PC gamers have become understandably cautious whenever a major AAA game launches.
Beautiful trailers are one thing. Actually getting a game to run properly on a wide range of PC hardware is another.
CONTROL Resonant appears to be avoiding that problem.
Early PC testing suggests Remedy Entertainment has delivered an unusually polished PC version of its latest supernatural action game, combining demanding visual technology with performance that scales surprisingly well across different classes of hardware. Independent testing has found strong performance on modern desktop GPUs, while even handheld PCs can run the game with appropriate settings and upscaling.
That is particularly impressive considering what Remedy is asking PC hardware to render.
CONTROL Resonant supports Ray Tracing and Path Tracing, alongside extensive graphics settings and modern upscaling technologies including NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 and AMD FSR 4.
So how good is the PC port?
Pretty damn good.
Remedy Is Continuing Control’s PC Graphics Legacy
The original Control was one of the games that helped make real-time Ray Tracing feel genuinely worthwhile.
When hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing was still relatively new, plenty of games used it in ways that came with a huge performance hit without delivering an equally obvious visual improvement.
Control was different.
Its brutalist architecture, reflective surfaces, supernatural lighting and constantly shifting environments gave Remedy plenty of opportunities to make advanced lighting technology actually matter.
CONTROL Resonant continues that philosophy.
The difference this time is that Remedy appears to have found a much better balance between visual ambition and scalability.
The game can look spectacular with advanced lighting enabled, but it doesn’t completely fall apart when you move away from expensive high-end configurations.
That’s an important distinction.
A technically impressive game isn’t necessarily a well-optimized game.
CONTROL Resonant appears to be both.
The PC Version Gives Players Plenty of Settings
PC players aren’t being handed a handful of basic presets and told to figure out the rest themselves.
CONTROL Resonant includes a broad collection of graphical options covering areas such as:
- Shadows
- Lighting
- Textures
- Shading
- Foliage
- Ray Tracing
- Path Tracing
- Upscaling
- Frame Generation
The game also supports NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 and AMD FSR 4, although Intel XeSS isn’t included according to current PC testing.
That level of flexibility matters because PC hardware is incredibly varied.
A player with an RTX 5090 and a player using an older RTX 2080 Ti are obviously not going to target the same settings.
The good news is that CONTROL Resonant gives both users room to adjust the experience.
High-End PCs Can Push Path Tracing
Path Tracing is where things get particularly interesting.
It’s one of the most demanding rendering techniques available in modern games, but it can also produce some of the most impressive lighting results.
CONTROL Resonant uses Path Tracing to enhance the game’s already distinctive visual style.
Independent testing found that powerful GPUs can run the game at high settings with Path Tracing while maintaining strong frame rates, particularly when modern upscaling and frame-generation technologies are used.
That doesn’t mean Path Tracing suddenly becomes cheap.
It remains demanding.
But the important thing is that players with sufficiently powerful hardware can actually make use of it without turning the game into a slideshow.
RTX 4070 Ti-Class Hardware Has Plenty of Headroom
One particularly interesting performance result comes from testing with an RTX 4070 Ti Super.
At 1440p with the Medium preset, Medium Ray Tracing and DLSS Balanced, testing produced an average of around 111 FPS, with a 1% low of approximately 81 FPS.
Even moving to Ultra settings with Path Tracing at 1440p produced around 70 FPS in that test configuration, with a 1% low around 58 FPS.
Those numbers are important because the RTX 4070 Ti-class segment is much more accessible than the absolute top end of the GPU market.
Obviously, results vary depending on the exact CPU, GPU model, drivers, resolution and settings.
But they demonstrate that CONTROL Resonant isn’t exclusively designed for RTX 5090-class machines.
Frame Generation Gives High-End Hardware Even More Room
Frame Generation is another major part of the PC version.
Modern NVIDIA and AMD technologies can generate additional frames between traditionally rendered frames, allowing compatible systems to produce substantially higher displayed frame rates.
CONTROL Resonant supports these technologies, giving players another tool when they want to push demanding visual settings.
Testing with an RTX 4070 Ti Super showed the frame rate increasing substantially when Frame Generation was enabled at demanding settings.
There is a trade-off, of course.
Frame Generation isn’t free technology.
It can introduce additional latency, and the quality of the underlying rendered frames still matters.
But when used appropriately, it can make an already smooth game feel significantly more fluid.
The Handheld Story Is Surprisingly Good
This is where the PC port becomes even more interesting.
You might expect a game with Ray Tracing, Path Tracing and such detailed environments to completely destroy handheld gaming PCs.
That isn’t what testing suggests.
On the Xbox Ally X, the game can run at 1080p using the handheld preset and FSR Quality, with testing reporting around 40–45 FPS during an early boss encounter. There were occasional drops into the mid-30s, but the experience remained playable.
That’s a surprisingly respectable result for a game with this level of visual complexity.
It also demonstrates why scalable graphics settings matter.
The handheld doesn’t need to reproduce the exact visual presentation of a powerful desktop PC.
Instead, the game can reduce the workload while retaining enough of its visual identity to remain attractive on a smaller display.
Steam Deck Shows the Limits
There is, however, a clear limit.
The original Steam Deck struggles much more with CONTROL Resonant.
Testing with the handheld preset at 720p and FSR Balanced produced performance below 30 FPS, with the system struggling to stay above approximately 25 FPS.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the game is poorly optimized.
It demonstrates just how far the hardware gap has grown between the original Steam Deck and newer handheld PCs.
The Steam Deck’s hardware was impressive when it launched, but newer handheld systems have considerably more CPU and GPU capability.
CONTROL Resonant makes that difference particularly visible.
The Game Still Looks Good Without Ray Tracing
One of the best things about the PC version is that players aren’t forced to choose between ugly graphics and playable performance.
CONTROL Resonant already has an extremely strong visual foundation before Ray Tracing enters the picture.
The game’s environments are built around dramatic architecture, unusual materials, atmospheric effects and supernatural phenomena.
That means you can disable expensive lighting features and still have a visually impressive game.
Current testing specifically notes that the game looks excellent even without Ray Tracing.
This is important for mainstream PC players.
Not everyone owns a high-end RTX GPU.
A well-designed PC port should allow those players to reduce expensive settings while maintaining the artistic qualities that make the game look distinctive.
CONTROL Resonant appears to do that effectively.
Recommended Settings Don’t Require Hours of Tweaking
Another positive aspect of the PC version is how well the presets appear to be tuned.
Some PC games practically require players to spend an hour adjusting individual settings before they can find a sensible balance between image quality and performance.
CONTROL Resonant appears less demanding in that respect.
Independent testing found the recommended presets to be well tuned, with players having plenty of room to make further adjustments if they want to chase specific performance targets.
That’s exactly how PC graphics settings should work.
The advanced options are there for enthusiasts.
Everyone else should be able to select an appropriate preset and start playing.
Why the Optimization Matters More Than Ray Tracing
The most impressive part of the PC version isn’t actually Path Tracing.
It’s the fact that Remedy has managed to make such an ambitious game scale across different levels of hardware.
Ray Tracing looks great.
Path Tracing looks even better.
DLSS and FSR can dramatically improve performance.
But none of that matters if the underlying PC version is poorly optimized.
That’s why the performance results are so encouraging.
CONTROL Resonant appears to have been built with scalability in mind rather than simply targeting the most powerful GPUs available.
Remedy’s Northlight Engine Is Doing Heavy Lifting
CONTROL Resonant is powered by Remedy’s Northlight Engine, the technology that has also driven the studio’s recent games.
Northlight has become particularly associated with advanced lighting, detailed environments, physics and cinematic presentation.
The original Control already demonstrated what the technology could do.
CONTROL Resonant pushes that foundation further while also giving PC players a much broader range of rendering options.
That combination is one reason the game can look so different depending on the hardware and settings being used.
What About AMD GPUs?
The PC version isn’t locked into NVIDIA’s ecosystem.
CONTROL Resonant supports AMD FSR 4, giving Radeon users access to modern upscaling technology.
Independent benchmarking has also tested multiple Radeon GPUs, including the RX 6900 XT, RX 7900 XTX and RX 9070 XT.
That’s good news for PC gamers who aren’t using GeForce hardware.
The absence of Intel XeSS is one limitation, but AMD users still have a modern upscaling option available.
Is CONTROL Resonant the Perfect PC Port?
Almost.
The phrase “picture-perfect PC port” is obviously subjective, and no PC version is going to behave identically across every possible hardware configuration.
There are still limitations.
Older GPUs will struggle with the game’s most demanding settings.
Steam Deck performance is far from ideal.
Ray Tracing and especially Path Tracing can consume substantial GPU resources.
And players using Frame Generation still need to consider latency and the quality of the underlying frame rate.
But those caveats don’t change the larger picture.
For a modern AAA game with this level of visual ambition, the PC version appears to be unusually well executed.
Final Thoughts
CONTROL Resonant arrives at a time when PC gamers have become increasingly wary of poorly optimized AAA releases.
Remedy’s sequel provides a welcome counterexample.
The game combines highly demanding visual features with a surprisingly scalable graphics pipeline, extensive settings and support for modern upscaling and Frame Generation technologies.
High-end desktop hardware can push Ray Tracing and Path Tracing at impressive frame rates.
Newer handheld PCs can deliver a respectable experience with the right settings.
The original Steam Deck struggles, but even that result highlights the importance of hardware scalability rather than pointing to a fundamentally broken PC version.
The result is a PC release that doesn’t simply look impressive in screenshots.
It actually gives players meaningful control over how they want to experience the game.
And that might be the biggest compliment you can give a modern PC port.
CONTROL Resonant isn’t perfect, but Remedy appears to have done something increasingly rare: it shipped an ambitious AAA game that respects the PC platform.
FAQs
Current independent testing indicates that Control Resonant is well optimized across a wide range of modern PC hardware, with strong performance and extensive graphics options.
Yes. Control Resonant supports Ray Tracing as well as the more demanding Path Tracing rendering mode.
Yes. Remedy has implemented Path Tracing in the PC version, providing more advanced lighting for compatible high-end GPUs.
Yes. The PC version supports NVIDIA DLSS 4.5.
Yes. Control Resonant supports AMD FSR 4.
The Steam Deck can run Control Resonant with reduced settings, but current testing shows performance around the mid-20 FPS range in a 720p/FSR Balanced configuration. Newer handheld PCs provide considerably more performance headroom.
Remedy’s official PC requirements should be used as the baseline because the recommended GPU varies according to the targeted graphics preset and Ray Tracing configuration. Independent testing suggests that an RTX 4070 Ti-class GPU can provide substantial headroom at 1440p.
Current testing points toward a highly scalable PC version with extensive graphics options, strong performance on modern hardware and support for advanced rendering technologies.
Leave a comment