Control

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X compare to its closest rivals in overall CPU benchmark scores?

A: The Ryzen 9 5900X posts an average benchmark score of 39453, placing it 0.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4245P (39383) and 0.9% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13700F (39095). It trails the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS by 0.7% (39747) and the Intel Core i7-13700 by 1% (39857). These deltas are all within one percent, indicating near-identical overall CPU performance among this group.

Q: What is the GPU's performance percentile and how close are its nearest rivals?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 sits at the 43rd percentile among all GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 8713. The closest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 A Mobile, scores 8746 (0.4% higher), while the AMD Radeon 550X scores 8749 (0.4% higher). The NVIDIA Quadro P2200 scores 8671 (0.5% lower), and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 scores 8761 (0.5% higher).

Q: What is the best 1080p result for this combo in Control?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 54.9 FPS average. Medium settings yield 39.3 FPS, High settings yield 38.1 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 32.7 FPS. The Low preset is the only one that clears 60 FPS territory, though it still falls short of that mark.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its single-threaded performance in Cinebench?

A: In Cinebench R23, the Ryzen 9 5900X scores 33150 in multi-core and 4680 in single-core, a ratio of roughly 7.1:1. In Cinebench R20, the multi-core score is 13923 versus 1965 single-core, a ratio of about 7.1:1 as well. This reflects the 12-core, 24-thread configuration scaling effectively across heavily threaded workloads.

Q: What memory bandwidth does the CPU support and what does that imply for this game?

A: The Ryzen 9 5900X supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a theoretical bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s. For a game like Control, which is GPU-bound at lower resolutions, this bandwidth is sufficient to feed the GTX 1650 without introducing CPU-side bottlenecks, though the GPU's own 128.1 GB/s bandwidth is the more critical constraint.

Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested CPU-GPU combinations for Control?

A: This specific combination (Ryzen 9 5900X + GTX 1650) ranks 1554 out of 1636 total combos tested in Control. This places it in the bottom 5% of all combos, consistent with the GTX 1650's 43rd percentile GPU ranking and the game's demanding rendering requirements.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is built on the Turing architecture with a TU117 chip manufactured on a 12 nm process at TSMC. It contains 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1485 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. Its memory subsystem consists of 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 128.1 GB/s. The memory clock runs at 2001 MHz, which translates to 8 Gbps effective.

The GPU's compute resources include 896 shading units, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. Its pixel rate is 53.28 GPixel/s, texture rate is 93.24 GTexel/s, and FP32 performance is 2.984 TFLOPS. The card draws up to 75 W and requires no external power connectors, with a suggested PSU of 250 W. It connects via PCIe 3.0 x16 and supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

In benchmark terms, the GTX 1650's average score is 8713, placing it at the 43rd percentile. Its closest rival, the RTX 3050 A Mobile, is only 0.4% faster, while the Quadro P2200 is 0.5% slower. The GPU's DirectX 12 score in Passmark is 35, while its DirectX 11 score is 58, indicating that the card performs relatively better under older API workloads. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 305, which is low in absolute terms.

For Control, the GPU's 4 GB VRAM is a limiting factor. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the combo produces only 15.6 FPS, and at Ultra it drops to 17 FPS. Even at 1920x1080, the highest average is 54.9 FPS on Low settings. The data shows a clear pattern: the GTX 1650's modest shading power and limited memory bandwidth constrain performance across all resolutions and settings in this game.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the GTX 1650 scales with resolution in Control. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops by approximately 26% at High settings (38.1 to 28.3 FPS). From 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, the drop is more severe: High settings fall from 28.3 to 15.6 FPS, a 45% reduction. This non-linear scaling indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly saturated as pixel count rises.

At Low settings, the resolution scaling is similar: 54.9 FPS at 1080p, 43.5 FPS at 1440p (a 21% drop), and 28.3 FPS at 4K (a 35% drop from 1440p). The Medium preset shows 39.3 FPS at 1080p, 32 FPS at 1440p (a 19% drop), and 22.9 FPS at 4K (a 28% drop). Ultra settings yield 32.7 FPS at 1080p, 25.2 FPS at 1440p (a 23% drop), and 17 FPS at 4K (a 33% drop).

These patterns suggest that the GTX 1650 is the primary limiting component across all resolutions. The CPU, with its 12 cores and 24 threads, is unlikely to bottleneck at any resolution tested. The fact that even at 1080p Low, the combo only reaches 54.9 FPS — below the 60 FPS threshold — indicates that the GPU's raw throughput, not the CPU, dictates performance. The 4K results, where even Low settings only produce 28.3 FPS, confirm that this GPU is not viable for 4K gaming in Control.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best results. Low settings produce 54.9 FPS average. Medium settings yield 39.3 FPS, which is a 28% reduction from Low. High settings achieve 38.1 FPS, nearly identical to Medium. Ultra settings drop to 32.7 FPS, a 40% reduction from Low. The small gap between Medium and High (1.2 FPS) suggests that the Medium preset already stresses the GPU heavily, and the incremental cost of High is minimal.

At 2560x1440, performance degrades noticeably. Low settings average 43.5 FPS, which is still playable but 21% slower than 1080p Low. Medium settings yield 32 FPS, High settings yield 28.3 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 25.2 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 11.5 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is only 3.1 FPS, indicating diminishing returns at the higher presets.

At 3840x2160, the GTX 1650 is overwhelmed. Low settings produce 28.3 FPS, Medium yields 22.9 FPS, High yields 15.6 FPS, and Ultra yields 17 FPS. Notably, the Ultra preset (17 FPS) outperforms High (15.6 FPS) by 1.4 FPS, which is likely within measurement variance but still unusual. None of these results approach playable frame rates, confirming that 4K is not a viable resolution for this GPU in Control.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently delivers the highest FPS, with the delta between Low and Ultra ranging from 22.2 FPS at 1080p to 11.3 FPS at 4K. The settings scaling is more pronounced at lower resolutions, where the GPU has more headroom to respond to preset changes.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor from the 5000 series, built on the Zen 3 architecture with the Vermeer codename. It uses a 7 nm process at TSMC, containing 8,300 million transistors across a 2x 74 mm² die. The base clock is 3.70 GHz with a boost clock of 4.80 GHz. It supports dual-channel DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 51.2 GB/s and ECC support. The CPU fits in AMD Socket AM4 and has a TDP of 105 W. Its cache hierarchy includes 64 KB L1 per core, 512 KB L2 per core, and 64 MB of L3 cache.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance. Cinebench R23 multi-core scores 33150, while single-core scores 4680. Geekbench multi-core scores 11877 and single-core 2202. The 3DMark tests show scaling from 941 (single-thread) to 10075 (max threads), with intermediate results of 1852 (2 threads), 3588 (4 threads), 6601 (8 threads), and 9075 (16 threads). Passmark multi-thread scores 39002, with single-thread at 3469.

The CPU's average benchmark score is 39453, placing it at the 90th percentile among all CPUs. Its nearest rivals are all within 1% of its score, indicating that the 5900X is competitive with modern 8-core and 12-core parts from both AMD and Intel. The Intel Core i7-13700F is 0.9% slower, while the Intel Core i7-13700 is 1% faster.

For Control, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU. Even at 1080p Low, where the CPU would be most likely to bottleneck, the combo only achieves 54.9 FPS. Given the CPU's 90th percentile ranking and its strong single-thread performance (4680 in Cinebench R23 single-core), the data indicates that the GTX 1650 is the binding constraint. The CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads provide ample headroom for the game's threading model, and the 64 MB L3 cache helps maintain consistent frame delivery. The measured FPS figures are consistent with a system where the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution or settings combination.