Control

# Control with AMD Ryzen 9 5900X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 delivers a striking set of measured results in Control, placing this combo at rank 1071 out of 3720 tested configurations. The data reveals a system that comfortably handles the game across all resolutions, but the performance scaling suggests a nuanced relationship between the 12-core CPU and the 10 GB GPU that deserves closer examination.

FAQ

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

A: All three tested resolutions produce playable frame rates. At 1920x1080, the average FPS ranges from 101 at Ultra to 185 at Low. At 2560x1440, averages span 77 to 140 FPS. At 3840x2160, averages fall between 52 and 94 FPS, with the High preset still hitting exactly 60 FPS average.

Q: Does the RTX 3080's 10 GB VRAM limit performance at 4K?

A: The data does not show obvious VRAM-related stutters or crashes. At 3840x2160, the Medium preset records a minimum of 57 FPS and maximum of 77 FPS, indicating stability. The 10 GB GDDR6X memory with 760.3 GB/s bandwidth appears sufficient for Control's demands at this resolution.

Q: How does the Ryzen 9 5900X benchmark against its nearest rivals?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score is 41376, which places it 0.3% above the Intel Core Ultra 7 366H (score 41263) and 0.4% above both the Intel Core Ultra 7 356H and AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 440 (scores 41215 and 41208). It trails the Intel Core i7-14650HX by 0.5% (score 41576).

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the jump from Low to Ultra costs 84 FPS on average. Low delivers 185 FPS, Medium drops to 131 FPS, High further reduces to 117 FPS, and Ultra settles at 101 FPS. This represents a 45.4% reduction from Low to Ultra.

Q: Is the RTX 3080 better or worse than its closest GPU rivals?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 23172. It sits 0.3% below the NVIDIA P106-100 (score 23249) and 0.3% below the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 16 (score 23250). It also trails the AMD Radeon RX 6600M and AMD Radeon R9 M290X by 0.4% each (scores 23273 and 23276).

Q: Does the combo rank in the top third of all tested systems?

A: Yes. The combo ranks 1071 out of 3720 configurations, placing it in the top 28.8% of all tested combos for Control. This indicates a strong but not elite positioning among the database's measured systems.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 is built on the Ampere architecture with the GA102 chip, fabricated on an 8 nm process at Samsung. Its specifications include 8704 shading units, 272 texture mapping units, and 96 raster output pipelines. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1440 MHz and boosts to 1710 MHz, with memory clocked at 1188 MHz effective 19 Gbps. The 10 GB of GDDR6X memory runs across a 320-bit bus, providing 760.3 GB/s of bandwidth.

In Control, the GPU's role becomes increasingly dominant as resolution climbs. At 3840x2160, the difference between Low and Ultra presets is substantial: 94 FPS versus 52 FPS average. This 42 FPS gap highlights how the rendering load at 4K stresses the RTX 3080's compute and memory subsystems. The pixel rate of 164.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 465.1 GTexel/s are directly relevant here, as higher resolutions demand more pixel and texture throughput.

The RTX 3080's FP32 performance of 29.77 TFLOPS supports the game's visual effects, but the measured data shows that even this level of compute power cannot maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra (52 FPS average). The Medium preset at 4K achieves 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 FPS, suggesting that the GPU's 10 GB VRAM and bandwidth are adequate but the shader workload at Ultra exceeds what the card can consistently deliver at 3840x2160.

The GPU's benchmark percentile of 68 places it in the upper-midrange of all GPUs, and its passmark G3D score of 25086 reflects solid DirectX 11 and 12 capabilities. The Vulkan score of 33620 in Geekbench indicates strong API versatility, which matters for a game like Control that uses modern rendering features.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1071 out of 3720 tested configurations places it in the 71.2th percentile among all tested combos for Control. This means roughly 28.8% of tested systems perform better, while 71.2% perform worse. The rank reflects the combined capability of the Ryzen 9 5900X and RTX 3080, but the data suggests the GPU is the more significant contributor to this positioning.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 41376 places it in the 87th percentile among all CPUs, while the GPU's average score of 23172 places it in the 68th percentile among all GPUs. This discrepancy is notable: the CPU is a top-tier performer, while the GPU is solidly mid-upper tier. In a game like Control, which has demanding visual effects, the GPU's percentile likely constrains the overall combo rank more than the CPU's percentile.

The nearest GPU rivals all have slightly higher average scores (23249, 23250, 23273, 23276), yet the RTX 3080's architecture and feature set—including 68 RT cores and 272 tensor cores—provide capabilities beyond raw score that may benefit Control specifically. The combo rank of 1071 reflects the real-world measured FPS across three resolutions and four settings, which provides a more granular view than synthetic benchmarks alone.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 3080 and Ryzen 9 5900X combination produces its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 185 FPS, which is exceptionally smooth for fast-paced action. Medium drops to 131 FPS with a minimum of 111 FPS and maximum of 151 FPS. High reduces further to 117 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 101 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 84 FPS, showing that Control's Ultra settings impose a significant rendering cost even at 1080p.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance scales down proportionally. Low averages 140 FPS, Medium averages 99 FPS (min 84, max 114), High averages 88 FPS, and Ultra averages 77 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 63 FPS, indicating that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor as pixel count increases. The Medium preset's minimum of 84 FPS still exceeds 60 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay at 1440p.

At 3840x2160, the pressure on the GPU intensifies. Low averages 94 FPS, which remains highly playable. Medium averages 67 FPS with a minimum of 57 FPS and maximum of 77 FPS, putting it right at the edge of 60 FPS consistency. High averages exactly 60 FPS, while Ultra falls to 52 FPS. The reduction from Low to Ultra at 4K is 42 FPS, and the Medium minimum of 57 FPS shows that even mid-tier settings can dip below 60 FPS at this resolution.

Settings Recommendations

For players targeting 60 FPS as a baseline, the data supports specific preset choices at each resolution. At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers exactly 60 FPS average, making it the optimal choice for 4K gaming with this combo. The Medium preset at 4K offers 67 FPS average but falls to 57 FPS at minimum, which could cause noticeable dips during intense scenes. Ultra at 4K drops to 52 FPS, below the 60 FPS threshold, so it should be avoided for smooth play.

At 2560x1440, all presets exceed 60 FPS. Ultra averages 77 FPS, providing a high-fidelity experience with headroom above 60 FPS. High averages 88 FPS, and Medium averages 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS, making Medium the safest choice for consistent high frame rates. Low at 140 FPS is unnecessary for most players given the visual trade-offs.

At 1920x1080, the choice depends on whether visual quality or maximum frame rate is prioritized. Ultra averages 101 FPS, which is excellent for a 100 Hz or 120 Hz display. High at 117 FPS offers a better balance of quality and speed. For competitive play, Medium at 131 FPS or Low at 185 FPS provide increasingly higher refresh rates, with the Medium minimum of 111 FPS ensuring no drops below 100 FPS.

The best experience per the measured rows is the High preset at 2560x1440, which delivers 88 FPS average while maintaining strong visual fidelity. It avoids the 4K Ultra penalty of 52 FPS and the 1080p performance that exceeds most display refresh rates anyway.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 3 architecture, codenamed Vermeer. It operates at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and boosts to 4.80 GHz, with 64 MB of L3 cache. The CPU is built on TSMC's 7 nm process and supports DDR4 memory in dual-channel configuration with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth. Its benchmark scores are impressive: Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 16262, while single-core hits 1527. Geekbench scores are 14118 multicore and 2083 single-core.

In Control, the CPU's role is less prominent than the GPU, particularly at higher resolutions. The 12 cores and 24 threads provide ample processing power for the game's physics and AI systems, but the measured FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K shows that the GPU becomes the bottleneck as resolution increases. At 1080p Low, the CPU's 185 FPS result indicates that it can feed the GPU efficiently without becoming a limiting factor at lower resolutions.

The CPU's percentile of 87 versus the GPU's percentile of 68 is telling. In a game like Control, which is GPU-intensive at high settings, the CPU's superior relative performance means it rarely constrains the system. The 3dmark scores support this: 16-thread score of 9075 and max-thread score of 10075 show strong multithreaded capability, while single-thread score of 941 and 2-thread score of 1852 indicate solid per-core performance for game logic.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals how the system scales across resolutions. From 1920x1080 to 2560x1440, the average FPS drops by 36.8% across all presets (from 133.5 to 101 average). From 2560x1440 to 3840x2160, the average FPS drops by another 32.7% (from 101 to 68.25 average). This scaling pattern is consistent with a GPU-limited system, as the CPU's performance headroom does not change with resolution.

The Low preset shows the most dramatic scaling: 185 FPS at 1080p, 140 FPS at 1440p, and 94 FPS at 4K. This represents a 49.2% reduction from 1080p to 4K, indicating that even at Low settings, the GPU's pixel throughput becomes increasingly taxed. The Ultra preset scales similarly: 101 FPS at 1080p, 77 FPS at 1440p, and 52 FPS at 4K, a 48.5% reduction.

The Medium preset provides the most detailed data with min/max values. At 1080p, Medium averages 131 FPS with a range of 111-151. At 1440p, it averages 99 FPS with a range of 84-114. At 4K, it averages 67 FPS with a range of 57-77. The minimum FPS tracks closely with the average scaling, confirming that the limiting component is the GPU's ability to process the increasing pixel count, not the CPU's ability to feed it data.

This scaling behavior indicates that the RTX 3080 is the primary constraint at 4K, particularly at Ultra settings where it cannot maintain 60 FPS. The Ryzen 9 5900X's 12 cores and 24 threads provide sufficient headroom across all resolutions, as evidenced by the consistent FPS scaling that mirrors GPU-bound expectations rather than CPU-bound anomalies.