Control

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 produces a narrow band of playable results in Control, with the data indicating that the GTX 1650 is the primary constraint across all tested configurations. The measured frame rates show that this combination is best suited for 1080p gaming, where the Low preset delivers the only consistently fluid experience, while higher resolutions and settings quickly push the system into stutter-prone territory.

Settings Recommendations

The benchmark data for this combo points to the 1920x1080 Low preset as the only configuration that provides a reliably playable experience. At this setting, the system averages 54.7 FPS, which is the sole result above the 50 FPS threshold in the entire dataset. Moving to the Medium preset at the same resolution drops the average to 41.9 FPS, a meaningful reduction of 12.8 FPS, while High yields 36.8 FPS and Ultra falls to 28.9 FPS. For players prioritizing smoothness, the Low preset is the clear choice, as it provides a 30% improvement over Medium and a 47% improvement over High at 1080p.

At 2560x1440, the situation worsens considerably. The Low preset produces an average of 42.1 FPS, which might be acceptable for some players, but the Medium preset drops to 27.8 FPS and High falls to 25.7 FPS. The Ultra preset at this resolution is nearly unplayable at 24 FPS. The data suggests that even the Low preset at 1440p is a compromise, as it falls below the 60 FPS target that many action games benefit from. For players with a 1440p display, the Low preset is the only viable option, though it will require accepting reduced visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the combination is not viable for anything beyond a static screenshot. The Low preset averages 28.3 FPS, Medium drops to 22.7 FPS, High falls to 19.6 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 14.8 FPS. None of these results approach playable frame rates. The recommendation is to avoid 4K entirely with this hardware configuration, as even the lowest settings cannot provide a smooth experience.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the dominant factor in this combination's performance. The GPU features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, with a bandwidth of 128.1 GB/s. Its base clock is 1485 MHz with a boost clock of 1665 MHz, and it delivers 2.984 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The GPU's percentile rank against all GPUs is 43, indicating it sits in the lower half of the performance spectrum.

The VRAM allocation is a critical concern, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. With only 4 GB of memory, the GTX 1650 likely struggles with texture-heavy scenes in Control, a game known for its detailed environments and physics-based destruction. The benchmark results support this interpretation: the gap between Low and Medium settings is substantial at every resolution, suggesting that the GPU's memory bandwidth and capacity are insufficient for the increased texture and geometry loads. The GTX 1650's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile with a deltaPct of -0.4 and the AMD Radeon 550X with a deltaPct of -0.4, indicating that this GPU is closely matched with those parts in raw compute capability.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9700X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 ranks 1590 out of 1636 tested combos in Control. This places it in the bottom 3% of all tested configurations, a position that reflects the severe mismatch between the modern, high-end CPU and the entry-level, end-of-life GPU. The ranking data shows that this combo is outperformed by nearly every other tested pairing, underscoring the extent to which the GTX 1650 limits the overall experience.

The CPU itself is a top-tier performer, as evidenced by its 89th percentile ranking among all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 36029. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14500HX with a deltaPct of 0.2 and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845 with a deltaPct of 0.6, showing that the Ryzen 7 9700X is closely competitive with these parts. However, in this game, the CPU's strength is completely neutralized by the GPU's limitations. The combo rank of 1590 out of 1636 is a stark indicator that this pairing is not well-balanced for Control, and the data suggests that the GPU is the bottleneck in virtually every scenario.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data reveals a consistent pattern across all resolutions and settings. At 1920x1080, the system achieves 54.7 FPS on Low, 41.9 FPS on Medium, 36.8 FPS on High, and 28.9 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra represents a 47% reduction in performance, highlighting the heavy toll that higher settings take on this GPU.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates are significantly lower. The Low preset averages 42.1 FPS, which is a 23% drop from the 1080p Low result. Medium falls to 27.8 FPS, High to 25.7 FPS, and Ultra to 24 FPS. The differences between Medium, High, and Ultra at this resolution are relatively small, suggesting that the GPU is already saturated and additional settings changes have diminishing returns.

At 3840x2160, the results are uniformly poor. Low averages 28.3 FPS, Medium 22.7 FPS, High 19.6 FPS, and Ultra 14.8 FPS. The jump from 1440p to 4K at the same settings results in a roughly 33% reduction in frame rate, which is a massive penalty. The data shows that this combination is simply not equipped to handle 4K rendering in Control, regardless of the quality settings.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K is steep and reveals the GPU-bound nature of this configuration. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (54.7 FPS) to 2560x1440 (42.1 FPS) represents a 23% drop, and further to 3840x2160 (28.3 FPS) a 48% drop overall. This scaling is consistent with a GPU that is heavily limited by its memory bandwidth and raw pixel throughput.

The pattern holds across all settings. At High settings, the drop from 1080p (36.8 FPS) to 1440p (25.7 FPS) is 30%, and to 4K (19.6 FPS) it is 47%. At Ultra settings, the numbers are 28.9 FPS at 1080p, 24 FPS at 1440p, and 14.8 FPS at 4K, representing a 49% reduction from 1080p to 4K. The consistent ~50% penalty for a 4x increase in pixel count indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, as a CPU-bound system would show a much smaller drop at higher resolutions.

The data also shows that the resolution scaling is not perfectly linear. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is generally less severe than the drop from 1440p to 4K, suggesting that the GPU's memory subsystem becomes increasingly strained as the resolution increases. The 128.1 GB/s of bandwidth and 4 GB of VRAM are simply insufficient for the demands of 4K in this game.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9700X is a high-end desktop processor with 8 cores and 16 threads, based on the Zen 5 architecture. It has a base clock of 3.80 GHz and a boost clock of 5.50 GHz, with a TDP of 65 W. The CPU's benchmarks are impressive: it scores 31588 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 4459 in single-core, and 9824 in 3DMark 16-thread. Its average benchmark score of 36029 places it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs.

Despite this CPU's capability, the benchmark data for Control shows that it has minimal impact on the frame rates achieved by this combo. The measured FPS values are almost entirely dictated by the GPU, as evidenced by the steep resolution scaling and the low overall performance. The CPU's 8 cores and 16 threads are more than sufficient for Control's workload, which is not particularly CPU-intensive. The Ryzen 7 9700X's nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14500HX, has an average score of 35940 with a deltaPct of 0.2, confirming that the CPU is performing as expected.

In this configuration, the CPU is effectively idle, waiting for the GPU to render frames. The data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking, as the frame rates do not improve at lower resolutions in the way they would if the CPU were the limiting factor. The Ryzen 7 9700X has ample headroom to drive a much more powerful GPU, and its inclusion with the GTX 1650 represents a significant imbalance that the benchmark results clearly reflect. The CPU's 89th percentile ranking stands in stark contrast to the GPU's 43rd percentile, and the combo's 1590 out of 1636 rank in this game is a direct consequence of that mismatch.