Control

# Control: Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 — Database Analysis

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 delivers a formidable Control experience across all tested resolutions and settings, with the data showing a clear pattern of the GPU becoming the primary constraint as resolution climbs. This combination ranks 106th out of 2,888 tested hardware combos in Control, placing it in the top 3.7% of all configurations measured. The benchmark results reveal that at 1080p, the CPU’s 24 cores and high single-thread performance keep frame rates extremely high, while at 4K, the RTX 4090’s 24 GB of GDDR6X memory and 1.01 TB/s bandwidth define the ceiling.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 1080p with Ultra settings in Control?

A: The measured average frame rate at 1920x1080 with Ultra settings is 149 FPS. This is the lowest 1080p result across all settings presets, with High delivering 172 FPS, Medium delivering 194 FPS, and Low reaching 272 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4090 compare to its nearest rival in benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4090 has an average benchmark score of 60,347, which is essentially tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60 at 60,326 (0% delta). It edges out the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 by 0.3% (60,140) and leads the AMD Radeon PRO V710 by 2.9% (58,657), while trailing the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M by 2.5% (61,896).

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

A: At 2560x1440, Low settings produce 206 FPS average, while Ultra settings produce 113 FPS average. This represents a drop of 93 FPS, or approximately 45% lower performance when moving from Low to Ultra.

Q: How does the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus compare to the Core Ultra 9 285K in overall CPU benchmarks?

A: The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus scores 84,003 on average, which is 0.2% ahead of the Core Ultra 9 285K’s 83,807. The 290K Plus also leads the AMD EPYC 4584PX by 1.1% (83,090) and the AMD EPYC 9135 by 1.2% (82,980), but trails the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3% (85,072).

Q: What are the minimum FPS readings at 4K Medium settings?

A: The only 4K preset with min/max data is Medium settings, which shows an average of 99 FPS, a minimum of 84 FPS, and a maximum of 114 FPS. This indicates the frame pacing holds reasonably steady even at 3840x2160.

Q: Does the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus support DDR5 memory?

A: Yes, the CPU supports DDR5 memory with a dual-channel memory bus and a memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s. It also supports ECC memory, which is notable for workstation-oriented builds.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is the dominant component in this pairing for Control, particularly as resolution increases. Built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, this GPU packs 16,384 shading units, 512 TMUs, and 176 ROPs. The chip contains 76,300 million transistors on a 609 mm² die, delivering an FP32 performance of 82.58 TFLOPS. The data shows this hardware scales impressively in Control, with the GPU’s 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit bus providing 1.01 TB/s of bandwidth — a crucial asset for a game that loads detailed environments and physics-heavy scenes.

The RTX 4090’s clock behavior matters for understanding the measured results. The base clock runs at 2235 MHz, boosting to 2520 MHz under load. Memory operates at 1313 MHz with 21 Gbps effective speed. These specifications translate into a pixel rate of 443.5 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 1,290.2 GTexel/s, which explains why the GPU sustains 88 FPS at 4K High settings in Control — a demanding title that stresses fill rate and memory throughput.

Benchmark scores contextualize the RTX 4090’s standing. It achieves a Passmark G3D score of 38,194, a Geekbench OpenCL score of 255,416, and a Geekbench Vulkan score of 271,631. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 9,223 further demonstrates its DirectX 12 capabilities, which is relevant since Control utilizes modern rendering features. The GPU’s percentile rank of 88 among all GPUs, combined with its average benchmark score of 60,347, places it in the upper tier, though its nearest rivals are professional workstation cards rather than gaming-focused alternatives. The data shows the RTX 4090 is effectively tied with the Intel Arc Pro A60 (0% delta) and AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 (0.3% delta), while being 2.5% behind the AMD Radeon Pro W6600M and 2.9% ahead of the AMD Radeon PRO V710.

For Control specifically, the GPU’s ray tracing capabilities — 128 RT cores — and 512 tensor cores are relevant, though the measured FPS data does not separate ray-traced from non-ray-traced performance. The 24 GB VRAM capacity ensures no memory-related bottlenecks at any tested setting, even at 4K Ultra where the game’s textures and effects demand substantial video memory. Control’s supernatural environments, with destructible physics objects and particle effects, benefit directly from the RTX 4090’s raw compute and memory bandwidth.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus serves as the supporting foundation for this configuration, and its influence on Control’s frame rates is most visible at lower resolutions where GPU load decreases. This processor features 24 cores and 24 threads — notably, no hyperthreading — with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost clock of 5.80 GHz. It is built on a 3 nm process from TSMC, codenamed Arrow Lake Refresh, and belongs to the Core Ultra Series 2 generation. The CPU’s cache hierarchy includes 192 KB of L1 per core, 3 MB of L2 per core, and 36 MB of shared L3 cache.

The CPU’s benchmark results demonstrate strong multi-threaded and single-threaded performance. In Cinebench R23, it scores 51,731 multi-core and 7,303 single-core. Cinebench R20 shows 21,727 multi-core and 3,067 single-core, while Cinebench R15 yields 5,214 multi-core and 736 single-core. Passmark results further illustrate the CPU’s capabilities: 60,860 in multithread tests, 4,823 in single-thread tests, 698,346 in data compression, and 214,760 in floating-point math. The CPU also scores 3,315 in physics tests, which is directly relevant to Control’s physics-driven gameplay.

With a TDP of 125 W and support for PCIe Gen 5 with 20 CPU lanes, the 290K Plus is a high-end desktop processor. Its integrated Arc Xe-LPG Graphics 64EU is present but irrelevant for gaming when paired with the RTX 4090. The CPU’s memory bandwidth of 115.2 GB/s via dual-channel DDR5 is sufficient to feed the GPU in Control, as evidenced by the high frame rates at 1080p where CPU-bound scenarios typically emerge.

The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus holds a percentile rank of 96 among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 84,003. Its nearest rivals are telling: the Core Ultra 9 285K scores 83,807 (0.2% behind), while AMD EPYC processors range from 82,980 to 85,072 (deltas of +1.1%, +1.2%, and -1.3%). This places the 290K Plus in a narrow performance band where no single rival dominates, making it a balanced choice for gaming workloads. In Control, the CPU’s single-core performance — reflected in the Cinebench R23 single-core score of 7,303 — ensures that game logic, AI, and physics calculations do not bottleneck the GPU, particularly at 1080p where the RTX 4090’s frame output is highest.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for Control spans three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160) and four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra), with the Medium preset providing full min/max/avg data at each resolution.

At 1920x1080, the results are as follows:

• Low: 272 FPS average
• Medium: 194 FPS average, with a minimum of 165 FPS and maximum of 223 FPS
• High: 172 FPS average
• Ultra: 149 FPS average

This represents a spread of 123 FPS between Low and Ultra at 1080p. The Medium preset’s min/max data shows a 58 FPS range, indicating some frame variability but no major stuttering. The jump from Low to Medium costs 78 FPS, while Medium to High costs 22 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 23 FPS. This suggests diminishing returns as settings increase, with the largest performance hit occurring when moving from Low to Medium.

At 2560x1440, the results are:

• Low: 206 FPS average
• Medium: 146 FPS average, with a minimum of 124 FPS and maximum of 168 FPS
• High: 130 FPS average
• Ultra: 113 FPS average

The 1440p results show a 93 FPS spread between Low and Ultra. The Medium preset’s min/max range is 44 FPS, tighter than at 1080p, suggesting that increased GPU load smooths out some frame-time inconsistencies. Moving from Low to Medium costs 60 FPS, Medium to High costs 16 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 17 FPS. Notably, the relative cost of each settings step decreases at 1440p compared to 1080p, indicating the GPU is becoming a more significant factor.

At 3840x2160, the results are:

• Low: 139 FPS average
• Medium: 99 FPS average, with a minimum of 84 FPS and maximum of 114 FPS
• High: 88 FPS average
• Ultra: 76 FPS average

The 4K results show a 63 FPS spread between Low and Ultra, the narrowest of all resolutions. The Medium preset’s min/max range is 30 FPS, the tightest of any resolution tested, which indicates that at 4K the GPU’s consistent workload produces more stable frame delivery. Moving from Low to Medium costs 40 FPS, Medium to High costs 11 FPS, and High to Ultra costs 12 FPS. The diminishing returns of settings increases are most pronounced at 4K, where the GPU is heavily loaded and each preset step has less headroom to exploit.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS data reveals a clear pattern of resolution scaling that points to the RTX 4090 as the limiting component at higher resolutions, while the CPU’s role diminishes as pixel count increases.

At Low settings, the progression from 1080p to 1440p to 4K is 272 → 206 → 139 FPS. This represents a 24.3% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 48.9% drop from 1080p to 4K. The 4K result is 51.1% of the 1080p figure, indicating that even at Low settings, the GPU is heavily constrained at 4K.

At Medium settings, the progression is 194 → 146 → 99 FPS. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 24.7%, and the 1080p to 4K drop is 49.0%. The 4K result is 51.0% of 1080p, nearly identical to Low settings. This consistency suggests that the resolution scaling is primarily GPU-bound, with settings having minimal impact on the scaling ratio.

At High settings, the progression is 172 → 130 → 88 FPS. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 24.4%, and the 1080p to 4K drop is 48.8%. The 4K result is 51.2% of 1080p, matching the pattern seen at other settings.

At Ultra settings, the progression is 149 → 113 → 76 FPS. The 1080p to 1440p drop is 24.2%, and the 1080p to 4K drop is 49.0%. The 4K result is 51.0% of 1080p, again consistent with the other presets.

This remarkable consistency — with 4K performance hovering around 51% of 1080p across all settings — indicates that Control’s rendering load scales almost linearly with pixel count when driven by this hardware combination. The fact that the scaling ratio does not change with settings suggests that the bottleneck is the GPU’s pixel processing throughput rather than any other system component. The RTX 4090’s 176 ROPs and 1.01 TB/s memory bandwidth are the likely limiting factors at 4K, as the game’s fill-rate demands at 3840x2160 are substantial regardless of visual complexity.

The CPU’s role in this scaling is evident from the fact that 1080p frame rates are extremely high (272 FPS at Low), yet they do not scale linearly with resolution — if the CPU were the primary constraint, we would expect 4K performance to be closer to 1080p performance. Instead, the ~49% drop from 1080p to 4K at every settings preset indicates that the RTX 4090 is the definitive bottleneck at higher resolutions, while the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus provides ample headroom even at 1080p.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings preset depends on the target resolution and desired frame rate, but clear patterns emerge across all three resolutions.

At 1920x1080, all settings presets exceed 140 FPS, making any choice playable. For competitive or high-refresh-rate displays, Low settings at 272 FPS is the clear choice, as the visual sacrifice is minimal on a 1080p panel while the frame rate doubles compared to Ultra. However, for a balanced experience that maintains high visual fidelity, Medium at 194 FPS with a 165 FPS minimum is the recommended preset — it delivers 45 FPS more than High and 45 FPS more than Ultra, while the min/max range of 165-223 FPS ensures consistent frame delivery. Ultra at 149 FPS is still excellent, but the 45 FPS cost over Medium is significant for marginal visual gains.

At 2560x1440, the recommendation shifts toward higher settings because frame rates remain high. Medium at 146 FPS is the baseline for a smooth experience, but High at 130 FPS is arguably the sweet spot — it provides better visual quality while staying well above the 120 FPS threshold that most 1440p high-refresh monitors support. Ultra at 113 FPS is acceptable but dips below 120 FPS, which may be noticeable on 144Hz displays. Low at 206 FPS is overkill for most 1440p monitors and sacrifices too much visual fidelity. For users prioritizing frame rate stability, Medium’s 124 FPS minimum is safer than High or Ultra, which lack min/max data but likely bottom out lower.

At 3840x2160, the GPU is the limiting factor, and settings choices matter most here. Medium at 99 FPS average with an 84 FPS minimum is the best balance — it stays above 60 FPS consistently and provides good visual quality without the steep cost of High or Ultra. High at 88 FPS is also viable for 60Hz displays, but the 11 FPS cost over Medium may not justify the visual improvement. Ultra at 76 FPS is playable but leaves little headroom for demanding scenes, and the lack of min/max data for Ultra means frame drops could push it below 60 FPS in intense combat. Low at 139 FPS is excessive for 4K and degrades the game’s atmospheric visuals significantly.

Across all resolutions, Medium settings offer the most consistent experience — it is the only preset with complete min/max/avg data, and the measured minimums (165 FPS at 1080p, 124 FPS at 1440p, 84 FPS at 4K) indicate reliable frame pacing. For a title like Control, where environmental destruction and physics interactions create unpredictable GPU loads, the stability of Medium settings is preferable to the higher averages but potentially less consistent frame delivery of High or Ultra. The data shows that the RTX 4090 has sufficient headroom at 1080p and 1440p to run High settings comfortably, but at 4K, Medium provides the best combination of visual quality and performance assurance.