Control

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination delivers a commanding performance in Control, placing 64th out of 2,888 tested combos. The measured data reveals a system capable of high refresh-rate 1080p and 1440p play, while still providing a smooth 4K experience at the game's higher presets. The benchmark results show a clear progression of performance tied to both resolution and graphical settings, offering a detailed look at where this hardware excels and where its limits appear.

CPU Role — cores, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor built on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture. Its base clock of 3.70 GHz and boost clock of 5.50 GHz provide substantial single-thread headroom, which is critical for Control's gameplay logic and physics calculations. With 36 MB of shared L3 cache and a process node of 3 nm, the CPU is designed to feed data efficiently to the GPU, minimizing stutter and frame-time spikes.

The data shows this CPU is not a bottleneck at lower resolutions. At 1080p with Low settings, the combo achieves 279 FPS, a figure that is primarily CPU-bound. This indicates the Ultra 7 270K Plus can process the game's draw calls and object updates faster than the GPU can render them, even at frame rates exceeding 270 FPS. The single-core performance, which scores 2,439 in Cinebench R23, is the key driver here; Control relies heavily on a few primary threads for its physics and AI routines.

At higher resolutions like 4K, the CPU's role diminishes as the GPU takes on more of the rendering workload. The 4K High preset drops to 90 FPS, a 67% reduction from the 1080p Low result. This shift demonstrates that while the CPU is capable of pushing extremely high frame rates, the RTX 5090 becomes the limiting factor as pixel count increases. The CPU's PassMark multi-thread score of 68,574 and its 96th percentile ranking among all CPUs suggest it has ample headroom for any background tasks or streaming workloads that might run concurrently with the game.

Comparing to its nearest rivals, the Ultra 7 270K Plus is essentially tied with the Intel Xeon 6520P, which has a delta of 0%. It trails the AMD EPYC 4564P by 1.5%, the EPYC 9175F by 1.9%, and the EPYC 4565P by 2.1% in overall average benchmark score. While these differences are small in synthetic tests, the gaming data suggests that the Core Ultra 7's combination of high boost clock and low latency is well-suited for Control's engine, allowing the RTX 5090 to reach its full potential at 1080p and 1440p.

GPU Role — VRAM, clocks, and how they relate to this game's results

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is the dominant component in this pairing, featuring 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, yielding a massive 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its Blackwell 2.0 architecture includes 21,760 shading units and 170 ray tracing cores, with a boost clock of 2407 MHz. The GPU's sheer compute power, rated at 104.8 TFLOPS FP32, is on full display in the 4K Medium preset, where it delivers 101 FPS.

The 32 GB VRAM capacity is far beyond what Control requires, even at 4K Ultra settings. The game's texture streaming and high-resolution assets are easily accommodated, preventing any memory-related hitches. This is evident in the 4K Ultra result of 78 FPS, which remains playable despite being the most demanding setting tested. The GPU's memory bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s ensures that texture fetches and shader operations are never starved for data.

The RTX 5090's percentile rank of 92 among all GPUs is notable, though its average benchmark score of 79,842 places it near the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (delta 0.3%) and AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (delta 1.1%). This is a surprising statistical grouping, but the gaming data tells a different story. The Control results show a GPU that scales cleanly with resolution, moving from 279 FPS at 1080p Low to 142 FPS at 4K Low, a 49% drop. This scaling pattern indicates the GPU is the primary driver of performance at all resolutions, with the CPU providing sufficient support to avoid introducing a ceiling.

The RTX 5090's clock speeds are also worth noting. The boost clock of 2407 MHz is moderate for a high-end card, but the architecture's efficiency allows it to deliver exceptional frame rates without relying on extreme frequencies. This is reflected in the 1440p Ultra result of 116 FPS, which is a 35% improvement over the 4K Ultra score of 78 FPS, showing that the GPU has ample headroom when pixel count is reduced.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to achieve 144 FPS consistently?

A: The 1440p Medium preset delivers an average of 150 FPS, with a minimum of 127 FPS. This makes it the highest quality setting that reliably exceeds a 144 Hz refresh rate, while the 1440p High preset at 133 FPS is slightly below that threshold.

*Q: Does the 32 GB of VRAM in the RTX 5090 make a difference in Control?*

A: The benchmark data shows no indication of VRAM limitations. Even at 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 78, and there are no reported minimum frame drops, suggesting that the 32 GB memory pool is never a constraint for this game's asset streaming.

Q: How does the CPU's single-thread performance affect 1080p gameplay?

A: The single-core Cinebench R23 score of 2,439 is directly reflected in the 1080p Low result of 279 FPS. This high frame rate is only achievable if the CPU can process game logic faster than the GPU can render frames, which the data confirms.

Q: Which preset offers the most balanced experience at 4K?

A: The 4K Medium preset at 101 FPS provides a strong balance, offering a 29% improvement over the Ultra preset's 78 FPS while still maintaining high visual fidelity. The Low preset at 142 FPS is faster but sacrifices too much visual quality.

*Q: Is this combo more CPU-limited or GPU-limited in Control?*

A: At 1080p and 1440p, the GPU is the dominant factor, as evidenced by the significant FPS drops when moving to higher presets. However, at 1080p Low, the 279 FPS result suggests the CPU is reaching its practical limit, as the GPU could theoretically render more frames.

Q: How does the combo rank compared to other tested systems?

A: The combo ranks 64th out of 2,888 tested combinations. This places it in the top 2.2% of all systems, indicating that it outperforms the vast majority of hardware pairings for this game.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured data provides a complete matrix of performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1080p, the results range from 279 FPS on Low to 153 FPS on Ultra. The Medium preset delivers 198 FPS with a minimum of 168 FPS and a maximum of 228 FPS, showing consistent frame pacing. The High preset at 176 FPS offers a 15% reduction from Medium, while Ultra drops another 13% to 153 FPS.

Moving to 1440p, the frame rates remain high but show the GPU working harder. The Low preset achieves 211 FPS, a 24% drop from 1080p Low. Medium follows at 150 FPS with a minimum of 127 FPS and a maximum of 172 FPS. High settles at 133 FPS, while Ultra delivers 116 FPS. The scaling from 1080p to 1440p is consistent across presets, with an average drop of approximately 25%.

At 4K, the performance is still impressive but clearly GPU-bound. Low settings produce 142 FPS, which is 49% lower than the 1080p Low result. Medium delivers 101 FPS with a minimum of 86 FPS and a maximum of 116 FPS, providing a stable experience. High drops to 90 FPS, and Ultra reaches 78 FPS. The 4K Ultra result is the only setting tested that falls below the 80 FPS threshold, but it remains playable on high-refresh-rate displays.

The Medium preset is the only one that includes min and max FPS data across all resolutions, allowing for a deeper analysis of frame consistency. At 1080p, the range is 60 FPS (168-228), at 1440p it is 45 FPS (127-172), and at 4K it is 30 FPS (86-116). This narrowing range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU's workload is becoming more uniform, reducing the variance between frames.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS drop from 1080p to 4K is a clear indicator of the system's bottleneck characteristics. At Low settings, the drop from 279 FPS to 142 FPS represents a 49% reduction. This is a significant decrease that highlights the GPU's role as the primary limiter. At Medium settings, the drop is from 198 FPS to 101 FPS, a 49% reduction as well. The High preset shows a drop from 176 FPS to 90 FPS, a 49% reduction, and Ultra drops from 153 FPS to 78 FPS, also a 49% reduction.

The consistency of this 49% reduction across all presets is telling. It suggests that the RTX 5090's rendering pipeline scales linearly with pixel count, and that the CPU is not introducing any additional bottlenecks at higher resolutions. If the CPU were struggling at 1080p, we would expect to see a smaller percentage drop when moving to 4K, as the CPU would have more time to process each frame. Instead, the uniform scaling indicates that the CPU is always ahead of the GPU.

Looking at the 1440p data, the scaling from 1080p is less severe. Low settings drop from 279 FPS to 211 FPS, a 24% reduction. Medium drops from 198 FPS to 150 FPS, a 24% reduction. High drops from 176 FPS to 133 FPS, a 24% reduction, and Ultra drops from 153 FPS to 116 FPS, a 24% reduction. This consistent 24% drop from 1080p to 1440p, followed by a 33% drop from 1440p to 4K, suggests that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are being taxed more heavily as resolution increases.

The data implies that for this combo, 1440p is the sweet spot where the RTX 5090 can fully utilize its architecture without being constrained by pixel count. The 4K results, while still strong, show the GPU reaching its performance ceiling, as the 49% drop from 1080p indicates a doubling of the rendering workload.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the Medium preset offers the best balance of visual quality and performance across all resolutions. At 1080p, Medium delivers 198 FPS, which is 29% higher than High and 13% higher than Low. The minimum frame rate of 168 FPS ensures a smooth experience even in demanding scenes. At 1440p, Medium achieves 150 FPS, comfortably above the 144 Hz threshold for high-refresh-rate monitors, while High at 133 FPS is also viable but leaves less headroom.

For 4K gaming, the Medium preset is the clear recommendation. The 101 FPS average is significantly higher than High's 90 FPS and Ultra's 78 FPS, and the minimum of 86 FPS ensures that the experience remains fluid. The Low preset at 142 FPS is tempting for competitive play, but the visual quality reduction is substantial. The Ultra preset at 78 FPS is only suitable for players who prioritize maximum fidelity over smoothness.

The High preset serves as a middle ground for users who want improved visuals over Medium but cannot tolerate the performance hit of Ultra. At 1440p High, the 133 FPS result is still excellent, but the 4K High result of 90 FPS is starting to approach the lower limit of what is considered smooth. The data suggests that High is best reserved for 1080p and 1440p, while Medium is the optimal choice for 4K.

For esports or high-refresh-rate competitive play, the Low preset at 1080p provides the highest possible frame rates at 279 FPS. This setting minimizes GPU load, allowing the CPU's 5.50 GHz boost clock to shine. However, for most players, the Medium preset offers the best experience, providing a 47% improvement over Low at 4K while only sacrificing 29% of the frame rate compared to Low at 1080p.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 64th out of 2,888 tested combos in Control. This places the system in the top 2.2% of all configurations, evidence of the hardware's capabilities. The rank is particularly impressive given the game's age, as newer titles might favor different architectures, but Control's engine responds well to this pairing.

The CPU's 96th percentile ranking among all processors and the GPU's 92nd percentile ranking among all graphics cards suggest that this combo leverages two top-tier components. However, the GPU's average benchmark score of 79,842 is closely matched by rivals like the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (delta 0.3%) and AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (delta 1.1%). This statistical proximity does not translate to gaming performance, as the RTX 5090's 32 GB VRAM and 1.79 TB/s bandwidth provide a significant advantage in real-world scenarios.

The CPU's nearest rivals, including the Intel Xeon 6520P (delta 0%) and AMD EPYC 4564P (delta -1.5%), are server-class processors that would not typically be found in a gaming system. This highlights the Core Ultra 7's position as a high-end desktop part that competes with enterprise silicon in synthetic tests. In gaming, the 5.50 GHz boost clock and 24 cores provide the low-latency performance that Control requires.

The 64th rank out of 2,888 combos means that only 63 other systems outperform this configuration. Given the RTX 5090's status as a flagship GPU, it is likely that these higher-ranked combos use even more specialized hardware or overclocked variants. The measured data shows that this combo delivers a complete package: 4K Ultra at 78 FPS, 1440p Ultra at 116 FPS, and 1080p Ultra at 153 FPS. For the vast majority of users, this performance is more than sufficient, making the 64th rank a strong indicator of the system's overall capability.