Control

Control pairs a commanding 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with an 8 GB AMD Radeon RX 6600, a combination that lands at rank 2248 out of 2888 tested combos in this title. The benchmark data for this Action Adventure game shows a system where the GPU is the clear bottleneck at higher resolutions, but the CPU's headroom becomes evident at 1080p. This analysis breaks down the measured frame rates, scaling behavior, and practical settings for playing Control with this specific hardware pairing.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a steep performance cliff as resolution increases, confirming that the Radeon RX 6600 is the limiting component in this pairing. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo produces 108 FPS average. Moving to 1440p at the same Low preset drops performance to 82 FPS, a 24% reduction. At 4K Low, the average falls to 55 FPS, which is roughly half of the 1080p result. This scaling pattern is classic GPU-bound behavior — the CPU has ample headroom, but the RX 6600's rendering throughput simply cannot keep pace with the pixel count.

The gap between resolutions narrows at higher quality settings, which further underscores the GPU limitation. With High settings, the measured averages are 68 FPS at 1080p, 52 FPS at 1440p, and 35 FPS at 4K. The 4K High result is only 51% of the 1080p High figure. At Ultra settings, the spread tightens even more: 59 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and 30 FPS at 4K. This compression happens because the GPU is already saturated at 1080p Ultra, so adding more pixels has a smaller relative impact than it does at Low settings where the GPU has more idle capacity.

The data indicates that the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is never the constraint in this game. The CPU's Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51731 and single-core score of 7303 place it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs, but those numbers are irrelevant when the GPU is rendering frames. The scaling from 1080p to 4K is nearly linear in terms of pixel count (about 4x), yet the FPS drop is far less severe, which suggests the game's engine and the RX 6600's memory bandwidth (224.0 GB/s) are interacting in a way that limits the impact of resolution increases beyond a certain point.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 2248 out of 2888 tested combinations places it in the lower-middle tier of all CPU-GPU pairings tested for Control. This rank is heavily influenced by the GPU, given that the RX 6600 sits at the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. The CPU, by contrast, is near the top of the heap at the 96th percentile. The mismatch between these two components is stark: a top-tier processor paired with a mid-range graphics card produces a result that is firmly in the bottom half of all combos tested for this game.

Looking at the nearest rivals for the GPU, the RX 6600's average benchmark score of 19036 is virtually identical to the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 at 19030 (0% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile at 19049 (-0.1% delta). The NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation trails slightly at 18954 (0.4% delta higher for the RX 6600). This tells us that the RX 6600 is performing exactly where its synthetic benchmarks suggest it should. The 0% delta with the Quadro K6000 is particularly telling — in raw compute terms, these two very different cards are equivalent, though their gaming feature sets differ dramatically.

For the CPU, the nearest rival is the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K with an average score of 83807, which is 0.2% lower than the 290K Plus's 84003. The AMD EPYC 4584PX at 83090 is 1.1% behind, and the AMD EPYC 9135 at 82980 is 1.2% behind. The AMD EPYC 7F72 at 85072 is actually 1.3% ahead. These are all enterprise-class processors, which indicates the 290K Plus is competing at the very top of the CPU performance spectrum. In Control, however, this CPU advantage translates to virtually nothing because the game is not CPU-bound at any resolution tested.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 is built on the RDNA 2.0 architecture using the Navi 23 chip on a 7 nm process. It has 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, along with 28 ray accelerators. The GPU's boost clock is rated at 2491 MHz, with a game clock of 2044 MHz and a base clock of 1626 MHz. Memory is 8 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, providing 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The card draws up to 132 W and requires a single 8-pin power connector.

In the context of Control, the 8 GB VRAM capacity is a critical factor. At 4K with High settings, the GPU produces only 35 FPS average, and at Ultra it drops to 30 FPS. While the game might not be exceeding 8 GB of VRAM at these settings, the card's raw compute throughput (8.928 TFLOPS FP32) is simply insufficient for smooth 4K gameplay. The texture rate of 279.0 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s are mid-range figures that align with the observed performance.

The GPU's benchmark results are consistent with its gaming performance. The PassMark G3D score of 15096 and the 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1492 both place it in the lower half of modern GPUs. The Geekbench Vulkan score of 67623 is respectable, but the OpenCL score of 28850 shows a significant gap between API efficiencies. In Control, which uses DX12, the DirectX 12 PassMark score of 51 (out of what appears to be a normalized scale) suggests the card's DX12 path is not its strongest. This could explain why 4K performance is particularly weak — DX12 titles often require more geometry and draw call throughput than older APIs.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides 12 distinct data points across four resolutions and four quality presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 108 FPS average. Medium produces 77 FPS with a minimum of 65 and maximum of 88. High yields 68 FPS, and Ultra drops to 59 FPS. This range shows that even at 1080p, the RX 6600 cannot push past 108 FPS, and the step from Low to Medium costs 31 FPS (a 29% drop) while the step from High to Ultra costs only 9 FPS (a 13% drop). The diminishing returns at higher presets are clear.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 82 FPS. Medium drops to 58 FPS with a minimum of 49 and maximum of 67. High produces 52 FPS, and Ultra falls to 45 FPS. The delta between Low and Medium here is 24 FPS (29%), while High to Ultra is only 7 FPS (13%). This pattern mirrors 1080p, but with overall lower numbers. The 1440p Ultra result of 45 FPS is just above the 30 FPS floor, making it borderline playable for most users.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 55 FPS. Medium drops to 39 FPS with a minimum of 33 and maximum of 45. High produces 35 FPS, and Ultra falls to 30 FPS. The minimum of 33 FPS at 4K Medium is notable — it means the frame rate can dip below 30 FPS in demanding scenes, which will be perceptible as stutter. The 4K Ultra result of 30 FPS average is exactly at the playable threshold, but any scene complexity will push it lower.

The data shows a consistent relationship between presets across resolutions. Medium is always 15-20 FPS lower than Low, and Ultra is always 10-15 FPS lower than High. The gap between Medium and High is smaller (9 FPS at 1080p, 6 FPS at 1440p, 4 FPS at 4K), suggesting that the High preset offers a better visual-per-performance trade than Medium. The min/max data points (only available for Medium) show a spread of 23 FPS at 1080p, 18 FPS at 1440p, and 12 FPS at 4K, indicating that frame pacing becomes more consistent as resolution increases — likely because the GPU is more uniformly saturated.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the best experience for this combo depends on the target resolution and acceptable frame rate. For 1080p, the High preset at 68 FPS average is the sweet spot. It provides a significant visual upgrade over Medium (77 FPS) for only a 9 FPS cost, and it leaves enough headroom above the 60 FPS threshold for most scenes. The Ultra preset at 59 FPS is tempting, but it risks dropping below 60 FPS in busy scenes, which can be more jarring than the visual difference between High and Ultra.

At 1440p, the High preset at 52 FPS is the practical choice. It is 6 FPS higher than Ultra (45 FPS) and only 6 FPS lower than Medium (58 FPS). The visual improvement from Medium to High is generally more noticeable than from High to Ultra, making High the best balance. If a smoother frame rate is preferred, Medium at 58 FPS is viable, but the min of 49 FPS suggests occasional dips below 50 FPS.

At 4K, no preset achieves a consistently smooth experience. The Low preset at 55 FPS is the only playable option, and even it will struggle in heavy combat. Medium at 39 FPS is marginal, and High (35 FPS) and Ultra (30 FPS) are below the threshold for most players. For 4K, the recommendation is to use Low settings and accept the visual compromise, or to drop the resolution to 1440p for a better experience. The data does not support 4K as a viable option for this GPU beyond Low settings.

FAQ

Q: Can this combo run Control at 4K 60 FPS?

A: No. The best 4K result is 55 FPS average at Low settings, and that is below 60 FPS. All other 4K presets range from 30 to 39 FPS, which is far below 60 FPS.

Q: What is the highest quality preset that maintains 60+ FPS?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset achieves 108 FPS and Medium achieves 77 FPS, both above 60 FPS. The High preset at 68 FPS also stays above 60 FPS. At 1440p, only Low at 82 FPS exceeds 60 FPS. No 4K preset reaches 60 FPS.

Q: How much faster is the CPU compared to its closest rival?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K at 83807. It trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%.

Q: Is the GPU's performance consistent with its benchmark scores?

A: Yes. The RX 6600's average benchmark score of 19036 is within 0.4% of all four nearest rivals, and its in-game rank of 2248 out of 2888 reflects its mid-range standing. The GPU sits at the 63rd percentile of all GPUs.

Q: What is the frame time consistency at 1440p Medium?

A: The measured data shows a minimum of 49 FPS and maximum of 67 FPS at 1440p Medium, resulting in an 18 FPS spread. This indicates some frame pacing variability, but not severe stuttering.

Q: Does the CPU ever bottleneck the GPU in this game?

A: No. The CPU is at the 96th percentile of all CPUs, and the performance scaling from 1080p to 4K is driven entirely by the GPU. At 1080p Low, the GPU still only reaches 108 FPS, which is well below what this CPU can handle.