Control

Control with the AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 presents a clear picture of a system that is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but shows surprising CPU headroom at 1080p. The data indicates a consistent scaling pattern where the gap between settings narrows as resolution drops, pointing to a combo that performs best when the GPU is allowed to stretch its legs. This analysis breaks down the measured FPS rows to show exactly where this pairing excels and where it leaves performance on the table.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is steep and linear, confirming that the RTX 5070 is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions. At Ultra settings, the average frame rate falls from 116.2 FPS at 1920x1080 to 87.3 FPS at 2560x1440, a 24.9% reduction, and then drops further to 57.6 FPS at 3840x2160, a 34% reduction from 1440p. This pattern holds across all settings presets, with the Low preset showing the most dramatic scaling: 208.2 FPS at 1080p falls to 159.2 FPS at 1440p and then to 104 FPS at 4K. The data suggests that at 1080p, the CPU is doing more work, as evidenced by the massive 79% jump from Ultra to Low at that resolution (116.2 to 208.2 FPS), compared to a smaller 61% increase at 1440p (87.3 to 159.2 FPS) and a 61% increase at 4K (57.6 to 104 FPS).

The scaling between Low and Medium settings is also telling. At 1080p, moving from Low to Medium costs 58.1 FPS (208.2 down to 150.1), which is a 27.9% performance hit. At 4K, the same settings change only drops performance by 25.1 FPS (104 down to 78.9), a 24.1% reduction. This indicates that at lower resolutions, the CPU is able to feed frames faster, making the GPU the bottleneck even on Low settings. At 4K, the GPU is so saturated that the relative cost of raising settings shrinks. The biggest takeaway is that this combo delivers playable 4K performance only on Low and Medium settings, while 1440p is the sweet spot for High and Ultra.

GPU Role

The RTX 5070’s memory configuration plays a significant role in these results. With 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, the card delivers 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. In Control, a game that uses high-resolution textures, the data shows that the Ultra preset at 4K (57.6 FPS) and 1440p (87.3 FPS) still maintains playable frame rates, suggesting that the VRAM capacity is sufficient for these settings, but the GPU compute is the limiting factor. The card’s boost clock of 2512 MHz and base clock of 2325 MHz, paired with 6144 shading units, produce a pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s. These specs align with the measured results: the card is clearly capable of high fill rates, but the 4K Ultra numbers show it reaching its compute limit.

The FP32 performance of 30.87 TFLOPS is a strong indicator of raw shader throughput, and the benchmark results reflect this. At 1440p High, the combo hits 100.9 FPS, which is a solid result for a modern action game. However, the gap between High and Ultra at each resolution is consistent: at 1080p, High gets 129.8 FPS while Ultra gets 116.2 FPS (a 10.5% difference), and at 1440p, High gets 100.9 FPS while Ultra gets 87.3 FPS (a 13.5% difference). This suggests that the Ultra preset’s additional effects, likely including ray tracing or higher-quality shadows, are taxing the GPU’s RT cores (48) and tensor cores (192) more heavily than the standard shader units. The data indicates that the GPU is the bottleneck in all measured scenarios, but its 12 GB frame buffer is not causing a hard cap on performance.

How This Combo Ranks

This pairing ranks 305th out of 1636 tested combos in Control, placing it in the top 18.6% of all configurations. This is a strong showing, but not a top-tier result. The CPU’s individual benchmark performance is notable: the Ryzen 9 7900X scores 50556 on average, which is 0.1% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 235 (50598) and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT (50738, though the deltaPct is -0.4, meaning the 7900X is slightly behind). The 7900X is 0.5% behind the Intel Core i7-13850HX and 0.8% behind the Intel Core i9-13980HX. This places the CPU in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, which is excellent.

The GPU, however, is the weaker link in this combo. The RTX 5070’s average benchmark score is 41687, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, which scores 41441 (0.6% behind the 5070), and the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (41610, 0.2% behind). This means the GPU is performing roughly on par with a previous-generation flagship, but the combo rank of 305 suggests that the CPU’s high performance is not fully utilized in this game, likely because Control is not heavily multithreaded. The data shows that the CPU’s 12 cores and 24 threads are overkill for this title, as evidenced by the fact that the combo rank is lower than the CPU’s individual percentile rank.

Settings Recommendations

For the best experience, the data points to 1440p High as the optimal balance. At this setting, the combo delivers 100.9 FPS, which is above the 90 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay, and it is only 13.5% slower than the 1440p Ultra preset (87.3 FPS). The visual difference between High and Ultra is often marginal in Control, but the performance cost is significant. If a player has a 1080p monitor, the High preset at 129.8 FPS is excellent, but the Medium preset at 150.1 FPS offers a 15.6% performance boost over High with only a modest visual downgrade. At 4K, the Low preset at 104 FPS is the only way to get a truly smooth experience, as the Medium preset drops to 78.9 FPS and High falls to 64.8 FPS.

The data suggests avoiding Ultra at 4K entirely, as the 57.6 FPS average is below the 60 FPS threshold for most players. For those with high-refresh-rate 1440p monitors, the Low preset at 159.2 FPS is a viable option for competitive play, but the visual quality loss is substantial. The measured rows show that High is the most consistent preset across all resolutions, with a drop of only 28.9 FPS from 1080p to 1440p (129.8 to 100.9) and another 36.1 FPS drop to 4K (64.8). This makes High the most predictable choice for a balanced experience.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo produces its highest frame rates. Low settings yield 208.2 FPS, Medium drops to 150.1 FPS, High comes in at 129.8 FPS, and Ultra is the slowest at 116.2 FPS. The spread between Low and Ultra is 92 FPS, indicating strong CPU scaling at this resolution. Moving to 2560x1440, the numbers compress: Low gets 159.2 FPS, Medium 114.4 FPS, High 100.9 FPS, and Ultra 87.3 FPS. The spread narrows to 71.9 FPS, and the GPU’s load becomes more apparent. At 3840x2160, the compression is even more pronounced: Low achieves 104 FPS, Medium 78.9 FPS, High 64.8 FPS, and Ultra 57.6 FPS. The spread is now just 46.4 FPS.

The percentage-wise differences are telling. At 1080p, Low is 79% faster than Ultra (208.2 vs 116.2). At 1440p, Low is 82% faster than Ultra (159.2 vs 87.3). At 4K, Low is 80% faster than Ultra (104 vs 57.6). This consistency suggests that the relative cost of Ultra settings is uniform across resolutions, but the absolute frame rates drop significantly. The 4K Low result of 104 FPS is the only 4K setting that matches the 1080p High result of 129.8 FPS in terms of playability, though it requires sacrificing nearly all visual fidelity.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Control at 4K with playable frame rates?

A: Yes, but only on Low settings, which achieve 104 FPS. Medium drops to 78.9 FPS, and High falls to 64.8 FPS, which is still playable but borderline. Ultra at 57.6 FPS is not recommended for smooth gameplay.

Q: What is the best resolution for this CPU-GPU pairing?

A: The data shows 1440p is the sweet spot. At High settings, it delivers 100.9 FPS, and even Ultra manages 87.3 FPS, providing a good balance between visual quality and performance.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 compare to the RTX 3090 in this context?

A: The RTX 5070’s average benchmark score is 41687, which is 0.6% higher than the RTX 3090’s 41441. This indicates the 5070 is slightly faster overall, but the difference is minimal.

Q: Is the Ryzen 9 7900X holding back the RTX 5070 in Control?

A: The data suggests not. The CPU ranks in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, and the combo ranks 305th out of 1636, indicating the GPU is the limiting factor in this game. At 1080p Low, the CPU pushes 208.2 FPS, showing it can feed the GPU adequately.

Q: What is the FPS difference between High and Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, High delivers 129.8 FPS while Ultra delivers 116.2 FPS, a difference of 13.6 FPS (10.5%). The visual upgrade may not justify the performance cost.

Q: How much performance is lost moving from 1440p to 4K at High settings?

A: At 1440p High, the combo achieves 100.9 FPS. At 4K High, it drops to 64.8 FPS, a 35.8% reduction. This is a significant hit, confirming that 4K is a heavy load for this GPU.