Control

Control is a 2019 action-adventure title that stresses both the GPU and CPU through its physics-heavy environments and particle effects. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra 5 225 paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070, using only the provided benchmark data to interpret how this combination handles the game across resolutions and settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to play Control at High settings?

A: The data shows that at 2560x1440 with High settings, the combo produces an average of 98 FPS, making it a strong candidate for high-refresh-rate gaming. At 3840x2160 with High settings, the average drops to 66 FPS, which is still playable but less fluid for competitive play.

Q: How much faster is Low settings compared to Ultra at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the average FPS at Low settings is 206, while at Ultra settings it is 113. This represents a performance gap of 93 FPS, indicating that Low settings nearly double the frame rate compared to the highest preset.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K resolution?

A: At 3840x2160, the performance difference between Low and Medium settings is 30 FPS (105 to 75), while the difference between Medium and Ultra is 17 FPS (75 to 58). The substantial drop from Low to Medium suggests the GPU is heavily taxed at this resolution, making it the primary bottleneck.

Q: Does the combo maintain 60 FPS at 4K resolution?

A: Yes, at 3840x2160 with High settings, the average FPS is 66, which is above the 60 FPS threshold. However, at Ultra settings, the average drops to 58 FPS, which fails to maintain a consistent 60 FPS experience.

Q: What is the measured frame time consistency at Medium settings?

A: At Medium settings, the data includes minimum and maximum FPS values. At 1920x1080, the range is 124 to 168 FPS (average 146), while at 2560x1440, the range is 94 to 127 FPS (average 111). At 3840x2160, the range is 63 to 86 FPS (average 75), showing tighter frame pacing at lower resolutions.

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

A: The combo ranks 545th out of 2888 tested combinations in this game, placing it in the top 19% of all systems tested. This indicates a strong overall performance level for handling Control’s demands.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 is the primary driver of visual fidelity in this configuration. It features 12 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit bus, delivering a bandwidth of 672.0 GB/s. The GPU’s base clock is 2325 MHz with a boost clock of 2512 MHz, and its memory operates at an effective speed of 28 Gbps. With 6144 shading units and 80 ROPs, the card is well-equipped for rasterization-heavy titles like Control.

In Control, the GPU’s memory capacity and bandwidth are critical for handling high-resolution textures and the game’s destructible environments. The measured data shows a clear scaling pattern tied to the GPU’s workload. At 1080p Low settings, the average FPS is 206, but this drops to 113 at Ultra settings, demonstrating how the GPU’s shading units are pushed harder with more complex lighting and effects. The RTX 5070’s 48 RT cores and 192 tensor cores are present in the spec sheet, though their impact is not directly measured in these benchmarks.

The GPU’s 30.87 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 482.3 GTexel/s texture rate provide ample raw power for Control’s particle-heavy combat sequences. The transition from Medium to High settings at 1440p illustrates this: the average FPS drops from 111 to 98, a 13 FPS reduction that reflects the increased shading and texture work. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear bottleneck, as the pixel rate of 201.0 GPixel/s must fill over 8 million pixels per frame, leading to the observed 66 FPS at High settings.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across presets. For players prioritizing smoothness over visual polish, Low settings at 1080p delivers an average of 206 FPS, which is more than sufficient for any high-refresh-rate display. However, the most balanced experience appears to be at Medium settings, which offers a 146 FPS average at 1080p with only a 60 FPS drop from Low, while providing better visual quality than the lowest preset.

At 1440p, High settings yields a 98 FPS average, which is a strong recommendation for most users. This preset maintains fluid gameplay while offering a substantial visual upgrade over Medium’s 111 FPS. The 13 FPS difference between Medium and High is a reasonable trade-off for improved shadows and reflections. Ultra settings at this resolution drops to 85 FPS, which is still playable but begins to show diminishing returns for the visual investment.

For 4K gaming, High settings is the recommended maximum, as it maintains a 66 FPS average. Ultra settings at this resolution falls to 58 FPS, which dips below the 60 FPS target and may result in noticeable stutter during intense scenes. Medium settings at 4K provides a safer 75 FPS average, but the visual downgrade from High is significant enough that most users should opt for the higher preset.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 combination ranks 545th out of 2888 tested combos in Control, placing it in the 81st percentile of all systems. This ranking reflects a configuration that handles the game’s requirements with headroom for high refresh rates at lower resolutions and solid 60+ FPS performance at 4K with adjusted settings.

The GPU’s average benchmark score of 40377 places it in the 82nd percentile of all GPUs, with nearest rivals including the AMD Radeon Pro 580 (score 40318, 0.1% slower) and the AMD Radeon Pro WX 7100 (score 40063, 0.8% slower). The CPU’s average benchmark score of 36938 places it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (score 36945, 0% difference) and AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (score 37018, 0.2% faster) as closest competitors.

This ranking suggests the combo is well-balanced for Control, as neither component dramatically outpaces the other. The 545th rank out of 2888 indicates that while many systems are faster, this configuration delivers performance in the upper quartile, capable of handling the game’s most demanding scenes at moderate settings without significant compromise.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.30 GHz and a boost clock of 4.90 GHz, with 20 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU supports DDR5 memory over a dual-channel bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s.

Control’s physics engine and AI systems can place significant load on the CPU, particularly in scenes with multiple destructible objects and enemy AI. The CPU’s 10 cores are capable of handling these parallel workloads, as evidenced by the benchmark scores: a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25891 and a single-core score of 3655. The PassMark multi-thread score of 30459 further confirms the processor’s ability to manage multiple threads efficiently.

However, the data suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor in most scenarios tested. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves 206 FPS, which is near the upper limit of what most displays support. The CPU’s performance headroom is further demonstrated by the fact that the average FPS scales predictably with resolution changes, indicating that the GPU is the primary constraint in this pairing for Control.

The processor’s 10 threads (equal to its core count) mean it does not rely on hyper-threading, but its high boost clock of 4.90 GHz ensures strong single-thread performance, which is beneficial for Control’s main game logic thread. The 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggests it is a capable partner for the RTX 5070, providing enough processing power to avoid creating a bottleneck at lower resolutions.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. Low settings produce an average of 206 FPS, while Medium settings yield 146 FPS with a range of 124 to 168 FPS. High settings average 130 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to 113 FPS. The scaling from Low to Ultra represents a 93 FPS reduction, illustrating the GPU’s workload increasing with visual complexity.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows a noticeable step down. Low settings average 156 FPS, Medium settings average 111 FPS (range 94 to 127), High settings average 98 FPS, and Ultra settings average 85 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium is 45 FPS, while the gap between Medium and Ultra is 26 FPS, showing a more gradual decline as settings increase.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is pushed to its limits. Low settings average 105 FPS, Medium settings average 75 FPS (range 63 to 86), High settings average 66 FPS, and Ultra settings average 58 FPS. The performance delta between Low and Medium is 30 FPS, while the delta between Medium and Ultra is 17 FPS. This indicates that the transition from Low to Medium has the most significant impact at 4K, as the GPU struggles to maintain pixel throughput.

The data shows that at every resolution, the jump from Low to Medium settings incurs a larger FPS penalty than the jump from High to Ultra. This suggests that Medium settings introduce significant graphical features that stress the GPU, while Ultra adds incremental effects with diminishing performance returns.

Resolution Scaling

The performance drop from 1080p to 1440p and then to 4K reveals the scaling behavior of this combo in Control. At High settings, the average FPS goes from 130 at 1080p to 98 at 1440p, a 32 FPS reduction (24.6% drop). From 1440p to 4K, the average drops from 98 to 66, a 32 FPS reduction (32.7% drop). This demonstrates that the GPU becomes increasingly bottlenecked as pixel count rises.

At Low settings, the scaling is more dramatic: 206 FPS at 1080p falls to 156 at 1440p (50 FPS drop, 24.3%), and then to 105 at 4K (51 FPS drop, 32.7%). This pattern indicates that even at the lowest settings, the GPU’s fill rate is the limiting factor, as the resolution increase directly translates to a proportional FPS loss.

The scaling at Medium settings shows a similar trend: 146 FPS at 1080p, 111 at 1440p (35 FPS drop), and 75 at 4K (36 FPS drop). The consistent FPS deltas across resolution changes suggest that the CPU is not introducing a bottleneck at any point, as the performance degradation is purely a function of GPU workload.

Ultra settings exhibit the smallest absolute drops: 113 FPS at 1080p, 85 at 1440p (28 FPS drop), and 58 at 4K (27 FPS drop). The smaller deltas at Ultra settings indicate that the GPU is already heavily saturated at 1080p, so additional resolution increases have a less pronounced relative impact. This analysis confirms that the RTX 5070 is the primary limiter in this configuration, with the Core Ultra 5 225 providing sufficient processing power to keep pace across all tested resolutions and settings.