Control

# Control with AMD Ryzen 7 5800X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D delivers a compelling Control experience across all resolution tiers, with the data showing a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling at higher resolutions and CPU headroom emerging at 1080p. This combo ranks 48th out of 2,888 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the top 1.7% of all tested systems, a strong showing for a CPU released in late 2020 paired with NVIDIA's latest Blackwell-generation flagship GPU. The measured FPS data reveals how this pairing behaves across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions with four settings presets, providing a complete picture of what players can expect from this hardware configuration.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is substantial across all settings presets, indicating a GPU-bound scenario at higher resolutions. At Ultra settings, the average FPS falls from 163 at 1080p to 124 at 1440p — a 24% reduction — and then further to 83 at 4K, representing a 49% drop from the 1080p baseline. This scaling pattern is typical for a game like Control, where the RTX 5090 D's massive 32 GB GDDR7 frame buffer and 512-bit memory bus become increasingly relevant as pixel count rises, but the raw shading throughput still becomes the limiting factor at 4K.

At Low settings, the resolution scaling is even more pronounced in absolute terms. The average FPS goes from 231 at 1080p to 210 at 1440p (a 9% drop) and then to 152 at 4K (a 34% drop from 1080p). Interestingly, the percentage drop from 1440p to 4K at Low settings is 28%, which is steeper than the Ultra settings' 33% drop over the same range. This suggests that at Low settings, the game is pushing higher raw frame rates where the CPU becomes more involved, but the GPU still dominates the scaling curve.

Medium settings show the most consistent scaling pattern. The average FPS at 1080p is 203, dropping to 160 at 1440p (a 21% reduction) and then to 108 at 4K (a 47% drop from 1080p). The minimum FPS at Medium settings also scales predictably: 173 at 1080p, 136 at 1440p, and 92 at 4K, with maximum FPS of 233, 184, and 124 respectively. These numbers indicate that the RTX 5090 D maintains a stable frame delivery curve even as resolution increases, with the gap between minimum and maximum FPS narrowing at 4K due to the increased GPU workload.

High settings present a similar story, with average FPS of 188 at 1080p, 142 at 1440p, and 96 at 4K. The 1080p to 4K drop of 49% at High settings mirrors the Ultra preset almost exactly, suggesting that the GPU is the primary scaling bottleneck regardless of quality level. The fact that the 5800X, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, can keep pace with the RTX 5090 D at 1080p High (188 FPS) without becoming the limiting factor is notable, as many older CPUs would struggle to feed this GPU at such high frame rates.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, packing 92,200 million transistors across a 750 mm² die. This GPU operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz with a boost clock of 2407 MHz, and its 32 GB of GDDR7 memory runs at 1750 MHz with an effective 28 Gbps transfer rate across a 512-bit bus, yielding a massive 1.79 TB/s of memory bandwidth. These specifications directly influence Control's performance, particularly at 4K where the game's texture streaming and physics calculations benefit from the high bandwidth and large frame buffer.

The GPU has 21,760 shading units, 680 TMUs, and 176 ROPs, along with 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores. In a game like Control, which is known for its physics-heavy environments and destructible objects, the raw compute throughput of 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 becomes evident in the high minimum FPS figures at 4K Medium (92 FPS) and the ability to maintain playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra (83 FPS average). The pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s help explain why the GPU can push 4K Ultra at 83 FPS without dipping into single-digit frame times.

Comparing to its nearest rivals in the benchmark database, the RTX 5090 D's average benchmark score of 77,712 places it 1.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904) and 1.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). The GPU sits in the 92nd percentile among all GPUs, confirming its high-end positioning. However, the measured FPS data in Control shows that this GPU is not fully utilized at lower resolutions — at 1080p Low, the 231 FPS average suggests the frame rate is being capped by the CPU or game engine rather than the GPU's raw capabilities, given that the GPU could theoretically push higher frame rates with its 104.8 TFLOPS of compute power.

The GPU's memory configuration is particularly relevant for Control at 4K. With 32 GB of GDDR7 memory, the RTX 5090 D has more than enough capacity to hold the game's highest-resolution textures, and the 1.79 TB/s bandwidth prevents any memory bandwidth bottlenecks even at 4K Ultra settings. The GPU also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which enables advanced features that Control can leverage, though the measured FPS data suggests that even without explicit ray tracing enabled (not specified in the data), the game runs smoothly across all settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is a Zen 3 (Vermeer) architecture processor built on TSMC's 7 nm process, featuring 8 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.70 GHz. The CPU has 64 KB of L1 cache per core, 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and a 32 MB L3 cache, with dual-channel DDR4 memory support providing 51.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. These specifications are critical for understanding how this CPU interacts with the RTX 5090 D in Control, a game that relies on both single-threaded performance for game logic and multi-threaded performance for physics simulations.

The 5800X's benchmark results show a balanced profile. In Cinebench R23, it scores 15,476 in multi-core and 1,574.5 in single-core, while Geekbench shows 11,036 multi-core and 2,032 single-core. PassMark multi-thread scores of 27,732 and single-thread scores of 3,445 further confirm the CPU's capability. The 3DMark tests reveal scaling from 943 single-thread to 7,586 at 16 threads, indicating good multi-threading efficiency that helps in Control's physics-heavy environments. The CPU sits in the 81st percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29,123.

The CPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database include the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H with an average score of 29,093 (0.1% behind), the Intel Xeon Phi 7210 at 29,245 (0.4% ahead), the Intel Core i5-13500HX at 29,270 (0.5% ahead), and the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT at 28,940 (0.6% behind). These tight margins indicate that the 5800X's overall compute performance is competitive with modern mobile and desktop parts, though it lacks the core count of newer 12-core or 16-core CPUs.

In the context of Control's measured FPS, the CPU's role becomes apparent when comparing frame rates across resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 231 FPS average is likely near the CPU's practical limit for this game, as the GPU could theoretically push higher frame rates. The 8-core, 16-thread configuration with a 4.7 GHz boost clock provides sufficient single-thread performance for Control's game logic, while the multi-threaded capabilities handle the physics simulations that are a hallmark of the game. The 32 MB L3 cache helps with data locality, reducing memory latency that could otherwise bottleneck frame delivery at high frame rates.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s from dual-channel DDR4 is a potential limiting factor at very high frame rates, but the data shows that even at 1080p Low (231 FPS), the system maintains playable frame rates without significant drops. The 5800X's PCIe Gen 4 support with 20 lanes provides adequate bandwidth for the RTX 5090 D's PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, though the GPU's full bandwidth potential may not be fully utilized with a Gen 4 CPU — a factor that becomes more relevant at 4K where texture data transfer rates are higher.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1080p, the RTX 5090 D with the 5800X delivers exceptional frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 231 FPS, Medium settings average 203 FPS with a minimum of 173 and maximum of 233, High settings average 188 FPS, and Ultra settings average 163 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p is 68 FPS, representing a 29% performance hit for the highest quality preset. This data suggests that players with 144 Hz or even 240 Hz monitors can fully utilize their display's refresh rate at 1080p, even at Ultra settings.

At 1440p, the frame rates remain very high but show the expected scaling. Low settings average 210 FPS, Medium settings average 160 FPS with a minimum of 136 and maximum of 184, High settings average 142 FPS, and Ultra settings average 124 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is notably smaller at Low settings (9% reduction) compared to Ultra settings (24% reduction), confirming that the GPU is more heavily taxed at higher quality presets. The 1440p Ultra average of 124 FPS is still sufficient for high-refresh-rate gaming on most monitors.

At 4K, the RTX 5090 D shows its strength but also reveals the limits of this pairing. Low settings average 152 FPS, Medium settings average 108 FPS with a minimum of 92 and maximum of 124, High settings average 96 FPS, and Ultra settings average 83 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 83 FPS is playable but not ideal for 120 Hz displays, while 4K High at 96 FPS offers a better balance for players seeking higher refresh rates. The Medium settings at 4K provide a minimum of 92 FPS, which ensures smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes.

The complete FPS table shows a consistent pattern: each settings tier at a given resolution delivers roughly 15-25 FPS more than the next higher tier. For example, at 4K, the progression from Ultra (83 FPS) to High (96 FPS) to Medium (108 FPS) to Low (152 FPS) shows incremental gains, with the largest jump occurring between Medium and Low (44 FPS). This suggests that Low settings remove significant GPU workload, likely disabling certain post-processing or shadow effects that are computationally expensive on the RTX 5090 D.

How This Combo Ranks

In Control, this combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 D ranks 48th out of 2,888 tested combos, placing it in the top 1.7% of all systems tested for this game. This ranking is notable given the CPU's age relative to the GPU's recent release — the 5800X launched in November 2020 with a launch MSRP of $449, while the RTX 5090 D launched in January 2025. The high ranking suggests that Control is not extremely CPU-sensitive at the resolutions tested, allowing the older CPU to keep pace with newer processors when paired with a high-end GPU.

The combo's ranking reflects the GPU's dominance in this pairing. The RTX 5090 D's 92nd percentile among all GPUs contrasts with the 5800X's 81st percentile among all CPUs, indicating that the GPU is the primary driver of performance in Control. The GPU's nearest rivals in the benchmark database — the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT and RX 6850M XT — are both mobile parts, yet the RTX 5090 D only leads the former by 1.1% in average benchmark scores, suggesting that the desktop GPU's advantage is not as large as its specifications might imply.

The 48th rank out of 2,888 combos means there are 47 other configurations that achieve higher frame rates in Control, likely involving newer CPUs with higher single-thread performance or more cores. However, the 5800X's 16 threads and 4.7 GHz boost clock provide enough performance to avoid being a significant bottleneck, as evidenced by the 1080p Low result of 231 FPS — a frame rate that few games can exceed regardless of hardware. This ranking demonstrates that the 5800X remains a viable pairing for top-tier GPUs in games that are not heavily CPU-bound.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware in Control?

A: For the highest frame rates, 1080p Low delivers 231 FPS average, while 1080p Ultra still provides 163 FPS. At 4K, the best balance of visual quality and performance is High settings at 96 FPS average, with Ultra at 83 FPS being playable but less smooth.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p Low, the 231 FPS average suggests the CPU or game engine is the limiting factor, as the RTX 5090 D's 104.8 TFLOPS compute power could theoretically push higher frame rates. At 1080p Ultra (163 FPS), the GPU becomes more involved, but the 5800X's 8 cores and 16 threads are sufficient to maintain high frame rates.

Q: How much performance do you lose going from 1080p to 4K?

A: The performance drop varies by settings. At Ultra settings, 1080p to 4K results in a 49% reduction (163 to 83 FPS). At Low settings, the drop is 34% (231 to 152 FPS). Medium settings show a 47% reduction (203 to 108 FPS).

Q: Can this system achieve 144 FPS at 1440p?

A: Yes, at Low settings (210 FPS) and Medium settings (160 FPS) at 1440p, the system exceeds 144 FPS. However, at High settings (142 FPS) and Ultra settings (124 FPS), it falls short of the 144 FPS threshold.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 D compare to its closest rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 5090 D has an average benchmark score of 77,712, which is 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6650M XT (76,904) and 1.6% lower than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). It also trails the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396) by 2.1% and the 16 GB version (79,605) by 2.4%.

Q: What is the minimum FPS at 4K Medium settings, and is it smooth?

A: At 4K Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 92, with an average of 108 and a maximum of 124. This minimum of 92 FPS ensures smooth gameplay without significant stuttering, as it stays well above the 60 FPS threshold for comfortable play.