Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 and Radeon RX 6600 XT combination delivers a playable but demanding 4K experience in Control, with performance scaling that clearly identifies the GPU as the primary bottleneck. At 4K Ultra, the system drops to 32.6 FPS, which is a 27.3% reduction from the 40.2 FPS seen at 4K High, indicating that the most demanding settings heavily tax the graphics card. The scaling pattern across resolutions confirms this: moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings reduces frame rates from 76.7 to 54.7 FPS, a substantial 28.7% drop, while the subsequent move from 1440p to 4K at High incurs a further 26.5% loss to 40.2 FPS. This consistent degradation as resolution increases points directly to the GPU’s rendering limits rather than any CPU constraint.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a clear and predictable FPS decline as resolution climbs, but the rate of decline is steeper than typical for a balanced system. At Low settings, the drop from 1080p to 1440p is 119.5 to 91.3 FPS, a 23.6% decrease, while the jump from 1440p to 4K Low results in 57.6 FPS, a massive 36.9% loss. This disproportionate collapse at 4K, even on Low settings, strongly suggests the RX 6600 XT’s 8 GB VRAM and 256.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are being overwhelmed by the pixel count. The gap between High and Ultra settings widens at higher resolutions: at 1080p the difference is 8.8 FPS (76.7 vs 67.9), but at 4K the difference becomes 7.6 FPS (40.2 vs 32.6). This indicates that the GPU is running out of headroom, and the extra visual fidelity from Ultra settings comes at a steep cost that cannot be offset by the CPU’s capabilities.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the database of tested combinations, this pairing holds a rank of 1181 out of 1636 combos, placing it in the lower-middle tier for Control. The data suggests that while this system is far from the weakest, it is not optimized for high-refresh-rate or high-resolution gaming in this title. The CPU’s percentile ranking of 84 against all CPUs indicates strong processing power, but the GPU’s percentile of 71 against all GPUs is notably lower, creating an imbalance that limits overall performance. The combo’s rank is a direct consequence of this mismatch: the processor can feed frames faster than the graphics card can render them, particularly at 1440p and above. This is a system that will consistently be held back by its graphics component, making it more suitable for 1080p high-refresh gaming than for 4K experiences.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 is a Zen 3 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, running at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. Its 16 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support provide ample bandwidth for feeding a mid-range GPU. In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20655 and a single-core score of 2916, with a Passmark multithread score of 24303. Compared to its nearest rivals, it edges out the Intel Core i9-9900K by 0.7% in average benchmark score, and it leads the Intel Core i7-12700H by 0.8%. This performance headroom means that in Control, the CPU is rarely the limiting factor. The game’s action-adventure genre typically relies on single-thread performance for physics and AI, and the Ryzen 7 5700’s 3dmark single-thread score of 901 and Cinebench R20 single-core score of 1224 are sufficient to maintain frame pacing even when the GPU is under heavy load. At 1080p Low, where the GPU is less stressed, the 119.5 FPS result demonstrates that the CPU can handle high frame rates without becoming a bottleneck, but the system still cannot break past the 120 FPS mark, suggesting some engine-level or driver-level limitation.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The benchmark data provides a comprehensive view of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 119.5 FPS on Low, 81.5 FPS on Medium, 76.7 FPS on High, and 67.9 FPS on Ultra. This indicates a smooth scaling curve at 1080p, with the jump from Low to Medium being the most significant performance hit at 31.8%. The 1440p results show a more pronounced drop: 91.3 FPS on Low, 65.4 FPS on Medium, 54.7 FPS on High, and 48.1 FPS on Ultra. The step from Low to Medium at 1440p is a 28.4% reduction, highlighting that medium settings are where the GPU begins to struggle. At 3840x2160, the figures fall to 57.6 FPS on Low, 40.7 FPS on Medium, 40.2 FPS on High, and 32.6 FPS on Ultra. The 4K Low result is the only one that approaches playability, and even it falls short of a smooth 60 FPS target. The difference between Medium and High at 4K is negligible (40.7 vs 40.2 FPS), which suggests that the High preset adds visual features that are not heavily GPU-intensive, or that the bottleneck is so severe that the settings have minimal impact.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture with a Navi 23 chip, featuring 2048 shading units and 32 ray accelerators. Its boost clock of 2589 MHz and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus provide a memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s. In synthetic tests, the GPU scores 16461 in Passmark G3D and 108608 in Geekbench Metal, with a 3dmark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1804. Its average benchmark score of 27985 places it 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M395X, but 0.9% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070. In Control, the GPU’s limitations are exposed by the 4K results. The 32.6 FPS at 4K Ultra is below playable thresholds, and even the 40.2 FPS at 4K High is marginal. The 10.60 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the 8 GB VRAM capacity becomes a constraint at 4K, where texture data exceeds the available memory, causing the card to rely on slower paging. The GPU’s pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s are respectable for its class, but they are not enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K with this game’s demanding visual effects.

FAQ

*Q: Can this system run Control at 4K smoothly?*

A: No. The best 4K result is 57.6 FPS on Low settings, which is close to 60 FPS but not stable. All other 4K presets fall below 41 FPS, with Ultra at 32.6 FPS, making 4K gaming impractical.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: 1920x1080 is the optimal choice. The system achieves 76.7 FPS on High and 67.9 FPS on Ultra, both of which are smooth and playable. At 1440p, High settings drop to 54.7 FPS, which is still playable but less comfortable.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest competitors?

A: The Ryzen 7 5700 has an average benchmark score of 27220, placing it 0.7% ahead of the Intel Core i9-9900K and 0.8% ahead of the Intel Core i7-12700H. It also leads the AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 by 1.2%.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is the clear bottleneck. The CPU’s percentile rank of 84 is significantly higher than the GPU’s rank of 71, and the FPS drops from 1080p to 4K are far too steep to be caused by processor limitations.

Q: What is the difference between High and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, High settings yield 54.7 FPS while Ultra yields 48.1 FPS, a difference of 6.6 FPS. This represents a 12.1% performance penalty for the Ultra preset’s additional visual effects.

Q: How does the GPU perform against the RTX 3070?

A: The RX 6600 XT’s average benchmark score of 27985 is 0.9% lower than the RTX 3070’s score of 28238. This means the RTX 3070 is slightly faster, but the difference is minimal in synthetic tests.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and frame rate, the High preset at 1920x1080 is the recommended configuration. This delivers 76.7 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, while still providing a high level of visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 1080p is also viable at 67.9 FPS, but the extra performance cost of 8.8 FPS may not justify the marginal visual improvements. At 1440p, users should stick to the Medium preset at 65.4 FPS, as the High preset drops to 54.7 FPS, which can feel less responsive in action sequences. The Low preset at 1440p (91.3 FPS) is only recommended for competitive play where frame rate is prioritized over visuals. For 4K gaming, the only option is Low settings at 57.6 FPS, but this is a borderline experience that sacrifices too much visual quality. The data suggests that users should either accept 1080p High as the primary setting or lower the resolution to maintain a stable frame rate, rather than pushing the system to its limits at higher resolutions where the GPU’s 8 GB VRAM becomes a limiting factor.