Control

Control is a demanding action-adventure title that stresses both the GPU and CPU, and the data for the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 + AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT combination shows a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, with the processor’s 8-core/16-thread design proving more than adequate for the game’s physics-heavy combat. The measured FPS across the three resolutions and four settings presets reveals a clear pattern: the RX 9070 XT is the primary driver of performance, and frame rates scale predictably with resolution, while the Ryzen 7 5700’s strong multi-threaded scores ensure that frame pacing remains stable even in chaotic encounters. The benchmark data, drawn from a single measured configuration, indicates that this pairing is best suited for high-refresh 1440p gaming, though it can handle 4K with some settings compromises.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial and consistent across all settings presets, confirming that the RX 9070 XT is the limiting component in this system. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 122 FPS at 1920x1080 to 92 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of 30 FPS, and then further down to 62 FPS at 3840x2160. That represents a 49% decrease in performance from 1080p to 4K, which is a typical scaling curve for a GPU-heavy title like Control, where the visual effects and rendering load scale almost linearly with pixel count. The Low preset shows the same trend, with 193 FPS at 1080p dropping to 146 FPS at 1440p and then 98 FPS at 4K, a 49% drop as well, indicating that resolution, not settings, is the dominant factor.

The Medium preset, which includes min and max FPS data, provides additional insight into frame time consistency. At 1080p, the average is 137 FPS with a minimum of 116 FPS and a maximum of 157 FPS, giving a spread of 41 FPS. At 1440p, the average drops to 103 FPS, with the minimum at 88 FPS and maximum at 119 FPS, a spread of 31 FPS. At 4K, the average is 70 FPS, with the minimum at 59 FPS and maximum at 80 FPS, a spread of 21 FPS. The narrowing spread at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU is becoming more consistently saturated, reducing the impact of CPU-driven frame spikes. The Ultra preset follows the same pattern, with 106 FPS at 1080p, 80 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K, a 49% drop from 1080p to 4K, reinforcing that the RX 9070 XT’s rendering pipeline is the bottleneck.

The data shows that at 1080p, the system has headroom in the CPU, as the Ryzen 7 5700’s 16 threads can feed the GPU without becoming a constraint. However, at 4K, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as the FPS at all settings remains well below the 1440p figures, and the gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is only 44 FPS (98 vs 54), compared to 87 FPS at 1080p (193 vs 106). This indicates that while the GPU is powerful enough for 1440p high-refresh gaming, 4K requires careful settings management to maintain playable frame rates, especially with the Ultra preset dipping to 54 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay on many displays.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows offer a clear hierarchy of performance, and the recommendation depends on the target resolution and refresh rate. For 1080p gaming, the Ultra preset at 106 FPS is the best choice for those with a 144Hz monitor, as it provides a high average frame rate while maximizing visual fidelity. The High preset at 122 FPS offers an even higher refresh rate, but the jump from High to Ultra is only 16 FPS, making Ultra the better value for visual quality. The Medium preset at 137 FPS is unnecessary for most 1080p displays, as the extra 31 FPS over Ultra is unlikely to be noticeable on a 144Hz panel, and the visual compromise is significant.

For 1440p, the High preset at 92 FPS is the sweet spot, as it stays above the 90 FPS mark while delivering strong visuals. The Ultra preset at 80 FPS is still playable, but the drop to 80 FPS is noticeable in fast-paced combat, and the Medium preset at 103 FPS offers a smoother experience if frame rate is prioritized over visual effects. The data suggests that High at 1440p provides the best balance, as it is only 11 FPS below Medium but offers substantially better image quality. For those with a 144Hz 1440p monitor, the Low preset at 146 FPS is the only way to reach the full refresh rate, but the visual sacrifice is steep, and most players would prefer the High preset’s 92 FPS.

At 4K, the situation is more constrained. The Medium preset at 70 FPS is the recommended choice, as it stays above 60 FPS and provides a playable experience, with the min FPS of 59 FPS indicating only occasional dips below the threshold. The High preset at 62 FPS is also viable, but the average is close to the 60 FPS line, and the lack of min FPS data for High means there is no guarantee of consistent frame pacing. The Ultra preset at 54 FPS is not recommended for 4K, as the sub-60 FPS average will be noticeable in a game like Control, where slow-motion effects and particle-heavy scenes require smooth frame delivery. The Low preset at 98 FPS is overkill for most 4K displays, which are typically 60Hz, and the visual downgrade is not worth the frame rate headroom.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Control at 4K with smooth frame rates?

A: Yes, but only with settings adjustments. The Medium preset at 3840x2160 delivers an average of 70 FPS with a min of 59 FPS, while the High preset averages 62 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 54 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1440p 144Hz monitor?

A: The High preset at 2560x1440 averages 92 FPS, which is below 144Hz but smooth for most play. To reach higher frame rates, the Low preset at 146 FPS is the only option, but it requires significant visual compromises. The Medium preset at 103 FPS is a middle ground.

Q: How does the CPU affect performance in Control with this GPU?

A: The Ryzen 7 5700’s 8 cores and 16 threads provide ample headroom. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is consistent across all settings, indicating the GPU is the bottleneck. The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20655 and PassMark multi-thread score of 24303 suggest it can handle the game’s physics without limiting the RX 9070 XT.

Q: Is the RX 9070 XT’s 16 GB of VRAM sufficient for Control at 4K?

A: Yes, the 16 GB GDDR6 memory with 644.6 GB/s bandwidth is more than enough for Control’s textures and effects at 4K. The measured FPS at 4K Ultra is 54 FPS, which is GPU compute-limited, not memory-limited, indicating VRAM capacity is not a constraint.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: The Low preset averages 193 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 106 FPS, a difference of 87 FPS. This large gap shows that Control’s Ultra settings have a significant performance cost, and players should weigh visual fidelity against frame rate.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for Control?

A: The combination ranks 937 out of 3720 combos, placing it in the top 25% of tested systems. This ranking reflects the strong 1440p performance, though the 4K Ultra results are more modest.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a complete picture of performance. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 193 FPS, the Medium preset averages 137 FPS with a min of 116 FPS and max of 157 FPS, the High preset averages 122 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 106 FPS. The 1080p results show a clear performance hierarchy, with Low being 57 FPS faster than Medium, and Medium being 15 FPS faster than High, and High being 16 FPS faster than Ultra. The min FPS data for Medium at 116 FPS indicates that even the lowest frame rates are well above the 60 FPS threshold, making 1080p gaming a smooth experience across all presets.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 146 FPS, the Medium preset averages 103 FPS with a min of 88 FPS and max of 119 FPS, the High preset averages 92 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 80 FPS. The 1440p data shows a 66 FPS spread between Low and Ultra, which is narrower than the 87 FPS spread at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a constraint. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 88 FPS ensures that frame drops are rare, but the Ultra preset’s 80 FPS average is still playable on most 1440p monitors. The High preset at 92 FPS is the most balanced option, offering a good compromise between visual quality and frame rate.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 98 FPS, the Medium preset averages 70 FPS with a min of 59 FPS and max of 80 FPS, the High preset averages 62 FPS, and the Ultra preset averages 54 FPS. The 4K results show a compressed range, with only a 44 FPS difference between Low and Ultra. The Medium preset’s min FPS of 59 FPS is just below the 60 FPS target, indicating that occasional dips will occur, but the average of 70 FPS keeps the experience mostly smooth. The High and Ultra presets at 62 FPS and 54 FPS respectively are borderline for 4K, and players seeking consistent 60 FPS should stick with Medium. The Low preset at 98 FPS is overkill for 4K displays, which typically cap at 60Hz, but it demonstrates the GPU’s raw headroom.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is the dominant component in this system, and its specifications directly explain the measured FPS. The GPU is built on the Navi 48 chip with RDNA 4.0 architecture, featuring 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs. The boost clock of 2970 MHz and game clock of 2400 MHz drive the pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s, which are critical for Control’s heavy use of post-processing effects and particle systems. The FP32 performance of 48.66 TFLOPS provides the compute power needed for the game’s physics-based combat, where debris and environmental destruction are common.

The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than sufficient for Control’s texture streaming at 4K. The memory clock of 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective) ensures that the GPU never stalls on data transfer, as evidenced by the smooth FPS scaling across resolutions. The GPU’s 64 RT cores support hardware ray tracing, though Control’s implementation is not heavily dependent on RT, and the measured FPS suggests the rasterization performance is the primary factor. The GPU’s PCIe 5.0 x16 interface provides ample bandwidth for the system, and the dual-slot design with 2x 8-pin power connectors indicates a high-power card, with a suggested PSU of 700 W and TDP of 304 W.

The benchmark results for the RX 9070 XT show a 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 7260 and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 65879, which are strong indicators of its gaming performance. However, the GPU’s percentile rank among all GPUs is 55, and its average benchmark score of 13543 places it near the AMD Radeon HD 7770M and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 in the nearest rivals list, though those comparisons are based on synthetic averages, not game-specific performance. The PassMark G3D score of 26795 and G2D score of 1328 further quantify its capabilities. In Control specifically, the GPU’s performance is clearly the limiting factor at 4K, as the FPS at all settings is well below the 1080p figures, and the scaling from 1440p to 4K is consistent with a GPU-bound workload.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 provides the processing foundation for this system, and its specifications ensure that it does not bottleneck the RX 9070 XT in Control. The CPU features 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture (Cezanne codename), with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz. The 7 nm process node from TSMC, with 10,700 million transistors on a 180 mm² die, delivers efficient performance within a 65 W TDP. The 16 MB of L3 cache and 512 KB per-core L2 cache provide fast access to frequently used data, which is important for Control’s real-time physics calculations.

The CPU’s benchmark scores demonstrate its multi-threaded strength. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 20655 and single-core score of 2916 show that the CPU can handle both heavily threaded workloads and single-threaded tasks. The Geekbench multi-core score of 9959 and single-core score of 1907 further confirm this balance. The PassMark multi-thread score of 24303 and single-thread score of 3296 indicate robust performance across a range of workloads. The 3DMark scores, including 6628 for 16 threads and 901 for single thread, show that the CPU scales well with additional threads, which is beneficial for Control’s physics engine.

In Control, the CPU’s role is to maintain frame pacing and handle the game’s AI and physics calculations. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p, the CPU has enough headroom to push frame rates above 190 FPS on Low settings, indicating that the GPU is the only bottleneck. The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s over dual-channel DDR4 is adequate for the game’s needs, and the 16 threads ensure that background tasks do not interfere with gaming performance. The CPU’s percentile rank of 78 among all CPUs and its average benchmark score of 25517 place it near the Intel Xeon D-2752TER and AMD Ryzen 5 7640U, but in gaming, the 8-core design is more than sufficient. The Ryzen 7 5700’s 65 W TDP also means it runs cool under load, allowing the system to sustain high boost clocks during extended gaming sessions, which is evident in the consistent FPS across the measured settings.