Control

Control is an action-adventure title that stresses both the CPU and GPU heavily, and the measured results for the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 reveal a system that is capable of high refresh rates at 1080p and 1440p, while still delivering a playable experience at 4K. The data indicates that the most balanced experience, balancing visual fidelity with frame rate stability, is found at the High preset across all tested resolutions, as it provides a substantial step up from Medium in frame rate without the steep performance cost of Ultra, which appears to have a disproportionately negative impact on the average FPS. The benchmark results for this specific combination, ranking 879th out of 2888 tested combos, place it in the upper third of all systems tested, suggesting a well-matched pairing for this particular title.

Settings Recommendations

The measured FPS data provides a clear hierarchy for settings presets, and the optimal choice depends on the user's priority for frame rate versus visual quality. At 1920x1080, the Low preset achieves an average of 177 FPS, which is exceptionally high, but the Medium preset at 126 FPS and High preset at 112 FPS both offer a more visually refined experience while still exceeding the 100 FPS threshold, making them excellent choices for high refresh rate displays. The Ultra preset at 1080p drops to 97 FPS, which is still playable but shows a significant performance penalty of 15 FPS compared to High, suggesting that the Ultra preset's additional effects are not worth the frame rate cost at this resolution when High offers a better balance.

Moving to 2560x1440, the pattern shifts slightly. The Low preset still leads with 134 FPS, but the High preset at 84 FPS is the clear recommendation for most users, as it provides a 19 FPS advantage over the Medium preset's 95 FPS, which is a considerable gain. The Ultra preset at 1440p falls to 73 FPS, which is approaching the lower limit for smooth gameplay on many displays, and the data shows that the jump from High to Ultra costs 11 FPS, a more significant drop than the 9 FPS difference seen between Medium and High. For 1440p, High is the sweet spot, offering a strong balance between visual quality and performance, while Ultra is only advisable for those who prioritize image quality over a consistently high frame rate.

At 3840x2160, the performance landscape becomes more challenging. The High preset delivers an average of 57 FPS, which is just above the 60 FPS target and indicates that this combination can handle 4K gaming, but with some compromises. The Medium preset at 64 FPS is actually the most stable option at this resolution, as it is the only 4K setting that provides both an average FPS above 60 and a recorded minimum FPS of 55, suggesting better frame pacing. The Low preset at 90 FPS is remarkably fast for 4K, but it likely sacrifices too much visual detail to be a recommended setting for a game like Control. The Ultra preset at 50 FPS is the only setting that falls below the 60 FPS line, and the 14 FPS drop from High to Ultra indicates that the Ultra preset is not viable for 4K on this hardware.

Across all resolutions, the data suggests that the High preset is the most versatile recommendation, as it consistently provides a playable frame rate without the extreme performance hits seen with Ultra. For users with high refresh rate monitors at 1080p or 1440p, the Medium preset offers a better frame rate-to-quality ratio, while at 4K, Medium appears to be the only setting that guarantees a minimum FPS above 55, making it the safest choice for a smooth experience.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is the primary driver of performance in this system, and its specifications directly explain the measured frame rates. With 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, the GPU has a memory bandwidth of 716.8 GB/s, which is crucial for handling the high-resolution textures and complex scenes in Control at 4K. The GPU's 9728 shading units and 76 RT cores, operating at a boost clock of 2505 MHz, provide substantial compute power, and the benchmark results show that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, where the frame rate drops more significantly than at lower resolutions.

The data reveals a clear pattern: as resolution increases, the average FPS decreases, which is expected, but the magnitude of the drop between 1440p and 4K is particularly steep. At 1080p High, the average is 112 FPS, at 1440p High it drops to 84 FPS, and at 4K High it falls to 57 FPS. This represents a 25% drop from 1080p to 1440p and a 32% drop from 1440p to 4K, indicating that the GPU is being increasingly taxed at higher resolutions. The RTX 4080's 48.74 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is clearly sufficient for 1080p and 1440p, but at 4K, the GPU's workload becomes more demanding, pushing the average FPS below the 60 FPS threshold on the High preset.

The GPU's VRAM capacity of 16 GB is another important factor. Control is a game that can use significant memory, and the data suggests that the RTX 4080's ample VRAM prevents any memory-related stuttering or texture pop-in, as evidenced by the relatively stable minimum FPS values at Medium settings (55 FPS at 4K, 81 FPS at 1440p, and 107 FPS at 1080p). The GPU's 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6567 and Passmark G3D score of 34457 place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs, and its nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% faster in average benchmark scores, indicating that this is a top-tier GPU that is well-suited for this game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to play Control with this hardware for a 60 FPS experience?

A: According to the measured data, the 2560x1440 resolution on the High preset achieves 84 FPS, and the 3840x2160 resolution on the Medium preset achieves 64 FPS, both of which are above the 60 FPS target. For a more stable frame rate at 4K, the Medium preset is the only one with a recorded minimum FPS above 55.

Q: How does the Ultra preset compare to the High preset in terms of performance?

A: The Ultra preset consistently delivers lower average FPS than High across all resolutions. At 1080p, Ultra is 15 FPS slower than High (97 vs 112 FPS), at 1440p it is 11 FPS slower (73 vs 84 FPS), and at 4K it is 7 FPS slower (50 vs 57 FPS), indicating that Ultra's visual improvements come at a significant cost.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the bottleneck in this system for Control?

A: The data suggests that the GPU is the limiting factor at higher resolutions, as the frame rate drops significantly from 1080p to 4K. However, the CPU's performance is also relevant, as its 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 5.10 GHz boost clock allow it to keep up with the GPU at lower resolutions without becoming a bottleneck.

Q: What is the highest average FPS recorded for this combination?

A: The highest average FPS is 177, which is achieved at the 1920x1080 resolution with the Low settings preset. This is followed by 134 FPS at 2560x1440 on Low and 90 FPS at 3840x2160 on Low.

Q: How does the RTX 4080's performance compare to its nearest rival in the data?

A: The RTX 4080 has an average benchmark score of 54247, which is 0.1% lower than the RTX 4080 SUPER's score of 54209, making them nearly identical in performance. It is also 1.1% faster than the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X, but 2.6% slower than the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB.

Q: Does the game support ray tracing, and how does the GPU handle it?

A: The RTX 4080 has 76 dedicated RT cores, which are designed for ray tracing workloads. While the measured FPS data does not specify whether ray tracing was enabled, the GPU's hardware capabilities suggest it is well-equipped to handle such features, though enabling them would likely reduce the average FPS values shown.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data provides a comprehensive view of the system's performance across three resolutions and four settings presets. At 1920x1080, the Low preset delivers an average of 177 FPS, which is the highest recorded for this combination. The Medium preset at 126 FPS shows a 51 FPS drop from Low, but it still provides a very smooth experience, with a minimum FPS of 107 and a maximum of 144. The High preset at 112 FPS is only 14 FPS slower than Medium, and the Ultra preset at 97 FPS is 15 FPS slower than High, making the drop from High to Ultra more pronounced than the drop from Medium to High.

At 2560x1440, the performance scales down predictably. The Low preset achieves 134 FPS, which is 43 FPS lower than the 1080p Low result, indicating a significant resolution penalty. The Medium preset at 95 FPS has a minimum of 81 FPS and a maximum of 109 FPS, showing a stable frame rate. The High preset at 84 FPS is 11 FPS slower than Medium, and the Ultra preset at 73 FPS is again 11 FPS slower than High. This consistent 11 FPS difference between High and Ultra at 1440p suggests that the Ultra preset's additional effects have a similar cost at this resolution.

At 3840x2160, the frame rates drop further, but the system remains playable. The Low preset at 90 FPS is still very high for 4K, but the Medium preset at 64 FPS is the most notable, as it is the only 4K setting with a recorded minimum FPS of 55, indicating better frame time consistency. The High preset at 57 FPS is 7 FPS slower than Medium, and the Ultra preset at 50 FPS is 7 FPS slower than High. The data shows that the gap between Medium and High remains constant at 7 FPS across 4K, while the gap between High and Ultra is also 7 FPS, suggesting that the performance cost of each preset tier is relatively uniform at this resolution.

How This Combo Ranks

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 combination ranks 879th out of 2888 tested combos for Control, placing it in the 70th percentile of all systems tested. This ranking indicates that the combination outperforms a majority of setups, but it is not at the very top of the performance hierarchy. The CPU's percentile rank of 88 (vs all CPUs) and the GPU's percentile rank of 86 (vs all GPUs) both suggest high-end components, but the combination's rank in this specific game shows that other factors, such as memory configuration or driver optimization, may play a role in its overall standing.

The nearest rival CPUs to the Core Ultra X9 388H include the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D, which is 0.2% faster in average benchmark scores, and the Intel Core i9-13950HX, which is 0.3% slower. These small deltas indicate that the CPU is competitive with other top-tier processors, and its performance in Control is likely sufficient to avoid bottlenecking the RTX 4080. The GPU's nearest rival, the RTX 4080 SUPER, is only 0.1% faster, meaning that this specific RTX 4080 is essentially on par with the SUPER variant in synthetic benchmarks, though the measured FPS data for Control may differ slightly.

The 879th rank out of 2888 combos suggests that while this system is powerful, there are many other combinations that achieve higher frame rates in Control, likely due to more powerful GPUs or more favorable CPU-GPU pairings. However, the measured FPS data shows that this combination is well above the playable threshold at all resolutions, and the ranking reflects its position as a high-end, but not extreme, performer in this game.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor based on the Panther Lake architecture, with a base clock of 2.10 GHz and a boost clock of 5.10 GHz. Its 18 MB of shared L3 cache and 3 MB per-core L2 cache provide ample data storage for game assets, and its Passmark single-thread score of 4280 and Cinebench R23 single-core score of 2200.5 indicate strong single-threaded performance, which is critical for game logic and physics calculations in Control. The CPU's multi-threaded performance is also robust, with a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 18911, but the game's reliance on single-thread performance means the boost clock is more important than raw core count.

The data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck in this system, as the frame rates scale consistently with resolution, which is a characteristic of GPU-bound scenarios. At 1080p Low, the CPU must work harder to feed the GPU, achieving 177 FPS, but at 4K Ultra, the GPU is the limiting factor, and the CPU's workload decreases relatively. The CPU's 88th percentile ranking and its nearest rival, the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D, being only 0.2% faster, suggest that it is a well-matched partner for the RTX 4080, providing enough processing power to avoid limiting the GPU at lower resolutions.

The CPU's 25W TDP and mobile market segment indicate that it is designed for laptops, but its performance is comparable to desktop processors like the Intel Core i5-13600, which is only 0.5% slower in average benchmark scores. This suggests that the Core Ultra X9 388H can deliver desktop-class performance in a mobile form factor, and its 5.10 GHz boost clock ensures that it can handle the most demanding single-threaded workloads in Control without issue.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data shows a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which is typical for a GPU-bound game like Control. At the High preset, the average FPS drops from 112 at 1080p to 84 at 1440p, a 25% decrease, and then to 57 at 4K, a 32% decrease from 1440p. This non-linear scaling indicates that the GPU's workload increases disproportionately at higher resolutions, and the RTX 4080's 16 GB of VRAM and 716.8 GB/s bandwidth are being pushed to their limits at 4K.

The Low preset shows a similar trend, with 177 FPS at 1080p dropping to 134 FPS at 1440p (a 24% decrease) and then to 90 FPS at 4K (a 33% decrease from 1440p). This consistent pattern across presets suggests that the resolution scaling is independent of the graphics settings, and the GPU is the primary determinant of performance at each resolution. The Medium preset, which has the only recorded minimum FPS values, shows a minimum of 107 at 1080p, 81 at 1440p, and 55 at 4K, indicating that the frame time variance increases with resolution, which could lead to more noticeable stutters at 4K.

The data implies that the system is well-balanced for 1080p and 1440p gaming, where the CPU and GPU can work together to deliver high frame rates, but at 4K, the GPU becomes the clear limiting factor. The drop from 1440p to 4K is more severe than the drop from 1080p to 1440p, suggesting that the RTX 4080's memory bandwidth and compute resources are insufficient to maintain the same level of performance at 4K, and users targeting 4K should consider lowering settings to Medium to maintain a stable frame rate, as indicated by the 64 FPS average and 55 FPS minimum at that setting.