Control

# Control with AMD Ryzen 7 9700F + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER pairing delivers a playable but not exceptional experience in Control, a 2019 Action Adventure title that remains demanding on modern hardware. With measured frame rates spanning from 33 FPS at 4K Ultra to 118 FPS at 1080p Low, this combination ranks in the 71st percentile of tested combos, indicating it sits above the median but far from the top tier. The data shows a system that can handle the game at mainstream resolutions with adjusted settings, but struggles to maintain high refresh rates at 4K.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data reveals a clear pattern: the RTX 2060 SUPER is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, while the Ryzen 7 9700F provides ample headroom. At 1920x1080, all four settings presets produce playable results. Low settings deliver an average of 118 FPS, Medium drops to 84 FPS, High achieves 74 FPS, and Ultra still manages 65 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 53 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU has enough compute to handle the game's visual features at 1080p without severe compromises.

For the best balance of visual fidelity and smoothness at 1080p, the High preset is the recommended choice. It maintains an average of 74 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for most displays, while retaining the graphical enhancements that Control's atmospheric environments benefit from. The Medium preset at 84 FPS offers a 10 FPS improvement over High, but the visual trade-off is significant in a game known for its particle effects and destructible environments. Ultra at 65 FPS is viable for players with 60Hz monitors, but the margin above the refresh rate is thin, and any demanding scene could cause noticeable dips.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts. The High preset produces 56 FPS on average, which is below the ideal 60 FPS target but still playable on adaptive sync displays. Medium delivers 63 FPS, making it the safest choice for consistent smoothness at this resolution. Low jumps to 89 FPS, but the visual degradation at 1440p is more apparent than at 1080p due to the larger pixel count. Ultra falls to 49 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS threshold and likely to cause noticeable stutter in combat sequences. The Medium preset at 1440p provides the best compromise, offering 63 FPS with a minimum of 54 FPS, ensuring that even the heaviest scenes stay within a tolerable range.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 2060 SUPER is clearly overmatched. The Low preset achieves exactly 60 FPS on average, which is the only setting that hits the standard target. Medium falls to 43 FPS, High drops to 38 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 33 FPS. For 4K gaming, the Low preset is the only viable option if smooth gameplay is the priority. However, the visual fidelity at Low settings on a 4K display will look noticeably sparse, and players with 4K monitors should consider running the game at 1440p instead to maintain both quality and performance.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 2054 out of 2888 tested combinations places this pairing in the 71st percentile of all tested systems in Control. This means that roughly 29% of tested combos perform worse, while 71% perform better. The ranking reflects the RTX 2060 SUPER's age and position in the GPU hierarchy, as the CPU is far more capable than the graphics card in this pairing.

The Ryzen 7 9700F's benchmark scores reinforce this interpretation. With an average benchmark score of 69996, it sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, placing it above the vast majority of processors. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX at 69875 (0.2% behind), the Intel Core i7-14700KF at 70163 (0.2% ahead), the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X at 69515 (0.7% behind), and the Intel Core i7-14700K at 69355 (0.9% behind). These deltas are all within 1%, meaning the 9700F is effectively tied with the top-tier desktop and mobile processors from the previous generation.

The RTX 2060 SUPER, by contrast, has an average benchmark score of 18093, placing it in the 62nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile at 18159 (0.4% ahead), the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 at 18189 (0.5% ahead), the AMD Radeon RX 460 at 18373 (1.5% ahead), and the Intel Arc A770M at 18383 (1.6% ahead). The tight grouping of these scores, all within 2% of each other, indicates that the RTX 2060 SUPER is performance-classed with mobile and workstation GPUs, not desktop flagships.

The disparity between the CPU's 94th percentile ranking and the GPU's 62nd percentile ranking explains the combo's mid-pack position in Control. The game's rendering demands scale heavily with resolution, and the GPU becomes the bottleneck as pixel count increases. At 1080p, the CPU's strength can shine through, but at 4K, the GPU's limitations dominate the frame rate.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is built on the Turing architecture using the TU106 chip, manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1750 MHz, or 14 Gbps effective. The GPU's base clock is 1470 MHz, with a boost clock of 1650 MHz.

In Control, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM capacity is sufficient for the game's textures at all tested settings, as no measurement indicates memory-related stuttering or texture pop-in. The game's demanding nature comes from its physics simulation and particle effects, which stress the GPU's compute units. The RTX 2060 SUPER has 2176 shading units, 136 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 34 ray tracing cores and 272 tensor cores. The FP32 performance of 7.181 TFLOPS provides the raw compute power, while the texture rate of 224.4 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 105.6 GPixel/s determine how quickly the GPU can fill the screen.

The measured frame rates show that the GPU's performance scales predictably with resolution. At 1080p High, the average FPS of 74 represents 100% of the baseline. At 1440p High, the average drops to 56 FPS, a 24% reduction. At 4K High, the average falls to 38 FPS, a 49% reduction from 1080p. This scaling pattern is typical for a GPU with 8 GB of VRAM and a 256-bit memory bus, as the bandwidth becomes increasingly strained at higher pixel counts.

The RTX 2060 SUPER's 12 nm process node and 175 W TDP place it in the mid-range of the GeForce 20-series lineup. Its predecessor is the GeForce 10 series, and its successor is the GeForce 30 series, indicating it belongs to the second wave of NVIDIA's ray tracing capable GPUs. The GPU's DirectX 12 Ultimate support (12_2) ensures compatibility with Control's modern rendering features, though the data does not indicate whether ray tracing was enabled in the measured runs.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution where all settings presets maintain at least 65 FPS on average. At 2560x1440, only Low and Medium presets exceed 60 FPS, while at 3840x2160, only Low settings reach 60 FPS.

Q: How does the Ryzen 7 9700F compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9700F has an average benchmark score of 69996, which is within 1% of the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875), Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163), AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515), and Intel Core i7-14700K (69355). It sits in the 94th percentile of all CPUs.

Q: Is the RTX 2060 SUPER's 8 GB VRAM sufficient for Control?

A: Yes, the measured data shows no indication of VRAM-related performance issues. The GPU's 8 GB GDDR6 memory with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth handles the game's textures at all tested settings, as frame rates scale consistently with resolution rather than dropping due to memory swapping.

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

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset averages 118 FPS, while Ultra averages 65 FPS. This represents a 53 FPS difference, or roughly 45% lower performance at Ultra compared to Low.

Q: How does the RTX 2060 SUPER rank against other GPUs?

A: The RTX 2060 SUPER has an average benchmark score of 18093, placing it in the 62nd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals are the RTX 3060 Mobile (18159), Radeon Pro 5700 (18189), Radeon RX 460 (18373), and Arc A770M (18383), all within 2% of its score.

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

A: At 3840x2160, the Low preset achieves exactly 60 FPS on average, making it the only 4K setting that hits the standard smoothness target. Medium runs at 43 FPS, High at 38 FPS, and Ultra at 33 FPS, all of which are below 60 FPS.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K reveals how the system's performance scales with pixel count and how the bottleneck shifts between CPU and GPU. At 1920x1080, the average FPS across all settings is 85.25 (calculated from Low at 118, Medium at 84, High at 74, and Ultra at 65). At 2560x1440, the average drops to 64.25 (Low at 89, Medium at 63, High at 56, Ultra at 49). At 3840x2160, the average falls to 43.5 (Low at 60, Medium at 43, High at 38, Ultra at 33).

The scaling factors tell a clear story. Moving from 1080p to 1440p reduces average FPS by approximately 25%, while moving from 1440p to 4K reduces average FPS by approximately 32%. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K is approximately 49%. This nonlinear scaling indicates that the GPU becomes progressively more strained as resolution increases, which is expected for a mid-range GPU like the RTX 2060 SUPER.

The Low preset scaling is particularly informative. At 1080p Low, the system achieves 118 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's maximum frame rate in this game. At 1440p Low, it drops to 89 FPS, and at 4K Low, it hits exactly 60 FPS. The fact that 1440p Low still exceeds 60 FPS while 4K Low exactly matches it suggests that the GPU's compute and memory bandwidth limits are reached somewhere between these two resolutions. The 8 GB VRAM and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for 1440p but become marginal at 4K.

The Medium preset shows similar behavior, with 84 FPS at 1080p, 63 FPS at 1440p, and 43 FPS at 4K. The minimum FPS values for Medium are 71 at 1080p, 54 at 1440p, and 36 at 4K, indicating that even the lowest frame rates remain above 30 FPS at all resolutions. However, the 4K Medium minimum of 36 FPS is close to the threshold where gameplay becomes noticeably choppy.

The High and Ultra presets show the steepest drops. High goes from 74 FPS at 1080p to 56 FPS at 1440p to 38 FPS at 4K, while Ultra goes from 65 FPS to 49 FPS to 33 FPS. These settings add visual effects that disproportionately increase GPU load at higher resolutions, confirming that the RTX 2060 SUPER is the primary limiting component above 1080p.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is a desktop processor from the 9000 series, based on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz. The CPU is manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process node, with 8,315 million transistors on a 70.6 mm² die. It supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with a memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s, and operates on the AMD Socket AM5 platform with PCIe Gen 5 support.

In Control, the CPU's role is primarily to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics data. The game's Action Adventure genre typically involves complex scene geometry and particle effects, which can be CPU-intensive at high frame rates. The measured data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 118 FPS, which is likely approaching the CPU's limit for this game. At higher settings, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, as evidenced by the larger FPS drops when increasing resolution compared to when increasing settings at the same resolution.

The Ryzen 7 9700F's benchmark scores demonstrate its strength. The PassMark single-thread score of 4691 and multithread score of 36470 place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The integer math score of 120788, floating point math score of 77955, and extended instructions score of 33688 all indicate strong compute performance that can handle the game's physics calculations. The data compression score of 421988 and encryption score of 21488 show robust memory and cache performance, with the 32 MB shared L3 cache and 1 MB per-core L2 cache providing ample data locality.

The CPU's 65 W TDP is notably low for an 8-core processor, which suggests efficient power delivery and thermal management. The boost clock of 5.50 GHz is among the highest in the CPU benchmark database, allowing the processor to handle single-threaded tasks with minimal latency. In Control, this translates to consistent frame times at lower resolutions where the GPU is not the limiting factor.

The comparison to its nearest rivals shows that the 9700F is effectively tied with the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX, Intel Core i7-14700KF, AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, and Intel Core i7-14700K, all within 1% of its average benchmark score. This places the 9700F firmly in the top tier of gaming CPUs, meaning that any performance limitations in Control are attributable to the GPU, not the processor. The CPU's 16 threads provide ample parallelism for the game's multithreaded rendering pipeline, and the Zen 5 architecture's improvements over previous generations ensure efficient instruction execution.

At 4K resolutions, the CPU's contribution diminishes as the GPU's fill rate and bandwidth become the dominant factors. The data shows that at 4K Low, the system achieves 60 FPS, which is likely the GPU's maximum output for that setting, not a CPU limitation. The CPU's high single-thread performance ensures that even at lower resolutions, the GPU is consistently fed with data, preventing frame rate drops due to CPU bottlenecks.