Control

Control, the 2019 Action Adventure title, places the AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti combination in a demanding position. The benchmark data reveals a system that can deliver playable framerates at 1080p but struggles significantly as resolution increases, with the GPU clearly acting as the primary performance limiter throughout the tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a steep performance curve as resolution climbs from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, which strongly indicates the GTX 1660 Ti is the bottleneck in this pairing. At the "High" preset, average framerates drop from 59.6 FPS at 1080p to 43.7 FPS at 1440p — a 26.7% reduction — and then fall further to 32.5 FPS at 4K, representing a 45.5% decline from the 1080p baseline. This pattern intensifies with the "Ultra" preset, where the 50.2 FPS at 1080p plummets to 38.7 FPS at 1440p and finally to 24.3 FPS at 4K, which is below comfortable playability thresholds.

The scaling behavior between settings at each resolution provides additional insight into where the system's limits lie. At 1080p, the gap between "Low" (93.6 FPS) and "Ultra" (50.2 FPS) is substantial, showing that the GPU has headroom to handle increased graphical loads at this resolution. However, at 4K, the spread narrows dramatically — from 44.6 FPS on "Low" to 24.3 FPS on "Ultra" — suggesting that even the lowest settings cannot escape the resolution-induced pressure on the GPU's compute units and memory bandwidth. The data implies that the Ryzen 7 5800XT's 8-core, 16-thread configuration is not the limiting factor here; rather, the GTX 1660 Ti's 6 GB GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus are being saturated as pixel count increases.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination ranks 1434 out of 1636 tested combos for Control, placing it in the lower 12.4% percentile of all configurations. The comboRankInGame figure of 1434/1636 (87.7% of tested systems perform better) reflects a pairing where the CPU is far more capable than the GPU. The Ryzen 7 5800XT holds an 86th percentile ranking among all CPUs with an average benchmark score of 29774, placing it within 0.3% of rivals like the AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (29856) and AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (29868). In stark contrast, the GTX 1660 Ti sits at just the 55th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13925 that puts it near the AMD Radeon RX 570X (13871, 0.4% slower) and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (13812, 0.8% slower).

The disparity between the CPU's high percentile ranking and the overall combo's low rank underscores a fundamental imbalance. The 5800XT's nearest rivals in CPU performance — the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755GE (29740, 0.1% faster) and AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 (29682, 0.3% slower) — all represent capable processors, yet none of these would meaningfully change the Control results when paired with this GPU. The data suggests that the combo rank is almost entirely dictated by the GPU's performance ceiling, as the CPU's 3DMark scores (7683 for 16 threads, 959 single-thread) indicate ample processing power that goes underutilized in this GPU-bound scenario.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS across all four settings presets, the "High" preset at 1920x1080 offers the best balance between visual fidelity and performance stability. The 59.6 FPS average at 1080p/High provides a smooth experience that approaches the 60 FPS target, while the "Medium" preset at 65.9 FPS and "Low" at 93.6 FPS demonstrate diminishing returns for the visual sacrifice required. At 1440p, the "Low" preset (67.9 FPS) is the only configuration that maintains consistently smooth framerates, as "Medium" drops to 49.1 FPS and "High" falls to 43.7 FPS — both below the 60 FPS threshold. The "Ultra" preset is not recommended at any resolution, as it only achieves 50.2 FPS at 1080p and drops to 24.3 FPS at 4K, making it unsuitable for responsive gameplay.

For users willing to accept lower visual quality, the 4K "Low" preset (44.6 FPS) is the only playable option at that resolution, though it still falls short of ideal smoothness. The "Medium" preset at 1440p (49.1 FPS) could serve as a compromise for those prioritizing resolution over framerate, but the data clearly favors 1080p/High as the optimal configuration for this hardware pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured dataset reveals consistent performance scaling across all settings and resolutions. At 1920x1080, the framerate ranges from a high of 93.6 FPS on "Low" to 50.2 FPS on "Ultra", with "Medium" at 64.9 FPS and "High" at 59.6 FPS forming a tight mid-range cluster. Moving to 2560x1440, the values compress significantly: "Low" achieves 67.9 FPS, "Medium" 49.1 FPS, "High" 43.7 FPS, and "Ultra" 38.7 FPS. The 3840x2160 results show the most dramatic falloff, with "Low" at 44.6 FPS, "Medium" at 34.9 FPS, "High" at 32.5 FPS, and "Ultra" bottoming out at 24.3 FPS.

Notably, the percentage drop from 1080p to 4K varies by preset, highlighting different performance characteristics. The "Low" preset loses 52.4% of its 1080p performance when moving to 4K (from 93.6 to 44.6 FPS), while "High" loses 45.5% (from 59.6 to 32.5 FPS). This non-linear scaling suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading unit utilization behave differently under varying load conditions, with the "Low" preset's reduced shader workload allowing the memory subsystem to become the primary constraint.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti's specifications directly explain the measured performance ceiling. With 1536 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, the TU116 chip delivers 5.437 TFLOPS of FP32 compute and a pixel rate of 84.96 GPixel/s. The 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus provides 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which becomes increasingly insufficient as resolution scales. The GPU's 12 nm process node and 120 W TDP suggest it was designed for 1080p gaming, and the Control results confirm this — the 59.6 FPS at 1080p/High aligns with its mid-range positioning (55th percentile, average benchmark score 13925).

The memory configuration is particularly revealing. At 4K resolution, the 6 GB VRAM capacity combined with the 288.0 GB/s bandwidth creates a significant constraint, as evidenced by the 32.5 FPS "High" result. The GPU's boost clock of 1770 MHz (base 1500 MHz) provides some headroom, but the data shows that raw clock speed cannot compensate for the memory bandwidth deficit at higher resolutions. The GTX 1660 Ti's nearest rivals in GPU benchmarks — the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (13821, 0.8% faster) and AMD Radeon RX 570X (13871, 0.4% faster) — would likely produce similar Control performance, reinforcing that this GPU generation is simply outmatched by the game's demands at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU/GPU combo in Control?

A: The 1920x1080 resolution with "High" settings provides the best experience, achieving 59.6 FPS average. At 1440p, only the "Low" preset (67.9 FPS) maintains smooth framerates, while 4K results are marginal even on "Low" (44.6 FPS).

Q: Why does the 4K performance drop so steeply compared to 1080p?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti's 6 GB GDDR6 memory with 288.0 GB/s bandwidth becomes saturated at 3840x2160. The "High" preset drops from 59.6 FPS at 1080p to 32.5 FPS at 4K, a 45.5% reduction, indicating the GPU's memory subsystem is the limiting factor.

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

A: It ranks 1434 out of 1636 total combos in Control, placing it in the lower 12.4% of tested configurations. This low ranking stems from the GPU's 55th percentile performance, despite the CPU's strong 86th percentile ranking.

Q: Is the "Ultra" preset ever playable with this hardware?

A: Only at 1080p, where it achieves 50.2 FPS average. At 1440p it drops to 38.7 FPS, and at 4K it falls to 24.3 FPS, making it unsuitable for responsive gameplay at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the FPS difference between "Low" and "Ultra" at 1080p?

A: The gap is 43.4 FPS, with "Low" at 93.6 FPS and "Ultra" at 50.2 FPS. This wide spread indicates the GPU has sufficient headroom at 1080p to handle increased graphical loads.

Q: Does the Ryzen 7 5800XT bottleneck the GTX 1660 Ti in this game?

A: No, the data indicates the opposite. The CPU's 8-core, 16-thread configuration with a 3.80 GHz base and 4.80 GHz boost clock provides ample processing power, as evidenced by the CPU's 86th percentile ranking, while the GPU's 55th percentile creates the performance ceiling.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 5800XT's specifications demonstrate that it is not the performance limiter in this Control benchmark scenario. The 8-core, 16-thread Zen 3 architecture running at 3.80 GHz base and 4.80 GHz boost clock delivers strong multi-threaded performance, as shown by Cinebench R23 scores of 23794 multi-core and 3359 single-core. The 32 MB of L3 cache and dual-channel DDR4 memory support at 51.2 GB/s provide ample data throughput for the game's physics and AI calculations. The CPU's 86th percentile ranking versus all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29774, places it within 0.3% of the AMD Ryzen 7 7840H (29868) and AMD Ryzen 7 6800HS (29856), indicating competitive mid-to-high-end processing capability.

The fact that Control's measured FPS scales primarily with resolution and settings — rather than showing CPU-related stutters or frame pacing issues — confirms that the 5800XT has reserve capacity. The CPU's 3DMark scores (7683 for 16 threads, 959 single-thread) and Passmark multi-thread score of 27988 suggest it could support significantly more powerful GPUs without becoming a bottleneck. The 7 nm TSMC process and 105 W TDP indicate efficient power delivery, while the AM4 socket and PCIe Gen 4 support (20 lanes) provide a modern platform foundation. The data ultimately shows a CPU that is overqualified for its GPU pairing, leaving performance potential untapped due to the GTX 1660 Ti's constraints.