Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT combination delivers a playable, though not overwhelmingly smooth, experience in Control at 1080p, but struggles to maintain frame rates at higher resolutions. The data shows a clear trend: as resolution increases, the average frame rates drop significantly across all settings presets, indicating a system that is primarily bound by the graphics card's capabilities in this title. With a combo rank of 1208 out of 1636 tested configurations, this pairing sits in the lower-middle tier of the database, suggesting that while it can handle the game, it does not excel in demanding scenarios.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a substantial performance cost when moving from 1080p to 4K. At the High preset, the average frame rate falls from 73.4 FPS at 1920x1080 to 58.5 FPS at 2560x1440, a drop of roughly 20%. This decline is consistent with the GPU becoming the primary bottleneck as pixel count increases. The most dramatic scaling occurs at the Low preset, where the average FPS plummets from 115 at 1080p to 88.8 at 1440p, and then further down to 59.4 at 4K. This 55.6 FPS difference between 1080p Low and 4K Low highlights that even at the lowest graphical settings, the resolution is the dominant factor limiting performance.

The scaling pattern suggests that the RX 5700 XT is the limiting component in this configuration. The frame rate drop from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep across all presets. For instance, at Medium settings, performance falls from 64 FPS at 1440p to 43.6 FPS at 4K, a reduction of 31.9%. This indicates that the GPU's 8 GB of VRAM and its memory bandwidth are being saturated at higher resolutions. The gap between the High and Ultra presets at 4K is also notable, with only a 3.1 FPS difference (38.3 vs 35.2), suggesting that the graphics card is hitting a hard performance ceiling regardless of the extra visual fidelity demanded by the Ultra preset.

At 1080p, the system shows more headroom. The Low preset achieves 115 FPS, which is more than double the 4K High result. This demonstrates that the CPU, with its 8 cores and 16 threads, is capable of feeding the GPU adequately at lower resolutions. However, the scaling curve from 1080p to 1440p is not linear, indicating that the GPU starts to become a constraint even at 1440p. The data clearly shows that for a consistently smooth experience, 1080p is the intended resolution for this hardware, as 4K performance dips below the 60 FPS threshold even on the Low preset.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT is a Zen 3 architecture processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, operating at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. In Control, an Action Adventure title that often features complex physics and AI, the CPU's multi-threaded capabilities are relevant. The benchmark results for the CPU show a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23794 and a single-core score of 3359. This strong single-thread performance is crucial for game logic and draw call submission, ensuring that the CPU does not become the bottleneck at lower resolutions.

The data indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor in this pairing. At 1080p, the frame rates scale significantly with the graphics preset, from 61.7 FPS at Ultra to 115 FPS at Low. If the CPU were the primary constraint, these numbers would be much closer together. The 53.3 FPS spread between the Low and Ultra presets at 1080p confirms that the graphics card is the component dictating performance. The CPU's 32 MB of L3 cache and high boost clock are sufficient to keep up with the GPU's demands, even in the most CPU-intensive scenes.

The Ryzen 7 5800XT sits at the 86th percentile of all CPUs, and its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE, which has an average score that is 0.1% higher. This places the CPU in a strong position for gaming, but its performance is not exceptional enough to overcome the GPU limitations at higher resolutions. The CPU's role is to provide a stable foundation, and the benchmark results show it does so effectively, allowing the RX 5700 XT to be the sole determinant of frame rates. The 3dmark single-thread score of 959 further reinforces that this processor can handle the game's core logic without introducing stutter or frame pacing issues.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT is an RDNA 1.0 architecture graphics card with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s. Its boost clock is 1905 MHz, and it has a pixel rate of 121.9 GPixel/s. In Control, a game known for its demanding visual effects and destructible environments, the GPU is the primary determinant of performance. The measured FPS data confirms this, as the frame rates are highly sensitive to both resolution and settings changes.

The GPU's 8 GB of VRAM is a key factor in its performance at higher resolutions. At 4K, the High preset yields 38.3 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 35.2 FPS. This small difference suggests that the VRAM capacity is not the only issue; the GPU's compute power is also being maxed out. The FP32 performance of 9.754 TFLOPS is adequate for 1080p gaming but struggles to maintain high frame rates at 4K. The performance drop from 1080p Low (115 FPS) to 4K Low (59.4 FPS) is a 48.3% reduction, highlighting the GPU's limited ability to handle the increased pixel workload.

The RX 5700 XT holds the 68th percentile among all GPUs, with its nearest rival, the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile, having an average score that is 0.1% lower. This places the GPU in the mid-range tier, which is reflected in its Control performance. The GPU's memory clock of 1750 MHz and 14 Gbps effective speed provide sufficient bandwidth for 1080p, but the 256-bit bus is a constraint at higher resolutions. At 1440p, the Ultra preset achieves 50.6 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. The data suggests that the GPU is the limiting component, and its performance ceiling is reached when the resolution is increased, making the 1080p resolution the most balanced for this card.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the optimal balance between visual quality and frame rate is achieved at the High preset at 1920x1080, which delivers an average of 73.4 FPS. This is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and provides a significant visual upgrade over the Medium preset, which runs at 84.3 FPS. The 10.9 FPS difference between High and Medium is a reasonable trade-off for the enhanced detail, making High the recommended setting for most users.

For users with 1440p monitors, the data indicates that the High preset is not viable, as it averages only 58.5 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 64 FPS, which is a more playable option, though it still does not reach the smoothness of the 1080p High setting. At 4K, the Low preset is the only one that approaches playability, with 59.4 FPS, but this comes with a significant reduction in visual fidelity. The Ultra preset at 4K yields only 35.2 FPS, which is not recommended for an action game requiring responsive controls.

The data shows that the Low preset provides the highest frame rates across all resolutions, with 115 FPS at 1080p, 88.8 FPS at 1440p, and 59.4 FPS at 4K. However, the visual compromise is substantial. The Medium preset offers a middle ground, providing 84.3 FPS at 1080p and 64 FPS at 1440p, which are both acceptable for gameplay. Ultimately, the best experience per the measured rows is the High preset at 1080p, as it offers a strong balance of visual quality and performance, while higher resolutions require dropping to Medium or Low to maintain playable frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT ranks 1208 out of 1636 tested combos in Control. This places it in the 26th percentile of all tested configurations, indicating that it is a below-average performer for this game. The ranking reflects the GPU's limitations, as the CPU is a high-performing part that is held back by the graphics card. The data suggests that many other combinations with more powerful GPUs would achieve significantly higher frame rates.

The combination's rank is influenced by the GPU's position in the database. The RX 5700 XT has a percentile rank of 68 among all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the Intel Arc A350M, has an average score that is 0.3% higher. This indicates that the GPU is a mid-tier part that is not well-suited for the high demands of Control at higher resolutions. The CPU, on the other hand, has a percentile rank of 86, which is much higher, but it cannot compensate for the GPU's weaknesses in this GPU-bound game.

When compared to other potential pairings, this combo would likely be outperformed by any system using a more modern or higher-end GPU. The 1208th rank out of 1636 suggests that a majority of tested configurations deliver better performance in Control. This is not a surprising result, given that the GPU is from an older generation and has since been succeeded by more powerful architectures. For users seeking a higher frame rate experience, the data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield a more significant performance improvement than upgrading the CPU, as the current CPU is not the bottleneck.