CONTROL Resonant PC Performance Guide: Graphics, Ray Tracing, Path Tracing, DLSS, FSR, and System Requirements
Remedy Entertainment has long been known for pushing PC graphics technology forward, and CONTROL Resonant looks set to continue that tradition. Built on the studio’s Northlight Engine, the game delivers dense environments, striking lighting, heavy physics-based destruction, and some of the most demanding ray tracing and path tracing features seen in a modern PC release.
At its best, CONTROL Resonant can look spectacular. Its warped Manhattan setting gives the engine plenty of room to flex, with layered geometry, reflective materials, atmospheric lighting, and destructible scenery working together to create a world that feels unstable, hostile, and visually rich. However, this level of detail comes at a serious performance cost. Ultra settings are extremely demanding even before ray tracing enters the picture, and enabling path tracing can significantly reduce frame rates, even on powerful graphics cards.
The good news is that CONTROL Resonant appears to offer meaningful room for optimization. Instead of forcing players to choose between stunning visuals and playable performance, many settings can be adjusted to gain extra frames without completely sacrificing image quality. CPU performance also appears promising, thanks in part to the way the Northlight Engine handles geometry rendering, although frame pacing issues may affect smoothness in certain situations.
CONTROL Resonant gameplay and story setup
CONTROL Resonant is a direct sequel to the 2019 supernatural action game Control. This time, players take on the role of Dylan Faden, the brother of Jesse Faden. Rather than keeping the action locked inside the Oldest House, the sequel expands the paranatural disaster into Manhattan, creating a much larger and more chaotic playground for Remedy’s signature reality-bending design.
The gameplay direction has also changed. While the original Control leaned heavily on third-person shooting and the iconic Service Weapon, CONTROL Resonant places more emphasis on melee combat, supernatural powers, and action-RPG progression. Dylan uses a shapeshifting weapon called the Aberrant, which can transform into different forms depending on the situation. Combined with his paranatural abilities, this opens the door to more varied combat encounters, more aggressive playstyles, and expanded traversal options.
This shift in gameplay also affects the game’s technical demands. More close-quarters combat, more environmental interaction, and larger enemy encounters can place additional stress on both the GPU and the engine’s streaming systems. Fortunately, the Northlight Engine seems well suited to handling complex scenes, especially when it comes to dense geometry and destruction.
Northlight Engine visuals: impressive, but not flawless
From a graphics perspective, CONTROL Resonant is one of the more ambitious PC games of its generation. The environments are packed with detail, featuring strong geometric complexity, high-quality materials, and impressive lighting even without hardware ray tracing enabled.
One of the biggest visual highlights is environmental destruction. Remedy’s previous work already proved how effective physics-driven destruction can be in a supernatural action game, and CONTROL Resonant appears to bring that strength back in a major way. Debris, broken objects, damaged interiors, and shifting scenery help make combat feel more dynamic and intense.
Lighting is another standout feature. Even with traditional rendering, CONTROL Resonant can produce dramatic scenes with deep shadows, glowing highlights, and strong contrast. The combination of atmospheric effects, reflective surfaces, and dense world design gives the game a distinctive look that fits its surreal horror-action tone.
That said, the presentation is not perfect. Some character models do not appear as advanced as the environments around them, which can create a noticeable visual gap during cutscenes or close-up moments. Distant geometry pop-in can also occur, even when settings are pushed to their highest values. These issues do not erase the game’s technical strengths, but they are worth noting for players expecting a flawless Ultra setting experience.
Why CONTROL Resonant is so demanding on PC
CONTROL Resonant is demanding because it combines several expensive rendering techniques at once. Dense geometry, complex lighting, reflections, physics destruction, and large environments all place heavy pressure on the GPU. Ultra settings increase that pressure further, often for visual gains that may not be worth the performance hit for most players.
The biggest performance challenge comes from ray tracing and path tracing. Path tracing is far more expensive than standard rasterized lighting or basic ray-traced effects because it attempts to simulate light behavior in a more advanced and realistic way. In CONTROL Resonant, path-traced indirect lighting can dramatically improve the look of a scene, especially in areas with reflective materials, layered shadows, and complex light bounce. However, this feature can severely reduce performance.
For that reason, players should avoid assuming that Ultra is the best choice. In many cases, a carefully optimized mix of high and medium settings will deliver a better experience than simply maxing everything out. This is especially true for players using older RTX cards, non-RTX GPUs, or mid-range hardware.
CPU performance and GPU-driven geometry
One of the most interesting technical aspects of CONTROL Resonant is how the Northlight Engine handles geometry. Instead of relying too heavily on the CPU to decide which objects should be rendered and then sending all those draw commands in a traditional way, the engine moves much of that geometry culling and drawing workload to the GPU.
This GPU-driven approach allows the game to display highly detailed environments without placing an extreme burden on the processor. In practice, that should help players with modern mid-range CPUs maintain reasonable performance, especially in scenes with lots of objects and environmental detail.
That does not mean the CPU is irrelevant. NPC-heavy areas, complex physics interactions, and streaming can still affect performance. However, CONTROL Resonant’s engine design appears to scale well and avoids some of the severe CPU bottlenecks seen in certain modern AAA PC releases.
Shader compilation, traversal stutter, and frame pacing
Shader compilation is one of the most common problems in modern PC games, but CONTROL Resonant appears to handle it relatively well. There is no lengthy dedicated shader pre-compilation screen, but the game seems to perform a short shader preparation process during startup. During gameplay, major shader compilation stutters appear to be rare.
Traversal and asset-streaming hitches can still happen, but they are not described as frequent. The more noticeable issue is frame pacing. In some areas with heavy geometry and many NPCs, 1% and 0.1% lows can drop lower than expected. This means the average frame rate may look fine, but the game can still feel less smooth than the numbers suggest.
This becomes more noticeable when DLSS Frame Generation or Multi Frame Generation is enabled. In some situations, inconsistent display times and reduced GPU utilization can make the game feel uneven despite a higher reported frame rate. NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency may be related to the issue, although the cause is not confirmed. The developer has reportedly been made aware of these findings and is working on improvements.
DLSS, FSR, Frame Generation, and missing XeSS support
CONTROL Resonant supports NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution and AMD FSR Upscaling, giving players useful options for improving performance at higher resolutions. These upscaling tools are especially important because of how demanding the game becomes when ray tracing or path tracing is enabled.
However, the game does not include a proprietary TAAU solution or Intel XeSS support. That is disappointing for players using Intel graphics hardware or those who prefer XeSS image reconstruction in supported titles.
Frame generation support includes DLSS Frame Generation, DLSS Multi Frame Generation, and FSR Frame Generation. However, FSR Frame Generation cannot be combined with DLSS Super Resolution. That limitation is unfortunate for owners of older RTX graphics cards, especially RTX 20 Series and RTX 30 Series users, who may want to use DLSS upscaling with FSR frame generation as a workaround.
Path tracing and ray tracing features
The headline graphics feature in CONTROL Resonant is its advanced path tracing implementation. The game uses ray-traced indirect lighting, NVIDIA RTX Mega Geometry, and DLSS Ray Reconstruction to improve lighting accuracy, scene detail, and image stability when ray tracing features are active.
Unlike some games where lower ray tracing presets disable the most expensive effects, CONTROL Resonant still retains path-traced elements even at reduced ray tracing settings. Ultra represents the full configuration and is extremely demanding.
This means players should be cautious with the Indirect Lighting setting in particular. Non-RTX GPUs and older RTX cards may struggle heavily with higher settings. Even users with powerful GPUs may need to rely on DLSS, frame generation, or reduced ray tracing options to achieve smooth performance.
HDR implementation
CONTROL Resonant also appears to include a strong HDR implementation. On a capable HDR display, blacks remain deep without obvious crushing, while bright highlights stand out with strong impact. This helps the game’s lighting feel more dramatic, especially in scenes with supernatural effects, glowing objects, and high-contrast environments.
The Display Calibration menu includes controls for HDR Brightness and HDR UI Brightness. Reference images for shadows, midtones, and highlights make the calibration process easier, allowing players to tune the image for their specific display. This is a welcome feature, as poor HDR calibration can often ruin the benefits of a good HDR presentation.
Official CONTROL Resonant PC system requirements
The official PC requirements suggest that CONTROL Resonant can run on older hardware, but only if players keep expectations realistic. The game also requires an SSD, which is increasingly common for large modern titles with heavy asset streaming.
Minimum requirements:
Operating system: Windows 10 or Windows 11 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i5-8500 or AMD Ryzen 5 3500
RAM: 16 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1070, AMD RX 5600 XT, or Intel Arc A580
Storage: 120 GB
Additional requirement: SSD required
Recommended requirements:
Operating system: Windows 10 or Windows 11 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i7-10700 or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
RAM: 16 GB
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti, AMD RX 6700 XT, or Intel Arc B580
Storage: 120 GB
Additional requirement: SSD required
These specifications show that the game should be playable on a wide range of systems, but higher-end features such as path tracing will require much stronger hardware. Players targeting 1080p without ray tracing should have a much easier time than those aiming for 1440p or 4K with advanced lighting enabled.
Best settings approach for CONTROL Resonant
For most PC players, the best approach is to avoid Ultra settings as a default. CONTROL Resonant’s highest settings can be extremely expensive, and the visual improvement may not always justify the performance loss.
Players not using ray tracing should start with high settings and reduce the most demanding options first, especially those related to shadows, reflections, volumetrics, and geometry-heavy effects. This should help preserve the game’s overall visual identity while improving frame rates.
For ray tracing and path tracing, a more careful approach is needed. Start with lower ray tracing presets, use DLSS or FSR upscaling, and only raise indirect lighting if there is enough performance headroom. DLSS Ray Reconstruction may improve image quality when ray tracing is active, but performance and smoothness should still be tested in demanding areas.
Frame generation can help increase perceived frame rate, but players should pay attention to latency and frame pacing. If the game feels uneven despite a high FPS counter, disabling frame generation or adjusting latency-related settings may produce a smoother experience.
Final thoughts
CONTROL Resonant is shaping up to be another visually ambitious PC release from Remedy Entertainment. Its detailed environments, advanced lighting, destruction systems, HDR support, and extensive ray tracing features make it one of the more technically interesting games on PC.
At the same time, it is clearly not a game where Ultra settings should be used without thought. Path tracing is extremely demanding, frame pacing needs improvement in some scenarios, and certain upscaling and frame generation limitations may frustrate players on specific hardware.
Still, the foundation looks strong. Shader compilation appears well handled, CPU performance benefits from the Northlight Engine’s GPU-driven geometry pipeline, and the game offers enough adjustable settings to make optimization worthwhile. For PC gamers willing to tune their settings, CONTROL Resonant has the potential to deliver an impressive balance of visual quality and performance.CONTROL Resonant PC Performance Guide: Best Settings, Ray Tracing Demands, CPU Results, and Visual Quality Tips
CONTROL Resonant is shaping up to be a demanding PC release, especially for players who want to enable ray tracing or push the game toward high-resolution, high-frame-rate gameplay. The good news is that the game offers a flexible graphics menu, strong CPU performance, and enough scalability to make it playable across a wider range of hardware than the highest presets might suggest.
The official performance targets show that the game can run at 30 FPS using Low graphics settings, ray tracing disabled, and Quality upscaling. For a more balanced experience, the recommended specification aims for 1440p at 60 FPS using Medium graphics settings and Balanced upscaling, still with ray tracing turned off.
Once ray tracing enters the picture, the hardware requirements rise sharply. For 1440p at 60 FPS with Medium Ray Tracing, the target hardware includes an RTX 4070 Ti or Radeon RX 9070. For 4K at 60 FPS with High Ray Tracing and Path Tracing, the recommended GPU climbs to an RTX 5080 with Performance upscaling.
These targets do not rely on frame generation, but they do account for the use of temporal upscaling. That distinction matters because players may be able to reach better performance by carefully adjusting settings rather than simply using the Ultra preset.
The most encouraging takeaway is that you do not need to sacrifice a huge amount of image quality to gain a significant performance boost. With the right optimized settings, CONTROL Resonant can look excellent while running much faster than it does on full Ultra, even with ray tracing or path tracing enabled.
Test System and Benchmark Method
For individual graphics setting comparisons and CPU testing, the desktop test system used the following hardware:
CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB
RAM: 32 GB DDR5-7000
Storage: 2 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
Operating system: Windows 11 25H2
Rasterized graphics comparisons were tested at 2560 × 1440, or 1440p, under GPU-limited conditions. NVIDIA DLAA was used to preserve native-resolution rendering and maintain image quality.
Ray tracing and path tracing tests were also carried out under GPU-limited conditions. Depending on the selected rendering mode, DLSS Super Resolution or DLSS Ray Reconstruction was used in Quality mode.
For wider GPU compatibility, individual ray tracing tests used the Ultra Ray Tracing preset with DLSS Ray Reconstruction disabled. Because of that, Ultra Transparency was not included, as it requires both DLSS Ray Reconstruction and RTX Mega Geometry, features limited to NVIDIA RTX hardware.
All other relevant graphics settings were kept at their highest values when testing individual options, allowing the impact of each setting to be measured more clearly.
Post-processing effects such as Motion Blur, Depth of Field, Lens Distortion, Film Grain, and Vignetting were disabled during most comparisons, except when evaluating the Post Processing Resolution setting. These effects had almost no impact on performance. In testing, disabling all post-processing effects resulted in 150 FPS, while enabling all of them produced 149 FPS. In practical terms, players should treat these options as visual preference settings rather than performance optimization tools.
For the final Ultra versus optimized graphics comparisons, a laptop test system was also used:
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU 8 GB
RAM: 16 GB DDR4-3200
Storage: 1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
Operating system: Windows 11 25H2
Performance was measured using CapFrameX, with attention paid to average FPS, 1% lows, and 0.1% lows. This gives a better picture of smoothness than average frame rate alone.
CPU Performance in CONTROL Resonant
Before looking closely at graphics settings, CPU performance was tested using the Core i7-14700K system. The goal was to see how well CONTROL Resonant behaves in CPU-limited scenarios.
To create a demanding CPU benchmark, an NPC-heavy combat encounter was selected, featuring FBC personnel battling a large Hiss wave. Graphics settings were pushed to maximum, including path tracing, while output resolution was reduced to 720p. DLSS Super Resolution and Ray Reconstruction were set to Ultra Performance mode to reduce GPU load as much as possible.
The results were impressive. The Intel Core i7-14700K delivered an average of 193.9 FPS, with 1% lows of 133.8 FPS and 0.1% lows of 105.3 FPS. CapFrameX reported an Adaptive STDEV of only 8.9 FPS, and the larger frame-time spikes stayed under 10 ms. In actual gameplay, those small variations were difficult to notice, especially on a capable variable-refresh-rate display.
Thread monitoring showed that CONTROL Resonant placed most of its workload on around eight P-Core threads. The remaining P-Core threads and E-Cores were used far less, though Windows 11 scheduling behavior may have influenced this. Even so, the result is clear: the game’s engine appears to keep CPU overhead low, helped by a GPU-driven geometry pipeline.
For players with reasonably modern processors, CPU bottlenecks should not be a major concern. CONTROL Resonant appears capable of delivering high frame rates when paired with a strong graphics card.
Graphics Menu and Preset Scaling
CONTROL Resonant includes a detailed graphics menu with separate presets for standard rasterized rendering and ray tracing. This is a smart design choice because it lets players tune traditional graphics quality separately from the much heavier ray-traced and path-traced effects.
The rasterized graphics presets are:
Handheld
Low
Medium
High
Ultra
The ray tracing presets are:
Off
Low
Medium
High
Ultra
This separation makes optimization much easier. A player can, for example, keep general graphics quality high while lowering ray tracing, or disable ray tracing entirely while maintaining strong texture quality and detail.
The game also provides previews for many settings, showing how different quality levels affect visuals. These previews are not live, and not every setting includes one, but they are still useful. One downside is that the menu does not display live performance metrics or hardware usage information. However, all graphics settings can be changed without restarting the game, which makes testing and tuning much more convenient.
Preset scaling is generally good. Even the Low preset can look surprisingly respectable, while the Handheld preset should help lower-power portable gaming systems achieve playable performance.
That said, several individual settings deserve closer attention. Some can consume a noticeable amount of GPU power without delivering a similarly noticeable boost in visual quality. These are the settings players should adjust first when trying to improve frame rates.
Temporal Anti-Aliasing and Upscaling
CONTROL Resonant relies on NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution and AMD FSR Upscaling for temporal anti-aliasing and upscaling. Intel XeSS Super Resolution is not included.
For NVIDIA GeForce RTX users, DLSS Super Resolution is the best option. Quality mode is a strong starting point at both 1440p and 4K, offering a good blend of image clarity and performance.
For non-RTX GPUs, AMD FSR Upscaling is the supported alternative. RDNA3 and RDNA4 graphics cards can use FSR 4.1 Upscaling, while other compatible GPUs use FSR 3.1 Upscaling.
Recommended setting:
Use DLSS Super Resolution on GeForce RTX GPUs. Use FSR Upscaling on other supported graphics cards.
Texture Resolution
Texture Resolution affects texture sharpness and VRAM usage more than raw GPU performance. This means the best setting depends heavily on how much video memory your graphics card has.
At 1440p without ray tracing or path tracing, Medium through Ultra texture settings are best suited to GPUs with at least 10 GB of VRAM. Cards with 8 GB of VRAM should usually stick closer to Low to avoid memory pressure.
With ray tracing or path tracing enabled, VRAM demands increase. In that case, Medium through Ultra texture settings are better suited to GPUs with around 12 GB of VRAM, while 10 GB cards may need to use lower settings depending on the rest of the configuration.
Fortunately, even Low textures still look decent in CONTROL Resonant. Players with limited VRAM can reduce Texture Resolution without completely ruining the game’s presentation.
Recommended setting:
Use the highest Texture Resolution your available VRAM can handle comfortably. If you notice stuttering, hitching, or texture streaming issues, lower this setting first.
Texture Filtering
Texture Filtering controls how sharp textures appear when viewed at steep or distant angles. In many modern games, lowering this setting provides little performance benefit, and CONTROL Resonant appears to follow that pattern.
Testing showed no meaningful frame-rate difference between Medium, the lowest available level, and Ultra, the highest level. Both produced 116 FPS in the tested scene. However, reducing the setting noticeably harmed distant texture clarity.
Because the performance cost is essentially negligible on modern GPUs, there is little reason to lower Texture Filtering.
Recommended setting:
Ultra
Level of Detail
Level of Detail, or LOD, controls how long objects retain their full geometric detail as they move farther away from the camera. Higher settings preserve more distant detail, while lower settings reduce complexity at range to improve performance.
This setting can be worth examining carefully because it affects both visual consistency and GPU workload. Lowering LOD may improve performance, especially on weaker graphics cards, but it can also make distant objects look less detailed or cause more noticeable transitions as assets change quality.
For players chasing higher frame rates, LOD is a useful setting to test after adjusting more obvious heavy options such as ray tracing, path tracing, and texture memory usage.
Recommended setting:
Start with High or Ultra on powerful GPUs. Consider lowering it if you need more performance and are comfortable with reduced distant detail.
Best Early Optimization Advice for CONTROL Resonant
Based on testing, CONTROL Resonant is not a game where every setting needs to be lowered dramatically. Instead, the best approach is targeted optimization.
First, choose the right upscaling mode. DLSS Quality is ideal for RTX users at 1440p or 4K, while FSR is the main choice for other supported GPUs.
Second, manage VRAM carefully. Texture Resolution should match your graphics card’s memory capacity, especially when ray tracing or path tracing is enabled.
Third, keep Texture Filtering at Ultra. It improves clarity with no meaningful performance penalty.
Fourth, do not worry too much about post-processing effects from a performance standpoint. Motion Blur, Film Grain, Vignetting, Depth of Field, and Lens Distortion barely changed FPS in testing, so players can enable or disable them based on personal taste.
Finally, be cautious with ray tracing and path tracing. These features deliver the biggest visual upgrades, but they also come with the steepest hardware requirements. If performance is too low, reducing ray tracing quality will usually help far more than lowering small visual options.
Overall Impression
CONTROL Resonant appears to be a visually ambitious PC game with strong scalability and excellent CPU behavior. Its ray tracing and path tracing modes are demanding, but the game gives players enough tools to find a good balance between image quality and performance.
The biggest advantage is that optimized settings can deliver a large frame-rate boost without making the game look dramatically worse than the Ultra preset. That makes careful tuning worthwhile, especially for players using mid-range GPUs or laptop graphics hardware.
For the smoothest experience, start with a sensible preset, choose the right upscaling technology, match texture quality to your VRAM, and adjust ray tracing based on your performance target. With those changes, CONTROL Resonant can look impressive while running far better than its heaviest settings might suggest.CONTROL Resonant Best PC Graphics Settings for Higher FPS and Better Visual Quality
CONTROL Resonant can look stunning on PC, especially with its advanced lighting, reflections, shadows, and destruction effects. However, maxing out every graphics option is not always the smartest way to play. Several settings demand a large amount of GPU power while offering only small visual improvements, which can lead to lower frame rates, stutter, and unstable performance.
After testing the most demanding options, the best approach is to keep the settings that noticeably improve image quality while reducing or disabling the ones that hurt performance the most. The optimized settings below are designed to deliver a strong balance between visuals and FPS, whether you are playing without ray tracing or using the game’s heavier ray tracing and path tracing features.
Best Optimized Graphics Settings for CONTROL Resonant
Texture Resolution
Texture quality depends heavily on your available VRAM. If your GPU has 10 GB of VRAM or more, Ultra, High, or Medium can work well at 1440p depending on your performance target. If you are using an 8 GB graphics card, Low is the safer choice to avoid VRAM overuse, stuttering, and inconsistent frame pacing.
Recommendation: Ultra, High, or Medium with 10 GB+ VRAM at 1440p; Low with 8 GB VRAM
Texture Filtering
Texture Filtering has a very small performance cost and helps surfaces look sharper at angles. There is little reason to reduce this setting unless you are on very limited hardware.
Recommendation: Ultra
Level of Detail
Level of Detail controls how much detail is visible on distant objects and environments. Dropping below High reduces distant visual quality too aggressively without delivering enough extra performance to justify the downgrade.
Recommendation: High
Global Illumination
Global Illumination affects the quality of indirect lighting in rasterized rendering. Lowering this below High does not provide a meaningful performance boost, so keeping it at High gives you better lighting with little downside.
Recommendation: High
Volumetric Lighting
Volumetric Lighting controls atmospheric effects such as god rays, light beams, and light scattering. Medium keeps the overall look of the game intact while offering a useful performance improvement compared to higher settings.
Recommendation: Medium
Volumetric Spotlight
This setting affects volumetric effects created by individual spotlights. High gives the best balance between quality and performance, while Ultra costs more GPU power for only minor visual gains.
Recommendation: High
Fog
Fog quality changes the way atmospheric fog is rendered. High uses more advanced light scattering, but Medium still looks convincing and performs better. If your GPU has extra headroom, High is also a good option.
Recommendation: Medium; use High if you have performance to spare
Shadow Map Resolution
Shadow Map Resolution has a major impact on traditional shadow quality. Lower settings can make shadows look noisy, blurry, or low-resolution, so Ultra is worth keeping unless your GPU is struggling badly.
Recommendation: Ultra
Shadow Map Filtering
Shadow Map Filtering controls the softness and refinement of shadow edges. High keeps shadows looking clean and natural, while Medium does not improve performance enough to make the visual downgrade worthwhile.
Recommendation: High
Shadow Map Detail
Shadow Map Detail determines how many smaller objects are included in shadow maps. High is the best compromise because lowering it further brings little real performance improvement.
Recommendation: High
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
SSAO adds subtle contact shadows around corners, objects, and surface intersections. Turning it off makes the image look flatter and less grounded, so it should remain enabled.
Recommendation: On
Screen Space Reflections
Screen Space Reflections handle reflections based on what is currently visible on screen. Medium retains convincing reflection quality while recovering a useful amount of GPU performance compared to higher settings.
Recommendation: Medium
Signed Distance Field Reflections
SDF Reflections improve reflection coverage by adding reflections from geometry that is not currently visible on screen. The effect can improve image quality, but the performance hit is significant. For an optimized setup, it is better to turn this off unless you have a powerful GPU.
Recommendation: Off; enable only if you have GPU performance to spare
Best Ray Tracing and Path Tracing Settings for CONTROL Resonant
Direct Lighting
Direct Lighting controls ray-traced direct illumination, shadows, and related lighting interactions. High keeps most of the visual benefits of Ultra while reducing GPU load.
Recommendation: High
Direct Lighting Denoising
This setting controls denoising for ray-traced direct lighting. On GPUs without DLSS Ray Reconstruction, Medium offers the best compromise. If your RTX GPU supports DLSS Ray Reconstruction, use that instead for better image quality.
Recommendation: Medium on non-RTX GPUs; DLSS Ray Reconstruction on supported RTX GPUs
Indirect Lighting
Indirect Lighting is one of the most demanding graphics settings in CONTROL Resonant. It controls path-traced diffuse global illumination and specular reflections. Ultra is extremely expensive, while High preserves most of the intended visual presentation at a much more practical performance cost.
Recommendation: High
Indirect Lighting Denoising
This setting controls denoising for path-traced indirect lighting. Medium is the sensible option if DLSS Ray Reconstruction is not available. Supported RTX GPUs should use DLSS Ray Reconstruction instead.
Recommendation: Medium on non-RTX GPUs; DLSS Ray Reconstruction on supported RTX GPUs
Transparency
Transparency affects ray-traced lighting and reflections on transparent surfaces such as glass. High is the best choice for most GPUs. Ultra offers the highest quality, but it is best reserved for compatible RTX GPUs using DLSS Ray Reconstruction and RTX Mega Geometry.
Recommendation: High; Ultra only on compatible RTX GPUs with the required features enabled
Debris
Debris determines whether mesh particles are included in ray-traced shadows and reflections. Since CONTROL Resonant uses destruction and flying debris heavily, keeping this enabled improves consistency without a noticeable performance penalty in testing.
Recommendation: Enabled
DLSS Ray Reconstruction
DLSS Ray Reconstruction replaces traditional ray tracing denoisers with NVIDIA’s machine learning-based denoising. On supported RTX GPUs, it usually improves ray-traced image quality without a major performance cost.
Recommendation: Enabled with DLSS Super Resolution on supported RTX GPUs
Post Processing Settings
Post Processing Resolution
Post Processing Resolution is the main post-processing option worth changing for extra performance. Setting it to Render Resolution provides the best balance between image quality and frame rate. This option becomes unavailable when DLSS Ray Reconstruction is enabled.
Recommendation: Render Resolution
Motion Blur, Depth of Field, Lens Distortion, Film Grain, and Vignetting have very little impact on performance. These settings are best left to personal preference. If you prefer a cleaner image, you may want to disable Film Grain, Motion Blur, and Lens Distortion, but the FPS difference is minimal.
Optimized CONTROL Resonant Settings Without Ray Tracing or Path Tracing
For players who want the best performance while keeping the game looking close to Ultra settings, use the following configuration:
Texture Resolution: Ultra, High, or Medium with 10 GB+ VRAM at 1440p; Low with 8 GB VRAM
Texture Filtering: Ultra
Level of Detail: High
Global Illumination: High
Volumetric Lighting: Medium
Volumetric Spotlight: High
Fog: Medium
Shadow Map Resolution: Ultra
Shadow Map Filtering: High
Shadow Map Detail: High
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion: On
Screen Space Reflections: Medium
Signed Distance Field Reflections: Off
Post Processing Resolution: Render Resolution
This setup keeps most of the Ultra preset’s visual quality while cutting back settings that have poor performance scaling. SDF Reflections are the biggest visual sacrifice, but turning them off gives a meaningful performance boost. Shadow Map Resolution and SSAO should stay enabled or maxed because lowering them causes a noticeable drop in image quality.
Optimized CONTROL Resonant Settings With Ray Tracing and Path Tracing
If you want to keep the game’s advanced lighting features while improving performance, use these settings:
Direct Lighting: High
Direct Lighting Denoising: Medium on non-RTX GPUs; DLSS Ray Reconstruction on supported RTX GPUs
Indirect Lighting: High
Indirect Lighting Denoising: Medium on non-RTX GPUs; DLSS Ray Reconstruction on supported RTX GPUs
Transparency: High
Debris: Enabled
DLSS Ray Reconstruction: Enabled on supported RTX GPUs
DLSS Super Resolution: Enabled on supported RTX GPUs
Post Processing Resolution: Render Resolution if DLSS Ray Reconstruction is disabled
This ray tracing and path tracing profile keeps the game’s impressive lighting presentation while avoiding the biggest performance traps, especially Ultra Indirect Lighting.
Performance Results: Max Settings vs Optimized Settings
Testing was performed at 1080p with DLAA on an Intel Core i7-12700H and RTX 4060 Laptop GPU.
At maximum graphics settings, performance reached:
Average FPS: 33
1% Low: 11
0.1% Low: 11
With optimized settings, performance improved to:
Average FPS: 63
1% Low: 45
0.1% Low: 22
That is a 91% improvement in average FPS, with much better frame-time stability. The 1% lows improved by 309%, making gameplay feel dramatically smoother. The large uplift is likely related in part to the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU’s 8 GB of VRAM being pushed too hard at maximum settings.
Final Recommended Settings for the Best Balance
For most PC players, the best CONTROL Resonant graphics settings are High Level of Detail, High Global Illumination, Medium Volumetric Lighting, Ultra Shadow Map Resolution, High Shadow Map Filtering, SSAO On, Medium SSR, and SDF Reflections Off.
If you are using ray tracing or path tracing, keep Direct Lighting and Indirect Lighting at High instead of Ultra. RTX users with support for DLSS Ray Reconstruction should enable it for cleaner ray-traced lighting and reflections.
These optimized settings deliver a much smoother experience while keeping CONTROL Resonant visually impressive, making them ideal for players who want better FPS without making the game look heavily downgraded.Control Resonant PC Performance Guide: Best Optimized Settings for Higher FPS With Ray Tracing and Path Tracing
Control Resonant is shaping up to be another impressive technical showcase for Remedy’s Northlight Engine, delivering striking lighting, dense environments, and advanced ray tracing and path tracing features. However, like many visually ambitious PC games, the highest graphics preset comes with a serious performance cost, especially on GPUs with limited VRAM.
The good news is that you do not need to run everything at Ultra to enjoy the game’s best visuals. With the right optimized graphics settings, Control Resonant can maintain much of its cinematic presentation while delivering a major boost in frame rate.
For players targeting a strong balance between image quality and performance, the best approach is to reduce the most expensive settings while keeping the features that have the biggest visual impact. Texture Resolution should be adjusted based on available VRAM. At 1440p, GPUs with 12 GB or more VRAM can usually handle Ultra, High, or Medium textures, while 10 GB cards may need to drop Texture Resolution to Low to avoid memory-related performance issues.
Texture Filtering can safely remain at Ultra, as it has a relatively small impact on performance. Level of Detail should be set to High to preserve environmental detail without pushing the GPU too hard. Global Illumination is also best kept at High, since it plays a major role in the game’s lighting quality.
For volumetric effects, Medium Volumetric Lighting offers a better performance balance, while Volumetric Spotlight can remain at High. Fog should be set to Medium, as higher settings can be demanding without dramatically changing the overall presentation.
Direct Lighting and Indirect Lighting should both be set to High. These settings retain much of the path-traced look without the heavy cost of Ultra. Direct Lighting Denoising and Indirect Lighting Denoising should be set to Medium on non-RTX hardware, while compatible RTX GPUs should use DLSS Ray Reconstruction for improved image quality and cleaner lighting.
Transparency can be set to High for most users, though Ultra may be suitable on compatible RTX GPUs that support the required features. Debris can remain enabled, as it helps preserve the game’s environmental effects and visual feedback. Post Processing Resolution should match the Render Resolution for a clean image.
For RTX users, DLSS Ray Reconstruction is one of the most important options to enable when available. It improves ray-traced image quality and can help produce a more stable and refined presentation. Players on non-RTX hardware should stick with Medium denoising and High Transparency for a better balance.
In testing ray tracing and path tracing performance, the comparison used 1080p resolution with DLSS Super Resolution set to Quality mode. DLSS Ray Reconstruction was disabled, and Transparency was set to High instead of Ultra, since Ultra Transparency depends on features that are not supported by every modern GPU.
At maximum graphics settings with ray tracing and path tracing enabled, the test system produced an average of 26 FPS, with 1% lows at 21 FPS and 0.1% lows also at 21 FPS. After switching to the optimized settings, average performance increased to 46 FPS, while 1% lows improved to 34 FPS and 0.1% lows rose to 31 FPS.
That represents a 77% increase in average FPS, a 62% improvement in 1% lows, and a 48% improvement in 0.1% lows. In real gameplay, this means smoother movement, better responsiveness, and fewer noticeable dips during demanding scenes.
It is worth noting that the test system used an RTX 4060 Laptop GPU with 8 GB of VRAM, which may make the difference between maximum and optimized settings look slightly larger than it would on higher-end desktop graphics cards. Even so, the results clearly show how costly the full Ultra ray tracing and path tracing configuration can be.
The same trend appears outside of ray tracing and path tracing as well. Ultra settings are simply too expensive for what they deliver visually. With optimized rasterized settings, average performance improved by up to 91% while keeping most of the game’s visual quality intact. That makes optimization especially important for players who want smooth gameplay without sacrificing the atmosphere and visual identity of Control Resonant.
One of the strongest aspects of the PC version is CPU performance. The game runs well on the processor side, and shader compilation stutter is practically nonexistent. This is an important win for PC players, as many modern releases struggle with traversal stutter, shader stutter, or inconsistent CPU behavior at launch.
The main issue during testing was frame pacing, especially when DLSS Frame Generation or Multi Frame Generation was enabled. In some cases, display times were inconsistent, and occasional GPU underutilization appeared. This can make gameplay feel less smooth than the raw FPS counter suggests. The developer is already investigating the issue, so frame pacing may improve through launch updates or early patches.
Overall, Control Resonant gives PC players enough graphics scalability to find a strong balance between performance and image quality. Path tracing remains extremely demanding, as expected, but the optimized settings make the experience much more manageable. Instead of simply dropping everything to Low, players can carefully tune the most expensive options and still enjoy the game’s impressive lighting, effects, and atmosphere.
For most players, the best recommendation is clear: avoid the full Ultra preset, especially with ray tracing or path tracing enabled. Use High settings for the most important lighting options, reduce demanding volumetric and fog effects, enable DLSS features when supported, and adjust textures based on available VRAM. With these changes, Control Resonant can look excellent while running far smoother on a wide range of PC hardware.
