Control

Control, Remedy’s 2019 action-adventure, shows a clear preference for GPU throughput on this platform, but the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER combination ensures that even the most demanding presets remain fluid. The measured results place this pairing in the 118th spot out of 1,636 tested combos, placing it in the top 8% of all configurations for this title. The data indicates a system built for high-refresh 1440p gaming and capable of solid 4K performance, with the CPU’s massive cache and the GPU’s 16 GB of VRAM working in concert to handle Control’s physics-heavy environments.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep but predictable, revealing a shift in bottleneck from the CPU to the GPU as pixel count rises. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 245.9 FPS, but at 4K Low, that figure falls to 127.1 FPS—a 48% reduction. This is a classic sign of a CPU that is more than capable of feeding the GPU at lower resolutions; the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, with its 16 cores and 128 MB of shared L3 cache, is not the limiting factor here. The scaling is even more pronounced at the High preset, where 153.4 FPS at 1080p drops to 77.5 FPS at 4K, a 49% decline.

This pattern intensifies with the Ultra preset. The system delivers 135.6 FPS at 1080p but only 67.8 FPS at 4K, showing that the RTX 4080 SUPER is being pushed to its limits with the highest quality settings. The gap between Low and Ultra at 4K is substantial—127.1 FPS versus 67.8 FPS—which confirms that the GPU’s shading units and memory bandwidth are the primary drivers of performance at high resolutions. The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on the RTX 4080 SUPER is sufficient to avoid any capacity-related stutter, but the raw compute demand of Control’s particle effects and destructible environments takes its toll at 3840x2160.

The most telling comparison is the transition from 1440p to 4K. At High settings, 116.3 FPS at 1440p becomes 77.5 FPS at 4K, a 33% drop. This is a larger relative decline than the 24% drop from 1080p to 1440p (153.4 to 116.3 FPS), indicating that the GPU is progressively becoming the sole bottleneck. For gamers targeting a locked 60 FPS, 4K Ultra is the only preset that dips below that threshold, but the data shows that 4K High remains a viable option, delivering 77.5 FPS.

FAQ

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D perform in single-threaded tasks relevant to Control?

A: The CPU scores 1,292 in 3DMark single-thread and 8,430 in Cinebench R23 single-core, which are strong results. These scores, combined with a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, ensure that the game’s main simulation thread is not a bottleneck, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p where CPU overhead is most exposed.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER’s memory configuration adequate for Control at high resolutions?

A: Yes. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus and 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth, the GPU has ample headroom. The 4K Ultra preset still achieves 67.8 FPS, suggesting that memory capacity is not causing performance to collapse, even with the game’s high-resolution textures.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain a high refresh rate?

A: At 2560x1440, the Low preset yields 184.9 FPS, and High delivers 116.3 FPS. These figures indicate that 1440p is the sweet spot for high-refresh gaming, as even Ultra settings maintain a triple-digit average of 100 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank against other tested systems for this game?

A: The combination ranks 118th out of 1,636 tested combos, placing it in the top 8% of all configurations. This high percentile is consistent with the hardware’s performance class, with the CPU ranking in the 96th percentile and the GPU in the 88th percentile against all other parts.

Q: Does the CPU’s 3D V-Cache provide any observable benefit in this game’s benchmarks?

A: The 128 MB of shared L3 cache is a standout feature. While the data does not isolate the cache’s effect, the multi-threaded performance is exceptional—59,712 in Cinebench R23 multicore—which helps maintain stable frame pacing in Control’s chaotic combat scenes, where many objects are simulated simultaneously.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 SUPER’s average benchmark score competitive with its nearest rivals?

A: The GPU scores 53,610 on average. This is 0.2% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (53,489) and 2.9% ahead of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (52,086), confirming that it sits comfortably in the upper tier of graphics cards.

How This Combo Ranks

The data-driven rank of 118 out of 1,636 combos places this pairing in the seventh percentile—meaning only 7% of tested configurations are faster in Control. This is an excellent result, but it is not a top-50 finish, which suggests that there are other combinations with even more headroom for this specific title. The CPU’s percentile against all CPUs is 96, and the GPU’s is 88, so the system is well-balanced, but the GPU is the more likely candidate for an upgrade if higher frame rates are desired.

Compared to the GPU’s nearest rivals, the RTX 4080 SUPER leads by a small margin. It is 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M and 2.1% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 7700S. This indicates that the performance delta between the top-tier cards is narrow in synthetic tests, but the real-world FPS data for Control shows the 4080 SUPER pulling ahead more decisively, especially at 4K where the 77.5 FPS High result is a strong showing. The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core i7-14700KF, is 2.2% behind in average score, but the Ryzen 9 9950X3D’s 3D V-Cache likely provides an edge in gaming workloads that synthetic benchmarks do not fully capture.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a complete picture across three resolutions and four settings. At 1920x1080, the performance is extraordinarily high: Low settings hit 245.9 FPS, Medium reaches 173.0 FPS, High achieves 153.4 FPS, and Ultra still delivers 135.6 FPS. These numbers indicate that the CPU is not holding back the GPU at this resolution, and the system is more than capable of driving a 240Hz monitor.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates remain impressive. Low settings produce 184.9 FPS, Medium is at 129.9 FPS, High is at 116.3 FPS, and Ultra is exactly 100.0 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is noticeable but not severe, with the High preset losing 24% of its performance. This is the resolution where the combo feels most balanced, offering a perfect match for 144Hz displays even on Ultra.

At 3840x2160, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. Low settings still manage 127.1 FPS, which is remarkable for 4K, but Medium drops to 86.7 FPS, High to 77.5 FPS, and Ultra to 67.8 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra at 4K is a 47% reduction in FPS, highlighting the immense cost of the game’s visual effects at maximum quality. For a locked 60 FPS experience, 4K Ultra is the only setting that falls short of that target, but it remains playable.

Settings Recommendations

For the best overall experience, the High preset at 2560x1440 is the recommended choice. It delivers 116.3 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay and leaves headroom for any background tasks. The Ultra preset at this resolution is also viable at exactly 100.0 FPS, making it the best option for users who prioritize visual fidelity over a slight FPS buffer.

At 4K, the High preset is the sweet spot. The 77.5 FPS result is significantly better than the 67.8 FPS of Ultra, and the visual difference between the two is often subtle in fast-paced action. For users with a 144Hz 4K monitor, the Low preset at 127.1 FPS is the only way to approach that refresh rate, but it sacrifices the game’s atmospheric lighting effects. The Medium preset at 86.7 FPS is a balanced compromise for 4K, offering a noticeable visual upgrade over Low while staying comfortably above 60 FPS.

The data shows no reason to use the Low preset at 1080p or 1440p, as the High and Ultra settings provide such high frame rates that the visual downgrade is not justified. At 1080p Ultra, the 135.6 FPS result is still exceptionally smooth, so users should default to maximum quality at this resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread processor based on the Zen 5 architecture, codenamed Granite Ridge. It has a base clock of 4.30 GHz and a boost clock of 5.70 GHz, with a 170 W TDP. Its most notable feature is the 128 MB of shared L3 cache, which is designed to reduce memory latency in gaming workloads. In Control, this cache likely helps with the game’s physics calculations and object tracking, as the CPU’s benchmark scores are exceptional: 59,712 in Cinebench R23 multicore and 8,430 in single-core.

The CPU’s 3DMark scores show strong scaling from 2 threads (2,549) to 16 threads (16,374) and max threads (17,184). This indicates that the processor can handle both lightly-threaded game logic and heavily-threaded background tasks without issue. The single-thread score of 1,292 in 3DMark is particularly relevant for Control, as the game’s main loop is not heavily parallelized. The data suggests that the CPU is never the bottleneck in this pairing, as evidenced by the 245.9 FPS result at 1080p Low, which is a resolution and setting combination that typically exposes CPU limits.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD103 chip. It has 10,240 shading units, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs, along with 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 2,295 MHz and a boost clock of 2,550 MHz, with 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus delivering 736.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The 52.22 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is a key indicator of its rasterization power, which is directly relevant to Control’s non-ray-traced rendering.

The GPU’s benchmark results are strong, with a PassMark G3D score of 34,245 and a Geekbench OpenCL score of 246,994. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6,600 confirms its DirectX 12 performance. In Control, the GPU’s role becomes dominant at 4K, where the 67.8 FPS Ultra result is a direct reflection of its compute and memory bandwidth limits. The 16 GB VRAM capacity is not a constraint, as the game does not exceed this allocation, but the 736.3 GB/s bandwidth is taxed heavily by the game’s high-resolution textures and effects. The data shows that the GPU is the primary factor in determining frame rates at 1440p and above, while the CPU remains the enabler for the high refresh rates seen at 1080p.