Control

# Control with AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 delivers a formidable Control experience, with the data showing a combination that scales predictably across resolutions while maintaining playable frame rates even at 4K Ultra. This pairing ranks in the 79th percentile of all tested combos for this title, placing it ahead of the vast majority of configurations while leaving headroom for more demanding future releases.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates reveal a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At 1080p Low settings, the combo produces 206 FPS average, which drops to 156 FPS at 1440p Low and further to 105 FPS at 4K Low. This represents a 24% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 49% reduction from 1080p to 4K at Low settings, indicating that the RTX 5070 remains the limiting factor even when graphical load is minimized.

The scaling becomes more pronounced at higher settings. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 130 FPS at 1080p to 98 FPS at 1440p (a 25% decrease) and then to 66 FPS at 4K (a 49% decrease from 1080p). This consistent proportional drop across settings suggests that resolution, rather than settings level, is the dominant variable affecting performance in Control for this configuration.

Ultra settings tell a similar story but with lower absolute numbers. The combo achieves 113 FPS at 1080p Ultra, 85 FPS at 1440p Ultra, and 58 FPS at 4K Ultra. The 4K Ultra result represents a 49% reduction from 1080p Ultra, exactly matching the pattern seen at Low and High settings. This uniformity indicates a well-balanced system where the GPU's rendering pipeline scales linearly with pixel count, without unexpected bottlenecks emerging at any resolution.

The 1440p to 4K transition shows the steepest per-pixel cost, with High settings dropping from 98 to 66 FPS (a 33% reduction) despite only a 2.25x increase in pixel count. The data suggests that 4K Ultra at 58 FPS is the practical ceiling for this pairing, while 1440p Ultra at 85 FPS offers a more comfortable margin above 60 FPS. The 1080p results, ranging from 113 to 206 FPS, confirm that this combo is well-suited for high-refresh-rate monitors at that resolution.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 brings 12 GB of GDDR7 memory across a 192-bit bus, delivering 672.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration proves sufficient for Control across all tested settings, with no evidence of capacity-related stuttering or texture pop-in in the measured data. The GPU's 48 RT cores and 192 Tensor cores provide the architectural foundation for the game's rendering features, though the benchmark scores suggest the traditional rasterization pipeline carries most of the load.

Clock speeds of 2325 MHz base and 2512 MHz boost position the RTX 5070 as a high-frequency design within the Blackwell 2.0 architecture. The GPU achieves a pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 482.3 GTexel/s, which directly translate to the frame rates observed in Control. The FP32 throughput of 30.87 TFLOPS supports the game's shader complexity, with the data showing that even at 4K Ultra, the GPU maintains an average of 58 FPS.

The GPU's 82nd percentile ranking among all tested GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40377, places it ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40318, +0.1%) and AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40063, +0.8%) while trailing the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40870, -1.2%) and NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568, +2.0%). These nearest rivals are workstation-class parts, highlighting the RTX 5070's positioning as a consumer GPU with substantial compute capability.

At 4K Medium settings, the combo produces 75 FPS average with a minimum of 63 FPS and maximum of 86 FPS. This 63 FPS minimum demonstrates that the GPU maintains playable performance even during demanding scenes, suggesting the 12 GB frame buffer is not being exhausted. The 1440p Medium results show 111 FPS average with a 94 FPS minimum, while 1080p Medium reaches 146 FPS average with a 124 FPS minimum, each representing approximately 15% drops from their Low settings counterparts.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 780th out of 3720 tested combinations for Control, placing it in the top 21% of all configurations. This percentile ranking reflects the strength of both components, with the CPU and GPU each contributing to the overall performance profile. The rank position indicates that while this is not an absolute top-tier configuration, it outperforms the vast majority of systems tested for this title.

The CPU's 95th percentile ranking among all processors, with an average benchmark score of 75779, places it just ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (75738, +0.1%), AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D (75716, +0.1%), AMD EPYC 8224P (75582, +0.3%), and Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (75488, +0.4%). This extremely tight grouping, with deltas of less than 0.5% across four rival processors, indicates that the 9950X3D sits at the very top of the CPU performance hierarchy.

The GPU's 82nd percentile ranking, while lower than the CPU's, still represents strong performance. The RTX 5070's average benchmark score of 40377 places it within 2% of its nearest rivals, showing that the GPU is competitive within its tier. The combination of a top-5% CPU with an upper-tier GPU explains the combo's 21st percentile ranking, as the CPU's exceptional performance helps maximize the GPU's output in Control.

Compared to the broader field of 3720 combos, ranking 780th means this configuration outperforms over 2900 other combinations tested with Control. This places it in the upper quintile of all systems, making it a strong choice for gamers seeking high frame rates at 1440p or playable 4K performance. The data suggests that the RTX 5070, rather than the CPU, is the constraining factor in this pairing, as the 9950X3D's 95th percentile ranking leaves minimal CPU-side bottlenecks.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce 206 FPS average, Medium reaches 146 FPS average with a 124 FPS minimum and 168 FPS maximum, High achieves 130 FPS average, and Ultra tops out at 113 FPS average. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 45% reduction in average frame rate, with the gap between consecutive settings averaging approximately 30 FPS. The 1080p results confirm that this resolution is well within the combo's comfort zone, with even Ultra settings maintaining frame rates well above 100 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales downward as expected. Low settings yield 156 FPS average, Medium produces 111 FPS average with a 94 FPS minimum and 127 FPS maximum, High delivers 98 FPS average, and Ultra achieves 85 FPS average. The Medium settings minimum of 94 FPS indicates that 1440p gameplay remains smooth even during intensive scenes, with the Ultra setting's 85 FPS average providing a comfortable margin above console-level performance. The 1440p results represent a 24-25% reduction from 1080p across all settings, consistent with the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the combo reaches its performance limits. Low settings produce 105 FPS average, Medium achieves 75 FPS average with a 63 FPS minimum and 86 FPS maximum, High delivers 66 FPS average, and Ultra drops to 58 FPS average. The 4K Medium minimum of 63 FPS is notable, as it indicates that even at this demanding resolution, the combo rarely dips below the 60 FPS threshold. The 4K Ultra result of 58 FPS, while below 60, remains playable and represents a 49% reduction from 1080p Ultra.

The Medium settings across all three resolutions provide the most complete dataset, with minimum and maximum frame rates recorded for each. At 1080p Medium, the 124-168 FPS range shows a spread of 44 FPS, while 1440p Medium spans 94-127 FPS (33 FPS range), and 4K Medium spans 63-86 FPS (23 FPS range). This narrowing range at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently loaded as pixel count increases, reducing frame time variance.

FAQ

Q: What is the maximum average frame rate this combo achieves in Control?

A: The highest measured average is 206 FPS at 1920x1080 Low settings. The 1080p resolution also delivers 146 FPS at Medium, 130 FPS at High, and 113 FPS at Ultra settings.

Q: Can this combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: The data shows 58 FPS average at 3840x2160 Ultra, which falls slightly below 60 FPS. However, at 4K Medium settings, the combo achieves 75 FPS average with a 63 FPS minimum, confirming that 60 FPS is sustainable with a small settings reduction.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 compare to its nearest GPU rivals in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 5070 scores 40377 on average. It leads the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (40063, +0.8%) and NVIDIA RTX A500 Mobile (39568, +2.0%), while trailing the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40870, -1.2%) and essentially matching the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (40318, +0.1%).

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested configurations for Control?

A: This combo ranks 780th out of 3720 tested combinations, placing it in the top 21% of all systems tested with Control. This represents a strong overall position, outperforming over 2900 other configurations.

Q: What CPU benchmark scores does the Ryzen 9 9950X3D achieve?

A: The CPU scores 42018 in Cinebench R23 multicore, 2259 in Cinebench R23 single-core, 26736 in Geekbench multicore, and 3064 in Geekbench single-core. Its average benchmark score across all tests is 75779, ranking in the 95th percentile of all CPUs.

Q: How does performance scale from 1080p to 4K at High settings?

A: At High settings, the combo delivers 130 FPS at 1080p, 98 FPS at 1440p, and 66 FPS at 4K. This represents a 25% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 49% reduction from 1080p to 4K, showing consistent scaling with pixel count.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D brings 16 cores and 32 threads based on the Zen 5 architecture, manufactured on TSMC's 4 nm process. With a base clock of 4.30 GHz and boost clock of 5.70 GHz, this processor delivers exceptional single-threaded and multi-threaded performance. The 128 MB of L3 cache, combined with 80 KB L1 and 1 MB L2 per core, provides ample cache capacity for game data, while the dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 89.6 GB/s bandwidth ensures the CPU can feed data to the GPU without bottlenecking.

In Control, the CPU's role is primarily to maintain consistent frame pacing and avoid bottlenecking the RTX 5070. The 9950X3D's 95th percentile ranking, with an average benchmark score of 75779, places it just 0.1% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755 (75738) and AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 9755X3D (75716), and 0.3% ahead of the AMD EPYC 8224P (75582) and 0.4% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285 (75488). This tight grouping at the top of CPU performance ensures that the 9950X3D can fully utilize the RTX 5070's capabilities.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong single-thread performance with a 3DMark single-thread score of 1292 and a PassMark single-thread score of 4737. Multi-threaded performance is equally impressive, with 3DMark max-threads scoring 17184 and PassMark multithread reaching 70255. These scores, combined with the Cinebench R23 results of 42018 multicore and 2259 single-core, indicate that the CPU has ample headroom for Control's rendering workload.

The 170 W TDP and 4 nm process node suggest efficient power delivery, while the AMD Socket AM5 platform with PCIe Gen 5 and 24 lanes provides high-bandwidth connectivity for the RTX 5070's PCIe 5.0 x16 interface. The CPU's 16,630 million transistors across a 2x 70.6 mm² die size demonstrate the architectural density of Zen 5, with the 128 MB L3 cache particularly beneficial for game workloads that exhibit high cache locality. The data indicates that the 9950X3D is not a limiting factor in this combo, with the GPU consistently becoming the performance boundary as resolution increases.