Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 570 presents a starkly CPU-heavy configuration in Control, but the benchmark data indicates that the GPU is the definitive bottleneck at every measurable setting. This combination ranks at 2768 out of 2888 tested combos, placing it in the bottom 5% of all configurations for this title. The measured frames per second (FPS) across all resolutions and settings never reach the 60 FPS threshold, and only a single preset achieves an average above 50 FPS. The following analysis breaks down the measured data to explain what this means for playability, the role of each component, and how this pairing stacks against other tested hardware.

Settings Recommendations

Based strictly on the measured FPS data, the only viable preset for a playable experience is Low at 1920x1080, which produces an average of 57 FPS. This is the sole configuration that approaches a fluid 60 FPS target, though it does not guarantee it consistently. Every other settings level at 1080p—Medium (40 FPS), High (36 FPS), and Ultra (31 FPS)—falls below 60 FPS, indicating a significant performance penalty for visual fidelity that this GPU cannot absorb.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more constrained. The Low preset delivers an average of 43 FPS, which is the only 1440p option that remains above 30 FPS. Stepping up to Medium yields 30 FPS, and High (27 FPS) and Ultra (24 FPS) drop into territory that is generally considered too choppy for action-adventure gameplay. For 4K (3840x2160), no settings level is recommended; even the Low preset only manages 29 FPS, with Medium at 21 FPS, High at 18 FPS, and Ultra at 16 FPS. The data suggests that users should prioritize resolution over settings if forced to choose, as dropping to 1080p Low provides nearly double the frame rate of 1440p High.

The measured min and max FPS values (available only for Medium settings) reveal additional instability. At 1080p Medium, the frame rate ranges from 34 to 46 FPS, a 12 FPS swing that indicates uneven frame pacing. At 1440p Medium, the range is 26 to 35 FPS, and at 4K Medium it is 17 to 24 FPS. These fluctuations mean that even the "playable" Low settings at 1080p likely suffer from similar variance, though the data does not include min/max for that preset. The recommendation is therefore clear: use 1080p Low for the best measured experience, and accept that higher settings are not viable for consistent performance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 570 is the primary limiting factor in this configuration. Its 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth, but the data shows that this is insufficient for Control at higher presets. The GPU's base clock of 1168 MHz and boost clock of 1244 MHz, combined with 2048 shading units, yield a peak FP32 throughput of 5.095 TFLOPS. These specifications are reflected in the benchmark scores: the GPU sits at the 74th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 28766.

Comparing the GPU's nearest rivals shows how close it is to the bottom of its performance tier. The RX 570’s average score is within 0.8% of the AMD Radeon RX 470 (score 28996) and 0.7% of the AMD Radeon R9 M295X (28580). It trails the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (28874) by only 0.4%, but this is a misleading comparison—the RX 6800M is a mobile part with a higher score, yet the delta is small. The data implies that the RX 570 is performing at the very edge of its architectural limits in this game. The GPU's 4 GB VRAM is likely the culprit for the steep drop between Low and Medium settings; at 1080p Low, the average is 57 FPS, but at Medium it falls to 40 FPS, a 30% reduction. This suggests that the game's textures and effects at Medium exceed the available memory, forcing the GPU to swap data and tanking performance.

The RX 570's pixel rate of 39.81 GPixel/s and texture rate of 159.2 GTexel/s are modest figures that align with its 2017-era Polaris architecture (14 nm process). In Control, which emphasizes complex particle effects and destructible environments, these rates are insufficient for maintaining frame times at higher resolutions. The data shows that at 4K Ultra, the GPU produces only 16 FPS, a figure that is effectively unplayable. This is not a CPU limitation; the Ryzen 7 9700F is more than capable of feeding this GPU, as the next section will detail. The GPU is the choke point, and its end-of-life production status (released 2017-04-17) is evident in these results.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS drop from 1080p to 4K follows a predictable pattern that confirms the GPU-bound nature of this configuration. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 57 at 1080p to 43 at 1440p (a 24.6% drop) and then to 29 at 4K (a 49.1% drop from 1080p). This steep decline is characteristic of a GPU that is overburdened by pixel count, as the CPU's performance headroom does not compensate for the increased rendering load.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar: 40 FPS at 1080p drops to 30 FPS at 1440p (25% reduction) and 21 FPS at 4K (47.5% reduction). High settings show 36 FPS at 1080p, 27 FPS at 1440p (25% drop), and 18 FPS at 4K (50% drop). Ultra settings are the most punishing, with 31 FPS at 1080p, 24 FPS at 1440p (22.6% drop), and 16 FPS at 4K (48.4% drop). The consistent ~25% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and ~50% reduction from 1080p to 4K across all settings indicates that the limiting component is the GPU's rasterization throughput, not the CPU or memory bandwidth.

This scaling behavior is textbook for a GPU bottleneck. If the CPU were the constraint, the FPS would remain relatively flat across resolutions because the CPU would be maxed out regardless of pixel count. Instead, the FPS halves when the pixel count quadruples (1080p to 4K), which is exactly what the data shows. The Ryzen 7 9700F's high single-thread score (4691 in PassMark) and 8-core/16-thread configuration are not being utilized to their full extent; the GPU cannot keep up with the CPU's ability to issue draw calls. The 4 GB VRAM also plays a role, as higher resolutions require more memory for framebuffers, and the RX 570's capacity is exceeded at 1440p and 4K, further exacerbating the performance collapse.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured dataset provides a clear picture of performance boundaries. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 57 FPS, which is the best result in the entire dataset. Medium averages 40 FPS with a minimum of 34 and maximum of 46. High averages 36 FPS, and Ultra averages 31 FPS. No 1080p preset reaches 60 FPS, meaning the target of smooth gameplay is missed by a narrow margin at Low and by a wide margin at higher settings.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 43 FPS, still the only option above 30 FPS. Medium averages 30 FPS (range 26-35), High averages 27 FPS, and Ultra averages 24 FPS. The step from Low to Medium at 1440p is a 13 FPS drop (30.2%), which is more severe than the 17 FPS drop (29.8%) at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is hitting a harder memory or compute wall at higher resolution.

At 3840x2160, the results are largely unplayable. Low averages 29 FPS, Medium averages 21 FPS (range 17-24), High averages 18 FPS, and Ultra averages 16 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is only 13 FPS, showing that the GPU is so saturated that settings changes have diminishing returns. The min FPS of 17 at 4K Medium indicates that even the average is optimistic; actual gameplay would experience frequent stutters.

The data also reveals a notable anomaly: the FPS difference between Low and Medium at each resolution is larger than the difference between High and Ultra. For example, at 1080p, Low to Medium is a 17 FPS drop, but High to Ultra is only a 5 FPS drop. This suggests that the Medium preset introduces a specific feature (possibly volumetric lighting or shadow quality) that disproportionately impacts the RX 570, while the Ultra preset adds effects that are less demanding relative to the baseline. This pattern holds at 1440p (13 FPS drop Low-to-Medium vs. 3 FPS drop High-to-Ultra) and 4K (8 FPS vs. 2 FPS), confirming that the GPU's architecture handles certain rendering paths poorly.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best settings preset for this CPU/GPU combo in Control?*

A: The only preset with an average FPS above 50 is 1920x1080 with Low settings, which averages 57 FPS. All other presets at any resolution fall below 50 FPS, with 4K Ultra being the worst at 16 FPS.

Q: How does the RX 570's performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 570's average benchmark score (28766) is within 0.8% of the AMD Radeon RX 470 (28996) and 0.7% of the AMD Radeon R9 M295X (28580). It trails the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (28874) by 0.4%, but this is negligible in practice given the large resolution scaling penalties.

Q: Is the Ryzen 7 9700F or the RX 570 the bottleneck?

A: The GPU is the definitive bottleneck. The FPS drops by approximately 50% when moving from 1080p to 4K at every settings level, which is the classic signature of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's PassMark single-thread score of 4691 and multithread score of 36470 are far above what this game requires at these frame rates.

Q: Can this combo achieve 60 FPS at any resolution?

A: No. The highest measured average FPS is 57 at 1080p Low, which falls short of 60 FPS. All other presets and resolutions produce averages of 43 FPS or lower.

Q: How much of a performance drop is there between Low and Ultra settings?

A: At 1080p, the drop from Low (57 FPS) to Ultra (31 FPS) is 26 FPS, a 45.6% reduction. At 1440p, the drop is 19 FPS (43 to 24, a 44.2% reduction). At 4K, the drop is 13 FPS (29 to 16, a 44.8% reduction), showing a consistent penalty across resolutions.

Q: What does the combo's rank of 2768 out of 2888 mean?

A: It places this configuration in the bottom 4.2% of all tested combos for Control. This is consistent with the measured FPS data, which shows no preset reaching 60 FPS and 4K performance being effectively unplayable.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a modern 8-core, 16-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge) on a 4 nm process. Its base clock is 3.80 GHz with a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, and it has a 65 W TDP. In PassMark benchmarks, it scores 4691 in single-thread tests and 36470 in multithread tests, placing it at the 94th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (avg score 69875, 0.2% higher) and the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163, 0.2% higher), indicating that it is a top-tier consumer CPU.

In Control, this CPU is vastly overqualified for the frame rates achieved. The game's engine is not heavily multithreaded, and the RX 570's 4 GB VRAM limits the draw distance and texture quality, which in turn limits the CPU's workload. The CPU's 32 MB of shared L3 cache and 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth are more than sufficient for feeding the GPU at 57 FPS (the maximum measured). The fact that FPS scales inversely with resolution confirms that the CPU is not the limiting factor; if it were, the FPS would be similar at 1080p and 4K, which it is not.

The CPU's high single-thread performance (4691) is particularly irrelevant here because the GPU cannot translate that into higher frame rates. In CPU-bound games, a score like this would push 100+ FPS, but Control at 1080p Low only produces 57 FPS. The data implies that the Ryzen 7 9700F has significant headroom for a more powerful GPU, and this pairing is unbalanced. The CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are idle most of the time, as the GPU's 5.095 TFLOPS FP32 throughput is the hard ceiling. For this game, the CPU's role is to provide a stable platform, which it does, but it cannot compensate for the GPU's architectural limitations.

How This Combo Ranks

The comboRankInGame of 2768 out of 2888 places this pairing in the bottom 4.2% of all tested configurations for Control. This rank is consistent with the measured FPS data: no preset reaches 60 FPS, and the average FPS across all 12 measurements is only 31. The rank is driven almost entirely by the GPU, as the CPU's percentile (94th) is in the top 6% of all processors. This discrepancy highlights the imbalance.

Compared to other combos, this pairing is likely outperformed by any configuration with a more modern GPU, even if paired with a weaker CPU. For example, a mid-range GPU from the last five years would likely double the FPS at 1080p, given that the CPU is not a bottleneck. The rank of 2768 suggests that there are only 120 combos that perform worse, which would include systems with even older GPUs or lower-end CPUs. The RX 570's 74th percentile GPU score is misleading in this context, because Control is particularly demanding on VRAM and fill rate, which this GPU lacks.

The rank also reflects the resolution scaling penalty. At 4K, the combo's average FPS is 21, which is below 25 FPS, a threshold often considered the minimum for playable frame rates in action games. At 1080p, the average is 41 FPS, but the best preset (Low) is still below 60. The data suggests that this combo should be used exclusively for 1080p gaming with settings turned down, and even then, it will not provide a consistent 60 FPS experience. The rank of 2768 serves as a warning to users that this hardware pairing is not suited for Control beyond the most modest settings, and that any upgrade to the GPU would yield substantial gains without changing the CPU.