU to occasionally stretch its legs.

At 2560x1440, the averages are: Low 162 FPS, Medium 132 FPS (minimum 112, maximum 152), High 117 FPS, and Ultra 102 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra is 60 FPS, or 37.0%, which is a larger relative penalty than at 1080p. This is expected because the GPU becomes more stressed at higher resolutions, and the quality settings have a greater impact on shading and texture work. The Medium preset’s minimum of 112 FPS and maximum of 152 FPS show a 40 FPS spread, which is narrower than at 1080p but still indicates some variability from physics-heavy scenes.

At 3840x2160, the results are: Low 125 FPS, Medium 89 FPS (minimum 76, maximum 102), High 79 FPS, and Ultra 69 FPS. The drop from Low to Ultra is 56 FPS, or 44.8%, which is the largest relative penalty across all resolutions. This indicates that the RTX 4080 SUPER is fully utilized at 4K, and the Ultra preset’s additional effects — likely higher-resolution shadows, volumetric lighting, and ray-traced reflections — significantly reduce frame rates. The Medium preset’s minimum of 76 FPS is still above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and the maximum of 102 FPS shows that even at 4K, the GPU can deliver high refresh rates when the scene is not overly demanding.

Comparing across resolutions for the same setting, the 1080p Ultra score of 134 FPS is 94.2% higher than the 4K Ultra score of 69 FPS. The 1080p High score of 150 FPS is 89.9% higher than the 4K High score of 79 FPS. The 1080p Medium score of 156 FPS is 75.3% higher than the 4K Medium score of 89 FPS. The 1080p Low score of 177 FPS is 41.6% higher than the 4K Low score of 125 FPS. The smaller percentage difference at Low settings reinforces that the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p Low, while the GPU dominates at 4K across all presets.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture, using the AD103 chip manufactured on TSMC’s 5 nm process. It has 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die, with a transistor density of 121.1 million per mm². The GPU features 10,240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. It also includes 80 ray tracing cores and 320 tensor cores, which are critical for Control’s real-time ray tracing effects. The base clock is 2,295 MHz with a boost clock of 2,550 MHz, and the memory operates at 1,438 MHz (23 Gbps effective). The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is paired with a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 736.3 GB/s.

In Control, the GPU’s role is to render the game’s distinctive brutalist architecture, dynamic lighting, and particle effects. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 816.0 GTexel/s texture rate are more than sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, even at Ultra settings. The 285.6 GPixel/s pixel rate ensures that the rasterization pipeline is not a bottleneck. However, the ray tracing cores are particularly important because Control was one of the first games to heavily use ray-traced reflections and indirect lighting. The 80 RT cores handle these calculations, and the 16 GB of VRAM allows for high-resolution textures and ray-traced geometry without exceeding memory capacity.

The GPU’s benchmark scores reflect its high-end positioning. The Passmark G3D score is 34,245, which places it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. The Geekbench OpenCL score is 219,065, and the Vulkan score is 260,075. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 6,600. These synthetic benchmarks show that the RTX 4080 SUPER is about 0.1% behind the RTX 4080 in average score (54,209 vs 54,247), which is within the margin of error. The Radeon Pro W5700X, RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, and Radeon 8060S all score higher in the database, but those are either workstation cards or have different driver optimizations that do not necessarily translate to Control.

The GPU’s memory subsystem is a key strength. The 736.3 GB/s bandwidth is massive, and the 16 GB capacity ensures that even at 4K Ultra, the game does not need to stream textures from system memory. This is evident in the 4K Medium minimum FPS of 76, which is still playable, and the 4K Ultra average of 69 FPS, which is smooth for a game with ray tracing. The boost clock of 2,550 MHz is also noteworthy, as it allows the GPU to maintain high frame rates during sustained loads. The 320-watt TDP and 700-watt suggested PSU are not relevant to performance analysis, but they do indicate the power envelope required to sustain these clocks.

The RTX 4080 SUPER’s ray tracing performance is the primary reason this combo achieves a rank of 443 out of 3,720. Without ray tracing, the 3700X might bottleneck more severely, but with RT enabled, the GPU’s RT cores take on a significant portion of the workload, reducing the CPU’s influence. The 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores work in tandem to accelerate the DXR API calls that Control uses. The 52.22 TFLOPS FP16 performance, which is equal to FP32, also helps with DLSS and other AI-based upscaling techniques, though the measured FPS data does not specify whether DLSS is enabled.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Control?*

A: The highest measured average is 177 FPS at 1920x1080 with Low settings. The next highest is 162 FPS at 2560x1440 Low, followed by 156 FPS at 1920x1080 Medium.

Q: How much faster is 1080p Ultra compared to 4K Ultra?

A: At 1920x1080 Ultra, the average FPS is 134, while at 3840x2160 Ultra, it is 69. That makes 1080p Ultra 94.2% faster, or roughly 1.94 times the frame rate of 4K Ultra.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance at 1080p Low?

A: The data suggests the CPU is the limiting factor at 1080p Low. The average FPS is 177, which is only 9.3% higher than the 1440p Low average of 162 FPS. This small gain indicates that the Ryzen 7 3700X’s single-thread performance is nearing its ceiling, preventing the RTX 4080 SUPER from reaching higher frame rates.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded for this combo?

A: The only minimum FPS values provided are for Medium settings. The lowest minimum is 76 FPS at 3840x2160 Medium. At 2560x1440 Medium, the minimum is 112 FPS, and at 1920x1080 Medium, it is 133 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER compare to the RTX 4080 in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4080 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 54,209, while the RTX 4080 scores 54,247. The RTX 4080 is 0.1% higher, which is a negligible difference. The RTX 4080 SUPER’s percentile versus all GPUs is 86.

*Q: What is the combo’s ranking among all tested CPU-GPU pairs in Control?*

A: This combo ranks 443rd out of 3,720 tested combinations. This places it in the top 11.9% of all combos, which is strong but not top-tier, likely due to the CPU’s older architecture limiting performance at lower resolutions.