Control

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti delivers a playable but constrained experience in Control, with the GPU acting as the overwhelming performance bottleneck. The data shows a clear pattern: the combination ranks 1441st out of 1636 tested combos for this game, placing it in the lower 12th percentile of all system pairings. This is a pairing where the CPU’s substantial processing headroom is largely irrelevant, as frame rates are dictated almost entirely by the graphics card’s limits.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep and consistent performance drop as resolution increases, underscoring the GTX 1660 Ti’s role as the limiting component. At 1080p with High settings, the combo produces 55.4 FPS, but moving to 1440p drops that to 45.8 FPS, and 4K further crushes it to 31.9 FPS. This represents a 42.4% reduction in frame rate from 1080p to 4K at High settings, a scaling curve that points squarely at GPU-bound rendering rather than any CPU limitation.

The pattern holds across all quality presets. At Low settings, the system achieves 89.4 FPS at 1080p, which falls to 68.2 FPS at 1440p and 47.4 FPS at 4K. The 4K Low result is telling: even with the lowest graphical load, the GPU cannot push past the 50 FPS mark, while the CPU sits idle with headroom. Medium settings show a similar trajectory, starting at 66.7 FPS at 1080p, sliding to 50.2 FPS at 1440p, and bottoming out at 32.1 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings are the most punishing, with 49.1 FPS at 1080p degrading to 40.8 FPS at 1440p and just 25.5 FPS at 4K.

The resolution scaling data indicates that the Ryzen 9 5900X’s 12 cores and 24 threads are never the constraint. The difference between 1080p and 4K at any given setting is a function of pixel count and fill rate, which taxes the GPU’s 48 ROPs and 192-bit memory bus. The GTX 1660 Ti’s 6 GB of GDDR6 memory also becomes a factor at higher resolutions, though the FPS deltas suggest bandwidth pressure rather than capacity overflow. In short, this combo is a 1080p performer that struggles to maintain playability at 1440p and falls below acceptable thresholds at 4K.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU combo in Control?

A: The data shows 1080p as the only resolution where all settings produce playable frame rates. At 1080p, even Ultra settings yield 49.1 FPS, while Low, Medium, and High all exceed 55 FPS. At 1440p, only Low and Medium settings break the 45 FPS barrier, and 4K results are uniformly below 50 FPS.

Q: Does the Ryzen 9 5900X bottleneck the GTX 1660 Ti in this game?

A: No. The CPU’s benchmark scores, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core result of 33150 and a single-core score of 4680, far exceed what Control requires. The FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is almost perfectly linear with pixel count, which is the signature of a GPU-bound scenario.

Q: How does the GTX 1660 Ti compare to its nearest rivals in raw GPU benchmarks?

A: The GTX 1660 Ti has an average benchmark score of 13925, placing it just 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 570X and 0.8% ahead of both the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile and GeForce GTX 680. It trails the NVIDIA Tesla K10 by 0.7%.

Q: Is the GTX 1660 Ti’s 6 GB VRAM sufficient for Control at 4K?

A: The measured data shows 4K performance is weak across all settings, with a maximum of 47.4 FPS at Low and a minimum of 25.5 FPS at Ultra. While the memory bus width of 192 bits and 288.0 GB/s bandwidth are the likely bottlenecks, the 6 GB capacity may also contribute to the steep drop-offs at 4K.

Q: What settings should be used for a 60 FPS target at 1440p?

A: Based on the measured rows, no setting achieves 60 FPS at 2560x1440. The closest is Low at 68.2 FPS, but Medium drops to 50.2 FPS. For a stable 60 FPS experience, the data suggests 1080p with High settings (55.4 FPS) or 1080p Low (89.4 FPS) as safer alternatives.

Q: How does this combo rank compared to other tested systems for Control?

A: The combo ranks 1441st out of 1636 tested combinations, meaning roughly 88% of other system pairings deliver better performance in this game. This places it firmly in the lower tier of tested hardware.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti is the decisive component in this pairing, and its specifications explain the measured results. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1500 MHz with a boost clock of 1770 MHz, and its 1536 shading units process the game’s visual effects. The memory subsystem consists of 6 GB of GDDR6 on a 192-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These figures are modest by modern standards, and Control’s demanding rendering workload exposes their limits.

The GPU’s benchmark profile corroborates its mid-range positioning. Its PassMark G3D score of 12871 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1061 indicate a card that was designed for 1080p gaming at high settings, not for 4K or even high-refresh 1440p. The compute performance, measured at 5226 in PassMark GPU Compute and 60863 in Geekbench OpenCL, is similarly constrained. The GPU’s percentile ranking against all GPUs sits at 55, meaning it outperforms just over half of all tested graphics cards.

In Control, the GPU’s role is unmistakable: it is the sole determinant of frame rate. The CPU’s 3DMark scores, including 9075 for 16 threads and 10075 for max threads, show a processor capable of feeding frames far faster than this GPU can render them. The GTX 1660 Ti’s 48 ROPs and 169.9 GTexel/s texture rate are the hard limits, and the resolution scaling data reflects this. At 1080p Low, the card manages 89.4 FPS, but that number collapses to 47.4 FPS at 4K Low—a 47% drop that has nothing to do with CPU performance and everything to do with pixel throughput.

The VRAM situation deserves note. With 6 GB of GDDR6, the card meets the minimum requirements for Control at 1080p, but higher resolutions and Ultra settings likely push against memory capacity. The fact that Ultra at 1080p only achieves 49.1 FPS, while Medium at 1080p hits 66.7 FPS, suggests that the GPU’s compute and bandwidth limits are hit before VRAM becomes the primary issue. The card’s 12 Gbps effective memory speed and 192-bit interface are simply insufficient for the texture-heavy environments of Control at high resolutions.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy of playable settings. At 1080p, the recommended preset is High, which delivers 55.4 FPS—a smooth and responsive experience for an action-adventure title. High settings balance visual fidelity with performance, offering a substantial improvement over Medium’s 66.7 FPS while maintaining solid frame pacing. Ultra at 1080p drops to 49.1 FPS, which is playable but risks noticeable stutter in combat-heavy scenes, while Low at 89.4 FPS sacrifices too much visual quality for the headroom.

For users targeting 1440p, the data suggests Low settings as the only viable option for smooth gameplay, with 68.2 FPS. Medium at 1440p falls to 50.2 FPS, which is borderline, and High drops further to 45.8 FPS. Ultra at 1440p is not recommended, as 40.8 FPS is below the threshold for comfortable play. The 4K results are uniformly poor, with even Low settings only reaching 47.4 FPS. No 4K preset is recommended for this combo; the GPU lacks the raw throughput to deliver a consistent experience.

The optimal configuration is 1080p with High settings. This preset provides the best balance of visual quality and performance, keeping the frame rate above 55 FPS while utilizing the GTX 1660 Ti’s capabilities without overburdening its 6 GB VRAM or 192-bit memory bus. Players seeking higher frame rates can drop to Medium for 66.7 FPS, but the visual downgrade is significant. Conversely, those prioritizing image quality over smoothness can attempt Ultra, but the 49.1 FPS result risks dipping below 40 FPS in demanding scenes, which is not ideal for a game that relies on precise timing.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti ranks 1441st out of 1636 tested combos in Control. This places the system in the bottom 12% of all pairings tested, a poor showing that reflects the GPU’s modest capabilities rather than any CPU deficiency. The Ryzen 9 5900X, with its 90th percentile ranking against all CPUs and an average benchmark score of 39453, is a top-tier processor. Its nearest rivals in CPU benchmarks include the AMD EPYC 4245P (0.2% higher score), the Intel Core i7-13700F (0.9% lower), and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 8845HS (0.7% lower), all of which are similarly powerful chips.

The GTX 1660 Ti, by contrast, sits at the 55th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 13925. Its nearest rivals are the AMD Radeon RX 570X (0.4% higher), the NVIDIA Tesla K10 (0.7% higher), and the NVIDIA RTX A2000 Mobile (0.8% lower). This GPU is a mid-range part from the GeForce 16-series, and its performance in Control is consistent with its hardware profile.

The disparity between the CPU’s high percentile (90) and the combo’s low rank (1441 of 1636) is stark. It indicates that the pairing is severely unbalanced for this workload. The 5900X’s 12 cores, 24 threads, and 64 MB of L3 cache are wasted on a game that is GPU-bound at every resolution and setting. The combo rank would likely improve dramatically with a more powerful GPU, as the CPU has ample headroom to support a card several tiers higher. As it stands, this system is a case study in CPU over-provisioning, where the processor’s enormous compute capacity is left untapped because the graphics card cannot keep pace. For Control specifically, the ranking is a warning: this combo underperforms the vast majority of tested systems, and users should expect to lower settings or resolution to achieve playable frame rates.