Control

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H paired with the AMD Radeon 890M delivers a playable but constrained experience in Control, with performance firmly anchored by the integrated GPU. Benchmark data shows that the combination ranks near the bottom of the tested field, and while the CPU provides ample headroom, the graphics solution struggles to maintain smooth frame rates at higher resolutions and settings. This analysis breaks down the measured results, offering guidance on optimal configurations and the specific roles each component plays.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution and settings combination for this hardware?

A: The data shows the only configuration that achieves an average frame rate above 60 FPS is 1920x1080 at Low settings, which produces 58 FPS. For a more balanced visual quality, 1920x1080 at Medium settings yields 41 FPS, while High settings at the same resolution drops to 37 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank against all other tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2728 out of 2888 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom percentile of all recorded results. This indicates a significant performance deficit compared to the vast majority of other hardware pairings tested for this game.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: Benchmark results indicate the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The AMD Radeon 890M scores in the 45th percentile among all GPUs, while the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H scores in the 81st percentile among all CPUs. The CPU's performance headroom is not being fully utilized due to the GPU's frame rate ceiling.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its nearest rivals in general benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H has an average benchmark score of 29093, which is nearly identical to its closest competitors. It is 0.1% behind the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and 0.5% behind the Intel Core i5-13500HX, while being 0.5% ahead of the AMD Ryzen 5 5600XT.

Q: What is the impact of dropping from 1080p to 4K on performance?

A: The performance penalty is severe. At High settings, the average FPS drops from 37 at 1920x1080 to 19 at 3840x2160, a reduction of roughly half. The scaling is consistent across settings, with Low settings dropping from 58 to 30 FPS over the same resolution change.

Q: Does the GPU support modern rendering APIs required by the game?

A: Yes, the AMD Radeon 890M supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. These APIs are compatible with the requirements of Control, allowing the game to run, though performance is limited by the GPU's raw compute power.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy for optimizing the play experience. For users prioritizing a smooth frame rate, the 1920x1080 Low preset is the only viable option, delivering an average of 58 FPS. This is the sole configuration that approaches the 60 FPS target, making it the recommended choice for gameplay fluidity.

If visual fidelity is more important than raw frame rate, the 1920x1080 Medium preset is a reasonable compromise. It produces an average of 41 FPS, which is still playable, and offers a significant visual upgrade over Low settings. The High preset at 1080p yields 37 FPS, providing diminishing returns for the additional performance cost.

At higher resolutions, the data suggests avoiding Ultra settings entirely. At 2560x1440, the Ultra preset averages 24 FPS, which is below the threshold for comfortable gameplay. The Medium preset at 1440p (31 FPS) is the highest quality setting that maintains a playable frame rate. At 3840x2160, all presets fall below 30 FPS, making the resolution unsuitable for this hardware configuration.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 890M is the defining component in this configuration for Control. It is an integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, with a 4 nm process node and a die size of 233 mm². The GPU operates with a base clock of 400 MHz and a boost clock of 2900 MHz, which is a substantial boost ratio for an IGP.

Memory is system-shared, with bandwidth that is "System Dependent". This means the GPU's performance is directly tied to the system's main memory speed and configuration. The GPU has 1024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operation pipelines, along with 16 ray tracing cores. Its compute capability is rated at 5.939 TFLOPS for FP32 operations.

The GPU's benchmark performance places it in the 45th percentile of all GPUs. Its average benchmark score of 9210 is nearly identical to the AMD Radeon Vega 8, which scores 9221, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, which scores 9273. This puts the 890M within 1% of these older dedicated graphics cards, illustrating the performance class it occupies.

In Control, the GPU's limitations are evident in the FPS data. The frame rate scales directly with resolution and settings, showing that the GPU's fill rate and shader throughput are the primary constraints. The GPU's 32 ROPs and 64 TMUs are likely bottlenecks at higher resolutions, as the measured FPS drops by approximately half when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H and AMD Radeon 890M ranks 2728 out of 2888 tested combos in Control. This places it in the bottom 5.5% of all tested hardware pairings, indicating a significant performance disadvantage relative to most other configurations.

This ranking is consistent with the individual component benchmarks. The GPU's 45th percentile standing is the primary driver of the low combo rank, as it is a mid-to-low tier graphics solution. The CPU's 81st percentile ranking is relatively high, but it cannot compensate for the GPU's limitations in a graphically intensive game like Control.

The combo's rank suggests that it is suitable for playing the game at low resolutions and settings, but it will struggle to deliver a high-quality experience. The data shows that the combo is best suited for 1080p gaming, where it can achieve acceptable frame rates at Low and Medium settings. At 1440p and 4K, the performance degrades to a point where the game becomes difficult to play smoothly.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 135H is a 14-core, 18-thread processor from the Meteor Lake architecture, built on a 7 nm process node. It has a base clock of 3.60 GHz and a boost clock of 4.60 GHz, with a 28 W TDP. The CPU features an 18 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel bus and 89.6 GB/s bandwidth.

In general benchmark tests, the CPU demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 11875.5, and its single-core score is 1700. The Passmark multi-thread score is 22422, with a single-thread score of 3521. These results place the CPU in the 81st percentile of all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 29093.

The CPU's nearest rivals in terms of average score are the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (29123, -0.1%) and the Intel Core i5-13500HX (29270, -0.6%). This shows that the 135H offers competitive processing power, though it is not a top-tier performer. The CPU's 14 cores and 18 threads provide ample parallelism for modern games, including Control, which can utilize multiple threads for physics and AI.

In the context of Control, the CPU's role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and process game logic. The data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this configuration. The FPS drops are more strongly correlated with resolution and settings changes, which primarily affect the GPU workload. The CPU's high percentile ranking relative to the GPU suggests it has significant headroom, and the frame rates are likely limited by the GPU's rendering capabilities.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a detailed performance profile across resolutions and settings.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows:

• Low: 58 FPS average
• Medium: 41 FPS average, with a minimum of 35 FPS and a maximum of 47 FPS
• High: 37 FPS average
• Ultra: 32 FPS average

At 2560x1440, the performance drops:

• Low: 44 FPS average
• Medium: 31 FPS average, with a minimum of 27 FPS and a maximum of 36 FPS
• High: 28 FPS average
• Ultra: 24 FPS average

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become largely unplayable:

• Low: 30 FPS average
• Medium: 21 FPS average, with a minimum of 18 FPS and a maximum of 24 FPS
• High: 19 FPS average
• Ultra: 16 FPS average

The data shows a consistent pattern: the delta between Low and Ultra settings is roughly 26 FPS at 1080p, 20 FPS at 1440p, and 14 FPS at 4K. The absolute frame rate difference narrows as resolution increases, but the percentage drop remains significant. The Medium preset consistently offers a middle ground, with frame rates that are roughly 70% of the Low preset's performance.

Resolution Scaling

The resolution scaling analysis reveals a steep performance curve. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 results in a frame rate drop of approximately 24% across all settings. For example, at High settings, the FPS drops from 37 to 28, a 24% reduction. At Low settings, it drops from 58 to 44, also a 24% reduction.

The transition from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 is even more punishing. At High settings, the FPS drops from 28 to 19, a 32% reduction. At Low settings, it drops from 44 to 30, a 32% reduction. The scaling is consistent, showing that the GPU's performance is linearly impacted by the increase in pixel count.

This scaling pattern is indicative of a GPU-bound scenario. The consistent percentage drops across different settings suggest that the GPU's pixel fill rate and memory bandwidth are the limiting factors, rather than CPU-side geometry processing. The system-shared memory architecture of the 890M likely exacerbates this, as the GPU competes with the CPU for memory bandwidth, leading to higher latency at larger frame buffers.

The data shows that 1080p is the only resolution where the GPU can maintain a frame rate above 40 FPS at Medium or higher settings. The performance cliff at 4K, where all settings fall below 30 FPS, confirms that this resolution is not viable for this combo. The 1440p resolution offers a marginal improvement over 4K, but the frame rates are still below the 30 FPS threshold for High and Ultra settings, making 1080p the only recommended resolution for a playable experience.