Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 presents a challenging profile for Control (released 2019-08-26). The measured FPS data indicates a system that is fundamentally constrained by the GPU, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. With a combo rank of 1558 out of 1636 tested combinations, this pairing lands in the lower percentile for this specific title, suggesting that while the CPU has ample headroom, the graphics card struggles to translate that into playable frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data shows a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and performance, with the most balanced experience found at 1080p with Medium settings. At this configuration, the system produces an average of 42 FPS, which, while not ideal for fast-paced action, is the highest frame rate that retains a moderate level of graphical detail. Dropping to Low settings at 1080p yields a near-playable 59 FPS average, but sacrifices significant visual quality in a game known for its atmospheric environments.

For a more stable experience, the Low preset at 2560x1440 delivers 40.4 FPS, which is surprisingly close to the Medium 1080p result. This suggests the GPU is the bottleneck, as the resolution increase does not proportionally reduce performance when settings are lowered. At 4K, all presets yield unplayable results, with even Low settings only reaching 27.9 FPS. The data implies that users should avoid High or Ultra presets entirely, as they push the system below 38 FPS even at 1080p, making the game feel sluggish.

The optimal strategy per the measured rows is to prioritize frame rate over graphical effects. The Medium preset at 1080p appears to be the sweet spot, offering a frame rate that is 19.8% higher than High settings at the same resolution. For users with displays limited to 60Hz, the Low preset at 1080p is the only configuration that approaches the target refresh rate, though it requires accepting minimal texture and lighting details.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Control at 4K resolution?*

A: No. The measured data shows that even at Low settings, the average FPS at 3840x2160 is only 27.9. At Ultra settings, it drops to 14.3 FPS, making the game effectively unplayable at this resolution.

Q: What is the best settings preset for a 1080p monitor?

A: According to benchmark results, the Medium preset provides an average of 42 FPS, which is the most balanced option. The Low preset offers 59 FPS, but the High and Ultra presets yield 37.5 and 31.1 FPS respectively, indicating a steep performance cost for higher graphical fidelity.

Q: How does the system perform at 1440p compared to 1080p?

A: The data shows a significant drop. At Medium settings, the FPS falls from 42 at 1080p to 31.1 at 2560x1440, a decrease of 25.9%. At High settings, it falls from 37.5 to 25.7, a 31.5% reduction, suggesting the GPU is heavily taxed by the higher pixel count.

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

A: The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The Ryzen 7 5700X has 8 cores and 16 threads with a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, which is sufficient for modern titles. However, the RX 570's performance at 4K (18.2 FPS on High) versus 1080p (37.5 FPS on High) shows a clear scaling issue tied to the graphics card's rendering capabilities.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combination?

A: The highest recorded average is 59 FPS, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 1558 out of 1636 places this pairing in the bottom 5% of all tested combinations for Control. This is a stark indicator of the system's limitations in this specific title. The ranking suggests that the vast majority of other CPU-GPU pairings deliver better frame rates, which aligns with the measured FPS data showing sub-60 performance in almost all configurations.

This low rank is particularly interesting given the individual components' standings. The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X holds an 83rd percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 26214. It sits near rivals like the Intel Core i9-11900KF (avg score 26196, deltaPct 0.1) and the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X (avg score 26272, deltaPct -0.2), indicating strong processing power. Conversely, the AMD Radeon RX 570 has a 74th percentile ranking among GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 30158. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (deltaPct 0.2) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (deltaPct 0.2), showing it is not a top-tier graphics solution.

The disparity between the CPU's high percentile and the combo's low game rank confirms that the graphics card is severely holding back the system. The CPU's potential is wasted in Control, as the GPU cannot keep up with the rendering demands, resulting in a poor overall gaming experience compared to other tested configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The FPS data across resolutions and settings reveals a consistent pattern of GPU-bound performance. At 1920x1080, the system achieves an average of 59 FPS on Low, which drops to 42 on Medium, 37.5 on High, and 31.1 on Ultra. This represents a 47.3% performance penalty from Low to Ultra, showing how dramatically the graphics card is taxed by higher quality effects.

Moving to 2560x1440, the averages are 40.4 FPS (Low), 31.1 FPS (Medium), 25.7 FPS (High), and 26.7 FPS (Ultra). Notably, the Ultra preset at 1440p performs better than High, which is anomalous and suggests potential variance in the measured data or specific in-game scenes. At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor: 27.9 FPS (Low), 22.3 FPS (Medium), 18.2 FPS (High), and 14.3 FPS (Ultra).

The data shows that at 1080p, the Low preset is the only one that provides a smooth experience near 60 FPS. The step from Low to Medium is a 28.8% reduction in FPS, which is a significant sacrifice for what is typically a moderate visual upgrade. At 4K, even the Low preset fails to reach 30 FPS, making the game a slideshow. The average FPS figures indicate that users must make a stark choice between playability and visual fidelity, with no preset offering both at any resolution above 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The transition from 1080p to 4K demonstrates severe scaling issues for this combo. At Low settings, the FPS drops from 59 at 1080p to 40.4 at 1440p, a 31.5% reduction, and then to 27.9 at 4K, a 52.7% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This is a steep decline that suggests the RX 570's 4 GB of VRAM and 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth are insufficient for the increased pixel workload.

The scaling pattern points directly to the GPU as the limiting component. A CPU-bound scenario would show minimal FPS changes with resolution increases, but the data reveals a dramatic drop. For instance, at High settings, the FPS falls from 37.5 at 1080p to 18.2 at 4K, a 51.5% decrease. This indicates the graphics card's pixel fill rate and shader throughput are overwhelmed by the 4K pixel count.

The resolution scaling also highlights that the system is far from optimal for high-resolution gaming. The Ryzen 7 5700X's 32 MB of L3 cache and 16 threads have no bearing on this scaling, as the bottleneck is clearly the GPU's rendering capacity. Users with 1440p or 4K monitors will find this combo severely lacking, as the FPS drops to unplayable levels in most cases, reinforcing the notion that this pairing is best suited for 1080p gaming with lowered settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X brings substantial processing power to this pairing, with 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 3 (Vermeer) architecture. Its base clock of 3.40 GHz and boost clock of 4.60 GHz, combined with a 32 MB shared L3 cache, provide robust performance for gaming workloads. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 22620 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 3193 in single-core, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs.

However, in Control, the CPU's role appears to be secondary. The measured FPS data shows that the game is not leveraging the CPU's full potential, as the frame rates are consistently low regardless of settings. This is a classic sign of GPU bottlenecking, where the graphics card cannot keep up with the CPU's ability to feed it data. The CPU's 16 threads are more than sufficient for this game, which was released in 2019-08-26 and is not known for extreme multi-threading demands.

The CPU's nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i9-11900KF (deltaPct 0.1) and AMD Ryzen 5 7600X (deltaPct -0.2), have nearly identical average scores, indicating that the 5700X is competitively positioned in the CPU market. Yet, this makes the low combo rank even more telling. The data implies that upgrading the GPU would yield a far more significant performance improvement in Control than upgrading the CPU, as the current processor has ample headroom that is being wasted.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the clear bottleneck in this configuration. With 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, it is an older generation card based on the GCN 4.0 architecture (Polaris 20). Its base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz, along with 2048 shading units, deliver 5.095 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The GPU holds a 74th percentile ranking, with an average benchmark score of 30158.

In Control, the GPU's limitations are starkly evident. The measured FPS data shows that the card struggles to maintain playable frame rates even at 1080p with High settings (37.5 FPS). The 4 GB VRAM capacity is likely a contributing factor, as the game's textures and effects at higher presets may exceed this limit, causing performance drops. The nearest GPU rivals, such as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (deltaPct 0.2) and AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT (deltaPct 0.2), have similar average benchmark scores, but the RX 570's real-world gaming performance is clearly inferior.

The GPU's role as the limiting factor is confirmed by the resolution scaling analysis. As the resolution increases, the FPS drops dramatically, indicating that the card's fill rate and memory bandwidth are insufficient for higher pixel counts. The data suggests that to improve performance in Control, users would need to upgrade the GPU to a model with more VRAM and higher processing power, as the CPU is not the constraining element. The RX 570's performance at 4K (14.3 FPS on Ultra) is particularly telling, showing that it is firmly a 1080p-oriented card for this title.