Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT delivers a solid 1080p experience in Control, but the data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution climbs. This combination sits in the 64th percentile of all tested combos for this title, with the CPU holding an 84th percentile rank among all processors and the GPU at 72nd among all graphics cards. The measured frames per second across three resolutions and four quality presets show a system that is clearly GPU-limited at higher settings, yet capable of smooth frame rates when tuned appropriately.

Settings Recommendations

At 1920x1080, the data shows that the Low preset delivers an average of 124.4 FPS, which is the highest measured result across the entire test matrix. This is a 31% improvement over the High preset’s 77 FPS and a 45% jump over Ultra’s 67.5 FPS. For competitive or high-refresh-rate displays, Low at 1080p is the only preset that clears the 120 FPS threshold.

However, the Medium preset at 1080p offers a more balanced trade-off, hitting 85.9 FPS — a 11.6% increase over High and a 27% increase over Ultra. Given that the jump from Medium to High only yields a 10.4% FPS drop (from 85.9 to 77), while the visual quality difference in a game like Control is often pronounced, Medium appears to be the sweet spot for most users. Ultra at 1080p drops to 67.5 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 21.4% penalty relative to Medium for what is typically a marginal visual gain in this title.

At 2560x1440, the pattern shifts. Low produces 91.9 FPS, but Medium falls to 68.7 FPS and High to 58.1 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium here is 25.2%, suggesting that the GPU’s memory bandwidth and compute resources are being taxed more heavily at this resolution. For 1440p gaming, Low is the only preset that consistently stays above 90 FPS, while Medium remains viable for 60 FPS targets. High and Ultra (53.2 FPS) are best reserved for slower-paced exploration rather than combat sequences.

At 3840x2160, the story is clear: only Low manages to break 60 FPS, averaging 61.3 FPS. Medium falls to 43.7 FPS, High to 40.3 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 37.2 FPS. The recommendation for 4K is strictly Low settings if playability is the priority, as the drop from Low to Medium represents a 28.7% performance hit that pushes the experience below the 60 FPS standard.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 7 5800X and RX 6650 XT achieves a rank of 1051 out of 1636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the lower-middle tier of the database. This ranking is somewhat surprising given the CPU’s strong synthetic benchmarks — the 5800X scores 23,571 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 3,327 in single-core — but the GPU’s more modest standing drags the overall result down. The RX 6650 XT’s average benchmark score of 29,024 places it just 0.4% above the RX 470 and 0.6% below the RX Vega M GH, indicating that its rasterization performance is closer to older mid-range parts than to modern high-end offerings.

The CPU’s nearest rivals show it is well-matched within its class: the Ryzen 7 5800 is just 0.3% behind, while the Ryzen 5 8500GE and Intel Core i7-13700H are 0.4% ahead. This means the 5800X is not the bottleneck in this pairing. The data indicates that the GPU’s 72nd percentile rank among all GPUs is the primary constraint, especially at higher resolutions where the 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus become limiting factors. In Control specifically, the combo’s 64th percentile ranking suggests that many other pairings — likely those with stronger GPUs — achieve far higher frame rates, particularly at 1440p and 4K.

GPU Role

The RX 6650 XT features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, yielding 280.3 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is adequate for 1080p and some 1440p scenarios, but the measured FPS data shows a clear correlation between resolution increases and performance degradation. The GPU’s boost clock of 2635 MHz and game clock of 2410 MHz are respectable for the RDNA 2 architecture, yet the 2048 shading units and 64 ROPs appear to be the limiting factor in Control’s particle-heavy combat and physics interactions.

Comparing the GPU’s synthetic benchmarks to its in-game performance, the PassMark G3D score of 17,166 suggests a capable mid-range card, but the DirectX 12 score of 62 is notably low, which may explain why Ultra settings at any resolution fail to reach 80 FPS. The GPU’s nearest rival, the RX 6800M, has an almost identical average score (29,011 vs. 29,024), yet in practice the 6650 XT’s lower memory bandwidth (280.3 vs. the 6800M’s unspecified higher figure) likely contributes to the steep FPS drops seen at 4K. The GPU’s 32 ray accelerators are present, but Control’s ray tracing features are not separately benchmarked here, so their impact remains unquantified.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1080p gaming with this combo?

A: Low delivers the highest average FPS at 124.4, but Medium at 85.9 FPS offers a better balance between visual fidelity and performance, providing a 27% improvement over Ultra’s 67.5 FPS.

Q: Can this system handle 4K at 60 FPS?

A: Only at Low settings, where the average FPS is 61.3. Medium drops to 43.7 FPS, High to 40.3 FPS, and Ultra to 37.2 FPS, all below the 60 FPS threshold.

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

A: The Ryzen 7 5800X is 0.3% faster than the Ryzen 7 5800 and 0.4% slower than both the Ryzen 5 8500GE and Intel Core i7-13700H, making it a well-balanced mid-range processor.

Q: Is the GPU the bottleneck in this pairing?

A: Yes, the GPU’s 72nd percentile rank versus the CPU’s 84th percentile, combined with the steep FPS drops as resolution increases, indicates the RX 6650 XT is the limiting component.

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

A: High averages 58.1 FPS while Ultra averages 53.2 FPS, a 9.2% difference that may not justify the extra visual settings.

Q: Does the combo’s rank change our recommendation?

A: At 1051 out of 1636, the rank is below average, reinforcing that this is a 1080p-focused system; for higher resolutions, a stronger GPU would be necessary.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data shows a dramatic FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K across all presets. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 124.4 at 1080p to 91.9 at 1440p (a 26.1% decrease) and then to 61.3 at 4K (a further 33.3% decrease). This progressive decline is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering load increases exponentially with pixel count.

At Medium settings, the drop is even steeper: 85.9 FPS at 1080p falls to 68.7 FPS at 1440p (a 20% decrease) and then to 43.7 FPS at 4K (a 36.4% decrease). The High preset follows a similar pattern, going from 77 FPS at 1080p to 58.1 FPS at 1440p (24.5% drop) and 40.3 FPS at 4K (30.6% drop). Ultra shows the most severe scaling, with 67.5 FPS at 1080p, 53.2 FPS at 1440p (21.2% drop), and 37.2 FPS at 4K (30.1% drop).

The consistent pattern across all presets — where the 1440p to 4K transition costs 30-36% performance while 1080p to 1440p costs 20-26% — points squarely at the GPU’s limitations. The CPU’s 32 MB L3 cache and 16 threads provide ample headroom, as evidenced by its strong Cinebench scores, but the RX 6650 XT’s 8 GB VRAM and 128-bit memory bus cannot sustain high throughput at 4K. The data suggests that this combo is optimized for 1080p gaming, with 1440p viable only at Low settings, and 4K reserved for those willing to accept sub-60 FPS averages.