Control

# Control Performance Analysis: Intel Core Ultra X7 368H + AMD Radeon 8060S

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra X7 368H and AMD Radeon 8060S delivers a playable Control experience across most settings, with the sweet spot landing at Medium presets for balanced performance. At 1080p Medium, the system produces 92 FPS average, which represents a 12% improvement over High settings while maintaining visual fidelity that is only slightly reduced. The data clearly shows that Medium is the recommended preset for this configuration, as it keeps frame rates comfortably above 60 FPS at both 1080p and 1440p, with the 1440p Medium row showing 70 FPS average and a minimum of 59 FPS. Ultra settings are playable but demanding, producing 71 FPS at 1080p but dropping to 54 FPS at 1440p and 36 FPS at 4K, making it a less attractive option for consistent gameplay.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data indicates that Medium settings provide the best overall experience for this hardware pairing. At 1920x1080, the Medium preset achieves 92 FPS average with a minimum of 78 FPS and maximum of 106 FPS, offering a smooth experience that comfortably exceeds standard 60 FPS display refresh rates. The jump from Medium to High costs 10 FPS at 1080p (92 to 82), while the jump from Medium to Low gains 38 FPS (92 to 130) but sacrifices significant visual quality. The Medium preset strikes the optimal balance between frame rate headroom and graphical fidelity.

At 2560x1440, Medium remains the strongest recommendation. The system produces 70 FPS average with a minimum of 59 FPS and maximum of 80 FPS. This means the experience is playable on standard 60Hz monitors, though the 59 FPS minimum shows that demanding scenes can briefly dip below the ideal threshold. High settings at 1440p drop to 62 FPS average, which is still playable but leaves less margin for frame time spikes. Low settings at 1440p reach 98 FPS, but the visual compromise is substantial for a game like Control that relies heavily on atmospheric lighting and particle effects.

For 4K resolution, Medium settings produce 47 FPS average with a minimum of 40 FPS and maximum of 54 FPS. This is below the 60 FPS target but remains within a playable range for slower-paced action-adventure gameplay. High settings at 4K drop to 42 FPS, while Ultra falls to 36 FPS, making these presets less suitable for consistent gameplay. Low settings at 4K achieve 66 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that breaks the 60 FPS barrier, but the visual downgrade is severe enough that most players would prefer the Medium preset's improved image quality.

The percentile ranking for this combo in Control is 1632 out of 2888 combinations, placing it in the 56th percentile of tested systems. This suggests that while the hardware is not top-tier for this game, it performs adequately for the majority of gaming scenarios, particularly at 1080p and 1440p with Medium settings.

GPU Role

The AMD Radeon 8060S is an integrated graphics processor based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture, built on a 4 nm process by TSMC. It features 2560 shading units, 160 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units, along with 40 ray tracing cores. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1295 MHz and boosts to 2900 MHz, delivering a peak FP32 performance of 14.85 TFLOPS. The pixel rate is 185.6 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 464.0 GTexel/s.

Memory is system shared, meaning the GPU draws from the same LPDDR5X memory pool as the CPU. The memory bus is dual-channel with 153.6 GB/s bandwidth, and the actual memory bandwidth is system dependent. This shared memory architecture is a critical factor in Control's performance, as the game's texture streaming and physics calculations benefit from available memory bandwidth. The GPU's 87th percentile ranking among all GPUs places it in the upper tier of integrated graphics, though its nearest rivals include discrete cards like the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (0.1% faster) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 (0.6% faster), which is notable given the 8060S's integrated nature.

The GPU supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, which means it can fully leverage Control's modern rendering features. The 40 ray tracing cores support the game's ray-traced reflections and indirect lighting, though enabling these features at higher resolutions will impact the frame rates shown in the measured data. The GPU's TDP is 55 W, and it connects via PCIe 5.0 x16 interface.

The measured FPS scaling across resolutions demonstrates the GPU's limitations at higher pixel counts. From 1080p Medium at 92 FPS to 1440p Medium at 70 FPS, the drop is 23.9%, while moving from 1440p to 4K Medium drops another 32.9% to 47 FPS. This steep scaling curve indicates that the GPU is the primary bottleneck at 4K, while at 1080p the system has more headroom.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor based on the Panther Lake architecture, manufactured on Intel's 3 nm process. It features a base clock of 2.00 GHz and a boost clock of 5.00 GHz, with a TDP of 25 W. The cache hierarchy includes 192 KB L1 per core, 2.5 MB L2 per core, and 18 MB shared L3 cache. Memory support is LPDDR5X over a dual-channel bus with 153.6 GB/s bandwidth.

In CPU benchmarks, this processor demonstrates strong multi-threaded performance. The Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 28221, while the single-core score is 3984. The Cinebench R20 results show 11852 multi-core and 1673 single-core, and Cinebench R15 shows 2844 multi-core and 401 single-core. PassMark results include a multi-thread score of 32956, single-thread score of 4005, and a physics score of 2857. The average benchmark score is 40518, placing it at the 87th percentile among all CPUs.

The CPU's nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks include the Intel Core 7 253PE (0.1% faster), Intel Core 5 223PE (0.2% faster), AMD Ryzen 9 7940H (0.2% slower), and Intel Xeon 6507P (0.2% slower). These deltas are minimal, indicating that the Ultra X7 368H performs essentially on par with these alternatives in general-purpose computing tasks.

For Control specifically, the CPU's role is to handle game logic, physics calculations, and the rendering thread's overhead. With 16 cores and 16 threads, there is ample parallel processing capability for the game's multi-threaded workload. The 5.00 GHz boost clock provides strong single-thread performance, which is important for the main game loop and DirectX 12 draw call processing. The 18 MB L3 cache helps keep frequently accessed game data close to the cores, reducing memory latency.

The CPU's integrated Arc B390 graphics is separate from the discrete AMD Radeon 8060S, and in this configuration, the AMD GPU handles all rendering duties. The CPU's 25 W TDP is modest, which helps with thermal management in mobile form factors, but the boost clock of 5.00 GHz ensures it doesn't bottleneck the GPU in most scenarios. The measured FPS data shows that at 1080p Low, the system reaches 130 FPS, which suggests the CPU can feed the GPU adequately even at high frame rates.

FAQ

Q: What is the best settings preset for this system in Control?

A: Medium settings provide the best balance, delivering 92 FPS at 1080p, 70 FPS at 1440p, and 47 FPS at 4K. This preset offers smooth gameplay at 1080p and 1440p while maintaining playable frame rates at 4K.

Q: How does the system perform at 4K resolution?

A: At 4K, the system achieves 66 FPS on Low, 47 FPS on Medium, 42 FPS on High, and 36 FPS on Ultra. Medium is the recommended 4K preset, as it provides a playable experience with acceptable visual quality.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor in Control?

A: The GPU is the primary bottleneck, especially at higher resolutions. The frame rate drops by 23.9% from 1080p to 1440p and another 32.9% from 1440p to 4K at Medium settings, indicating GPU-bound performance scaling.

Q: How does the AMD Radeon 8060S compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The Radeon 8060S is 0.1% slower than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB, 0.6% slower than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080, 1.7% faster than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, and 2.8% faster than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080.

Q: What are the minimum FPS values for Medium settings?

A: The minimum FPS values are 78 at 1080p, 59 at 1440p, and 40 at 4K. The 1440p and 4K minimums indicate that demanding scenes can cause noticeable frame drops, particularly at 4K.

Q: How does the CPU's multi-threaded performance compare to its rivals?

A: The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H has an average benchmark score of 40518, which is 0.1% lower than the Intel Core 7 253PE and 0.2% lower than the Intel Core 5 223PE, while being 0.2% higher than both the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H and Intel Xeon 6507P.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases. At Medium settings, the system delivers 92 FPS at 1080p, 70 FPS at 1440p, and 47 FPS at 4K. This represents a 23.9% performance drop from 1080p to 1440p, and a further 32.9% drop from 1440p to 4K. The cumulative drop from 1080p to 4K is 48.9%, which is substantial but not as severe as some less capable integrated GPUs might exhibit.

At High settings, the scaling is similar: 82 FPS at 1080p, 62 FPS at 1440p, and 42 FPS at 4K. This represents a 24.4% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 32.3% drop from 1440p to 4K. The consistency of these percentage drops across presets indicates that the GPU's rendering pipeline scales predictably with pixel count.

Low settings show a different scaling pattern: 130 FPS at 1080p, 98 FPS at 1440p, and 66 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 24.6%, while the drop from 1440p to 4K is 32.7%. Interestingly, the 4K Low result of 66 FPS is still higher than the 1440p High result of 62 FPS, demonstrating that lowering settings has a more significant impact on performance than reducing resolution.

Ultra settings show the steepest absolute performance: 71 FPS at 1080p, 54 FPS at 1440p, and 36 FPS at 4K. The drop from 1080p to 1440p is 23.9%, and from 1440p to 4K is 33.3%. At 4K Ultra, the system barely maintains playable frame rates, with the 36 FPS average being at the lower boundary of what is typically considered acceptable for an action-adventure game.

The resolution scaling analysis indicates that the AMD Radeon 8060S is the limiting component across all settings. The consistent percentage drops between resolutions suggest that the GPU's fill rate and memory bandwidth are the constraining factors, rather than any CPU bottleneck. The CPU's strong single-thread performance (3984 in Cinebench R23 single-core) ensures that it can maintain adequate frame pacing even at lower resolutions where the GPU has more headroom.

Measured FPS Breakdown

1920x1080 (1080p):

• Low: 130 FPS average
• Medium: 92 FPS average, 78 FPS minimum, 106 FPS maximum
• High: 82 FPS average
• Ultra: 71 FPS average

At 1080p, all settings provide playable frame rates. Low settings achieve 130 FPS, which is excellent for high-refresh displays. Medium delivers 92 FPS with a minimum of 78 FPS, ensuring smooth gameplay even during intense combat sequences. High produces 82 FPS, while Ultra drops to 71 FPS. The 59 FPS spread between Low and Ultra demonstrates the significant performance cost of higher quality settings at this resolution.

2560x1440 (1440p):

• Low: 98 FPS average
• Medium: 70 FPS average, 59 FPS minimum, 80 FPS maximum
• High: 62 FPS average
• Ultra: 54 FPS average

At 1440p, the system maintains playable frame rates across all settings. Low reaches 98 FPS, while Medium achieves 70 FPS with a minimum of 59 FPS, which is right at the edge of 60 FPS displays. High produces 62 FPS, and Ultra drops to 54 FPS. For 1440p gaming, Medium is the recommended setting, as it provides a good balance between visual quality and smoothness.

3840x2160 (4K):

• Low: 66 FPS average
• Medium: 47 FPS average, 40 FPS minimum, 54 FPS maximum
• High: 42 FPS average
• Ultra: 36 FPS average

At 4K, the system struggles to maintain high frame rates. Low settings achieve 66 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that exceeds 60 FPS. Medium produces 47 FPS with a minimum of 40 FPS, which is playable but may experience noticeable hitches in demanding scenes. High drops to 42 FPS, and Ultra falls to 36 FPS. Players targeting 4K should use Low or Medium settings, depending on whether they prioritize frame rate or visual quality.

The combo's overall rank in Control is 1632 out of 2888 tested combinations, placing it in the middle of the performance spectrum. This ranking reflects the system's ability to handle the game at 1080p and 1440p with Medium settings comfortably, while 4K requires more compromise. The data confirms that this hardware pairing is well-suited for Control at mainstream resolutions, with the AMD Radeon 8060S providing sufficient graphics horsepower for a satisfying experience.