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Control remains a surprisingly demanding game in 2026, especially once you enable ray tracing. Without ray tracing, almost any modern budget gaming PC can run it well at 1080p. With ray tracing and high settings, it still pushes even mid-range hardware hard. For a smooth 60 FPS experience, a budget PC with a GTX 1660-class GPU is enough for 1080p High without ray tracing, while a modern mid-range GPU like an RTX 4060 or RX 7600 XT is the sweet spot for 1080p/1440p with ray tracing enabled using DLSS or FSR.
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Control PC Requirements: Minimum and Recommended Specs
The table below summarizes the official requirements listed on the publisher’s store page. They are approximate, based on the publisher’s store page and intended for 1080p at 30-60 FPS without ray tracing.
| Component | Minimum Requirements | Recommended Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 64-bit |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-4690 / AMD FX 4350 | Intel Core i5-7600K / AMD Ryzen 5 1600X |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 / AMD Radeon R9 280X (3GB VRAM) | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 / GTX 1070 / AMD Radeon RX 580 |
| RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| Storage | 42 GB HDD | 42 GB SSD recommended |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 | DirectX 12 |
| Notes | Targets 1080p 30 FPS at Low settings, no ray tracing | Targets 1080p 60 FPS at High settings, no ray tracing |
For ray tracing, Remedy listed separate requirements at launch: an Intel Core i5-8600K / AMD Ryzen 5 2600, 16GB RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or better are needed to enable ray-traced reflections, shadows, and indirect lighting. AMD ray tracing support was added later, but the game was built around NVIDIA RTX and DLSS, so GeForce RTX cards still handle ray tracing more efficiently.
How Demanding Is Control in 2026?
Control uses Remedy’s Northlight engine and was one of the first showcase titles for ray tracing and DLSS. Without ray tracing, it is a well-optimized, GPU-bound game with moderate CPU requirements. Most interiors in the Oldest House are not heavily CPU-intensive, but the chaotic physics, destructible environments, and particle effects during combat can cause drops if your CPU is weak.
With ray tracing set to High, the load changes completely. Ray-traced reflections are everywhere due to the game’s brutalist architecture, glass, and marble floors, and together with ray-traced indirect diffuse lighting, they can cut frame rates by 35-50% compared to rasterized rendering alone. This is why Control is still used as a ray tracing benchmark by public outlets years after launch.
The good news is that DLSS and FSR support is excellent. With DLSS 2 (and DLSS 3 Frame Generation on RTX 40-series), you can recover most of that ray tracing performance loss with minimal image quality degradation, which makes 60+ FPS with ray tracing realistic on mid-range hardware.
GPU Choices by Resolution: What to Expect
The following estimates are approximate ranges based on aggregated testing from public outlets such as TechPowerUp, Tom’s Hardware, and Hardware Unboxed, using High settings without ray tracing unless noted. Performance varies by scene, driver version, and whether DLSS/FSR is used.
1080p (Full HD)
1080p is the easiest target and where Control is most accessible.
- For 60 FPS at High, No Ray Tracing: A GeForce GTX 1660 Super, RTX 3050, or Radeon RX 6600 is typically enough for a stable 60-75 FPS. In testing by public outlets, this class of GPU often averages in the 65-85 FPS range at 1080p High.
- For 60 FPS at High with Ray Tracing Medium + DLSS/FSR: You will want at least a GeForce RTX 3060, RTX 4060, or Radeon RX 7600. With DLSS set to Quality, these cards generally deliver approximately 60-80 FPS with ray tracing on Medium. Without upscaling, the same cards often fall to the 35-50 FPS range.
- For 100+ FPS, No Ray Tracing: An RTX 4060 Ti, RX 7600 XT, or RTX 4070 will comfortably push well above 90-120 FPS at 1080p High.
1440p (QHD)
1440p is the sweet spot for a sharper image, but it raises GPU load by about 40-50% over 1080p.
- For 60 FPS at High, No Ray Tracing: A GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, RTX 4070, or Radeon RX 7700 XT / 7800 XT is ideal. Public testing suggests these GPUs average roughly 70-90 FPS at 1440p High without ray tracing.
- For 60 FPS at High with Ray Tracing High + DLSS/FSR Quality: Aim for an RTX 4070, RTX 4070 Super, or RX 7800 XT and above. Without DLSS/FSR, even these cards can drop to the 40-55 FPS range with all ray tracing options enabled. With DLSS Quality, they typically return to the 60-85 FPS range.
4K (Ultra HD)
4K without upscaling is extremely demanding in Control, especially with ray tracing.
- For 60 FPS at High, No Ray Tracing: You will need a high-end GPU such as an RTX 4070 Ti Super, RTX 4080, RX 7900 XT, or newer. At native 4K, testing from outlets like TechPowerUp and TechSpot has shown this class averages approximately 55-75 FPS.
- For 60 FPS at High with Ray Tracing High: Native 4K is not realistic on any single GPU without upscaling. With DLSS/FSR set to Performance or Balanced, an RTX 4080, RTX 4080 Super, or RX 7900 XTX can generally achieve roughly 60-80 FPS. For native 4K with ray tracing, even flagship cards from 2024-2025 often sit in the 30-45 FPS range without upscaling.
For any resolution above 1080p, plan to use DLSS on NVIDIA or FSR on AMD/Intel if you want ray tracing at 60 FPS. Control’s DLSS implementation is one of the best from its generation and is noticeably cleaner than FSR 2 in this title.
CPU, RAM and Storage Notes for Control
CPU
Control is primarily GPU-limited, but it is not light on the CPU during combat. The game’s physics simulation, destruction, and enemy telekinesis effects rely heavily on single-thread performance and can create CPU spikes.
Any modern 6-core CPU from the last few generations, such as an Intel Core i5-12400 / i5-13400 or AMD Ryzen 5 5600 / 7600, will not bottleneck the game at 60 FPS and is more than enough for high refresh rates. Older 4-core / 4-thread CPUs like the i5-4690 listed in the minimum specs will run the game but often show stutters and frame drops below 45 FPS in heavy fights, even with a strong GPU.
You do not need a high-end CPU for Control. There is little benefit beyond a current-generation i5 / Ryzen 5 for this game unless you are targeting 144+ FPS.
RAM
8GB is the absolute minimum and is not recommended in 2026. The game can exceed 9-10GB of system RAM usage with background tasks open. 16GB is the realistic standard and what Remedy recommends, and it eliminates stuttering caused by memory paging.
32GB offers no meaningful FPS gain in Control itself, but it is useful if you multitask with a browser, Discord, or OBS while gaming.
VRAM matters more than system RAM here. High textures and ray tracing can push past 6GB at 1440p. For 1080p High, 6GB is enough. For 1440p High + ray tracing or 4K, choose an 8GB card at minimum, with 12GB or 16GB preferred for headroom.
Storage
Control requires 42GB of space. The Oldest House is a seamless, streaming environment with no loading screens between areas when on an SSD. On an older HDD, you will experience longer initial loads (often 30-60 seconds versus 8-15 seconds on an SSD) and occasional texture pop-in when sprinting between sectors.
An SATA SSD is fully sufficient. An NVMe SSD does not meaningfully improve frame rates but further shortens load times and helps with DirectX 12 shader compilation on first launch. This is a game you should not install to an HDD if you can avoid it.
Example Builds for Control in 2026
Prices below are general ranges for new parts in 2026 and will vary by region and retailer. They assume you already have peripherals.
Budget Build: 1080p 60 FPS, No Ray Tracing
General price range: $650 – $800
- CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F / AMD Ryzen 5 5600
- GPU: GeForce RTX 4060 8GB / Radeon RX 7600 8GB
- RAM: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3200
- Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD
What to expect: Approximately 70-90 FPS at 1080p High without ray tracing, or 55-70 FPS with ray tracing on Medium and DLSS/FSR Quality enabled. This is the best value entry point for Control today and handles the Ultimate Edition at max rasterized settings easily.
Mid-Range Build: 1440p 60+ FPS with Ray Tracing
General price range: $1100 – $1400
- CPU: Intel Core i5-14400F / AMD Ryzen 5 7600
- GPU: GeForce RTX 4070 Super 12GB / Radeon RX 7800 XT 16GB
- RAM: 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 5600
- Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD
What to expect: Roughly 75-95 FPS at 1440p High without ray tracing, and approximately 65-85 FPS at 1440p High with ray tracing set to High and DLSS/FSR Quality. This build can also handle 4K 60 FPS if you enable DLSS/FSR Performance mode and slightly lower Volumetric Lighting.
For ray tracing in Control specifically, an NVIDIA RTX card is the stronger choice due to more mature RT cores and superior DLSS image quality in this title compared to FSR.
Laptop and Handheld Suitability
Gaming Laptops
Control runs well on gaming laptops with discrete GPUs. A laptop with an RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 Laptop GPU can handle 1080p High at 60+ FPS without ray tracing, and 50-70 FPS with ray tracing Medium + DLSS. As with all laptops, expect 15-25% lower performance than the desktop equivalent due to power limits. 16GB RAM and an SSD are strongly recommended. The game is well-suited to a laptop because it caps well at 60 FPS and supports DLSS to offset the weaker laptop GPU.
Steam Deck, ROG Ally and Other Handhelds
Control is verified as playable on Steam Deck. On the Steam Deck, public testing and community reports suggest you can expect approximately 30-45 FPS at 800p with a mix of Low-Medium settings and FSR enabled, with drops during heavy combat. Turning off ray tracing is mandatory on handhelds and lowering Volumetric Lighting and Global Reflections helps most.
On more powerful Windows handhelds like the ROG Ally or Legion Go, you can achieve roughly 40-60 FPS at 1080p Low-Medium with FSR, or a locked 30 FPS at Medium for better battery life and stability. Control is not ideal for 90Hz handheld play without significant settings cuts, but it is very playable for a story-driven single-player game.
Settings That Raise FPS the Most in Control
If you need more performance, these settings give the largest gains with the smallest visual cost. All are available in the Display menu.
- Ray Tracing Preset (Reflections, Diffuse Lighting, Shadows): The single biggest performance switch. Turning ray tracing from High to Medium can gain 10-15% FPS, and turning it Off entirely can gain 35-50% versus High. If you want ray tracing but need FPS, leave Ray-Traced Reflections On and turn Off Ray-Traced Indirect Diffuse Lighting, which is the most expensive option and hardest to notice during action.
- Volumetric Lighting: Controls fog and light shafts, which are used heavily in the Oldest House. Dropping from High to Medium often gains 8-12% FPS with minimal visual loss. Low looks noticeably flatter and is not recommended unless you are on very weak hardware.
- Global Reflections and Screen Space Reflections (SSR): With ray tracing Off, SSR quality controls reflections. Lowering SSR from High to Medium can gain 5-10% FPS. With ray tracing On, SSR is largely superseded by ray-traced reflections, so you can lower SSR without much impact.
- MSAA: Extremely expensive in this game. At 1080p, 4x MSAA can cost 15-20% FPS, and 8x is even heavier. Use 2x MSAA or disable it entirely and rely on DLSS/FSR or FXAA for anti-aliasing. DLSS Quality provides excellent anti-aliasing on its own.
- DLSS / FSR Upscaling: Not a quality downgrade in this title if used correctly. DLSS Quality at 1440p or 4K looks better than native with MSAA off and improves performance by 40-60% when ray tracing is enabled. Always enable DLSS on RTX cards or FSR 2 on other cards before lowering other settings if you want ray tracing.
For the best balance, most players get the ideal result with Textures and Texture Filtering on High/Ultra, MSAA at 2x or Off, Volumetric Lighting on Medium, and DLSS/FSR on Quality. Then adjust the ray tracing preset to hit your FPS target.
FAQ
Do you need a ray tracing GPU for Control?
No. Ray tracing is optional and the game looks excellent without it. You only need an RTX or RX 6000-series or newer GPU if you want to enable the ray-traced reflections and lighting options.
How much VRAM does Control need?
For 1080p High, 6GB is enough. For 1440p High with ray tracing or 4K, aim for 8GB minimum and ideally 12GB to avoid texture streaming issues and stutters.
Is Control CPU or GPU intensive?
Mainly GPU intensive, especially with ray tracing. The CPU matters during combat due to physics and destruction, but any modern 6-core CPU from the last 3-4 years is sufficient. Upgrading your GPU (and enabling DLSS) will have a far larger impact than upgrading your CPU.
Does Control support DLSS and FSR?
Yes. Control supports DLSS 2 and FSR 2. The Ultimate Edition also supports DLSS Frame Generation on RTX 40-series cards if you enable it through the launcher. DLSS generally provides better image stability than FSR in this game.
