Control

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D compare to its closest CPU rivals in average benchmark score?

A: The Ryzen 9 9900X3D posts an average benchmark score of 54,762, which places it 0.6% behind the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF (55,093) and 1.3% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K (54,053). It is also 2% faster than the Intel Xeon 6505P (53,701) and 2.1% faster than the Intel Core i7-14700F (53,620).

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER sits in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 43,223. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB, scores 43,262, putting the RTX 4070 SUPER just 0.1% behind.

Q: How does this CPU-GPU combo rank in Control specifically?

A: The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER ranks 438th out of 2,888 tested combos in Control. This places it in the top 15.2% of all configurations tested for this game.

Q: What is the highest average frame rate achieved at 1080p with this setup?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the setup achieves an average of 214 FPS. This is the highest measured average across all tested resolutions and settings combinations.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU have a higher percentile ranking relative to their respective categories?

A: The GPU ranks higher, sitting in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, while the CPU ranks in the 91st percentile of all CPUs. The GPU's percentile is lower relative to its peers, indicating more competitive pressure in the graphics card market.

Q: What are the minimum and maximum frame rates recorded at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the setup records a minimum of 98 FPS and a maximum of 133 FPS, with an average of 115 FPS. This is the only 1440p setting tier that includes min/max data.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process node from TSMC. It features 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 render output units, along with 56 ray tracing cores and 224 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1980 MHz and boosts to 2475 MHz, which directly influences how quickly it can process the visual effects and physics calculations in Control.

Memory configuration plays a critical role in this game's results. The RTX 4070 SUPER comes with 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 504.2 GB/s. Control's environment-heavy scenes, with their destructible objects and particle effects, benefit from this substantial memory bandwidth. The memory clock runs at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed, ensuring that texture streaming and asset loading do not become bottlenecks at higher resolutions.

The GPU's FP32 performance of 35.48 TFLOPS, with matching FP16 performance at a 1:1 ratio, indicates strong raw compute capability. This translates directly to the frame rates observed in Control. At 4K Ultra settings, the GPU maintains an average of 60 FPS, while dropping to High settings raises that to 69 FPS. The jump from Ultra to High at 4K represents a 15% improvement in average frame rate, highlighting how the GPU's compute resources respond to reduced shading and post-processing loads.

The RTX 4070 SUPER's 220 W TDP and dual-slot design allow it to sustain boost clocks during extended gaming sessions, which is essential for maintaining consistent frame rates in Control's more demanding sequences. The 16-pin power connector and suggested 550 W PSU indicate the card's power delivery requirements are modest relative to its performance class. With a pixel rate of 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate of 554.4 GTexel/s, the GPU has ample fill rate for the game's resolution scaling needs.

The GPU's benchmark results show strong DirectX 11 performance with a Passmark score of 273, while DirectX 12 scores 110, suggesting the card handles Control's legacy rendering paths efficiently. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 205,624 and OpenCL score of 172,795 further demonstrate the card's compute versatility, which is relevant for games that offload physics to the GPU.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance on optimal settings for this combo across three resolutions. At 1920x1080, all settings tiers deliver playable frame rates, with Low achieving 214 FPS, Medium at 152 FPS, High at 135 FPS, and Ultra at 118 FPS. The step from Medium to High costs 17 FPS, while High to Ultra costs another 17 FPS, suggesting diminishing returns beyond Medium for users prioritizing frame rate over visual fidelity.

At 2560x1440, the data shows a similar pattern but with tighter margins. Low settings produce 162 FPS, Medium drops to 115 FPS, High reaches 102 FPS, and Ultra falls to 89 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is 13 FPS, while High to Ultra is also 13 FPS. For 1440p gaming, Medium settings offer the best balance, with a minimum of 98 FPS ensuring smooth gameplay even during intense action sequences.

The 3840x2160 results reveal where the GPU begins to hit its limits. Low settings achieve 110 FPS, but Medium drops to 78 FPS, High falls to 69 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 60 FPS. The drop from Low to Medium at 4K is substantial at 32 FPS, indicating that the game's medium-tier effects significantly increase GPU load. For 4K displays, High settings at 69 FPS provide the best experience, as the difference between High and Ultra is only 9 FPS but the visual improvement may not justify the frame rate loss.

Considering all three resolutions, Medium settings at 1080p and 1440p deliver the most consistent experience, with 152 FPS and 115 FPS averages respectively. The measured minimums at these settings—130 FPS at 1080p and 98 FPS at 1440p—ensure that frame pacing remains stable. At 4K, High settings at 69 FPS is the recommended tier, as Ultra's 60 FPS average sits right at the edge of what many consider acceptable for action games.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER achieves a rank of 438 out of 2,888 tested combinations in Control. This places the combo in the 85th percentile of all configurations, meaning it outperforms 85% of tested setups while being surpassed by 15%. The rank reflects the synergy between the CPU's 12 cores and 24 threads with the GPU's 7,168 shading units, which together handle Control's CPU-bound physics and GPU-bound rendering.

Relative to the CPU's overall performance percentile of 91, the combo rank of 438 out of 2,888 suggests that Control is not purely CPU-limited. The GPU's 83rd percentile ranking aligns more closely with the combo's overall position, indicating that the RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary performance driver in this game. The CPU's headroom allows the GPU to operate at its full potential, as evidenced by the high frame rates at lower settings where CPU overhead would typically cap performance.

The combo's position among 2,888 tested configurations underscores its competitiveness. With 2,450 combos ranking below it, the setup is firmly in the upper echelon of tested hardware. The delta between the CPU and its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF at -0.6%, is minimal, meaning that swapping CPUs would likely not change the combo's rank significantly. Similarly, the GPU's nearest rival, the Quadro M6000 24 GB at -0.1%, shows that the RTX 4070 SUPER is precisely positioned among its peers.

This rank also reflects the balance between the two components. A more powerful GPU would likely push the combo higher, but the current pairing shows no obvious bottleneck at any tested resolution or settings tier. The consistent frame rates across all twelve measured configurations indicate a well-matched system.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D is a 12-core, 24-thread processor built on the Zen 5 architecture with the Granite Ridge codename. It operates at a base clock of 4.40 GHz and boosts to 5.50 GHz, with a TDP of 120 W. The CPU's 128 MB of L3 cache, combined with 80 KB of L1 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache per core, provides substantial on-die storage for game data. This cache configuration is particularly relevant for Control, which frequently accesses game state and physics data.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 47,737 and a single-core score of 6,739. The 3DMark tests reveal scalable performance across thread counts: 2,512 for 2 threads, 4,885 for 4 threads, 9,002 for 8 threads, and 13,795 for max threads. This scaling indicates that the CPU efficiently utilizes additional cores, which matters for Control's background simulation and AI systems.

In Control, the CPU's role is to manage game logic, physics calculations, and draw call submissions. The Ryzen 9 9900X3D's 5.50 GHz boost clock ensures that single-threaded tasks, such as main game loop updates, execute swiftly. The 12 cores and 24 threads provide ample parallelism for the game's multi-threaded rendering pipeline, preventing CPU bottlenecks that could limit the GPU.

The CPU's memory support for DDR5 with dual-channel configuration and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures that data transfers between the CPU and memory do not constrain frame rates. The PCIe Gen 5 interface with 24 lanes provides high-bandwidth connectivity to the GPU and storage devices, reducing load times and enabling faster asset streaming in Control's large environments.

The CPU's 91st percentile ranking among all processors reflects its overall capability, but the measured FPS data in Control shows that even at 1080p Low settings—where CPU overhead is most apparent—the processor maintains 214 FPS. This indicates that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this game, allowing the GPU to be the primary determinant of performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the setup delivers its highest frame rates across all settings tiers. Low settings produce an average of 214 FPS, with no minimum or maximum recorded. Medium settings average 152 FPS, with a minimum of 130 FPS and maximum of 175 FPS. High settings average 135 FPS, and Ultra settings average 118 FPS. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a total decrease of 96 FPS, representing a 44.9% drop in average frame rate.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales downward as expected. Low settings achieve 162 FPS, Medium settings average 115 FPS with a minimum of 98 FPS and maximum of 133 FPS, High settings average 102 FPS, and Ultra settings average 89 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra at 1440p is 73 FPS, a 45.1% reduction. The 1440p Medium settings' minimum of 98 FPS is the lowest recorded minimum across all settings tiers, indicating that even at this resolution, the setup maintains playable frame rates.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's workload increases significantly. Low settings average 110 FPS, Medium settings average 78 FPS with a minimum of 66 FPS and maximum of 90 FPS, High settings average 69 FPS, and Ultra settings average 60 FPS. The 4K results show the most dramatic drop, with Low to Ultra representing a 50 FPS decrease, or 45.5%. The 4K Medium settings' minimum of 66 FPS is the lowest recorded across all configurations, though still within playable range.

Comparing across resolutions at the same settings tier reveals the GPU's scaling efficiency. At Low settings, the transition from 1080p to 1440p costs 52 FPS, and from 1440p to 4K costs another 52 FPS. At Ultra settings, the drops are 29 FPS from 1080p to 1440p, and 29 FPS from 1440p to 4K. This consistent scaling suggests that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being utilized proportionally across resolutions, with no unexpected bottlenecks at any specific configuration.