Control

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 paired with the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT delivers a solid 1080p and 1440p experience in Control, but 4K Ultra pushes the GPU to its limits, resulting in a playable yet demanding frame rate. This combination ranks in the top quarter of all tested system combos, indicating strong overall performance for this title.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate data reveals a predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, but the rate of decline tells an important story about system balance. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 193 FPS. Moving to 1440p Low drops this to 146 FPS, a 24% reduction, and 4K Low further reduces it to 98 FPS, a 49% drop from 1080p. This scaling is typical for a GPU-bound scenario, where the rendering load increases exponentially with pixel count.

With Ultra settings, the pattern shifts more dramatically. The 1080p Ultra result is 106 FPS, which drops to 80 FPS at 1440p (a 25% reduction) and then to 54 FPS at 4K (a 49% reduction from 1440p). The proportional drop from 1440p to 4K is steeper than the drop from 1080p to 1440p, which suggests the RX 9070 XT's memory bandwidth and compute resources become increasingly strained as pixel count rises.

The data indicates that the system is well-balanced at 1080p and 1440p, where the CPU can keep the GPU fed. At 4K, the GPU becomes the clear limiting component, as evidenced by the fact that even the jump from Medium (70 FPS) to High (62 FPS) at 4K costs only 11% performance, while the jump from High to Ultra (54 FPS) costs another 13%. This is the GPU working progressively harder with diminishing returns in frame rate.

If you are targeting 4K, you will need to accept either lower settings or a frame rate in the mid-50s to low-60s range. The difference between 4K Medium (70 FPS) and 4K Ultra (54 FPS) is 16 FPS, a 23% performance swing for a visual quality increase that may not be perceptible in all scenes. For competitive play or high-refresh monitors, the 1080p Low result of 193 FPS shows the combo has headroom, but that headroom evaporates quickly as resolution climbs.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture with a Navi 48 chip fabricated on a 4 nm process. It carries 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU's boost clock is 2970 MHz, with a game clock of 2400 MHz and a base clock of 1660 MHz. This memory configuration is a key factor in the 4K results, as Control's texture-heavy environments benefit from both capacity and bandwidth.

The GPU's 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs deliver a pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s. These figures explain why the card handles 1080p and 1440p with such ease, but they also set expectations for 4K performance. The FP32 compute rating of 48.66 TFLOPS is substantial, yet the measured FPS at 4K Ultra (54 FPS) shows that raw compute is not the only bottleneck—memory bandwidth and ROP throughput also play limiting roles.

The fact that 4K Low (98 FPS) is nearly double 4K Ultra (54 FPS) highlights how much of the GPU's resources are consumed by the higher graphical features. The 16 GB VRAM is unlikely to be a limiting factor at any of the tested settings, as Control does not typically exceed this capacity at 4K, but the GPU's overall compute load at Ultra settings is what drives the frame rate down.

In benchmark comparisons, the RX 9070 XT's average benchmark score of 13543 places it in the 55th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon HD 7770M (13536, 0.1% slower), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 (13515, 0.2% slower), NVIDIA P106-090 (13470, 0.5% slower), and AMD Radeon Pro 555 (13407, 1% slower). These deltas are marginal, indicating that the RX 9070 XT's synthetic benchmark performance is closely matched with those older or mobile-oriented parts, even though its real-world gaming performance in Control is clearly stronger than those legacy products would deliver.

How This Combo Ranks

Out of 2888 tested system combinations in Control, this pairing achieves rank 670, placing it in the top 23% of all configs. This is a strong result that reflects the balance between the Core Ultra 5 235 and the RX 9070 XT. The CPU's performance percentile of 89 (versus all CPUs) means it outclasses the vast majority of processors, while the GPU's 55th percentile ranking is more modest, yet the combination still lands high in the game-specific hierarchy.

The ranking suggests that Control is not heavily CPU-bound, allowing the GPU to be the primary driver of performance. If the game were more CPU-sensitive, the GPU's lower percentile would likely drag the combo rank down further. The fact that this system sits at 670 means there are 2218 other combos that perform worse, and only 669 that perform better. This is a good position for a system that is not using a top-tier GPU, and it indicates that the CPU is providing ample headroom.

The CPU itself benchmarks close to several rivals in average score. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 scores 46030 (0.1% higher), the Intel Core i9-13900HX scores 46098 (0.1% lower), the AMD EPYC 4364P scores 45970 (0.2% higher), and the AMD EPYC 7303 scores 45960 (0.2% higher). This tight grouping shows that the Core Ultra 5 235's compute performance is comparable to those parts, though none of them are direct gaming comparisons for this specific test.

FAQ

*Q: What is the highest average FPS this combo achieves in Control?*

A: The highest measured average FPS is 193, achieved at 1080p with Low settings.

*Q: Is this system capable of 4K gaming in Control?*

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K High settings it averages 62 FPS, and at 4K Ultra it drops to 54 FPS. For a smoother 4K experience, Medium settings provide 70 FPS.

Q: How does the GPU's synthetic benchmark score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 9070 XT's average benchmark score is 13543. Its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon HD 7770M, scores 13536, which is 0.1% slower. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 is 0.2% slower at 13515.

Q: What is the frame rate difference between 1080p and 1440p at High settings?

A: At 1080p High, the average FPS is 122. At 1440p High, it drops to 92 FPS, a 25% reduction.

Q: Does the CPU's performance ranking influence the game-specific combo rank?

A: The CPU ranks in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, but the combo ranks 670th out of 2888 in Control. This indicates the GPU is the main performance driver in this game, as the CPU's high percentile does not push the combo rank higher.

Q: What is the lowest average FPS measured in the entire test set?

A: The lowest average FPS is 54, recorded at 4K with Ultra settings.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the resolution with the most headroom, the combo delivers consistently high frame rates across all settings. Low settings produce an average of 193 FPS. Medium settings reduce this to 137 FPS, with a measured minimum of 116 FPS and maximum of 157 FPS. High settings yield 122 FPS average, and Ultra settings bring the average down to 106 FPS. The spread from Low to Ultra is 87 FPS, showing that the GPU has enough performance to handle even the most demanding settings at this resolution.

At 2560x1440, the frame rates remain strong but begin to show the GPU's workload. Low settings average 146 FPS. Medium settings average 103 FPS, with a minimum of 88 FPS and maximum of 119 FPS. High settings produce 92 FPS average, and Ultra settings drop to 80 FPS. The difference between Low and Ultra here is 66 FPS, a smaller absolute spread than at 1080p due to the increased pixel count.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor. Low settings still manage 98 FPS average. Medium settings average 70 FPS, with a minimum of 59 FPS and maximum of 80 FPS. High settings produce 62 FPS average, and Ultra settings fall to 54 FPS. The minimum frame rate of 59 FPS at 4K Medium is the only recorded minimum in the entire dataset that approaches the average, indicating some stutter potential, but the 54 FPS average at Ultra is still playable.

The data shows that the Medium setting at each resolution provides a balanced point. At 1080p Medium, the 137 FPS average is well above the 60 FPS threshold. At 1440p Medium, 103 FPS is still very smooth. At 4K Medium, 70 FPS is acceptable for most players. The Ultra settings are only recommended at 1080p and 1440p, where the 106 FPS and 80 FPS averages respectively remain fluid.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a 65W TDP. The L3 cache is 24 MB shared, with 3 MB of L2 cache per core and 192 KB of L1 cache per core. This configuration provides strong single-threaded and multi-threaded performance that is well-suited for gaming.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 14769 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2085 in single-core. Its Passmark single-thread score is 4516, and its multithread score is 37816. These results place it in the 89th percentile of all CPUs, meaning it outperforms 89% of processors tested. The nearest rivals in average score are the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (46030, 0.1% higher), Intel Core i9-13900HX (46098, 0.1% lower), AMD EPYC 4364P (45970, 0.2% higher), and AMD EPYC 7303 (45960, 0.2% higher), showing the 235 is competitive with those parts.

In Control, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The combo rank of 670 out of 2888, combined with the CPU's high percentile, suggests that the game does not heavily tax the processor. The 14 threads are more than sufficient for Control's engine, and the boost clock of 5.00 GHz ensures that single-threaded tasks, which are common in game logic, are handled efficiently.

The memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, paired with DDR5 support and a dual-channel bus, provides sufficient data throughput for the CPU to feed the GPU without becoming a bottleneck. At lower resolutions, such as 1080p Low where the GPU is less stressed, the CPU's performance allows the system to reach 193 FPS, indicating that the processor is not holding back the GPU. As resolution increases and the GPU becomes the limiting factor, the CPU's headroom becomes less relevant, but it does not negatively impact the results.

The CPU's 14 cores and 14 threads mean there is no hyper-threading, but the physical cores are enough for modern games. The 24 MB L3 cache helps with data locality, reducing the need to access slower system memory. This is particularly beneficial in open areas of Control where large amounts of game data need to be processed quickly. The CPU's TDP of 65W also means it can be cooled effectively, allowing sustained boost clocks during extended gaming sessions.