Control

Control is a 2019 action-adventure title that stresses both the GPU and CPU heavily, and the combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX with the AMD Radeon RX 7900M delivers a high-refresh-rate experience at 1080p and a solid 60+ FPS experience at 1440p, while 4K remains a challenge for the most demanding presets. The benchmark data shows a clear performance hierarchy across resolutions, with the GPU acting as the primary bottleneck at higher settings and the CPU providing enough headroom to push frame rates to very high levels at lower resolutions.

FAQ

Q: What is the average frame rate at 1080p with High settings in Control?

A: The measured average FPS at 1920x1080 with High settings is 100 FPS. This indicates a very smooth experience for high-refresh-rate monitors, as the frame rate is well above the 60 FPS threshold for standard displays.

Q: How does the RX 7900M perform at 4K Ultra settings?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average FPS drops to 44. This is below the 60 FPS target for smooth gameplay, suggesting that maxing out the game at 4K is not viable with this GPU, and users should consider lowering settings for a better experience.

Q: What is the performance difference between Low and Ultra settings at 1440p?

A: At 2560x1440, the average FPS goes from 120 FPS on Low to 66 FPS on Ultra. This represents a significant 45% reduction in frame rate when moving from the lowest to the highest preset, highlighting the heavy impact of graphical fidelity on performance.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 1080p Low settings?

A: At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the average FPS reaches 158. This high frame rate suggests that the CPU is providing ample performance, and while the GPU is still the primary renderer, the system is capable of producing very high frame rates, indicating a balanced setup at this resolution.

Q: What is the minimum FPS recorded at 1440p Medium settings?

A: The data shows a minimum FPS of 72 at 2560x1440 with Medium settings. This is important for understanding frame pacing, as it indicates that the frame rate does not dip below the 60 FPS threshold, ensuring a stable and smooth experience.

Q: How does the RX 7900M compare to its nearest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000?

A: The RX 7900M has an average benchmark score of 97487, which is 4.3% lower than the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000's score of 101872. This places the two GPUs in a very close performance tier, with the NVIDIA card holding a slight edge in synthetic benchmarks.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon RX 7900M is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture and features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 576.0 GB/s. This large memory pool and high bandwidth are critical for Control, a game known for its detailed textures and complex visual effects, especially at higher resolutions. The GPU's base clock is 1825 MHz with a boost clock of 2090 MHz, and its 4608 shading units are responsible for the heavy lifting in rendering the game's particle effects and physics-based destruction.

In Control, the GPU's role is dominant, as evidenced by the frame rate scaling with resolution. At 1080p High, the average FPS is 100, but this drops to 76 FPS at 1440p and further to 51 FPS at 4K. This pattern demonstrates that the RX 7900M's compute power, measured at 38.52 TFLOPS FP32, is increasingly strained as pixel count rises. The memory bandwidth of 576.0 GB/s also becomes a factor at 4K, where the demand for texture data outpaces the bus's capacity to feed the GPU, contributing to the significant performance drop at that resolution.

The GPU's performance percentile is 94, placing it in the top tier of all graphics cards. Its average benchmark score of 97487 is notably close to the AMD Radeon Pro VII, which scores 97131, a delta of only 0.4%. This indicates that the RX 7900M is a high-end mobile part that can compete with professional workstation cards, making it well-suited for demanding games like Control. The measured FPS data confirms this, as it delivers playable frame rates at 1440p with High settings, which is a common target for modern gaming laptops.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear and predictable scaling pattern as resolution increases, which helps identify the system's bottleneck. Moving from 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 at High settings, the average FPS drops from 100 to 76, a 24% reduction. This is a substantial loss, but the frame rate remains high enough for smooth gameplay. When moving from 1440p to 3840x2160, the average FPS falls from 76 to 51, a 33% reduction, which pushes the experience below the 60 FPS threshold for many users.

This scaling behavior indicates that the GPU is the primary limiting component at higher resolutions. At 1080p Low, the average FPS is 158, which is an exceptionally high value. The fact that the frame rate can reach this level suggests that the CPU is not holding the system back, as it can feed the GPU with enough data to achieve such high output. However, as the resolution increases, the GPU's workload grows exponentially due to the increased pixel count, and it becomes the bottleneck.

The data reveals that the frame rate drop from 1080p to 1440p is less severe than the drop from 1440p to 4K. For example, at Medium settings, the FPS goes from 112 at 1080p to 85 at 1440p (a 24% drop), and then to 57 at 4K (a 33% drop from 1440p). This non-linear scaling is typical of GPU-bound scenarios, where the memory bandwidth and shading unit throughput are insufficient to maintain performance at 4K. The system is clearly capable of high refresh rate gaming at 1080p, but 4K Ultra settings are out of reach without significant compromises.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers its highest frame rates. With Low settings, the average FPS is 158, providing an incredibly smooth experience for competitive or fast-paced action. Moving to Medium settings reduces the average to 112 FPS, with a minimum of 96 FPS and a maximum of 129 FPS, ensuring consistent performance. High settings yield an average of 100 FPS, while Ultra settings bring the average down to 87 FPS. All 1080p presets deliver frame rates above 60 FPS, making this resolution the best choice for maximizing refresh rate.

At 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows the GPU's increasing workload. Low settings produce an average of 120 FPS, which is still excellent for high-refresh-rate monitors. Medium settings average 85 FPS, with a minimum of 72 FPS ensuring no drops below the 60 FPS threshold. High settings average 76 FPS, and Ultra settings bring the average down to 66 FPS. This resolution offers a good balance between visual quality and performance, with all presets remaining playable.

At 3840x2160, the RX 7900M begins to struggle with the highest presets. Low settings average 81 FPS, which is sufficient for a smooth experience. Medium settings average 57 FPS, with a minimum of 49 FPS, indicating occasional dips below the 60 FPS target. High settings average 51 FPS, and Ultra settings drop to an average of 44 FPS. The data shows that 4K gaming requires a reduction in settings to maintain a stable frame rate, as the Ultra preset's 44 FPS average is not ideal for a fluid experience.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the user's resolution and performance goals. For 1920x1080, the Ultra preset provides an average of 87 FPS, which is well above the 60 FPS threshold and offers the best visual fidelity. Given the high frame rates achieved at this resolution, players can confidently max out the settings to enjoy Control's detailed environments without sacrificing smoothness.

For 2560x1440, the High preset is the recommended choice, delivering an average of 76 FPS. This provides a good balance between visual quality and performance, keeping the frame rate above 60 FPS for a responsive experience. While the Medium preset offers a higher average of 85 FPS, the jump to High is worth the slight performance cost for improved graphics. The Ultra preset at 66 FPS is also viable, but the closer margin to the 60 FPS threshold makes High a safer option.

For 3840x2160, the Medium preset is the best option for a smooth experience, with an average of 57 FPS. While this is slightly below the 60 FPS target, the minimum of 49 FPS indicates playable performance. The Low preset offers a higher average of 81 FPS, but the visual compromise is significant. The High and Ultra presets at 51 FPS and 44 FPS respectively fall below the desired threshold for smooth gameplay, making Medium the most balanced preset for 4K in this title.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz. This high core count and high boost clock are crucial for a game like Control, which features complex physics simulations and AI routines that can utilize multiple threads. The CPU's L3 cache is 36 MB shared, and it supports DDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, which helps feed the GPU and reduce potential bottlenecks.

In Control, the CPU's role is less dominant than the GPU, but it is still important for maintaining high frame rates. The benchmark data shows that at 1080p Low, the system achieves 158 FPS, which indicates that the CPU can handle the game's logic and draw calls without being a limiting factor. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35589 and single-core score of 2204 demonstrate strong processing power, which translates to consistent frame pacing even in demanding scenes with many objects and enemies.

The CPU's performance percentile is 94, placing it in the top tier of all processors. Its nearest rival, the Intel Xeon w5-3525, has an average score of 67673, which is only 0.3% higher than the Core Ultra 9 275HX's score of 67469. This close margin indicates that the mobile CPU is competitive with high-end desktop workstation parts, providing ample processing power for gaming. The data shows that the CPU is not the bottleneck in this system for Control, as the frame rate scaling is primarily dictated by the GPU's capabilities at higher resolutions and settings.