Control

FAQ

Q: What is the overall performance ranking of this CPU and GPU combination in Control?

A: The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with the AMD Radeon RX 580 ranks 1515 out of 1636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the bottom tier of tested systems for this game.

Q: How does the RX 580 compare to its closest GPU rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RX 580's average benchmark score is 13559, which is essentially tied with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13564, 0% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 (13549, 0.1% delta). It sits 1.1% above the AMD Radeon Pro 455 and 1.1% below the NVIDIA P106-090.

Q: What is the best frame rate this combo achieves at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo averages 65.6 FPS. This is the highest average frame rate recorded across all tested resolutions and settings.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 7 9800X3D has an average benchmark score of 37780. It is 0.1% behind the Intel Xeon 6353P (37811) and the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 (37831), 0.6% behind the Intel Core i9-13900HK (38020), and 0.7% behind the Intel Core i5-13600KF (38028).

Q: Does the RX 580 support modern graphics APIs needed for Control?

A: Yes, the RX 580 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, which covers the API requirements for Control.

Q: What is the memory configuration of the RX 580?

A: The GPU features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 256.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Its memory clock runs at 2000 MHz with 8 Gbps effective speed.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the clear bottleneck in this configuration for Control. With 2304 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, the GPU's raw throughput is limited to 6.175 TFLOPS FP32 and a pixel rate of 42.88 GPixel/s. The 8 GB GDDR5 frame buffer is adequate for the game's demands, but the 256.0 GB/s bandwidth and the Polaris 20 chip's GCN 4.0 architecture are not sufficient for Control's visual complexity.

The GPU's clock behavior shows a base clock of 1257 MHz and a boost clock of 1340 MHz. These modest clocks, combined with the 14 nm GlobalFoundries process, result in the card sitting at the 53rd percentile among all GPUs. In synthetic tests, the RX 580 scores 8813 in PassMark G3D and 1005 in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, confirming its position as a mid-range part from the Polaris generation.

Benchmark results indicate that the GPU's performance ceiling is reached early in Control. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate drops to 18.5 FPS, which is essentially unplayable. Even at 1080p Ultra, the card only manages 32.6 FPS. The data shows a consistent pattern: as resolution and settings increase, the RX 580's limited shading power and memory bandwidth prevent any chance of smooth gameplay at higher presets.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination ranks 1515 out of 1636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the bottom 8% of all tested systems. The ranking reflects a severe mismatch: the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a top-tier CPU (90th percentile among all CPUs), while the RX 580 is a modest mid-range GPU (53rd percentile). The CPU's potential is entirely wasted in this pairing for Control.

The data shows that the GPU holds back the entire system. The CPU's average benchmark score of 37780 places it just 0.7% behind the Intel Core i5-13600KF, yet the system's in-game performance is dominated by the GPU's limitations. The combo rank of 1515 indicates that most other tested configurations, even those with less capable CPUs, deliver better frame rates in Control because they pair them with stronger graphics cards.

The discrepancy between the component percentiles (90th for CPU, 53rd for GPU) and the combo rank (bottom 8%) highlights how heavily Control depends on GPU throughput. This is not a balanced pairing for this game, and the ranking reflects that reality.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce an average of 65.6 FPS, which is the only configuration that approaches smooth gameplay. Medium settings drop to 42.6 FPS, High to 42.1 FPS, and Ultra falls to 32.6 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is substantial at 23 FPS, while the difference between Medium and High is negligible at 0.5 FPS.

At 2560x1440, performance degrades significantly. Low settings average 50.8 FPS, Medium drops to 31.9 FPS, High to 29.3 FPS, and Ultra to 25.9 FPS. The 1440p Low result remains playable, but every other setting falls below 32 FPS.

At 3840x2160, the RX 580 struggles severely. Low settings average 34.4 FPS, Medium drops to 26 FPS, High to 18.1 FPS, and Ultra to 18.5 FPS. None of these results are suitable for smooth gameplay, and the High and Ultra presets are effectively slideshows.

The measured data reveals that the RX 580's performance collapses as resolution increases. The 4K Low result (34.4 FPS) is worse than the 1080p Ultra result (32.6 FPS), showing that resolution scaling has a more significant impact than settings changes on this GPU.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is an 8-core, 16-thread processor based on Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge), built on TSMC's 4 nm process. It features a base clock of 4.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.20 GHz, with 96 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth.

In synthetic benchmarks, the 9800X3D demonstrates exceptional performance. It scores 34004 in Cinebench R23 multi-core, 4800 in single-core, and 18413 in Geekbench multi-core. The PassMark multithread score of 40009 and single-thread score of 4430 further confirm its capability. These scores place it in the 90th percentile among all CPUs.

However, in Control with the RX 580, the CPU's role is minimized. The game's frame rates are constrained by the GPU, not the processor. The CPU's 3DMark scores (10081 in 16-thread, 1212 in single-thread) show it can handle any game workload, but the RX 580 simply cannot feed frames fast enough to utilize this processing power. The data indicates that the CPU is never the limiting factor in any measured configuration.

Settings Recommendations

For playable performance, the only viable option is 1080p Low, which delivers an average of 65.6 FPS. This is the only setting and resolution combination that exceeds 60 FPS. If visual quality is prioritized over frame rate, 1440p Low at 50.8 FPS is the next best choice, though it falls below the 60 FPS threshold.

At 1080p Medium (42.6 FPS) and 1080p High (42.1 FPS), the results are nearly identical, suggesting that the GPU is hitting a similar bottleneck at these settings. The data shows no meaningful benefit to choosing High over Medium at 1080p, as the 0.5 FPS difference is within measurement noise.

The 4K resolution should be avoided entirely. Even at Low settings, the average frame rate of 34.4 FPS is below acceptable playability standards, and the High and Ultra presets drop to 18.1 and 18.5 FPS respectively. The benchmark results indicate that this GPU is not suitable for 4K gaming in Control under any settings configuration.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is severe. At Low settings, the frame rate falls from 65.6 FPS at 1080p to 50.8 FPS at 1440p (a 22.6% decrease) and then to 34.4 FPS at 4K (a 47.6% decrease from 1440p). This steep decline indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and shading resources are exhausted quickly as pixel count increases.

At High settings, the scaling is even more dramatic: 42.1 FPS at 1080p drops to 29.3 FPS at 1440p, then to 18.1 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is less than half of the 1080p High result, demonstrating that the RX 580 cannot sustain its performance when pixel throughput demands more than its 256.0 GB/s bandwidth can provide.

The data suggests that the GPU is the limiting component at all resolutions. The CPU's performance remains constant regardless of resolution, yet frame rates drop consistently with pixel count. This confirms that Control's rendering load is entirely GPU-bound with this combination, and the RX 580's 8 GB GDDR5 memory and 232 mm² die size are insufficient for higher resolution demands. The scaling pattern shows a linear degradation that aligns with GPU-limited behavior, with no evidence of CPU bottlenecking even at 1080p Low.