Control

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 delivers a solid 1080p experience in Control, but the data shows that the GPU becomes the primary constraint as resolution climbs. Benchmark results indicate that the "High" preset offers the most balanced experience, providing high visual fidelity without the performance hit of the "Ultra" settings, while "Medium" serves as a reliable fallback for those prioritizing frame rate stability.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data clearly indicates that the High preset is the optimal choice for this configuration. At 1920x1080, High settings produce 88 FPS, which is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. This represents a significant improvement over the 77 FPS of the Ultra preset, while offering a substantial visual upgrade over the Medium preset's 99 FPS. The 11 FPS difference between High and Ultra is a small price for the performance gain, making High the sweet spot for most users.

For users with high refresh rate monitors at 1080p, the Medium preset at 99 FPS is the better choice, as it maintains a framerate that can take advantage of 100Hz+ displays. The Medium preset also shows consistent performance, with the measured range of 84 to 114 FPS indicating minimal frame time variance. The Low preset at 140 FPS is excessive for most displays and sacrifices too much visual quality for marginal gains.

At 2560x1440, the High preset remains the recommended option, delivering 67 FPS which is sufficient for most gaming scenarios. The Medium preset at 75 FPS offers a slight performance buffer if needed, but the visual difference between Medium and High is often noticeable in a game like Control with its detailed environments. The Ultra preset at 58 FPS dips below the 60 FPS target, making it less ideal for consistent gameplay.

At 3840x2160, the situation becomes more challenging. The Low preset at 71 FPS is the only option that maintains a smooth experience, while High at 45 FPS and Medium at 51 FPS are playable but not optimal. The Ultra preset at 39 FPS is not recommended for 4K gaming with this hardware. Users with 4K displays should consider lowering resolution or accepting the Low preset for playable performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s. This memory configuration is adequate for Control at 1080p and 1440p, but the data suggests it becomes a limiting factor at 4K. The GPU's 3072 shading units and 48 ROPs are supported by a boost clock of 2460 MHz, giving it a pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 15.11 TFLOPS places it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17,639. Compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 4060 is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon HD 7790, which scores 17,666 (0.2% higher), and the AMD Radeon 780M, which scores 17,588 (0.3% lower). The strong performance of the RTX 4060 in synthetic benchmarks does not fully translate to 4K gaming in Control, where the 8 GB VRAM capacity appears to be the bottleneck.

The RTX 4060's architecture supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, which is beneficial for Control's modern rendering techniques. The GPU's 24 RT cores and 96 tensor cores provide hardware acceleration for ray tracing and DLSS features, though the measured FPS data does not include these features enabled. The GPU's 115 W TDP is modest, and its PCIe 4.0 x8 interface is sufficient for this game's data throughput requirements.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 88 at 1920x1080 to 67 at 2560x1440 (a 23.9% decrease) and then to 45 at 3840x2160 (a 32.8% decrease from 1440p). This scaling behavior indicates that the GPU is the limiting component, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to handle the increased pixel count.

The scaling pattern is consistent across all settings presets. At Medium settings, FPS drops from 99 at 1080p to 75 at 1440p (24.2% decrease) and then to 51 at 4K (32% decrease). At Low settings, the drop is from 140 to 106 (24.3% decrease) and then to 71 (33% decrease). The consistent percentage drops suggest that the performance scaling is primarily driven by GPU pixel throughput rather than memory bandwidth or CPU limitations.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling, with FPS dropping from 77 at 1080p to 58 at 1440p (24.7% decrease) and then to 39 at 4K (32.8% decrease). This suggests that the Ultra preset's additional visual effects tax the GPU more heavily at higher resolutions, likely due to increased shader complexity and memory pressure. The 8 GB VRAM capacity is likely the primary constraint at 4K, as the game's texture requirements exceed the available memory.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 1080p gaming?

A: The High preset at 88 FPS offers the best balance between visual quality and performance. For high refresh rate displays, the Medium preset at 99 FPS is recommended, while the Ultra preset at 77 FPS is still playable but not optimal.

Q: Can this configuration handle 4K gaming?

A: At 3840x2160, only the Low preset at 71 FPS provides a consistently smooth experience. The Medium preset at 51 FPS and High preset at 45 FPS are playable but not ideal, while the Ultra preset at 39 FPS is not recommended.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RTX 4060 scores 17,639 on average, placing it in the 61st percentile. It is essentially tied with the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17,666, 0.2% higher) and the AMD Radeon 780M (17,588, 0.3% lower).

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded in the data?

A: The minimum FPS data is only available for the Medium preset. At 1920x1080, the minimum is 84 FPS; at 2560x1440, it is 64 FPS; and at 3840x2160, it is 43 FPS.

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

A: The data indicates the GPU is the limiting component, especially at higher resolutions. The consistent FPS drops from 1080p to 4K suggest pixel throughput and VRAM capacity are the primary constraints.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings?

A: At 1920x1080, the difference is 63 FPS (140 FPS vs 77 FPS). At 2560x1440, it is 48 FPS (106 FPS vs 58 FPS). At 3840x2160, it is 32 FPS (71 FPS vs 39 FPS).

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5900X provides substantial processing power for Control, with 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture. The CPU's base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 4.80 GHz ensure strong single-threaded performance, which is critical for game logic and physics calculations. The 64 MB of L3 cache helps reduce memory latency, while the dual-channel DDR4 memory support with 51.2 GB/s bandwidth provides adequate data throughput.

The CPU's benchmark scores demonstrate its capability. In Cinebench R23, it scores 16,262 in multi-core and 1,527 in single-core tests. In Geekbench, it achieves 14,118 multi-core and 2,083 single-core. The 3DMark scores show scaling from 941 in single-thread to 10,075 in max-threads, indicating good multi-threading efficiency. The Passmark multi-thread score of 39,002 and single-thread score of 3,469 further confirm the CPU's strength.

The Ryzen 9 5900X ranks in the 87th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 41,376. It is closely matched with the Intel Core Ultra 7 366H (41,263, 0.3% lower) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 356H (41,215, 0.4% lower). The CPU's performance is more than sufficient for Control, as the measured FPS data shows the GPU becoming the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The CPU's 105 W TDP and 7 nm process node from TSMC with 8,300 million transistors provide efficient power delivery. The 2x 74 mm² die size and PCIe Gen 4 support ensure modern platform compatibility. For Control specifically, the CPU's strong single-threaded performance at 1,527 in Cinebench R23 single-core ensures that game logic is not a limiting factor in any of the measured configurations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the configuration performs admirably across all settings. The Low preset achieves 140 FPS, providing the highest frame rate in the entire dataset. The Medium preset delivers 99 FPS with a minimum of 84 FPS and maximum of 114 FPS, showing consistent performance. The High preset reaches 88 FPS, while the Ultra preset manages 77 FPS. This represents a 63 FPS spread between the lowest and highest quality settings, giving users significant flexibility.

At 2560x1440, performance drops are noticeable but manageable. The Low preset still achieves 106 FPS, which is excellent for 1440p gaming. The Medium preset delivers 75 FPS with a range of 64 to 86 FPS, maintaining playability. The High preset produces 67 FPS, while the Ultra preset falls to 58 FPS. The 48 FPS difference between Low and Ultra at this resolution demonstrates the GPU's workload scaling with visual fidelity.

At 3840x2160, the configuration struggles to maintain high frame rates. The Low preset achieves 71 FPS, which is the only setting above 60 FPS. The Medium preset delivers 51 FPS with a minimum of 43 FPS, showing significant frame dips. The High preset produces 45 FPS, while the Ultra preset drops to 39 FPS. The 32 FPS spread between Low and Ultra is smaller than at lower resolutions, indicating that the GPU is nearing its performance limits.

The data across all resolutions shows a consistent pattern: the Medium preset provides the most stable frame times, as evidenced by the detailed minimum and maximum values. The Ultra preset consistently delivers the lowest performance, with the gap between Ultra and High remaining relatively constant at 11-13 FPS across all resolutions. This suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects have a fixed performance cost rather than scaling with resolution.