Control

Control is a 2019 action-adventure title that stresses both the CPU and GPU heavily due to its physics-driven environments and real-time destruction. This analysis examines the measured performance of the Intel Core Ultra X7 368H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060, using only the provided benchmark data. The combo ranks 1738th out of 2888 tested combinations, placing it in the lower-middle tier for this specific game, which suggests significant headroom exists in other configurations but that this pairing remains viable for playable framerates at most settings.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of GPU-bound scaling as resolution increases, though the degree of performance degradation varies significantly by preset. At 1080p, the combo achieves 124 FPS on Low settings, dropping to 79 FPS on High and 68 FPS on Ultra. Moving to 1440p, these figures fall to 94 FPS on Low, 59 FPS on High, and 52 FPS on Ultra. At 4K, the numbers compress further: 64 FPS on Low, 40 FPS on High, and 35 FPS on Ultra.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at Low settings shows a 48.4% reduction in average FPS (from 124 to 64), which is substantial but not catastrophic, indicating that the RTX 4060's 8 GB VRAM and 272.0 GB/s bandwidth are sufficient to avoid severe memory throttling at lower quality presets. However, at High settings, the drop from 79 FPS at 1080p to 40 FPS at 4K represents a 49.4% loss, nearly identical in relative terms. This consistency across presets suggests the limiting factor is raw pixel throughput rather than memory capacity, as the 128-bit memory bus becomes the bottleneck at higher resolutions.

The Medium preset provides the only complete dataset with min/max FPS values, allowing for frame-time analysis. At 1080p Medium, the average is 88 FPS with a minimum of 75 and maximum of 102, yielding a 27 FPS variance. At 1440p Medium, the average drops to 67 FPS with a 57-77 range (20 FPS variance). At 4K Medium, the average is 45 FPS with a 38-52 range (14 FPS variance). The narrowing variance at higher resolutions is a classic sign of GPU saturation—when the GPU is fully utilized, frame times become more consistent because the bottleneck is stable rather than variable.

The data indicates that at 1080p and 1440p, the Core Ultra X7 368H can feed the RTX 4060 adequately at Low and Medium presets, but at Ultra settings the GPU becomes the clear limiting component. The 4K results, even at Low settings, never exceed 64 FPS, which underscores that this combo is not designed for native 4K gaming but rather for 1080p and 1440p experiences where the CPU's 16 cores and 5.00 GHz boost clock can keep pace with the GPU's demands.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution for this combo to maintain 60+ FPS?

A: The data shows that 1080p is the only resolution where all presets except Ultra achieve 60+ FPS. At 1080p, Low hits 124 FPS, Medium hits 88 FPS, and High hits 79 FPS, with Ultra falling to 68 FPS. At 1440p, only Low (94 FPS) and Medium (67 FPS) exceed 60 FPS, while High drops to 59 FPS. At 4K, no preset reaches 60 FPS, with the highest being Low at 64 FPS.

Q: How does the RTX 4060 compare to its nearest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The RTX 4060 has an average benchmark score of 17639, placing it in the 61st percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival is the AMD Radeon HD 7790 with an average score of 17666, which is 0.2% higher. The AMD Radeon 780M scores 17588 (0.3% lower), while the AMD Radeon Pro 560 scores 17551 (0.5% lower). These delta values are negligible, indicating near-identical synthetic performance among these four GPUs.

Q: What is the CPU's multi-threaded performance relative to its nearest rivals?

A: The Core Ultra X7 368H achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28221, with an average benchmark score of 40518 across all tests, placing it in the 87th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rival, the Intel Core 7 253PE, scores 40557 on average, a 0.1% difference. The AMD Ryzen 9 7940H scores 40431 (0.2% lower), while the Intel Xeon 6507P scores 40426 (0.2% lower). These margins are within measurement noise.

Q: Does the 8 GB VRAM limit performance at any resolution?

A: The measured data shows no evidence of VRAM capacity limiting performance. At 4K Ultra, the average FPS is 35, while at 4K Low it is 64, representing a 45.3% difference that correlates with rendering complexity rather than memory exhaustion. The RTX 4060's memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s and 128-bit bus width are more likely constraints than capacity, as the game's texture streaming appears to fit within the 8 GB allocation.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 1738th out of 2888 total combinations, placing it in the 60.2nd percentile of tested systems. This ranking is lower than the GPU's individual percentile (61st) and significantly lower than the CPU's percentile (87th), suggesting that the GPU is the performance limiter in this pairing for Control.

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

A: At 1440p, the average FPS drops from 94 on Low to 52 on Ultra, a 44.7% reduction. The Medium preset provides 67 FPS, and High provides 59 FPS. This scaling shows that each preset tier costs roughly 10-15% performance, with the gap between Low and Medium (27 FPS) being the largest single-step difference in the dataset.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 is built on the Ada Lovelace architecture with a 5 nm process from TSMC, featuring 18,900 million transistors on a 159 mm² die. Its 3072 shading units, 96 TMUs, and 48 ROPs provide the compute foundation for Control's rendering workloads. The GPU operates at a base clock of 1830 MHz and boosts to 2460 MHz, with memory running at 2125 MHz (17 Gbps effective) across an 8 GB GDDR6 interface with a 128-bit bus width.

The memory subsystem is the most likely bottleneck in this pairing. The 272.0 GB/s bandwidth, while adequate for 1080p, becomes increasingly strained at higher resolutions. The measured FPS data supports this: at 4K, the difference between Low (64 FPS) and Ultra (35 FPS) is 29 FPS, while at 1080p the same preset difference is 56 FPS (124 to 68). This compression of performance at higher resolutions indicates that the GPU's compute capabilities exceed its memory bandwidth, causing the frame rate to plateau as pixel count increases.

The RTX 4060's ray tracing cores (24) and tensor cores (96) are present but not directly measured in this dataset, as Control's standard rendering path is rasterization-based. The FP32 throughput of 15.11 TFLOPS and texture rate of 236.2 GTexel/s provide the raw processing power evident in the 1080p results, where the GPU can maintain 70+ FPS on most presets. However, the pixel rate of 118.1 GPixel/s becomes the limiting factor at 4K, where the fill rate demands exceed what the 48 ROPs can deliver.

The GPU's synthetic benchmark scores contextualize its gaming performance. The PassMark G3D score of 19545 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 2302 indicate solid DirectX 12 performance, which aligns with Control's engine requirements. The Geekbench OpenCL score of 95057 and Vulkan score of 48643 show strong compute capabilities, though these are not directly comparable to in-game FPS. The GPU's 61st percentile ranking among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 17639, places it in the mid-range tier, consistent with its measured performance in Control.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its strongest results. Low settings produce an average of 124 FPS, which is more than double the 60 FPS target and indicates CPU headroom at this resolution. Medium settings reduce the average to 88 FPS, with a minimum of 75 and maximum of 102, providing a smooth experience with minimal frame dips. High settings yield 79 FPS, while Ultra drops to 68 FPS—still above the 60 FPS threshold but with less margin for demanding scenes.

The 2560x1440 results show a step down in performance. Low settings achieve 94 FPS, which is 24.2% lower than 1080p Low. Medium settings average 67 FPS with a 57-77 FPS range, putting the minimum just below the 60 FPS target. High settings average 59 FPS, just shy of the threshold, while Ultra averages 52 FPS. At this resolution, the GPU is clearly the limiting factor, as the CPU's high single-thread performance (Cinebench R23 single-core score of 3984) cannot compensate for the increased pixel load.

At 3840x2160, performance falls below playable thresholds for most presets. Low settings average 64 FPS, which is the only 4K preset above 60 FPS. Medium averages 45 FPS with a 38-52 range, indicating noticeable frame drops. High averages 40 FPS, and Ultra averages 35 FPS. The scaling from 1440p to 4K at High settings (59 to 40 FPS, a 32.2% reduction) is steeper than the scaling from 1080p to 1440p (79 to 59 FPS, a 25.3% reduction), demonstrating the exponential cost of pixel count increases.

The Medium preset provides the only complete min/max data across all three resolutions, revealing frame time consistency trends. At 1080p, the 75-102 FPS range shows a 27 FPS spread, which is 30.7% of the average. At 1440p, the 57-77 range has a 20 FPS spread (29.9% of average). At 4K, the 38-52 range has a 14 FPS spread (31.1% of average). These consistent relative variances suggest the game's frame pacing is stable, with the GPU maintaining predictable performance characteristics regardless of resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1738 out of 2888 tested combinations places it in the 60.2nd percentile of all systems tested for Control. This ranking is notable for being lower than the CPU's individual percentile (87th) but nearly identical to the GPU's percentile (61st). This alignment indicates that the RTX 4060 is the performance ceiling for this pairing, and any improvement in ranking would require a more powerful GPU rather than a different CPU.

The CPU's average benchmark score of 40518 places it 0.1% below the Intel Core 7 253PE (40557) and 0.2% below the Intel Core 5 223PE (40585). It outperforms the AMD Ryzen 9 7940H (40431) by 0.2% and the Intel Xeon 6507P (40426) by 0.2%. These delta values are all within 0.2%, meaning the CPU's performance is statistically indistinguishable from its nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks. In game-specific terms, this suggests that swapping the CPU for any of these rivals would yield negligible FPS changes in Control.

The GPU's average benchmark score of 17639 places it 0.2% below the AMD Radeon HD 7790 (17666) and 0.3% above the AMD Radeon 780M (17588). It outperforms the AMD Radeon Pro 560 (17551) by 0.5% and the AMD Radeon Pro 460 (17509) by 0.7%. The GPU's 61st percentile ranking, combined with the combo's 60.2nd percentile rank, reinforces that the GPU is the primary determinant of this system's gaming performance in Control.

The gap between the combo's rank (60.2nd percentile) and the CPU's individual rank (87th percentile) is 26.8 percentage points, which quantifies the extent to which the GPU limits the system. This data-driven conclusion is consistent with the resolution scaling analysis, where the CPU's 16 cores and 5.00 GHz boost clock provide ample processing power at all resolutions, but the GPU's 128-bit memory bus and 8 GB VRAM constrain pixel throughput at higher settings.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal settings depend on the target resolution. At 1080p, the High preset (79 FPS) offers the best balance between visual quality and performance, as it maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS while providing better visuals than Medium (88 FPS). The Ultra preset (68 FPS) is also viable but offers diminishing returns for the 13.9% performance cost over High.

At 1440p, the Medium preset (67 FPS) is the recommended choice, as it is the only preset that exceeds the 60 FPS target while providing acceptable visual quality. The Low preset (94 FPS) sacrifices too much visual fidelity, while High (59 FPS) and Ultra (52 FPS) fall below the threshold. The Medium preset's minimum FPS of 57 is close to the target, suggesting that users with adaptive sync displays can tolerate occasional dips.

At 4K, the Low preset (64 FPS) is the only viable option for smooth gameplay, but it requires significant visual compromises. The Medium preset (45 FPS) and High preset (40 FPS) are playable for users who prioritize visuals over frame rate, but the Ultra preset (35 FPS) is likely too demanding for consistent play. Given the CPU's high performance, the bottleneck is purely GPU-side, and users should prioritize GPU settings over CPU-intensive options.

For the best overall experience, the data supports using 1080p High as the default configuration, as it provides 79 FPS with a 31.7% performance buffer over the 60 FPS target. Users with 1440p monitors should accept Medium settings for a 67 FPS average, while 4K users should limit expectations to Low settings. The CPU's 16 threads and 18 MB L3 cache are sufficient for all settings, so no CPU-related compromises are necessary.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X7 368H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor from 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 25 W TDP that indicates efficient power delivery for mobile use. The CPU's cache hierarchy includes 192 KB L1 per core, 2.5 MB L2 per core, and 18 MB shared L3, providing ample data locality for game engines.

The CPU's benchmark results show strong multi-threaded performance, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 28221 and a single-core score of 3984. The Cinebench R20 scores are 11852 (multi-core) and 1673 (single-core), while R15 scores are 2844 (multi-core) and 401 (single-core). These scores indicate that the CPU's 16 cores are well-utilized in threaded workloads, though Control's engine may not scale perfectly to all 16 threads due to its action-adventure nature.

In the context of Control, the CPU's role is to maintain frame pacing and handle physics calculations, which are abundant in this game due to destructible environments and dynamic object interactions. The CPU's PassMark physics score of 2857 and floating-point math score of 105681 indicate robust computational throughput for these tasks. The single-thread performance, evidenced by the PassMark single-thread score of 4005, is sufficient for the engine's main thread, which often bottlenecks in action games.

The CPU's 87th percentile ranking among all CPUs, with an average benchmark score of 40518, confirms that it is not the limiting component in this system. The measured FPS data supports this: at 1080p Low, the combo achieves 124 FPS, which is likely near the CPU's practical limit for Control's engine. At higher resolutions, the GPU becomes the bottleneck, as evidenced by the FPS scaling patterns. The CPU's memory support for LPDDR5X with 153.6 GB/s bandwidth, while lower than the GPU's memory bandwidth, does not appear to create a system-level bottleneck in the measured results.