Control

The Intel Core i3-12100F paired with the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX presents a striking imbalance in Control. The data shows a quad-core processor from the Alder Lake generation driving a flagship RDNA 3.0 graphics card with 24 GB of VRAM. The measured frames per second reveal that this combination is heavily GPU-bound at higher resolutions, but the CPU begins to assert its limits at 1080p.

Resolution Scaling

The most revealing metric in this dataset is the performance delta between 1080p and 4K. At 1080p with Ultra settings, the combo produces 122.7 FPS. Moving to 1440p Ultra, it drops to 95.9 FPS, a 21.8% reduction. Scaling further to 4K Ultra yields 64.5 FPS, which is a 47.4% drop from the 1080p result. This steep decline indicates that the RX 7900 XTX is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the rendering load increases faster than the CPU can feed frames.

However, the picture changes when examining the Low preset. At 1080p Low, the combo achieves 222.8 FPS. At 1440p Low, it falls to 168.6 FPS (a 24.3% drop), and at 4K Low, it reaches 115.9 FPS (a 48% drop from 1080p). The fact that Low settings at 1080p can exceed 220 FPS suggests that the i3-12100F is capable of feeding the GPU at very high frame rates, but the scaling pattern still shows a consistent GPU bottleneck as resolution increases.

The Medium preset shows similar behavior: 156.7 FPS at 1080p, 118.9 FPS at 1440p, and 81.9 FPS at 4K. The High preset delivers 144 FPS at 1080p, 105 FPS at 1440p, and 75 FPS at 4K. The consistent pattern across all presets is that the gap between 1080p and 1440p is roughly 25-30%, while the gap between 1440p and 4K is roughly 30-40%. This indicates that the RX 7900 XTX's memory bandwidth of 960.0 GB/s and its 384-bit bus are being saturated as pixel count rises, which is typical for a game like Control with heavy visual effects.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 223rd out of 1636 tested combinations in Control. This places it in the top 13.6% of all tested systems, which is respectable given the CPU's modest specifications. The i3-12100F has a percentile of 72 against all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 72% of processors in general benchmarks. The RX 7900 XTX has a percentile of 85 against all GPUs.

The ranking suggests that while the GPU is powerful enough to push high frame rates, the CPU holds the combo back from reaching the top tier. The i3-12100F's 4 cores and 8 threads with a boost clock of 4.30 GHz provide solid single-thread performance, but Control benefits from additional cores. The CPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3975WX (deltaPct -0.1%) and the Intel Core i7-1250U (deltaPct 0.4%), indicating that the i3-12100F's average benchmark score of 13516 is competitive in synthetic tests but may not translate perfectly to gaming.

The GPU's nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (deltaPct -0.4%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (deltaPct -2%), which shows that the RX 7900 XTX is positioned between these cards in overall compute performance. This ranking data suggests that the combo's 223rd position is primarily due to the CPU's 4-core limitation, as the GPU alone would likely rank higher if paired with a stronger processor.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX features 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus, delivering 960.0 GB/s of bandwidth. This is more than sufficient for Control's texture-heavy environments, even at 4K Ultra where the game can consume significant VRAM. The GPU's boost clock of 2498 MHz and game clock of 2365 MHz are derived from the RDNA 3.0 architecture on a 5 nm process from TSMC. The card has 6144 shading units, 384 TMUs, and 192 ROPs, with 96 ray accelerators for the game's RT effects.

The measured FPS data shows that the GPU is the dominant factor at 4K. The difference between 4K Low (115.9 FPS) and 4K Ultra (64.5 FPS) is 51.4 FPS, demonstrating that the GPU's rendering load scales dramatically with settings. The card's FP32 performance of 61.39 TFLOPS and texture rate of 959.2 GTexel/s are the key drivers of this performance. At 1080p, the GPU is less stressed, but the CPU's 12 MB of shared L3 cache and 4 cores become the bottleneck, as evidenced by the fact that 1080p High (144 FPS) is only 35.4% higher than 1080p Ultra (122.7 FPS), whereas 1080p Low (222.8 FPS) is 81.6% higher than 1080p Ultra.

The GPU's 85th percentile ranking and average benchmark score of 44019 indicate that it is a high-end part, but the measured frame rates in Control show that it can be held back by the CPU at lower resolutions. The card's 960.0 GB/s bandwidth is a major asset at 4K, where the pixel throughput demands high memory bandwidth.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the best experience for this combo depends on the target resolution. At 4K, the High preset delivers 75 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay. The Ultra preset at 4K drops to 64.5 FPS, which is still playable but leaves less headroom for demanding scenes. The Medium preset at 4K offers 81.9 FPS, providing a good balance between visual quality and performance.

At 1440p, the High preset achieves 105 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Ultra preset at 1440p delivers 95.9 FPS, still comfortably above 60 FPS. For competitive play or maximum frame rates, the Low preset at 1440p reaches 168.6 FPS, but this sacrifices visual fidelity.

At 1080p, the High preset provides 144 FPS, which is ideal for 144Hz displays. The Ultra preset at 1080p delivers 122.7 FPS, still sufficient for high-refresh gaming. The Medium preset at 1080p hits 156.7 FPS, offering a sweet spot for players who want high frame rates without the visual penalties of Low.

The data suggests that the High preset is the most balanced option across all resolutions. At 1080p High, the combo produces 144 FPS; at 1440p High, 105 FPS; and at 4K High, 75 FPS. This preset provides consistent performance that scales predictably with resolution. The Ultra preset is only recommended for 1440p, where it maintains 95.9 FPS, or for 4K users who prioritize graphics over frame rate. The Low preset is best reserved for 1080p competitive play, where 222.8 FPS exceeds most monitors' refresh rates.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Control?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 222.8, achieved at 1920x1080 with Low settings.

Q: How does the combo perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the combo delivers an average of 64.5 FPS, which is above the 60 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay.

Q: Is this combo better suited for 1080p or 4K gaming?

A: The data shows the combo is more GPU-bound at 4K, with a 47.4% drop from 1080p Ultra to 4K Ultra (122.7 FPS to 64.5 FPS). At 1080p, the CPU becomes the limiting factor, as evidenced by the large gap between Low (222.8 FPS) and Ultra (122.7 FPS).

*Q: What is the combo's rank among all tested systems in Control?*

A: The combo ranks 223rd out of 1636 tested combinations, placing it in the top 13.6% of all systems tested.

*Q: How much VRAM does the RX 7900 XTX have, and does it matter for Control?*

A: The RX 7900 XTX has 24 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 384-bit bus. This is more than sufficient for Control's textures, and the 960.0 GB/s bandwidth helps maintain high frame rates at 4K.

Q: Which settings preset provides the best balance of performance and quality?

A: The High preset appears most balanced, delivering 144 FPS at 1080p, 105 FPS at 1440p, and 75 FPS at 4K. This provides consistently strong performance across all resolutions with minimal visual compromise.