Control

The AMD Ryzen 9 7900X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT delivers a playable but not flawless experience in Control, with the GPU acting as the primary constraint at higher resolutions and settings. The data shows a clear performance ceiling: the combo achieves a solid 84 FPS average at 1080p Medium, but this figure drops to 38 FPS at 4K High, indicating that the graphics card is the limiting factor in this title.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance penalty as resolution increases, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. At 1080p Low, the system produces 118 FPS, but this falls to 89 FPS at 1440p and 60 FPS at 4K—a drop of 24.6% from 1080p to 1440p and an additional 32.6% from 1440p to 4K. This scaling pattern is consistent across all settings, with the gap between resolutions widening as graphical load increases.

For High settings, the average FPS declines from 74 at 1080p to 56 at 1440p (a 24.3% reduction) and then to 38 at 4K (a 32.1% reduction from 1440p). The Medium preset follows a similar trajectory: 84 FPS at 1080p, 63 FPS at 1440p, and 43 FPS at 4K. These percentages demonstrate that the performance cost of each resolution step is nearly identical regardless of quality preset, reinforcing that the limiting component is the GPU's rendering throughput rather than any CPU-side bottleneck.

The most telling data point is the Ultra preset at 4K, which yields just 33 FPS. This is 14.5% below the High preset at the same resolution and 21.4% below the Medium preset. The gradient from Low to Ultra at 4K spans from 60 FPS down to 33 FPS, a range of 27 FPS, while the same comparison at 1080p spans from 118 FPS to 65 FPS, a range of 53 FPS. This narrowing at 4K indicates that the GPU is saturated and cannot translate higher quality settings into additional frames, instead absorbing the extra workload into longer render times.

At 1440p, the Medium preset's minimum FPS of 54 and maximum of 73 show a variance of 19 FPS, while the 1080p Medium preset shows a minimum of 71 and maximum of 96, a variance of 25 FPS. The relatively tighter frame pacing at higher resolution suggests the GPU is working closer to its full capacity, reducing the headroom for frame time spikes. For users targeting 4K, only the Low preset achieves a 60 FPS average, and even that is exactly at the threshold with no headroom for demanding scenes.

CPU Role

The Ryzen 9 7900X brings substantial processing power to this pairing, with 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 4 architecture. Its base clock of 4.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.60 GHz provide high single-thread performance, which is relevant for Control's game logic and physics calculations. The CPU's 64 MB of shared L3 cache and dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 83.2 GB/s bandwidth ensure data can flow to the GPU without becoming a constraint.

Benchmark results place this CPU in the 91st percentile among all tested processors, with an average benchmark score of 53288. Its nearest rivals include the AMD EPYC 7313P (0.2% higher score), Intel Xeon Phi 7290 (0.3% lower), Intel Xeon 634 (0.6% higher), and Intel Core i7-14700F (0.6% lower). These deltas are all within 0.6%, meaning the 7900X sits in a tightly contested performance band where no single competitor holds a decisive advantage in synthetic tests.

In Control specifically, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and maintain frame pacing. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 118 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target but not exceptionally high for a processor of this caliber. This suggests that either the game engine has a per-thread limit or the GPU is already near its maximum output even at low settings. The 3DMark synthetic scores—10972 for 16 threads and 12536 for max threads—indicate strong multi-threaded scaling, but Control may not fully utilize all 24 threads given its 2019 release date.

The Cinebench R23 multicore score of 29300 and single-core score of 2016.5 confirm the CPU's capability, but these numbers do not translate into proportional FPS gains in this game. Since the FPS drops by roughly 30% when moving from 1080p to 1440p at every settings level, the CPU is clearly not the bottleneck; a CPU-limited scenario would show smaller FPS differences between resolutions. The 7900X's performance headroom means it is unlikely to cause stutters or hitches, but the measured frame rates are dictated by GPU throughput.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 6600 XT is the decisive component in this combo, and its specifications explain the observed performance envelope. With 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, the GPU delivers 256.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is adequate for 1080p and 1440p but strained at 4K. The GPU's boost clock of 2589 MHz and game clock of 2359 MHz, based on 2048 shading units, produce a peak FP32 throughput of 10.60 TFLOPS.

The GPU's 70th percentile ranking among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 24442, places it near the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630 (0.7% higher), Intel Arc A350M (0.8% lower), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (0.8% higher), and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER (1.1% higher). These rival deltas are all within 1.1%, indicating that the RX 6600 XT performs in a narrow band where synthetic benchmarks show near-equivalence, but real-world game performance can vary.

In Control, the GPU's 8 GB VRAM capacity becomes a factor at 4K Ultra, where the 33 FPS average suggests the card is both compute-bound and potentially memory-constrained. The memory bandwidth of 256.0 GB/s is moderate, and at 4K resolution, the texture data required by Control's high-quality assets may exceed what the 128-bit bus can efficiently feed. The 60 FPS at 4K Low versus 38 FPS at 4K High shows a 36.7% performance cost for enabling higher-quality textures and effects, which is substantial and points to the GPU's raw compute limits rather than VRAM capacity alone.

The GPU's pixel rate of 165.7 GPixel/s and texture rate of 331.4 GTexel/s provide theoretical limits that align with the measured FPS. At 4K, the GPU must process roughly 8.3 million pixels per frame, and at 33 FPS, that equates to about 274 million pixels per second—close to the pixel rate limit when accounting for inefficiencies. This confirms that the RX 6600 XT is operating near its architectural ceiling in this game at 4K, leaving no room for higher settings without sacrificing frame rate.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Control at 60 FPS in 4K?*

A: Only at Low settings, where the average FPS is exactly 60. At Medium, the average drops to 43 FPS, and at High it falls to 38 FPS. Ultra settings yield just 33 FPS, so 4K 60 FPS is only achievable with minimal graphical quality.

Q: What is the best resolution for this pairing?

A: At 1080p, the combo achieves 74 FPS on High and 65 FPS on Ultra, making it suitable for high-refresh-rate monitors. At 1440p, High settings produce 56 FPS, which is playable but not ideal for competitive play. 4K is only viable at Low settings for a 60 FPS target.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Ryzen 9 7900X scores 53288 on average, which is 0.2% higher than the AMD EPYC 7313P, 0.3% higher than the Intel Xeon Phi 7290, 0.6% higher than the Intel Xeon 634, and 0.6% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700F. These differences are marginal in synthetic benchmarks.

Q: Is the GPU the bottleneck in this game?

A: Yes, the data shows that FPS drops consistently as resolution increases across all settings, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload. The CPU's high 91st percentile ranking and strong multi-thread scores indicate it has ample headroom, while the GPU's 70th percentile ranking and moderate benchmarks suggest it is the limiting component.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p Medium?

A: The average FPS is 63, with a minimum of 54 and maximum of 73. This provides a stable experience with some variance, but the minimum frame rate may be noticeable in fast-paced scenes.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: It ranks 2650th out of 3720 tested combos in Control, placing it in the lower third of all pairings. This reflects the GPU's mid-range position rather than the CPU's high-end capabilities.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 2650 out of 3720 tested configurations places it in the 28.7th percentile of all pairings in Control. This is a low-to-mid ranking that primarily reflects the RX 6600 XT's performance class, as the Ryzen 9 7900X ranks in the 91st percentile among CPUs. The discrepancy between the CPU's high standing and the combo's lower rank highlights that the GPU is the determining factor for this game's frame rates.

In the context of the 3720 combos, this pairing sits above the bottom quartile but well below the median. The 1.1% performance delta to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER in synthetic benchmarks suggests that the RX 6600 XT is competitive with older high-end cards, but in Control, the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (33 FPS) is indicative of a card that cannot sustain high-quality settings at high resolutions. The combo's rank would likely improve at 1080p, where the GPU has more breathing room, but the overall ranking captures performance across all tested conditions.

The CPU's nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700F, scores 0.6% higher in synthetic tests, but the 7900X's higher boost clock of 5.60 GHz versus the i7's unspecified clock does not provide a measurable advantage in this game. The ranking data suggests that for Control specifically, users would need a significantly faster GPU to move this combo into a higher percentile, as the CPU's contribution to FPS is already saturated.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The following table presents the exact measured average FPS values for each resolution and settings combination:

| Resolution | Settings | Avg FPS |

|------------|----------|---------|

| 3840x2160 | High | 38 |

| 3840x2160 | Low | 60 |

| 3840x2160 | Medium | 43 |

| 3840x2160 | Ultra | 33 |

| 2560x1440 | High | 56 |

| 2560x1440 | Low | 89 |

| 2560x1440 | Medium | 63 |

| 2560x1440 | Ultra | 49 |

| 1920x1080 | High | 74 |

| 1920x1080 | Low | 118 |

| 1920x1080 | Medium | 84 |

| 1920x1080 | Ultra | 65 |

At 1080p, the range from Low to Ultra spans 53 FPS, showing that the GPU can meaningfully differentiate between quality presets. The Medium preset's minimum of 71 FPS and maximum of 96 FPS indicate a playable experience with occasional frame drops. At 1440p, the range narrows to 40 FPS (89 to 49), and the Medium preset's minimum of 54 FPS approaches the 60 FPS target, making it borderline for smooth gameplay. At 4K, the range shrinks to 27 FPS (60 to 33), and the Medium preset's minimum of 36 FPS falls well below playable thresholds for most users.

The data shows that the only configuration achieving a 60 FPS average or higher is 1080p Low (118 FPS), 1080p Medium (84 FPS), 1080p High (74 FPS), 1440p Low (89 FPS), and 4K Low (60 FPS). For a consistent 60 FPS experience, users must either stay at 1080p with any settings, use 1440p with Low settings, or accept exactly 60 FPS at 4K Low. The Ultra preset at 1080p (65 FPS) just clears the threshold, but any resolution above 1080p with High or Ultra settings will result in average FPS below 60.