Control

# Control: Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Benchmark Analysis

This combo pairing the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti delivers a strong Control experience across all tested settings, though the game's demands at 4K Ultra push the frame rate to the edge of playability. The measured data shows a 24-core CPU that ranks in the 96th percentile against all processors, paired with a GPU that sits in the 83rd percentile among all graphics cards. The combination ranks 700th out of 2,888 tested combos in this game, placing it in the top quarter of all systems evaluated.

Settings Recommendations

The optimal experience depends heavily on the target resolution, but the data consistently points to Medium settings as the best balance of visual quality and frame rate headroom. At 1920x1080, Medium produces 136 FPS average, which is only 56 FPS below the Low preset's 192 FPS but delivers substantially better visual fidelity. The jump from Medium to High at 1080p costs only 15 FPS (121 vs 136), making High a viable choice for gamers with high-refresh displays. Ultra at 1080p still maintains 105 FPS, so even the maximum quality preset remains playable at this resolution.

Moving to 2560x1440, the story shifts slightly. Medium delivers 103 FPS, which remains smooth for most displays, while High drops to 92 FPS. The Ultra preset at 80 FPS is still above the 60 FPS threshold for comfortable gameplay, but the margin shrinks considerably. At 3840x2160, Medium becomes the clear recommendation at 70 FPS, as High falls to 62 FPS and Ultra drops to 54 FPS, which dips below the standard 60 FPS target. The Low preset at 4K produces 98 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial for a game like Control that relies heavily on atmosphere and environmental detail.

The data suggests that Medium settings provide the most consistent experience across all three resolutions, with frame rates ranging from 70 FPS at 4K to 136 FPS at 1080p. This preset also shows the only complete min/max data in the measured results, with a narrow 21 FPS spread at 1080p (116-157 FPS) and a similar 21 FPS spread at 1440p (88-118 FPS), indicating good frame pacing stability. At 4K Medium, the min FPS of 59 and max of 80 show occasional dips below 60, but the average of 70 demonstrates acceptable overall performance.

For users prioritizing maximum visual quality, High settings at 1440p or 1080p are the sweet spot. At 1440p High, the 92 FPS average provides excellent smoothness, while 1080p High at 121 FPS is ideal for high-refresh monitors. The Ultra preset is best reserved for 1080p gaming, where 105 FPS remains playable, or for users who prioritize image quality over frame rate at 1440p, where 80 FPS is still respectable.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is built on the Ampere architecture using the GA102 chip, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process with 28,300 million transistors across a 628 mm² die. The card features 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 912.4 GB/s of bandwidth. This memory configuration proves adequate for Control at all tested settings, with no indication in the frame rate data of VRAM capacity becoming a limiting factor even at 4K Ultra.

The GPU's clock speeds are modest by modern standards, with a base clock of 1365 MHz and a boost clock of 1665 MHz. The memory runs at 1188 MHz, translating to 19 Gbps effective. These clocks, combined with the 10,240 shading units and 80 RT cores, deliver 34.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance. The pixel rate of 186.5 GPixel/s and texture rate of 532.8 GTexel/s provide the raw throughput needed to handle Control's physics-heavy environments and particle effects.

At 4K resolution, the GPU becomes the dominant factor in performance. The frame rate scaling from Low to Ultra at 2160p shows a clear pattern: 98 FPS at Low, 70 FPS at Medium, 62 FPS at High, and 54 FPS at Ultra. This 44 FPS spread across settings represents a 45% performance penalty from lowest to highest quality, which is characteristic of GPU-bound scenarios. The RTX 3080 Ti's 12 GB VRAM and 384-bit bus are well-suited to Control's texture-heavy environments, and the benchmark results indicate that memory bandwidth is not a bottleneck at any tested configuration.

The GPU's benchmark scores support its strong gaming performance. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 5,077, while Geekbench Vulkan results show 192,697 and OpenCL scores reach 170,037. Passmark G3D scores of 26,896 place it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. These synthetic benchmarks align with the measured in-game performance, confirming that the RTX 3080 Ti is a capable performer for this title.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti ranks 700th out of 2,888 tested combos in Control, placing it in the 76th percentile of all systems evaluated. This ranking reflects a balanced pairing where neither component severely bottlenecks the other, though the data suggests the GPU is the primary constraint at higher resolutions.

Looking at the CPU's position among its peers, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus achieves an average benchmark score of 84,003, which is 0.2% ahead of the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (83,807) and 1.1% ahead of the AMD EPYC 4584PX (83,090). The score is 1.2% higher than the AMD EPYC 9135 (82,980) and 1.3% lower than the AMD EPYC 7F72 (85,072). This places the CPU in the 96th percentile of all processors, indicating that it is not a limiting factor in this gaming workload.

The GPU's nearest rivals provide context for its performance tier. The RTX 3080 Ti scores 41,187 on average, which is 0.8% above the AMD Radeon Pro 5300 (40,870) and 2% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 (40,377). It trails the NVIDIA Tesla M40 24 GB by 1.2% (41,707) and the Tesla M40 by 1.7% (41,897). The 83rd percentile ranking among GPUs suggests that while the RTX 3080 Ti is not at the absolute top of the performance stack, it remains a strong contender for high-refresh gaming.

The 700th overall ranking in Control specifically indicates that this combo performs well relative to the broader hardware landscape. The gap between the CPU's 96th percentile and the GPU's 83rd percentile explains the overall ranking: the system is held back by the GPU, particularly at higher resolutions where the CPU's advantage matters less.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the system delivers exceptional performance across all settings. Low settings produce 192 FPS average, which is the highest measured result in the entire dataset. Medium settings yield 136 FPS with a minimum of 116 and maximum of 157 FPS, showing a stable frame delivery. High settings reach 121 FPS, while Ultra maintains 105 FPS. All 1080p configurations exceed 100 FPS, making this resolution ideal for competitive play or high-refresh displays up to 240 Hz.

Moving to 2560x1440, performance remains strong but shows the expected scaling. Low settings hit 145 FPS, Medium drops to 103 FPS with a range of 88-118 FPS, High produces 92 FPS, and Ultra falls to 80 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p costs between 25-47 FPS depending on settings, with the largest absolute drop occurring at Low settings (47 FPS) and the smallest at Ultra (25 FPS). This pattern suggests that the GPU is becoming more of a limiting factor as resolution increases.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates become more modest. Low settings produce 98 FPS, which remains playable, but Medium drops to 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 and maximum of 80. High settings yield 62 FPS, and Ultra falls to 54 FPS. At 4K, only the Low preset maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS, while Medium hovers right at the threshold with occasional dips below it. The Ultra preset at 54 FPS is playable but not ideal for fast-paced action sequences.

The complete min/max data available only for Medium settings across all three resolutions provides insight into frame pacing. At 1080p, the 116-157 FPS range shows a 41 FPS spread; at 1440p, the 88-118 FPS range shows a 30 FPS spread; and at 4K, the 59-80 FPS range shows a 21 FPS spread. This tightening of the frame range at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU is working closer to its limits, which paradoxically results in more consistent frame delivery as the bottleneck becomes more uniform.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate scaling from 1080p to 4K reveals the system's bottleneck characteristics. At Low settings, performance drops from 192 FPS at 1080p to 145 FPS at 1440p (a 24.5% decrease) and then to 98 FPS at 4K (a 32.4% decrease from 1440p). At Medium settings, the progression is 136 to 103 to 70 FPS, representing 24.3% and 32.0% drops respectively. High settings show 121 to 92 to 62 FPS, with drops of 24.0% and 32.6%. Ultra settings demonstrate 105 to 80 to 54 FPS, with 23.8% and 32.5% decreases.

The consistent pattern of roughly 24% degradation from 1080p to 1440p and 32% from 1440p to 4K across all settings indicates that the system is GPU-bound at every quality level. The total reduction from 1080p to 4K ranges from 48.6% at Low (192 to 98 FPS) to 48.6% at Ultra (105 to 54 FPS), showing remarkable consistency. This uniformity suggests that the CPU has ample headroom to feed the GPU even at 1080p, and the scaling is purely a function of GPU rendering load.

The CPU's performance characteristics support this interpretation. With a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51,731 and single-core score of 7,303, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus provides more than enough processing power for Control's physics and AI workloads. The Passmark single-thread score of 4,823 and multi-thread score of 60,860 reinforce that the CPU is unlikely to bottleneck at any resolution tested. The 24 cores and 24 threads, running at a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, offer substantial parallel processing capability that Control's engine can leverage for object interactions and environmental destruction.

The data shows that users seeking maximum frame rates should target 1080p, where the system delivers well over 100 FPS even at Ultra settings. Those with 1440p displays can expect excellent performance at Medium or High settings, while 4K users should stick to Medium or Low to maintain smooth gameplay. The scaling pattern indicates that the RTX 3080 Ti is the primary constraint at higher resolutions, and users upgrading from a less capable GPU would see the most benefit at 1440p and 4K.

FAQ

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

A: Medium settings at 3840x2160 provide the best balance, delivering 70 FPS average with a minimum of 59 FPS and maximum of 80 FPS. High settings drop to 62 FPS, while Ultra falls to 54 FPS, making Medium the only preset that maintains an average above 60 FPS at 4K.

Q: How does this combo compare to the closest CPU rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K?

A: The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus scores 84,003 on average, which is 0.2% higher than the Core Ultra 9 285K's 83,807. This marginal difference means the 290K Plus provides essentially identical performance in this gaming workload.

Q: Is the RTX 3080 Ti's 12 GB VRAM sufficient for Control at maximum settings?

A: The measured data shows playable performance at Ultra settings across all resolutions, with 105 FPS at 1080p, 80 FPS at 1440p, and 54 FPS at 4K. The 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus appears adequate for Control's requirements at all tested configurations.

Q: What frame rates can I expect at 1440p with High settings?

A: The system delivers 92 FPS average at 2560x1440 with High settings. This is 11 FPS lower than Medium (103 FPS) but 12 FPS higher than Ultra (80 FPS), making High a strong choice for visual quality without sacrificing smoothness.

Q: How does the GPU compare to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070?

A: The RTX 3080 Ti scores 41,187 on average, which is 2% higher than the RTX 5070's 40,377. This indicates the older card maintains a slight performance advantage in this benchmark comparison.

Q: Does the system maintain stable frame delivery at Medium settings?

A: Yes, the only complete min/max data in the measurements comes from Medium settings. At 1080p, frames range from 116 to 157 FPS; at 1440p, 88 to 118 FPS; and at 4K, 59 to 80 FPS. The tightest spread of 21 FPS occurs at both 1440p and 4K, indicating consistent frame pacing.