Control

# Control — Intel Core Ultra 5 225 + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

The data for Control shows a pairing of Intel's Core Ultra 5 225 with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090, producing measured frame rates across three resolutions and four quality presets. This combination ranks 64th out of 2,888 tested combos in this game, placing it comfortably in the top 2.2% of all configurations. The RTX 5090 carries the bulk of the rendering workload, while the Core Ultra 5 225 provides sufficient single-thread throughput to keep the GPU fed at lower resolutions, as the frame rate scaling between 1080p and 4K demonstrates.

Resolution Scaling

The measured frame rates reveal how the system's performance envelope shifts as resolution increases. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 279 FPS average. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 211 FPS, a reduction of approximately 24%. At 4K Low, the average falls further to 142 FPS, another 33% decline. This progressive degradation pattern indicates that the GPU becomes increasingly dominant as the pixel count rises, while the CPU's influence wanes.

At High settings, the scaling is similar but compressed. The 1080p High result is 176 FPS, dropping to 133 FPS at 1440p High (a 24% decrease) and then to 90 FPS at 4K High (a 32% further drop). The consistency of these percentage declines across presets suggests the RTX 5090's rendering pipeline scales predictably with resolution, and the Core Ultra 5 225 is not introducing a bottleneck at any tested setting.

The Medium preset shows the same trend with 198 FPS at 1080p, 150 FPS at 1440p, and 101 FPS at 4K. The 1080p-to-1440p drop is 24%, while the 1440p-to-4K drop is 33%. Ultra settings produce 153 FPS at 1080p, 116 FPS at 1440p, and 78 FPS at 4K, with corresponding decreases of 24% and 33%. This uniform scaling pattern across all four presets indicates that the limiting component at 1080p is not the CPU, but rather the GPU's geometry and pixel throughput capabilities.

The fact that 4K Ultra still maintains a 78 FPS average, while 1080p Low reaches 279 FPS, suggests the RTX 5090 has substantial headroom. If the CPU were the primary constraint, we would expect the 1080p results to plateau regardless of preset, but the data shows a clear spread from 153 FPS at Ultra to 279 FPS at Low. This spread of 126 FPS at 1080p indicates the GPU is still the performance driver even at the lowest resolution tested.

GPU Role

The RTX 5090 features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, delivering 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. For Control, a game from 2019, this memory configuration is far beyond what the title requires, but the bandwidth proves relevant at 4K where texture streaming and framebuffer operations demand high throughput. The GPU's base clock of 2017 MHz and boost clock of 2407 MHz, combined with 21,760 shading units, provide the raw compute necessary for the high frame rates observed.

The GPU's benchmark scores contextualize its performance. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 18,355 and the Geekbench Vulkan score of 376,728 both place the RTX 5090 in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs. Its PassMark G3D score of 39,650 reinforces this positioning. In the nearest rivals comparison, the RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 79,842 sits within 1.4% of the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 64X (80,959) and 1.1% above the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). These rivals are not direct competitors in the same performance class, but the delta percentages show the RTX 5090's benchmark profile is tightly clustered with these other high-end parts.

At 4K Ultra, the RTX 5090 produces 78 FPS, while at 4K Low it reaches 142 FPS. The difference of 64 FPS between these presets highlights how much of the GPU's headroom is consumed by the Ultra settings' additional effects and shading work. The 32 GB VRAM allocation means there is no risk of memory capacity limiting performance at any resolution or preset in this game, so the measured differences are purely a function of GPU compute and bandwidth utilization.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo rank of 64 out of 2,888 tested combinations places this system in the 97.8th percentile of all configurations tested for Control. This is an elite position, driven almost entirely by the RTX 5090's dominance. The CPU's own percentile ranking of 85th among all processors is respectable, but it is the GPU's 92nd percentile standing that propels this combo to its top-tier position.

To put the combo rank in perspective, the Core Ultra 5 225's nearest CPU rivals include the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F with an average score of 36,945 (0% delta), the AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D at 37,018 (-0.2% delta), and the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 at 37,093 (-0.4% delta). These rivals are all within 0.5% of the Core Ultra 5 225's average benchmark score of 36,938, indicating the CPU sits in a tightly contested mid-range segment. Yet the combo's rank of 64 out of 2,888 shows that the RTX 5090 boosts this mid-range CPU to near-flagship gaming performance.

The GPU's nearest rivals in benchmark terms — the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605, 0.3% delta), Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB (79,396, 0.6% delta), and Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940, 1.1% delta) — are all substantially older or lower-tier parts. This suggests that the RTX 5090's benchmark profile, while well above these rivals, does not fully capture its gaming advantage in Control, where the measured frame rates at 1080p Low reach 279 FPS.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers the highest average at 279 FPS. Medium produces 198 FPS with a minimum of 168 and maximum of 228 FPS, giving a 60 FPS range. High achieves 176 FPS, while Ultra drops to 153 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 126 FPS, showing that each preset tier costs roughly 40-50 FPS at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, Low still leads with 211 FPS. Medium follows at 150 FPS with a minimum of 127 and maximum of 172 FPS, a 45 FPS range. High produces 133 FPS, and Ultra delivers 116 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread narrows to 95 FPS, as the GPU's workload increases and the relative cost of each preset tier diminishes slightly.

At 3840x2160, Low achieves 142 FPS. Medium drops to 101 FPS with a minimum of 86 and maximum of 116 FPS, a 30 FPS range. High produces 90 FPS, and Ultra falls to 78 FPS. The Low-to-Ultra spread is now only 64 FPS, indicating that at 4K the GPU is approaching its limits and the incremental cost of higher presets compresses. The Medium preset's minimum of 86 FPS at 4K remains above the 60 FPS threshold, suggesting the system can hold playable frame rates even under load.

The minimum FPS data for Medium settings shows a consistent pattern: 168 FPS at 1080p, 127 FPS at 1440p, and 86 FPS at 4K. These minimums are all well above typical gaming thresholds, indicating that frame pacing remains stable even when the GPU is stressed. The maximum FPS values (228 at 1080p, 172 at 1440p, 116 at 4K) show the upper bounds of the system's capability without any frame rate cap.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average frame rate this combo achieves in Control?

A: The highest measured average is 279 FPS at 1080p with Low settings. This is the peak performance point across all tested resolution and preset combinations.

Q: Can this system maintain 60+ FPS at 4K Ultra settings?

A: Yes. The measured 4K Ultra average is 78 FPS, which is 18 FPS above the 60 FPS threshold. The minimum FPS for 4K Ultra was not recorded, but the 4K Medium minimum of 86 FPS suggests the system has headroom.

Q: How does the RTX 5090 compare to its nearest benchmark rivals?

A: The RTX 5090's average benchmark score of 79,842 is 0.3% above the Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (79,605) and 1.1% above the Radeon RX 6850M XT (78,940). It trails the Radeon Pro Vega 64X (80,959) by 1.4%.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between High and Ultra presets at 1440p?

A: At 1440p, High settings produce 133 FPS average while Ultra produces 116 FPS, a difference of 17 FPS. This is the smallest absolute gap between these two presets across all resolutions except 4K.

Q: Does the Core Ultra 5 225 bottleneck the RTX 5090 at 1080p?

A: The data does not indicate a CPU bottleneck. At 1080p, the frame rate scales from 153 FPS at Ultra to 279 FPS at Low, a 126 FPS spread. This scaling demonstrates the GPU is the performance driver, as a CPU bottleneck would flatten these results.

Q: What is the combo's ranking among all tested configurations?

A: This combo ranks 64th out of 2,888 tested combinations in Control, placing it in the top 2.2% of all systems tested for this game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 225 is a 10-core, 10-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake-S architecture, manufactured on a 3 nm process by TSMC. Its base clock of 3.30 GHz and boost clock of 4.90 GHz provide the single-thread performance necessary for gaming workloads. The CPU's benchmark results show a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 25,891 and a single-core score of 3,655, placing it in the 85th percentile of all CPUs.

In Control, the CPU's role is to feed the RTX 5090 with draw calls and game logic updates. The 1080p Low result of 279 FPS demonstrates that the Core Ultra 5 225 can sustain very high frame rates without becoming a limiting factor. If the CPU were the constraint, we would expect the 1080p Low and 1080p Ultra results to converge, but they differ by 126 FPS, confirming the GPU remains the bottleneck even at the lowest resolution.

The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 20 MB of shared L3 cache. This configuration supports the processor's ability to handle Control's physics and AI workloads in parallel with the GPU's rendering tasks. The dual-channel DDR5 memory support with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth ensures data can flow to the GPU without starving it, though Control's 2019 vintage means it likely does not stress modern memory bandwidth.

The nearest CPU rivals — the AMD Ryzen 5 5600F (36,945 avg score, 0% delta) and AMD Ryzen 5 5500X3D (37,018, -0.2% delta) — have nearly identical average benchmark scores. This tight clustering means the Core Ultra 5 225's gaming performance in Control is likely representative of this mid-range segment, and the combo's high rank is attributable to the GPU rather than any CPU advantage.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance for optimizing the Control experience with this hardware. At 1080p, the Low preset delivers the highest frame rate at 279 FPS, but the Ultra preset still achieves 153 FPS, which is well above display refresh rate capabilities for most monitors. For competitive play or high-refresh displays, Low settings at 1080p extract the maximum performance from the system.

At 1440p, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance, with an average of 150 FPS and a minimum of 127 FPS. This ensures smooth gameplay even in demanding scenes. The High preset at 133 FPS is also viable, though the 17 FPS gap to Ultra (116 FPS) suggests that Ultra's additional effects may not be worth the performance cost at this resolution.

At 4K, the Medium preset stands out as the recommended choice. Its average of 101 FPS with a minimum of 86 FPS provides a comfortable margin above the 60 FPS threshold while maintaining reasonable visual fidelity. The High preset at 90 FPS is also playable, but the Ultra preset's 78 FPS average, while above 60 FPS, offers diminishing returns for the visual quality difference. The Low preset at 4K produces 142 FPS, which may appeal to users prioritizing maximum frame rates over visuals, but the Medium preset's additional features likely provide a better overall experience.

The data shows that the Medium preset delivers the most consistent performance across all three resolutions, with the narrowest gap between minimum and maximum frame rates relative to its average. At 1080p Medium, the 168-228 FPS range represents a 30% spread; at 1440p Medium, 127-172 FPS is a 30% spread; and at 4K Medium, 86-116 FPS is a 30% spread. This consistency makes Medium the most predictable preset for maintaining stable frame times, which is crucial for Control's action-heavy combat sequences.