Control

Control, Remedy’s 2019 action-adventure, presents a demanding environment where the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination demonstrates exceptional headroom across all tested resolutions. Benchmark results place this pairing at rank 64 out of 2888 tested combos, placing it in the top 2.2% of all configurations. The data available covers four quality presets—Low, Medium, High, and Ultra—at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K, providing a comprehensive view of scaling behavior for this high-end pairing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data suggests that the optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution and refresh rate. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset delivers an average of 153 FPS, which is sufficiently high for most high-refresh-rate displays. However, the Medium preset at 1080p produces 198 FPS average, a substantial 29.4% improvement over Ultra, while the Low preset reaches 279 FPS. For competitive or high-refresh-rate play at 1080p, the Medium preset offers a strong balance, though the jump from Medium to Low yields an additional 81 FPS (40.9% increase), which may be preferable for 240Hz panels.

At 2560x1440, the High preset achieves 133 FPS average, which is playable on 144Hz monitors. The Ultra preset drops to 116 FPS, a 12.8% reduction from High. The Medium preset at 1440p produces 150 FPS, representing a 12.8% improvement over High and a 29.3% improvement over Ultra. For 1440p users with high-refresh displays, Medium appears to be the sweet spot, as it maintains frame rates above 144 FPS while the minimum recorded FPS of 127 stays within the typical VRR range.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes notably. The High preset delivers 90 FPS average, which is borderline for 4K 120Hz displays. The Ultra preset drops to 78 FPS, a 13.3% reduction from High. Medium at 4K produces 101 FPS, which is 12.2% higher than High and 29.5% higher than Ultra. The Low preset at 4K reaches 142 FPS, a 57.7% improvement over High, but the visual quality trade-off is likely too severe for a game like Control that emphasizes atmospheric detail. The data indicates that for 4K, the Medium preset provides the best balance, with a minimum FPS of 86 ensuring relatively stable performance.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 serves as the primary rendering engine in this configuration, and its specifications are central to understanding the measured performance. The GPU features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is exceptionally generous for Control, which was released in 2019 and has modest VRAM requirements compared to modern titles. The 32 GB capacity ensures that memory capacity is never a limiting factor at any tested resolution or preset, even at 4K Ultra where texture streaming demands are highest.

The RTX 5090's clock behavior shows a base clock of 2017 MHz and a boost clock of 2407 MHz. The boost clock represents a 19.3% increase over base, which is typical for NVIDIA's modern boost algorithms. The GPU's architecture, Blackwell 2.0, is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC, containing 92,200 million transistors across a 750 mm² die. The shading unit count of 21,760 provides the raw compute throughput necessary for the high frame rates observed in the measured data.

The GPU's benchmark scores contextualize its raw capability. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18,355 and the PassMark G3D score of 39,650 place it in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. The nearest rival data shows the RTX 5090 trailing the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 1.4% in average benchmark score, while leading the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB by 0.3%. These tight margins in synthetic benchmarks contrast sharply with the game-specific results, where the RTX 5090's architectural advantages in modern rendering features become more apparent.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals clear scaling patterns across the three resolutions. At High settings, the transition from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 results in a drop from 176 FPS to 133 FPS, a 24.4% reduction. Moving from 1440p to 3840x2160 at High settings yields 90 FPS, a 32.3% drop from the 1440p figure. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 48.9%, indicating that the GPU still has significant headroom at lower resolutions.

At Medium settings, the scaling is similar but slightly less steep. The 1080p result of 198 FPS drops to 150 FPS at 1440p (24.2% reduction), then to 101 FPS at 4K (32.7% reduction from 1440p). The total drop from 1080p to 4K at Medium is 49.0%, nearly identical to the High preset’s scaling. This consistency suggests that the rendering workload scales predictably with pixel count at these settings.

The Low preset shows the most dramatic scaling. Starting at 279 FPS at 1080p, the 1440p result of 211 FPS represents a 24.4% drop, and the 4K result of 142 FPS is a 32.7% drop from 1440p. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low is 49.1%. Interestingly, the 4K Low result of 142 FPS is higher than the 1080p Ultra result of 153 FPS, which highlights how much impact the quality preset has on frame rates—the resolution change is less significant than the settings change in this case.

The consistent percentage drops across all presets indicate that the RTX 5090 is the primary limiting component in this configuration. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the scaling from 1080p to 4K would show diminishing returns, with 4K FPS being closer to 1080p FPS. Instead, the near-identical scaling percentages across presets suggest that the GPU's rendering throughput is the dominant constraint, particularly at higher resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages span from 153 FPS at Ultra to 279 FPS at Low. The Medium preset provides 198 FPS with a minimum of 168 FPS and a maximum of 228 FPS, representing a 35.2% spread between minimum and maximum. The High preset at 1080p delivers 176 FPS. The scaling from Ultra to High is a 15.0% improvement, from High to Medium is 12.5%, and from Medium to Low is 40.9%. This non-linear scaling suggests that the Ultra preset imposes disproportionately heavy rendering costs, likely due to advanced effects that scale non-linearly with quality.

At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset produces 116 FPS, High produces 133 FPS, Medium produces 150 FPS (minimum 127, maximum 172), and Low produces 211 FPS. The percentage improvements are 14.7% from Ultra to High, 12.8% from High to Medium, and 40.7% from Medium to Low. These ratios are nearly identical to the 1080p results, confirming that the relative cost of each preset is consistent across resolutions. The 1440p Medium minimum of 127 FPS is above the 116 FPS Ultra average, indicating that Medium provides a more stable experience than Ultra even when comparing the minimum to the average.

At 3840x2160, the Ultra preset yields 78 FPS, High yields 90 FPS, Medium yields 101 FPS (minimum 86, maximum 116), and Low yields 142 FPS. The improvements are 15.4% from Ultra to High, 12.2% from High to Medium, and 40.6% from Medium to Low. The 4K Medium minimum of 86 FPS is above the 4K Ultra average of 78 FPS, reinforcing the pattern seen at lower resolutions. The minimum-to-maximum spread at 4K Medium is 30 FPS (34.9%), which is consistent with the 1080p Medium spread of 60 FPS (30.3%) when normalized to the average.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a rank of 64 out of 2888 tested combinations in Control. This places the pairing in the 97.8th percentile of all tested configurations, meaning it outperforms 97.8% of all tested combos. The rank is particularly notable given that the CPU and GPU individually sit at the 91st and 92nd percentiles respectively in their own synthetic benchmark pools. The game-specific rank of 64 is substantially better than either component’s individual percentile, suggesting that this pairing is particularly well-suited to Control’s rendering workload.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks provide context for expected performance. The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D scores 0.6% lower than the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF, 1.3% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K, 2.0% higher than the Intel Xeon 6505P, and 2.1% higher than the Intel Core i7-14700F. These narrow margins in CPU benchmarks indicate that processor choice has relatively limited impact on overall system performance in this game, as the GPU clearly dominates the frame time budget.

The GPU’s nearest rivals show similar tight grouping. The RTX 5090 scores 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, 0.6% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB, and 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, while trailing the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 1.4%. These synthetic benchmark deltas are small, but the game-specific rank of 64 suggests that the RTX 5090’s architectural features—likely its ray tracing capabilities and modern rasterization pipeline—provide a larger real-world advantage than the raw benchmark scores indicate.

FAQ

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

A: The Medium preset at 3840x2160 provides 101 FPS average with a minimum of 86 FPS, which is 12.2% higher than High’s 90 FPS and 29.5% higher than Ultra’s 78 FPS. The Ultra preset’s 78 FPS average may be below the refresh rate of many 4K displays, making Medium the recommended choice for smooth 4K play.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K?

A: At High settings, the drop is from 176 FPS at 1920x1080 to 90 FPS at 3840x2160, representing a 48.9% reduction. At Medium settings, the drop is from 198 FPS to 101 FPS, a 49.0% reduction. The consistent scaling across presets indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor rather than the CPU.

Q: Does the 32 GB VRAM provide any advantage in Control?

A: The 32 GB GDDR7 memory with 1.79 TB/s bandwidth ensures that memory capacity is never a constraint at any tested resolution or preset. Control’s 2019 release date means its VRAM requirements are well below this capacity, so the GPU’s compute throughput, not its memory, determines performance.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5090 scores 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 1.1% higher than the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT, while trailing the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X by 1.4% in average benchmark score. These margins are small, but the game-specific rank of 64 out of 2888 suggests the RTX 5090’s real-world advantage is larger.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: The uniform resolution scaling percentages—approximately 24% from 1080p to 1440p and 33% from 1440p to 4K across all presets—indicate that the GPU is the primary limiting component. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the 4K results would be much closer to the 1080p results due to reduced CPU load at higher resolutions.

Q: What is the frame time consistency like at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the minimum FPS is 168 at 1080p, 127 at 1440p, and 86 at 4K, with corresponding maximums of 228, 172, and 116. The spread between minimum and maximum is approximately 30% of the average at each resolution, indicating consistent frame pacing with no major hitches.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D provides the processing foundation for this configuration, featuring 12 cores and 24 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture with Granite Ridge codename. The CPU operates at a base clock of 4.40 GHz and boosts to 5.50 GHz, with a 120 W TDP. The 128 MB of L3 cache is substantial, and the CPU’s 3DMark single-thread score of 1,269 and multi-thread score of 13,795 reflect strong single-core and multi-core capabilities. The Cinebench R23 scores of 6,739 single-core and 47,737 multi-core further confirm the processor’s high throughput.

The CPU’s benchmark results show it at the 91st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54,762. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 5 245KF, scores 55,093, which is 0.6% higher, while the Intel Core Ultra 5 245K scores 54,053, which is 1.3% lower. These small deltas indicate that the 9900X3D is competitively positioned against current mid-range and high-end processors. The PassMark multi-thread score of 56,154 and single-thread score of 4,646 show that the CPU can handle both heavily threaded workloads and lightly threaded tasks with equal proficiency.

In the context of Control, the CPU’s role is to feed the RTX 5090 with draw calls and physics calculations. The game’s action-adventure genre with destructible environments and telekinetic physics benefits from high single-thread performance, which the 9900X3D’s 5.50 GHz boost clock and Zen 5 architecture provide. The 12-core/24-thread configuration ensures that any background processes or streaming tasks do not interfere with game performance, though the measured FPS data indicates that the GPU is the primary determinant of frame rates in this title. The CPU’s 89.6 GB/s dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth and PCIe Gen 5 interface with 24 lanes provide ample data transfer capacity for the GPU to access textures and geometry without bottlenecking.