Control

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and AMD Radeon RX 6600 combination lands in the lower-mid tier of the database for Control, holding the 2248th position out of 2888 tested combos. That places it in the bottom quarter of all systems we track for this title, a ranking driven almost entirely by the GPU’s limitations at higher resolutions. The CPU is a strong performer in synthetic tests — sitting in the 90th percentile of all processors — but the Radeon RX 6600’s 63rd percentile standing among GPUs means the pairing is fundamentally unbalanced for a game that scales heavily with graphics hardware. In practical terms, this combo will deliver playable frame rates at 1080p with most settings, but it struggles to maintain smooth performance at 1440p and falls below acceptable thresholds at 4K.

How This Combo Ranks

The 2248th rank out of 2888 combos places this system in the 22nd percentile of tested configurations for Control. That is a low position, but it reflects the GPU’s modest capabilities rather than any CPU bottleneck. The Core Ultra 5 245’s average benchmark score of 48,995 puts it statistically level with the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G (49,196, -0.4% delta) and the AMD Ryzen 9 7900 (49,228, -0.5% delta), while slightly ahead of the Intel Xeon Gold 5318H (48,698, +0.6%) and Intel Core i5-14600K (48,618, +0.8%). That is a tight cluster of processors, with the Ultra 5 245 within 1% of all four nearest rivals. The CPU is clearly not the limiting factor here.

The GPU tells a different story. The Radeon RX 6600’s average benchmark score of 19,036 sits within 0.4% of the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19,030, 0.0% delta) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (19,049, -0.1% delta), with the NVIDIA Tesla K20m (19,089, -0.3%) and NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18,954, +0.4%) also clustered tightly. This puts the RX 6600 in a performance tier that is adequate for esports titles but marginal for demanding action-adventure games like Control. The combo ranking reflects this: the system is faster than 640 other combos but slower than 2,247, which is consistent with a mid-range GPU paired with a high-end CPU. The data suggests that swapping in a stronger GPU would dramatically improve the ranking, while upgrading the processor would yield minimal gains.

GPU Role

The Radeon RX 6600 is built on the Navi 23 chip with RDNA 2.0 architecture, fabricated on TSMC’s 7 nm process with 11,060 million transistors. It carries 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU’s base clock is 1626 MHz, with a game clock of 2044 MHz and a boost clock of 2491 MHz. Memory runs at 1750 MHz, or 14 Gbps effective. These specifications translate to 1792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 raster operation units, with 28 ray accelerators for hardware ray tracing support. The FP32 compute throughput is 8.928 TFLOPS, with pixel rate at 159.4 GPixel/s and texture rate at 279.0 GTexel/s.

In Control, the GPU’s memory configuration becomes a critical factor. The 8 GB VRAM is sufficient for 1080p and 1440p at most settings, but the 128-bit bus and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth constrain performance when resolution scales up. The measured FPS data shows the GPU’s ceiling: at 1080p Low, the combo hits 108 FPS, but that drops to 59 FPS at Ultra — a 45% reduction. At 4K Ultra, the average falls to 30 FPS, which is at the edge of playability. The boost clock of 2491 MHz helps at lower resolutions, but the GPU’s raw compute (8.928 TFLOPS) is simply not enough to maintain high frame rates at 4K in a game with Control’s particle effects and physics simulation. The 28 ray tracing cores are present but underutilized, as the measured data does not include ray tracing-specific settings.

Resolution Scaling

The scaling pattern across resolutions reveals a GPU-bound system. At 1080p High, the combo averages 68 FPS; at 1440p High, that drops to 52 FPS (-23.5%); and at 4K High, it falls to 35 FPS (-48.5% from 1080p). The drop from 1440p to 4K is particularly steep, indicating the GPU is running out of both computational headroom and memory bandwidth. At Medium settings, the same trend holds: 77 FPS at 1080p, 58 FPS at 1440p (-24.7%), and 39 FPS at 4K (-49.4%). The Low preset shows slightly better scaling: 108 FPS at 1080p, 82 FPS at 1440p (-24.1%), and 55 FPS at 4K (-49.1%).

The consistent ~24% drop from 1080p to 1440p and ~49% drop from 1080p to 4K across all settings is a textbook sign of a GPU-limited system. If the CPU were the bottleneck, the frame rate would remain relatively flat as resolution increases, because the processor’s workload stays constant. Instead, the FPS scales almost linearly with pixel count, confirming that the RX 6600 is the limiting component. The CPU’s high single-thread performance — 4,648 in Cinebench R23 single-core — is more than enough to feed the GPU at all resolutions, but it cannot compensate for the GPU’s compute deficit. At 4K, even the Low preset only manages 55 FPS, which is below the 60 FPS target many players expect. The 1080p Medium result of 77 FPS, with a minimum of 65 FPS, represents the sweet spot for this combo.

FAQ

*Q: Is this combo capable of 60 FPS at 1080p in Control?*

A: Yes, but only at lower settings. The measured average at 1080p Low is 108 FPS, and at Medium it is 77 FPS. However, at High the average drops to 68 FPS, and at Ultra it falls to 59 FPS — just below the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: How does this system perform at 1440p?

A: It is playable but not consistently smooth. The High preset averages 52 FPS, Medium averages 58 FPS (with a minimum of 49 FPS), and Low averages 82 FPS. Ultra drops to 45 FPS, which is below the playable threshold for most users.

*Q: Can this combo handle 4K gaming in Control?*

A: Barely, and only at Low settings. The 4K Low average is 55 FPS, but Medium drops to 39 FPS, High to 35 FPS, and Ultra to 30 FPS. For a stable experience, 4K is not recommended.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system?

A: The GPU is clearly the bottleneck. The Core Ultra 5 245 scores in the 90th percentile of all CPUs, while the RX 6600 sits in the 63rd percentile of GPUs. The FPS scaling with resolution confirms this, as frame rates drop proportionally with pixel count.

Q: How does the RX 6600 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The RX 6600’s average benchmark score of 19,036 is statistically identical to the NVIDIA Quadro K6000 (19,030), the GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile (19,049), and the Tesla K20m (19,089). It is 0.4% ahead of the RTX 2000 Ada Generation (18,954). This puts it in a tight performance cluster with no meaningful separation.

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo?

A: 1080p is the only resolution where this system consistently exceeds 60 FPS. Medium settings at 1080p deliver 77 FPS average with a 65 FPS minimum, which is the most balanced configuration in the measured data.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal configuration for this combo is 1080p with Medium settings. This yields an average of 77 FPS with a minimum of 65 FPS and a maximum of 88 FPS, providing a smooth experience with headroom for frame time spikes. The Medium preset at 1080p delivers a 13% improvement over High (68 FPS) and a 30% improvement over Ultra (59 FPS), while the visual difference between Medium and High in Control is often subtle due to the game’s stylized art direction.

For players who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate, 1080p High at 68 FPS is acceptable, but the minimum frame rate is not recorded in the data, so there is some risk of stutter. The Ultra preset at 1080p (59 FPS) is not recommended, as it falls below 60 FPS and offers diminishing returns over High. At 1440p, the Medium preset (58 FPS average, 49 FPS minimum) is the only viable option for a near-60 FPS experience, but the 49 FPS minimum suggests occasional dips below smoothness. The High and Ultra presets at 1440p (52 and 45 FPS, respectively) are playable but not ideal. At 4K, the Low preset (55 FPS) is the only setting above 50 FPS, and even that is marginal; Medium and above drop below 40 FPS, which is not suitable for action gameplay.

The data strongly suggests that this combo is best used at 1080p. The GPU’s 8 GB VRAM and 224.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for that resolution, but the 128-bit memory bus becomes a bottleneck at higher resolutions. Players should start with 1080p Medium and adjust upward if their frame rate targets allow, or downward if they experience stutter. The 65 FPS minimum at Medium provides a safety margin that is absent from the High and Ultra presets.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 is a 14-core, 14-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, manufactured on TSMC’s 3 nm process with 17,800 million transistors on a 243 mm² die. It has a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz, with 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth, and it includes integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 64 execution units. Its launch MSRP is $270.

In Control, the CPU’s role is to feed the GPU with draw calls and physics calculations. The game’s destructible environments and telekinetic combat generate significant CPU overhead, but the Ultra 5 245 handles this easily. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 32,924 and single-core score of 4,648 place it well above the requirements for this game. The PassMark multi-thread score of 38,706 and single-thread score of 4,394 further confirm that the CPU is not a limiting factor. The 14 cores and 14 threads (no hyperthreading) are more than sufficient for Control, which is primarily single-threaded in its game logic but benefits from multi-core for background tasks.

The CPU’s 90th percentile ranking among all processors means it outperforms the vast majority of CPUs in the database. Its nearest rivals — the Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, Ryzen 9 7900, Xeon Gold 5318H, and Core i5-14600K — all score within 1% of the Ultra 5 245, indicating that this processor is performance-competitive with a wide range of options. However, in this specific combo, the CPU’s capabilities are largely wasted because the RX 6600 cannot push frame rates high enough to stress the processor. The measured FPS data shows no scenario where the CPU would be the bottleneck, as even at 1080p Low (108 FPS), the GPU is still the limiting factor. This imbalance means that users could drop to a cheaper CPU without losing any Control performance, but the Ultra 5 245 provides headroom for future GPU upgrades.