Control

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile delivers a commanding performance profile in Control, placing the combo in the 77th percentile of all tested configurations. The data shows a system capable of high-refresh-rate 1440p gaming and solid 4K performance, though the settings menu requires careful selection to balance visual fidelity against frame rate targets.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS rows indicate that the Medium preset offers the most balanced experience across all three resolutions, providing a substantial performance uplift over High settings while maintaining playable frame rates. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers 138 FPS average, which is 16 FPS higher than High and 32 FPS higher than Ultra, making it the sweet spot for competitive play or high-refresh displays. The 1440p Medium result of 104 FPS average is particularly compelling, as it clears the 100 FPS threshold that many gamers consider the minimum for smooth action gameplay, while the 4K Medium average of 70 FPS with a minimum of 60 FPS ensures consistent frame pacing without drops below the 60 FPS v-sync boundary.

For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, the Ultra preset at 1080p produces 106 FPS average, which remains fluid on standard 60Hz and 144Hz monitors. However, the Ultra preset at 1440p drops to 80 FPS average, and at 4K it falls to 54 FPS average, which may introduce perceptible stutter in fast-paced combat sequences. The High preset occupies a middle ground, offering 122 FPS at 1080p, 93 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 4K, but the data suggests that Medium provides a more consistent experience relative to the performance cost.

The Low preset, while delivering the highest frame rates (194 FPS at 1080p, 147 FPS at 1440p, 99 FPS at 4K), sacrifices the atmospheric lighting and particle effects that define Control's visual identity. Given that the Medium preset at 4K maintains a 60 FPS minimum, it represents the optimal choice for 4K displays, while 1440p users can comfortably select Medium or High depending on their refresh rate. The benchmark results indicate that Medium is the recommended default, with High serving as a viable alternative for those with 120Hz or lower refresh displays at 1440p.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile, built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process, provides the computational backbone for this combo. Its 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 576.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which proves sufficient for Control's texture-heavy environments and physics simulations. The GPU's 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output pipelines work in concert to handle the game's demanding DirectX 12 rendering path, with the 76 RT cores available for ray-traced effects if enabled.

The clock behavior shows a base frequency of 1335 MHz boosting to 1695 MHz, with memory running at 2250 MHz (18 Gbps effective). These clocks, combined with the 32.98 TFLOPS FP32 throughput, explain the GPU's ability to maintain high frame rates across all tested settings. The 120 W TDP for this mobile part is notable, as it allows the GPU to sustain boost clocks under sustained gaming loads without thermal throttling, which is reflected in the consistent frame times observed in the Medium preset data.

The GPU's benchmark scores corroborate its gaming performance. The Passmark G3D score of 27212 places it in the 84th percentile of all GPUs, while the Geekbench OpenCL score of 180831 and Vulkan score of 170774 indicate strong compute capabilities that benefit Control's physics and particle systems. The DirectX 12 Passmark score of 107, while lower than older API scores, reflects the more demanding nature of modern rendering workloads. The GPU's nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 (0.8% higher), RTX 5050 Mobile (0.9% higher), and RTX A6000 (0.9% lower), but the 4090 Mobile's gaming-specific optimizations give it an edge in real-world scenarios like Control.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 866th out of 3720 tested configurations in Control, placing it in the top 23% of all systems evaluated. This ranking reflects the balance between the CPU and GPU, as the Ryzen 9 8945HX's 16 cores and 32 threads provide ample processing headroom while the RTX 4090 Mobile handles the graphical workload. The percentile placement suggests that while this is a high-end mobile configuration, there are faster desktop and workstation setups that achieve higher frame rates, particularly at 4K Ultra settings.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 76212 places it in the 95th percentile of all CPUs, with nearest rivals including the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX (0.1% higher), AMD EPYC Embedded 8224P (0.4% lower), and AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9945WX (0.4% lower). This CPU performance, combined with the GPU's 84th percentile ranking, creates a system that is well-matched for Control's multi-threaded rendering and physics workloads. The combo's rank of 866 suggests that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, as the CPU's strong single-thread and multi-thread scores (Cinebench R23 single-core 6030, multi-core 42713) are more than sufficient to feed the GPU at 1080p and 1440p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the data shows a clear progression across settings. Low delivers 194 FPS average, Medium 138 FPS, High 122 FPS, and Ultra 106 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 117 FPS and maximum of 158 FPS indicate tight frame pacing, with the 21 FPS spread between minimum and maximum suggesting consistent performance during intense combat sequences. The Ultra preset's 106 FPS average, while lower, still provides a smooth experience on 100Hz+ displays.

Moving to 2560x1440, the frame rates scale predictably. Low produces 147 FPS average, Medium 104 FPS (minimum 89, maximum 120), High 93 FPS, and Ultra 80 FPS. The Medium preset's 31 FPS spread between minimum and maximum is slightly wider than at 1080p, indicating that the GPU is working harder to maintain frame times at this resolution. The High preset's 93 FPS average remains playable, but the Ultra preset's 80 FPS may cause noticeable drops during heavy particle effects.

At 3840x2160, the performance envelope tightens considerably. Low achieves 99 FPS average, Medium 70 FPS (minimum 60, maximum 81), High 62 FPS, and Ultra 54 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 60 FPS is critical, as it ensures no frame drops below the standard 60Hz refresh rate. The High preset's 62 FPS average, while above 60, leaves less headroom for demanding scenes, and the Ultra preset's 54 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS threshold, making it unsuitable for smooth gameplay on standard displays.

Resolution Scaling

The data reveals a consistent performance scaling pattern as resolution increases. From 1080p to 1440p, the average FPS drops by approximately 25-30% across all settings: Low drops from 194 to 147 (24% reduction), Medium from 138 to 104 (25% reduction), High from 122 to 93 (24% reduction), and Ultra from 106 to 80 (25% reduction). This uniform scaling suggests that the GPU is the primary limiting factor, as the CPU has sufficient headroom to maintain frame rates at lower resolutions.

From 1440p to 4K, the scaling becomes more pronounced. Low drops from 147 to 99 (33% reduction), Medium from 104 to 70 (33% reduction), High from 93 to 62 (33% reduction), and Ultra from 80 to 54 (33% reduction). The consistent 33% reduction across all settings indicates that the GPU's memory bandwidth and compute resources are being saturated at 4K, with the 576.0 GB/s bandwidth becoming a limiting factor. The fact that the percentage reduction is identical across all settings suggests that the bottleneck is purely resolution-driven, not settings-driven, which points to the GPU's fill rate and memory subsystem as the constraining components.

The scaling behavior indicates that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution. The Ryzen 9 8945HX's 16 cores and 32 threads, with a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, provide more than enough processing power to handle Control's game logic and physics at all tested settings. The GPU's 189.8 GPixel/s pixel rate and 515.3 GTexel/s texture rate are the limiting factors at 4K, as the increased pixel count requires more fill rate and memory bandwidth.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX, based on the Zen 4 architecture and codenamed Dragon Range, provides exceptional processing power for Control. Its 16 cores and 32 threads, with a base clock of 2.50 GHz and boost clock of 5.40 GHz, deliver strong multi-threaded performance that benefits the game's physics simulation and AI routines. The 64 MB of L3 cache (1 MB L2 per core, 64 KB L1 per core) ensures that frequently accessed data remains close to the cores, reducing memory latency during gameplay.

The CPU's benchmark results demonstrate its capability. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42713 and single-core score of 6030 indicate strong performance in both heavily threaded and lightly threaded workloads. The Passmark multi-thread score of 51405 and single-thread score of 3907 further confirm this, with the CPU's 95th percentile ranking among all CPUs showing that it outperforms the vast majority of processors. The nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX, scores only 0.1% higher on average, making the two effectively equivalent in general compute tasks.

In Control, the CPU's role is to maintain frame pacing and handle the game's physics-based combat system. The 5.40 GHz boost clock ensures that single-threaded game logic runs smoothly, while the 16 cores provide headroom for background tasks and the game's multi-threaded rendering pipeline. The 83.2 GB/s memory bandwidth from the dual-channel DDR5 support is sufficient to feed both the CPU and GPU without creating a bottleneck, as evidenced by the consistent frame times observed in the Medium preset data across all resolutions.

The CPU's 55 W TDP, while modest for a 16-core part, allows it to sustain high boost clocks under load without excessive heat generation. This is particularly important in mobile form factors, where thermal headroom is limited. The combination of the CPU's strong single-thread performance and the GPU's high fill rate results in a system that is well-balanced for Control, with the GPU becoming the limiting factor only at 4K Ultra settings where the 54 FPS average falls below the 60 FPS target.