Control

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti combination delivers a robust Control experience, with the data showing a clear shift from CPU-bound performance at lower resolutions to GPU-bound performance at 4K. This pairing sits in the 73rd percentile of all tested combos, indicating strong overall capability in this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a predictable yet telling scaling pattern as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 194.4 FPS, which drops to 145.7 FPS at 1440p and further to 96.8 FPS at 4K. This represents a 50% performance reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, a significant drop that highlights the increasing graphical workload.

The scaling behavior changes noticeably when moving to higher settings. At Ultra settings, the frame rate falls from 108.3 FPS at 1080p to 78.4 FPS at 1440p, and finally to 56.8 FPS at 4K. The percentage drop from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra is 27.6%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 27.6% as well. This consistent scaling pattern suggests the system remains balanced across these resolution transitions.

At High settings, the scaling is slightly different: 121.7 FPS at 1080p, 91 FPS at 1440p (a 25.2% drop), and 59.7 FPS at 4K (a 34.4% drop from 1440p). The larger relative drop at 4K indicates that the GPU is becoming the primary limiting factor at this resolution. The data shows that at 1080p, the CPU has more headroom to push frame rates, while at 4K, the RTX 3080 Ti's rendering workload dominates the performance equation.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, built on the Ampere architecture with a GA102 chip, plays a decisive role in Control's performance at higher resolutions. The GPU features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory across a 384-bit bus, providing 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. Its 10240 shading units and 80 RT cores give it substantial raw compute power, with FP32 performance rated at 34.10 TFLOPS.

The clock speeds are notable: a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. These frequencies, combined with the memory configuration, allow the card to maintain high throughput in Control's demanding scenes. The GPU's 350 W TDP and 750 W suggested PSU requirement indicate that this is a power-hungry component, but the performance data justifies the hardware investment.

Control's use of real-time ray tracing and advanced visual effects means the RTX 3080 Ti's dedicated RT cores are heavily utilized. The benchmark results show that at 4K Ultra, the combo still manages 56.8 FPS, which is playable but indicates that the GPU is working at its limits. At lower settings, the GPU's raw rasterization power shines, with 96.8 FPS at 4K Low demonstrating that the card has substantial headroom when graphical effects are reduced.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination ranks 445th out of 1636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the top 27.2% of all configurations. This is a strong showing, especially considering the age of both components. The Ryzen 9 5900X, with its 12 cores and 24 threads based on Zen 3 architecture, provides solid CPU performance for game logic and physics calculations. Its 64 MB of L3 cache and 51.2 GB/s memory bandwidth help feed the GPU efficiently.

The CPU's benchmark scores support this ranking: Cinebench R23 multicore score of 33150 and single-core score of 4680 indicate excellent processing power. The 3DMark max threads score of 10075 further confirms the CPU's capability in threaded workloads. However, the GPU's percentile ranking of 83rd out of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 41224, shows that the RTX 3080 Ti remains a high-tier graphics solution.

Comparing to the CPU's nearest rivals, the Ryzen 9 5900X's average benchmark score of 39453 places it just 0.2% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4245P and 0.9% ahead of the Intel Core i7-13700F in synthetic tests. The GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 3090, scores 41441, which is only 0.5% higher than the RTX 3080 Ti's 41224, indicating these cards are extremely close in overall compute capability.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this combo?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset achieves 56.8 FPS, while High settings reach 59.7 FPS. Medium settings provide 67.9 FPS, and Low settings deliver 96.8 FPS. The data suggests that High settings offer the best balance between visual quality and playable frame rates at 4K.

Q: How does the combo perform at 1080p for competitive play?

A: The system is highly capable at 1920x1080, with Low settings producing 194.4 FPS and Medium settings reaching 136.4 FPS. Even at Ultra settings, the combo maintains 108.3 FPS, which is well above the threshold for smooth competitive gaming.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The data indicates that the GPU becomes the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 194.4 FPS suggests CPU headroom, while at 4K Ultra, the 56.8 FPS shows the GPU is working near its maximum. The CPU's high single-thread performance helps at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the RTX 3080 Ti compare to its closest competitor?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti's average benchmark score of 41224 is only 0.5% lower than the RTX 3090's 41441, making them nearly equivalent in compute capability. The RTX 3080 Ti also trails the RTX 5070 by 1.1% in average score.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 1440p with high settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with High settings, the combo achieves 91 FPS. This drops to 78.4 FPS at Ultra settings and rises to 104 FPS at Medium. The 145.7 FPS at Low settings shows the system's flexibility across different quality levels.

Q: Does the combo maintain playable frame rates at 4K Ultra?

A: Yes, with 56.8 FPS at 3840x2160 Ultra settings, the system stays above the 50 FPS threshold generally considered playable for action-adventure games. However, for higher refresh rates, lowering to Medium or High settings would be necessary.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080:

• Low: 194.4 FPS
• Medium: 136.4 FPS
• High: 121.7 FPS
• Ultra: 108.3 FPS

2560x1440:

• Low: 145.7 FPS
• Medium: 104 FPS
• High: 91 FPS
• Ultra: 78.4 FPS

3840x2160:

• Low: 96.8 FPS
• Medium: 67.9 FPS
• High: 59.7 FPS
• Ultra: 56.8 FPS

The performance deltas between settings are consistent across resolutions. At 1080p, moving from Low to Ultra costs 86.1 FPS (a 44.3% reduction). At 1440p, the same transition costs 67.3 FPS (a 46.2% reduction). At 4K, the delta is 40 FPS (a 41.3% reduction). These numbers show that the relative cost of Ultra settings remains stable regardless of resolution, reinforcing that the GPU is the primary performance driver in this title.

The measured FPS data is direct from testing, with no minimum or maximum frame time data available. The average frame rates indicate that this combo delivers a satisfying experience across most resolution and settings combinations, with only 4K Ultra dipping below 60 FPS. The system's performance in Control demonstrates that this 2020-era CPU paired with the 2021-era GPU remains a potent combination for modern gaming workloads.