Control

Control is a 2019 Action Adventure title that stresses both the CPU and GPU through its physics-heavy combat and destructible environments. The data for this combo, measured with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, shows a system that is capable of high refresh rate play at 1440p, but which begins to show its limits at 4K Ultra settings.

FAQ

Q: What is the best average frame rate achieved with this combo?

A: The highest average FPS recorded is 232, achieved at 1920x1080 resolution with Low settings. This drops significantly as settings are increased and resolution scales, with the Ultra preset at 4K producing an average of 65 FPS.

Q: How much of a performance difference is there between the Low and Ultra presets?

A: At 1080p, the gap between Low and Ultra is 105 FPS (232 vs 127), representing an 83% performance drop. At 4K, the same preset change results in a 54 FPS difference (119 vs 65), which is a 45% drop.

Q: What frame rate can a player expect at 1440p with the High preset?

A: The measured average FPS for the 2560x1440 High preset is 111 FPS. This suggests a good balance for high refresh rate monitors, as it is comfortably above the 60 FPS threshold.

Q: Does the RTX 5070 Ti's 16 GB of VRAM cause any bottlenecks in this game?

A: The data shows no indication of VRAM limitations, as the game runs at playable frame rates even at the highest tested resolution and settings. The 16 GB capacity appears sufficient for Control's demands at 4K Ultra, which yielded an average of 65 FPS.

Q: How does the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 compare to its nearest rivals in general CPU benchmarks?

A: The CPU's average benchmark score of 64640 is nearly identical to its closest rival, the AMD EPYC 4464P, which scores 64823, a difference of -0.3%. It is also 0.3% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F and 0.7% ahead of the AMD EPYC 7343.

Q: What is the ranking of this specific CPU/GPU combination for this game?

A: The combo ranks 266 out of 2888 tested combinations in Control. This places it in the top 10% of all tested systems, indicating a very high-performing pairing for this specific title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear picture of how the game scales with settings. For a 1080p display, the Ultra preset still delivers a high average of 127 FPS, making it a viable option for maximising visual quality without sacrificing the high refresh rate experience. The Medium preset at 1080p offers an average of 165 FPS with a minimum of 140 FPS, which is an excellent choice for competitive or high-speed play where frame consistency is paramount.

At 1440p, the High preset emerges as the most balanced choice, providing an average of 111 FPS. This allows for a smooth and responsive experience on high refresh rate monitors while retaining a significant level of graphical fidelity. The Ultra preset at 1440p still performs well at 96 FPS, but the step down to High yields a 15 FPS improvement, which may be preferable for smoother motion. For 4K, the Low preset is the only one that consistently pushes past 60 FPS, with an average of 119 FPS. The Medium preset averages 84 FPS, which is playable, but the High preset at 75 FPS and Ultra at 65 FPS are closer to the edge of the 60 FPS threshold.

The data suggests that players should tailor their settings based on their display and preference for frame rate over fidelity. For a 60Hz 4K display, the Ultra preset is playable, but the High preset provides a small margin of error. For 1440p and 1080p, the High or Ultra presets are recommended to get the most out of the hardware, with the Medium preset available for those who prioritise maximum frame rates.

Resolution Scaling

The performance scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals a clear GPU-bound scenario. At Low settings, the average FPS drops from 232 at 1080p to 176 at 1440p, a 24% decrease, and then to 119 at 4K, a further 32% decrease from 1440p. This steep decline indicates that the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the primary limiting factor as the pixel count increases, a typical pattern for a demanding action game.

This trend is consistent across all settings. With the Medium preset, the average FPS falls from 165 at 1080p to 125 at 1440p (24% drop) and then to 84 at 4K (33% drop from 1440p). The High preset shows a similar progression: 146 FPS at 1080p, 111 at 1440p, and 75 at 4K. The Ultra preset follows the same path, with 127 FPS at 1080p, 96 at 1440p, and 65 at 4K.

The consistent proportional drop across all settings strongly suggests that the CPU is not a bottleneck at any resolution. If the CPU were limiting performance, the frame rate would plateau at lower resolutions, showing a smaller difference between 1080p and 1440p. Instead, the linear scaling of the FPS drop with resolution points to the GPU's rendering throughput as the deciding factor. The 4K Ultra result of 65 FPS, while playable, shows that the RTX 5070 Ti is working near its limits with this game's high-fidelity effects and physics calculations.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The complete measured FPS dataset for this combo is as follows:

• 1920x1080: The Low preset achieves an average of 232 FPS. Medium settings produce an average of 165 FPS, with a minimum of 140 FPS and a maximum of 190 FPS. The High preset averages 146 FPS. The Ultra preset, which includes the most demanding visual effects, still manages an average of 127 FPS.

• 2560x1440: At this resolution, the Low preset averages 176 FPS. The Medium preset delivers an average of 125 FPS, with a minimum of 106 FPS and a maximum of 143 FPS. The High preset averages 111 FPS, and the Ultra preset drops to an average of 96 FPS.

• 3840x2160: At 4K, the Low preset is the most performant, averaging 119 FPS. The Medium preset averages 84 FPS, with a minimum of 72 FPS and a maximum of 97 FPS. The High preset averages 75 FPS, and the Ultra preset produces the lowest average of 65 FPS.

The frame time data available for the Medium preset at all resolutions shows a consistent pattern. The difference between the minimum and maximum FPS is 50 at 1080p, 37 at 1440p, and 25 at 4K. This indicates that the frame rate variance decreases as the resolution increases, likely because the GPU becomes more consistently saturated with work.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing, as evidenced by the significant FPS drops when resolution increases. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides a bandwidth of 896.0 GB/s, which appears to be more than sufficient for the textures and assets in Control, as no VRAM-related stuttering is indicated in the data. The GPU's high pixel rate of 235.4 GPixel/s and texture rate of 686.6 GTexel/s are likely key contributors to the high frame rates seen at 1080p and 1440p.

The card's boost clock of 2452 MHz, combined with its 8960 shading units, allows it to handle the game's complex lighting and particle effects. The benchmark scores for the GPU show a passmark G3D score of 32974, which places it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. This performance level is reflected in the game's measured FPS. Interestingly, its nearest rivals in the overall benchmark database are significantly older and less powerful cards, such as the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 and the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, with the RTX 5070 Ti being 2% faster than the latter. This suggests that while the card is powerful, its raw benchmark score may not fully capture its modern feature set. The data shows that the RTX 5070 Ti is the performance bottleneck at 4K Ultra, where it averages 65 FPS, indicating that the game's most demanding settings are pushing the card to its limits.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265, with its 20 cores and 20 threads, provides a strong foundation for this gaming system. Its high multi-threaded performance, evidenced by a Cinebench R23 score of 42216, ensures that background tasks and the game's physics engine are handled without becoming a limiting factor. The boost clock of 5.30 GHz on a single core is crucial for gaming, and the Passmark single-thread score of 4689 indicates excellent single-core performance, which is still a primary driver for frame rates in many games.

However, the measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in Control. The consistent scaling of frame rates with resolution is the key indicator. If the CPU were struggling, the frame rate at 1080p would be much closer to that at 1440p. Instead, the 232 FPS at 1080p Low settings suggests the CPU is capable of feeding the GPU far more frames than it can render. The CPU's 30 MB of shared L3 cache and high memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s are also likely contributors to its ability to handle game data efficiently. The CPU's average benchmark score of 64640 places it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs, and its closest rivals, such as the AMD EPYC 4464P, are server-class processors with different performance characteristics, highlighting that the Ultra 7 265 is a top-tier consumer desktop chip.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti achieves a rank of 266 out of 2888 tested combos in Control. This places the system in the top 9.2% of all configurations tested for this game. This high ranking is a direct result of the strong performance from both components, but the data suggests the GPU is the defining factor for this specific title.

The GPU's performance percentile of 86 is lower than the CPU's 93, and the game's frame rates are clearly tied to the GPU's workload. The combo's strong rank reflects that the high-end CPU is more than capable of supporting the GPU, allowing it to perform near its full potential. The rank also indicates that this system will provide a very smooth and high-fidelity experience in Control, capable of handling 1440p at high refresh rates and 4K at playable frame rates. The pairing is well-balanced for this game, with the CPU providing ample headroom for the GPU to be the primary driver of performance.