Control

FAQ

Q: What is the comboRankInGame for this Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and RTX 4070 SUPER pairing in Control?

A: The combo ranks 438th out of 2,888 tested combinations, placing it in the top 15% of all measured configurations for this title.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in raw compute benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus scores 84,003 average benchmark points, 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). It trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%, which scores 85,072.

Q: What is the GPU's percentile ranking among all tested graphics cards?

A: The RTX 4070 SUPER sits in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 43,223. Its closest rival, the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB, scores 43,262, a negligible 0.1% difference.

Q: What frame rates can be expected at 1080p with this combo?

A: At 1920x1080, average FPS ranges from 118 on Ultra settings to 214 on Low settings. Medium delivers 152 FPS, while High produces 135 FPS.

Q: Does the CPU or GPU bottleneck the other in Control?

A: The data indicates the GPU is the primary limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the CPU's 24 cores and 24 threads provide substantial headroom. The FPS drops of 28% from 1080p to 1440p and another 32% from 1440p to 4K at High settings point to GPU-bound performance scaling.

Q: What is the production status of both components?

A: The CPU is marked as Active production, while the GPU is listed as End-of-life. The GPU's successor is the GeForce 50 series.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus brings 24 cores and 24 threads to this pairing, built on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture with a 3 nm process from TSMC. Its base clock runs at 3.70 GHz, boosting up to 5.80 GHz, which gives Control's engine plenty of single-threaded horsepower for game logic and physics calculations. The chip's L3 cache is 36 MB shared, with 192 KB L1 and 3 MB L2 per core, reducing memory latency in scenes with complex object interactions.

In synthetic benchmarks, the CPU scores 7,303 in Cinebench R23 single-core and 51,731 in multi-core, placing it in the 96th percentile of all CPUs. The PassMark single-thread score of 4,823 reinforces that this processor handles lightly-threaded workloads like Control's main loop with ease. The 24 threads help with background tasks and streaming, but Control is not a heavily threaded title, so the CPU's multithreaded might (60,860 in PassMark multithread) is largely untapped at higher resolutions.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s over dual-channel DDR5 keeps the GPU fed with data, particularly at 1080p where frame rates exceed 200 FPS. At those speeds, any CPU-side stutter would be visible, but the benchmark data shows smooth scaling. The processor's 125 W TDP and PCIe Gen 5 support with 20 CPU lanes ensure the RTX 4070 SUPER's PCIe 4.0 x16 interface has ample bandwidth headroom.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the CPU is effectively a statistical tie with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K (0.2% delta) and the AMD EPYC 4584PX (1.1% delta). The AMD EPYC 7F72 is 1.3% faster in aggregate benchmarks, but those are server-class chips; for gaming, the 290K Plus's single-core strength is what matters. The data shows no CPU bottleneck at any resolution in Control, as even at 1080p Low (214 FPS), the processor keeps pace.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data spans four settings presets across three resolutions, and the optimal choice depends on the target display. At 1920x1080, even Ultra settings deliver 118 FPS average, so there is no reason to drop below High (135 FPS) on a standard 60 Hz or 144 Hz monitor. Low settings at 1080p produce 214 FPS, which only matters for 240 Hz esports-style displays, but the visual compromise is steep for a game like Control with its atmospheric environments.

At 2560x1440, Ultra averages 89 FPS, which is playable on a 60 Hz display but below the 100 FPS threshold many gamers prefer. Medium settings yield 115 FPS with a minimum of 98 FPS, making it the sweet spot for 1440p high-refresh monitors. High settings at 102 FPS are also viable, but the 13 FPS gain from High to Medium comes with a noticeable visual upgrade cost. The data suggests Medium is the best balance of fluidity and fidelity at this resolution.

For 3840x2160, Ultra drops to 60 FPS average, which is exactly at the 60 Hz refresh boundary. High settings produce 69 FPS, offering a small buffer above that threshold. Medium at 78 FPS with a 66 FPS minimum is the recommended preset for 4K, as it maintains smooth motion during combat sequences while keeping visual quality respectable. Low at 110 FPS is possible, but the graphical downgrade at 4K undermines the point of the resolution.

Across all resolutions, the Medium preset shows the most consistent frame times, with recorded minimums of 66 FPS at 4K, 98 FPS at 1440p, and 130 FPS at 1080p. The gap between average and minimum FPS is narrowest at Medium, indicating fewer frame spikes. For the best experience per the measured rows, Medium at 1440p offers the highest frame rate above 100 FPS with a sub-100 FPS minimum never occurring.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo ranks 438th out of 2,888 tested combinations in Control, which puts it in the 85th percentile of all configurations. This is a strong result for a single-GPU setup, especially considering the RTX 4070 SUPER is only in the 83rd percentile of GPUs overall. The CPU's 96th percentile ranking helps lift the combo above what the GPU alone would suggest, meaning the processor is not holding back performance.

The rank of 438 indicates that 437 other combos achieve higher frame rates in Control, but those are likely to include higher-tier GPUs like the RTX 4090 or RTX 4080 SUPER. The delta between this combo and the top performers is not available in the data, but the FPS numbers show a playable experience at all resolutions. At 1080p, the combo outperforms the vast majority of systems, with frame rates above 118 FPS even on Ultra.

The GPU's nearest rivals in aggregate benchmarks include the NVIDIA Quadro M6000 24 GB (0.1% slower) and the RTX 4090 Mobile (1% slower), which are not typical gaming comparisons. This suggests the RTX 4070 SUPER is well-positioned in the desktop GPU hierarchy, and the combo rank reflects that. The CPU's nearest rival, the Core Ultra 9 285K, is essentially identical in performance, so users upgrading from that chip would see no CPU-side difference.

For Control specifically, the 438th rank out of 2,888 means this combo is in the top 15% of all tested systems. Given that Control is a demanding Action Adventure title with heavy particle effects and physics, this rank demonstrates that the pairing is well above average. The data shows no thermal or power throttling concerns, as the CPU's 125 W TDP and GPU's 220 W TDP are within standard desktop limits.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with the AD104 chip at 5 nm from TSMC. Its 12 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 192-bit bus provides 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth, which is sufficient for Control's textures and effects at 4K. The GPU's base clock is 1980 MHz with a boost of 2475 MHz, and memory runs at 1313 MHz (21 Gbps effective).

With 7,168 shading units, 224 texture mapping units, and 80 ROPs, the RTX 4070 SUPER delivers 35.48 TFLOPS of FP32 compute. The 56 RT cores and 224 tensor cores handle ray tracing and DLSS workloads, though Control's benchmark data does not include ray-traced settings. The GPU's pixel rate is 198.0 GPixel/s and texture rate is 554.4 GTexel/s, which explains its strong performance at 1080p where fill rate matters most.

The GPU scores 29,995 in PassMark G3D and 17,108 in GPU compute, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all GPUs. Its 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 4,627, and Geekbench Vulkan score is 205,624, showing solid DirectX 12 and Vulkan performance. The 12 GB VRAM is not a limiting factor in Control at any tested resolution, as even 4K Ultra fits within that capacity.

Compared to its nearest rivals, the RTX 4070 SUPER is within 1% of the Quadro M6000 24 GB and the RTX 5050 Mobile, which is remarkable for a desktop card against a mobile part. The RTX 4090 Mobile is only 1% faster in aggregate, but the desktop 4070 SUPER's advantage in sustained clock speeds shows in the FPS data. The GPU's end-of-life status is notable, but its performance in Control remains competitive.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 3840x2160, the combo delivers 69 FPS on High, 110 FPS on Low, 78 FPS on Medium (with a 66 FPS minimum and 90 FPS maximum), and 60 FPS on Ultra. The progression from Low to Ultra shows a 45% performance drop, which is typical for a GPU-bound scenario at 4K. The Medium preset's minimum of 66 FPS indicates that even during heavy scenes, the frame rate stays above 60 FPS, making it the only 4K preset with a guaranteed playable minimum.

At 2560x1440, High settings produce 102 FPS, Low produces 162 FPS, Medium produces 115 FPS (98 minimum, 133 maximum), and Ultra produces 89 FPS. The jump from 4K to 1440p improves performance by 48% on High settings, confirming that resolution scaling is the primary factor. The Medium preset's minimum of 98 FPS is above the 90 FPS threshold for smooth gameplay on most 1440p monitors.

At 1920x1080, High settings reach 135 FPS, Low reaches 214 FPS, Medium reaches 152 FPS (130 minimum, 175 maximum), and Ultra reaches 118 FPS. The 1080p results show the CPU's single-core strength, as the 214 FPS Low result approaches the limits of what the game engine can output. The gap between Medium (152 FPS) and High (135 FPS) is 17 FPS, while the gap between High and Ultra is also 17 FPS, showing a linear scaling of performance with settings.

The data reveals that the GPU is the bottleneck at 4K, as the CPU's 24 threads are underutilized. At 1080p, the FPS ceiling appears to be around 214 FPS, which is likely a game engine limitation rather than a hardware constraint. The Medium preset across all resolutions shows the most consistent frame pacing, with the smallest gap between average and minimum FPS. The RTX 4070 SUPER's 12 GB VRAM and 504.2 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient for all tested configurations, with no signs of memory-related stuttering in the minimum FPS values.