Control

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 delivers a robust experience in Control, with frame rates that scale predictably across its four tested presets. The data indicates that the High preset offers the most balanced experience, providing a significant visual upgrade over Medium while maintaining playable performance at all resolutions. At 4K, High settings yield an average of 61.2 FPS, which is comfortably within the standard 60 FPS target, while Medium drops to 63.4 FPS, a marginal gain that does not justify the visual compromise. The Ultra preset, conversely, pushes the GPU hard enough to bring 4K performance down to 50.6 FPS, making it a less desirable choice for smooth gameplay. For users prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity, the Low preset at 4K achieves 93.9 FPS, but the jump from Low to High represents a more substantial improvement in image quality for a 34.8% reduction in performance. At 1440p, High settings deliver 90 FPS, offering an excellent balance for high-refresh-rate displays, while 1080p High reaches 116.6 FPS, ensuring a fluid experience on standard monitors.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the extensive database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of CPU and GPU achieves a rank of 518 out of 1636 combos for Control. This places it in the upper-middle tier of all tested systems, indicating that it is a capable configuration for this title but not at the absolute top of the performance hierarchy. The CPU itself holds a strong position, with its average benchmark score of 54450 placing it in the 94th percentile against all tested CPUs. This high CPU percentile suggests that the processor is unlikely to be the primary bottleneck in most scenarios. The GPU, with an average benchmark score of 34780, sits in the 79th percentile against all GPUs, which is a solid standing but slightly lower than the CPU’s relative position. This disparity hints that the graphics card may be the more limiting factor in achieving higher frame rates, a conclusion that is supported by the measured FPS data across different resolutions and settings. The combination’s overall rank reflects a system where a very strong processor is paired with a competent, but not top-tier, graphics solution for this specific game.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture and features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s. This substantial memory allocation is more than sufficient for Control at all tested settings and resolutions, ensuring that texture streaming and asset loading do not become a source of stuttering or frame drops. The GPU’s clock speeds are notable, with a base clock of 1330 MHz and a boost clock of 2520 MHz, with a game clock specified at 2070 MHz. These frequencies, combined with the 3584 shading units, allow the card to maintain the high fill rates required by the game’s physics-heavy environments. The benchmark results show that the GPU’s performance is the primary driver of the FPS differences between presets. For instance, moving from High to Ultra at 1440p results in a drop from 90 FPS to 76 FPS, a 15.6% decrease that is entirely attributable to the increased graphical load on the GPU. The data suggests that the RX 9070 is well-matched to the Ryzen 9 9900X, as the CPU’s single-thread score of 1286 in 3DMark is high enough to keep up with the GPU’s demands in this action-adventure title.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates for this combination are consistent and show a clear hierarchy across both resolution and settings. At 1080p, the performance is excellent across the board, with the Low preset achieving an average of 180.3 FPS. Medium settings reach 133.2 FPS, High settings hit 116.6 FPS, and even the demanding Ultra preset maintains an average of 100.5 FPS. This indicates that at 1080p, the system has ample headroom, and users can comfortably max out the game’s settings for the best visual experience without sacrificing smoothness. Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain highly playable. The Low preset delivers 139.3 FPS, which is a slight 22.7% reduction from the 1080p result. Medium drops to 99.1 FPS, High to 90 FPS, and Ultra to 76 FPS. These numbers show that 1440p is a sweet spot for this hardware, offering a great balance between visual fidelity and performance for high-refresh-rate gaming. At 4K, the demands on the GPU become more apparent. The Low preset still manages a very respectable 93.9 FPS, but the higher presets show a more pronounced performance cost. Medium averages 63.4 FPS, High averages 61.2 FPS, and Ultra dips to 50.6 FPS. The data shows that for 4K gaming, users will need to stick to the High preset or lower to maintain a consistent 60 FPS experience, as the Ultra preset falls short of this target.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K provides insight into the system’s bottleneck characteristics. When comparing High settings, the frame rate drops from 116.6 FPS at 1080p to 90 FPS at 1440p, a 22.8% decrease, and further to 61.2 FPS at 4K, a 47.5% decrease from the 1440p figure. This pattern of diminishing returns as resolution increases is a classic indicator of GPU-bound performance. The CPU, with its high benchmark scores, is clearly capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions, but the graphical workload at higher resolutions becomes the limiting factor. The same trend is visible at other settings; for instance, the Low preset shows a drop from 180.3 FPS at 1080p to 93.9 FPS at 4K, a 47.9% reduction. The fact that the FPS drop is proportionally larger when moving from 1440p to 4K than from 1080p to 1440p reinforces that the RX 9070’s rendering capabilities are the primary constraint at 4K. Conversely, the relatively small gap between 1080p and 1440p results at all settings suggests that the system is not CPU-limited at these resolutions, as the Ryzen 9 9900X’s 12 cores and 24 threads provide more than enough processing power for Control’s engine.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this hardware?

A: The High preset is the recommended choice for 4K, as it is the highest quality setting that maintains an average frame rate above 60 FPS, specifically 61.2 FPS. The Ultra preset falls to 50.6 FPS, which is below the ideal threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: How does the system perform at 1440p with Ultra settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with the Ultra preset, the combination achieves an average of 76 FPS. This indicates that the system is well-suited for high-refresh-rate monitors at this resolution, providing a smooth experience with maximum visual detail.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The data indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting factor, especially at higher resolutions. The CPU’s benchmark scores place it in the 94th percentile, while the FPS drops significantly from 1080p to 4K, which is a characteristic of GPU-bound performance.

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate achievable at 1080p?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded at 1920x1080 is 180.3 FPS, which is achieved with the Low settings preset. With the Ultra preset, the system still maintains a high average of 100.5 FPS.

Q: How much of a performance hit does the Ultra preset take compared to High at 4K?

A: At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset averages 50.6 FPS, while the High preset averages 61.2 FPS. This represents a 17.3% reduction in performance for the jump from High to Ultra.

Q: Does the 16 GB of VRAM on the RX 9070 provide enough memory for this game?

A: Yes, the 16 GB of GDDR6 memory is more than sufficient for Control at all tested settings and resolutions. The memory bandwidth of 644.6 GB/s ensures that the game’s assets are fed to the GPU efficiently, with no indications of memory-related performance bottlenecks in the measured frame rates.