Control

Control pairs the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 with the AMD Radeon RX 7600, producing a combination that ranks in the 70th percentile of all tested system combos for this title. The measured frame rates reveal a system that is capable at 1080p but increasingly constrained as resolution climbs, with the GPU's 8 GB memory buffer and the CPU's 10-core design playing distinct roles in the final results.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data shows a clear hierarchy across presets, with the Medium setting offering the most balanced experience for this hardware pairing. At 1920x1080, Medium delivers an average of 84 FPS with a minimum of 71 FPS, which provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining visual fidelity. The High preset at the same resolution averages 75 FPS, a 12% reduction from Medium that may not justify the visual gains, while Ultra drops to 65 FPS, still playable but with less headroom for demanding scenes.

For 2560x1440, the Medium preset again emerges as the optimal choice, averaging 64 FPS with a minimum of 54 FPS. This represents a playable experience, though the minimum frame rate hints at occasional dips below the 60 FPS target. The High preset at this resolution averages 56 FPS, which pushes the experience into borderline territory for smooth gameplay. The Low preset at 1440p produces 89 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial for a game like Control, which relies heavily on atmospheric lighting and particle effects.

At 3840x2160, none of the presets deliver a fully smooth experience. The Low preset averages 60 FPS exactly, but this comes with significant visual degradation. Medium at 4K averages 43 FPS with a minimum of 36 FPS, which falls below the threshold for comfortable play. The data suggests that 4K is not a practical target for this combination, and users should either drop resolution or accept substantial compromises in settings. The sweet spot for this combo is clearly 1080p with Medium settings, where the 84 FPS average provides both smoothness and visual quality, or 1440p with Medium as a secondary option for those prioritizing resolution over frame rate consistency.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7600 features 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 288.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's boost clock reaches 2655 MHz, with a game clock of 2250 MHz, and it operates with 2048 shading units across 32 RT cores. These specifications place the card in the 57th percentile of all GPUs, with its average benchmark score of 15171 sitting nearly identical to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM, which shows a delta of just -0.2%.

The 8 GB memory capacity appears to be a limiting factor in Control, particularly at higher resolutions. The game's texture streaming and environment complexity demand significant video memory, and the data shows frame rates dropping more steeply between 1440p and 4K than between 1080p and 1440p. Going from 1080p Medium (84 FPS) to 1440p Medium (64 FPS) represents a 24% reduction, while moving from 1440p Medium to 4K Medium (43 FPS) shows a 33% reduction. This accelerating decline suggests the GPU is not just compute-bound but also memory-bound at 4K, as the 128-bit bus and 8 GB capacity struggle to feed the higher pixel counts.

The GPU's compute capabilities, rated at 21.75 TFLOPS FP32, are sufficient for 1080p and 1440p gaming, but the architecture's memory subsystem becomes the bottleneck at 4K. The pixel rate of 169.9 GPixel/s and texture rate of 339.8 GTexel/s are mid-range figures that align with the observed performance. The card's DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility ensure it can handle Control's rendering features, but the hardware limits assert themselves as resolution increases.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a system that transitions from CPU-limited to GPU-limited as resolution grows. At 1080p Low, the combo produces 118 FPS, which is close to the practical ceiling for many games and suggests the CPU or game engine is becoming a factor. The jump from 1080p Low to 1440p Low yields 89 FPS, a 25% decrease, while moving to 4K Low produces 60 FPS, another 33% decrease. This pattern indicates that at Low settings, the GPU is increasingly the limiting component as resolution rises.

At High settings, the scaling shows a similar trend but with lower absolute numbers: 75 FPS at 1080p, 56 FPS at 1440p (25% drop), and 38 FPS at 4K (32% drop). The consistency of these percentage drops across settings suggests a balanced system where neither component is dramatically outmatched at lower resolutions. However, the 4K results across all presets (38-60 FPS) indicate that the RX 7600 simply lacks the raw throughput for 4K gaming in Control, regardless of settings adjustments.

The Medium preset data includes minimum and maximum frame rates, which provide additional insight. At 1080p Medium, the range is 71-97 FPS, showing a 26 FPS spread. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 54-73 FPS, a 19 FPS spread. At 4K Medium, the range is 36-49 FPS, a 13 FPS spread. This tightening of the frame rate variance at higher resolutions suggests that the GPU becomes more consistently saturated, with less headroom for frame time spikes. The data implies that at 1080p, the CPU can occasionally push frame rates higher when the GPU has spare capacity, but at 4K, the GPU is fully utilized and frame rates are more uniform.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combination to maintain 60 FPS?

A: At 1080p, both Medium (84 FPS) and High (75 FPS) presets exceed 60 FPS averages. At 1440p, only the Low preset (89 FPS) and Medium preset (64 FPS) achieve averages above 60 FPS. At 4K, the Low preset averages exactly 60 FPS, but Medium and above fall below this threshold.

Q: How does the RX 7600 compare to its nearest GPU rivals?

A: The RX 7600's average benchmark score of 15171 ranks it in the 57th percentile of all GPUs. Its closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM with a score of 15199, showing a delta of -0.2%, indicating nearly identical overall performance. The AMD Radeon 680M scores 15270, which is 0.7% higher.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any resolution?

A: The data suggests minimal CPU bottlenecking at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the 118 FPS average approaches typical game engine limits, but the 25% frame rate drops when moving to 1440p indicate the GPU is taking over as the primary constraint. The Core Ultra 5 225's performance percentile of 85% suggests it has sufficient headroom.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the Low preset averages 118 FPS while Ultra averages 65 FPS, representing a 45% reduction in frame rate for maximum visual quality. The Medium preset at 84 FPS offers a middle ground that balances these extremes.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested systems for Control?

A: The combination ranks 2028 out of 2888 tested combos, placing it in roughly the 70th percentile. This indicates that while it is not a top-tier configuration, it outperforms a majority of systems tested for this game.

Q: Is 4K gaming viable with this setup?

A: Only at Low settings, where the average is exactly 60 FPS. Medium settings at 4K produce 43 FPS average with a 36 FPS minimum, which falls below smooth gameplay standards. The 8 GB memory capacity and 128-bit bus likely contribute to this limitation.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 combined with the AMD Radeon RX 7600 achieves a rank of 2028 out of 2888 tested combinations for Control, placing it in the 70th percentile of all systems tested. This means that roughly 30% of tested configurations deliver better performance in this game, while the majority of systems fall below this combination's results. The ranking reflects a mid-to-upper-midrange position, consistent with the individual component rankings.

The CPU's percentile of 85% places it well above the GPU's 57th percentile, indicating that the processor is the stronger component in this pairing. This imbalance suggests that the RX 7600 is the limiting factor for overall gaming performance, particularly at higher resolutions. The combo rank of 2028 sits slightly below what the CPU alone might suggest, confirming that the GPU holds back the system's gaming potential.

When examining the CPU's nearest rivals, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F shows a delta of 0%, indicating essentially identical average scores. The AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D is 0.2% behind, and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 is 0.4% behind. This tight grouping around the 37000 score mark suggests that the Core Ultra 5 225 is well-positioned among its direct competitors, and any differences in gaming performance would likely be minimal. The GPU's nearest rivals show similar clustering, with the RTX 3050 OEM at -0.2% and the Radeon 680M at -0.7%, indicating that the RX 7600 is also in a densely packed performance tier.

The rank of 2028 out of 2888 means the combo outperforms 860 tested configurations. Given the GPU's 57th percentile ranking, the combo's 70th percentile position suggests that the strong CPU helps boost the overall experience beyond what the GPU alone would predict. This indicates that in CPU-light scenarios or at lower resolutions where the GPU is less stressed, the system can perform better than the GPU's standalone ranking would suggest.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 features 10 cores and 10 threads, with a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz. This Arrow Lake architecture processor, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC, includes 20 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU's benchmark results show strong single-threaded performance with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3655 and multi-core score of 25891, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs.

In Control, the CPU's role becomes evident when examining the frame rate data at 1080p. The 118 FPS average at Low settings suggests the game engine has a ceiling around this range, and the CPU's strong single-thread performance helps reach it. The PassMark single-thread score of 4412 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3655 indicate excellent per-thread performance, which is crucial for Control's physics and AI systems that rely heavily on a few primary threads.

The CPU's 10 cores and 10 threads represent a design choice that favors single-thread speed over multi-thread throughput. The data compression score of 302811 and encryption score of 22285 demonstrate solid multi-threaded capabilities, but the absence of hyper-threading means the 10 threads are physical cores. This configuration benefits Control, which typically uses fewer than 8 threads effectively. The CPU's memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s via dual-channel DDR5 support provides sufficient data throughput for the GPU, and the PCIe Gen 5 interface with 20 lanes ensures no bandwidth limitation for the RX 7600, which uses a PCIe 4.0 x8 connection.

The CPU's nearest rivals all score within 0.5% of each other, suggesting that any of these processors would produce similar results in Control. The Core Ultra 5 225's 3 nm process and Arrow Lake architecture provide modern features, but the game's 2019 release date means it does not utilize the newest instruction sets heavily. The PassMark extended instructions score of 27162 indicates good support for modern workloads, but Control's age means the CPU's full potential may not be exercised.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured frame rates span three resolutions and four settings presets, providing a comprehensive view of the system's capabilities. At 1920x1080, the Low preset produces the highest average at 118 FPS. The Medium preset averages 84 FPS with a range of 71-97 FPS. The High preset averages 75 FPS, while Ultra drops to 65 FPS. This represents a 45% reduction from Low to Ultra at the same resolution, showing the substantial cost of maximum visual settings.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset averages 89 FPS, a 25% drop from 1080p Low. The Medium preset averages 64 FPS with a range of 54-73 FPS, a 24% reduction from 1080p Medium. The High preset averages 56 FPS, a 25% decrease from 1080p High. The Ultra preset produces 49 FPS, a 25% reduction from 1080p Ultra. The consistency of these percentage drops across all settings at 1440p indicates that the GPU scales uniformly with resolution, suggesting no unexpected bottlenecks at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the Low preset averages 60 FPS, a 33% drop from 1440p Low and a 49% drop from 1080p Low. The Medium preset averages 43 FPS with a range of 36-49 FPS, representing a 33% reduction from 1440p Medium and a 49% reduction from 1080p Medium. The High preset averages 38 FPS, a 32% drop from 1440p High. The Ultra preset produces 33 FPS, a 33% reduction from 1440p Ultra. The percentage drops from 1440p to 4K are larger than those from 1080p to 1440p across all settings, indicating that the GPU's memory bandwidth or capacity becomes increasingly strained at 4K.

The Medium preset is the only setting with complete minimum and maximum frame rate data across all resolutions. At 1080p, the 71-97 FPS range shows a spread of 26 FPS. At 1440p, the 54-73 FPS range narrows to 19 FPS. At 4K, the 36-49 FPS range tightens to 13 FPS. This pattern suggests that as the GPU becomes more fully utilized at higher resolutions, frame times become more consistent, but the average frame rate drops below playable thresholds. The minimum frame rates at 1440p Medium (54 FPS) and 4K Medium (36 FPS) indicate that users should expect occasional stutters in demanding scenes, particularly at 4K where the minimum falls 7 FPS below the already low average.