Control

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX combination delivers a formidable Control experience, particularly at high resolutions. Measured data shows the pairing achieving a 73.8 FPS average at 4K High settings, demonstrating that the system is well-suited for demanding action-adventure gameplay. The benchmark results indicate a setup that scales predictably across resolutions, with the CPU's 12 cores and the GPU's 24 GB of VRAM providing a robust foundation for both current and demanding scenarios.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve a 144 Hz experience?

A: At 1920x1080, the system delivers 142.1 FPS on High settings and 156.5 FPS on Medium, making it capable of exceeding 144 FPS at lower presets. However, at 2560x1440, the High preset yields 107.7 FPS, which is below the 144 Hz threshold.

Q: How much of a performance drop occurs when moving from High to Ultra settings at 4K?

A: The data shows a decrease of 10.3 FPS, from 73.8 FPS at High to 63.5 FPS at Ultra at 3840x2160. This represents a 14 percent reduction in average frame rate for the highest visual fidelity.

Q: Does the Ryzen 9 5900X bottleneck the RX 7900 XTX in this game?

A: The benchmark results indicate a balanced pairing. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 225.1 FPS, showing strong CPU throughput. The CPU's 3DMark multi-threaded score of 10075 and single-thread score of 941 suggest it can keep up with the GPU's output across all tested settings.

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

A: The difference is substantial, with Low achieving 171.3 FPS and Ultra achieving 90.5 FPS at 2560x1440. The gap of 80.8 FPS highlights the significant impact of graphical fidelity on the frame rate.

Q: Is the RX 7900 XTX's 24 GB VRAM necessary for Control?

A: While the game may not use all 24 GB, the memory size ensures no capacity-related stuttering at 4K Ultra settings, where the system still maintains a 63.5 FPS average. The 960.0 GB/s bandwidth supports high-resolution texture streaming effectively.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested in the database for Control?

A: The combination ranks 227th out of 1636 tested combos, placing it in the top 14 percent of all systems benchmarked for this game.

Settings Recommendations

For the best balance of visual quality and performance, the High preset is the recommended choice across all tested resolutions. At 1920x1080, High settings produce 142.1 FPS, which is well-suited for high-refresh-rate displays. Moving to 2560x1440, the High preset still delivers 107.7 FPS, offering a smooth experience that exceeds the 60 FPS standard for action games. At 4K, High settings yield 73.8 FPS, which is remarkably playable for a title of this visual complexity.

The Medium preset is a viable alternative for those seeking higher frame rates, providing 156.5 FPS at 1080p and 120.4 FPS at 1440p. However, the step down from High to Medium sacrifices noticeable visual detail. The Ultra preset, while offering maximum quality, drops frame rates to 122.7 FPS at 1080p, 90.5 FPS at 1440p, and 63.5 FPS at 4K. These numbers are still playable, but the average frame rate at 4K approaches the threshold where motion smoothness becomes less consistent.

The Low preset provides the highest performance, achieving 225.1 FPS at 1080p and 171.3 FPS at 1440p, but this comes with significant compromises in texture quality and lighting effects. Given that the High preset at 4K delivers 73.8 FPS, it is the optimal choice for this hardware combination, offering a 16 percent improvement over Ultra while maintaining the core visual experience.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X features 12 cores and 24 threads, built on the Zen 3 architecture with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. This processing power is reflected in its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 33150 and single-core score of 4680. For Control, which is an action-adventure title with physics-based combat and destructible environments, the multi-threaded performance is crucial for maintaining consistent frame times.

The CPU's performance percentile of 90 versus all CPUs indicates it is in the top 10 percent of processors. Its nearest rival, the AMD EPYC 4245P, scores 39383 on average, which is only 0.2 percent lower than the 5900X's 39453 average benchmark score. This suggests the 5900X provides ample computational headroom for the game's logic and AI systems.

In synthetic tests, the 5900X achieves a 3DMark single-thread score of 941 and a 3DMark 16-thread score of 9075. The game's engine appears to scale well with both single-core and multi-core performance, as evidenced by the high frame rates at Low settings where CPU load is more dominant. At 1080p Low, the system reaches 225.1 FPS, indicating that the CPU can drive the GPU to very high output levels without becoming a limiting factor.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Ryzen 9 5900X and RX 7900 XTX holds a rank of 227 out of 1636 tested combinations in Control. This places it in the top 14 percent of all systems benchmarked, a strong showing for a pairing of a 2020-era CPU with a 2022-era GPU. The rank reflects the system's ability to maintain high frame rates across all settings and resolutions, with the 4K Ultra result of 63.5 FPS being particularly notable for a game from 2019.

Relative to other tested combos, this system outperforms the vast majority of alternatives. The GPU's percentile of 85 versus all GPUs indicates it is better than 85 percent of graphics cards, while the CPU's percentile of 90 places it ahead of 90 percent of processors. This balanced high-end configuration results in a combo that is well-positioned for both 1440p high-refresh gaming and 4K high-fidelity gaming.

The data shows that the system's weakest performance is at 4K Ultra, where it drops below 70 FPS. However, even this result is competitive, as the 63.5 FPS average remains above the 60 FPS standard. At 1440p, the system is firmly in high-refresh territory with 107.7 FPS on High settings, and at 1080p it can exceed 140 FPS on High, making it suitable for competitive play if desired.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX is the dominant component in this pairing, featuring 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus with 960.0 GB/s bandwidth. The GPU's RDNA 3.0 architecture with 6144 shading units and 96 ray accelerators provides the raw compute power necessary for Control's complex rendering. The boost clock of 2498 MHz and game clock of 2365 MHz enable high sustained performance under load.

The GPU's benchmark scores show strong DirectX 12 performance, with a Passmark DirectX 12 score of 131 and a 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 6841. Its OpenCL score of 189573 indicates robust compute capabilities. The GPU's percentile of 85 versus all GPUs places it in the top 15 percent of graphics cards, and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon Pro 580, scores 44195 on average, which is only 0.4 percent higher than the 7900 XTX's 44019 average.

The 24 GB VRAM capacity ensures that even at 4K Ultra settings, the game's textures and effects are fully accommodated without memory swapping. The GPU's pixel rate of 479.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 959.2 GTexel/s allow it to handle the game's particle effects and environmental details at high fill rates. This is reflected in the measured frame rates, where 4K High achieves 73.8 FPS and 1440p High achieves 107.7 FPS.

The GPU's performance scaling from Low to Ultra settings is linear, with a 49 percent drop in frame rate from 113.5 FPS to 63.5 FPS at 4K. This indicates that the GPU is the primary determinant of performance at higher settings, while the CPU's role becomes more pronounced at lower presets where frame rates exceed 170 FPS.