Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers exceptional performance in Control, positioning this combination in the top tier of tested hardware configurations. The benchmark data reveals a system capable of handling the game’s demanding physics and rendering at high refresh rates across all resolutions, with the RTX 4090’s substantial memory bandwidth and the 5800X3D’s large cache working in concert to produce consistently high frame rates.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this combination shows that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all three tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset delivers an average of 190 FPS with a minimum of 162 FPS and a maximum of 219 FPS, providing a smooth and responsive experience without the performance overhead of the Ultra preset. Moving to 2560x1440, the Medium setting maintains an average of 146 FPS with a minimum of 124 FPS, which remains well above the threshold for high-refresh-rate monitors. At 3840x2160, Medium produces an average of 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS, ensuring consistent frame pacing even in intense combat sequences.

The High preset is a viable alternative for users prioritizing visual fidelity over raw frame rate. At 1080p, High achieves 172 FPS average, which is only a 9.5% reduction compared to Medium. The gap widens slightly at 1440p where High produces 130 FPS average versus 146 FPS for Medium, a difference of 11%. At 4K, High delivers 88 FPS average, which is an 11.1% decrease from Medium’s 99 FPS. The Ultra preset, while offering the highest visual quality, imposes a significant performance penalty: it drops to 149 FPS at 1080p, 113 FPS at 1440p, and 76 FPS at 4K. The data suggests that the Low preset, while achieving the highest frame rates (216 FPS at 1080p, 197 FPS at 1440p, 139 FPS at 4K), sacrifices too much visual quality for the marginal gains over Medium.

For the best experience per the measured rows, the Medium preset at 1440p provides the optimal combination of visual fidelity and performance, with an average of 146 FPS that comfortably exceeds the refresh rate of most high-end displays. At 4K, Medium remains the recommended choice since it maintains an average above 90 FPS, which is the threshold for smooth gameplay on many modern displays.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 serves as the primary driver of frame rate in Control, particularly at higher resolutions. The GPU’s memory configuration includes 24 GB of GDDR6X across a 384-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 1.01 TB/s. This massive memory bandwidth proves critical for Control’s texture streaming and physics calculations, which place heavy demands on memory throughput. The GPU’s boost clock of 2520 MHz, combined with its 16,384 shading units, allows it to process the game’s complex visual effects efficiently.

The RTX 4090’s performance in Control reflects its position in the broader GPU landscape. The benchmark data shows the GPU scores 38,194 in the Passmark G3D test and 26,613 in the Passmark GPU compute test, placing it in the 88th percentile among all GPUs. The nearest rivals in the database include the Intel Arc Pro A60 with a deltaPct of 0 and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 with a deltaPct of 0.3, indicating that the RTX 4090’s synthetic benchmark scores align closely with these professional-oriented cards. However, the measured FPS in Control demonstrates that the RTX 4090’s real-world gaming performance significantly exceeds what these synthetic scores might suggest, as the card maintains high frame rates even at 4K Ultra settings.

The GPU’s role becomes more pronounced as resolution increases. At 1080p, the CPU can keep the GPU fed, but at 4K, the RTX 4090’s raw compute power becomes the limiting factor. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the average FPS drops to 76, which is a 49% reduction from the 1080p Ultra average of 149 FPS. This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is fully utilized at higher resolutions, with its 82.58 TFLOPS of FP32 performance being taxed by Control’s demanding rendering pipeline.

How This Combo Ranks

This particular combination of AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 ranks 179th out of 3,720 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the top 4.8% of all configurations in the database. This ranking reflects the synergistic relationship between the CPU and GPU, where the 5800X3D’s 96 MB of shared L3 cache reduces memory latency for game data, while the RTX 4090’s massive memory bandwidth ensures that the GPU never starves for data.

The combo’s rank is particularly impressive given that it outperforms many combinations featuring newer or more expensive components. The 5800X3D, despite being from the Zen 3 architecture, holds its own against more modern processors due to its 3D V-Cache technology. The CPU’s average benchmark score of 27,896 places it in the 80th percentile among all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core i9-10900K (deltaPct 0.1) and the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (deltaPct 0). The RTX 4090’s average benchmark score of 60,347 places it in the 88th percentile among GPUs, with the Intel Arc Pro A60 (deltaPct 0) being its closest rival in the synthetic benchmarks.

The data indicates that this combo delivers a frame rate experience that is substantially better than the median configuration. With the combo ranking 179th out of 3,720, it outperforms 95.2% of all tested combinations, suggesting that users with this hardware can expect superior performance in Control compared to the vast majority of systems in the database.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combination delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. The Low preset achieves an average of 216 FPS, which represents the absolute ceiling for this resolution. The Medium preset produces an average of 190 FPS with a minimum of 162 FPS and a maximum of 219 FPS, demonstrating tight frame pacing with only a 30% variance between minimum and maximum. The High preset averages 172 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 149 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 31% reduction in average FPS, from 216 to 149, which is a relatively modest penalty given the significant visual quality improvements that Ultra typically provides.

At 2560x1440, the same pattern emerges but with proportionally lower frame rates. The Low preset averages 197 FPS, which is a 8.8% reduction from the 1080p Low result. The Medium preset averages 146 FPS with a minimum of 124 FPS and a maximum of 168 FPS, showing a 23.2% reduction from 1080p Medium. The High preset averages 130 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 113 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p maintains a playable frame rate of 113 FPS, which is notable given the demanding nature of Control’s visual effects at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 4090’s capabilities are tested more thoroughly. The Low preset averages 139 FPS, which is a 29.4% reduction from 1080p Low. The Medium preset averages 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS and a maximum of 114 FPS, showing a 47.9% reduction from 1080p Medium. The High preset averages 88 FPS, while the Ultra preset averages 76 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 76 FPS represents the lowest measured average across all configurations but remains above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a clear pattern of frame rate scaling as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At the Low preset, the average FPS drops from 216 at 1080p to 197 at 1440p (an 8.8% reduction) and then to 139 at 4K (a 35.6% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern indicates that at Low settings, the CPU begins to play a more significant role, as the GPU has sufficient headroom to render frames quickly but is limited by the CPU’s ability to feed it data.

At the Medium preset, the scaling is more pronounced: 190 FPS at 1080p, 146 FPS at 1440p (a 23.2% reduction), and 99 FPS at 4K (a 47.9% reduction from 1080p). The larger drop from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings suggests that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor, as the increased pixel count requires more shading and texture operations.

The High preset shows a similar pattern: 172 FPS at 1080p, 130 FPS at 1440p (a 24.4% reduction), and 88 FPS at 4K (a 48.8% reduction from 1080p). The Ultra preset exhibits the most significant scaling: 149 FPS at 1080p, 113 FPS at 1440p (a 24.2% reduction), and 76 FPS at 4K (a 49% reduction from 1080p). The consistent reduction from 1080p to 4K of approximately 49% across High and Ultra settings indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, with the RTX 4090’s performance scaling predictably with pixel count.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU and GPU combination in Control?

A: The data shows 2560x1440 at Medium settings offers the best balance, with an average of 146 FPS, a minimum of 124 FPS, and a maximum of 168 FPS. This provides high frame rates while maintaining visual quality above the Low preset.

Q: How does the Ultra preset affect performance compared to Medium?

A: At 1080p, Ultra reduces the average FPS from 190 (Medium) to 149 (Ultra), a 21.6% decrease. At 1440p, the reduction is from 146 to 113 FPS (22.6%), and at 4K, from 99 to 76 FPS (23.2%).

Q: Is the RTX 4090 capable of 4K gaming in Control?

A: Yes, the data shows the RTX 4090 achieves an average of 99 FPS at 4K Medium and 88 FPS at 4K High. Even at 4K Ultra, it maintains 76 FPS, which is above the standard 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested combinations?

A: The combination ranks 179th out of 3,720 tested combos, placing it in the top 4.8% of all configurations in the database for Control.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at 1440p Medium?

A: At 1440p Medium, the minimum FPS is 124 and the maximum is 168, with an average of 146. This represents a 30.2% variance between minimum and maximum, indicating stable frame pacing.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data shows the frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is approximately 49% at High and Ultra settings, which is consistent with GPU-bound scaling. At Low settings, the drop is 35.6%, suggesting the CPU plays a larger role at lower visual settings.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D provides the computational foundation for this combination, featuring 8 cores and 16 threads with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz. The CPU’s most distinctive feature is its 96 MB of shared L3 cache, which is significantly larger than typical desktop processors. This large cache is particularly beneficial for Control, as the game’s physics calculations and object management benefit from reduced memory latency.

The CPU’s benchmark results demonstrate its capabilities in both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. In Cinebench R23, the 5800X3D scores 14,317 in multi-core and 1,452 in single-core tests. The Geekbench scores show 11,765 in multi-core and 2,017 in single-core. These results place the CPU in the 80th percentile among all processors, with its average benchmark score of 27,896 being nearly identical to the Intel Core i9-10900K (27,872, deltaPct 0.1) and the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U (27,887, deltaPct 0).

In Control, the CPU’s role varies depending on the resolution and settings. At 1080p with Low settings, the CPU must work harder to feed the GPU, as the frame rate of 216 FPS places significant demands on the processor’s ability to process game logic and issue draw calls. The 5800X3D’s 16 threads and high boost clock ensure that the CPU can keep up with the RTX 4090’s frame generation capabilities at this resolution.

At 4K with Ultra settings, the CPU’s workload remains constant while the GPU’s workload increases substantially. The data shows that the frame rate drops to 76 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is 49% lower than 1080p Ultra. This indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the CPU has sufficient headroom to handle the game’s processing requirements even at the highest settings.

The 5800X3D’s memory support for DDR4 with dual-channel configuration and 51.2 GB/s bandwidth ensures that the CPU can access game data efficiently. The processor’s PCIe Gen 4 support with 20 lanes provides adequate bandwidth for the RTX 4090’s PCIe 4.0 x16 interface, preventing any bottleneck in data transfer between the CPU and GPU. The combination of the CPU’s large cache and the GPU’s 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth creates a balanced system where neither component consistently limits the other, as evidenced by the smooth frame rate scaling across resolutions.