Control

Control, Remedy’s 2019 action-adventure, remains a demanding showcase for both CPU and GPU throughput. The measured data for the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti reveals a configuration that scales predictably across resolutions, with the GPU emerging as the primary constraint at higher settings. This analysis breaks down the benchmark results, focusing on resolution scaling, component roles, and practical settings guidance.

Resolution Scaling

The FPS progression from 1080p to 4K clearly illustrates where the performance bottleneck shifts. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo achieves 162 FPS average. Moving to 2560x1440 Low drops this to 123 FPS, a 24% reduction. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls further to 83 FPS, representing a 32% decline from the 1440p result and a 49% drop from the 1080p baseline. This steep scaling at Low settings indicates that even with reduced graphical load, the rendering pipeline is heavily influenced by resolution-dependent work.

At High settings, the pattern is similar but with a tighter spread. The 1080p High average is 102 FPS, which falls to 77 FPS at 1440p (a 25% decrease) and then to 52 FPS at 4K (a 32% decrease from 1440p). The consistency of these percentage drops across Low and High presets suggests that the RTX 5070 Ti's fillrate and memory bandwidth—896.0 GB/s over a 256-bit bus—are being taxed uniformly as pixel count rises. The data does not show a sudden cliff, which would indicate a CPU limitation; instead, the gradual, steady decline points to the GPU as the limiting factor at all tested resolutions.

Notably, the gap between Low and High settings widens as resolution increases. At 1080p, Low is 60 FPS faster than High (162 vs 102). At 1440p, the gap is 46 FPS (123 vs 77). At 4K, the gap narrows to 31 FPS (83 vs 52). This compression suggests that at higher resolutions, the GPU is so saturated that the additional work from High settings (likely more complex shading and effects) has diminishing marginal impact on FPS because the pixel throughput is already the bottleneck. For a game like Control, which uses real-time ray tracing and complex physics, this behavior is consistent with a GPU-bound scenario at 4K, while 1080p results may still allow the CPU to contribute more significantly to frame pacing.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti is the dominant component in this pairing. Its 16 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit bus provides 896.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is critical for Control's texture streaming and high-resolution assets. The measured FPS data shows that the GPU's 16 GB capacity is not a limiting factor at any tested setting, as even the Ultra preset at 4K averages 45 FPS without reported frame drops below 50 FPS (the only min FPS reported across all rows is for Medium settings, where 4K min is 50 FPS).

The GPU's clock behavior—boost clock of 2452 MHz—helps sustain performance under load. At 1080p Ultra, the combo hits 89 FPS average, which is only 13 FPS lower than the High preset (102 FPS). This small delta indicates that the RTX 5070 Ti has enough headroom to handle the additional shader complexity of Ultra settings without a disproportionate FPS penalty, likely due to its 8960 shading units and 70 RT cores. However, at 4K Ultra, the average drops to 45 FPS, a 50% reduction from 1080p Ultra. This confirms that while the GPU is powerful, Control's 4K Ultra preset pushes it to its limits, and the 300 W TDP is being utilized fully.

The GPU's benchmark scores support this interpretation. Its Passmark G3D score of 32974 and 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 6604 place it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Compared to its nearest rivals from the data, it is within 2% of the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT (50951 avg score) and 3.1% ahead of the RX 6800 XT (48477 avg score). These scores suggest that the RTX 5070 Ti is a high-end part, but the measured FPS in Control indicates that even this level of performance cannot guarantee 60 FPS at 4K Ultra.

FAQ

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

A: Based on the measured data, 2560x1440 with High settings achieves 77 FPS average, and 1920x1080 with Ultra settings achieves 89 FPS average. At 3840x2160, only the Low preset (83 FPS) exceeds 60 FPS; Medium and High average 59 FPS and 52 FPS, respectively.

Q: How does the RTX 5070 Ti compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The GPU's average benchmark score is 49957, which is 0.4% higher than the Intel Arc A550M (49737) and 0.1% lower than the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 (50001). It trails the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT by 2% (50951) and leads the RX 6800 XT by 3.1% (48477).

Q: Is the CPU a bottleneck at 1080p Low settings?

A: At 1920x1080 Low, the combo produces 162 FPS average. Given that the CPU's Passmark multithread score is 36811 and its single-thread score is 4280, it is unlikely to be the primary limit at this resolution. The 16-core, 16-thread configuration with a 5.10 GHz boost clock should keep up with the GPU's frame output.

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

A: At 2560x1440, the Medium preset averages 87 FPS (with min 74 and max 100), while the Ultra preset averages 67 FPS. This is a 20 FPS reduction, or 23%, for the higher preset.

Q: Does the GPU's 16 GB VRAM cause any issues in Control?

A: The measured data shows no FPS anomalies that would suggest VRAM capacity limits. The lowest min FPS recorded is 50 FPS at 4K Medium, and the GPU's 16 GB GDDR7 memory is sufficient for all tested presets.

Q: How does this combo rank among all tested configurations for Control?

A: It ranks 1036 out of 2888 total combos, placing it in the top 36% of all tested systems for this game.

How This Combo Ranks

The combo's rank of 1036 out of 2888 tested combinations places it in the upper-middle tier for Control. This ranking is driven primarily by the GPU's performance, as the RTX 5070 Ti's percentile of 86% among all GPUs is significantly higher than the CPU's percentile of 88% among all CPUs. The data indicates that while this is not a top-tier combination, it sits comfortably above the median tested system.

Relative to the CPU's nearest rivals, the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has an average benchmark score of 44466, which is 0.2% lower than the AMD Ryzen 5 7500X3D (44573) and 0.3% higher than the Intel Core i9-13950HX (44342). These small deltas suggest that the CPU is not a differentiator in this ranking; the GPU's performance relative to its rivals (within 3.1% of the RX 6800 XT and 0.4% of the Arc A550M) is what moves the combo up or down the list. Given that Control is a game known for GPU-heavy effects, the 1036 rank reflects a system that can handle high refresh rates at 1080p and 1440p but will struggle to maintain 60 FPS at 4K with maxed settings.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra X9 388H is a 16-core, 16-thread processor based on the Panther Lake architecture, fabricated on Intel's 3 nm process. Its base clock is 2.10 GHz, boosting to 5.10 GHz, with 18 MB of shared L3 cache. The CPU's benchmarks show a Cinebench R23 multicore score of 18911 and a single-core score of 2200.5, placing it in the 88th percentile of all CPUs. This level of performance is sufficient to feed the RTX 5070 Ti in most scenarios, but the measured FPS data suggests the CPU is not the primary limiter.

At 1080p Low, where CPU overhead is most likely to surface, the combo hits 162 FPS. This is a high frame rate, but it is not excessive for a modern high-end GPU. The CPU's Passmark single-thread score of 4280 indicates strong per-core performance, which is beneficial for Control's game logic and physics. However, the fact that FPS scales down consistently with resolution (162 to 123 to 83 FPS for Low at 1080p, 1440p, 4K) implies that the GPU is doing the heavy lifting. If the CPU were the bottleneck, we would expect to see 1080p Low FPS plateau at a similar level to 1440p Low, which is not the case here.

The CPU's memory bandwidth of 153.6 GB/s (dual-channel LPDDR5X) is adequate for feeding the GPU, but it is far lower than the GPU's 896.0 GB/s. This disparity reinforces that the GPU is the performance ceiling. The CPU's 16 threads are all physical cores (no hyperthreading), which provides consistent performance without the variability of logical cores. For Control, this means the CPU can maintain stable frame delivery even when the GPU is maxed out.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions and four settings presets. At 3840x2160, the average FPS ranges from 45 (Ultra) to 83 (Low). The Medium preset at 4K averages 59 FPS, with a minimum of 50 and maximum of 68. High at 4K averages 52 FPS. At 2560x1440, the averages are 67 (Ultra), 77 (High), 87 (Medium), and 123 (Low). The Medium preset at 1440p shows a min of 74 and max of 100. At 1920x1080, the averages are 89 (Ultra), 102 (High), 115 (Medium), and 162 (Low). The 1080p Medium preset has a min of 98 and max of 132.

The data shows a consistent pattern: Low settings provide the highest FPS at every resolution, while Ultra provides the lowest. The delta between Low and Ultra is 73 FPS at 1080p (162 vs 89), 56 FPS at 1440p (123 vs 67), and 38 FPS at 4K (83 vs 45). This narrowing delta at higher resolutions is a classic sign of GPU saturation. The only min FPS values reported are for Medium settings, which suggests that Low and High presets may have more variable frame times, but the averages are stable. For example, at 1440p Medium, the min is 74 FPS, which is 13 FPS below the average, indicating some frame spikes during intense scenes. At 1080p Medium, the min is 98 FPS, 17 FPS below the average of 115, showing similar behavior.

Settings Recommendations

For a smooth 60 FPS experience, 2560x1440 with High settings is the optimal choice, delivering 77 FPS average. This provides a 15% margin above the 60 FPS threshold, accommodating occasional dips. If the user prefers maximum visual quality, 1920x1080 Ultra at 89 FPS is viable, but it sacrifices resolution for fidelity. At 4K, the only preset that maintains 60 FPS is Low (83 FPS), which may compromise visual quality too much for a game like Control. The Medium preset at 4K averages 59 FPS, which is close to 60 but may stutter in heavy scenes (min 50 FPS).

For users with high refresh rate monitors (144 Hz or higher), 1080p Low at 162 FPS is the only preset that fully saturates such displays, while 1080p Medium at 115 FPS and 1440p Low at 123 FPS are also viable for 120 Hz panels. The data suggests that the best balance of visual fidelity and performance is 1440p High (77 FPS), as it uses the GPU's 16 GB VRAM effectively without the steep cost of 4K. The Ultra preset at 1440p (67 FPS) is also acceptable if the user prioritizes settings over resolution, but the 10 FPS difference between High and Ultra does not justify the potential for drops below 60 FPS in demanding scenarios. Given the GPU's benchmark scores and the FPS data, the RTX 5070 Ti is best utilized at 1440p, where it can deliver high frame rates without being capped by the CPU.