Control

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER delivers a consistently playable experience in Control across all tested presets. The data indicates that the Ultra preset at 1440p and 1080p is the definitive choice for this combination, providing a high-fidelity visual experience without sacrificing frame rate fluidity. While 4K Ultra remains achievable, the average frame rate dips below the 60 FPS threshold, making High the optimal preset for that resolution to maintain a stable performance baseline.

Settings Recommendations

Benchmark results across the twelve measured configurations show that the Ultra preset at 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 offers the most balanced experience. At 1080p, Ultra yields an average of 118.5 FPS, which is only a 14.3% reduction from the High preset's 138.3 FPS but provides the maximum visual fidelity the game offers. This frame rate is well above the threshold for smooth gameplay on high-refresh-rate displays, making the visual upgrade worthwhile. Similarly, at 1440p, the Ultra preset maintains an average of 89.8 FPS, a figure that remains highly responsive and visually smooth, representing a 14.9% performance cost over High (105.5 FPS) for the additional graphical effects.

For 4K resolution (3840x2160), the recommendation shifts. The Ultra preset's average of 61 FPS is technically playable but leaves minimal headroom for demanding scenes, potentially leading to noticeable dips. The High preset at 4K, with an average of 66.9 FPS, provides a more comfortable margin. Interestingly, the performance gap between High and Ultra at 4K is only 8.8%, which is smaller than at lower resolutions, indicating that the visual uplift from Ultra might be less costly here. However, the Medium preset at 76.3 FPS offers a more significant performance buffer. For a strictly smooth experience at 4K, the High preset is the recommended starting point, as it balances visual quality with a more stable frame rate than Ultra.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is the primary driver of performance in Control, with the data showing that frame rates scale significantly with both resolution and preset. The GPU's 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus, providing 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, proves sufficient for all tested settings. The transition from 1080p to 4K at the same preset consistently reduces average FPS by roughly 50%, which is a classic sign of GPU-bound rendering. For example, at High settings, the frame rate drops from 138.3 FPS at 1080p to 105.5 FPS at 1440p and further to 66.9 FPS at 4K. This scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 4070 SUPER's compute capabilities, rated at 35.48 TFLOPS for FP32, are the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The GPU's boost clock of 2475 MHz and its position in the benchmark hierarchy support this analysis. With a percentile rank of 84 among all GPUs, it sits in a strong performance tier. Its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA RTX A6000 (0.2% faster) and the AMD Radeon RX 7650 GRE (0.3% faster), showing that this card is positioned at the top of its performance class. The architecture's 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores are present but their specific impact on Control's standard rendering is not isolated in this data. The core contribution is the raw shader throughput, which is taxed heavily at 4K, as evidenced by the 61 FPS average on the Ultra preset.

FAQ

Q: What is the best frame rate this system achieves in Control?

A: The highest average frame rate recorded is 213.1 FPS at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. The Ultra preset at the same resolution produces an average of 118.5 FPS.

Q: Is the RTX 4070 SUPER capable of 4K gaming in Control?

A: Yes, it is capable. The benchmark data shows an average of 66.9 FPS at 4K with High settings and 61 FPS with Ultra settings. While these are playable, they do not offer the same headroom as the 1440p results.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between the Low and Ultra presets?

A: The difference is substantial and scales with resolution. At 1080p, the Ultra preset is 44.4% slower than Low (118.5 FPS vs 213.1 FPS). At 1440p, it is 45.4% slower (89.8 FPS vs 164.4 FPS), and at 4K, it is 42.7% slower (61 FPS vs 106.5 FPS).

Q: How does this CPU/GPU combination rank among other tested systems for this game?

A: This specific combination ranks at position 272 out of 1636 total tested hardware combinations for Control. This places it in the top 17% of all configurations.

Q: Which resolution provides the most significant performance jump?

A: The jump from 1440p to 1080p is the most significant. At High settings, moving from 1440p (105.5 FPS) to 1080p (138.3 FPS) yields a 31.1% increase in average frame rate. The jump from 4K to 1440p yields a 57.7% increase (66.9 FPS to 105.5 FPS), but the absolute FPS gain is larger at lower resolutions.

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck in this game?

A: The data suggests the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The consistent ~50% FPS drop from 1080p to 4K across all presets is characteristic of GPU-bound performance. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D's strong synthetic benchmarks, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 59712, indicate it has ample headroom.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates a wide performance envelope. The Low preset achieves an average of 213.1 FPS, which is exceptionally high. Moving up the quality ladder, the Medium preset averages 152.8 FPS, High averages 138.3 FPS, and Ultra averages 118.5 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra shows a cumulative performance cost of 44.4%, yet even the most demanding setting remains well above the 100 FPS mark.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains strong. The Low preset averages 164.4 FPS, while Medium and High produce 115.9 FPS and 105.5 FPS, respectively. The Ultra preset averages 89.8 FPS, which is the first instance of a preset dropping below 100 FPS. This resolution provides a good balance between visual quality and speed, with the High preset offering a 17.5% performance advantage over Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the GPU's workload becomes significantly heavier. The Low preset still manages a very playable 106.5 FPS average. The Medium preset drops to 76.3 FPS, and High to 66.9 FPS. The Ultra preset at 4K records an average of 61.0 FPS, which is the lowest score in the entire dataset. The performance difference between High and Ultra at this resolution is just 8.8%, suggesting diminishing returns for the extra graphical load.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear pattern of GPU limitation. Across all settings, the transition from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 results in a performance drop of approximately 50%. For instance, at Medium settings, the average FPS falls from 152.8 at 1080p to 115.9 at 1440p (a 24.1% drop) and then to 76.3 at 4K (a 50.1% drop from 1080p). This linear scaling with pixel count is a hallmark of a system where the graphics card is the limiting component.

The data indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck in this scenario. The Ryzen 9 9950X3D's high performance, evidenced by its 96th percentile rank among all CPUs, provides a sufficiently fast foundation. The consistent FPS drops as resolution increases point directly to the RTX 4070 SUPER's rendering limits. At 4K, the GPU is processing over four times the pixels of 1080p, and its performance scales accordingly, with the Ultra preset dropping to 61 FPS. This shows that while the CPU has significant headroom, the GPU is fully utilized at higher resolutions, making it the definitive factor in determining the final frame rate. The system is best suited for high-refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p gaming, where it can fully leverage its CPU's potential, while 4K gaming is possible with adjustments to the quality preset.