Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT delivers a playable yet clearly GPU-bound experience in Control, with benchmark results showing that image quality settings have a more pronounced impact on frame rates than resolution scaling. Across the measured data, the combination produces a wide performance envelope, from a demanding 34.3 FPS at 4K Ultra to a fluid 119.1 FPS at 1080p Low, indicating that users must carefully select settings to match their display's native resolution and refresh rate.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate progression from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a classic pattern of GPU saturation, where the RX 6600 XT becomes the definitive limiting component. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 74.7 at 1080p to 57.7 at 1440p, a 22.8% reduction, and then falls further to 40 at 4K, representing a 46.4% decline from the 1080p baseline. This scaling curve is steep but not linear, suggesting that the GPU's 8 GB GDDR6 memory and 256.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p and 1440p but struggle to maintain consistent throughput when pixel count quadruples at 4K.

The Low preset demonstrates the most dramatic resolution sensitivity, with average FPS dropping from 119.1 at 1080p to 86.9 at 1440p (a 27.0% decrease) and then to 61.5 at 4K (a 48.4% decrease from 1080p). These percentages are remarkably consistent across presets, which indicates that the rendering pipeline in Control scales uniformly with pixel count regardless of the visual complexity being processed. The 4K Ultra result of 34.3 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset, falling below the 40 FPS threshold that many users consider the minimum for acceptable action-game performance.

At 1440p, the data shows that Medium settings (64.4 FPS) provide a meaningful improvement over High (57.7 FPS) while maintaining visual fidelity, whereas at 4K the gap between Medium (42.4 FPS) and High (40 FPS) narrows to just 6.0%. This compression of performance differences at higher resolutions reinforces the notion that the RX 6600 XT is the bottleneck; the CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are not being taxed by the increasing pixel workload. The 1080p results, where Ultra (66.4 FPS) trails Low (119.1 FPS) by 44.2%, further confirm that Control's advanced lighting and particle effects place a heavy burden on the GPU's 2048 shading units and 32 ray accelerators.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS rows, the optimal experience balances frame rate stability against visual quality, and the data points to 1440p Medium as the sweet spot for this hardware combination. At 1440p Medium, the combo produces 64.4 FPS, which is 11.6% higher than 1440p High (57.7 FPS) and 23.8% higher than 1440p Ultra (52 FPS), while the visual difference between Medium and High in Control is typically less pronounced than the performance gap suggests. This setting also keeps the average FPS comfortably above the 60 FPS target, providing headroom for demanding scenes with complex physics interactions.

For users with 1080p displays, High settings (74.7 FPS) are the recommended choice, as they deliver a 12.5% improvement over Ultra (66.4 FPS) while retaining most of the game's signature visual effects. The 1080p Medium preset (83.1 FPS) is also viable, but the jump from Medium to High only costs 8.4 FPS, making High the better trade-off for image quality. Conversely, 4K gaming is only feasible with the Low preset (61.5 FPS), as the Medium (42.4 FPS), High (40 FPS), and Ultra (34.3 FPS) presets all fall below the 60 FPS threshold that delivers smooth motion in fast-paced combat sequences.

The data suggests avoiding Ultra settings at all resolutions unless the user prioritizes maximum visual fidelity over playability. At 1080p Ultra, the 66.4 FPS average is playable but leaves little margin for frame time spikes, while at 1440p Ultra (52 FPS) and 4K Ultra (34.3 FPS), the experience becomes noticeably less responsive. Users targeting 1440p should also consider that the 86.9 FPS at Low settings demonstrates the CPU's capability to drive high frame rates, but the visual trade-off is substantial.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Control?

A: The highest measured average FPS is 119.1, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings.

Q: Can this hardware run Control at 4K smoothly?

A: At 4K, only the Low preset (61.5 FPS) exceeds 60 FPS on average; Medium (42.4 FPS), High (40 FPS), and Ultra (34.3 FPS) all fall below that threshold.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p at High settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 74.7 at 1080p to 57.7 at 1440p, a 22.8% decrease.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings achieve 86.9 FPS while Ultra achieves 52 FPS, a difference of 34.9 FPS or 40.2%.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the primary bottleneck in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting factor, as frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings changes, while the Ryzen 7 5800XT's 8 cores and 16 threads provide ample headroom.

Q: What is the worst-performing preset and resolution combination?

A: The lowest measured average FPS is 34.3, recorded at 3840x2160 resolution with Ultra settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the benchmark results show a clear hierarchy across presets. Low settings deliver the highest average at 119.1 FPS, followed by Medium at 83.1 FPS, High at 74.7 FPS, and Ultra at 66.4 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 36.0 FPS (30.2%), while the gap between Medium and High is 8.4 FPS (10.1%), and between High and Ultra is 8.3 FPS (11.1%). This distribution suggests that the Low preset removes significant rendering workloads, while the step from Medium to High and High to Ultra incurs progressively smaller performance penalties.

Moving to 2560x1440, the same ordering persists but with compressed absolute values. Low averages 86.9 FPS, Medium 64.4 FPS, High 57.7 FPS, and Ultra 52 FPS. The relative performance gaps are consistent with 1080p: Low is 35.0% faster than Medium, Medium is 11.6% faster than High, and High is 11.0% faster than Ultra. The 1440p results demonstrate that this resolution is the practical ceiling for maintaining 60+ FPS, as only Low and Medium presets exceed that threshold.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's limitations become stark. Low averages 61.5 FPS, barely clearing the 60 FPS mark, while Medium drops to 42.4 FPS, High to 40 FPS, and Ultra to 34.3 FPS. The difference between Low and Medium is 19.1 FPS (31.1%), which is the largest single-preset gap in the 4K dataset, indicating that Medium settings introduce substantial shader and texture workloads that the RX 6600 XT cannot sustain at this resolution. The 4K results also show that High and Medium are nearly identical in performance (40 vs. 42.4 FPS), suggesting that certain High-specific effects are not proportionally more expensive than Medium's.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT + AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT combination ranks 1120 out of 1636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the 68.5th percentile of all configurations. This rank reflects the RX 6600 XT's mid-range positioning; the GPU's average benchmark score of 27985 places it at the 71st percentile among all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti (deltaPct 0.1), AMD Radeon R9 M395X (deltaPct 0.4), NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (deltaPct -0.9), and AMD FirePro S7150 (deltaPct -1.5). These small deltaPct values indicate that the RX 6600 XT performs nearly identically to the GTX 980 Ti in raw compute, though Control's specific rendering paths may favor newer architecture features.

The CPU's contribution to this rank is substantial but not decisive. The Ryzen 7 5800XT scores at the 86th percentile among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29774. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE (deltaPct 0.1), AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (deltaPct -0.3), AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (deltaPct 0.3), and AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (deltaPct -0.3). These rivals are all similarly performing parts, confirming that the 5800XT is a well-balanced processor that does not bottleneck the GPU in this title. The combo's rank of 1120 suggests that while the CPU is strong, the GPU's mid-range status holds the overall configuration back in Control's demanding scenes.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT, built on the Zen 3 architecture with the Vermeer codename, provides 8 cores and 16 threads operating at a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. This configuration is more than sufficient for Control's multithreaded workload, as evidenced by the benchmark results showing consistent frame rates across resolution changes that would expose CPU limitations. The CPU's 32 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth ensure that texture streaming and physics calculations do not introduce stutter, even when the GPU is pushed to its limits at 4K.

The CPU's benchmark scores reinforce its capability in gaming workloads. In Cinebench R23, it achieves 23794 points in multicore and 3359 points in single-core, while in PassMark multithread it scores 27988 and single-thread 3538. These figures place it well ahead of the GPU's performance ceiling in Control, meaning the 5800XT is never the limiting factor in the measured scenarios. The 3DMark results, particularly the 16-thread score of 7683 and single-thread score of 959, further confirm that the CPU can handle both heavily threaded and lightly threaded game logic without issue.

Given that the RX 6600 XT has a TDP of 160 W and the CPU a TDP of 105 W, the combined power draw is modest, and the system's 450 W suggested PSU provides adequate headroom. The CPU's PCIe Gen 4 support with 20 lanes ensures that the GPU's PCIe 4.0 x8 interface operates at full bandwidth, avoiding any data transfer bottlenecks that could affect texture loading in Control's shifting environments. The data shows that users upgrading from a weaker CPU to the 5800XT would see no meaningful FPS improvement in this game, as the GPU is already saturated at all tested settings and resolutions.