Control

( Control with AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D + AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT

How does a flagship 2024 CPU paired with a mid-generation RDNA 3 graphics card handle Remedy's physics-heavy action-adventure? The data reveals a pairing that excels at high refresh 1440p but begins to show its limits at 4K, particularly as visual presets climb. This combination ranks 1,254th out of 3,720 tested combos in this game, placing it in the 66th percentile of all tested systems. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D proves it has plenty of headroom, while the RX 7800 XT becomes the defining factor at higher resolutions.

FAQ

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

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo hits 174 FPS average. This is the highest average achieved across all resolution and settings combinations.

Q: How much of a frame rate drop occurs when moving from 1080p to 4K on High settings?

A: At 1920x1080 High, the combo averages 110 FPS. Moving to 3840x2160 High drops that to 56 FPS, a 54 FPS reduction that represents a 49% performance loss.

Q: Does the Ultra preset ever become playable at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the average FPS falls to 49 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS threshold many players target for smooth gameplay.

Q: Which settings preset provides the highest minimum frame rate at 1440p?

A: The Medium preset at 2560x1440 shows a minimum of 80 FPS and a maximum of 108 FPS, with an average of 94 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU's 8-core, 16-thread configuration influence performance in this title?

A: The 8-core, 16-thread configuration is a strong match; the CPU's multi-threaded capability is demonstrated by its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23,230 points.

Q: What is the GPU's memory bandwidth and how might it relate to 4K performance?

A: The Radeon RX 7800 XT features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 624.1 GB/s of bandwidth. This ample bandwidth is a key factor in maintaining playable frame rates at 4K, even if the GPU's raw compute limits peak performance.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT, built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture with the Navi 32 chip, is the star of the show, and its role becomes more or less critical depending on the resolution. At 1080p, the GPU is not the bottleneck; the data shows it's capable of pushing well over 100 FPS at any settings preset. The 174 FPS at Low and 96 FPS at Ultra at 1920x1080 demonstrate a wide performance envelope. The GPU is working, but not necessarily at its limit. The 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is more than sufficient for a game from 2019, ensuring no VRAM-related stutters or texture pop-ins.

As the resolution increases to 1440p, the GPU's workload intensifies. The gap between the Low and Ultra presets closes slightly, but the RX 7800 XT still delivers a very strong gaming experience. The 60 RT cores and 37.32 TFLOPS of FP32 power are clearly being utilized, but the architecture scales predictably. The clock speeds are also a factor; the boost clock of 2430 MHz and game clock of 2124 MHz provide the raw throughput needed for these frame rates.

However, it's at 4K that the RX 7800 XT's true character is revealed. The 49 FPS average at 4K Ultra is a significant drop, showing that the GPU's compute resources are being fully taxed. The 4K results show a GPU that is capable but not overkill. The 2,560:1 ratio of shaders to ROPs (3,840 to 96) means that while it can calculate a lot of parallel work, the pixel-filling rate becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The GPU's 583.2 GTexel/s texture rate is a more critical metric here, and the data suggests it's just not quite enough to maintain 60 FPS at maximum settings in this demanding title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K provides a textbook example of a system transitioning from a CPU-bound to a GPU-bound state. At 1920x1080, the frame rates are high, but the scaling is interesting; the difference between Low and Ultra is 78 FPS (174 to 96). At 4K, that same difference shrinks to 40 FPS (89 to 49). This compression of the frame rate range at higher resolutions is a clear indicator that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor.

The 49% performance drop from 1080p to 4K on High settings (110 to 56 FPS) is a steep curve, but not an unexpected one. It shows that for every pixel rendered at 4K, the GPU has to work significantly harder. The medium preset shows a similar trend, dropping 61 FPS (124 to 63) from 1080p to 4K. Interestingly, the Low preset shows the smallest absolute drop from 1080p to 4K at 85 FPS (174 to 89), which shows that the game scales well when the load is lowered on the GPU. This indicates that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is never the bottleneck here.

The data strongly suggests that a 1440p or 1080p display is the sweet spot for this configuration, where the GPU can flex its muscle without being overwhelmed. The 4K results, while still playable, show that the RX 7800 XT is the definitive limiting component in this pairing.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080: The system delivers high refresh rate performance across all presets, starting at 174 FPS on Low. The High preset yields 110 FPS, while Medium and Ultra come in at 124 FPS and 96 FPS, respectively. The Medium preset shows a minimum of 105 FPS and a maximum of 142 FPS.

2560x1440: This is the resolution where the setup shows its strengths, providing a great balance of visual quality and speed. Low settings hit 132 FPS, High averages 83 FPS, Medium averages 94 FPS (with a minimum of 80 FPS and a maximum of 108 FPS), and Ultra settings still manage a very respectable 72 FPS.

3840x2160: This is where the GPU starts to show its limits. Low settings deliver an average of 89 FPS. However, visual quality presets take a significant hit. Medium averages 63 FPS, High drops to 56 FPS, and Ultra falls to 49 FPS. The Medium preset at this resolution shows a minimum of 54 FPS and a maximum of 73 FPS.

How This Combo Ranks

In the grand scheme of 3,720 tested combinations, this pairing of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the Radeon RX 7800 XT claims the 1,254th spot. This places the system in the upper 66th percentile of all tested rigs, which is a solid position. The CPU's relative performance is notable; it sits at the 87th percentile among all CPUs, showing that it has the potential to feed faster GPUs. However, the GPU is in the 51st percentile, which anchors the overall combo performance.

The data suggests that this system is not at the absolute top of the pile, but it is far from a slouch. The CPU is overperforming compared to the GPU. The nearest rival for the CPU is the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8840HS, which is 0.4% faster, and the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, which is 0.7% slower. The GPU's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, which is 0.5% slower, and the AMD Radeon Pro 5500M, which is 0.9% slower.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a beast of a processor, and its role in this benchmark is to provide a stable, high-performance platform that allows the GPU to stretch its legs. With 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, this CPU is not going to be a bottleneck in most scenarios. The high single-thread performance, as evidenced by its Geekbench single-core score of 2,964, is crucial for maintaining high frame rates. The data shows that even at 1080p, where the CPU has the most influence, the system is capable of pushing frame rates well beyond the 144 Hz mark on lower presets.

The 96 MB of shared L3 cache is a key feature for gaming, offering a large pool of high-speed memory for frequently accessed data. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 23,230 points shows its ability to handle heavy, multi-threaded workloads, but in a game like Control, the single-core performance is more important. The 4.70 GHz base and 5.20 GHz boost clocks are excellent, and the 3D V-Cache technology is designed to reduce latency and improve performance in games that are cache-sensitive. In this test, the CPU never appears to be the limiting factor, even at 4K, as the scaling of frame rates from 1080p to 4K follows the expected GPU-bound curve.

Settings Recommendations

The data clearly shows that the optimal experience for this combination is at 1440p. At this resolution, the system can handle any preset, but the sweet spot is the High preset, which delivers an average of 83 FPS. This provides a significant visual upgrade over Low and Medium and is more stable than Ultra, which averages 72 FPS. The game looks fantastic on High, and the frame rate is responsive enough for the game's action.

For players with 1080p monitors, the High preset is the way to go, as it provides a 110 FPS average, which is perfect for a high refresh rate display. The Ultra preset at 1080p is also viable, but the 14 FPS gain from dropping to High is more beneficial than the marginal visual difference.

At 4K, the recommendation is to stick with the Medium preset, which yields an average of 63 FPS. This is the only preset at 4K that maintains an average frame rate above 60 FPS. The High preset averages 56 FPS, which is playable but leaves less headroom. The Low preset at 4K is not recommended, as the jump to Medium provides a much better visual experience for only a 29% performance hit (from 89 FPS to 63 FPS). Therefore, Medium at 4K offers the best balance of visual quality and playability for this GPU.