Control

The pairing of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X with the AMD Radeon RX 570 presents a stark contrast in capabilities, pitting a modern 12-core flagship processor against a legacy graphics card from the Polaris generation. Benchmark data for Control reveals a system that is overwhelmingly constrained by its graphics subsystem, particularly at higher resolutions and settings. The measured frames per second (FPS) across the tested configurations show a clear narrative: the CPU has ample headroom, but the GPU's age limits the experience to 1080p gameplay.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 4K is severe, indicating that the Radeon RX 570 is the definitive bottleneck. At the High preset, the average frame rate falls from 35.7 FPS at 1920x1080 to 30.0 FPS at 2560x1440, representing a 16% reduction. Moving further up to 3840x2160, the average plummets to 15.4 FPS, which is a 57% decrease from the 1080p result. This steep decline at 4K is characteristic of a GPU that has run out of pixel-pushing capability, as the rendering workload increases exponentially.

The scaling pattern is similar across other presets. At Low settings, the transition from 1080p to 4K sees the average FPS drop from 56.6 to 31.4, a 45% reduction. The Medium preset shows a drop from 42.0 FPS at 1080p to 21.7 FPS at 4K, a 48% decrease. This consistent and dramatic falloff at 4K confirms that the RX 570's 224.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 5.095 TFLOPS of compute power are simply insufficient for the demands of Control at that resolution.

The data suggests that the limiting component is unequivocally the GPU. The Ryzen 9 9900X, with its high boost clock of 5.60 GHz and 64 MB of shared L3 cache, is far more capable than what the RX 570 can utilize. The frame rate differences between resolutions are almost entirely attributable to the graphics card's fillrate and shader processing. The 4K results, all below 32 FPS, are not playable for a smooth experience. The 1440p results are marginally better but still hover in a range where frame pacing would be inconsistent. The only resolution where the combo achieves a reasonably fluid experience is 1080p, and even then, it depends heavily on the selected quality preset.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy for optimizing the experience. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 56.6 FPS, which is the highest frame rate recorded for this combination. This suggests that for competitive or high-refresh-rate play, Low settings are the only viable option. The Medium preset at 1080p yields 42.0 FPS, a significant drop but still within a playable range for a slower-paced action-adventure title. The High preset at 1080p produces 35.7 FPS, which is borderline.

For the best balance between visual fidelity and performance, the data indicates that the Medium preset at 1920x1080 is the optimal choice. It offers a substantial improvement in visual quality over Low while maintaining an average frame rate that is 18% higher than the High preset at the same resolution. The jump from Medium to High costs 6.3 FPS on average, which is a noticeable hit to smoothness for what is often a modest visual gain. The Ultra preset at 1080p is the worst value, delivering only 31.5 FPS, which is lower than the High preset at 1440p.

At 2560x1440, the situation becomes more difficult. The Low preset achieves 40.7 FPS, which is the only 1440p result above 40 FPS. The Medium preset falls to 33.1 FPS, and High drops to 30.0 FPS. None of these 1440p options provide the headroom needed for consistent 60 FPS gameplay. Therefore, the recommendation is clear: stay at 1080p. If a higher resolution is mandatory, only the Low preset at 1440p is acceptable, but it sacrifices too much visual quality. The 4K resolutions are not viable, with all presets failing to reach even 32 FPS.

FAQ

*Q: What is the best resolution to play Control with this CPU and GPU combo?*

A: The data shows that 1920x1080 is the only resolution that provides playable frame rates. At 1080p, the average FPS ranges from 31.5 on Ultra to 56.6 on Low, whereas 1440p results peak at 40.7 FPS on Low, and 4K results are all below 31.4 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to High at 1080p?

A: The Ultra preset at 1920x1080 produces an average of 31.5 FPS, which is actually 4.2 FPS lower than the High preset's 35.7 FPS. This indicates that the Ultra settings impose a significant load on the GPU without delivering a proportionate performance benefit in this configuration.

*Q: Is the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X the cause of the low frame rates in Control?*

A: No. The benchmark results indicate that the Radeon RX 570 is the limiting factor. The Ryzen 9 9900X has 12 cores and 24 threads with a boost clock of 5.60 GHz, providing ample processing power. The frame rate scaling between resolutions is directly tied to GPU workload, not CPU capabilities.

Q: What is the difference in performance between 1080p and 4K at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the average frame rate drops from 42.0 FPS at 1920x1080 to 21.7 FPS at 3840x2160. This is a reduction of 48%, highlighting the GPU's inability to handle the pixel count at 4K.

*Q: Can this combo achieve 60 FPS in Control?*

A: No. The highest recorded average FPS is 56.6 at 1080p with the Low preset. All other tested settings and resolutions produce average frame rates below 42 FPS, so 60 FPS is not achievable with this hardware pairing.

Q: How does the RX 570's performance rank compared to its nearest rivals?

A: The Radeon RX 570 has an average benchmark score of 30158, which is nearly identical to its closest rivals. It is 0.2% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060, 0.2% faster than the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT, 0.6% faster than the NVIDIA Tesla M60, and 0.8% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and the AMD Radeon RX 570 ranks at position 1547 out of 1636 tested combos in Control. This places it in the bottom 6% of all configurations, indicating a severely unbalanced pairing for this specific game. The low rank is a direct consequence of the GPU's limitations, as the RX 570's performance percentile is 74, but its architecture from the GCN 4.0 generation cannot cope with the demands of a modern title like Control.

The data shows that the CPU's high benchmark scores do not translate into in-game performance when paired with such a weak GPU. The Ryzen 9 9900X ranks in the 94th percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54450. However, the combo rank reflects the system's actual gaming capability, which is dictated by the slowest component. The GPU's average benchmark score of 30158 is only 55% of the CPU's score, creating a massive disparity.

This ranking serves as a warning that high-end CPU performance does not compensate for a low-end GPU in a GPU-intensive game. The measured FPS data confirms this, as the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates even at 1080p. The combo's position near the bottom of the database highlights that for Control, this configuration is not recommended for a smooth experience, regardless of the CPU's strengths.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, with a base clock of 4.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.60 GHz. Its 64 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory provide a strong foundation for gaming. However, in Control, the CPU's role is largely secondary due to the GPU bottleneck. The measured frame rates are so low that the CPU is never given a chance to be the limiting factor.

The benchmark data shows that the CPU's performance in synthetic tests is excellent, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 46438 and a single-core score of 6555. Its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D, scores 0.4% higher on average, while the Intel Core i7-14700F scores 0.7% lower. This indicates that the 9900X is a top-tier processor. Yet, these strengths are irrelevant when the GPU is unable to render frames fast enough.

In this specific game, the CPU's high core count and clock speeds do not influence the FPS figures. The differences in FPS between the Low and Ultra presets are entirely due to the GPU's workload. The CPU is essentially idle, waiting for the GPU to complete its rendering tasks. This is a classic case of a CPU being overqualified for the GPU it is paired with. The Ryzen 9 9900X would be better suited to a more powerful graphics card, as its 24 threads and 5.60 GHz boost clock are more than sufficient to feed even the most demanding GPUs. For this combo, the CPU's role is to ensure that it never becomes a bottleneck, which it successfully does, but that is its only contribution to the gaming experience.