Control

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER combination delivers a playable but demanding experience in Control, requiring a careful balance between visual fidelity and frame rate. At 1080p, the combo manages a smooth 82 FPS on High settings, but pushing to Ultra drops it to 71 FPS. The data clearly indicates that this pairing is best suited for 1440p gaming at Medium settings, where it achieves a solid 70 FPS average, providing the optimal compromise between image quality and performance.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data for this system in Control reveals a clear hierarchy of performance across presets. The most balanced experience is found at 2560x1440 with Medium settings, which yields an average of 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 80 FPS. This preset offers a significant improvement over High settings at the same resolution, which drops to 62 FPS, while still maintaining a visual quality that is substantially better than Low. The 59 FPS minimum indicates that the system will remain above the critical 60 FPS threshold in most scenes, though it may dip slightly during intense combat sequences.

For users prioritizing frame rate above all else, 1920x1080 with Low settings delivers an exceptional 130 FPS average, making it ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. However, this comes at the cost of visual fidelity, which may detract from the atmospheric presentation that Control is known for. The jump from Low to Medium at 1080p is substantial, with the average FPS dropping from 130 to 92, representing a roughly 29% decrease in performance. This suggests that Medium settings at 1080p are still highly playable and offer a much richer visual experience.

At 4K resolution, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates on higher presets. Ultra settings at 3840x2160 produce only 36 FPS, which is below the threshold for smooth gameplay. High settings improve this to 42 FPS, but still fall short of the 60 FPS target. The only viable 4K option is Low settings, which achieves 66 FPS, making it the sole preset at this resolution that provides a consistently smooth experience. However, the visual compromise at 4K Low may not be worth the resolution gain over 1440p Medium.

The optimal recommendation is clear: 2560x1440 with Medium settings offers the best overall experience. This configuration provides a 70 FPS average, which is smooth enough for the game's action sequences, while the 59 FPS minimum ensures that stuttering is minimal. The 80 FPS maximum demonstrates that the system has headroom in less demanding areas, allowing for a mostly consistent frame rate. This preset strikes the ideal balance between the visual richness of the game's environments and the performance required for responsive gameplay.

FAQ

Q: Can this system run Control at 60 FPS on High settings at 1440p?

A: No, the measured data shows an average of 62 FPS at 2560x1440 with High settings, which is technically above 60 FPS but very close to the threshold. The minimum FPS is not recorded for this configuration, so it is likely that some scenes will drop below 60 FPS, making the experience less consistent than the Medium preset.

Q: What is the best settings preset for 4K gaming with this hardware?

A: The only 4K preset that achieves a smooth frame rate is Low, which produces an average of 66 FPS. Medium, High, and Ultra at 3840x2160 produce 47, 42, and 36 FPS respectively, all of which are below the ideal 60 FPS target for action games.

Q: How much performance is lost when moving from 1080p to 1440p on Medium settings?

A: The average FPS drops from 92 at 1920x1080 to 70 at 2560x1440, representing a decrease of 22 FPS or roughly 24%. This indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the resolution scaling has a significant impact on frame rates.

Q: Is the RTX 2070 SUPER capable of handling Ultra settings at 1080p?

A: Yes, the system achieves 71 FPS on Ultra at 1920x1080. This is playable, but the 82 FPS on High settings provides a more comfortable margin above 60 FPS, suggesting that the visual difference between High and Ultra may not justify the 11 FPS performance cost.

Q: What frame rate can be expected at 1440p with Low settings?

A: The measured average is 98 FPS at 2560x1440 with Low settings. This is a significant jump from the Medium preset's 70 FPS and demonstrates that the system has substantial performance headroom when visual effects are reduced.

Q: Does this combo rank well among all tested configurations for Control?

A: The system ranks 1632 out of 2888 tested combos, placing it in the middle of the pack. This is consistent with the RTX 2070 SUPER's 65th percentile ranking among all GPUs, suggesting that the GPU is the limiting factor for this game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 5 245 provides substantial processing power for Control, with 14 cores and 14 threads operating at a base clock of 3.50 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. This configuration is more than sufficient for the game's CPU demands, as evidenced by the benchmark results showing the processor ranking in the 90th percentile among all CPUs. The CPU's strong single-thread performance, scoring 4648 in Cinebench R23, is particularly relevant for game logic and physics calculations, which often rely on fewer threads.

The CPU's 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB L2 cache per core provide ample memory for game assets and instructions, reducing the likelihood of bottlenecks during complex scenes. The 14-core design, while not as heavily threaded as some workstation processors, offers a good balance for gaming workloads that may utilize multiple cores for background tasks and streaming. The processor's average benchmark score of 48995 places it in close competition with the AMD Ryzen 9 7900, which scores 49228, a delta of only -0.5%.

Despite the CPU's capabilities, the benchmark data for Control indicates that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary limiting factor. This is evident from the resolution scaling behavior: as resolution increases from 1080p to 4K, frame rates drop significantly, which is characteristic of a GPU-bound scenario. The CPU's performance headroom is further demonstrated by the fact that at 1080p Low settings, the system achieves 130 FPS, a frame rate that is likely near the CPU's practical limit for this game, but still shows no signs of stalling.

The CPU's 65W TDP and efficient 3nm process node from TSMC ensure that it does not introduce thermal throttling issues during extended gaming sessions. The processor's PCIe Gen 5 support with 20 lanes provides ample bandwidth for the GPU, though the RTX 2070 SUPER operates on PCIe 3.0 x16, which does not bottleneck the data transfer rates required by the game. Overall, the Ultra 5 245 provides a robust foundation that allows the GPU to operate at its full potential, with the data suggesting that upgrading the GPU would yield significantly higher frame rates in Control.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 5 245 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ranks 1632 out of 2888 tested combos for Control, positioning it in the 56.5th percentile of all configurations. This middle-of-the-pack ranking is somewhat surprising given the CPU's high 90th percentile ranking, but it is consistent with the GPU's more moderate 65th percentile performance. The ranking indicates that while the system is capable of running the game, it does not provide a top-tier experience compared to more powerful GPU configurations.

The RTX 2070 SUPER's average benchmark score of 20282 places it in close competition with the Intel Arc B570, which scores 20556 with a delta of -1.3%, and the Intel Arc A750 at 20582 with a delta of -1.5%. This proximity in raw GPU performance suggests that the system's ranking in Control is largely determined by the GPU's capabilities rather than the CPU. The GPU's 9.062 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for 1080p and 1440p gaming but become strained at higher resolutions.

The combo's rank of 1632 out of 2888 represents a system that delivers acceptable performance for most gamers but will not satisfy enthusiasts seeking maximum frame rates or 4K gaming. The ranking is particularly relevant when considering that the CPU ranks in the 90th percentile, indicating that the system is imbalanced with the GPU holding back the overall experience. Upgrading the GPU to a model with higher performance would likely move this combo significantly up the rankings.

Compared to the CPU's nearest rivals, the Ultra 5 245 performs nearly identically to the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5755G, which has an average score of 49196 versus the Intel's 48995, a delta of -0.4%. This similarity in CPU performance means that the choice of processor has minimal impact on the final ranking for Control, as the game is clearly GPU-bound. The data suggests that future upgrades should focus on the graphics card to improve the combo's standing among the 2888 tested configurations.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, indicating that the RTX 2070 SUPER is the primary bottleneck in this system. At 1080p with High settings, the system achieves 82 FPS, which drops to 62 FPS at 1440p and further to 42 FPS at 4K. This represents a 24% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a 49% decrease from 1080p to 4K, demonstrating that the GPU is heavily taxed by the increased pixel count.

The scaling behavior is more pronounced on lower settings. At Low settings, the system achieves 130 FPS at 1080p, 98 FPS at 1440p, and 66 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 25% from 1080p to 1440p and 49% from 1080p to 4K, which is nearly identical to the High setting pattern. This consistent scaling across presets confirms that resolution is the dominant factor affecting performance, rather than the specific graphical settings.

The GPU's memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s and 8 GB of VRAM play a critical role in this scaling behavior. At 4K resolution, the increased texture and geometry data may approach the 8 GB VRAM limit, potentially causing the GPU to rely on slower system memory. This is evident in the 4K Ultra preset, which produces only 36 FPS, a 14% drop from the High preset's 42 FPS, suggesting that the highest quality textures are causing additional memory pressure.

The scaling data clearly shows that the CPU is not a limiting factor in this game. The Intel Core Ultra 5 245's strong single-thread performance, evidenced by its 4648 Cinebench R23 score, is more than sufficient to keep up with the GPU's output at all resolutions. The consistent frame rates at 1080p across different settings, from 71 FPS on Ultra to 130 FPS on Low, indicate that the CPU can handle the game's processing demands without bottlenecking, even at higher frame rates.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system demonstrates its strongest performance. Low settings produce an average of 130 FPS, providing an exceptionally smooth experience for fast-paced action. Medium settings reduce the average to 92 FPS, with a minimum of 78 FPS and a maximum of 106 FPS, ensuring that the frame rate rarely drops below the 60 FPS threshold. High settings achieve 82 FPS, while Ultra settings produce 71 FPS, offering diminishing returns for the performance cost.

Moving to 2560x1440, the system shows a noticeable performance drop across all presets. Low settings maintain a respectable 98 FPS average, which is still well above the 60 FPS target. Medium settings achieve 70 FPS, with a minimum of 59 FPS and a maximum of 80 FPS, providing a playable experience that occasionally dips below 60 FPS during the most demanding scenes. High settings produce 62 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 54 FPS, which may feel less smooth during combat sequences.

At 3840x2160, the system struggles to maintain playable frame rates on higher presets. Low settings achieve 66 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that provides a consistently smooth experience. Medium settings produce 47 FPS, with a minimum of 40 FPS and a maximum of 54 FPS, indicating noticeable stuttering during intense gameplay. High settings achieve 42 FPS, while Ultra settings drop to 36 FPS, making both presets unsuitable for comfortable play.

The data shows a clear pattern: the RTX 2070 SUPER is capable of delivering high frame rates at 1080p and playable performance at 1440p, but it is not suited for 4K gaming at higher quality settings. The minimum FPS values for Medium settings provide valuable insight into the system's consistency, with the 59 FPS at 1440p being the closest to the 60 FPS target, while the 40 FPS at 4K indicates significant frame pacing issues. The maximum FPS values demonstrate that the system has performance headroom in less demanding scenes, but the overall experience is constrained by the GPU's capabilities.