Control

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB presents a striking asymmetry in Control. The data shows a processor capable of top-tier synthetic throughput paired with a graphics card that is clearly the bottleneck in this Action Adventure title. The benchmark results across resolutions and settings reveal a system where the GPU’s 4 GB frame buffer and modest compute resources dictate the experience, while the CPU’s substantial 96 MB of L3 cache and high boost clocks remain largely unexercised.

Settings Recommendations

The measured rows indicate that the Low preset is the only reliable path to high refresh rates, though it comes at a visual cost. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 85.1 FPS, which is the only configuration in the entire dataset to exceed 60 FPS. This makes Low the definitive choice for players prioritizing fluidity over fidelity. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 58.2 FPS, which is playable but falls short of the 60 FPS target, suggesting a compromise that might frustrate on high-refresh displays.

For 2560x1440, the situation becomes more constrained. The Low preset averages 62.9 FPS, making it the only viable option for smooth gameplay at this resolution. The High preset at 1440p drops to 40.7 FPS, which is a significant step down and likely to feel sluggish in combat-heavy sequences. At 3840x2160, all settings fail to reach 60 FPS, with Low averaging 40.4 FPS and Ultra dropping to 23.8 FPS. The data implies that 4K is not a practical target for this combo, even with the most aggressive settings reductions.

The Ultra preset performs poorly across all resolutions, with averages of 46.6 FPS at 1080p, 32.9 FPS at 1440p, and 23.8 FPS at 4K. Given that Medium and High at 1080p deliver 58.2 and 53.7 FPS respectively, the marginal visual gains from Ultra do not justify the substantial frame rate penalty. The optimal experience per the measured rows is the Low preset at 1080p, which provides a smooth 85.1 FPS average, or the Low preset at 1440p if higher resolution is desired, at 62.9 FPS.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is the primary limiting factor in this combination. Its 4 GB GDDR6 memory size is the most critical constraint, as Control is known for high-resolution textures that can quickly exhaust a smaller frame buffer. The memory operates at 1500 MHz with a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s. This bandwidth is sufficient for 1080p but struggles at higher resolutions where data throughput demands increase.

The GPU’s base clock of 1545 MHz and boost clock of 1740 MHz are modest, and its 2048 shading units deliver a FP32 performance of 7.127 TFLOPS. The 16 RT cores and 64 tensor cores are present but are not the deciding factor in the standard rasterization benchmarks shown here. The data shows that as resolution increases from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160, the average FPS at Low settings drops from 85.1 to 40.4, a decline of over 50%. This steep curve is characteristic of a GPU that is memory-bandwidth limited and lacks the raw compute to maintain frame rates as pixel count quadruples.

The 4 GB VRAM likely causes texture thrashing or reduced texture quality at 4K, which would explain why the Low preset at 4K (40.4 FPS) is only slightly better than the High preset at 1440p (40.7 FPS). The GPU percentile rank of 50 places it in the middle of all GPUs, but in this game, it is clearly outpaced by the CPU’s capabilities.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is dramatic and reveals the GPU-bound nature of this workload. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 85.1 at 1920x1080 to 62.9 at 2560x1440, then to 40.4 at 3840x2160. This represents a 26% drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 36% drop from 1440p to 4K. The scaling is not linear; the jump to 4K incurs a disproportionately large penalty, suggesting that the 4 GB frame buffer is exceeded at that resolution, forcing the GPU to use slower fallback paths.

At High settings, the pattern is similar but with lower absolute values: 53.7 FPS at 1080p, 40.7 FPS at 1440p, and 24.9 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 24%, and from 1440p to 4K is 39%. The Ultra preset shows the worst scaling, with 46.6 FPS at 1080p falling to 32.9 FPS at 1440p and then to 23.8 FPS at 4K. These results indicate that the GPU is the limiting component at all resolutions, as the CPU’s performance headroom is not being utilized.

The data implies that 1080p is the only resolution where the combo can approach playable frame rates across multiple presets. At 1440p, only the Low preset clears 60 FPS, and at 4K, no preset achieves even 45 FPS. This scaling behavior is consistent with a GPU that is compute-bound at lower resolutions but becomes memory-bandwidth and capacity-bound at higher ones.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 85.1 on Low to 46.6 on Ultra. The Medium preset delivers 58.2 FPS, and High provides 53.7 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is significant at 26.9 FPS, indicating that the Low preset removes substantial GPU load. The step from Medium to High is smaller (4.5 FPS), and from High to Ultra is 7.1 FPS, showing diminishing returns as settings increase.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 62.9 FPS on Low, 45.2 FPS on Medium, 40.7 FPS on High, and 32.9 FPS on Ultra. The Low preset remains the standout, but the Medium preset’s 45.2 FPS is notably lower than its 1080p counterpart, confirming the resolution penalty. At 3840x2160, all settings fall below 45 FPS: Low at 40.4, Medium at 32.5, High at 24.9, and Ultra at 23.8. The Ultra preset at 4K is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset, at 23.8 FPS.

The data shows a consistent pattern: Low settings provide the best average FPS at every resolution, but the absolute values at 4K are too low for comfortable play. The Medium preset at 1080p (58.2 FPS) is the closest to a balanced experience, but it still falls short of the 60 FPS threshold. The High and Ultra presets are only viable at 1080p, and even then, they hover in the mid-40s to low-50s FPS range.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB ranks 1486 out of 1636 tested combos in Control. This places it in the bottom 10% of all configurations, which is a poor showing for a system with a flagship-class CPU. The rank reflects the GPU’s inability to leverage the CPU’s power, resulting in frame rates that are far below what the processor alone could support.

The combo’s rank is a direct consequence of the GPU’s mid-tier positioning (50th percentile among all GPUs) versus the CPU’s high-tier positioning (90th percentile among all CPUs). The mismatch means that the system’s overall performance in this game is dictated by the weakest link, which is the RTX 3050. In practical terms, this combo performs like a lower-end GPU system, despite the presence of a very fast CPU.

The rank suggests that for Control, users would see a significant improvement by pairing the 9800X3D with a more powerful GPU. However, the data does not include such alternatives, so the analysis is confined to the measured results. The 1486th rank out of 1636 combos indicates that this pairing is suboptimal for this title, and the benchmark results confirm that the CPU is not the bottleneck.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is a formidable processor, with 8 cores and 16 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture (Granite Ridge). Its base clock of 4.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.20 GHz are high, and the 96 MB shared L3 cache is a defining feature that typically benefits gaming workloads. The CPU’s benchmark scores are strong, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 34004 and a single-core score of 4800, placing it in the 90th percentile of all CPUs.

However, in Control, the CPU’s role is minimal because the GPU is saturated at all settings. The measured FPS values do not vary with CPU-bound factors; instead, they scale directly with GPU load. The CPU’s high single-thread performance (Passmark single-thread score of 4430) and robust multicore capabilities (Passmark multithread score of 40009) are not the limiting factors here. The data shows that even at Low settings and 1080p, where the CPU would be most likely to bottleneck, the FPS is only 85.1, which is well below what the 9800X3D could theoretically sustain.

The CPU’s 120 W TDP and 4 nm process node indicate efficiency, but this does not translate into higher frame rates in this GPU-bound scenario. The nearest rivals, such as the Intel Core i5-13600KF (avgScore 38028, deltaPct -0.7) and the Intel Core i9-13900HK (avgScore 38020, deltaPct -0.6), show that the 9800X3D’s synthetic performance is competitive, but this has no bearing on the game’s FPS. The CPU is effectively idle waiting for the GPU to deliver frames, making its impressive specs irrelevant to the playable experience.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for this combo at 1080p?

A: The Low preset provides the highest average FPS at 85.1, which is the only setting that clears 60 FPS at this resolution. Medium delivers 58.2 FPS, High 53.7 FPS, and Ultra 46.6 FPS.

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

A: No. The highest average FPS at 3840x2160 is 40.4 on Low settings, with Ultra dropping to 23.8 FPS. No preset reaches 60 FPS at this resolution.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No. The benchmark results indicate the GPU is the limiting factor at all resolutions and settings. The CPU’s performance, including its 96 MB L3 cache and 5.20 GHz boost clock, is not fully utilized.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested combinations?

A: It ranks 1486 out of 1636 combos in Control, placing it near the bottom. This is due to the GPU’s mid-tier performance, not the CPU.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, Low averages 62.9 FPS, while Ultra averages 32.9 FPS. This is a 30 FPS difference, indicating a significant performance cost for higher settings.

Q: Is the 4 GB VRAM sufficient for this game?

A: The data suggests it is marginal. At 4K, the FPS drop from Low to Medium is 7.9 FPS (40.4 to 32.5), and the overall 4K performance is poor, likely due to the limited frame buffer capacity.