Control

Control pairs the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 in a combination that delivers strong 1440p performance and playable 4K results. The measured frames per second across three resolutions and four quality presets show a system that scales predictably with settings, though the gap between Low and Ultra grows significantly at higher resolutions. This analysis focuses strictly on the measured data for this specific pairing.

Settings Recommendations

The data shows a clear hierarchy across all three tested resolutions: Low delivers the highest average FPS, followed by High, then Medium, with Ultra trailing at the bottom. This ordering holds consistently whether you are at 1080p, 1440p, or 4K, which suggests the GPU is the primary scaling factor for quality presets.

For 4K gaming, the measured rows indicate that High settings provide the best balance between visual fidelity and smoothness. The 3840x2160 High preset averages 57 FPS, which is above the 50 FPS achieved on Ultra and below the 64 FPS on Medium. The 7 FPS gain from dropping from High to Medium comes at a visible quality cost, while the 7 FPS loss from moving up to Ultra is harder to justify. High is the sweet spot at 4K because it keeps the frame rate in a playable range without sacrificing the detail that makes this action-adventure title visually interesting.

At 1440p, the recommendation shifts toward High or Ultra depending on your tolerance for frame rate dips. The 2560x1440 High preset averages 84 FPS, while Ultra drops to 73 FPS. The 11 FPS difference between these two presets is noticeable during fast-paced combat sequences. If you prefer a smoother experience, High is the safer choice; if you want maximum visual quality and can accept the lower average, Ultra remains viable since 73 FPS is still reasonably fluid. Medium at 1440p delivers 95 FPS, but the visual downgrade from High is more noticeable than the 11 FPS gain.

For 1080p, the data suggests that Ultra is the intended experience for this pairing. The 1920x1080 Ultra preset averages 97 FPS, which clears the 60 FPS threshold with headroom to spare. High at 1080p reaches 112 FPS, but the 15 FPS improvement does not justify the loss of Ultra-level effects on a resolution where this GPU has ample performance. The 126 FPS Medium and 177 FPS Low results are unnecessary unless you are chasing extremely high refresh rates on a competitive display.

The measured min and max FPS values only appear for the Medium preset at each resolution, but they provide useful context. At 4K Medium, the range spans 55 to 74 FPS, showing a 19 FPS variance. At 1440p Medium, the range narrows to 81 to 109 FPS, a 28 FPS spread. At 1080p Medium, the range is 107 to 144 FPS, a 37 FPS variance. This widening range at lower resolutions indicates that CPU involvement becomes more relevant as the GPU load decreases, though the Core Ultra 9 275HX handles this without issue based on the average scores.

How This Combo Ranks

Within the benchmark database of 2,888 tested combinations, this pairing of the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 holds the 879th position for Control. That places it in the upper third of all tested combos, which is a strong showing for a mobile processor paired with a high-end desktop GPU.

The rank of 879 out of 2,888 means approximately 70 percent of tested combinations deliver higher average FPS in this game. This is not a criticism of the hardware; rather, it reflects that Control is a demanding title and many of the combinations ahead of this one likely pair the RTX 4080 with faster desktop processors. The fact that this combo still lands in the top 30 percent indicates that the mobile Core Ultra 9 275HX does not bottleneck the RTX 4080 to a significant degree in this game.

Looking at the CPU's synthetic benchmark performance provides context for this ranking. The Core Ultra 9 275HX scores 35,589 in Cinebench R23 multi-core and 2,204 in single-core. Its average benchmark score of 67,469 places it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rivals in the database include the Intel Xeon w5-3525 with a 0.3 percent higher average score, the AMD EPYC 4484PX at 0.5 percent higher, and the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5955WX at 0.6 percent higher. The Intel Xeon 6515P trails by 0.7 percent. These are all workstation-class processors, which underscores that the mobile 275HX competes with much larger desktop parts in multi-threaded workloads.

The GPU side shows a similar pattern. The RTX 4080 sits in the 86th percentile of all GPUs with an average benchmark score of 54,247. Its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, scores 0.1 percent higher, which is effectively a tie. The AMD Radeon Pro W5700X trails by 1.1 percent, the Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB by 2.6 percent, and the Radeon 8060S by 2.7 percent. This places the RTX 4080 at the top of its immediate performance class, with only the SUPER variant edging it out by a negligible margin.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the primary driver of frame rates in Control, and the measured FPS data reflects its capabilities. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 716.8 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration is ample for Control, a 2019 title that does not require excessive VRAM even at 4K Ultra.

The RTX 4080's clock speeds are 2205 MHz base and 2505 MHz boost, with memory running at 1400 MHz or 22.4 Gbps effective. These clocks, combined with 9,728 shading units, 304 texture mapping units, and 112 raster operation units, produce a pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance of 48.74 TFLOPS gives the GPU substantial compute headroom for the physics and particle effects that Control uses heavily.

The measured FPS data shows how the GPU scales with settings. At 1080p, the RTX 4080 delivers 177 FPS on Low and 97 FPS on Ultra, a 45 percent drop from the lowest to the highest preset. At 1440p, the spread narrows slightly: 134 FPS on Low versus 73 FPS on Ultra, a 46 percent reduction. At 4K, the gap widens: 90 FPS on Low versus 50 FPS on Ultra, a 44 percent drop. This consistent scaling pattern indicates that the GPU is the limiting factor across all settings, with the CPU maintaining adequate frame delivery.

The RTX 4080's performance relative to its rivals reinforces its position. The nearest GPU rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, posts a nearly identical average benchmark score at 0.1 percent higher. This means that in practical terms, the two cards are interchangeable for Control. The AMD alternatives trail by more than 1 percent, which places the RTX 4080 at the top of its immediate competitive set.

FAQ

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

A: The data shows that High settings at 3840x2160 deliver 57 FPS average, which is the recommended balance. Ultra drops to 50 FPS, while Medium only gains 7 FPS over High at 64 FPS.

Q: How does this combo rank against other tested combinations in Control?

A: This pairing ranks 879th out of 2,888 tested combos, placing it in the top 30 percent of all configurations. This is a strong result for a mobile processor paired with a high-end desktop GPU.

Q: Is the RTX 4080 the limiting factor at 1080p?

A: At 1080p, the FPS ranges from 177 on Low to 97 on Ultra. The wide spread of 80 FPS between presets indicates the GPU is still the primary scaling factor, though the CPU becomes more involved at lower resolutions.

Q: How does the Core Ultra 9 275HX compare to its nearest CPU rivals?

A: The 275HX has an average benchmark score of 67,469, which is within 0.7 percent of its closest rivals. The Intel Xeon w5-3525 scores 0.3 percent higher, the AMD EPYC 4484PX scores 0.5 percent higher, and the Intel Xeon 6515P scores 0.7 percent lower.

Q: What is the frame rate variance on Medium settings?

A: The measured min and max FPS for Medium settings show a range of 55 to 74 FPS at 4K, 81 to 109 FPS at 1440p, and 107 to 144 FPS at 1080p. The variance widens as resolution decreases.

Q: Does the RTX 4080 have enough VRAM for Control?

A: The 16 GB of GDDR6X memory with 716.8 GB/s bandwidth is more than sufficient for Control. The game runs at 50 FPS on 4K Ultra, and VRAM capacity is not a limiting factor based on the measured data.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data across 1080p, 1440p, and 4K shows how this combo scales with resolution. At High settings, the average FPS moves from 112 at 1080p to 84 at 1440p to 57 at 4K. This represents a 25 percent drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 32 percent drop from 1440p to 4K. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K is 49 percent, meaning the RTX 4080 loses nearly half its frame rate when moving up two resolution classes.

The Low preset shows a similar pattern: 177 FPS at 1080p, 134 FPS at 1440p, and 90 FPS at 4K. The percentage drops are 24 percent from 1080p to 1440p and 33 percent from 1440p to 4K. Medium settings follow with 126 FPS, 95 FPS, and 64 FPS respectively, representing 25 percent and 33 percent drops. Ultra settings produce 97 FPS, 73 FPS, and 50 FPS, with 25 percent and 32 percent drops.

The consistency of these scaling percentages across all four presets reveals that resolution scaling is purely GPU-bound. The RTX 4080's pixel rate of 280.6 GPixel/s and texture rate of 761.5 GTexel/s are the determining factors, and the CPU does not introduce any variable that changes the scaling pattern. The 4K to 1080p ratio of roughly 2x FPS at every preset confirms that the GPU is working at its full capacity regardless of quality setting.

This scaling behavior also indicates that the Core Ultra 9 275HX is not the limiting component at any resolution. If the CPU were bottlenecking, the FPS would plateau at lower resolutions rather than continuing to climb as resolution decreases. The fact that 1080p Low reaches 177 FPS demonstrates that the CPU can feed the GPU faster than the GPU can render frames, even at the lowest quality settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on TSMC's 3 nm process. It has a base clock of 2.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.40 GHz, with 36 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB of L2 cache per core. The CPU supports DDR5 memory on a dual-channel bus with 102.4 GB/s bandwidth, and it includes integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics with 64 execution units.

In Control, the CPU's role is secondary to the GPU, but the processor's capabilities ensure it does not become a bottleneck. The measured FPS at 1080p Low reaches 177, which demonstrates that the CPU can drive frame rates well above the 60 FPS target. The single-core performance of 2,204 in Cinebench R23 and 2,458 in Geekbench single-core provides the per-thread performance that games like Control rely on for game logic and physics calculations.

The 275HX's multi-threaded performance is exceptionally strong for a mobile processor. Its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 35,589 and Geekbench multi-core score of 20,795 place it in the 94th percentile of all CPUs. The nearest rivals in the database are all workstation processors, which shows that this mobile chip delivers desktop-class multi-threading. The Passmark multi-thread score of 55,759 and floating point math score of 191,186 further confirm its compute capabilities.

For Control specifically, the CPU's 24 cores and 24 threads are more than adequate. The game is not heavily multi-threaded, but the 275HX's high single-core boost clock of 5.40 GHz ensures that the primary game thread runs smoothly. The 36 MB of L3 cache helps with data locality, and the 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth prevents any memory subsystem bottlenecks.

The absence of a measured CPU bottleneck is evident from the FPS scaling pattern. If the CPU were limiting performance, the 1080p Low preset would show a smaller improvement over 1440p Low than the 32 percent gain that actually appears. The 177 FPS at 1080p Low represents a ceiling that the GPU, not the CPU, imposes. This pairing demonstrates that a high-end mobile processor can fully feed a high-end desktop GPU in Control, making the RTX 4080 the definitive performance limiter across all tested settings and resolutions.