Control

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates for Control with the Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 reveal a predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 112 at 1920x1080 to 84 at 2560x1440, then further to 57 at 3840x2160. This represents a 24% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a 32% reduction from 1440p to 4K. The overall drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 49%, which is substantial but not unexpected for a demanding action-adventure title.

The scaling pattern across all settings shows similar trends. At Low settings, the average FPS falls from 177 at 1080p to 134 at 1440p (a 24% decrease) and then to 90 at 4K (a 33% decrease from 1440p). At Medium settings, the progression is 126 to 95 to 64, representing drops of 25% and 33% respectively. At Ultra settings, the numbers are 97 at 1080p, 73 at 1440p, and 50 at 4K, with reductions of 25% and 32%.

The consistency of these percentage drops across all four settings presets suggests that the scaling behavior is resolution-bound rather than settings-bound. The RTX 4080's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to handle the increased pixel count at 4K without memory-related bottlenecks, as evidenced by the smooth scaling curve. However, the fact that the 4K numbers at High (57 FPS) and Ultra (50 FPS) dip below the 60 FPS threshold indicates that the GPU is the limiting component at this resolution, particularly with higher visual quality settings.

At 1080p, the system achieves well over 100 FPS on all settings except Ultra (97 FPS), which demonstrates that the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU adequately at lower resolutions. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is nearly identical across settings (24-25% drops), which is a sign that neither component is severely bottlenecked at either resolution. The 4K results, with their 32-33% drops from 1440p, point to the GPU reaching its limits under the increased pixel load.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 125H is a mobile processor with 14 cores and 18 threads, based on the Meteor Lake architecture built on Intel's 7 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.50 GHz, with 18 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmark scores indicate solid multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 12804.5 and a single-core score of 1647.5. Its PassMark multithread score of 21100 and single-thread score of 3399 place it in the 79th percentile among all CPUs.

In Control, the CPU's role becomes more apparent at lower resolutions where the GPU has headroom. At 1080p Low settings, the system produces 177 FPS average, which is well into high-refresh-rate territory. This indicates that the 125H's single-thread performance, while not exceptional, is sufficient to drive the game engine at these frame rates. The 18 threads provide ample parallelism for the game's physics and AI systems, which is reflected in the smooth scaling from Low to Ultra settings at 1080p.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the AMD Ryzen 7 5800 (0.1% faster), Intel Core i5-12600K (0.3% faster), AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (0.3% faster), and AMD Ryzen 3 PRO 5355G (0.5% slower). These deltas are all within 0.5%, meaning the 125H performs essentially on par with these desktop processors in general compute tasks. In Control specifically, the game's engine benefits from the CPU's 14 cores and 18 threads, particularly during scenes with multiple enemies or destructible environments.

The L3 cache configuration of 18 MB shared, combined with 2 MB L2 per core, provides adequate data locality for the game's streaming systems. The CPU's 89.6 GB/s memory bandwidth on dual-channel DDR5 ensures that texture and geometry data can be fed to the GPU without stalling. However, the measured results show that at 4K, the CPU is not the limiting factor — the GPU's rendering load dominates, and the CPU has sufficient headroom to maintain frame pacing.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides clear guidance for optimal settings at each resolution. At 1920x1080, all settings presets deliver playable frame rates, but the Medium preset (126 FPS average, 107 min FPS) offers the best balance between visual fidelity and performance headroom. The High preset at 112 FPS is also viable, but the jump from Medium to High yields diminishing returns in visual quality while costing 11% performance. The Ultra preset at 97 FPS is still smooth, but the 23% drop from Medium makes it less attractive for competitive play.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset again emerges as the sweet spot with 95 FPS average and 81 min FPS. The High preset at 84 FPS is acceptable for story-driven gameplay, but the 12% performance penalty over Medium may not justify the visual improvements. The Ultra preset at 73 FPS remains playable but approaches the threshold where frame drops become noticeable during intense combat sequences. Low settings at 134 FPS provide maximum responsiveness for players prioritizing frame rate above all else.

At 3840x2160, the situation changes dramatically. The Medium preset (64 FPS average, 55 min FPS) is the only settings level that maintains an average above 60 FPS. High settings at 57 FPS dip below the 60 FPS mark, and Ultra at 50 FPS is noticeably less smooth. For 4K gameplay, Medium settings are the recommended choice — they provide the best combination of visual quality and performance sustainability. Players who insist on High or Ultra at 4K should be prepared for occasional frame rate dips below 60 FPS, particularly in scenes with heavy particle effects or physics simulations.

The Low preset at 4K (90 FPS) offers a high-refresh-rate experience for players with 120 Hz or 144 Hz 4K displays, though the visual compromise is significant. The data suggests that Control rewards players who tune settings to their display's refresh rate rather than maxing out every option.

How This Combo Ranks

This combination of Intel Core Ultra 5 125H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 ranks 879th out of 2888 tested combos in Control, placing it in the 69.6th percentile of all combinations. This is a solid mid-to-upper tier ranking, though not exceptional for a system featuring an RTX 4080. The ranking reflects the fact that the mobile CPU, while competent, does not fully complement the desktop-class GPU in this particular game.

The GPU itself ranks in the 86th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 54247. Its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks are the RTX 4080 SUPER (0.1% faster), AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (1.1% faster), AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (2.6% faster), and AMD Radeon 8060S (2.7% faster). These small deltas indicate that the RTX 4080 is at the top of its performance tier, and the combo ranking is dragged down primarily by the CPU's relative positioning.

The CPU's 79th percentile ranking among all CPUs means that roughly one in five alternative processors would provide better gaming performance in CPU-bound scenarios. In Control, the game's engine shows a moderate CPU dependency at 1080p (177 FPS at Low settings), but the CPU's performance ceiling is reached well before the GPU's at 4K. The 879th rank out of 2888 combos suggests that many alternative pairings with higher-tier CPUs would achieve better results in this game, even with the same GPU.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture using TSMC's 5 nm process, featuring 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die. It has 9728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 render output units, along with 76 ray tracing cores and 304 tensor cores. The GPU runs at a base clock of 2205 MHz and a boost clock of 2505 MHz, with memory clocked at 1400 MHz (22.4 Gbps effective) across a 256-bit bus for 716.8 GB/s bandwidth.

The GPU's 16 GB of GDDR6X memory is more than adequate for Control at all tested settings and resolutions. The game's texture streaming and level streaming systems benefit from the large memory pool, and the 716.8 GB/s bandwidth ensures that high-resolution textures do not cause stuttering. The GPU's pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s are critical for Control's visual effects, which include heavy use of dynamic lighting and particle systems.

The RTX 4080's PassMark G3D score of 34457 places it in the 86th percentile among all GPUs, with a compute score of 20671. Its FP32 performance of 48.74 TFLOPS provides ample compute headroom for the game's physics and post-processing effects. In Control, the GPU demonstrates its strength at 1080p and 1440p, where it delivers frame rates well above 60 FPS at all settings. At 4K, the GPU becomes the limiting factor, particularly at High and Ultra settings where the average FPS drops to 57 and 50 respectively.

The GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% faster in synthetic benchmarks, which explains why the 4080's performance in Control is not measurably different from its successor. The AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB and Radeon 8060S are actually 2.6% and 2.7% faster in average benchmark scores, respectively, though their real-world gaming performance in Control may vary.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured FPS across settings is as follows: Low averages 177 FPS, Medium averages 126 FPS (with a minimum of 107 FPS and maximum of 144 FPS), High averages 112 FPS, and Ultra averages 97 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 80 FPS, representing a 45% performance reduction for maximum visual quality. The Medium preset's minimum of 107 FPS indicates that even in demanding scenes, the system maintains a high frame rate.

At 2560x1440, Low averages 134 FPS, Medium averages 95 FPS (minimum 81 FPS, maximum 109 FPS), High averages 84 FPS, and Ultra averages 73 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra narrows to 61 FPS (a 45% reduction), which is proportionally similar to 1080p. The Medium preset's minimum of 81 FPS ensures smooth gameplay even during intense action sequences.

At 3840x2160, Low averages 90 FPS, Medium averages 64 FPS (minimum 55 FPS, maximum 74 FPS), High averages 57 FPS, and Ultra averages 50 FPS. The performance envelope tightens considerably at 4K, with a 40 FPS spread between Low and Ultra (a 44% reduction). The Medium preset's minimum of 55 FPS means that frame drops below 60 FPS are possible, though the average remains above the threshold.

The data shows a consistent pattern across all resolutions: Medium settings provide roughly 71-72% of the Low preset's performance, High provides 63-64% of Low, and Ultra provides 55-56% of Low. This consistency suggests that the game's settings scaling is well-optimized and that the performance difference between presets is predictable regardless of resolution. The RTX 4080's 16 GB VRAM capacity is never exceeded at any tested configuration, as evidenced by the absence of sudden performance collapses that would indicate memory swapping.