Control

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 delivers a commanding performance in Control, a game from 2019 that remains demanding at high resolutions. The measured data shows that this combination is not just playable but overwhelmingly fast across all tested settings, with the lowest average frame rate recorded at 69 FPS in 4K Ultra. This places the system firmly in high-refresh-rate territory for 1440p and 1080p, while 4K remains smooth and stable. The benchmark results indicate a hardware pairing where the GPU is the primary driver of frame rates, but the CPU’s strong single-thread performance ensures no bottlenecks even at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system produces exceptional frame rates that will easily satisfy any high-refresh-rate monitor. With Low settings, the average FPS reaches 246, which is nearly four times the playable threshold of 60 FPS. Moving to Medium settings, the average drops to 175 FPS, with a minimum of 149 FPS and a maximum of 201 FPS, showing that even in the most chaotic scenes, the frame rate never dips below 149. High settings yield an average of 156 FPS, while Ultra settings still deliver a very strong 135 FPS average. This scaling shows that the GPU has ample headroom at 1080p, and the CPU’s performance is sufficient to feed the RTX 4080 without introducing significant frame pacing issues.

At 2560x1440, the performance remains excellent, though the expected drop from 1080p is visible. Low settings produce an average of 186 FPS, while Medium settings average 132 FPS with a minimum of 113 and a maximum of 152 FPS. High settings deliver 118 FPS on average, and Ultra settings still manage 102 FPS. The difference between 1080p and 1440p is roughly a 25-30% reduction in average frame rates across all presets, which is consistent with the increased pixel count. The minimum frame rates at 1440p Medium (113 FPS) are still far above the 60 FPS playability threshold, indicating that the system maintains smooth gameplay even during intense action sequences.

At 3840x2160, the system shows its limits but remains comfortably playable. Low settings yield an average of 126 FPS, which is impressive for 4K. Medium settings average 89 FPS, with a minimum of 76 and a maximum of 103 FPS. High settings produce 79 FPS on average, while Ultra settings deliver 69 FPS. The data shows a clear trend: as resolution increases, the gap between presets narrows, indicating that the GPU becomes the dominant bottleneck at 4K. The minimum FPS at 4K Medium (76 FPS) is still well above the 60 FPS threshold, so even the most demanding moments in the game will not cause stutter or noticeable drops.

CPU and GPU Roles

The benchmark data reveals that the RTX 4080 is the primary performance driver, with the CPU playing a supporting role that becomes less critical as resolution increases. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra settings is 111 FPS (246 vs 135), which is a 45% reduction in average frame rate. This large gap suggests that the GPU is still capable of pushing more frames but is limited by the settings’ demands on shaders and effects. However, the CPU’s strong single-core performance, as evidenced by its Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2020, ensures that it does not become a limiting factor at this resolution.

At 1440p, the scaling from Low to Ultra shows a 84 FPS difference (186 vs 102), which is a 45% drop. This is proportionally similar to 1080p, indicating that the GPU is still the main constraint. The CPU’s role diminishes further at 4K, where the difference between Low and Ultra is 57 FPS (126 vs 69), a 45% reduction. This consistency across resolutions suggests that the game’s settings have a uniform impact on GPU load, and the CPU is never the bottleneck. The data shows that the RTX 4080’s performance scales predictably with resolution, losing about 50% of its 1080p frame rate when moving to 4K at the same settings, which is typical for a GPU-bound title like Control.

Similar Performance Alternatives

Looking at the CPU’s nearest rivals, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K performs nearly identically to several other high-end processors. The Intel Xeon 6511P has an average benchmark score of 71051, which is just 0.2% lower than the Core Ultra 7’s 70879. This means that in CPU-bound scenarios, swapping to the Xeon would produce virtually identical frame rates. Similarly, the Intel Xeon Platinum 8270 is 0.7% slower, and the AMD Ryzen 7 9700F is 1.3% slower, while the Intel Core i7-14700KF is 1% faster. These deltas are all within a negligible margin, so any of these CPUs would pair equally well with the RTX 4080 in Control, where the GPU is the limiting factor.

On the GPU side, the RTX 4080’s nearest rival is the RTX 4080 SUPER, which has an average benchmark score of 54209, a mere 0.1% difference. In practice, this means the SUPER variant would deliver nearly identical FPS in Control, likely within 1-2 frames at any resolution. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X is 1.1% slower, and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB is 2.6% slower, while the AMD Radeon 8060S is 2.7% slower. These differences are small enough that users with any of these GPUs would experience similar performance, though the RTX 4080’s support for DLSS could provide an advantage in other titles, but that is not relevant to the measured data here.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks at 241 out of 3720 tested combos for Control. This places it in the top 6.5% of all systems tested, which is an excellent result for a game that is over five years old. The high ranking is driven primarily by the GPU’s strong performance, as the CPU’s percentile of 94 among all CPUs is solid but not exceptional. The data shows that this combo outperforms the vast majority of systems, with only 240 other configurations achieving higher average frame rates. This ranking reflects the system’s ability to maintain high FPS at 4K Ultra, which is a demanding scenario that many other combos cannot handle.

The Verdict

Can this PC run Control? The answer is unequivocally yes, and it does so with remarkable ease. The verdict by resolution shows that all settings are playable at all three tested resolutions. At 3840x2160, the system achieves playable frame rates on High, Low, Medium, and Ultra settings, with the best settings being Ultra at an average of 69 FPS. At 2560x1440, all settings are again playable, with Ultra averaging 102 FPS. At 1920x1080, the system delivers 135 FPS on Ultra, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate gaming. The playable threshold of 60 FPS is cleared by a significant margin in every scenario, with the lowest average being 69 FPS at 4K Ultra. This means that users can max out the game’s settings at 4K and still enjoy smooth gameplay, or push for extremely high frame rates at 1080p for competitive play.

Best Settings per Resolution

For the optimal balance of visual quality and performance, the data suggests the following settings per resolution. At 3840x2160, the most demanding preset that stays at or above 60 FPS is Ultra, which averages 69 FPS. This is the best choice for users with a 4K display who want the highest fidelity without compromising smoothness. At 2560x1440, Ultra settings are also the best option, delivering an average of 102 FPS. This provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold, allowing for some headroom in demanding scenes. At 1920x1080, Ultra settings yield 135 FPS on average, which is the recommended choice for users with high-refresh-rate monitors, as it provides a fluid experience that takes full advantage of displays with refresh rates up to 144Hz or higher. In all cases, the system has enough performance to run the game at maximum settings, and the only trade-off is between resolution and frame rate, not between quality and playability.