Control

# Control with Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti

This combo ranks at position 266 out of 2,888 tested configurations in Control, placing it in the top 9% of all combinations in the database. The pairing of Intel's 10-core Core Ultra 5 225 with NVIDIA's RTX 5070 Ti produces frame rates that range from 65 FPS at 4K Ultra to 232 FPS at 1080p Low, demonstrating a wide performance envelope that spans from high-refresh 1080p gaming to playable 4K. The data set includes measured rows at three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four quality presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), with the Medium preset providing the only complete min/max FPS measurements across all resolutions.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 266 out of 2,888 tested combinations places it comfortably in the upper decile of all tested systems for Control. This is a strong showing, though the rank reflects the game's 2019 release date and its relatively modest demands by modern standards. The RTX 5070 Ti carries the bulk of the performance weight here, sitting at the 86th percentile among all GPUs in the database. Its average benchmark score of 49,957 places it in close competition with the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (50,001, delta -0.1%), the Intel Arc A550M (49,737, delta 0.4%), the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (50,951, delta -2%), and the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (48,477, delta 3.1%). The GPU's nearest rival by average score is the RX Vega 64, with a delta of just -0.1%, indicating that the 5070 Ti's compute performance is essentially on par with that aging flagship in synthetic benchmarks.

The CPU, Intel Core Ultra 5 225, sits at the 85th percentile among all processors with an average benchmark score of 36,938. Its nearest rivals are closely bunched: the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36,945, delta 0%), the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37,018, delta -0.2%), the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 (37,093, delta -0.4%), and the Intel Core i9-12900T (37,112, delta -0.5%). The CPU's multithreaded performance in Cinebench R23 reaches 25,891 points, while its single-core score of 3,655 indicates strong per-thread capabilities that matter for Control's physics and scripting. The rank of 266 out of 2,888 means this combo outperforms roughly 91% of tested configurations in this specific game, which is notable given that the CPU is a mainstream 65W part while the GPU is a high-end enthusiast card.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to run Control with this combo for a 144Hz display?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo delivers 125 FPS average with a minimum of 106 FPS and maximum of 143 FPS, which fits within a 144Hz refresh window. At 1920x1080 with High settings, the average reaches 146 FPS, exceeding 144Hz. At 4K, no preset reaches 144 FPS; the highest is Low at 119 FPS average.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings?

A: At High settings, the average FPS drops from 146 at 1080p to 111 at 1440p (a 24% reduction) and further to 75 at 4K (a 49% reduction from 1080p). At Low settings, the drop is from 232 at 1080p to 176 at 1440p (a 24% reduction) and 119 at 4K (a 49% reduction from 1080p).

Q: Does the RTX 5070 Ti's 16GB VRAM ever become a limiting factor in Control?

A: The data does not indicate VRAM capacity issues at any tested resolution or setting. Control's maximum settings at 4K still produce a 65 FPS average, and the 16GB GDDR7 memory with 896.0 GB/s bandwidth provides ample headroom for the game's textures and effects, which were designed for the 2019 hardware generation.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance affect Control's frame rates?

A: The Core Ultra 5 225 achieves a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,655 and a PassMark single-thread score of 4,412. Control relies heavily on single-threaded game logic, and the data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 232 FPS, suggesting the CPU's per-core performance is sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the GPU even at very high frame rates.

Q: What is the difference between the Ultra and High presets in terms of FPS impact?

A: At 1080p, Ultra averages 127 FPS versus 146 FPS on High, a 13% reduction. At 1440p, Ultra averages 96 FPS versus 111 FPS on High, a 14% reduction. At 4K, Ultra averages 65 FPS versus 75 FPS on High, a 13% reduction. The consistent ~13-14% cost across resolutions indicates that Ultra settings scale evenly with resolution rather than adding disproportionate load.

Q: Is this combo more GPU-limited or CPU-limited in Control?

A: The scaling pattern suggests a balanced system with a slight GPU lean at higher resolutions. From 1080p to 4K, frame rates drop by roughly half at every preset, which is typical of GPU-bound scenarios. The CPU's 10 cores and 10 threads with a 4.90 GHz boost clock provide sufficient throughput to keep up with the RTX 5070 Ti at lower resolutions, where the GPU becomes the primary constraint.

Resolution Scaling

The measured data reveals a consistent scaling pattern across all four settings presets when moving from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160. At High settings, the average FPS progresses from 146 at 1080p to 111 at 1440p to 75 at 4K. This represents a 24% reduction from 1080p to 1440p and a further 32% reduction from 1440p to 4K, with the total drop from 1080p to 4K being 49%. The Low preset follows an identical proportional path: 232 at 1080p, 176 at 1440p (a 24% drop), and 119 at 4K (a 32% drop from 1440p, 49% from 1080p). Medium settings show 165 at 1080p, 125 at 1440p (a 24% drop), and 84 at 4K (a 33% drop from 1440p, 49% from 1080p). Ultra settings produce 127 at 1080p, 96 at 1440p (a 24% drop), and 65 at 4K (a 32% drop from 1440p, 49% from 1080p).

The uniformity of these percentage drops — 24% for the first resolution step and 32-33% for the second step across all presets — indicates that the limiting component scales predictably with pixel count. This pattern is characteristic of a GPU-bound workload where the rendering resolution directly dictates the frame rate. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the scaling would show smaller percentage drops at higher resolutions (where the GPU becomes more loaded) and larger drops at lower resolutions (where CPU limits cap the frame rate). The fact that 1080p Low achieves 232 FPS without hitting a CPU ceiling suggests the Core Ultra 5 225's 10 cores at up to 4.90 GHz boost clock are more than adequate for Control's demands. The RTX 5070 Ti's pixel rate of 235.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 686.6 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput that scales directly with resolution, which explains the consistent half-throughput at 4K compared to 1080p.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates across all presets. Low settings produce an average of 232 FPS, Medium averages 165 FPS with a minimum of 140 and maximum of 190, High averages 146 FPS, and Ultra averages 127 FPS. The gap between Low and Ultra is 105 FPS, representing an 83% performance difference between the lowest and highest quality presets. The Medium preset's measured range of 140-190 FPS shows that even in demanding scenes, the frame rate remains well above 144Hz, making 1080p gaming with a high-refresh monitor a comfortable experience for this combo.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain high but begin to show the resolution cost. Low averages 176 FPS, Medium averages 125 FPS with a minimum of 106 and maximum of 143, High averages 111 FPS, and Ultra averages 96 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 106 FPS indicates that even the most demanding scenes stay above 100 FPS at 1440p, which is sufficient for smooth gameplay on 120Hz or 144Hz displays. The spread between Low and Ultra is 80 FPS, a 83% difference consistent with the 1080p scaling. The Ultra preset's 96 FPS average is notable because it remains above 90 FPS, providing a high-fidelity experience without requiring a frame rate compromise.

At 3840x2160, the combo transitions from high-refresh territory to playable-but-not-maximal frame rates. Low settings average 119 FPS, Medium averages 84 FPS with a minimum of 72 and maximum of 97, High averages 75 FPS, and Ultra averages 65 FPS. The Medium preset's minimum of 72 FPS is above the 60 FPS threshold, meaning the combo can maintain smooth gameplay at 4K with Medium settings. The Ultra preset's 65 FPS average is just above 60 FPS, but the lack of min/max data for that preset means the worst-case frame time is unknown. The data shows that 4K gaming is viable with this combo, but users targeting 120Hz+ displays will need to use Low settings at 4K or drop to 1440p for higher refresh rates.

GPU Role

The RTX 5070 Ti is the primary driver of Control's frame rates, and its specifications explain the measured performance. The GPU features 16GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus with 896.0 GB/s bandwidth, which is substantial for a 2019 title. Control's maximum VRAM usage at 4K Ultra is not explicitly measured, but the 16GB capacity ensures that memory bandwidth and capacity are not bottlenecks at any tested configuration. The GPU's 8,960 shading units and 280 texture mapping units provide the compute throughput necessary for the game's particle effects and physics-based destruction, which are hallmarks of the title's Remedy-developed engine.

The GPU's clock behavior is moderate: a base clock of 2295 MHz and boost clock of 2452 MHz. These relatively conservative clocks, combined with the large 378 mm² die size and 45,600 million transistors on a 5nm process, indicate that the 5070 Ti relies on architectural efficiency rather than extreme clock speeds. The 43.94 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 686.6 GTexel/s texture rate are ample for Control's visual effects. The GPU's PassMark G3D score of 32,974 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6,604 place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rival by average benchmark score is the RX Vega 64 with a delta of -0.1% — meaning the 5070 Ti is effectively equivalent to that card in synthetic tests, though the measured FPS in Control shows the 5070 Ti delivering strong real-world results.

The 4K Ultra result of 65 FPS average is particularly telling. Control was released in 2019, and its Ultra preset at 4K would have been demanding for GPUs of that era. The 5070 Ti's ability to maintain 65 FPS average at this configuration, with the GPU's 96 ROPs handling pixel output at 235.4 GPixel/s, demonstrates that this modern card has significant headroom for the game. The consistent ~49% FPS drop from 1080p to 4K across all presets confirms that the GPU's rendering pipeline scales linearly with resolution, and the 5070 Ti's 16GB frame buffer prevents any memory-related stutters that could appear with smaller VRAM allocations.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 provides the processing foundation for this combo. With 10 cores and 10 threads running at a 3.30 GHz base clock and 4.90 GHz boost clock, the CPU delivers strong single-threaded performance that Control's game logic requires. The CPU's Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3,655 and multi-core score of 25,891 indicate a balanced processor that does not bottleneck the GPU at any tested resolution. The 20MB of shared L3 cache and 3MB per-core L2 cache provide sufficient data locality for the game's streaming assets, while the 102.4 GB/s dual-channel DDR5 memory bandwidth ensures the GPU is fed with data without stalling.

The CPU's PassMark multithread score of 30,459 and single-thread score of 4,412 place it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs, with its nearest rival being the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F at a delta of 0% — effectively identical average benchmark scores. The Core Ultra 5 225's architecture, Arrow Lake-S on a 3nm TSMC process with 17,800 million transistors, provides efficient instruction processing. Control's physics calculations and AI routines benefit from the CPU's 10 cores, though the game's age means it likely does not fully utilize all 10 threads. The 4.90 GHz boost clock is critical for the game's single-threaded components, and the data supports this: at 1080p Low, the combo reaches 232 FPS average, which is a frame rate that would expose CPU limitations if the processor were weak.

The fact that the FPS scaling from 1080p to 4K is uniform at ~49% reduction across all presets indicates that the CPU is not the limiting factor at any resolution. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see smaller percentage drops at 4K (where the GPU is more heavily loaded) and larger drops at 1080p (where the CPU's maximum frame rate ceiling would cap performance). The absence of this pattern confirms that the Core Ultra 5 225 is more than sufficient for Control, and the RTX 5070 Ti is the component that determines the frame rates in all measured configurations. The CPU's 65W TDP also suggests that this combo operates within a reasonable power envelope, though no power measurements are included in the data.

Settings Recommendations

For 1920x1080 gaming, the data shows that all presets are playable, but the choice depends on the display's refresh rate. The Ultra preset's 127 FPS average is sufficient for a 120Hz display, while High at 146 FPS and Medium at 165 FPS both exceed 144Hz. The Medium preset's measured range of 140-190 FPS provides the best combination of high frame rate and visual quality for 144Hz displays, as it stays above the 140 FPS floor in the worst case. Users with 240Hz displays should consider Low settings, which average 232 FPS, since the visual fidelity trade-off is acceptable at that refresh rate.

At 2560x1440, the Medium preset's 125 FPS average with a 106 FPS minimum is the standout recommendation. It maintains a frame rate that clears the 100 FPS threshold, ensuring smooth gameplay on 120Hz or 144Hz monitors, while the visual upgrade over Low is substantial. The High preset at 111 FPS is also viable for 144Hz displays, though the minimum frame rate is not measured, so the worst-case performance is unknown. Ultra at 96 FPS is best suited for 60Hz displays or users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate smoothness. The Low preset at 176 FPS is overkill for most displays but provides maximum responsiveness for esports-style play.

At 3840x2160, the Medium preset's 84 FPS average with a 72 FPS minimum is the recommended balance. It stays above 60 FPS in the worst case, providing a consistently smooth 4K experience. The High preset at 75 FPS average is also acceptable, but without min/max data, users may encounter dips below 60 FPS in demanding scenes. Ultra at 65 FPS average is borderline — playable on a 60Hz display, but with no min/max data, the frame time consistency is unverified. Low at 119 FPS is the choice for users with 120Hz 4K displays, though the visual fidelity reduction is significant at this resolution. Overall, the Medium preset across all resolutions provides the most consistent performance with measured minimums that ensure no major frame rate drops, making it the safest recommendation for this combo.