Control Laptop and Desktop Benchmarks
Technology
Control has been developed by Remedy Entertainment, the studio behind the Alan Wake, Quantum Break and the Max Payne series. Control may look and feel familiar if you have played any of those games then, with Remedy opting for a third-person point-of-view (POV) once again. In short, Control has excellent graphics, if your machine is powerful enough to display them, which Remedy has complemented with creative level design, and detailed cut-scenes. The studio has incorporated stunning cinematic camera work and excellent English voice-acting too. In general, Control impressed us with a first-class atmosphere and its exciting story-telling.
The graphics are visually impressive on a macro level, but things become more ambiguous upon looking closely. Textures, for example, are not as sharp as they could be. However, lighting effects offset this slightly and bring the game to life. Remedy has incorporated a sophisticated physics system too that includes destructible environments, putting you in the thick of the action.
Sadly, the gameplay cannot quite keep up with the visual fireworks. Despite there being various upgrades and abilities, fights sequences become repetitive. We would have liked to see Remedy include something like bullet-time, as it did in the Max Payne series, which would have kept the fights feeling fresh even after several hours of gameplay.
Setting the fight sequences aside, Remedy has done a great job at organising the graphics menu. You must scroll through each of the tabs, but the options are laid out clearly, with the red and white text contrasting nicely with the black background. We have included screenshots of the Display menu below, which separates graphics options into Monitor, Quality and Ray Tracing. The latter only becomes activated if you start the game in DirectX 12. The same applies to NVIDIA DLSS. Control can apply all graphics changes without a restart, which is something we always like to see.
While Control looks and plays well without any graphics glitches, we encountered strange issues on some devices. Specifically, the installer reproducibly crashed on some laptops, and we noticed frequent scaling issues on our 4K external monitor if we set the game to DirectX 12. A reboot typically solved the latter issue, while installing the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable minimised installer crashes on laptops.
Oddly, Control refused to show DX12 mode on some systems, despite running on suitable hardware. We also experienced several crashes with ray tracing active. The loading times are a bit long too, even when running on a fast PCIe NVMe SSD. However, the game installed quickly, despite needing 23 GB of space.
Benchmark
Control does not have a built-in benchmark as many games do, so we chose a reproducible part of the game instead. As the video below demonstrates, we chose the mission Directorial Override as our benchmark, which you reach after around 1-2 hours of gameplay. Our benchmark lasts around 25 seconds, during which we sprint around the upper floor of the great hall. Our benchmark is not particularly taxing, making it a good representation of average frame rates throughout the game. 35 FPS looked smooth to our eyes, primarily because the game always remains in a third-person POV.
Remedy has included three presets, which it calls Low, Medium and High. As we mentioned earlier, there is Ray Tracing too, although not every scene seems to make use of its advanced lighting. We have included screenshots of the same scene running on each preset and with ray tracing switched on. Ray tracing improves the reflective quality of panes of glass, for example, but not all textures.
Results
HD (1280x720) & FHD (1920x1080)
We would recommend using at least a recent dedicated laptop GPU if you want to play Control in 720p on the Low preset. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, for example, averaged 80 FPS. However, the game proves too much for the AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 at these settings. Switching to 1080p and the Medium preset requires jumping to at least a Radeon RX 460 if you are using a desktop and a GeForce GTX 1060 or GeForce GTX 1650 on a laptop. The desktop version of the GeForce GTX 1060 should be powerful enough to play Control in 1080p on the High preset, while we would recommend a GeForce GTX 1070 or GeForce GTX 1660 Ti on a laptop.
Control | |
1280x720 Low Quality Preset (DX11) 1920x1080 Medium Quality Preset (DX11) 1920x1080 High Quality Preset (DX11) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
AMD Radeon RX 460 (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M, 6700HQ | |
AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 2000/3000), R5 2500U | |
NVIDIA GeForce 940M, 5700HQ |
QHD (2560x1400) & UHD (3840x2160)
Gaming in QHD on the High preset requires at least a GeForce GTX 1080 or GeForce RTX 2060 on a laptop, or a desktop version of the GeForce GTX 1070 at a push. We would recommend the desktop version of the GeForce GTX 1080 and GeForce RTX 2060 though if your budget can stretch that far. However, no GPU in our comparison table can average even 35 FPS in 4K on the High preset.
Control | |
2560x1440 High Quality Preset (DX11) 3840x2160 High Quality Preset (DX11) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK | |
AMD Radeon RX 480 (Desktop), i7-7740X | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile, i7-7700HQ | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile, i7-7700HQ |
Ray Tracing (1920x1080)
Ray Tracing pushes GPUs hard, and not even the GeForce RTX 2080 can average 60 FPS at 1080p and the High preset. The entire RTX 20 series portfolio can handle Ray Tracing at 1080p, although frame rates can drop to as low as 30 FPS on the laptop version of the GeForce RTX 2060. We also tried Ray Tracing on GTX cards, but none were able to average even 20 FPS.
Control | |
1920x1080 High Quality Preset & High Ray Tracing Preset (DX12) | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile, i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, i7-9750H | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, i7-7820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Mobile, 6820HK | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (Desktop), i9-9900K | |
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile, 6820HK |
Please note:
Gaming tests are often time-consuming and are hampered by activation or installation limits. Hence, we can currently only provide some of the benchmarks for Control. We shall update this article with more GPUs in the coming days and weeks.
Overview
Test Systems
Device | Graphics Card | Processor | RAM | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Desktop-PC I | MSI GeForce RTX 2080 (8 GB GDDR6) MSI GeForce RTX 2070 (8 GB GDDR6) MSI GeForce RTX 2060 (6 GB GDDR6) MSI GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X) MSI GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5) |
Intel Core i9-9900K | 4 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Desktop-PC II | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (11 GB GDDR5X) ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti (6 GB GDDR5) XFX Radeon R9 Fury (4 GB HBM) Sapphire Radeon R9 290X (4 GB GDDR5) Sapphire Radeon R9 280X (3 GB GDDR5) MSI Radeon R7 370 (2 GB GDDR5) |
Intel Core i7-7740X | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Desktop-PC III | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super (8 GB GDDR6)NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super (8 GB GDDR6)NVIDIA Titan X (Pascal) (12 GB GDDR5X) AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (8 GB HBM2) XFX AMD Radeon RX 590 (8 GB GDDR5) Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB GDDR5) Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 570 (8 GB GDDR5) Gainward GeForce GTX 1650 (4 GB GDDR5) Zotac GeForce GT 1030 (2 GB GDDR5) |
AMD Ryzen 9 3900X | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Desktop-PC IV | NVIDIA Titan RTX (24 GB GDDR6) | AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2920X | 4 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GT76 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 (8 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i9-9900K | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GP65 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 (8 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-9750H | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GE65 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-9750H | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GP65 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6 GB GDDR6) | Intel Core i7-9750H | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GP75 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (4 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-9750H | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Alienware 17 R4 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (8 GB GDDR5X) | Intel Core i7-7820HK | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
ASUS G752VS | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 2 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GT62VR | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-6820HK | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GE72 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-7700HQ | 2 x 4 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
ASUS GL753VD | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (4 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-7700HQ | 1 x 16 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GL62 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-7700HQ | 2 x 4 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GE72 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 1 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI PE60 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M (2 GB GDDR5) | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 2 x 4 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI CX72 | NVIDIA GeForce 940MX (2 GB DDR3) | Intel Core i7-6700HQ | 2 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI GP62 | NVIDIA GeForce 940M (2 GB DDR3) | Intel Core i7-5700HQ | 1 x 8 GB DDR3 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
MSI CX61 | NVIDIA GeForce 920M (2 GB DDR3) | Intel Celeron 2970M | 1 x 8 GB DDR3 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
Honor Magicbook | AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 | AMD Ryzen 5 2500U | 1 x 8 GB DDR4 | Windows 10 64 Bit |
4K Monitor | NVIDIA drivers | AMD drivers |
---|---|---|
ASUS PB287Q, Philips Momentum 436M6VBPAB | ForceWare 436.15 | Adrenalin 19.9.1 |