Control

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H paired with the AMD Radeon 890M delivers playable but constrained performance in Control, placing the combo at rank 2728 out of 2888 tested configurations. This position in the bottom 240th percentile of all combos indicates that the system is heavily outclassed by the majority of hardware configurations used for this title. The data shows a fundamental imbalance: the CPU is a high-end mobile processor with strong synthetic scores, but the integrated GPU holds the entire experience back, resulting in frame rates that rarely approach the smoothness expected from a modern action-adventure game. This pairing is best suited for users who prioritize CPU-heavy productivity tasks and are willing to accept modest graphical fidelity and resolution compromises for gaming.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Core Ultra 9 185H and Radeon 890M sits at rank 2728 out of 2888 combos tested in Control. This places it in the bottom 6% of all tested systems, a position that reflects the GPU's limitations rather than any deficiency in the processor. The rank is particularly telling when considering that the CPU alone performs in the 85th percentile of all processors, while the GPU only reaches the 45th percentile of all GPUs. This stark contrast highlights a system where the processor's potential is largely untapped in gaming scenarios.

In practical terms, this rank means the combo will struggle with the game's demanding physics and particle effects at higher settings. The measured frame rates confirm this: even at 1080p Low, the system achieves only 58 FPS on average, which is acceptable but far from stellar. The ranking becomes more problematic at higher resolutions, where the combo falls below 30 FPS at 1440p High and drops to 19 FPS at 4K High. These results place the system in a category where users must make significant compromises to achieve playable frame rates.

The delta between this combo's performance and the top combinations is substantial, though the data does not provide specific scores for top performers. What is clear from the measured results is that the Radeon 890M, with its 5.939 TFLOPS FP32 performance, is simply not equipped to handle Control's visually intensive environments at higher settings. The combo's rank reflects a system that can run the game, but only with careful settings management and resolution scaling.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 890M is the definitive bottleneck in this configuration. This integrated GPU, built on the RDNA 3.5 architecture with a 4 nm process, features 1024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Its boost clock reaches 2900 MHz, with a base clock of 400 MHz. The GPU's memory is system shared, meaning its bandwidth is system dependent, which introduces variability in performance based on the system's RAM configuration. The GPU's 5.939 TFLOPS FP32 performance and 185.6 GTexel/s texture rate are modest figures that explain its 45th percentile ranking among all GPUs.

In Control, the GPU's role is critical because the game features heavy use of real-time reflections, volumetric lighting, and destructible environments. The Radeon 890M's 16 ray tracing cores are present and support DirectX 12 Ultimate, but the raw compute power is insufficient for enabling ray-traced effects at playable frame rates. The benchmark data shows that the GPU's PassMark G3D score of 8076 places it just below the AMD Radeon Vega 8 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, with deltaPct values of -0.1% and -0.7% respectively. This proximity to older discrete GPUs indicates that the 890M offers performance comparable to entry-level dedicated graphics cards from several years ago.

The GPU's 32 ROPs limit pixel throughput to 92.80 GPixel/s, which becomes a severe constraint at higher resolutions. This explains why the frame rate drops from 58 FPS at 1080p Low to 30 FPS at 4K Low—the pixel fill rate simply cannot keep up with the increased resolution demands. The GPU's FP16 performance of 5.939 TFLOPS (1:1) offers no computational advantage for this title, as Control primarily relies on FP32 operations. The 890M's performance in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (590 points) and PassMark DirectX 12 (37 points) further corroborates its position as a low-tier gaming solution.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution-dependent performance degradation, confirming the GPU as the limiting component. At 1080p Low, the combo averages 58 FPS, which drops to 44 FPS at 1440p Low, and further to 30 FPS at 4K Low. This represents a 24% decrease from 1080p to 1440p and a 48% decrease from 1080p to 4K. The scaling is not linear, suggesting that memory bandwidth constraints become more pronounced at higher resolutions.

At Medium settings, the frame rates are 41 FPS at 1080p, 31 FPS at 1440p, and 21 FPS at 4K. The 4K Medium result includes a minimum FPS of 18 and maximum of 24, indicating noticeable frame pacing issues. The High settings show 37 FPS at 1080p, 28 FPS at 1440p, and 19 FPS at 4K. Finally, Ultra settings yield 32 FPS at 1080p, 24 FPS at 1440p, and 16 FPS at 4K.

The data indicates that the system is GPU-bound across all tested configurations. If the CPU were the limiting factor, we would expect to see less dramatic FPS drops when increasing resolution, as the CPU workload remains relatively constant regardless of resolution. Instead, the consistent downward trend with each resolution increase points to the GPU's pixel throughput and memory bandwidth as the primary constraints. The CPU, with its 16 cores and 22 threads boosting to 5.10 GHz, is more than capable of feeding the GPU, as evidenced by its strong Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5 and Geekbench multi-core score of 11657.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured data, the optimal experience balances frame rate and visual quality at 1080p Low settings, where the combo achieves 58 FPS average. This is the only tested configuration that approaches the 60 FPS target, and it provides the smoothest gameplay experience. While Low settings sacrifice visual fidelity, the game remains fully playable and responsive. The 1080p Medium setting at 41 FPS is a viable alternative for users who prioritize visual quality over frame rate, though the 35 FPS minimum may cause noticeable stuttering in intense combat sequences.

At 1440p, the recommended setting is Low, which delivers 44 FPS average. This provides a reasonable balance, though users should be prepared for occasional dips below 40 FPS. The 1440p Medium setting at 31 FPS is borderline playable but may feel sluggish during fast-paced encounters. For 4K, only the Low setting at 30 FPS is worth considering, and even then, the experience will be suboptimal. The Ultra settings at any resolution are not recommended, as they produce 32 FPS at 1080p, 24 FPS at 1440p, and 16 FPS at 4K—all below the threshold for comfortable gameplay.

The data shows that the performance gap between Low and Medium settings is relatively small at 1080p (58 vs 41 FPS), suggesting that Medium offers better visual quality for a modest FPS cost. However, the gap widens significantly at higher resolutions, making Low the only practical choice at 1440p and above. Users with variable refresh rate displays may find 1440p Low acceptable, but those with fixed 60 Hz panels should stick to 1080p Low for the best experience.

FAQ

*Q: Can this combo run Control at 60 FPS?*

A: No. The best measured result is 58 FPS at 1080p Low settings. All other tested configurations fall below 60 FPS, with most averaging between 16 and 44 FPS.

Q: What is the highest resolution at which this system can maintain 30+ FPS?

A: The system achieves 30 FPS at 4K Low settings, but this is the minimum threshold. For more consistent performance above 30 FPS, 1440p Low (44 FPS) or 1080p Medium (41 FPS) are better choices.

Q: How does the Radeon 890M compare to its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The 890M's average benchmark score of 9210 is 0.1% below the AMD Radeon Vega 8, 0.7% below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960, and 0.9% below the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 465. These are negligible differences, indicating performance parity with these older discrete GPUs.

Q: Is the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H the bottleneck in this configuration?

A: No. The CPU's 85th percentile ranking among all processors and strong synthetic scores, including a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5, indicate it is more than capable for gaming. The GPU's 45th percentile ranking and the resolution-dependent FPS scaling confirm the GPU is the limiting factor.

Q: What is the expected frame rate at 1080p Ultra settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 1080p Ultra is 32, which is playable but not ideal for a fast-paced action game. This represents a 45% reduction from the 58 FPS achieved at 1080p Low.

*Q: Does the system support ray tracing in Control?*

A: The Radeon 890M has 16 ray tracing cores and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, indicating hardware-level ray tracing capability. However, given the overall GPU performance, enabling ray tracing would likely result in frame rates well below the already limited numbers measured without ray tracing.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 185H serves as the computational backbone of this combo, providing substantial processing power that is largely underutilized in Control. This 16-core, 22-thread processor based on the Meteor Lake architecture features a base clock of 3.90 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. Its 24 MB of shared L3 cache and 112 KB L1 cache per core facilitate efficient data access for game logic and physics calculations. The CPU's 45 W TDP and integration on Intel BGA 2049 socket make it a high-end mobile processor, evidenced by its 85th percentile ranking among all CPUs.

Synthetic benchmarks reveal the CPU's strength: Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 17984.5 and single-core score of 1810.5, Geekbench multi-core score of 11657 and single-core score of 1794. The PassMark multithread score of 29376 and single-thread score of 3697 further demonstrate its capabilities. These figures position the Core Ultra 9 185H slightly below the AMD Ryzen AI 7 PRO 350, Intel Core 7 250H, AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5845, and AMD Ryzen 7 7700X, with deltaPct values of -0.1%, -0.2%, -0.4%, and -0.7% respectively. The near-parity with desktop processors like the Ryzen 7 7700X underscores the CPU's high performance level.

In Control, the CPU's role involves managing the game's physics engine, AI routines, and complex object interactions. The game's benchmark results show no evidence of CPU bottlenecking, as frame rates scale consistently with resolution and settings changes. The CPU's 5.10 GHz boost clock and 24 MB L3 cache ensure that even the most demanding scenes in the game can be processed without introducing stutter. The PassMark data compression score of 339489 and floating point math score of 73270 indicate strong general-purpose computing capabilities that, while not directly relevant to gaming, showcase the processor's overall efficiency.

The Core Ultra 9 185H's memory bandwidth of 89.6 GB/s via dual-channel DDR5 support provides adequate data throughput for the GPU's system-shared memory. However, this shared memory configuration means the CPU and GPU compete for the same bandwidth, potentially impacting performance in memory-intensive scenes. The CPU's PCIe Gen 5 support with 8 lanes offers high-speed connectivity, though the GPU's PCIe 4.0 x8 interface limits potential data transfer rates. Ultimately, the CPU is not the limiting factor in this combo; its performance headroom suggests that pairing it with a more powerful discrete GPU would yield significantly better gaming results in Control.