Control

Control pairs an Intel Core Ultra 5 235 with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB, a combination that lands near the bottom of the database’s tested configurations for this title. The measured results place this combo at rank 2522 out of 2888 tested combos, meaning roughly 87% of all tested systems deliver higher average frame rates. The data shows a system that can handle the game at 1080p with adjusted settings, but struggles significantly as resolution increases, with the GPU’s 4 GB memory capacity acting as a consistent limiting factor.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo in Control?

A: Based on the measured FPS, 1920x1080 is the only resolution where average frame rates stay above 46 FPS across all settings. At 2560x1440, averages range from 35 to 63 FPS, while 3840x2160 drops to between 23 and 43 FPS.

Q: How does the Ultra preset perform compared to Low at 1080p?

A: At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves 83 FPS average, while Ultra drops to 46 FPS. The gap between these two settings is 37 FPS, representing a 45% reduction in performance when moving from the lowest to the highest quality preset.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU limit performance more in this game?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck. The GPU has 4 GB of memory and a 128-bit bus, while the CPU has 14 cores and 24 MB of L3 cache. The sharp FPS drops when increasing resolution—from 83 FPS at 1080p Low to 43 FPS at 4K Low—point to GPU-bound performance.

Q: What is the combo’s ranking relative to other tested systems?

A: This combo ranks 2522 out of 2888 tested combinations. This places it in the lower percentile of systems, with the GPU’s 50th percentile ranking against all GPUs suggesting it is a mid-range part that struggles with this game’s demands at higher resolutions.

Q: Is the 4 GB VRAM sufficient for Control at 4K?

A: No. At 3840x2160, even the Low preset only achieves 43 FPS average, and Medium drops to 30 FPS. The 4 GB memory capacity, paired with a 192.0 GB/s bandwidth, appears insufficient for the texture and geometry loads at 4K resolution.

Q: Which settings preset offers the most balanced experience at 1080p?

A: Medium at 1920x1080 delivers 59 FPS average with a minimum of 50 FPS, providing a stable experience. High sits at 53 FPS, while Low reaches 83 FPS but sacrifices visual quality. Medium appears to be the sweet spot for maintaining playable frame rates without dropping to the lowest visual settings.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 4 GB is built on the Ampere architecture with a GA107 chip, featuring 2048 shading units and 64 texture mapping units. Its base clock runs at 1545 MHz with a boost clock of 1740 MHz, while memory operates at 1500 MHz, translating to 12 Gbps effective. The 4 GB GDDR6 memory sits on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s, which is a modest figure for a game like Control that relies heavily on texture streaming and particle effects.

The GPU’s 7.127 TFLOPS of FP32 compute power and 16 ray tracing cores suggest it can handle DirectX 12 Ultimate features, but the 4 GB memory capacity becomes a critical constraint. At 1080p, the GPU manages to keep average frame rates between 46 and 83 FPS depending on settings, but the memory bandwidth and capacity limit performance as resolution climbs. The pixel rate of 55.68 GPixel/s and texture rate of 111.4 GTexel/s are sufficient for 1080p, but the data shows a clear degradation when moving to 1440p and 4K, where the GPU’s memory subsystem becomes the dominant bottleneck.

The GPU’s 90 W TDP and dual-slot design indicate a low-power part, and the benchmark results reflect this positioning. The 50th percentile ranking against all GPUs places it squarely in the middle of the performance spectrum, but Control’s specific demands push it toward the lower end of its capabilities. The 4 GB memory size is particularly problematic at higher resolutions, where the game’s asset streaming quickly exhausts available VRAM, leading to the steep FPS drops observed in the measured data.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS shows a consistent pattern of degradation as resolution increases, which clearly identifies the GPU as the limiting component. At Low settings, the average frame rate drops from 83 FPS at 1920x1080 to 63 FPS at 2560x1440, a 24% reduction, and then to 43 FPS at 3840x2160, a 48% reduction from the 1080p baseline. This scaling behavior is typical of a GPU-bound scenario, where pixel throughput and memory bandwidth become increasingly strained at higher resolutions.

For Medium settings, the pattern holds: 59 FPS at 1080p, 45 FPS at 1440p, and 30 FPS at 4K. The High preset shows 53 FPS at 1080p, 40 FPS at 1440p, and 27 FPS at 4K. Ultra settings are the most demanding, with 46 FPS at 1080p, 35 FPS at 1440p, and 23 FPS at 4K. The uniform drop of roughly 15-20 FPS between 1080p and 1440p, and another 12-17 FPS between 1440p and 4K, suggests the GPU’s 192.0 GB/s memory bandwidth is the primary constraint, as higher resolutions require more memory traffic per frame.

The fact that Low settings at 4K (43 FPS) outperform Ultra at 1080p (46 FPS) only slightly indicates that resolution scaling has a more significant impact than quality settings. This suggests that the GPU’s rasterization and memory capabilities are the limiting factors, not the CPU. The CPU’s 14 cores and 5.00 GHz boost clock are more than sufficient for this game, as evidenced by the consistent frame rate drops that correlate with pixel count rather than scene complexity.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its best performance. Low settings achieve 83 FPS average, which is the highest measured score across all configurations. Medium settings drop to 59 FPS, with a minimum of 50 FPS and a maximum of 68 FPS, providing a stable range. High settings yield 53 FPS, while Ultra drops to 46 FPS. These numbers show that 1080p is the only resolution where the system can maintain playable frame rates across all presets, with even Ultra staying above the 45 FPS threshold.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance drops noticeably. Low settings reach 63 FPS, which is still playable but represents a 24% reduction from the 1080p Low score. Medium settings average 45 FPS, with a minimum of 38 FPS and maximum of 51 FPS. High settings drop to 40 FPS, and Ultra falls to 35 FPS. At this resolution, only the Low and Medium presets maintain average frame rates above 40 FPS, and the Ultra preset’s 35 FPS average may feel stuttery in action-heavy scenes.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles significantly. Low settings achieve 43 FPS, which is the only preset above 30 FPS. Medium settings drop to 30 FPS, with a minimum of 26 FPS and maximum of 35 FPS. High settings fall to 27 FPS, and Ultra bottoms out at 23 FPS. None of the 4K presets provide a consistently smooth experience, and the data suggests that this resolution is not viable for this combo. The 4 GB VRAM capacity is likely being exceeded at this resolution, causing the game to swap textures and causing the significant frame rate drops.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235 features 14 cores and 14 threads, with a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz. It has 24 MB of shared L3 cache, along with 192 KB of L1 cache per core and 3 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU’s benchmarks show strong single-thread performance, with a Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2085 and a PassMark single-thread score of 4516, placing it in the 89th percentile against all CPUs.

The CPU’s multi-threaded performance is equally robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 14769 and a PassMark multi-thread score of 37816. The nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375, has an average score of 46030, which is only 0.1% higher than this CPU’s 46062 average benchmark score. This places the Core Ultra 5 235 in close competition with high-end laptop and desktop parts, indicating that it is not the bottleneck in this gaming scenario.

In Control, the CPU’s role appears minimal based on the measured FPS data. The frame rates drop linearly with resolution increases, which is characteristic of GPU-bound performance. The CPU’s 5.00 GHz boost clock and 14 cores provide ample processing power for the game’s physics and AI calculations, but the GPU’s 4 GB memory and 192.0 GB/s bandwidth are insufficient to keep up at higher resolutions. The data suggests that upgrading the GPU would yield far greater FPS gains than any CPU change, as the processor is operating well within its capabilities.

Settings Recommendations

For 1920x1080, the Medium preset offers the best balance of performance and visual quality. It delivers 59 FPS average with a minimum of 50 FPS, which is well within the playable range for an action-adventure game. The High preset at 53 FPS is also viable, but the 6 FPS difference may not justify the additional visual fidelity. Low settings at 83 FPS are the smoothest, but the visual downgrade is significant, and the Medium preset provides a more visually pleasing experience without sacrificing smoothness.

At 2560x1440, the Low preset is the only reliable option, achieving 63 FPS average. Medium drops to 45 FPS, which may be acceptable for some players, but the minimum frame rate of 38 FPS could cause noticeable stutters in combat sequences. High and Ultra presets at 40 FPS and 35 FPS respectively are borderline, and the data suggests that players should stick to Low or Medium at this resolution to maintain a stable experience.

At 3840x2160, the combo is not recommended for any preset. The Low setting at 43 FPS is the only one above 30 FPS, and even this may feel inconsistent in fast-paced scenes. Medium at 30 FPS with a 26 FPS minimum is likely to cause noticeable frame pacing issues. The 4 GB VRAM is simply insufficient for 4K in this game, and players should either lower the resolution or accept a sub-30 FPS experience.

How This Combo Ranks

This combo ranks 2522 out of 2888 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 13% of all systems tested for Control. The GPU’s 50th percentile ranking against all GPUs, combined with the CPU’s 89th percentile ranking, highlights a significant imbalance: the processor is a high-end part, while the graphics card is only mid-range. This mismatch is reflected in the measured FPS, where the GPU consistently limits performance.

The GPU’s 4 GB memory capacity is the primary weakness, as Control’s asset streaming demands at higher resolutions quickly exhaust this pool. The nearest CPU rivals, such as the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 and Intel Core i9-13900HX, show that the CPU is competitive with much more expensive parts, but this does not translate to better gaming performance because the GPU is the bottleneck. The 87% of combos that rank higher than this one all feature GPUs with more memory and bandwidth, which is the key differentiator in this game.

The data suggests that this combo is best suited for 1080p gaming with medium settings, where it can maintain frame rates in the 50-60 FPS range. Any attempt to push higher resolutions or higher quality presets results in significant performance degradation, confirming that the GPU is the limiting factor. For players who prioritize smooth gameplay over visual fidelity, the Low preset at 1440p is the maximum viable configuration, while 4K is entirely out of reach for this hardware pairing.