Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER pairing in Control presents a clear case study in how resolution dictates the balance of workload between CPU and GPU. The measured frames per second (FPS) data reveals a system that is highly capable at 1080p, but which progressively cedes ground to the graphical demands of higher resolutions. This analysis breaks down the specific numbers to show exactly where the bottlenecks lie.

Resolution Scaling — how FPS drops from 1080p to 4K and what it says about the limiting component

The most telling metric is the performance drop as resolution increases. At the High preset, the system delivers 75.6 FPS at 1920x1080. Moving to 2560x1440, that figure falls to 55.5 FPS, a decline of roughly 27%. The jump to 3840x2160 yields just 37.6 FPS, which is approximately 50% lower than the 1080p result. This pattern is consistent across all presets, but the magnitude of the drop is what signals the limiting factor.

Consider the Ultra preset: 63.8 FPS at 1080p drops to 49.1 FPS at 1440p and then to 33.9 FPS at 4K. The scaling from 1440p to 4K is a 31% reduction, while the 1080p to 1440p step is a 23% reduction. This non-linear falloff is a classic indicator of a GPU-bound scenario. If the CPU were the primary constraint, the FPS would remain relatively flat as resolution increases, since the CPU's workload (draw calls, physics) stays the same while the GPU does more pixel work. Instead, the data shows that every additional pixel costs significant frame rate, pointing directly at the RTX 2060 SUPER as the component being pushed to its limits.

The Low preset further confirms this. At 1080p, the system hits 115.9 FPS, a figure that suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately. However, at 4K Low, the FPS drops to 63.1, a 45% reduction. Even with drastically reduced graphical fidelity, the 4K resolution still crushes performance. This indicates that the GPU's raw fill rate and memory bandwidth are the decisive factors at high resolutions, regardless of how light the rendering load is. The CPU, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, has ample headroom to handle the game's logic; it is the GPU that is saturated.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average FPS achievable with this combo at 1080p?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 115.9, achieved at 1920x1080 with the Low settings preset.

Q: How does the 1440p High preset compare to the 4K High preset in terms of average FPS?

A: The average FPS at 2560x1440 High is 55.5, while at 3840x2160 High it is 37.6, representing a 32% drop in performance.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 5700X3D or the RTX 2060 SUPER more likely to be the performance bottleneck at 4K?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU is the limiting factor. The FPS drops by roughly 50% from 1080p to 4K on the High preset, a pattern that signifies the GPU is struggling with the increased pixel workload, not the CPU.

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

A: The lowest average FPS is 33.9, which occurs at 3840x2160 resolution with the Ultra settings preset.

Q: Does this CPU-GPU combo achieve a playable frame rate at 4K with any settings?

A: Yes, at 4K with Low settings, the system achieves an average of 63.1 FPS. However, at 4K Medium, it drops to 41.0 FPS, and at 4K High and Ultra, it falls to 37.6 and 33.9 FPS, respectively.

Q: How does the FPS at 1440p Low compare to the FPS at 1080p Medium?

A: The system achieves a higher frame rate at 1440p Low (89.2 FPS) than at 1080p Medium (85.5 FPS), showing that lowering settings has a more substantial impact on performance than reducing resolution.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data suggests that the optimal balance of visual quality and performance is found at the High preset for 1080p and 1440p gaming. At 1920x1080, the High preset delivers 75.6 FPS, which is a smooth experience. The Medium preset offers a modest 13% increase to 85.5 FPS, but the visual jump from Medium to High is often more noticeable than the frame rate gain. The Ultra preset at 1080p yields 63.8 FPS, a 16% drop from High, which may not be worth the additional graphical strain for a marginal visual improvement.

For 2560x1440, the High preset is the clear sweet spot, producing 55.5 FPS. This is a solid target for a high-resolution experience. Dropping to Medium yields 65.1 FPS, a 17% improvement, which could be the better choice for players who prioritize frame rate consistency over maximum detail. The Ultra preset at 1440p (49.1 FPS) and the Low preset (89.2 FPS) represent opposite ends of the spectrum: the former risks dipping below 60 FPS, while the latter sacrifices too much visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the data paints a different picture. The High preset (37.6 FPS) and Ultra preset (33.9 FPS) are not suitable for smooth gameplay. The Medium preset (41.0 FPS) is also below 60 FPS. The only viable option for 4K is the Low preset, which achieves 63.1 FPS. This suggests that 4K gaming with this hardware requires significant compromises, and the experience is best suited for slower-paced scenes or players who can tolerate frame rates below 60 FPS for higher visual fidelity.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand database of tested hardware combinations for Control, this pairing of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER sits at rank 1189 out of 1636 total combos. This places it in the lower third of all tested systems, indicating that while it is far from the weakest, it is not a top-tier performer for this specific game. The rank of 1189 suggests that a significant number of other CPU-GPU pairings achieve higher average FPS.

This ranking is a direct consequence of the GPU's position in the overall hierarchy. The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 19774, which places it in the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals, according to the data, are the NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN (with a deltaPct of 0.3% and an average score of 19706) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (with a deltaPct of 0.5% and an average score of 19680). The RTX 2060 SUPER is essentially tied with these cards, sitting just 0.5% ahead of the RTX 2070. The CPU, on the other hand, is a much stronger performer, ranking in the 82nd percentile of all CPUs with an average score of 24673, putting it just 0.2% behind the Intel Core i7-1360P. The combo's rank in Control is therefore dragged down by the GPU's mid-range status, not the CPU's capability.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D is a powerful processor that provides a robust foundation for gaming. It features 8 cores and 16 threads, built on the Zen 3 architecture (codenamed Vermeer) using a 7 nm process. Its base clock is 3.00 GHz, and it boosts up to 4.10 GHz. The processor's key feature is its large 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is designed to improve gaming performance by reducing memory latency.

In the context of Control, the CPU's role appears to be mostly supportive. The FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 115.9 FPS, which is a high enough frame rate to suggest the CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions. Its single-threaded performance, as measured by a Cinebench R23 score of 3157, is adequate for the game's core logic. The multi-threaded score of 22366 in Cinebench R23 and the 3DMark max-threads score of 6755 indicate that the CPU has plenty of headroom for background tasks and any multi-threaded game systems. The data strongly implies that the CPU is not the limiting factor in Control; it is the GPU that determines the final FPS, especially at 1440p and 4K.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete dataset for this combo is as follows:

• 1920x1080: Low 115.9 FPS, Medium 85.5 FPS, High 75.6 FPS, Ultra 63.8 FPS.
• 2560x1440: Low 89.2 FPS, Medium 65.1 FPS, High 55.5 FPS, Ultra 49.1 FPS.
• 3840x2160: Low 63.1 FPS, Medium 41.0 FPS, High 37.6 FPS, Ultra 33.9 FPS.

The pattern across all resolutions is consistent: the gap between Low and Medium is significant (e.g., 30 FPS at 1080p), while the gap between High and Ultra is much smaller (e.g., 11.8 FPS at 1080p). This suggests that the Ultra preset offers diminishing returns for its performance cost. The data also shows that the impact of resolution scaling is more pronounced at higher settings. For example, the difference between 1080p and 4K at Low is 52.8 FPS, while at Ultra it is 29.9 FPS, which further confirms that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at high resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture (chip TU106) using a 12 nm process. It has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. The GPU's base clock is 1470 MHz, with a boost clock of 1650 MHz. It features 2176 shading units, 136 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, along with 34 RT cores and 272 tensor cores for ray tracing and AI workloads.

In Control, the GPU's role is dominant. The data shows that the GPU is the key factor limiting FPS at higher resolutions. Its 8 GB of VRAM is sufficient for the game, as the data does not show any anomalies that would suggest memory capacity issues. The GPU's raw compute power, measured at 7.181 TFLOPS for FP32, is the primary determinant of the frame rates seen in the results. The GPU's performance percentile of 63% and average benchmark score of 19774 place it as a solid mid-range card, and the measured FPS in Control aligns perfectly with that positioning. The GPU is the component that prevents this combo from achieving higher ranks, as the CPU is clearly capable of supporting more frames than the GPU can render at 1440p and 4K.