Control

# Control with AMD Ryzen 9 5950X + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 delivers a strong Control experience across all tested configurations, with the data showing a clear hierarchy between resolution and quality presets. The combo ranks 736 out of 1636 tested combinations, placing it in the upper-middle tier of all tested hardware pairings for this title. The measured frame rates reveal that 1080p is entirely fluid at every preset, 1440p remains highly playable with adjustments, and 4K demands setting compromises to maintain smooth motion. The RTX 3070's 8 GB of GDDR6 memory and 448.0 GB/s bandwidth prove sufficient for Control's demands, while the 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X provides ample headroom that never appears to bottleneck the GPU in these measurements.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data indicates that the High preset at 2560x1440 offers the most balanced experience, delivering 76 FPS on average. This sits comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold while retaining the visual fidelity most players expect from a modern action-adventure title. At 1920x1080, the High preset reaches 98.7 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate displays without sacrificing image quality. For users prioritizing maximum smoothness, the Low preset at 1080p achieves 159 FPS, making it the only tested configuration that approaches high-refresh territory above 144 Hz.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. The Ultra preset drops to 43.5 FPS, which falls below the smooth gameplay standard. The Medium preset at 4K produces 59.4 FPS, nearly reaching 60 but still short. The High preset at 4K yields 50.4 FPS, which is playable but not ideal. The data suggests that 4K users should select Low settings to achieve 80.7 FPS, a substantial improvement over the higher presets. Alternatively, 1440p with Ultra settings at 65.9 FPS provides a superior balance of fidelity and smoothness compared to 4K with Medium or High settings. The measured results show that the RTX 3070's capabilities are best utilized at 1440p, where the gap between Low and Ultra settings spans from 122.2 FPS down to 65.9 FPS, giving players a wide range of options.

FAQ

Q: What is the best preset for 1080p gaming with this hardware?

A: The High preset at 1920x1080 delivers 98.7 FPS, which provides excellent smoothness while maintaining visual quality. The Ultra preset reaches 88.8 FPS, still above 60, but the 10 FPS gain from dropping to High is modest. The Low preset hits 159 FPS for maximum frame rates.

Q: Can this combo handle 4K at 60 FPS?

A: No tested 4K preset reaches 60 FPS. The Medium preset comes closest at 59.4 FPS, but the Low preset is required for a comfortable margin at 80.7 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 43.5 FPS, and High manages 50.4 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 3070 compare to its nearest rivals in general GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 3070's average benchmark score is 28238, placing it 0.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT and 1% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti. It trails the AMD FirePro S7150 by 0.6% and the AMD Radeon R9 M295X by 1.1%.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 122.2 FPS, while Ultra averages 65.9 FPS. This represents a 56.3 FPS difference, or roughly 46% lower performance at Ultra compared to Low.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 5950X a bottleneck in Control?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. The 5950X scores 38607 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 5450 in single-core, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs. The measured FPS scaling across resolutions and settings follows GPU-bound patterns.

Q: Does the Ultra preset at 1080p outperform High at 1440p?

A: Yes. Ultra at 1920x1080 averages 88.8 FPS, while High at 2560x1440 averages 76 FPS. The 1080p Ultra configuration provides 12.8 more FPS, though the 1440p High preset offers higher resolution with still-playable performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 is the primary performance driver in these Control measurements. Its 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for the game's texture and geometry demands at the tested resolutions. The GPU's GA104 chip, built on Samsung's 8 nm process, contains 17,400 million transistors across a 392 mm² die. The base clock of 1500 MHz boosts to 1725 MHz, with memory running at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective).

The RTX 3070's benchmark profile shows a PassMark G3D score of 22214 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 123479. Its average benchmark score of 28238 places it in the 72nd percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT at 27985 (0.9% behind) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti at 27956 (1% behind). The RTX 3070 also features 46 ray tracing cores and 184 tensor cores, which support DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, though the measured FPS data does not differentiate between ray tracing enabled or disabled.

The FPS measurements show the RTX 3070 scaling predictably with resolution. At 1080p Low, the GPU produces 159 FPS, which drops to 122.2 FPS at 1440p Low (a 23% reduction) and further to 80.7 FPS at 4K Low (a 49% reduction from 1080p). This scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the CPU's capability remains constant across all tests.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the RTX 3070 delivers exceptional performance across all presets. The Low setting achieves 159 FPS, Medium reaches 112.1 FPS, High produces 98.7 FPS, and Ultra maintains 88.8 FPS. All four presets exceed the 60 FPS threshold, with even the most demanding Ultra setting providing a comfortable margin. The spread from Low to Ultra is 70.2 FPS, showing that players have substantial room to adjust visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

Moving to 2560x1440, the performance remains strong but begins to show the GPU's limits. Low averages 122.2 FPS, Medium hits 86.9 FPS, High delivers 76 FPS, and Ultra drops to 65.9 FPS. The Ultra preset at 1440p sits just above 60 FPS, making it viable for players who prioritize visual fidelity. The gap between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 56.3 FPS, narrower than at 1080p, indicating that resolution is becoming a more significant factor.

At 3840x2160, the RTX 3070 struggles to maintain high frame rates on demanding presets. Low produces 80.7 FPS, which remains fluid, but Medium falls to 59.4 FPS, High drops to 50.4 FPS, and Ultra reaches only 43.5 FPS. The 4K results show a clear break from the lower resolutions: only the Low preset exceeds 60 FPS, and the Ultra preset falls 16.5 FPS below that threshold. The data suggests that 4K gaming with this GPU requires significant settings compromises.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K reveals how the RTX 3070 handles increasing pixel counts. At Low settings, the transition from 1920x1080 (159 FPS) to 2560x1440 (122.2 FPS) reduces performance by 36.8 FPS, or 23.1%. Continuing to 3840x2160 (80.7 FPS) removes another 41.5 FPS, for a total reduction of 78.3 FPS from 1080p to 4K, which is a 49.2% decrease.

The Medium preset shows similar scaling: 112.1 FPS at 1080p, 86.9 FPS at 1440p, and 59.4 FPS at 4K. This represents a 52.7 FPS total drop, or 47% lower at 4K compared to 1080p. High settings follow the pattern: 98.7 FPS at 1080p, 76 FPS at 1440p, and 50.4 FPS at 4K, for a 48.3 FPS reduction (48.9%). Ultra shows the smallest absolute drop: 88.8 FPS at 1080p, 65.9 FPS at 1440p, and 43.5 FPS at 4K, a 45.3 FPS reduction (51%).

The consistency of these percentage drops across presets indicates that resolution scaling is uniform and GPU-bound. The RTX 3070's 448.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 20.31 TFLOPS FP32 performance are being taxed progressively as pixel count increases. The data shows no evidence of CPU limiting, as the proportional FPS drops align with the increasing pixel loads rather than any core-count or thread-count constraints.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X provides substantial processing headroom in Control. With 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 3 architecture (Vermeer codename), this CPU operates at a base clock of 3.40 GHz and boosts to 4.90 GHz. The 64 MB of L3 cache (with 64 KB L1 and 512 KB L2 per core) ensures that game data is readily accessible. The CPU's benchmark scores confirm its capability: Cinebench R23 multicore reaches 38607, while single-core hits 5450, and 3DMark max threads scores 11597.

The 5950X's percentile ranking of 93 places it above average among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 49062. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core i5-14600K, scores 49166, which is 0.2% higher, while the Intel Core i5-14600KF is 0.6% higher at 49367. The AMD EPYC 4345P scores 49595 (1.1% higher), and the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H scores 48698 (0.7% lower). These small deltas indicate that the 5950X remains competitive with modern mid-range and workstation processors.

In Control specifically, the measured FPS data shows no evidence of CPU bottlenecking. At 1080p Low, where GPU load is lowest, the system achieves 159 FPS, which is the highest measured value. If the CPU were limiting, we would expect this configuration to plateau at a lower frame rate. The consistent scaling from Low to Ultra at each resolution suggests that the GPU is the performance constraint across all tested settings. The 5950X's 32 threads are more than sufficient for Control's threading model, and the 4.90 GHz boost clock ensures strong single-threaded performance for game logic and physics calculations.