Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti combination delivers a playable but strictly 1080p-oriented experience in Control. The data shows a clear ceiling imposed by the graphics card, with the CPU’s eight Zen 3 cores providing ample headroom. This pairing sits in the lower-mid range of tested hardware, ranking 1407th out of 1636 combos, which places it in the 14th percentile of all tested systems. The following analysis breaks down how this configuration behaves across resolutions and settings, using only the measured frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and consistent, confirming that the GTX 1660 Ti is the primary bottleneck. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 61 FPS at 1920x1080 to 44.7 FPS at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 27%. Moving to 3840x2160, the average collapses further to 30.4 FPS, which is exactly half of the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is typical of a GPU that is maxed out at lower resolutions and simply cannot feed enough pixels at higher ones.

The Low preset tells a more revealing story about the CPU’s role. At 1920x1080 Low, the system produces 94.3 FPS, and at 2560x1440 Low it still manages 70.3 FPS. The jump to 3840x2160 Low drops the average to 47.8 FPS. The gap between 1440p and 4K at Low settings (22.5 FPS) is smaller than the gap between 1080p and 1440p (24 FPS), which suggests that even with reduced graphical load, the GPU’s memory bandwidth and pixel throughput become limiting factors at 4K. The Ryzen 7 5700X, with its 16 threads and 32 MB of L3 cache, is not the constraint here; the frame rate curves follow GPU load almost entirely.

Comparing Ultra to Low at each resolution shows the total performance envelope. At 1080p, Ultra delivers 51.2 FPS versus 94.3 FPS on Low, a 43.1 FPS spread. At 1440p, that spread narrows to 34.9 FPS (35.4 Ultra vs 70.3 Low). At 4K, the spread is just 19.5 FPS (28.3 Ultra vs 47.8 Low). This compression of the settings gap at higher resolutions is a textbook sign of a GPU-bound scenario — when the render target is enormous, lowering settings cannot fully compensate for the lack of raw fill rate.

GPU Role

The GTX 1660 Ti’s specifications explain its behavior in Control. It carries 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, yielding 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The base clock is 1500 MHz with a boost of 1770 MHz, and the card has 1536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. These figures place it as a 1080p-class card, and the measured frame rates align with that positioning.

At 1080p Medium, the combo hits 64.9 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. High settings at 1080p drop to 61 FPS, still playable. The card’s 12 nm Turing architecture, with a 120 W TDP and 300 W suggested PSU, is efficient but not powerful enough for higher resolutions. The 4K results — 30.4 FPS High, 31.9 FPS Medium, 28.3 FPS Ultra — are all below the 30 FPS console-like standard, and even Low at 4K (47.8 FPS) feels marginal due to pacing.

The VRAM capacity of 6 GB is sufficient for Control at 1080p and 1440p, as evidenced by the playable frame rates, but it is not future-proof. The pixel rate of 84.96 GPixel/s and texture rate of 169.9 GTexel/s are the hard limits at 4K. The data shows that dropping from High to Medium at 1440p only yields a 7.1 FPS improvement (44.7 to 51.8), while dropping from High to Low at 1440p yields a 25.6 FPS improvement (44.7 to 70.3). This suggests that the most demanding settings — likely shadows and reflections — tax the card disproportionately, while the Low preset removes that load entirely.

Settings Recommendations

For a 1080p display, the measured data points to Medium as the best balance. It delivers 64.9 FPS, which is 3.9 FPS higher than High and only 1.5 FPS lower than the jump to Low would suggest you need. Ultra at 1080p drops to 51.2 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target and not worth the graphical gain. If you have a 144 Hz monitor, Low at 1080p (94.3 FPS) is the only preset that gets close to high refresh rates, but the visual compromise is significant.

At 1440p, the choices are more constrained. High settings produce 44.7 FPS, Medium produces 51.8 FPS, and Low produces 70.3 FPS. The recommendation here is Low, as it is the only preset that maintains a consistent 60+ FPS experience. Medium at 1440p is borderline playable at 51.8 FPS, but the frame pacing in an action game like Control will suffer. High at 1440p (44.7 FPS) is not recommended for combat scenarios.

At 4K, the data shows that no preset is truly playable. Ultra (28.3 FPS), High (30.4 FPS), and Medium (31.9 FPS) are all below 32 FPS, and even Low (47.8 FPS) will feel stuttery in fast-paced encounters. The recommendation is to avoid 4K entirely with this combo unless you accept a compromised experience. If forced, Low is the only option that stays above 45 FPS, but the visual fidelity loss is severe.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 1407th out of 1636 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 14% of all systems. This is a low position, but the context matters: Control is a demanding game, and the GTX 1660 Ti is a mid-range card from 2019. The CPU’s individual percentile is strong — the Ryzen 7 5700X sits in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs — but the GPU’s percentile is much weaker at 55th. This imbalance confirms that the GPU is the limiting factor in this pairing.

Looking at the GPU’s nearest rivals, the GTX 1660 Ti’s average benchmark score of 13925 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon RX 570X (13871, 0.4% slower) and the NVIDIA Tesla K10 (14029, 0.7% faster). The RTX A2000 Mobile (13821, 0.8% slower) and GTX 680 (13812, 0.8% slower) are also within a single percentage point. In practical terms, this means the card performs exactly as expected for its class — no surprises, but no headroom either.

The CPU’s rivals tell a similar story of consistency. The Ryzen 7 5700X’s average benchmark score of 26214 is within 0.2% of the Intel Core i9-11900KF (26196), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850U (26262), AMD Ryzen 5 5500GT (26161), and AMD Ryzen 5 7600X (26272). This indicates that the CPU is not a differentiator in Control; any of these chips would produce nearly identical frame rates when paired with the GTX 1660 Ti. The bottleneck is purely graphical.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Control at 60 FPS?*

A: Yes, but only at 1080p with Medium or High settings (64.9 FPS and 61 FPS respectively). At 1440p, only Low settings reach 70.3 FPS, which is above 60, but Medium drops to 51.8 FPS.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700X holding back the GTX 1660 Ti?

A: No. The CPU ranks in the 83rd percentile of all processors, and its benchmark scores are nearly identical to rivals like the Ryzen 5 7600X (0.2% difference). The frame rate curves are entirely GPU-bound.

Q: What is the best preset for 1440p?

A: Low is the only preset that maintains a playable frame rate, delivering 70.3 FPS. Medium (51.8 FPS) and High (44.7 FPS) are below the 60 FPS threshold and will cause noticeable stutter in action sequences.

Q: How does this combo compare to similar systems?

A: It ranks 1407th out of 1636 combos, placing it in the bottom 14%. The GPU’s performance is within 1% of the RX 570X, GTX 680, and RTX A2000 Mobile, so expect identical behavior from those cards.

Q: Is 4K playable with any settings?

A: No. The highest average at 4K is 47.8 FPS on Low, but that is an outlier. Medium (31.9 FPS), High (30.4 FPS), and Ultra (28.3 FPS) are all below the 30 FPS standard for playability.

Q: Does the 6 GB VRAM cause issues?

A: Not at 1080p or 1440p, where the card delivers its best results. At 4K, the 288.0 GB/s bandwidth and 84.96 GPixel/s pixel rate are the limiting factors, not capacity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 94.3 FPS
• Medium: 64.9 FPS
• High: 61 FPS
• Ultra: 51.2 FPS

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 70.3 FPS
• Medium: 51.8 FPS
• High: 44.7 FPS
• Ultra: 35.4 FPS

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 47.8 FPS
• Medium: 31.9 FPS
• High: 30.4 FPS
• Ultra: 28.3 FPS

The pattern is unambiguous: this system is built for 1080p gaming. At 1080p, the delta between Low and Ultra is 43.1 FPS, giving you a wide range of choices depending on your preference for visuals versus smoothness. At 1440p, the delta narrows to 34.9 FPS, and at 4K it compresses to 19.5 FPS. The GTX 1660 Ti simply does not have the ROP throughput or memory bandwidth to scale beyond 1440p, and even at 1440p, you are limited to Low settings for a locked 60+ FPS experience. The Ryzen 7 5700X provides a solid foundation for this GPU, but upgrading the graphics card would yield a far larger performance gain than any CPU change.