Control has just been released on the PC, so it’s time to benchmark it and see how it performs on the PC platform. As we’ve already reported, the game is using the Northlight Engine, and is one of the few titles that use ray tracing for multiple features. Moreover, the retail version does not use the Denuvo anti-tamper tech.
For this PC Performance Analysis, we used an Intel i7 4930K (overclocked at 4.2Ghz) with 16GB of DDR3 RAM at 2133Mhz, AMD’s Radeon RX580 and RX Vega 64, NVIDIA’s RTX 2080Ti, GTX980Ti and GTX690, Windows 10 64-bit, GeForce driver 436.02 and the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.8.1. NVIDIA has not included any SLI profile for this title, meaning that our GTX690 performed similarly to a single GTX680.
Remedy has added a respectable amount of graphics settings. PC gamers can adjust the quality of LOD, Textures, Texture Filtering, Shadows and Volumetric Lighting. There are also options for SSAO, Screen Space Reflections, Global Reflections, MSAA and Film Grain. The game also support DLSS (you can read more about DLSS performance here) and Ray Tracing. For Ray Tracing, Remedy is offering options for Reflections, Transparent Reflections, Diffuse Lighting, Contact Shadows and Debris. The game also offers two RTX presents: Medium and High. The Medium preset enables the first two options, whereas the High preset enables all options. Last but not least, there is a Resolution Scaler.
Let’s start with the good news; Control does not require a high-end CPU. In order to find out how the game scales on multiple CPU threads, we simulated a dual-core and a quad-core CPU. We also lowered our resolution to 720p in order to avoid any possible GPU limitation. As such, we are happy to report that even this dated CPU is able to provide a constant 120fps experience.
Control supports both DX11 and DX12. Contrary to Quantum Break, the performance between these two modes was almost identical. As such, we decided to only benchmark the DX12 version. And believe it or not, even our simulated dual-core system was able to offer a 60fps experience (though there were some noticeable stutters while loading new areas). What this basically means is that the game will run fine on a variety of CPUs.
For our GPU benchmarks, we tested the second cleansing point of the game. While the starting areas were running faster, this particular scene appeared to be among the most demanding areas of the game. As such, and in order to provide you with a more realistic performance report, we used that one. For Control’s DLSS performance, we suggest reading the article we published yesterday.
Control is one of the most GPU-demanding games available on the PC. The only GPUs that were able to provide a smooth gaming experience at 1080p/Max settings were the Radeon RX Vega 64 and the RTX2080Ti. The GTX980Ti came close to a 60fps experience, whereas the RX580 can offer a 30fps experience. Do note, however, that despite its huge GPU requirements, Control actually runs better than Quantum Break.
At 2560×1440, only the RTX2080Ti was able to offer a smooth gaming experience. And in 4K, the RTX2080Ti was pushing a minimum of 34fps and an average of 40fps. Now the good news for all 4K owners is that by using DLSS, you can actually get a constant 60fps experience. Of course the image quality is not identical to native 4K, however it’s better than native 1440p.
Of course these performance figures are without the Ray Tracing effects enabled. And as you may have guessed, Ray Tracing introduces a huge performance hit. Without DLSS, our RTX2080Ti was simply unable to run the game with constant 60fps at 1080p/Max settings with High Ray Tracing. The only way via which NVIDIA users will be able to enjoy Ray Tracing in Control is by using DLSS. Thankfully, though, the DLSS implementation is great in Control.
Graphics wise, Control looks great. However, it appears that the game uses Remedy’s re-construction tech by default. You can easily notice the re-construction artifacts on the main character while moving the camera. The good news here is that the re-construction tech is not as awful as the one used in Quantum Break. Still, the game does not offer any way to disable it.
Other than that, Control looks as good as Quantum Break. In case you forgot how good Quantum Break looks to this date, go ahead and take a look at these screenshots. All characters are nicely detailed and the environments look amazing. As with Quantum Break, the lighting system in Control looks phenomenal. The Ray Tracing effects are also cool, though the game looks stunning even without them. The game also has great environmental destruction, something that will please a number of gamers. Players can destroy chairs, tables, and cans, and can interact with various environmental objects.
All in all, Control is a GPU-heavy title. Yes, you’ll need a high-end GPU in order to enjoy this game, no doubt about that. However, we believe that the game’s visuals justify these requirements. Moreover, and as Remedy claimed, the game does actually run better than Quantum Break. And to be honest, we can’t wait until we get more powerful GPUs that can run it in 4K with Ray Tracing (obviously with DLSS). Below you can find some 4K screenshots with Ray Tracing, showcasing how glorious the game can actually look.
Enjoy!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
Gonna test it myself later!
Btw, tl;dr
Upcoming repacks
? Control
? Frostpunk: The Rifts
? The Bard’s Tale IV: Director’s Cut
? Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey
? MXGP 2019 – The Official Motocross Videogame
Control und Ancestors already in library.
ancestors is already out? I will laugh at it on youtube.
I might join you in doing so given that Control is already freely available as a DRM-free Hoodlum/TPB exclusive!
m/
Also Ancestors. Dunno if there’s DRM though, but it’s unlocked already. We might as well test this one too!
Just went Epic store exclusive, pass.
You came out from under your rock to announce that.
Did you just come outta coma or something boy?!
“Control is one of the most GPU-demanding games available on the PC.”
and without MEMETX?
John when are you getting a new Ryzen ? I think the prices in Greece have fallen quite a bit and there is availability for mobos from a 1min research i did.
Why would he downgrade? Intel still king for gaming, kiddo.
He is using a 6 year old Intel CPU and still on DDR3 memory…
With 8 year old uArch.
yeah he said he was waiting for Ryzen 3k series way before it came out, then when it came out the fool wasn’t even ready to secure his own. and now its all sold out so he cant get one and what did he do…well he settle for the year old i9 9900K instead. a real weirdo.
edit. the Ryzen 9 3950 is coming out maybe in a few weeks once we hit September and he cant even wait for that. lol
9900k is still the fastest gaming cpu.
The problem with the 9900k is that we cannot see the benefits of more cores since the 9900k only has 8, as a reviewer the 3900x is a better purchase to track the differences as the performance is almost the same and games are continuing to use more cores moving forward.
There is a three month ETA for the 3900X from Amazon and the CPU is still not available in Greece. As such, next week we’ll build an i9 9900K system.
wow i hoped for a ryzen build…do you plan down the line to also build a ryzen system? even a next gen ryzen(ryzen 4000)?
will you still be using the old cpu for a while in benchmarks for comparison sake with the 9900k?
It depends on whether the 9900K will be maxed out when next-gen consoles come out. We’ll see. The plan is to also keep using the i7 4930K.
I’d try seeing if you can get the 3950X, it comes out in Sept and is most likely going to be in stock due to its $.
We’d like to know how games are scaling now with more cores, Intel is lagging when it comes to this. There’s also very little difference in performance between the two but having 4 more cores is huge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGwEg7px2ko
Lmao. A Ryzen 5 3600 would annihilate his 6 core Ivy Bridge. Hell, maybe even the R5 3500 (6 cores, 6 threads)
Lets play on our 768p CRT monitor too Pepega
Think he said he is going to buy 9900k because 3900x has such a poor availability.
If the 3950x performs just as well as the 3900x it’d be smarter waiting for that as it comes out in September and should be easier to find due to its $.
Ah i see, i though he would go for 3700X or something but he wants the best of the best. Yeah its true 3900X is still unavailable, even if he orders its gonna take a month
However 3700X and 3800X are available from 4 to 10 days with normal prices (3700X 350 euro , 3800X 410 euro)
At this point we will get 3950X before 3900X, or so i hope.
New GeForce drivers released today gave pretty big performance increase for Control.
John, you should retest the GPU’s with driver versions 436.15 and 19.8.2, both of which add official support for the game. If nothing changes, just update the article noting that.
DLSS helps a lot. Playing 4K ultra with RTX on medium & DLSS runs around 60fps with some drops into the 50’s. Very playable and still looks awesome.
It helps nothing. Play the game with 70-75% resolution scale, the Sharpen Filter enabled (unfortunately you need GeForce experience for that) and you get same performance with better/sharper visuals.
It’s already been debunked by Hardware Unboxed on YT that DLSS is dead in the water.
I quess you didn’t see the comparison screenshots, DLSS is great in this game. You can use sharpness filters with DLSS as well.
Next year it is then 🙁
Quantum Break to this day still runs like utter garbage (they never fixed it) and frankly is one of the worst ports I have ever played so no way in hell they will get any more money out of me.
And get a damn new CPU John.
Quantum Break is still a tremendous visual masterpiece. So much stuff is happening at once and in real time (particles and realtime geometry distortion), along with 4xMSAA at all times + tons of physic interactions (it uses Digital Molecular Matter Middleware) + realtime Global Illumination and heavy volumetric lightning, of course the game is heavy.
I think we all get that, but it still doesn’t excuse the horrendous port end of.
I hate console motion blur ! no way to disable in option menu !
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1e7dba7ac7242ea1ae117294ffd6e8d89dc5f23d8315d811771d8d165422783e.jpg
At least a third-party FOV changer is already available.
reddit(dot)com/r/widescreengamingforum/comments/cw51mx/control_fov_changer/
Awesome. It should be a law that ALL pc games version shall have a FOV slider!
And same with disable everything POS like motion blur and chromic abberation!
Good.
WTF is this for real. Im on the way to fire up the game. Got it ofr free with my 2080 Super. But man do I hate motion blur. If I cant disable this POS I wont F*CKN play it!
damn nibba, now i need glasses.
Like quantum break game is BLURRY !!!!
nothing to do the development are incapable who know only games full of animations and full of horrendous effects of post processing.
Use contrast adaptive sharpening with ReShade.
“Control supports both DX11 and DX12. Contrary to Quantum Break, the performance between these two modes was almost identical.”
False statement. DX11 and 12 performance was identical on AMD GPUs since launch. It’s Nvidia who never bothered optimizing DX12 (back then), that’s why its performance was not deficient in DX11 and on par with AMD în DX11/12.
Also: Quantum Break/Control: Running in 720p with reconstruction tech to reach 1080p
DLSS: 70% resolution scale from 720p with reconstructive tech to “reach 1080p”.
Yeei. DLSS. Allowing 2080 Ti to get 60 fps at native 480p.
lmao
“as Remedy claimed, the game does actually run better than Quantum Break”
Hardly something to boast about when even Stephen Hawking ran better than QB!
It’s so shameful to hear a company say “this new game we have runs better than the game we did before”…. So my questions is, “WHY DON”T THEY GO BACK AND FIX THE OLD GAME”… Reminds me of days when ubisoft would make a game and instead of fixing it the sequel would be out next month. Remedy have no shame and they are Obsessed with Fuqing Motion Blur.
I remember when CDPR released the expansion pack DLCs for The Witcher III with the boasts of how much better optimised it was than the base game. When folk naturally enquired as to if they’d be bringing those optimisations to the base game CDPR’s response was basically PR-speak for ‘too much effort, can’t be bothered’!
Yeah, because blood & Wine was better than the base game in every way. My only complaint was way too much bloom and inside the houses was way too dark even at day time. I don’t think they ever fixed that. No natural lighting in blood and wine expansion, interior. But as you were saying, it’s all hella fuq’d up.
the steam version was a bit more consistent still…averaging 45fps on a 980ti at 1080p(without using the reconstruction crap setting that makes the game looks like vaseline has been applied on my screen) is not really acceptable,playable but still not acceptable
Indeed. As for Control it runs every so slightly better with DX11 relative to DX12.
youtube(dot)com/watch?v=uVqSo8VDVGk
i see, good old DX11 still being the better api
Yeah because DX12 is garbage and Vulkan won the war but Vulkan gets no respect. Vulkan is pure mint. But when it comes to Windows, these stupid devs don’t wanna let go DX12. Hitman 2 apparently uses Vulkan from the start on Linux. But on Windows, a year later we got dx12 instead, ughhh.
Less stuttering too with the DX11 version as remarked on by Digital Foundry.
Yeah seen both of their analysis the base consoles are unplayable and even ps4 pro have horrible slowdown, and as for the “mighty” xbox one x that still drop under 30fps it got a couple settings below even the pc low, where is spectro that shill? that idiot that kept saying the xbox one x is equivalent to a pc with a 1070gtx when a 1070 can max out this game at almost locked 60fps(50-80fps)in dx11.
As for for dx12 stuttering its a recurring issue i remember the first division after many patches had a faster dx12 implementation and after trying the ingame benchmark indeed it was faster, but when playing i hade many stuttering that dx11 did not have so i swiched back to dx11.
Anyway i dont think its something than can be easily patched. Too bad for raytracing you are forced to use that crappy api.
Yep, the game is abysmal on three out of the four main consoles and also fails to maintain its lowly 30fps capped frame-rate on the other one despite the pared back non-configurable settings. It’s almost like having a mobile-oriented CPU in all four such consoles was never going to end well!
Sp4ctr0 Spencer always goes to ground at times such as these, lol!
I had that exact same experience with The Division.
Alex’s new video on the PC version of Control was superb. It also gave me a couple of pointers in choosing the right mix of video settings to maintain a stable minimum 60fps on my non-RTX setup.
Alex is a great addition to the df team,i love his shrine dedicated to crysis makes me lol each time i see it.
Him and John have quite the bromance going on together over there in Germany, haha!
Definitely. They have a good team at Digital Foundry now since having replaced the largely hopeless David with Alex.
Such a shame that Digital Foundry is still attached to the SJW stable of Eurogamer and parent company Gamer Network because they could be successful as their own independent entity.
15th August, Remedy’s Head of Communications, Thomas Puha:
“That (QB) was three years ago. Lot of optimization has happened since. You’ll know soon enough.”
27th August, DSOG:
“The only GPUs that were able to provide a smooth gaming experience at 1080p/Max settings were the Radeon RX Vega 64 and the RTX2080Ti”
That claimed “lots of optimization” worked out well for them and Timmy Tencent! ?
As far as I can tell, only major optimization that happened is that the game is vastly less CPU bound (an i5 Ivy Bridge seems enough) and the game now “performs better” given it uses the same reconstruction tech but without the 4xMSAA pass.
Amazing game what I have played so far, performance is well over 60fps on my 1080 Ti and 9900k.
Your corporate overlord Timmy Tencent’s big money EGS exclusive is already available for free. Epic!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2dea8bf90de5f6e93daec405b05ed55267a75861a6975167621aa27d96111c5b.png
Not surprised, since 505 Games or Remedy has never used Denuvo
Factually incorrect. Again.
They should start using Denuvo in future for sure.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/556af122c674c7867dbee11c1125b41f792f539eec494eb90a8cfb2e7286e34c.gif
That is you when game publisher is using Denuvo and you can’t pirate their games?
Shut it, Timmy!
I could ask the same question for you, many Denuvo games have been uncracked for months. Anno 1800 has been uncracked since April for example.
In some settings the difference between medium and high is virtually unnoticeable. Is always the same with Remedy, I don’t know why they push unnecessary demanding options in a bad engine just to get all the backlash.
I honestly think they should just dump it, because it’s not helping at all, and I’m genuinely surprised they haven’t noticed this for the second game in a row to demand such power, for little gain
to show enough power disparity between XBX and PS4PRO.
Besides the RT settings, the game makes for poor performance, despite offering a marginal difference, especially between the console versions.
Another game yet again demanding more and more power, for little gains. Crysis is always going to remain that legit demanding game for me
Hard to believe it using reconstruction by default and still runs like absolute garbage. How’d they get this to run on the consoles?
>How’d they get this to run on the consoles.
Lots of stutters and freezes.
I don’t think it uses reconstruction by default.
it does.
A targeted 30fps frame-rate on all consoles that isn’t maintained on any console. 11fps on PlayStation 4 Pro!
youtube(dot)com/watch?v=niQfeglwDZ4
Jesus Christ, is that a pathetic testament to how trash the consoles are. I have a friend that claims the PS4 Pro is “the most powerful console, even better than some gaming computers!”
Yeah, anything is better than my old 486 which is comparable!
Show that Digital Foundry video to your misguided friend, lol!
I will. Though I highly doubt he will understand any of it and I’m beginning to doubt he even knows what a frame-rate is and why it’s important.
Guys the game is actually very good, at least so far. I honestly did not expect that. I think the review will be mostly positive.
I hope you’re right because after having played the opening half hour or so I can’t say I’ve been particularly impressed. Some childish story about something called ‘the hiss’, plenty of tedious backtracking, basic enemy AI, dated quality graphics for character faces and more than a whiff of SJW about it.
Still, Mac from Worthabuy rates it so that gives me some faith that things will improve. If not then nothing lost because as an EGS title it was obviously available for free!
You and me both bud.
Haha! I played a further 20 minutes or so and the telekinesis thing is fun. Not exactly an original idea in games but fun nevertheless.
Exactly right?! Far better from Second Sight or any Star Wars game imho. The melee blast could be better. The destruction is very impressive. I also only have the telekinesis power so I’m eager to try the rest of them.
Um… is that a tranny as the main character in the pictures? I can’t tell if that’s supposed to be a man, or a woman, or maybe both at the same time? Namely, the second last picture. What the hell…?
Upcoming repacks
August 24, 2019
11 Comments
Upcoming repacks
? Control
Epic, make piracy great again
I’m surprised that a 2080 TI just can’t provide 1080p max settings at full 60fps… i’m playing it on my rog 704gw (8750h and rtx 2070 laptop full spec that is basicalli 10-15% behind desktop counterpart cause to 200mhz less clockspeed). On my system 1080p maxed (with 2x msaa) with maxed ray tracing give me about 40-45 fps average and a minimum of 37-38 fps (except some heavy cutscenes on 33-35 fps). Without RT framerate is basically the double, but it feels just different without it, on this game RT is phenomenal. Dlss is bad here, on my 1080p monitor dlss cut internal resolution by 720p and there are so many artifacts, much more than other games (metro is pretty clean, even if blurry)…so i just don’t reccomend it except if you need 60+ fps.
The game anyway is perfectly responsive even at 40 fps (not all games are smooth at non perfect framerate), and is a joy for eyes.
crashes every 2 minutes.. .jesus. .
remedy=unoptimized crap.
Epic Failsclusive “Control” is out and pirated 24 hrs before release. Utorrent have more functions than the epic store. We got to pre-load and epic store can’t even pre-load. Lmao ???
“Utorrent have more functions that the epic store”
?
True story.
Can it run on 2gb vram?