Control

Control is a demanding action-adventure title that stresses both the CPU and GPU, and the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 shows a clear performance profile across resolutions. The measured data indicates that this pairing is firmly GPU-limited at higher resolutions while still delivering playable frame rates at 1080p, with the CPU’s capabilities becoming more apparent only at lower settings and resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160 reveals a steep drop-off that is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. At High settings, the average frame rate falls from 65 FPS at 1080p to 49 FPS at 1440p, a reduction of 16 FPS, and then further to 33 FPS at 4K, a 32 FPS drop from the 1080p baseline. This represents a 49% reduction in performance when moving from 1080p to 4K at High settings, indicating that the RTX 5050’s rendering throughput is the primary limiting factor as pixel count increases.

At Low settings, the scaling is even more pronounced in absolute terms. The average frame rate starts at 103 FPS at 1080p, drops to 78 FPS at 1440p (a 25 FPS decrease), and then falls to 52 FPS at 4K (a 51 FPS decrease from 1080p). The fact that Low settings at 4K still only achieves 52 FPS—less than half of the 1080p Low result—shows that the GPU’s raw fill rate and memory bandwidth are heavily taxed regardless of the visual complexity being reduced.

Medium settings follow a similar pattern, with averages of 73 FPS at 1080p, 55 FPS at 1440p, and 37 FPS at 4K. The delta between 1080p and 1440p is 18 FPS, and between 1440p and 4K is another 18 FPS, showing a nearly linear degradation with resolution. Ultra settings produce the lowest results, starting at 56 FPS at 1080p, dropping to 43 FPS at 1440p, and reaching just 29 FPS at 4K. The 4K Ultra result at 29 FPS falls below the 30 FPS threshold commonly considered a minimum for smooth gameplay, highlighting the impracticality of maximum settings at that resolution.

These numbers suggest that at 1080p, the Core Ultra 5 235HX has enough headroom to feed the RTX 5050 adequately, since even the most demanding preset—Ultra—stays above 55 FPS. However, as resolution climbs, the GPU’s 8 GB of memory and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth become the bottleneck, with the CPU’s role diminishing. The data indicates that this combo is not suited for 4K gaming under High or Ultra presets, but it manages to keep 4K playable at Low and Medium settings, albeit with frame rates in the 30-50 FPS range.

FAQ

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

A: The best result is 103 FPS, measured at 1920x1080 with Low settings. At the same resolution, Medium settings deliver 73 FPS, High settings deliver 65 FPS, and Ultra settings deliver 56 FPS.

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

A: Yes, but with caveats. At 4K, Low settings yield an average of 52 FPS, and Medium settings yield 37 FPS. High settings drop to 33 FPS, and Ultra settings fall to 29 FPS, which is below the 30 FPS threshold for smooth play.

Q: How does the RTX 5050 compare to its nearest rival in raw GPU benchmarks?

A: The RTX 5050 has an average benchmark score of 21035, placing it 1.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (score 20713) and 1.6% behind the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (score 21379). It is also 0.6% behind the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (score 21153) and 1.0% behind the AMD Radeon HD 8970M (score 21237).

Q: What is the CPU’s percentile ranking among all processors?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX is in the 91st percentile of all CPUs, based on its average benchmark score of 52073. Its closest rival, the AMD EPYC 8124P, scores 52121, which is 0.1% higher, while the Intel Core i7-14700 scores 52301, 0.4% higher.

Q: Does the CPU bottleneck the GPU at any tested resolution?

A: The data suggests the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions. At 4K, the frame rates are consistent with GPU limitations, with even Low settings only reaching 52 FPS. At 1080p, the CPU’s 14 cores and 14 threads, with a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, appear sufficient to keep frame rates above 100 FPS at Low, implying headroom remains.

Q: What is the combo’s overall ranking among all tested configurations for Control?

A: This combination ranks 2295 out of 2888 tested combos for Control. This places it in the lower-mid portion of the database, suggesting that while it can run the game, many other pairings deliver higher performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data points to a clear trade-off between visual fidelity and frame rate. For the smoothest experience, Low settings at 1080p deliver an average of 103 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS target and provides a responsive feel. However, this preset likely sacrifices significant visual quality, including effects and textures, which may not be ideal for a game known for its atmospheric environments.

Medium settings at 1080p strike a balance, with an average of 73 FPS and a minimum of 62 FPS, ensuring that even the most demanding scenes stay above 60 FPS. The minimum frame rate of 62 FPS is particularly important, as it indicates no major drops below the playable threshold. This makes Medium at 1080p the recommended starting point for users prioritizing consistent performance without extreme graphical compromises.

For users with a 1440p monitor, Medium settings produce an average of 55 FPS with a minimum of 47 FPS. While this is below 60 FPS, it is still playable for a slower-paced action-adventure title. High settings at 1440p drop to 49 FPS average, which is borderline, and Ultra at 1440p falls to 43 FPS, making Medium the best option for maintaining a playable frame rate at this resolution.

At 4K, options are limited. Low settings yield 52 FPS average, which is playable, while Medium drops to 37 FPS. High and Ultra are not recommended, as they produce 33 FPS and 29 FPS respectively, with the latter falling below the 30 FPS minimum. For 4K users, Low settings are the only preset that provides a comfortable margin above 30 FPS, and even then, the experience will be less fluid than at lower resolutions.

Given the data, the best overall experience is Medium settings at 1920x1080, as it offers the highest average frame rate with a minimum above 60 FPS, ensuring consistent playability. If visual quality is paramount and the user can tolerate frame rates in the 40-50 FPS range, High settings at 1440p may be acceptable, but Medium is the safer choice for maintaining a stable experience across all scenes.

How This Combo Ranks

In the context of all tested combinations for Control, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 sits at rank 2295 out of 2888. This places it in the 79th percentile from the bottom, meaning approximately 79% of other tested combos achieve higher frame rates in this game. The ranking reflects that while the RTX 5050 is a capable entry-level GPU, its performance in Control is limited by its specifications, including 8 GB of memory and a 128-bit bus width.

The GPU’s percentile ranking of 66 among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 21035, supports this interpretation. The RTX 5050’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (score 20713, 1.6% lower) and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (score 21379, 1.6% higher), indicating it is positioned in a mid-range performance tier. The CPU, by contrast, ranks in the 91st percentile among all CPUs, with a score of 52073, which puts it well above average, yet this does not translate to a high combo ranking because the game is primarily GPU-bound.

The large gap between the CPU’s high percentile (91) and the combo’s lower ranking (2295 of 2888) underscores that the RTX 5050 is the limiting component. Even with a strong processor, the frame rates in Control are capped by the GPU’s ability to render at the tested resolutions. The data suggests that pairing this CPU with a more powerful GPU would yield significantly better results, as the Core Ultra 5 235HX has ample headroom, as evidenced by its 34731 score in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4903 in single-core.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake-HX architecture, with a base clock of 2.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. Its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and support for DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s provide a solid foundation for gaming workloads. In synthetic benchmarks, it scores 34731 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 4903 in single-core, with a PassMark single-thread score of 4683, placing it in the 91st percentile of all CPUs.

In Control, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The game is not known for being particularly CPU-intensive, and the measured frame rates suggest that the Core Ultra 5 235HX is more than adequate for this task. At 1080p Low settings, the combo reaches 103 FPS, which is a strong indicator that the CPU is not bottlenecking, as even the most demanding preset at 1080p (Ultra) achieves 56 FPS. If the CPU were a limiting factor, we would expect to see diminishing returns when lowering the resolution, but the data shows a consistent increase in FPS from 4K to 1080p across all settings, which points to the GPU being the primary constraint.

The CPU’s high single-thread performance, as evidenced by its 494 score in Cinebench R15 single-core and 2059 in R20, is beneficial for games that rely on a few heavily-threaded tasks. Control’s engine benefits from strong per-core performance, and the boost clock of 5.10 GHz helps maintain high frame rates in scenes with complex physics. However, the 14 threads (with no hyper-threading) mean that multi-threaded workloads are handled by physical cores only, which is still sufficient for this title.

The fact that the combo ranks 2295 out of 2888, despite the CPU’s high percentile, confirms that the processor is not the limiting factor. Benchmark results show the CPU is competitive with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X (avg score 51947, 0.2% lower) and Intel Core i9-13900F (avg score 51730, 0.7% lower), indicating it has performance comparable to high-end desktop parts from previous generations. In Control, this translates to a system where the CPU waits on the GPU, and any frame rate improvements would require a faster graphics card rather than a faster processor.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The full set of measured frame rates for this combo in Control is as follows:

At 3840x2160 (4K), the average FPS varies by preset. Low settings yield 52 FPS, Medium settings yield 37 FPS with a minimum of 32 FPS and a maximum of 43 FPS, High settings yield 33 FPS, and Ultra settings yield 29 FPS. The Medium preset is the only one at 4K with min/max data, showing a range of 32 to 43 FPS, which indicates some scene-to-scene variability.

At 2560x1440 (1440p), the results are more playable. Low settings produce 78 FPS, Medium settings produce 55 FPS with a minimum of 47 FPS and a maximum of 63 FPS, High settings produce 49 FPS, and Ultra settings produce 43 FPS. The Medium preset at 1440p has a 16 FPS spread between min and max, suggesting that demanding scenes can cause noticeable drops, but the average remains above 50 FPS.

At 1920x1080 (1080p), the combo performs best. Low settings achieve 103 FPS, Medium settings achieve 73 FPS with a minimum of 62 FPS and a maximum of 84 FPS, High settings achieve 65 FPS, and Ultra settings achieve 56 FPS. The Medium preset at 1080p offers the tightest min-to-max ratio (62-84 FPS), ensuring that even the lowest frame rate stays above the 60 FPS threshold.

Comparing across resolutions, the 1080p Medium result (73 FPS) is 32% higher than the 1440p Medium result (55 FPS), and the 1440p Medium result is 49% higher than the 4K Medium result (37 FPS). This scaling pattern confirms that the RTX 5050’s performance degrades significantly with increasing pixel count, likely due to its 8 GB memory capacity and 320.0 GB/s bandwidth being insufficient for higher resolutions in this game.

The data shows no max FPS values for Low, High, or Ultra presets at any resolution, only for Medium. This suggests that the Medium preset was tested with additional frame capture, but the other presets only have average values recorded. The minimum FPS values are also only present for Medium, with 32 FPS at 4K, 47 FPS at 1440p, and 62 FPS at 1080p. These minimums are critical for understanding stutter, and the 1080p Medium minimum of 62 FPS is the only result that guarantees no drops below 60 FPS, reinforcing the recommendation for that preset.