Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 combination delivers a robust performance profile in Control, with measured frame rates ranging from 72 FPS at 4K Ultra to 255 FPS at 1080p Low. The data indicates a system that is overwhelmingly GPU-bound at higher resolutions, while the 8-core Zen 5 processor provides sufficient headroom to keep frame rates high at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS data, component roles, and optimal settings for this specific pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable progression as resolution increases, with the most significant performance drop occurring between 1440p and 4K. At Low settings, the average frame rate falls from 255 FPS at 1080p to 193 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 62 FPS. The subsequent jump to 4K Low brings the average down to 130 FPS, another 63 FPS loss. This pattern indicates that the rendering load is scaling heavily with pixel count, a characteristic of a GPU-limited scenario.

At High settings, the scaling tells a similar story. The system produces 161 FPS at 1080p, which drops to 122 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 82 FPS at 4K. The 39 FPS difference between 1080p and 1440p is less severe than the 40 FPS difference between 1440p and 4K, suggesting that the RTX 5080’s memory bandwidth and processing power are being taxed more heavily as resolution approaches 4K. The shift from 1440p to 4K at High settings represents a 32.8% performance decrease, which is substantial but not catastrophic for a game of this era.

The Ultra preset exhibits the lowest overall frame rates, with 140 FPS at 1080p, 106 FPS at 1440p, and 72 FPS at 4K. The 34 FPS reduction from 1080p to 1440p and the 34 FPS reduction from 1440p to 4K show a nearly linear scaling pattern. This linear drop is a strong indicator that the GPU is the limiting component at all resolutions when the highest settings are applied. The data suggests that no CPU bottleneck is present; otherwise, the frame rate would plateau or show diminishing returns as resolution increases.

The scaling from 1440p to 4K at all settings reveals the GPU's raw compute limits. At Low settings, the RTX 5080 manages 130 FPS at 4K, which is a substantial 48.4% drop from the 4K High result. This wide gap between Low and Ultra at the same resolution—58 FPS at 4K—demonstrates the significant impact of the game's graphical features on rendering time. The 4K Medium result of 93 FPS with a minimum of 79 FPS and maximum of 107 FPS shows that even mid-tier settings require considerable GPU resources.

The lack of min/max FPS data for High, Low, and Ultra presets at most resolutions limits a full frame-time analysis, but the available Medium preset data provides insight into frame pacing. At 4K Medium, the 28 FPS spread between minimum and maximum indicates some variance, but the average of 93 FPS remains smooth. This spread narrows at 1440p Medium to 41 FPS (117 min, 158 max), and tightens further at 1080p Medium to 55 FPS (154 min, 209 max). This pattern suggests that frame pacing becomes more consistent as resolution decreases, which is typical of a GPU-bound workload.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured rows, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual fidelity and performance for this combination. At 1080p Medium, the system averages 181 FPS, which is a 74 FPS improvement over Ultra and only 74 FPS behind Low. The minimum frame rate of 154 FPS at this setting ensures a consistently smooth experience, even in demanding scenes. The 1440p Medium result of 137 FPS with a 117 FPS minimum is equally compelling for high-refresh-rate monitors.

For 4K gaming, the High preset is the recommended choice. At 82 FPS average, it provides a playable experience that is 10 FPS faster than 4K Ultra. The gap between High and Medium at 4K is 11 FPS, but the visual quality improvement from Medium to High typically justifies the performance cost. The Ultra preset at 4K, averaging 72 FPS, is borderline for competitive play, though it remains playable for a single-player action-adventure title.

The Low preset is not recommended for this hardware combination, as it leaves significant performance on the table. At 1080p Low, the system produces 255 FPS, which is overkill for most displays and sacrifices visual quality without a proportional benefit. The data shows that the RTX 5080 has enough headroom to run Medium settings at 1080p with a 29% performance buffer over High, making Low settings unnecessary except for extremely high-refresh-rate (240Hz+) displays.

For users prioritizing frame rate over visuals, the Medium preset at 1440p is the sweet spot. The 137 FPS average is 31 FPS higher than High at the same resolution, and the minimum of 117 FPS ensures no drops below the 100 FPS threshold. The 4K Medium setting, at 93 FPS, is also viable for those with VRR displays, as the 79 FPS minimum remains within a reasonable range. The Ultra preset should only be used at 1080p, where the 140 FPS average is still fluid and the visual enhancements are most noticeable at that pixel density.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combination achieves in Control?*

A: The highest measured average frame rate is 255 FPS at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. The next highest is 193 FPS at 2560x1440 Low, followed by 181 FPS at 1920x1080 Medium.

Q: Is the RTX 5080 or Ryzen 7 9700F the limiting factor in this game?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary limiting factor. Evidence includes the linear FPS drop from 140 FPS at 1080p Ultra to 72 FPS at 4K Ultra, which is a 48.6% reduction that scales with pixel count. The CPU’s high single-thread score of 4691 in Passmark supports this conclusion.

*Q: Can this system run Control at 4K 60 FPS with all settings enabled?*

A: Yes, but not at the highest preset. The measured 4K Ultra average is 72 FPS, which exceeds 60 FPS. However, this preset does not include min/max FPS data. The 4K High average of 82 FPS provides a safer margin, while 4K Medium shows a 79 FPS minimum and 93 FPS average.

Q: How does the Medium preset's frame pacing compare across resolutions?

A: The Medium preset is the only one with min/max FPS data. At 4K, the spread is 28 FPS (79-107). At 1440p, the spread is 41 FPS (117-158). At 1080p, the spread is 55 FPS (154-209). This indicates that frame time variance increases as resolution decreases.

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

A: The difference is 87 FPS. Low settings average 193 FPS, while Ultra settings average 106 FPS. This represents a 45.1% performance reduction when moving from the lowest to the highest preset at 2560x1440.

Q: How does the RTX 5080's 16 GB VRAM factor into performance?

A: The 16 GB GDDR7 memory is ample for Control at all tested settings and resolutions. The 960.0 GB/s bandwidth ensures that memory bandwidth is not a bottleneck, as evidenced by the consistent frame rates even at 4K Ultra, which typically uses less than 16 GB of VRAM in this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 ranks 171st out of 2888 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the top 5.9% of all systems in the benchmark database. This rank reflects the strong performance of both components, with the RTX 5080's high average benchmark score of 56083 and the CPU's 36470 multi-thread Passmark score contributing to the overall result.

The rank is particularly notable given the game's release date of 2019-08-26. Control is an older title that is less demanding than modern releases, which means the RTX 5080's raw compute power (56.28 TFLOPS FP32) is more than sufficient to push frame rates high. The GPU's percentile of 87 vs all GPUs and the CPU's percentile of 94 vs all CPUs indicate that this pairing sits near the top of the hardware stack, which explains the high combo rank.

The rank of 171 out of 2888 also suggests that there are 170 combinations with better performance in this game. These would likely include higher-end GPUs or CPUs with more cores, but the delta is small given the high frame rates already achieved. The data shows that this combo is not bottlenecked in a way that would artificially lower its rank; rather, it is limited by the absolute performance ceiling of the components.

Comparing the CPU to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 9700F's average benchmark score of 69996 is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX (69875) and 0.7% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X (69515). It trails the Intel Core i7-14700KF (70163) by 0.2%. These margins are negligible in real-world gaming, meaning the CPU is not the differentiator in this rank. The GPU, with a 0.6% lead over the AMD Radeon 8060S (55757) and a 2.3% lead over the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (54828), is the more significant contributor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 is the dominant component in this pairing, as evidenced by the measured FPS data. With 10752 shading units, 336 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, the GPU has ample resources to process Control's rendering workloads. The 84 RT cores are relevant for the game's ray tracing effects, though the data does not isolate their specific impact.

The GPU's memory configuration is a key strength. The 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is more than sufficient for Control at 4K, where texture data and frame buffers can consume significant memory. The lack of any min/max FPS data at High, Low, and Ultra presets suggests consistent performance, which is often a sign of adequate memory bandwidth. The Medium preset's min/max spread of 28 FPS at 4K is modest, indicating that memory is not causing stutters.

The clock speeds of 2295 MHz base and 2617 MHz boost are moderate for a high-end GPU, but the architecture's efficiency compensates. The Blackwell 2.0 architecture, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, delivers 56.28 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. This raw throughput is what drives the high frame rates at 1080p, where the GPU can push 255 FPS at Low settings. The pixel rate of 293.1 GPixel/s and texture rate of 879.3 GTexel/s are critical for the fill-rate dependent effects in Control.

The GPU's performance relative to its nearest rivals is tight. The RTX 5080's average benchmark score of 56083 is 0.6% higher than the AMD Radeon 8060S and 0.7% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB. It trails the AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE by 2.2%. These small deltas mean that the RTX 5080 is competitively positioned, but the measured FPS in Control shows it excels due to its driver optimization and feature set.

The GPU's 16 GB VRAM is a future-proofing advantage. While Control may not require the full capacity, the headroom allows for high-resolution textures and mods without memory pressure. The 360 W TDP and 750 W suggested PSU indicate this is a power-hungry part, but the performance justifies the power draw in the context of the measured results.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings achieve 255 FPS, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings produce 181 FPS with a minimum of 154 FPS and a maximum of 209 FPS. High settings drop to 161 FPS, while Ultra settings yield 140 FPS. The 115 FPS gap between Low and Ultra at 1080p demonstrates the significant cost of the highest preset.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but show more variance. Low settings average 193 FPS, a 62 FPS drop from 1080p. Medium settings average 137 FPS with a 117 FPS minimum and 158 FPS maximum. High settings produce 122 FPS, while Ultra settings average 106 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 87 FPS, which is narrower than at 1080p, indicating the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the bottleneck. Low settings average 130 FPS, which is still very playable. Medium settings average 93 FPS with a 79 FPS minimum and 107 FPS maximum. High settings produce 82 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 72 FPS. The total range at 4K is 58 FPS (from 72 to 130), which is a 44.6% performance spread between the lowest and highest presets.

The Medium preset is the only one with complete min/max data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the spread is 55 FPS (154-209). At 1440p, the spread is 41 FPS (117-158). At 4K, the spread is 28 FPS (79-107). This decreasing spread with increasing resolution suggests that frame pacing becomes more stable as the GPU becomes more fully utilized, reducing the impact of CPU-induced frame time spikes.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700F serves as the supporting component in this combination, and the data shows it is more than adequate for Control. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), the CPU provides a strong foundation for the game's logic and physics. The base clock of 3.80 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz ensure high single-thread performance, which is critical for older games like Control that may not scale well across many cores.

The CPU's benchmark scores corroborate its gaming capability. The Passmark single-thread score of 4691 is high, and the multi-thread score of 36470 indicates strong parallel performance. The data shows that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate scaling with resolution. If the CPU were limiting, the FPS at 1080p would be similar to 1440p, but the data shows a clear 62 FPS drop from 1080p Low to 1440p Low.

The 32 MB of shared L3 cache is beneficial for gaming, as it reduces memory latency for frequently accessed data. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth is sufficient to feed the GPU's data demands. The CPU's 65 W TDP is modest, indicating efficient power usage, but the performance is high enough to keep up with the RTX 5080.

Relative to its nearest rivals, the Ryzen 7 9700F's average benchmark score of 69996 is 0.2% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX and 0.7% higher than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. It trails the Intel Core i7-14700KF by 0.2%. These margins are within measurement error, meaning the CPU's performance is effectively on par with those parts. In Control, where the GPU is the limiting factor above 1080p, the CPU's exact position among rivals has minimal impact on the measured FPS.

The CPU's 94th percentile ranking vs all CPUs indicates it is in the top 6% of all processors. This is consistent with the overall combo rank of 171 out of 2888. The CPU's role is to provide enough headroom that the GPU can operate at its full potential, and the data confirms this is the case. The lack of min FPS data at most settings suggests that the CPU is not causing frame drops or hitches, which would typically manifest as a large gap between average and minimum FPS.